1st Round. Who is Hot..

NIKALE PHOTOS

So who was hot during the first round of the 2009 Stanley Cup? It’s the question of your test. Let me just mention such names as Alex Semin and Eugene Malikin, Ray Whitney and Roberto Luongo, Bobby Ryan and Sergey Gonchar, Marian Hossa and Henrik Lundqvist etc, etc... But my choice is coming to the Caps youngster Simeon Varlamov. The Washington goaltender is the main reason for Caps comeback from 1-3 deficit against New York Rangers. Now everyone can understand why Bruce Boudreau has his goalies switched after just the first game when Jose Theodore did not play well enough. “The team has great confidence in this kid” he said to the media. And next 6 games have proved he was right. I think he is the one who kept Washington alive during the game 7 first period when he played literally alone against much better played Rangers. It supposed to be tremendously difficult to step up after the home defeat and to play like this kid did. 21 years old, without playoffs experience with close to nothing NHL games played...WOW!

And what is it about the “hottest” team? Can I give you two of them? Thank you. These are Ducks and Hurricanes. Ducks dominated against the President Trophy winner San Jose Sharks. They have my prediction beaten completely (I said 4-0 to Sharks). Yes, I am ashamed, but not me only. It’s not so easy task now to predict Detroit vs. Anaheim result. Isn’t it?
Hurricanes have shown unbelievable spirit even for playoffs. The game winning goal they scored 0.2 sec to play and unprecedented comeback during last 80 seconds of game 7 is still beyond of my believe. And on the top of all – it was done against the Devils and Martin Brodeur! Enough, no more coments...