FanHouse B.J. Crombeen

The St. Louis Blues have had a wonderful run this season. Just making the playoffs was an awesome achievement, and they should be very proud of themselves, no matter what happens from here. None of this is about trying to throw a bucket of cold water on a fine young team.

Reality, however, is about to set in. The Blues youthful exuberance on offense has been absolutely no match for the Vancouver Canucks disciplined defensive work in the first two games of their Western Conference quarterfinal series. In almost a carbon copy of Wednesday night's opener, Vancouver beat St. Louis 3-0 in Game Two Friday at GM Place in Vancouver.

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Blues 2, Rangers 1: A day after getting crushed on their home ice, the New York Rangers dropped a 2-1 decision in St. Louis, losing for the eighth time in their past nine games.

At this point, it's anybody's guess as to how long Tom Renney remains behind the bench, as the Rangers continue to slide down the Eastern Conference standings.

I think it would be fair to say that Steven Stamkos, the No. 1 overall pick in this year's NHL Entry Draft, has been somewhat of a disappointment for the Tampa Bay Lightning during his rookie season.

After Lightning management hyped the stuffing out of him before he was even a member of the organization, the 18-year-old has registered just four goals and 10 assists through his first 40 games. Probably not what Oren Koules and Len Barrie had in mind when they plastered his name all over billboards this summer.

What happens when the best team in the Eastern Conference hosts the worst team in the league? Well, you might expect a blowout, and for 40 minutes, that's exactly what you received. The Bruins scored three goals in the first ten minutes on Monday night and had to hold off a third period rally from Tampa Bay, before skating away with a 5-3 win.

Milan Lucic, Phil Kessel and Michael Ryder opened the scoring for the Bruins in the first, while Zdeno Chara added his fifth goal of the season in the second to help stake Boston to a commanding 4-1 lead.

Tampa Bay outshot the Bruins by a 15-4 margin in the third period, and picked up a pair of goals from Vincent Lecavalier and Paul Szczechura (his first career goal) before P.J. Axelson added an empty-netter to seal the win.

For the Bruins, it's their fifth consecutive win, and their 14th in the past 16 games. Actually, since starting the season 2-2-3, Boston has gone 17-2-1, which is just simply ridiculous. Tampa Bay, on the other hand, is the exact opposite, as the Lightning have been downright awful, losing eight in a row, and 15 of their past 17.

It's only a matter of time until they continue to shuffle the deck chairs.