commentary...

the Red Wings/Boston Bruins series is the first between the teams since 1957... the last time that these teams played a playoff series,the Bruins won the series,four games to one... the Bruins are the President's Trophy winner this season,but the Red Wings won season series,three games to one... it should be an interesting best of seven series... anything can happen,example:Detroit was the defending Stanley Cup Champion,in 2003,when they played the(at that time)lightly regarded Anaheim Ducks,and scored only four goals in four games(three goals,in one game,one goal,in another,and got shut out,in two other games),and got swept in that series... the Ducks later on allowed the Minnesota Wild,one goal in another four game sweep... that is the NHL record for fewest goals in a four game series... the goaltender for the Ducks(J.S. Giguere) won the Conn Smythe Trophy(playoff MVP),even though the Ducks lost to the New Jersey Devils,in seven games,in the Stanley Cup Finals,that year... so can the Red Wings beat the Bruins,this year??? who knows? however,strange bounces of the puck have changed NHL history... an example of that goes back to the years of the Edmonton Oilers' dynasty(winning four Stanley Cups in five years)... the reason that they did not win five Stanley Cups,in five years,happened during the Oilers/Calgary Flames series,when Glenn Anderson,of the Oilers,was behind the Oilers' net,and shot the puck and it deflected off the Oilers' goaltender's skate,and went into the Oilers' net,for an own goal... a nice touch of the Oilers' 1990 Stanley Cup win was when Anderson was handed the Stanley Cup by Oilers' captain Mark Messier,a few years after that historical mistake... it was hockey's way of saying one for all,and all for one...