Philadelphia's 2-0 victory against Pittsburgh today means the Flyers will travel down I-95 later this week for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals against the Washington Capitals. The other matchups are also set: Montreal earned the top seed with the Penguins loss and will host Boston. Pittsburgh will look for payback from last season against Ottawa in the 2-7 matchup, and New Jersey defeated the Rangers today to lock up the No. 4 seed and home-ice advantage against the Blueshirts in the opening round.
The Caps won't be the only team with injury concerns this week. Daniel Briere has missed a couple of games with a knee injury and Flyers captain Jason Smith did not dress against Pittsburgh either. Briere leads the Flyers with 31 goals and he, along with other new additions like Smith and defenseman Kimmo Timonen have helped Philadelphia to their resurgance after a forgettable season last year. The biggest development for the long-term success of the Flyers has been Mike Richards becoming an elite player. Always thought of as a future captain, most people predicted he would be the second-line center with Jeff Carter being the big offensive start for the Flyers in the coming seasons. But Richards had 28 goals and a team-best 75 points in his third NHL season.
Also not to be forgotten, even if its been something of a formality in recent days, Alex Ovechkin officially became the first Russian-born player in NHL history to win the scoring title today when Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin did not have a seven-point game against the Flyers. He will collect the Art Ross Trophy and the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy for most goals (finishing with 13 more than countryman Ilya Kovalchuk) on June 12th at the NHL awards ceremony, and it would be a good bet that he will add both MVP honors, the Hart and Pearson trophies, as well.
Patrick Kane added another goal today and ended with 72 points, three more than Nicklas Backstrom for the rookie scoring title. Whether it is official or not, Mike Green led all defensemen with 18 goals. Chicago's Dustin Byfuglien had 19 and is listed as a defeseman, but has been playing up front for most of the season. His 56 points ended up seventh among rearguards.
Lastly, it has also been a formality for quite some time, but Jaromir Jagr fell a bit short of the 85 points he needed as part of clause in his contract to trigger the option for next season. Jagr will be an unrestrcited free agent, and Ted Leonsis no longer owes him a rather large paycheck.
Comments (3)
Question about your comments on Jagr: Isn't there another way for the Rags to trigger one more year of splitting a payckeck for Jagr? I thought that if the Rangers made the playoffs and won a round that the clause would kick in another year. Can we get an explanation please? Thanks, Frank
Posted by Frank | April 7, 2008 9:17 AM
I know it's playoff time, so teams are tight-lipped, but any news on the health of Shultz, Clark, or Nylander? After Saturday's game Clark said he may be ready for the playoffs and the rumor has been that Nylander has been skating and his shoulder improving.
Posted by Matt | April 7, 2008 12:08 PM
The clause in Jagr's contract was triggered only if he scored 40 goals and the Rangers won a playoff round or 85 points and the Rangers won a playoff round. Both had to happen, and they obviously won't.
Posted by Corey | April 7, 2008 1:18 PM