THE BEST NIGHT OF THE PLAYOFFS IS HERE!

If you are an avid hockey fan, tonight is a dream night. If you are a casual fan, you will be gripped. Playoff hockey is the best playoff in all of sports, and tonight is a classic reason why.

Game 6 of the Bruins/Canadiens series starts at 7pm from the Bell Centre in Montreal.

Game Info:

The pressure of the home crowd seems to get to Carey Price, as he has not won a playoff game at home since the first game of the 2008 series against Philadelphia (7 straight starts). Tim Thomas has improved greatly as the series has progressed. The leaky goals between the legs have disappeared and he is looking every bit like the Vezina Trophy candidate he was during the regular season. If the Canadiens can pull this one out, game 7 is tomorrow night in Boston. Montreal centre David Desharnais will miss tonight’s game while defenseman James Wisniewski is doubtful.

Prediction:

The Bruins will finish the series off tonight as the Habs are wearing down against the physically superior Bruins. Boston’s game has rounded into form and they will take a large step in ridding the monkey off their back from last years meltdown against the Flyers. Boston wins 4-2.

Game 7 of the Sabres/Flyers series is at 7:30pm from the Wells-Fargo Center in Philaelphia.

Game info: Brian Boucher will get the start for the Flyers in the deciding game of the series. The Flyers have started three goalies in the series, but Boucher has been the only one to win. The Sabres hold a major advantage in goal with Ryan Miller in net. He has posted two shutouts in the series, but looked very shaky giving up fat rebounds in game 6.  Buffalo has not played a game 7 since the 2006 Eastern Conference final vs Carolina. The Sabres will be without Tim Connolly and Jason Pominville. Connolly will not play after suffering an upper body injury from the controversial Mike Richards hit in game 6. Derek Roy will likely see his first game action since December when he tore a quadriceps muscle. Jeff Carter will almost certainly be out for the Flyers with a leg injury that has cost him the last 2.5 games. Chris Pronger looks to be more involved in his second game back from a broken hand. It remains to be seen if he does more than just play on the power play as he did in game 6.

Prediction:

Goaltending is always a question in Philadelphia. As long as Brian Boucher makes the saves he is supposed to, they will win. The Flyers experience, depth, and the advantage of last change will prove to be too much for the Sabres.. These teams do not like each other, so expect a nasty affair.  Flyers win 4-3.

Game 7 of the Blackhawks/Canucks series is at 10:00pm from the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

Game info: The Canucks are on the verge of the worst playoff meltdown in history. They were up 3-0 in the series, and are the #1 seed in the Western Conference. The Blackhawks have no pressure on them. Since David Bolland came back in game 4, the Hawks have outscored the Canucks 16-5. Bolland is a (+6) , while the Sedin twins are a combined (-13).  Roberto Luongo will start after being benched for the start of game 6 (.738 save % since games 4-6). The $10 million goalie has to get the Blackhawks funk out of his system and outplay Corey Crawford tonight. The Hawks have eliminated the Canucks in each of the last two years with Luongo inexplicably falling apart in the each of the deciding games. Nerves will be key, and the fans will be tense.  A major statement will be made by the Canucks one way or another. Bryan Bickell is out for Chicago after breaking his hand in game 6.

Prediction:

Vancouver’s depth will win over late in the game., as the Hawks top players will wear down after playing so many exhausting key minutes in the series. Luongo will play well enough to win and the city can breath a sigh of relief. Canucks 4-2 with an empty net goal.

Here is the schedule for tonight’s games.

Boston @ Montreal 7:00pm EST

Buffalo @ Philadelphia  7:30pm

Chicago @ Vancouver  10:00pm

In-game tweets tonight of Flyers/Sabres game 7 at  twitter.com@getrealhockey.

Follow my articles and tweets and send questions me on twitter. @Chyz1.

-Mark Chyz

Now Starring for the Buffalo Sabres... Tyler Ennis?!

"Dude, where's my comb?"

Apparently, a half-decent first 10 games in the NHL buys you instant cred. At least that seems to be the case for Tyler Ennis of the Buffalo Sabres, who, no offense to him, looks more like he belongs in juvie as a 15-year-old crack addict guilty of trying – and failing – to rip off a convenience store rather than on an actual professional hockey team.

Ennis, obviously, isn’t 15. Considering he was drafted 26th overall by the Sabres in 2008, and players have to be 18 to be drafted, he’s 20. However, if ignorant fantasy-hockey poolies had to guess he likely would be going on 28 and entering the prime of his career following his nine-point performance in 10 games last season.

I have personally been a part of several fantasy drafts in the past few days and Ennis has been drafted relatively high in each of them, ahead of players like Stephen Weiss, Alex Kovalev, Jason Arnott, David Perron, Steve Sullivan, Sam Gagner, Mike Fisher, Chris Stewart, James Neal, Andy McDonald, hell, even Tyler Seguin. As such two things are abundantly clear:

1) The world is going to hell in a hand basket and Ennis is one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, probably famine, judging by his skeletal appearance, but that could be the crack, though.

2) I’m in all likelihood going to do alright in all of my pools.

Now, admittedly Weiss may not pan out with the Florida Panthers because he may or may not have a lucid David Booth to play with (I like Booth, but, when it comes to pools, past concussions are a serious cause for concern), and Kovalev is always a risk-reward kind of guy. Meanwhile, Arnott will be playing in the offensive wasteland that is New Jersey, with the Devils only possibly due for an increase in output now that they have Ilya Kovalchuk. And Perron has yet to find his full stride as a top-six forward.

In addition, Sullivan is likely to get injured sometime before Christmas as sure as death and taxes are a certainty. The only thing that remains to be seen is for how long. But, then again, Marian Gaborik is also due for a groin pull, or some other type of injury that sounds like it could originate in a bath house, following a completely healthy 2009-2010. Now look me in the eye and tell me that you would choose Ennis ahead of Gaborik. If you’re able to, you’re either a very good liar or are blessed with some weird kind of medical condition that prevents you from blinking regularly.

At the end of the day, choosing Ennis over any of those players can certainly be justified if one tries hard enough, but who would the guilty parties be trying to convince? Their competition that Ennis is destined for 60 points so that they can trade him before the season starts and he turns out to be just as much of a dud as teammate Drew Stafford? Or themselves because they’re closet Sabres fans that have to draft every Sabre possible the same way Hab-happy Montreal Canadiens loyalists choose to believe P.K. Subban will win both the Calder and Norris Memorial Trophies this year? Maybe both sets of fans should go shopping in the next few days to get a head start on getting their grocery bags before the playoffs, which both teams are likely to miss.

Logic dictates that the only way Ennis starts the season as a top-six forward is if he starts the season on a team short on depth. Seeing as scouting reports reveal just that, it’s clear the Sabres will encounter much the same problem they did last year, with a twist: there’s no guarantee that they will have the above-average goaltending necessary to come to the rescue of their utterly average team.

Ryan Miller may have won the Vezina Trophy last year, but the Boston Bruins’ Tim Thomas won it the year before, and that only got him the best seat in the house riding the pine as Tuukka Rask’s back-up. And while Martin Brodeur won it in each of the two previous years, the Calgary Flames’ Miikka Kiprusoff won it the year before, and I would refer you then to our post which reveals just how quickly a decent team can turn bad. Shameless self-promotion or not, it doesn’t change the fact that the Sabres can go from Northeast Division champions to playoff-bubble chumps just like that.

Up front, while Tim Connolly is injury-prone, Thomas Vanek continues to cripple the team with his huge $7-million salary-cap hit and ever-decreasing return on investment. And Jason Pominville and Derek Roy continue to baffle fans with their inconsistency. Roy, especially, can be a superstar one game and worse than invisible the next.

Meanwhile, if your best defenseman is a 20-year-old not named Drew Doughty, you’re in for problems. Tyler Myers will be a stalwart on the blue line for many years, but he’s still some time away from making that potential of his a reality. Forcing him into a starring role on what by most accounts will be a mediocre team is not going to lead to success for him or the team. Kind of like Ennis.