This article is part of our The Daily Puck series.
Around the League
Will the Penguins and Senators manage to prolong their playoff run?
My guess is no, and home ice has a lot to do with it. While the two teams have battled hard, both enter enemy territory down 3-1 in their respective series.
The Sens made a stand in Ottawa to avoid a sweep, but going into Montreal and facing Carey Price, who has held them to just four goals in the past three contests, is a daunting task. The Bell Centre will certainly be loud and hostile, which means Craig Anderson will have to find his focus early and cannot afford to give up an early lead.
For the Habs to clinch a win, their special teams have to be better, especially on the power play where they have to get Max Pacioretty going. The Habs' top scorers are Buffalo cast-offs in Torrey Mitchell and Brian Flynn, while David Desharnais and Brendan Gallagher have yet to score a goal. As always, the Sens offense will live and die with Erik Karlsson's patented rushes, but if the Habs can limit his speed and force him to cough up the puck, they shouldn't have a tough time dispatching the Sens.
With the Penguins, that may not be so easy because they employ the league's best all-round player in Sidney Crosby and have an uber talented scorer in Evgeni Malkin, who's vowed to play better. Like the Habs-Sens series, the underdogs hold a statistical advantage on special teams, but the vast majority of the goals have been scored on even strength, where the Rangers hold a substantial advantage with their depth.
If Crosby and Malkin can't get going, the Pens' only saving grace will be Marc-Andre Fleury, who has eight shutouts in 97 career playoff appearances. He sports a .921 save percentage but has to be outstanding to steal a game, and his life won't be easy with big forwards such as Rick Nash, Chris Kreider and Game 4 hero Kevin Hayes crashing the net.
In St. Louis, the Blues will try to build on an emphatic 6-1 win over the Wild in Game 4 to take the series lead. Vladimir Tarasenko, who scored both of the Blues' game-winning goals, has been a highlight reel machine, but has yet to register points in consecutive games. He scores in spurts, and sometimes you wish that scoring were spread out a little more. The Wild have also yet to find a solution to Kevin Shattenkirk, who is tied for the league lead with seven points.
All eyes will be on Devan Dubnyk, who wasn't particularly sharp in front of his home crowd when he had a chance to put the Wild up 3-1 in the series. He was exposed early and chased soon after that, paving the way for the inconsistent but promising Darcy Kuemper. Dubnyk's previous stints with the Oilers and Coyotes suggest that he's not as good as his stats with the Wild purport him to be, and perhaps a crack in the armor is all the Blues need to blow it wide open. The Wild have been quite good offensively and defensively all season, but struggled with goaltending before acquiring Dubnyk, and it would be very ironic if the very thing that saved the Wild's season also became the reason their season ended so prematurely.
Projected Goalie Starters (all times Eastern)
For updates on the projected goalies later in the day, check our Projected Goalies Grid
Ottawa Senators (Craig Anderson) at Montreal Canadiens (Carey Price), 7:00 PM
Pittsburgh Penguins (Marc-Andre Fleury) at New York Rangers (Henrik Lundqvist), 7:00 PM
Minnesota Wild (Devan Dubnyk) at St. Louis Blues (Jake Allen), 9:30 PM
Injury News For Teams Playing Friday
Ottawa Senators
Chris Phillips, D (back surgery) – no return date set.
Robin Lehner, G (concussion) – no return date set.
Matt Puempel, LW (high ankle sprain) – out 4-6 weeks.
Montreal Canadiens
Jarred Tinordi, D (wrist surgery) – out 2-3 months.
Nathan Beaulieu, D (upper body) – out for first round.
Pittsburgh Penguins
Pascal Dupuis, RW (blood clot) – out for the season.
Olli Maatta, D (shoulder surgery) – out for the season.
Kris Letang, D (concussion) – likely out for the season.
Christian Ehrhoff, D (upper body) – no return date set.
Beau Bennett, RW (upper body) – did not play Game 4; questionable.
Derrick Pouliot, D (upper body) – did not play Game 5; questionable.
New York Rangers
Kevin Klein, D (arm) – game-time decision; questionable.
Minnesota Wild
Keith Ballard, D (concussion) – likely out for the season.
Josh Harding, G (illness) – likely out for the season.
Hot
Tyler Johnson, C, Lightning – No Steven Stamkos, no problem. The Red Wings have been brilliant in shutting down Stamkos, who has just two assists, but conveniently forgot about everyone's favorite underdog in Johnson, the undrafted 5-foot-9 scorer who has scored at least 50 points every season since his second year of major junior hockey. He was the hero in front of a raucous Detroit crowd with two goals and an assist, including the overtime winner. The Wings held the psychological advantage for much of Game 4, holding a 2-0 lead late into the third period and also knowing that the Lightning have been shut out by Petr Mrazek twice before at the Joe, but that didn't seem to matter to Johnson at all, who used his speed to get behind Detroit defenders. He now has five points in four games.
Evgeny Kuznetsov, C, Capitals – It's about time the Caps' secondary scoring showed up. With Alex Ovechkin held pointless in a crucial Game 5, Kuznetsov picked up the slack with three points, opening the scoring for the Caps and then later sealing the deal after putting them up 4-1. The talented playmaker is seen as the team's No. 2 center behind Nicklas Backstrom, and if they want to go deep they'll need that depth scoring to come through, since it's likely the road to the Stanley Cup will have to go through a deep Rangers squad at some point. Kuznetsov's three-point effort snaps a four-game pointless drought.
Cold
Max Pacioretty, LW, Canadiens – The Habs' top scorer has been held without a goal in his past two games despite mustering 10 shots on goal. The Sens won't make it easy with their backs against the wall Friday night and it would be risky to assume that the fourth line will pull through again. The good news is that Pacioretty is shooting just 7.7 percent in the playoffs, well below his regular season career average of 11.4 percent, which means he should be able to find the twine sooner than later.
Devan Dubnyk, G, Wild – One bad game doesn't mean much, but it certainly does in the year of the backup. Dubnyk laid an egg in front of his home crowd in Game 4 and enters hostile territory in Game 5, especially with Vladimir Tarasenko looking to prove he can string together two good games. Dubnyk looked shaky in his last outing, and while Darcy Kuemper is no Scott Darling or Petr Mrazek, he can get hot at the right moment. If Dubnyk has another poor outing, he's being exposed at the worst possible time.
Recommended Value Play
Brandon Sutter, C, Penguins – As one of Pittsburgh's key forwards and given Evgeni Malkin's slump, it's a bit of a head-scratcher as to why Mike Johnston refuses to play him more than 16 minutes per game. Though he's not an elite goal scorer, his grinding style of play makes him ideal against the tight-checking Rangers. He's been held pointless in his past two games and the law of averages suggests he's due for a point or two come Friday.
