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BOSTON BRUINS VS TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS- 7:00PM EDT/4:00PM PDT- (Series tied 2-2)
The Leafs need to stop taking penalties, that much is clear. They’re doing alright 5 on 5, and this series is as even as it could be, but the Bruins have their two wins thanks to the Leafs inability to stop them shorthanded. If they can’t find a way to kill some penalties off, this is going to end badly for them. They’ve gotten pretty balanced scoring so far, but anytime John Tavares wants to step up and have an impact, would be a good thing for the Leafs. The Bruins are likely feeling very confident heading into this one, but if they can’t bring the same kind of effort we saw from them in Game 4 they’ll be the ones looking at elimination on Sunday. For the rest of us, it’s just a reminder that while there’s a winner to this series, we all end up losing because of it.
CALGARY FLAMES VS COLORADO AVALANCHE- 10:00PM EDT/7:00PM PDT- (Colorado leads 3-1)
I think we should probably be talking more about how hard the Flames are choking right now, but thanks to those idiots in Tampa and Pittsburgh, this is only going to be the 3rd of 4th biggest choke of the playoffs. But let’s face it, we have been sold a bill of goods on this team that does not represent what’s actually inside the box. Perhaps it’s been a while since they played meaningful games? While I don’t want to take any credit away from Colorado in any way, shape or form, there’s simply no way this Flames team should be facing elimination tonight. The answer to shaking things up is apparently to sit James Neal, which a) is going to actually help the Flames, because he’s terrible, b) is hilarious, because he’s terrible and c) gets even funnier when you realize that he’s signed for another 4 years at a $5.75 Million cap hit. Just to highlight how not good that is, they’re paying him $250k more than the Canucks are paying Bo Horvat for the same contract length. At least Loui Eriksson almost hit 30 points for just a little bit more, and he’s 2 years older than Neal.
Anyway, the Flames big guns have been no-shows, and this much hyped defence is getting turnstiled by the Avs every night. It will not be a surprise for this to be the last game of the spring for Calgary.