Gäste Forum » Oakland and Durant is swallowed whole by it

The Senators and Blackhawks are moving to Round Two after blowout wins while the Penguins take the series lead over the Islanders. Scott Cullen has stats and notes from Thursdays NHL action. SENS SEND CANADIENS INTO SUMMEREven though they were at home, the Montreal Canadiens were fighting an uphill battle in Game Five. With strong goaltending and timely scoring, the Ottawa Senators took a 6-1 decision, winning the series four games to one. Coming into the playoffs, the Montreal Canadiens were facing a tough task if the Ottawa Senators continued to get the kind of goaltending that they had received all season. As it turned out, Craig Anderson was every bit as good as his league-leading performance in the regular season. After stopping 33 of 34 shots in the Game Five clincher, Anderson had a .950 save percentage in the series. As usual, the Senators got contributions throughout their lineup in Game Five. Cory Conacher potted two goals and linemates Matt Kassian and Jean-Gabriel Pageau each had two assists. Erik Condra led the way with a goal and two assists. For the series, the offensively-challenged Sens seemed to do just fine. Daniel Alfredsson and Erik Karlsson led the way with six points in five games while Pageau, Kyle Turris and Marc Methot each had a point per game. Down three games to one, the Canadiens were left to mount a series comeback, starting in Game Five, with Peter Budaj in goal after Carey Price suffered a leg injury late in Game Four. It was the first career playoff start for the 30-year-old and he struggled, stopping just 23 of 29 shots. On a night when the Canadiens had a bunch of early chances, but couldnt solve Anderson, they most definitely couldnt afford a subpar goaltending performance in their own net, so the lopsided result came with a sense of inevitability when it appeared that Budaj wasnt going to be matching Anderson, his former teammate in Colorado. Defenceman P.K. Subban was Montreals most dangerous player in the series and he and Tomas Plekanec tied for the team lead with four points in the series. Playing with a separated shoulder, LW Max Pacioretty was held off the scoresheet, David Desharnais and Andrei Markov managed one point apiece. Rookie RW Brendan Gallagher was a team-worst minus-7, yet also led the Habs with 22 shots on goal in five games. Its not as though Montreal didnt have their chances, they outshot the Senators by an average margin of 5.2 shots per game, but couldnt come close to matching the Senators goaltending. Its been a strong suit for Ottawa all year and it made the series more lopsided than the territorial play between the teams would suggest. PENGUINS PULL AHEAD OF ISLANDERSReturning home with the series tied at two, the Pittsburgh Penguins turned to Tomas Vokoun in net, replacing Marc-Andre Fleury, and Vokoun responded with a 31-save shutout in Pittsburghs 4-0 win. Vokoun wasnt the only insert into the Pittsburgh lineup. RW Tyler Kennedy played his first game of the playoffs and scored the first goal of the game. Sidney Crosby and and Kris Letang led the Penguins attack with a goal and an assist each; Crosbys goal a highlight effort, splitting the Islanders defence before finding the back of the net with a snapshot. Islanders C John Tavares had a team-high six shots, but was also 5-for-18 (27.8%) on faceoffs. Penguins C Joe Vitale was 9-for-10 on draws. Even though Game Five was a healthy margin of victory for the Penguins, the Islanders still have a chance to extend the series. For all the skill that the Penguins have, the Islanders have been carrying their share of the play. The challenge facing them now, however, is that they need to try to get justly rewarded when they carry the play. It happened when Marc-Andre Fleury was tending the Penguins net; it hasnt yet happened with Vokoun between the pipes. BLACKHAWKS BOUNCE WILDThe Chicago Blackhawks made short work of the Minnesota Wild, coasting to a 5-1 win in Game Five and taking the series four games to one. Marian Hossa led the Blackhawks with two goals and an assist. Marcus Kruger brought the complementary offence with a goal and an assist, while Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith each had a pair of assists. Wild LW Zach Parise was held without a shot for the first time since November 6, 2009; he spent the night matched up against the defence tandem of Keith and Niklas Hjalmarsson, along with the Blackhawks top line of Toews, Hossa and rookie Brandon Saad. Those five Blackhawks were dominant possession-wise, leaving few opportunities for Minnesotas top line of Parise, Mikko Koivu and Charlie Coyle. While Toews two assists in Game Five were his first points of the series, Chicagos other big guns produced. Patrick Sharp had five goals and an assist in five games, Hossa had six points, Keith had five and Patrick Kane had five points in the five-game series. Scoring was much more difficult for the Wild. Veteran C Matt Cullen had three assists in five games to lead the Wild in scoring. Parise had one assist (and was minus-7), Mikko Koivu had no points (and was minus-6), an injured Jason Pominville only played two games; its asking a lot for the Minnesota supporting cast to pick up the slack when the top guys arent producing at all. Ryan Suter played 31:37 per game, but didnt record a point and was minus-5. He spent much of the series trying to cover both of Chicagos scoring lines, a tall order. If the Wild were going to have any shot at upsetting the Blackhawks, they needed Chicagos goaltending to get shaky, but it didnt happen. Corey Crawford allowed seven goals on 139 shots in five games, leaving him with a 1.40 goals against average and .950 save percentage. Tough to beat a team that gets that kind of goaltending. Josh Harding had a difficult job, filling in for an injured Niklas Backstrom right from the start of the series, but he played well. His .911 save percentage was respectable, but the Wild were always going to need more than respectable performances if they were going to overachieve. In the end, the result of the Chicago-Minnesota series was as expected. A Stanley Cup favourite taking care of business against a team that barely squeaked into the postseason. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. Tytus Howard Texans Jersey .4 million title. Ryan Riess emerged with the title after a session in which he started behind, but used expert skill to gather the chips to his side amid the unpredictability of no-limit Texas Hold em. Riess put his final opponent Jay Farber all-in with an Ace-King. J.J. 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It was sometime after 10 p.m. local time on May 30, and Kevin Durant was still lingering on the floor of Oracle Arena. Confetti was splashed all over the floor, the Golden State Warriors were celebrating and Durant stood near the visitors tunnel, jersey untucked, just sort of ... lingering.Durant had scored 27 points for the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 7, including seven straight to cut the Golden State Warriors lead to four with 1:40 left. He was spent, both physically and emotionally. A 3-1 series lead had slipped through his hands, and the Thunder had fallen short of the Finals. His team already back in the locker room, Durant stood alone for a few seconds, before ducking through the tunnel and off the floor.The Thunder make their return to Oracle for the first time since that fateful Game 7 on Thursday and not just without Durant, but to play against him. The floor Durant walked off crestfallen in May is now his home for the foreseeable future.For the Thunder, it will be a jarring experience. Some within the organization have said they arent sure how theyll react to seeing Durant on the other bench. Some have said theyve moved on and wont be fazed. Among the latter is Russell Westbrook, who is pragmatic -- Durant is an opponent, and Westbrook doesnt like opponents. In some ways, Westbrook is ambivalent, claiming his team has his only attention. He didnt watch Durants first game with the Warriors, instead playing poker with friends and finding out about the score only when his wife told him the next morning.Westbrook and Durant spent eight seasons together, but their supposedly unbreakable bond was severed when Durant announced he was joining the Warriors on July 4. When they meet on the floor Thursday, it will be the first time theyve spoken since (assuming they speak). All eyes will be on their handshake before tipoff, but Westbrook doesnt do that before games with opponents. He sprints under the opposing basket, stares into the crowd, pumps his arms and gets ready to play. The only people he daps up are the ones wearing the same jersey as him. He says he only has one friend during a game: the ball.The Thunder have started 4-0, the lone unbeaten left in the West, and have taken on a part of Westbroooks personality as their identity.dddddddddddd They play hard, theyre not always pretty, they mess up plenty, but they dont let up. Theres so much attention on Westbrook and Durant, its been overlooked this will be an uncomfortable night for Nick Collison, for Steven Adams, for Anthony Morrow, for Enes Kanter and for Andre Roberson. They all believed Durant was coming back, too. Everyone is fascinated by how Westbrook might play -- will he try to dunk so hard a vortex is created in downtown Oakland and Durant is swallowed whole by it? -- but its going to be worth watching Westbrooks teammates.We all played with Kevin, we all were disappointed he left, Collison said. So its not like its just Russ. Its something that were all going to deal with, seeing one of our guys playing somewhere else. Itll be a big game and everyones going to play hard for sure but theres a lot of reasons thats going to happen.Durant, by nature, is a pretty non-confrontational person. Hes easy going, easy to get along with and adaptable to any group of people. He wants the idea that theres a beef with Westbrook to evaporate. Westbrook, though, is guarded, skeptical and values loyalty. He doesnt mind butting heads with anyone, whether its a teammate, a coach or a reporter. It sets a strange scenario on Thursday, one where theres genuine unknown of what may happen.Theyre gonna play basketball, Anthony Morrow said. Thats it.The Thunder return to Oracle six months later in a different world. When they left on May 30, they thought theyd be coming back better and stronger than ever, the likely favorite to win it all. Instead, theyre a franchise that was pushed to the brink of unraveling, and building a new identity behind Westbrook. While most expected them to fall back, Westbrook only pushes forward. Asked on Wednesday after their 85-83 win against the Clippers if hes surprised at the way the Thunder have begun the season, Westbrook flashed his trademark disdain.Who said that? Westbrook snapped. A lot of folks, a reporter responded. Westbrook cut his eyes over and defiantly grinned. Thats where they went wrong. ' ' '