2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 2: Chicago Blackhawks vs Detroit Redwings

My final post for round 2 is Chicago and Detroit, the series is currently 3-2 heading into game 6 in Detroit and Chicago looks to force a game 7 back home.

Here are two of my art pieces featuring a pencil sketch of Chicago's Corey Crawford and Detroit Captain Henrik Zetterberg.

Corey Crawford

Henrik Zetterberg

2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 2: Boston Bruins vs New York Rangers

It looks like the Bruins will ultimately take this series as they lead three game to one heading into game 5 tonight in Boston.

Here are two more of my art pieces differing from the comic style I've been doing a lot with a classic pencil sketch of Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask and Ranger goaltender Henrik Lundqvist.

Tuukka Rask

Henrik Lundqvist

2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 2: Pittsburgh Penguins vs Ottawa Senators

This has been a pretty good series to watch, Ottawa is challenging the Penguins with a lot of their quick young skaters and showing us that are some weaknesses on defense for the Penguins however Vokoun has played very well in replacing Fleury, while Anderson has looked very strong for the most part almost stealing game 3.
 
Here are 2 more of my art pieces of Sidney Crosby of the Penguins and Erik Karlsson of the Senators.

Sidney Crosby

Erik Karlsson

2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 2: LA Kings vs San Jose Sharks

I'm starting to finish most of the Artwork for round 2 and will be posting it within the next week. So far in this round no team seems to have a strong hold to win the series...maybe the Bruins after game 2 but you never know when Lundqvist decides not to allow any more goals.

The 1st post for this round is the Kings vs. the Sharks. This series is currently 2-1 in favor of the Kings and a big reason why that is, is pictured in my art work below, Jonathan Quick. In games 2 and 3 the Sharks have found a way to get more than one goal by him (something the Blues had a hard time doing) however the offense for the Kings which was barely visible in round 1 showed up when needed in round 2 to help out Quick. It's beginning to look a lot like last years Kings.

Here are 2 more pieces of my art work of the reason the Kings are in this position, their goaltender Jonathan Quick and Playoff Gamer for the Sharks Joe Pavelski.

Jonathan Quick

Joe Pavelski

2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Boston Bruins vs Toronto Maple Leafs

Tonight the Bruins have another chance to eliminate the Leafs after not doing so in a very entertaining game 5. The Bruins have a 3 games to 2 lead heading into game 6 and in the games they have won they have been rather dominating scores. It will be interesting to see what kind of game we will get tonight being another elimination game, I would say the Leafs have another good in-store to push to game 7.

This is my last post for round 1 and round 2 will start next week other games today are the Capitals trying to eliminate the Rangers or go to a game 7 (yes please) and the only game 7 in the 1st round so far is Detroit and Anaheim, interesting how all of Detroit's wins have come in OT, that tells you how close it has been and if your Anaheim...don't go to OT.

So here are two more of my pieces of Boston Bruins Nathan Horton and Toronto Maple Leafs James van Riemsdyk.

Nathan Horton

James van Riemsdyk

2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs: ST. Louis Blues vs LA KINGS

This has been one of the most physical and close scoring series' of the opening round, it's a shame they met in the 1st round as I could see either of these teams winding up in the Western Conference Final. I did think the Blues were going to go far this year but it just didn't work out for them getting a match up with the Kings. Tonight they fell to them in game 6 with every game being a 1 goal game in the series.  The Kings now move on to round 2 to join the Sharks and Blackhawks as the Redwings and Ducks are headed to game 7. The west is going to be difficult to pick as the remaining teams have all looked really good and wouldn't be surprised the West handles the East quite handily in the final this year. The Kings looked like the kings of last year and Jonathan Quick looks to be a great playoff performer and one of my favorite goalies to watch play, question will be if they can score enough now to push through to the Cup.

Here are 2 more pieces I completed of the Blues T. J. Oshie and the Kings Anze Kopitar.

T. J. Oshie

Anze Kopitar

2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Montreal Canadiens vs Ottawa Senators

This series has been the most entertaining playoff match up off the ice in my opinion, I might also argue the most entertaining on ice as well, just not in the meaning of good hockey games. I'm watching the Penguins & Islanders series when these teams play but I look forward to seeing the highlights and occasionally checking into the game during breaks. Senators coach Paul MacLean is now one of my favorite coaches after this series the way he talks about the Canadiens players by using number rather than names"Player 61"is just tremendous and the subsequent outrage by the Canadiens equally so, that's why the playoffs are so fun.

The actual play of the series hasn't been as entertaining from what I can tell, as Ottawa holds a 3-1 series lead heading into game 5 tonight. You could argue the Canadiens were heading into the playoffs at the wrong time, what with gave just a solid and surprising season after finishing at the bottom of the standing last year. This year they hit a rough patch a few weeks before playoffs started and Carey Price hasn't been playing well and now is injured and out for game 5, they were hoping they could turn it around to start the playoffs hasn't really worked out for them.  It has worked for the Senators however, who suffered some big injuries during the season and then getting a huge boost by getting star defenseman Erik Karlsson back right before the playoffs. Factoring the teams situations heading into the playoffs it's not really a surprise the Seanators have the lead and look to move onto round 2.

For this match up, Hockey Artist and Canadiens fan Wade submitted another one of his digital paintings of Montreal Canadiens Alex Galchenyuk you can follow him on his twitter handle @DarthAlexander9. The other is my artwork of Ottawa's goaltender Craig Anderson.

Alex Galchenyuk

Craig Anderson

2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Vancouver Canucks vs San Jose Sharks

It was hard to predict this series to start, question marks abounded for both teams. First the Canucks have had a season long goalie controversy while both played pretty well through the season and the team had a solid season as a whole and winning their division and the 3rd playoff seed.

Now the sharks were one of the most surprising and hottest teams to start the season and cooled off, but rebounded to finish the season strong they also have some of the clutch playoff performers in my opinion in Antti Niemi and Joe Pavelski, and even Joe Thornton has been solid in recent playoff years despite his reputation.

So naturally the Sharks come in and take a 3-0 series lead heading into tonight's game 4 and no matter what the out come of tonight's game it seems that the sharks will take the series in large part to the above mentioned playoff performers for the sharks...oh and one of my favorite players (because he's a Buffalo fan) Logan Couture. The Canucks have let the goaltending controversy become a major distraction, the first 2 games Luongo was solid, the team just couldn't score, then they put in Cory Schneider and fell apart in game 3. Seems that the Canucks should've let their goaltending issue go and work on creating more offence that they needed to win the series.

So here are two more of my pieces I've been working on for the Playoffs the Vancouver Canucks Kevin Bieksa and the San Jose Sharks Joe Thornton.

Kevin Bieksa

Joe Thornton

2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Anaheim Ducks vs Detroit Redwings

This has been a rather back and fourth series, currently Anaheim leads the series 2-1, Anaheim have been out playing Detroit more than not, with only game 2 going to OT, and that was almost a great comeback by the ducks to score a bunch of goals late and rattle Detroit and force it to overtime only to lose by a power play goal early in OT. The Ducks seem to have come back and dominated game 3 winning 4-0, let's see if they maintain momentum for game 4 or allow Detroit to tie the series. Here are 2 more of my pieces of Anaheim Ducks Teemu Selanne and Detroit Redwings Jimmy Howard.

Teemu Selanne

Jimmy Howard

2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Pittsburgh Penguins vs New York Islanders

This has been a surprising series in that it hasn't been a sweep by the Penguins. While the Penguins dominated game 1 and then got Crosby back for game 2 which they lost by showing the flaws that killed them in last years playoff vs the Flyers, shaky goaltending and defense. Game 2 was so much different from game 1 which appeared to maybe be the exception to the rule as game 3 is currently heading into overtime and the Islanders were able to fight back to tie the game at 4. This is looking to be a good series to see how far the Islanders can take this. So here is a piece by Jim Link featuring Sidney Crosby and my piece featuring Evgeni Nabokov.

Sidney Crosby

Evgeni Nabokov

2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Washington Capitals vs New York Rangers

As most of the playoff match ups are now underway, there are two opening tonight and one of them are the Washington Capitals hosting the New York Rangers. while the entire Western Conference is not only under way but game 2's are being played tonight. The Western match ups have all been close games and so far the 2 Eastern match ups seem to be blow outs so far. I would expect this series to be pretty even and one of the most difficult to choose a winner, both teams had similar story lines during the short season, disappointing starts yet a strong finish leading into the playoffs meaning this could be a very good series to watch for the Eastern Conference. Here are two of my pieces of Washington Capitals Alex Ovechkin and New York Rangers Captain Ryan Callahan.

Alex Ovechkin

Ryan Callahan