NHL Playoffs: Early Favorites Stumble To Begin Postseason

The puck dropped on the 2012 NHL Playoffs on Wednesday and saw two favorites for Lord Stanley's Cup begin their opening series on a sour note with disappointing losses at home. The Vancouver Canucks entered Wednesday with the best record in the NHL and top seed in the West and were expected to coast in the first round against the 8-seeded Los Angeles Kings, a team that only qualified for the playoffs 3 days ago. However the Kings came out with gusto and actually outshot the Canucks by a significant margin at 39-26. The Canucks notched a pair of Power Play goals and used the stellar goaltending of Roberto Luongo to prevent the Kings from taking control until a pass took lucky bounce off the skate of LA center Jeff Carter right to winger Dustin Penner in front of an open net who buried the game-winning goal with 3:14 left in the 3rd. The Kings would then add a empty-netter to finish off the victory at 4-2.

The hot pick to come out of the Eastern Conference has been the 4-seed Pittsburgh Penguins thanks to the return of a healthy Sidney Crosby late in the year. The 4-5 matchup between the Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers has been the most highly anticipated playoff series so far thanks to all the bad blood (both literally and figuratively) that has been spilled between these two teams during the regular season, a rivalry which boiled over a few weeks ago during a full-out brawl in Pittsburgh at the end of the 3rd period (started by something of a cheap shot to Crosby from behind). There is certainly no love lost between these two in the battle for Pennsylvania.

The Penguins looked as if they were going to run the Flyers out of the building in the 1st period before a sold-out crowd at home, building a seemingly insurmountable 3-0 at the 1st intermission. The Flyers were not to be deterred so easily however and were able to start turning things around in the middle of the 2nd when they took advantage of a blown offsides no-call that saw Philadelphia's playoff powerhouse Danny Briere score to make it 3-1. Briere would notch his second tally midway through the 3rd period making 3-2 before Brayden Schenn tied that score at 3-3 on a Power Play goal with less than 8 minutes to go. The Penguins could not mount any offense in the 2nd and 3rd periods to counter Philadelphia's rally and the game went to OT. Flyers winger Jakob Voracek scored the game-winner on the second shift of OT and the Flyers skated into the locker with an improbable game-1 upset that figures to give them a huge advantage for the rest of the series. Philly proved once again that they have the offense but it was the response by goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov after allowing 3 early goals that was the difference. Bryzgalov will be central to the Flyers' ability to advance against a stacked Eastern Conference.