Silver Nuggets: Round two starts tonight; Lehner looks to remain unbeaten

The first round of the NHL playoffs finally finished last night and what a round it was. Four of the eight series went to seven games. Of the other four series, San Jose won three games in overtime, Washington won twice in overtime, and Nashville was seconds away from losing game five and trailing 3-2. The only team that won without any problems were the Detroit Red Wings. The second round will start tonight with the Nashville Predators visiting the Vancouver Canucks. If you want to make second round predictions, make them here.

Senators draft pick news

• If Nashville loses to Vancouver, the Senators will receive the 21st pick in the first round in 2011 and a 3rd round pick in 2012. If Nashville beats Vancouver, the Senators will receive between 27th and 30th in the first round in 2011 and a 2nd round pick in 2012.
• With Montreal's loss, the Ottawa Senators are guaranteed to have the 48th overall pick (Chicago's 2nd rounder) in the 2011 draft. Well technically, Chicago could still give us Atlanta's or Calgary's pick, but I am assuming they will give us the lowest one.
• If Boston is to beat Philadelphia, our additional 2nd round pick will be between 57th and 60th. If Philadelphia should prevail, the Boston pick will be either 53rd (if both Vancouver and Washington lose), 54th (if one of Vancouver or Washington lose) or 55th (if both Vancouver and Washington win).
• With Pittsburgh's loss, the Alex Kovalev trade is now officially Alex Kovalev for a 7th round pick.
• The 6th round pick for Jarkko Ruutu will be 20th in the 6th round and 171st overall. (There are 31 picks in the 2nd round due to a compensatory pick).
• In addition to the above, the Senators have all of their own picks from rounds one to seven.

General Sens News

• The Binghamton Senators won game one of their second round series last night. Here is a recap. (Press & Sun-Bulletin)
• Marc-Andre Gragnani will not return to the Portland Pirates and will instead play for Canada at the IIHF World Championships. (Joy Lindsay)
• Mike Fisher sees similarities between this year's Nashville Predators and the 2007 Ottawa Senators. I personally don't see it, the 2007 Senators had three guys with 87 points or more. Nashville's top scorer had 50 points this season. (Citizen)

More after the jump.

General Hockey News

There is one second round game tonight, plus Binghamton plays too. Robin Lehner is 4-0 in the playoffs so far and looks to improve to 5-0 tonight.

• 5) Nashville Predators at 1) Vancouver Canucks (9:00 p.m. on CBC, series tied 0-0)
• 3) Binghamton Senators at 1) Portland Pirates (7:00 p.m. on Team 1200, Binghamton leads 1-0)

Here are some other links:

• Canucks/Predators preview from each team's point of view. (Nucks Misconduct, On The Forecheck)
• Corey Perry, Martin St. Louis and Daniel Sedin are the finalists for the Hart Trophy. (NHL.com)
• Due to helmeted police in riot gear, officers on horseback, police dogs and a police helicopter, the Montreal Canadiens fans managed to not riot like the boorish thugs that they usually are. (Globe and Mail)
• Here is a look at what ESPN was reportedly offering the NHL for its new television deal. The ESPN offer would have included every playoff game on national television, which you have to say, would be great exposure for the NHL. Still, the NHL did pretty well with the NBC deal. (Yahoo!)