Game 4 pivotal for some
TSN.ca Staff w/files from CP
4/13/2004
The Boston Bruins look to take a 3-1 lead in their playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens tonight and injured forward Joe Thornton is hoping to provide the spark necessary.
Thornton, who is suffering from an "upper body injury" believed to be a rib injury, has been kept in check through the first three games of the series. So far, the line of Thornton, Mike Knuble and Glen Murray have accounted for just one point, that being Knuble's goal in Game 1.
"I felt really good," Thornton said following practice on Monday. "So hopefully I'll come out [tonight] with a good effort."
"The first two games, I just tried to do things that I normally don't do. [In Game 3] I kind of felt a little bit better so I could go back to the things I'm usually used to doing."
Knuble says Thornton's injury has limited his effectiveness but he's seen signs of improvement.
"I think as a line we were doing some uncharacteristic things and as a result, our line has had a lack of production," said Knuble.
"We started getting into it the last 30 minutes of the last game. You saw Joe skating with the puck wide and myself going to the net and [Murray] pulling up and Joe passing to Glen and Glen getting a good shot on goal. That's what we need to be doing all the time."
As for the Canadiens, injuries - real and imagined - were under the microscope Monday. Mike Ribeiro, who went down as if he'd been shot out at centre ice with 34 seconds left in Sunday's game, was still the topic of discussion among both teams.
The Bruins suspect Ribeiro embellished the injury and were incensed that afterwards he was seen grinning and exchanging taunts with Boston players from the bench.
After missing practice on Monday, Ribeiro returned to the ice on Tuesday. He is expected to play tonight and says a pinched nerve caused him to writhe in pain on the ice during Sunday's game.
"I think it's an embarrassment to our game to see that," said Bruins' defenceman Dan McGillis. "If he's hurt, the trainer's got to go out and help him, but you can't sit out on the ice like that and cry wolf.
"God forbid if he's injured. We thought he might have taken a stick to the throat or something where he was really injured."
The Bruins expect to have forward Michael Nylander back in the lineup after missing Sunday's game with "flu-like symptoms". There was speculation that he actually suffered a concussion in Game 2.
"He's feeling a bit better and there's a decent chance he will play," Boston coach Mike Sullivan said.
Nylander did not take part in the team's one-hour practice Monday, but neither did a handful of Bruins' forwards, including Sergei Samsonov, Martin Lapointe and Murray, who do not appear to be injured.
Injuries also could be the determining factor in the Calgary Flames - Vancouver Canucks playoff series.
"There's a few guys banged up," admitted Canucks GM Brian Burke, who said the series 'could come down' to a situation where the team with the deepest roster wins.
The most notable injury to date in the hard-hitting series occurred Sunday when Vancouver's starting goaltender Dan Cloutier left the ice with an apparent knee injury. He has since returned to Vancouver for a more in depth assessment of his condition.
Cloutier will be replaced by Johan Hedberg, who had a strong playoff run with Pittsburgh in 2001 but has been inconsistent this year.
And the list of walking-wounded is growing by the day as the teams prepare for Game 4 Tuesday night.
Canucks forward Brad May split his head open Sunday night after a high-speed collision in front of the Calgary goal.
"He's got a bunch of stitches in his forehead and he should be fine," said Burke regarding May. "But they had to replace the net," he deadpanned.
Calgary also is beginning to show the strain of the playoffs - their first campaign in eight years.
Defenceman Toni Lydman left Sunday night's game with an "upper body injury." The Finnish-born Lydman missed the final 10 games of the regular season with a concussion and signs point to a similar injury this time.
And Craig Conroy, one of the Flames heart-and-soul players who usually is on the first line with captain Jarome Iginla, was badly cut in his mouth during second period Sunday after taking Vancouver goaltender Johan Hedberg's stick in the face.
Conroy returned to the game with a full-face shield, and couldn't even say Monday how many stitches he received.
"I'm not even sure - I've got them all over the place. They just cut putting them in."
Conroy said the injuries were hard on Calgary, already suffering the loss of several key players including forwards Stephane Yelle and Dean McAmmond.
Iginla agreed that the series was beginning to take its toll on both sides of the ice.
"We expected it to be a tough series, we expected it to be tough and physical before it started - just with the history of our clubs," he said.
In the dying seconds of Sunday's game, Iginla was hit from behind and into the boards by Vancouver's Mattias Ohlund, who has been given the job of shadowing the Calgary's captain who was one of this year's top goal scorers in the league.
He responded by fighting Ohlund, setting the stage for more heated action on Tuesday.
"One cross-check from behind, I'm not going to lose all respect for him but I prefer not to get cross-checked from behind in the boards," he said.
On Tuesday, Vancouver will attempt to extend their winning streak inside the Saddledome, having not lost in 10 regular season outings.
The Detroit Red Wings are finding out that Tomas Vokoun doesn't back down - on or off the ice.
The Nashville goalie stopped 41 shots Sunday in the Predators' 3-1 victory that pulled Nashville to 2-1 in the best-of-seven series. The Predators can force the series back to Nashville for at least Game 6 with another victory tonight.
Vokoun, a 27-year-old native of the Czech Republic, is enjoying himself in his first post-season series, and he hasn't hesitated to criticize the Red Wings, calling them arrogant whiners.
"They're an arrogant team no question about that. They think they're better than us. . . . We're here, and we deserve to be here," Vokoun said.
Detroit has had only three more power plays than Nashville in the series. The Red Wings are 1-for-15 with the man advantage compared to 0-for-12 for the Predators only because Mathieu Schneider's shot caromed off Vokoun's skate for the winning goal in Game 2.
After Sunday's victory, Vokoun said he felt the Red Wings were worrying more about the officiating than playing.
"They always look surprised when they get a penalty, and they hold onto the guys just the same way as we do," Vokoun said.
Detroit forward Brendan Shanahan had another take on Vokoun's comments.
"If we didn't get 23 shots on goal, you wouldn't be talking about the goalie," he said of Sunday's third period.
Through three games, nobody has faced more shots this post-season than Vokoun with 99. He has allowed six goals, including five in the third, compared to Legace who has stopped 68 of 73 shots.
The longer Vokoun excels, the more he will start looking like the reincarnation of Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who helped Anaheim sweep Detroit in the first round last season.
Veteran defenceman Chris Chelios said the veteran Red Wings know what to expect.
"We have to treat each game like it's do or die."
The Red Wings will make one lineup change, inserting Boyd Devereaux in place of Steve Thomas to try and improve the overall team speed.
There will be no rest for the weary as the San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues get right back at it again tonight for Game 4 of their Western Conference series.
The Blues will look to even the series following their 4-1 win last night to cut the deficit to 2-1.
The Sharks would appear to have the advantage over the Blues in back-to-back games, having lost just three times in 16 games played back-to-back during the regular season. However, one of those losses was to the Blues.
The Blues were just 5-13-1 during the regular season in the second of back-to-back games.
The Sharks and Blues also played back-to-back playoff games in 2001. Three years ago, the Blues won Game 3 by a score of 6-3 while the Sharks rebounded for a 3-2 win the next night thanks to the goaltending of Miikka Kiprusoff, who was making his playoff debut.
"The playoffs are so intense sometimes you need a day to cool down either way," said Sharks coach Ron Wilson said. "I'm not a big proponent of back-to-backs in the playoffs, but that's the situation and you have to deal with it."
"You always like to have that day in between for preparation," said Blues coach Mike Kitchen. "But all year we've had to play back-to-back games and four in six nights. If you had to travel it would be a different story."
The Sharks are uncertain if center Alyn McCauley will be back in the lineup after missing Game 3 with a shoulder injury.
"He is rapidly improving," said Wilson, who stopped short of saying he would be ready for tonight's game.
Wayne Primeau skated in McCauley's familiar spot between Alexander Korolyuk and Nils Ekman on Monday. Ekman appears to be struggling the most from McCauley's absence, unable to duplicate the passing game with other centers that he had developed with McCauley.
Cheers,
Aquaman