By Ray Flowers
May 7, 2008 3:49pm CDT

Never content to give you merely the “normal� playoff coverage, I will list some of the facts that have caught my eye through the first two rounds of the playoffs.


* Johan Franzen is the hottest thing on skates since the Zambani blew up during the Sharks-Penguins game on February 24th and leaked transmission fluid all over the ice before the national anthem. In case you have been living in an igloo in the great uncharted north, here are some of Franzen’s many accomplishments of late.

1- Scored two hat-tricks in the second round on his way to nine goals in the series to set an NHL record for a four-game series. It also set a Wings record for most goals in any playoff series of any length.

2- His 11 playoff goals are already a Red Wings record for one preseason, surpassing the 10 goals scored by Peter Klima in 1988, Sergei Fedorov in 1998 and Brett Hull in 2002.

3- Franzen has scored goals at most opportune times, as he leads the NHL with four game-winning goals, meaning he has scored the winner in half of the Wings' playoff wins.

4- Dating back to the regular season, Franzen is doing his best Wayne Gretzky impersonation with 26 goals in his last 25 games. That’s right, he has more goals in his last 25 games on the ice than Jaromir Jagr scored all year in 82 games (25 goals).


* From the "of course it makes sense now" file - Speaking of Jaromir Jagr, he recorded 25 goals and 71 points during the regular season for his lowest goal output of his career and his worst point total since 1994-95 when he totaled just 70 points. Of course, that was the year of the strike, and he scored 70 points in just 48 games. Therefore, his 71 points was his worst mark since his second year in the NHL (’91-’92) when he recorded just 69 points. Taking all of that into account, guess who leads the NHL in playoff scoring? Jaromir Jagr, of course, with 15 points in 10 games.


* R.J. Umberger blistered netminders for 13 goals this season in 74 games, which was his worst total in a three-year NHL career (20, 16 and 13). He did record a career best 50 points thanks to 37 assists, but his goal scoring was certainly well off the mark. Well, he now has nine goals in 12 playoff games, the most in the Eastern Conference, including six in his last four games during which time he has scored at least once in each outing.


* Pavel Datsyuk is one of the most gifted skaters in the NHL, and he finished the regular season with 97 points, fourth in the league, and a +41 which led the league. So it’s no surprise he is enjoying success in the playoffs. Datsyuk is currently second on the Red Wings with 13 points, first in assists with eight, first in takeaways (12), second in face-off percentage (58.3) and fourth in hits (20).


* Also from the "of course it makes sense now" file – The Sharks PK Unit was first in the entire NHL with an 85.8% kill mark, which obviously led to a league low 44 power-play goals against ( 0.54 per game). So who is surprised to see that the Sharks ranked 14 out of the 16 playoff teams in PK% through two rounds at just 75.0%? They were also the worst team in the league amongst any of the teams that advanced to the second round when their season ended. Just how bad were they? Well, they allowed 11 PP goals in 13 games for a 0.85 mark per game, over 50% worse than the mark they allowed during the regular season.

On the flip side, the Canadiens were the only team with a power-play percentage over 22% during the regular season, as they led the league with a 24.2% mark. They fell all the way to 11th in the playoffs with a 14.8% mark, another example of a 50% failure from the regular season.


* Henrik Zetterberg leads the NHL with a +10 rating in the playoffs in 10 games, which isn’t a huge surprise considering he has recorded at least a +25 in three straight seasons for a cumulative mark of +85.


* Martin Biron has widely been hailed as the Flyers' best player during these playoffs, though he possesses a 2.72 GAA, which is middle of the pack in the playoffs and actually worse than his 2.59 mark during the regular season. His save percentage of .914 is also slightly below his regular season mark as well (.918). So how is it that he is being given praise? Well, he has stopped 133 of 143 shots over the last four games of the Flyers and Canadiens series, good for a .930 save percentage.


* Marc-Andre Fleury is a sterling 8-1 in these playoffs with a sparkling 1.76 GAA and .938 save percentage. In his nine starts in the postseason, Fleury has allowed one or fewer goals in four games (he has two shutouts). Dating back to his final 14 appearances in the regular season, Fleury is now 18-3-1 with an almost unheard of 1.63 GAA in his last 22 games. Yeah, he’s hot.


* Speaking of Detroit and how good they are in the playoffs, has anyone outside of Detroit realize that Mike Babcock has guided the team to a 26-6 playoff mark during his first three seasons as the head coach?


* Evgeni Nabokov and the Sharks are out of the playoffs, and they finished with a poor 6-7 record. How do you go 6-7 when your goalie has a 2.18 GAA? Well, that’s what happens when you score only 30 goals in 13 games (2.31 goals scored per game).


* What’s all this nonsense about Marty Turco not being able to take his game and his team to the next level? Besides the 8-4 record he has this postseason, Turco is second in the playoffs with a 1.73 GAA and fourth with a .929 save percentage. Add that to his previous record in the postseason and we are looking at a guy who owns a 2.07 GAA and .915 SV% in his playoff career. So is it really fare to label him as someone who can’t get it done because his record is just 19-22? Seems like crazy talk to me.


* From the "of course it makes sense now" file – Over the final three weeks of the regular season from March 9th on, which team had the best record? The Sharks, of course, who went 10-2-2 for 22 points. Surprisingly, they were tied with the Capitals who also had 22 points thanks to an 11-2-0 record. So of course the Caps lost in the first round and the Sharks lost in the second.

On the flip side, which team was the worst in the regular season’s final three weeks? The Islanders (3-7-2) and the Thrashers (4-8-0) who each totaled only eight points. Which team was right behind them? Try the Dallas Stars, who won only four of their last 11 games (10 points). So of course the Stars went out and beat the defending Cup champs in the first round (Anaheim) and the team with the second highest point total in the regular season this year in the second round (San Jose).


* Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have both been huge in the playoffs with 14 points apiece in just nine games. Both have been deadly with the man-advantage with eight points each on the power-play. Crosby has eight PP assists whereas Malkin has four goals and four assists.