FanHouse AlexBurrows

The NHL cranks up the conference semifinals Thursday night, as Chicago opens their series at Vancouver. With both teams off impressive opening-round victories, who has the advantage? And will we see any hair-pulling theatrics this time around?

Earlier this season we took a look at the power play/penalty kill differential for every team in the league to gain a better understanding of which team may (or may not) benefit from penalty calls during games. When all was said and done, the Philadelphia Flyers were at the bottom of the barrel, while the Carolina Hurricanes were the most disciplined team in the NHL (again).

Some of you asked to see a similar analysis for the postseason, and because we aim to please, your wish is our command.

Let there be no question that the St. Louis Blues have character. They have guts. They have fire. Oh, and they have some great young players who will only get better as the years go by.

Trailing 2-0 in the game and 3-0 in the series, the Blues showed zero quit, rallying to tie the score on two second-period goals, and then getting some great goaltending from Chris Mason, who dueled with Roberto Luongo through a scoreless third period. That duel continued deep into overtime, before Alex Burrows scored his second of the game to eliminate St. Louis, 3-2.

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Newsmakers in the NHL is a weekday morning attempt to clear yesterday's rebounds and look to the day ahead.

Blue Jackets 4, Blackhawks 3: Banner night for the Columbus Blue Jackets, as their 4-3 shootout win over the Chicago Blackhawks clinched the first ever playoff berth in the in the eight-year existence of the franchise. It's been a long time coming, but congratulations Columbus, you're officially on the NHL map.

Vancouver's Roberto Luongo turned aside 26 shots to earn his seventh shutout of the season in Sunday's 4-0 win over Chicago, but the highlight of the game was the epic line brawl that erupted at the 5:50 mark of the third period.

Newsmakers in the NHL is a weekday morning attempt to clear yesterday's rebounds and look to the day ahead.

Blues 5, Blue Jackets 2: After knocking off Columbus in a shootout on Saturday, the St. Louis Blues completed their weekend home-and-home sweep of the Blue Jackets with a 5-2 win at Nationwide Arena. Patrik Berglund picked up a goal and two assists for the surging Blues, while Brad Boyes scored his 30th goal of the season, giving him two straight 30-goal campaigns.

T.J. Oshie made some highlights on Saturday for his crushing hit on Rick Nash, and followed it up on Sunday with his 14th goal of the season.

Rangers 3, Islanders 1: For one night, everything was great at Madison Square Garden as the Rangers picked up a much needed 3-1 win over the Islanders. Scott Gomez, Nigel Dawes and Fredrik Sjostrom all scored goals in the win, while Chris Drury picked up an assist on each score.

Henrik Lundqvist stopped 25-of-26 shots in the win, which is only the Rangers second in their past 10 games.

Things haven't been going very well for the Vancouver Canucks and their newest addition Mats Sundin. After joining the team in early January, Sundin had a pretty rough start to his career on Canada's western shore. Through the first nine games, he had 3 points, was a -6, had 16 penalty minutes and, worst of all, the Canucks were 1-5-3 during that stretch. The team dropped to 11th in the conference prior to last night and out of playoff position. The free fall has created unrest within the team, fan base and the media, the latter of which has detailed how the sky is falling.

Last night, we may have seen a glimpse of what the Canucks hoped would happen when they signed the former free agent Sundin about a month ago.

Capitals 5, Devils 2: The Washington Capitals took advantage of their three power play chances on Tuesday night, converting on all of them on their way to a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils. Mike Green and Brooks Laich scored a pair of goals with the man advantage just three minutes apart in the first period, while Michael Nylander picked up his second goal of the game at the 10:59 mark of the third period.

Jose Theodore stopped 32-of-34 shots in net for Washington, including 16-of-17 in the third period. The loss for New Jersey snaps its eight game winning streak, despite receiving another goal another Jamie Langenbrunner, who has now picked up seven goals in his past four games.

As the Canucks pull into Anaheim tonight, the team is on the crest of a three-game winning streak, one that's being authored in part by a rather unlikely duo. I'm talking about Ryan Kesler and Alex Burrows, a pair of hard nosed forwards who have combined for 15 points in the last eight games as the Canucks have gone 4-2-2 and kept themselves inside the safety zone in the Western Conference playoff race.

Heretofore, Kesler was best known as a smooth skating prospect the Canucks had to overpay to keep thanks to Bobby Clarke, while Burrows was best known for staying in shape in the offseason thanks to plenty of ball hockey. But now, the emergence this season of both as players who can be responsible in their own end while still chipping in with some offense once in a while has given the Canucks an added boost while allowing them to save some money by shipping former uber-pest Matt Cooke to Washington rather than re-sign him.

The pair managed to shine the brightest in Vancouver's two most recent games, with Burrows striking for a goal and two assists against St. Louis on Saturday, while Kesler scored both the game-tying and game-winning goals in a 2-1 OT win over Los Angeles last night.

As a former first round pick, it wasn't entirely unexpected to see Kesler round into form. As for Burrows, a 26-year old bilingual native of Montreal, the route to a steady NHL job wasn't always as clear, with Vancouver head coach Alan Vigneault telling him as recently as the end of last season that if he didn't pick up his game, he might be starting the season in Manitoba:

"I told him at the exit meetings last year that if he didn't pick it up there was a chance he wasn't going to start with the Canucks. He did everything he could to come to camp in great shape."

Last season, Burrows had all of nine points for the Canucks. As of today, he's got 29, including 11 goals, with 13 games to play. And their teammates are noticing the difference, with the recently returned Brendan Morrison saying that the play of the pair has made all the difference now that the team's big guns are misfiring.

For more on the transformation of Burrows into an uber-pest, go visit the invaluable Orland Kurtenblog.