Stars of the Series: Round 1
Posted in stars of the week on April 28th, 2010 by EM – Be the first to commentI wanted to post up my three stars of the series for the Red Wings against the Coyotes, and kind of pick up again on this little weekly feature that I had done earlier in the season…
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#3: Jimmy Howard
You gotta hand it to the kid. His first ever playoff series, and it goes to Game 7, and he walks away a winner. Sure, he let up some softies at some bad times. Sure, he didn’t stand on his head every single game, or really steal a win at any point. But he also didn’t completely lose a game, and that’s the most important part. He got the benefit of the doubt from me this time. He also bounced back in a huge way after flopping in Game 3 with the shutout in Game 4.

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#2: Nicklas Lidstrom
Nick showed us in Game 7 that he’s not done yet, in which he doubled his points for the post-season thus far. But what the stats don’t show is that he’s still an amazing shutdown defenseman, and still better than a Norris Trophy candidate this year *cough*mikgreen*ahem*. He got his job done, played big minutes, and took zero penalty minutes.

#1: Henrik Zetterberg
If you ask me, Henrik Zetterberg was just made for the playoffs. He only scored 23 goals in 74 games for a 31% scoring rate. This round he had 6 goals in 7 games, with 2 GWGs. That’s absurd. Hank lifts his game to a completely different level this time of year, and it shows offensively. Not to mention, he’s also still a defensive force, the only player other player along with Stuart who is +6. He’s looked like the Conn Smythe winner of 2008.

Honorable Mentions:
Pavel Datsyuk (5-3-8, +2), Valtteri Filppula (3-4-7, +4), Brad Stuart (2-4-6, +6)
