by Larry Leavitt

Chicago vs. Los Angeles: The things that we’ve seen with the L.A. Kings as we’ve seen in rounds one and two their never out of it and the Kings could be down 3-0 and still win the series. The Kings will be a little more prepared on Wednesday night in Chicago.

The Kings had to face a quick turn around to start the series after playing seven games with the Anaheim Ducks in the second round. The Hawks had a few extra days off and it showed in their skating and ability to have fresh legs in game one. The Kings have had a couple days off they’ve seen what their opponent’s got and they should be better prepared for Wednesday night against the Hawks.

The Kings want to protect the net against the Hawks offense and there are two main ways that you can score a goal the first one is the goalie can’t stop what he can’t see. So if you have somebody in front of the goalie you can’t see the puck when it’s coming. So how do you get something by the goalie when you can’t see it coming?

The second one is the quick passes and crosses the east-west passes, side to side when you have the goalie moving or the feed pass before the redline behind the goal off front when the goalie is hugging that corner expecting you to do a wrap around or something and you shoot it above ice he has no time to react.

Jamie Quick the Kings goalie was the victim of both those circumstances in game three Wednesday night at United Center.

Montreal vs. NY Rangers: If the Rangers are smart they would take advantage of the fact that the Candaiens don’t have their number one goalie in net Carey Price, the Habs for that matter don’t have their number two goalie in net Peter Budaj was pulled for the third string goalie after game one and the Canadiens are now starting goaltender Dustin Tokarski.

Tokarski started game two and will also start game three, Tokarski is a rookie goalie and played a few games in the season and went 2-0 during the regular season and was sent back down to the minors and now they brought him up. The Canadiens are playing the trump card but the Canadiens have to play a lot better hockey and help Tokarski out.

The Habs need to try to control better in the zone and really grind the boards against the Rangers. The Rangers right now are just playing hot, hot, hockey right now their on a roll and I don’t know if the Rangers can be stopped right now.

You know if your in the NHL you have to be prepared and especially in the playoffs and if your a back up you have to be prepared and getting blitzed 7-2 in game one did Budaj in. You have to be prepared at any moment to step in and be on your A game. Which is one of the tougher jobs in the NHL and your almost a cheerleader on the bench and when your called out in the game you get serious and concentrate.

Some goalies really have made a huge mark for themselves in doing that and being able to come in and be in the game and save the day. Tokarski is going to have to do a lot better in game three than he did in game two and be prepared but realistically it’s really all about the Montreal defense.

Larry Leavitt is covering the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs for http://www.sportsradioservice.com