Saturday, April 29, 2023

The Leafs finally won a playoff round. Who cares? You should, and here’s why

It finally happened. The drought is over. After 19 agonizingly long years, the Toronto Maple Leafs have finally won a playoff round.

Great. Who cares?

Well, I do – maybe a little too much, as my neighbors can probably tell you. (Sorry guys, that baby will get back to sleep eventually.) Every Leaf fan does, and as you may be aware, there are a lot of us.

But what about everyone else?

After all, I know what some of you are saying: Wow, a team won one round of the playoffs. Newsflash, eight teams do that every year, and the rumor is that some teams have been known to win even more than that. Some keep winning until they get some sort of big silver trophy. (Note to self: Research what it’s called.) Every team in the league has won at least one round in the cap era, with the exception of two-year-old Seattle, and they might do it tomorrow.

So sure, the slowest kid in the class finally crossed the finish line after getting lapped by everyone else. Is this really a big deal?

Well… yeah. It does matter, for more than a few reasons. If you’re a Leaf fan, you shouldn’t be reading this – go do whatever it is you do to celebrate a big win. (Checks with a grandparent if you can’t remember.) If you’re one of those anti-Leaf weirdos, go cry in a comment section like you usually do. But if you’re truly neutral and want to know why this would matter, read on, because I’ve got five reasons for you.

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Thursday, April 27, 2023

The 2023 Old Guy Without a Cup rankings

It’s getting late in the first round. Do you know where your OGWAC is?

Probably at home, rubbing Ben Gay all over their body and making weird noises when they try to get out of a chair. That’s good. That’s what we want.

For those of you who are new to this, an OGWAC is that most cherished of playoff tropes: The Old Guy Without a Cup. He’s been around a while, or maybe forever, but despite some agonizing near-misses he’s never been able to get this ring. Now he’s running out of time, and it’s almost impossible not to cheer him on. And when an OGWAC does finally win, the Cup handoff is often epic.

Think Ray Bourque in 2001, which is basically the platonic ideal of an OGWAC story. There was also Teemu Selanne in 2007, and Lanny McDonald in 1989. Last year, Erik Johnson got the first handoff from Gabriel Landeskog after 14 seasons and over a decade in Colorado. It was pretty great.

Every year, I like to check in on the OGWACs. We’ll do this as a ranking, but this is really about celebrating each guy.

The rules: We consider a guy “old” if he’s been in the league for a decade or more and is at least 33 by the time the final ends, but the older the better. Ideally we want players on legitimate contenders, since they have a better chance of winning. We also prefer guys that are healthy and playing a regular role, since an OGWAC in a suit is always just kind of a bummer. And we give bonus points for near-misses, overcoming adversity, and just generally being an easy-to-root-for story.

It's been a tough year for the OGWAC community, as we had to say goodbye to our patron saint, Joe Thornton. His exit from the league after 24 seasons was a reminder that there’s no guarantee of a happy ending on these stories, which should make the chase all the more poignant for those that remain. Let’s count down a top 20.

20. Brad Hunt, Avalanche

We always want to cover as many teams as possible, so we’ll find room for Hunt, our only option on an Avalanche team where almost everyone else has rings from last year. The 34-year-old Hunt doesn’t, so he should be hungry when he gets into the lineup. If he does.

19. Jaroslav Halak, Rangers

I never really know what to do with goalies, let alone backup goalies. If you’re not a Rangers fan, it’s possible you’re just now finding out who their backup even is, and it’s hard to imagine a scenario where they win the Cup without Igor Shesterkin playing just about every minutes. Still, Halak is in his 17th season, and he gave the team 24 starts this year, so it’s not like he’s riding coattails. Now on his seventh team, he single-handedly dragged the Habs to the conference final in 2010 and was one game away from a ring with the Bruins in 2019, so he’s earned a spot on our list.

18. Brendan Smith, Devils

He’s 34, he’s in his 12th season, and is on his fourth team. Could you pick him out of a lineup? Maybe not, but he’s oldest guy on a very young team. He’s also a defensive defenseman who didn’t have a goal all year, and you know what team means: He’s scoring at some point this postseason. (Assuming he gets back into the lineup first.)

17. Wayne Simmonds, Maple Leafs

We haven’t seen Simmonds yet in the first round, and it’s possible we won’t at all. That hurts his case, but the 15-year veteran is still the sort of heart-and-soul guy that can turn into a great story if he manages to crack the lineup. And unlike most of the names on this list, it feels like this run might be it for the 34-year-old Simmonds, who’s on his sixth and maybe final team.

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The Athletic Hockey Show: Sweet 16

On this week's episode of The Athletic Hockey Show:
- We talk Leafs/Lightning heading into Game 5
- The Kraken push the Avs to the edge
- Granger on Jets/Knights
- The odds on all the 3-2 series
- History, listener mail, Swiss Chalet vs. St. Hubert, and more...

The Athletic Hockey Show runs most days of the week during the season, with Ian and I hosting every Thursday. There are two versions of each episode available:
- An ad-free version for subscribers that you can find here
- An ad-supported version you can get for free wherever you normally find your podcasts (like Apple or Spotify)




Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Puck Soup: Sean DOES NOT take a victory lap

On this week's episode of the Puck Soup podcast:
- Nothing but playoff talk
- We discuss all eight matchups
- Including the Leafs series
- Which is not over

>> Listen on The Athletic
>> Subscribe on iTunes
>> Listen on Spotify

>> Get weekly mailbags and special bonus episodes by supporting Puck Soup on Patreon for $5.




Remembering your team’s greatest playoff run (that didn’t end with a Stanley Cup)

It’s the playoffs, that wonderful time of year when 16 teams battle it out for the right to lift the Stanley Cup.

Spoiler alert: Most of them will fail. Fifteen of them, to be exact.

In fact, they’ll fail miserably. At least, that’s the narrative we’ve apparently all agreed on when it comes to the playoffs. One winner, and fifteen failures. The playoffs are all about winning the Stanley Cup, and it doesn’t matter how good your season was or even how much you win when you get to the playoffs. If you don’t win it all, you’ve failed, and you should be sad about that. We don’t do participation trophies in this sport, and we don’t celebrate losers. Only one team and one fan base gets to be happy.

Well, screw that. I hate this narrative. And sure, maybe it’s because I’m a Leafs fan and my team never wins anything. But it’s a miserable way to go through life as a sports fan, especially in an era with 32 teams. Welcome to NHL fandom, you have a 97% chance of being miserable at the end of every season, doesn’t that sound like fun?

Obviously, some teams are bad and some seasons really do end in crushing disappointment. Maybe even most of them. But at some point, too many of us lost sight of the fact that being a fan is supposed to be fun, and that means being allowed to enjoy and even celebrate seasons that don’t end in a championship.

So today, as we gear up for another night of postseason action, that’s what we’re going to do. Let’s go through all 32 teams and remember one playoff run that was legitimately fun, even if it didn’t end in a Stanley Cup championship. Bonus points if they only won a round or two. And we’re going to be relentlessly positive about it, which will admittedly be a change from my normal tone. I promise I’ll be back to complaining about how much I hate everything soon.

Until then, let’s remember some teams that didn’t win, but did win us over. As a bonus, if you think I picked the wrong year for your favorite team, hop into the comments and let me know which season was even better.

We’re all about the good times here. No rankings, no countdown, no alphabetical order, let’s just remember some playoff runs.

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Tuesday, April 25, 2023

The Leafs pull off a playoff miracle: An explainer for fans as confused as I am

On Monday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs were part of an epic postseason collapse. A desperate team, already trailing the series, held a three-goal lead midway through the third and was cruising to victory when it all fell apart in utterly stunning fashion. Bad breaks, shaky goaltending, and dumb penalties all combined to open the door, and the result was one of the most heartbreaking losses in recent memory.

So far, no surprises. But here’s the twist: The Leafs won.

I know. I am also completely confused.

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Saturday, April 22, 2023

The Oilers-Kings overtime reminds us how the replay system isn’t getting it right

Friday night’s Game 3 between the Kings and Oilers ended in controversy, although for a while we couldn’t figure out why.

That was probably the first sign that things are screwed up. Three minutes into sudden death overtime, L.A.’s Trevor Moore snuck a puck past Stuart Skinner to win the game and give the underdog Kings a 2-1 series lead. The crowd went crazy, the Kings players poured off the bench, and fans around the continent got ready for bed.

And then, as tends to be the case in the NHL these days, came the review. For what? At first, nobody was sure. Eventually somebody figured out that the officials were looking to see if L.A. forward Gabriel Vilardi had deflected the puck with a high stick earlier in the shift. If he had, and the replay could conclusively confirm that, the goal would be waved off as a “missed stoppage”, a scenario that was added to the review process in 2019.

So we waited. And waited. And eventually the ruling came down that the goal would count, and we got a second, more muted celebration. Now the Oilers are complaining, their fans are furious, and everyone is arguing over video that’s completely obvious one way or the other depending on what team you cheer for.

Why? Why are we doing this?

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Thursday, April 20, 2023

The Athletic Hockey Show: When goalie swaps go bad

On this week's episode of The Athletic Hockey Show:
- Thoughts on Leafs/Lightning Game 1
- Dean Evason's weird goaltending decision
- Sens fans are mad at Ian for his column this week
- Granger on Jets/Knights
- Some very weird history about the helmet rule
- Listener mail and more...

The Athletic Hockey Show runs most days of the week during the season, with Ian and I hosting every Thursday. There are two versions of each episode available:
- An ad-free version for subscribers that you can find here
- An ad-supported version you can get for free wherever you normally find your podcasts (like Apple or Spotify)




The 2023 pressure rankings for all the playoff teams (that aren’t the Leafs)

With the playoffs underway, it’s that wonderful time of year when the pressure is at its very highest and every moment matters. But some teams are facing more pressure than others, so it’s time for our annual attempt to figure out which team is under the most.

Except… well, we all know, right?

It’s the Leafs. If there was any doubt, it was erased by Tuesday’s Game 1 debacle that has the entire fan base scrambling for torches and pitchforks. The Leafs haven’t won a series in forever, haven’t won a Cup in an even longer forever, have a longer streak of winner-takes-all losses than any team in sports history, and are facing a team they could beat but maybe can’t. If they win, they’re heroes who’ve been redeemed. If they lose, everyone who has ever worked for the team is getting fired, Auston Matthews is going to Arizona, Mitch Marner is going to prison and John Tavares will have a facial expression.

You’re sick of hearing about the pressure in Toronto. I get it. Every other fan base is sick of being told that the Leafs are the most interesting team in the world. But through this specific and particular lens, there really isn’t any argument, and it would feel silly to go through this whole exercise while pretending that there’s some sort of suspense here.

So we won't. Instead, today’s list is a pressure ranking of the 15 teams that aren’t the Leafs.

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Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Puck Soup: It's only one game

On this week's episode of the Puck Soup podcast:
- Eight series have started and I enjoy talking about seven of them
- We spend an hour running down pretty much everything from all the Game 1s
- A bunch of coach and GM firings
- The draft lottery odds
- And more...

>> Listen on The Athletic
>> Subscribe on iTunes
>> Listen on Spotify

>> Get weekly mailbags and special bonus episodes by supporting Puck Soup on Patreon for $5.




Tuesday, April 18, 2023

The Leafs will rebound from Game 1 disaster, or they’ll deserve what comes next

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

It’s the playoffs, the Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t show up on time, they briefly got going with an offensive outburst, and then came the shaky calls and the stupid penalties and the non-existent big save when it was needed most. Now they’re embarrassed, in disarray and looking over their shoulders at ghosts.

Yeah, I’ll stop. You've heard it all. It’s the same old story.

The difference here is the timing. For all of the Leafs’ recent history of playoff misery, they’ve generally saved their worst for last. They look OK over the first few games, sometimes a lot better than OK, but then it all heads downhill as the series goes on. This year, they didn't waste any time.

Depending on your perspective, that could be a very bad sign. It could also be a sign that the script has already flipped. This team had better hope so.

If they needed a wakeup call, they got one on Tuesday night. It’s hard to figure how they possibly could have needed one, given that they’ve waited a year to get back to the only hockey that matters. They’ve known they’d get a rematch with the Lightning for months. They’ve known they’d have home ice for weeks. And they all know what’s at stake, for the players and the coaches and the entire organization. This time, for once, at least you knew that they’d be ready to go. Only then the puck dropped, and they absolutely weren’t.

So fine, they needed the wakeup. Now, they’d better be awake. Because there are two ways this could go.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

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The bandwagon-hopper’s guide to the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs

The playoffs are here, and if your team made it then you know what to do. (Hyperventilate, vomit sporadically, hate your life.)

But what if your team didn’t make it? You have several options. You could sit back and watch as a neutral observer. You could pick a few rivals to spite-watch. You could check out completely until the draft lottery.

Or you could go the dreaded bandwagon route. It’s a controversial path, one that some hockey fans will swear is forbidden. But the truth is that it’s just more fun to watch the playoffs with a rooting interest, even if it’s a flimsy one that you won’t hesitate to abandon as soon as the final horn sounds on that fourth loss. Your team was bad this season, you endured it all, and now the games really matter and you deserve to have a quick fling, you know?

If so, you want to choose wisely. You want a team that’s good enough to win, but not so good that you look like a front-runner. You want fun characters, good stories, an OGWAC or two, and ideally not too many players you’ll feel dirty for rooting for.

I’m here to help. It’s time for my annual bandwagon-hopper’s guide to the 16 playoff teams.


16. Colorado Avalanche

Why you should get on board: Because you don’t care about being called a front-runner. The Avs are one of the most exciting and entertaining teams in the league, and we all deserve nice things. Screw what people say, you’re taking the defending champs.

Why you shouldn't: You should care about being called a front-runner, because they’re the worst.

Bottom line: Picking the reigning champs as the worst possible bandwagon team is a bit of a cliché and I don’t do it every year, but this year you can get all the skill and potential from a team whose fan base isn’t still hungover from the parade.

15. Florida Panthers

Why you should get on board: They don’t have Joe Thornton or Claude Giroux anymore, but otherwise just about all the things still apply from last year when we anointed them the easy pick as the best bandwagon team in the league. The fan base has been through a ton, the team is talented and fun to watch, and they’re the classic little brother that keeps getting picked on by the more successful sibling. And unlike last year, you can’t even be accused of front-running, because the 2022 Presidents’ Trophy winners had to scrape into the playoffs with a hot second half.

It's just about perfect. What could go wrong?

Why you shouldn't: They’re going to absolutely get their doors blown off by the Bruins. Like, it’s going to be ugly. This series might be over in three games.

Bottom line: I can’t in good conscience recommend the Panthers this year given their matchup, even as I can still see the appeal. I wouldn’t have the guts, but if you do, I respect it.

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Monday, April 17, 2023

Weekend rankings: A season-ending Top 16, plus Gold Plan standings and more

We made it. After 82 games and 26 weeks’ worth of rankings, we’ve hit the only part of the NHL season that actually matters. The playoffs are here. Half the league is already miserable, and now we find out which 15 of the remaining 16 teams get to join them.

But first, one last weekend ranking. This one comes with a few twists, and we’ll get to those in a minute. It also comes with one last bonus top five, in which I’ll make a few extra predictions, just to make sure my playoff picks are extra wrong.

Top five overly specific bonus predictions

5. The Kings shut out the Oilers in Game 1 – One of those fun playoff tropes is the heavy favorite that everyone loves who lays an egg in the opener, leading to waves of panic and over-analysis. It almost feels too obvious to pick the Hurricanes for that spot given the Ilya Sorokin factor, so let’s go with Edmonton.

4. We’re getting triple-overtime in the Kraken/Avs series – Nobody seems to think the Kraken can win, but that doesn’t mean they won’t make it interesting.

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Friday, April 14, 2023

Who tanked best? Ranking the NHL’s 11 worst teams in the race for Connor Bedard

The great Connor Bedard tank-off of 2022-23 finally ends tonight. Who did it best?

On one level, the answer is obvious: Anaheim, who clinched 32nd place with their loss last night. Easy.

On another level, the answer is that we don’t know yet. After all, the lottery isn’t until May 8. Anaheim may have 32nd place, but we don’t know if that will be the magic spot that means they get Bedard. The season tells us who gets the best odds, but the lottery tells us who actually wins. Until then, the question doesn’t have an answer.

I think there’s a third option, and that’s that we can’t get too caught up in the results. In sports, and especially the NHL, randomness rules. Just like the best team doesn’t always win the Stanley Cup, the best tanker doesn’t always win the top pick. We can still try to figure out who did the best job of tanking, even if it didn’t pay off at the end. Bust the process, so to speak.

So today, let’s go through the 11 teams with the worst records in the league, and see if we can come up with an objective way to rank them based on how blatantly and effectively they managed to tank. We’ll do that using five categories:

Offseason moves: The key to any truly great tank is starting early. How much of the deck did the team clear before the season even began?

Opening night expectations: If everyone thinks you’re going to be good in October, you’re probably not tanking.

Goaltending situation: When it comes to tanking, goaltending is always the most important position. You want it to be bad, and then you want to make sure you don’t do anything to make it better.

Coach factor: Coaches don’t tank, but let’s just say you don’t want Scotty Bowman back there when you’re trying to finish last.

Deadline selloff: If you’ve done it right, your season should be spiralling the drain by February. That’s when it’s time to finish the job with an aggressive deadline clearance sale.

We’ll mark each of those out of 10, mix in a few bonus points where needed, and come up with a final score. We’re counting down from tenth to first, and unlike the 82 games your team just played, you actually want to win.


11. Philadelphia Flyers

Wait, if you finish last on this list, does that mean you tanked at tanking?

Offseason moves: 4/10. Quiet, apart from what they thought was an upgrade in Tony DeAngelo.

Opening night expectations: 8/10. Most of us figured they’d be bad, although not necessarily bad enough to compete for top lottery odds. (Checks standings.) Nailed it.

Goaltending situation: 3/10. With Carter Hart coming off a solid rebound season, the Flyers seemed as set as any team on this list.

Coach factor: 2/10. They went out and hired John Tortorella, a coach who specialized in squeezing the most out of a roster (included loser points). Purely in terms of a tanking opportunity, that didn’t seem ideal.

Deadline selloff: 0/10. Help me out here, when your GM does next to nothing at the deadline and then gets fired a few days later, is that bad?

Bonus points: +2 for new management which may finally see the writing on the wall, although it really came too late for this season.

Total score: 19/50. The Flyers are a bad team that should have been even worse, making them the current poster child for a franchise spinning its wheels.

10. St. Louis Blues

I considered not even including the Blues, but their record says they should be here.

Offseason moves: 5/10. They moved Ville Husso and lost David Perron, but that felt more like roster/cap management than an attempt at getting worse.

Opening night expectations: 2/10. Coming off a 109-point season, we thought they were at least a playoff team.

Goaltending situation: 3/10. Jordan Binnington wasn’t great, but with his contract and Cup ring it’s not like they were ever going to make a change.

Coach factor: 3/10. Craig Berube’s seat is probably getting warm but you never figured he was in any immediate danger.

Deadline selloff: 9/10. Here’s where we can finally find some points, as they moved Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly (and got both deals done a few weeks early).

Bonus points: -1 for going a combined 11-1-0 against the Ducks, Blue Jackets, Blackhawks and Sharks. Just no sense of the moment, you know?

Total score: 21/50. This wasn’t a tank, it was a season where everything went wrong.

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Thursday, April 13, 2023

The Athletic Hockey Show: Sweet 16

On this week's episode of The Athletic Hockey Show:
- We know the playoff teams, but that's about it
- The Hawks move on from Jonathan Toews
- Some weird playoff stats about President Trophy winners, the Leafs and more
- Is this is for Crosby and Ovechkin in the playoffs?
- Who was the most misleadingly named NHL player ever?
- Listener mail, this week in history and more...

The Athletic Hockey Show runs most days of the week during the season, with Ian and I hosting every Thursday. There are two versions of each episode available:
- An ad-free version for subscribers that you can find here
- An ad-supported version you can get for free wherever you normally find your podcasts (like Apple or Spotify)




Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Puck Soup: Down to the wire

On this week's episode of the Puck Soup podcast:
- We discuss what's left of the playoff races
- Bo Horvat slams the Canucks
- Chris Wideman and the Habs gets their feelings hurt
- The Leafs' part-time goalies and other cap shenanigans
- Why my lottery replacement idea is so great
- OGWACs, Bruins, awards and more...

>> Listen on The Athletic
>> Subscribe on iTunes
>> Listen on Spotify

>> Get weekly mailbags and special bonus episodes by supporting Puck Soup on Patreon for $5.




The 10 types of Maple Leafs fans as we head into the playoffs

Happy Wednesday, Toronto Maple Leafs fans. One week from now, you will be miserable.

OK, if you’re a Leafs fan, there’s a good chance you’re already miserable. You probably have been for the last few years, and maybe your whole life. It’s kind of our thing.

But a week from now, you’ll be a special kind of miserable, because the playoffs will have started. Maybe the Leafs will have won Game 1, or maybe things will already be falling apart. It won’t matter much, because we’ll be on the way to another gut-wrenching seven-game odyssey where failure is absolutely not an option. And this time, we mean it.

Sounds fun, right? It will be fun. But it will be different kinds of fun for different fans, so let’s take our last remaining days of semi-tranquility to get organized. Here are 10 different types of Maple Leafs fans when the playoffs arrive; use the list to figure out which one you are, prepare for the ones you might encounter in the weeks to come.


The Mandatory Optimist

The fan: Let’s start with a category that will cover a big chunk of any fan base. These are the true believers, who’ve picked the Maple Leafs to win the Cup since the start of this season, and last season, and the season before. You think this is the year because you’re a fan, and that’s what fans are supposed to think.

In fact, you don’t even get the premise of this post. Who cares what kind of Maple Leafs fans there might be? There are only two categories that matter: The type who believes, and everyone else who doesn't. And that second group can go screw.

After all, what are we even doing here if we don’t think our team is going to win? This is sports. We’re not supposed to be rational. You don’t sit there with a little spreadsheet and an abacus and calculate your favorite team’s odds of winning. You believe in this team, with all your sports fan heart. Anyone who doesn’t is a fake fan and you despise them.

Signs this might be you: You own an Ilya Samsonov jersey that used to be a Freddie Andersen jersey that used to be a Jonas Gustavsson jersey. You have unironically tweeted about having “THE PASSION”. You have dozens of holes punched in your wall and can name the exact season and circumstances around each one.

You are loved by: The MLSE accounting department.

You are hated by: All the other Leaf fans who get grouped in with you when other fan bases talk about how annoying we are.

The Circumstantial Optimist

The fan: You reject the premise of that first group, because you have no problem being pessimistic when it’s warranted. And there have been times when it was with this group, even for parts of this season. But now we’re at the end, the Leafs are about to face a worn-down Tampa team that hasn’t looked scary in a while, and you just feel like this might be the year.

Sure, we all know the story around this team, and how they’ll always choke in the end. You just don’t buy it. They’re better than the Lightning, they have home ice, and they would have won last year if one more call or bounce had gone their way. Nothing’s guaranteed, obviously. But they should beat Tampa, and once they’ve slayed the first-round dragon, who knows?

Signs this might be you: You’ve memorized the top of the expected goals ranking. At least once a day, you find yourself randomly muttering “Tanner Jeannot? Really?” and then laughing. You are Dom.

You are loved by: Other Leaf fans, who desperately want you to talk them into this optimism thing.

You are hated by: Crusty sportswriters who need you to buy into their narrative, dammit.

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Monday, April 10, 2023

Weekend rankings: Everything that’s still on the line in the season’s final week

One week to go. How are we all holding up? Feeling sick to your stomach from stress yet, fans in Pittsburgh, Winnipeg and Florida? You ready for this to finally be over, Chicago? Are any of you still paying attention, Bruins fans?

Everyone’s got two or three games this week, with almost everyone hitting the finish line on a 15-game Thursday finale. And as always, there’s still plenty to play for. Let’s get you caught up.

Top five questions left to answer this week

1. The wildcard spots – This is the big one, and you probably know the details by now. It’s the Panthers, Islanders and Penguins fighting for two spots in the East, and the Jets trying to hold off the Flames and Predators in the West. Winnipeg is solidly in control there after beating the Predators on Saturday and then seeing the Flames only get a point in Vancouver; the Jets could have this all but wrapped up tonight if things break right.

The Eastern race will probably go right down to the wire; the Penguins are the team on the outside right now, back a point and also giving up the tie-breaker, but also with the easiest schedule. (The Sabres are technically still alive too, but… hey, they were fun, weren’t they folks?)

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Friday, April 7, 2023

An idea for determing the draft order that’s so ridiculous it might be brilliant

One of the things I like to do in my columns is to occasionally throw a new idea out into the world. Helpful suggestions, if you will. Sometimes, it’s because I really think I have a genuinely better way of doing things. Other times, I’m trying to make a larger point.

Not today. I’m under no illusions that today’s suggestion would ever happen, because I acknowledge that on a certain level, it’s just dumb. It has zero chance of becoming reality, and even writing about it is a total waste of my time and yours.

Also, it’s completely brilliant. Stay with me.

While I wish I could claim all the credit here, that honor goes to reader Drew, who sent me an outline of the idea. It’s a topic that’s I’ve railed about before: The draft order, how best to determine it, and the related issues of tanking and fan bases checking out on the season. As it stands now, we encourage bad teams to lose as much as possible, assign some odds based on the final standings, and then let a barrel full of ping pong balls sort it out. Surely, there has to be a better way.

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Thursday, April 6, 2023

The Athletic Hockey Show: Welcome, Mats

On this week's episode of The Athletic Hockey Show:
- What if Mats Sundin joins the Senators?
- The playoff races head down the stretch
- Has this year been an argument for or against a play-in round?
- Are the NHL awards already settled?
- Granger has some fun playoff prop bets
- Who has the record for worst +/- in a win?
- New goalie skate tech, the wildest final day in NHL history and lots more...

The Athletic Hockey Show runs most days of the week during the season, with Ian and I hosting every Thursday. There are two versions of each episode available:
- An ad-free version for subscribers that you can find here
- An ad-supported version you can get for free wherever you normally find your podcasts (like Apple or Spotify)




No more offsides? Uncontested faceoffs? The end of EBUGs? Rules Court returns

Welcome back to Rules Court, where you submit your ideas for NHL rule changes and three of us (Sean McIndoe, Ian Mendes and Sean Gentille ) vote on them. Everything is up for discussion – on the ice or off, big or small, ideas that feels realistic and others that very much don’t. You make your case, and then the three of us reach a verdict. Convince at least two of us, and your rule is passed.

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Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Puck Soup: Doused Flames

On this week's episode of the Puck Soup podcast:
- On the eve of the biggest game of the season, the Flames wet the bed
- The races: Western wildcard, Eastern wildcard, and top lottery odds
- Won't somebody please think of the Michael Bunting?
- One sportsbook says all the awards are already locked up
- Steven Stamkos and Kris Letang hit the 1,000-game mark
- Wrestlemania and more...

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Monday, April 3, 2023

As the fighting era fades, is it worth asking what the NHL has lost?

When we talk about the transformation that NHL hockey has undergone over the last few decades, we’ll often frame it in terms of what we’ve gained. Now that the sport has largely rid itself of the violence and bare-knuckle brawling that used to define it, the game has added skill and speed. Depending on who you ask, we’ve probably added fans. We’ve certainly added plenty of new teams, and new markets, and the bottom line looks a lot better now than it did back then.

And maybe, just maybe, hockey has added credibility, rehabbing its own reputation and how it’s viewed by the wider sports world. The NHL is a league you no longer have to feel embarrassed to love, the way you sometimes had to back in the day.

OK, sure. But let’s flip it around: What have we lost?

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Weekend rankings: Leafs vs. Lightning preview, key games this week and more

Two weeks. That’s all we’ve got left, and if you’re like me, the finish line suddenly appearing at this time of year is always a bit jarring. The NHL season tends to unfold with predictable beats – the excitement of opening night, the “it’s still early” vibe of the first month or two, the depressing December realization that there’s still four months to go, the weeks of deadline hype, and then a stretch run that seems way too long right up until it isn’t. That’s where we’re at now. It’s April, do you know where your favorite team is?

Maybe not, as there are still a few teams with plenty to play for. And that means it’s worth looking ahead and the biggest games on this week’s schedule.

It’s a bit of a weird one, especially later in the week. We get 14 games on Thursday, an unusually busy slate for a weeknight. On Friday, nothing at all – not even a single game. And then on Saturday we’re all in, with all 32 teams in action over the course of about 13 hours, starting at 12:30 ET. If you save room for dessert, there’s two games on Sunday, although neither of them are any good.

So sure, make alternate plans on Friday and Sunday. But the rest of the week is busy, and packed with important matchups. So many, in fact, that it wasn’t easy to narrow the list down to five. Here’s what to watch for over the coming days.

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