After a scare in Game 1 where the Jackets were outplayed and out shot, coach John Tortorella lost it and called out his star players. Since that game Rick Nash was the difference maker in the series and the jackets never looked back winning 4 straight to move on to the 2nd round. Nash scored 5 goals and added 4 helpers in the series playing on the 2nd line with Cleary and Morrison and that seems to be a good fit. It also allowed us to balance out our star players to give us 2 very good lines.
"Richards, Vanek and Hejduk did an excellent job shutting down their top players which gave me plenty of opportunity to score goals" said Nash. Morrison always seemed to find me in the right place at the right time.
The Jackets were not given many PP opportunities but when they had them they made them count. They also never gave up on PP goals which helped a lot.
We had two OT victories with Oshie and Greening as the heroes really helped build team morale. The game 4 hero, Colin Greening went out in game 5 with a pretty bad injury and he will miss the entire 2nd round. Look for Andrew Desjardins to get the call up from Syracuse to fill in until Callahan is ready. We hope to see Callahan in the 2nd round at some point. Obviously winning in 5 games we can get some rest.
Ryan Miller played OK but wasn't spectacular. If he can start playing like we've seen him play all year we like our chances to keep winning. He did win 4 straight and we'll take the wins.
Series Stars:
Rick Nash
Brendan Morrison
TJ Oshie