Second Round Dud

Well it would have been difficult to match the exciting first round that we had this year but so far the second round has been unmemorable to say the least. Although there have been 6 overtime games so far in the second round, we were not given a magical game yet or a classic finish. True, Setoguchi's hattrick and overtime winner was so far the best moment of the second round. But the problem this time is that none of these series are as good as they could have been.
Philly against Boston, you'd expect a fast paced, physical series with a lot of big hits. But Boston has dominated the Flyers who have appeared flat footed and slow throughout the series. Boston leads the series 3 games to none (similar to last year) and Philly seems like they'll go quietly in game 4 also in the garden.
San Jose' against Detroit you'd expect a series with great hockey involved but Detroit hasn't done their part and seem too slow and not good enough against the Sharks. Their best just doesn't match the Sharks best and they aren't able to win the games by the end and fold up when the game's on the line. San Jose' is also up 3 games to none and if Detroit wants to make this a series, then they'd have to have a complete turnaround going into game 4 in Detroit.
Canucks against Nashville was the series where people expected Vancouver to dominate but they most likely expected more from Nashville. The lack of pressure on Luongo has been their downfall in many games. They owe their 1 win so far in the series to the performance of their all-star net minder Pekka Rinne in the game 2 double overtime winner. Vancouver now leads the series 3-1 with game 5 being in Vancouver. Hockey fans are hoping desperately for the Predators to turn their offensive game around and turn this into a series.
Capitals against Tampa Bay you'd expect a high scoring series with all the superpower involved. But Washington's stars came up empty this series (besides for Ovechkin) and were stoned time and time again by Roly the goalie. Tampa DID show up and easily took the series in 4 games.

With the help of Tom Gulitti, we have some interesting stats about this humdrum second round. If San Jose' and Boston win their game 4's and Vancouver wins their game 5, then the second round would total 17 days in length, 1 more than the minimum of 16 days. This will be the quickest second round since 1995. That year, Philadelphia swept the Rangers, Detroit swept the Sharks, and Chicago swept Vancouver while New Jersey beat the Penguins in 5 games. That year's second round also lasted for 17 days. Also, that 1995 season was the last time that there were 3 sweeps in a second round. That could happen this year as well with wins from the Bruins and the Sharks.