The Fifth Liners

If you want to join Alex and myself in the  Fifth Liners NHL Bracket Challenge , feel free to join our league. Good luck! Quarter Final Predictions St Louis Blues v Minnesota Wild For this one, I have go with Minnesota Wild purely for the fact that they have been a real surprise package in the latter half of this season and I think they will be eager to please come playoff time! St Louis on the surface appears to be a perfect package after being seeded first overall. But in previous seasons they have looked impressive in the regular season,, but typical fall short in the playoffs! Also a good playoff run would be the perfect ending for Wild goalie, Devan Dubnyk who has had a career season! This one will be tight and I am prepared to be proven wrong, but right now I have to go with the Wild! Prediction: Wild Nashville Predators v Chicago Blackhawks  The Predators have had nothing short of an amazing season and although they have made the playoffs 7 times in the la...

Tyler Seguin  Currently the beating heart of what is a patchy Dallas Stars team, Seguin currently sits second in the points standing with 59. He has a keen eye for goal and seems to score at will which if the Stars management can work out a plan promises great things. Seems inconceivable now that Boston traded him back in 2012 for Loui Eriksson- see how well that deal worked out boys! At only 23 years of age, Seguin is looking like he could be something remarkable! Jacob Voracek The biggest surprise of this season so far, Voracek has already scored an amazing 59 points, which nearly equals his entire season total of 62 points last season! The Philadelphia Flyers have endured a lacklustre season, from which the Czech winger has one of the few highlights. Many will say he have a fluke season and this will never again continue. They maybe right, but this season Voracek has deserved all the praise that has come his way and his name of the trophy would be fitting! Pekka Rinne...

Today it was announced who has been nominated for the Hart Memorial Trophy, the three players considered to be the elite players of the NHL this season are as follows. Sidney Crosby ( Pittsburgh Penguins )  Ryan Getzlaf ( Anaheim Ducks ) Claude Giroux ( Philadelphia Flyers ) So which one of these fine players will be rewarded for the efforts? On paper it would appear to be Sidney Crosby who will walk away with the main price because he has had a fine regular season where he lead the league in point scoring. But however, his play off form has been fine to materialize and it was until last nights 2-0 over the New York Rangers that he finally scored his first play off goal. But year in and year out this man is nominated and feels like a far too safer bet- don't get me wrong I am not saying he doesn't deserve to be here, just it is becoming common. Personally I would prefer to see Ryan Getzlaf rewarded for his continually excellent form for Anaheim and this season in ...

The Anaheim Ducks are enjoying a great start to their 20th anniversary year and last night they extended their winning streak to seven game after a 6-3 win over the Dallas Stars at the Honda Center! Fan favourite Teemu Selanne coolly slotted the Ducks in front on a powerplay after only 2.38 of the 1st period, but then the Stars rallied with Ryan Garbutt getting them started when he hammered his shot past Jonas Hiller to make the scores 1-1 and then Brenden Dillon's shot from the point swerved into the net to push Dallas ahead after 14.38 played and finally Shawn Horcoff capped an impressive fight back for the Stars when he redirected a shot to put Dallas 3-1 up! But Anaheim had no intention of letting their fans down and Corey Perry pushed them back into contention only 54 seconds into the second period and then made the scores 3-3 with a tip in from a long range shot off Cam Fowler after 11.48. Emerson Etem then bundled in a short handed goal to finally give the home side t...

Last night the Detroit Red Wings evened the score against the Anaheim Ducks to tie the series. It's tough being a Detroit fan, no doubt there was lots of shouting at the TV coming from Michigan. The Wings took an early lead in the first period, netting twice to no reply. After Johan Franzen scored a third, it looked like the Wings had this one in the bag. Then something happened, either Anaheim turned up or Detroit switched off; cos the game was turned on its head. Saku Koivu put the ducks on the board in the second and at the start of the third, the Wings found themselves 4-1 up. Goals by Ryan Getzlaf , Kyle Palmieri and Bobby Ryan brought parity to the proceedings and it was down to Detroit's Gustav Nyquist  to score the winner in overtime. Justin Abdelkader and Damien Brunner also scored for the Wings. The next two games are at the Joe Louis. Anaheim did well to come back from a three goal deficit and will be disappointing to have not taken any...

There was a goal feast in Wednesday nights NHL action, with the most notable scoring being the New York Rangers blitzing Pittsburgh 6-1 at Madison Square Garden! Ryan Clowe was the stand out with two debut goals in an impressive start, before this he had gone scoreless all season long and Rangers fans will no doubt be delighted that he has discovered his scoring touch again. There was also scoring debuts for John Moore and Derek Brassard- who had only arrived from Columbus hours before! Goalie Henrik Lundqvist also chipped in with 26 saves and Wednesdays win takes New York to 7th overall in the Eastern Conference. In the absence of Sidney Crosby, the Penguins looked worryingly thin on quality and despite Pascal Dupuis' lone goal, things are starting to look troubling for the Stanley Cup contenders!   Meanwhile Edmonton Oilers three number one picks shone brighly in their 8-2 win against an un-inspired Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome to go five games unb...