Playoff Power Players

If not for Todd Bertuzzi's leg, Johan Franzen would have tied the NHL record with five goals in a playoff game tonight. Still, he managed to notch a hat-trick and four points in the first period. His three goals over a 3 minute and 26 second span falls two seconds short of the record for fastest playoff hat-trick. On April 15, 1985 Philadelphia Flyer Tim Kerr scored three in 3:24 of the second period. He would tally one more that period to set the record with four in one period. Mario Lemieux would equal him on April 25, 1989 against those same Flyers.

Chicago's Brent Seabrook is somewhat quietly having a fantastic playoff career. Among defensemen that have played at least 25 career playoff matches, Seabrook ranks fifteenth all-time in points per game. In 26 career games he has 19 points for an average of 0.73 per game. This number is higher than such stars as Niklas Lidstrom, Larry Murphy, Pierre Pilote, Sergei Gonchar and Mike Green of the Capitals. What makes Seabrook`s scoring rate even more impressive is the fact that over his regular season career he has averaged only 0.37 Pts per game. He doubles his point production in the post season, impressive indeed.

The leaders among defensemen are no surprise. Bobby Orr leads far and away with 92 pts in 74 playoff games for an average of 1.24 (he is actually ninth among ALL players), Brian Leetch is second with 1.02 and Paul Coffey holds third place with 1.01. The top ten is rounded out by Paul Reinhart, Al MacInnis, Denis Potvin, Ray Bourque, Doug Wilson, Ian Turnbull and Brad Park.


Miro Satan is leading the Bruins in playoff scoring with 10 points in 9 games, this after scoring only 14 points in 38 regular season games. Quite an amazing resurgence considering he hasn`t been even close to a point per game in the regular season since 2002-03.






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