The second round of the playoffs are now underway, and aside from the Pittsburgh and Washington series (which will see the ice tonight at 7:00 PM PST), all of them are tied at one a piece. Now, this obviously means that these series will require a fifth game at the least, but it also shows how quickly the playoffs can intensify and how teams can no longer hope for a series sweep; the way the first two games have been played so far in this second round, teams will be lucky to finish the job in six games, avoiding at all costs the seventh game, which would no doubt be played on pins and needles rather than ice.
While it is still completely possible to win the series in five games, all eight teams seem evenly matched with each other despite their respective standings. Simply look at the eigth placed Anaheim Ducks from the Wesern Conference and ther ability to contend with second placed Detroit; their second game went into three frames of overtime before a winner was determined, just hinting at the extra-curricular games that might be played by the end of the second round.
The depth of the remaining eight teams’ is shown even further when you look at individual lines and players: in the Chicago/Vancouver series you have Sharp, Toews, and Kane squaring off against the Sedins and Burrows; the Pens and Caps have the hyped matchup between Crosby and Ovechkin; the Bruins and Canes have the matchup between the posts with Tim Thomas (.944 Sv%) and Cam Ward (.937 Sv%). Each team has the potential to move on to the third round, but it will be a war of attrition as the series inches toward the sixth and seventh games.
However, the true winners in these drawn-out series are the organizations behind the players who will see a big return in ticket sales for the extra games that would otherwise not be played if the series were to be swept. The first round of the playoffs has the organizations sharing the profits with the NHL, but once they move into the second round and on, the organizations see full acquisition of profits from tickets, not to mention the ongoing merchandise sales that will surely increase as the teams move closer to the playoff finals.
Be sure to follow the second round tonight as Pittsburgh faces Washington on the road at 7:00 PM PST, and tomorrow when Vancouver meets Chicago in the Windy City, and Detroit goes on the road to Carolina.