NHL playoffs 2013: Blackhawks advance past Wild, Senators eliminate Canadiens, Pens crush Isles

Speed, skill, depth, grit, defense, goaltending, experience. Chicago has it all. And if you listen to the head coach, Chicago isn’t “there,” yet.

I don’t want to be the guy that forgets this, or tries to act like it isn’t important. Anyone who thought the Blackhawks somehow got away with a fluke in the regular season should be convinced at this point that this team is completely legit. It will take an amazing effort for anyone in the NHL to beat this team four times in seven games.

Playoff hockey brings out the best in some players.

Stick to scoring, Sid. Avoid the checks.

Josh Harding started Game 5 after leaving the previous game with an injury, and whether still hurt or rusty, he did handle his return to the lineup well. He gave up this soft wraparound to Marcus Krueger...

...and this soft rebound goal to Hossa:

That rather soft goal came after an even worse one, a too easy wraparound by Kruger:

Kuemper relieved Harding and stopped four of five shots. But his goaltending almost doesn’t matter at this point. To keep their season alive, the Wild will need a massive comeback in the third period.

Harding started Game 5 after leaving Game 4 with an injury that resulted from a collision with Toews. He made nine saves in the first period of his return.

The Wild believed a key to their lone victory in this series, in Game 3, was through a physical approach and attempt to clog up the Blackhawks offensive transition. But shots were even at 10-10 after the first period of Game 5, and the official scorekeepers had the Blackhawks outhitting the Wild 14-8.

The Senators have punched their ticket to the Eastern Conference Semifinals, beating the Montreal Canadiens in five games in their first round series. They’re happy about it:

If Pittsburgh defeats the Islanders, the Senators will play the Penguins no matter what else happens. Pittsburgh is the top seed and they’d be eliminating the bottom seed, leaving the Sens as the lowest-remaining opponent. Pens vs. Sens.

The game started off right for the Senators, with two early goals giving them a lead that they never surrendered. The Canadiens would get one late in the first period, but that was the end of Montreal’s offense for the night. The third period was all Ottawa.

That goal seemed to suck the life completely out of the Canadiens, and they didn’t have much sustained pressure for the remainder of the game. The Senators would get another couple of ugly goals late, but by then it didn’t much matter:

Nabokov was pulled early in the third period after giving up four goals on 27 shots. Granted two of them were breakaways and one was on a good power play by the Penguins, but Vokoun made saves all night long that Nabokov did not.

Nabokov has now given up 20 goals on 131 shots in this series, a performance that not even Fleury would envy.

To be fair, only one goal was truly awful, this bobble that made it 2-0 in the second period:

You know what that means? The walk of shame for Nabokov at 5:43 of the third period:

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The scoreboard then got out of hand after a pivotal stretch just after the midpoint of the second period demonstrated the difference in the quality of goaltenders in this game.

Play settled down slightly after that surge, and the Islanders made a push to try to get one back before the intermission. But those efforts failed, and the Penguins entered the second intermission with a commanding lead.

Come on, Budaj, you’re going to have to do better than that.

When the period ended, the score was 2-1 in favor of the Senators.

Vokoun, starting his first game this series after a disastrous first four games for Fleury, did a good job directing Islanders shots to the corners and preventing rebound opportunities.

The teams engaged in some routine playoff rough stuff, but nothing too violent or noteworthy. There was this encounter between Penguins star Sidney Crosby and Islanders fourth-liner Matt Martin though:

The Blackhawks have spent half of their Western Conference Quarterfinal series with the Minnesota Wild controlling the play and doing whatever they want. The other half has been overtime games. The Wild have -- surprisingly, you might say -- gotten the Hawks to a fourth period twice in this series, winning and losing one apiece. Which means Minnesota has played pretty well in about half this series. Good for them!

That said, I don’t know if anyone’s expecting them to compete with the Hawks tonight, down 3-1, with the series returning to the United Center. If the Hawks don’t play well enough to close things out tonight, it might be cause for some concern. Chicago, however, doesn’t seem as culpable to a collapse as certain other high profile teams. The Blackhawks very much seem capable of handling their business, but you never know!

This series looked headed back for Montreal even for most of Game 4 between the Senators and Canadiens on Tuesday night in Ottawa. Then, all of a sudden, Ottawa turned things around, got two goals in short order in the third, and it was, all of a sudden, a collapse from the Canadiens. Then things somehow got worse.

Carey Price went down and was forced to leave the game with an injury on the final shot of regulation. It was one of the stranger injuries you’ll ever see. There was no dramatic fall to the ice, just a stumble, and then a limp. Then he was gone. I’ve honestly never seen anything like it. Price is now out for the rest of the series with a lower-body injury. Canadiens captain Brian Gionta is also out for the series and likely the rest of the playoffs with a torn biceps.

I guess the Penguins have decided the playoffs aren’t as fun without the potential for utter disaster.

For the third consecutive year, the Penguins are in danger of letting all their talent go to waste by losing a first-round series to an obviously inferior team. The Penguins have finally decided to go all in on blaming Marc-Andre Fleury for these losses. Tomas Vokoun will start in goal for Game 5 of the series, as they shift back to Consol Energy Center on Thursday.

With the exception of a few isolated incidents, the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs have been amazing.

That was continued on Wednesday night when all four games on the schedule were decided by a single goal, with three of the contests requiring overtime.