The surprising Pittsburgh Penguins take on the New York Rangers in NHL Playoff Picks action in game #2 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series.  After taking the first game the Penguins are hoping to take control of the series today and go up a commanding 2-0 in the NHL Playoff series.  In the first game Pittsburgh showed that their potent offense can strike quickly as they overcame an early three goal deficit scoring the game winning goal with 1:41 left pulling out 5-4 victory.  The win in game 1 was their fifth in a row in the NHL playoffs and is the first time that they have accomplished such a feat since way back in 1996.  Jarkko Ruutu, Pascal Dupuis, Marian Hossa and Petr Sykora all scored for the Penguins.  The Penguins have struggled overall versus the Rangers this season posting only a 4-5 SU mark including their latest win.  However, the public doesn’t seem to mind that fact as the odds makers at SportsBook.com has listed Pittsburgh as a -145 favorite on the money and -1.5/+200 on the puck line.

The Rangers look to rebound today as their NHL Playoff Picks loss to the Penguins was only their second in 95 games after holding a three goal lead.  In the loss Martin Straka, Chris Drury, Sean Avery and Scott Gomez scored for the Rangers.  New York fans are hoping that their Rangers can shake off the tough loss as captain Jaromir Jagr was quoted as saying "That one hurts," …….. "I thought we had it. The second one is going to be even tougher, but we have to do it somehow."   Ranger goaltender Henrik Lundqvist also chimed in by saying "We just have to forget this,"……. "I don't want to think about it. I just want to move on."  The Rangers, who won five of their eight regular season meetings with the Penguins this season, will now rely on their playoff experience to get back in this best-of-seven series. Jagr, Brendan Shanahan and Gomez collectively have seven Stanley Cup rings. 

If you think that the NHL Playoff Picks side is a done deal consider the fact that New York Rangers are 11-5 ATS in road games after scoring 4 goals or more in their previous game this season and 11-2 ATS  off a loss against a division rival this season.  However, before you jump on this bandwagon the Rangers have really struggled when their goaltending has been anything but stellar as they are only 4-10 ATS after playing 3 straight games where 7 or more total goals were scored over the last 3 seasons. 

Last season Michael Alexander scorched the books posting an unbelievable 22-3 NHL Playoff Picks mark and this season has been no different as he has started a profitable 7-3. 

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Tonight, game 2 of the NHL playoff series between the Montreal Canadians and Philadelphia Flyers takes place.  The Flyers play in Montreal again and look to rebound from a 4-3 heart breaking overtime NHL Playoff loss in game 1.  Philadelphia blew a 2-0 goal lead in the first game on Thursday night, when Montreal’s leader Alex Kovalev scored late in the third, when the Canadiens had their goalie pulled for an extra attacker.  This forced the game into overtime.  Then, shortly after, Tom Kostopoulos scored the game winner 48 seconds into overtime.  Despite this heart breaking loss, the Flyers will have to come into the NHL Playoff game tonight with confident and poise.  

The #1 ranked Canadiens led the entire NHL this season with 262 goals.  They are lead by Alex Kovalev, who had 84 points in the regular season.  He also had 6 points against the Bruins in the first round.  Kovalev and the Canadians will get a big boost from the return of Saku Koivu.  He has 3 assists in two NHL playoff games for Montreal so far.  Goaltender Carey Price will need to play sharp in this series.  He has 2 shut outs against Boston and is not easily shaken up.  Currently Oddsmakers at Sportsbook.com have the Canadiens as a -170 favorite heading into tonight’s NHL Playoffs game.

The Flyers have a good team themselves and should not be underestimated by any means.  Although they do not have the scoring depth of Montreal, they have several weapons.  Daniel Briere is one of them.  He led all scorers with 11 points in the first round.   Six of those points were goals.  Another threat for Philly is Vaclav Prospal.  He had 9 points vs the Capitals in round 1.  This will be a high octane, high scoring, fast paced series, with the Canadiens coming out on top.

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Tonight at Joe Louis Arena, the Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche will face off once again in one of the NHL's best rivalries, in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinal.  The Wings and Avs have met many times during the postseason between the years of 1996-2002.  During this span of time, the Avs have dominated, beating Detroit three times, while winning five Stanley Cups during span.  In the first round of the playoffs, both Detroit and Colorado needed six games to advance to the second round.  Detroit finished the regular season with the best record in the entire NHL.  Also during the regular season the Wings absolutely crushed Colorado.  They won all four meeting, while shutting them out the last three times.  The last time Colorado scored a goal on Detroit was on Dec. 27.

The Avs will have to rely on two key players for this series,  captain Joe Sakic, and goaltender Jose Theodore.  Sakic had 13 goals and 27 assists for 40 points during the regular season.  He also leds the Avalanche with six playoff points, and scored the overtime winner in game 1 against Minnesota.  He will need to stay hot and guide the Avs with his leadership.  In round one, goaltender Jose Theodore also helped the Avs knock off the third-seeded Minnesota Wild, with a good goals against average of 1.88.  Currently Oddsmakers at Sportsbook.com have the Avs as +165 underdogs heading into tonights game.

The Red Wings will have to reply on their big guns, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg.  Both these guys are tremendously skilled and hard working players.  Datsyuk had an excellent regular season, notching 31 goals and 66 assists.  He also had 3 goals in the first round playoff series against Nashville.  Zetterberg was no slouch either, having 92 points during the regular season.  These two will need to ignite the Detroit offence.  Look for this to be a gritty, rough hard fought series and go the distance. 

The Anaheim Ducks find themselves in a hole trailing their NHL playoffs series against the Dallas Stars 3 – 2.  Things don’t look good for the defending NHL Stanley Cup champions, but you can never count them out.  The Stars started out the series very quickly by winning the first two games very convincingly, 4-0 and 5-2.  Anaheim clawed its way back into the series and won game 5 at home 5-2.  Tonight they return to Dallas to play a critical game 6 which could decide who moves on to the next round in the NHL Playoffs.

Dallas’s power play was red hot at the beginning of the series, but has cooled off dramatically ever since.  They are in a drought going 0 for its last 13 chances.  They will have to get it together and start scoring on their power play if they look to eliminate Anaheim tonight.  Mike Ribeiro has been having a great series, leading the team with 8 points.  He also had an excellent regular season, with 27 goals and 56 assists for a total of 83 points in 76 games.  Currently Oddsmakers at Sportsbook.com have the Dallas Stars as -135 favorites heading into tonight’s game.

If Anaheim looks to fend off elimination and extend the series to a game seven they will need to get their offence going.  Goals were very hard for Anaheim to come by this season.  Their leading goal scorer, Corey Perry only had 29 goals in the regular season.  He was injured, but looks to be fully ready for tonight’s all important game.  The Ducks need to establish their two-way play, which has given them their two wins. There is no reason to believe that Anaheim can’t force a game 7 in the series. One thing if for sure, Anaheim has proved time and time again that they can compete with the best under the hardest circumstances, so don’t count them out just yet.