The Pittsburgh Penguins are Stanley Cup champions. After a challenging season and a long and winding road through the playoffs, the team and its fans deserve nothing more than the opportunity to take a moment to savour the magnitude of the accomplishment.
OK, that’ll do. We said a moment. Don’t get greedy here, Pittsburgh, the rest of us have an offseason to get to.
Nobody gets to rest on their laurels for long in the hockey world, so before all those Penguins-inspired hangovers have even faded, it’s time to start figuring out whether they can do it again. There hasn’t been a repeat Cup champion since the 1997 and 1998 Red Wings, so the odds seem slim. But the Penguins pulled it off in 1991 and 1992, and appeared in back-to-back finals less than a decade ago. Can they pull it off next year?
Spoiler alert: Maybe.
Here are five reasons why the Penguins really could repeat, and five more why they probably won't.
Why they could: They core should remain intact
Change is inevitable in the NHL, and every team adds and subtracts over the course of an offseason. The Penguins will be no exception, and next year's opening night roster won't look the same as the one that skated the Cup around the ice on Sunday.
But it won't look all that different because, in terms of the core, the Penguins have all the key pieces locked in. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Phil Kessel are all on long-term deals. So is Marc-Andre Fleury, and Matt Murray is under team control for years to come. And while some of those players are getting up there, none are so old that you'd expect a major decline any time soon.
In fact, the Penguins already have a barely-full NHL roster signed to contracts for next year before the offseason even gets underway. True, the Penguins could always decide to shake things up with a trade or some other unexpected move. But if they don't want to, they won't need to.
We're used to seeing recent champs like the Chicago Blackhawks forced into rebuilding on the fly before they've even finished the parade cleanup, but that won't be the case in Pittsburgh. And that's going to mean that for all intents and purposes, they'll be able to defend their title with essentially the same team that just won it.
Why they won't: Depth could be an issue
One of the keys to the Penguins' championship was their impressive depth, a factor that allowed them to roll four lines and overcome some key injuries. For years, the knock on the Penguins was that they were top-heavy -- a team built around elite talent but lacking the supporting pieces to push it over the top. Jim Rutherford spent much of the last year addressing that issue with smart under-the-radar acquisitions, and it paid off.
While the big-name core is locked in, some of those depth pieces are unlikely to return. Matt Cullen and Ben Lovejoy are unrestricted free agents, and Justin Schultz is set to hit RFA status. None are what you'd call crucial pieces, but each played a role in the Penguins' run.
There's also not much in the way of reinforcements on the way from inside the organization; the Penguins prospect pipeline isn't strong, and cap pressure and the lack of a first round pick this year will make finding help on the trade market a challenge. Rutherford will have some work cut out for him.
After the disappointment of dropping Game 5 at home on Thursday, the Penguins went into San Jose last night and took care of business with a 3-1 win. That wraps up the fourth Stanley Cup in franchise history, and the second of the Sidney Crosby era.
And while the Sharks have nothing to hang their heads over after a deep playoff run that rewrote many of the narratives about the franchise's ability to win the big one, the Penguins left little questions about whether their win was deserved. They dominated long stretches of the series, showing off their impressive team speed while containing the Sharks' biggest weapons. In the third period last night, with a one-goal lead and the title on the line, the Penguins held a desperate Sharks team to just two shots on goal.
Sidney Crosby took home the Conn Smythe, a solid choice even if Phil Kessel might have been a slightly better one. Trevor Daley got the honor of receiving the first Cup handoff, in recognition of his first career championship and his mother's cancer battle. And San Jose fans buried Gary Bettman under a loud chorus of boos, passing the annual test and cementing their status as tried and true hockey fans.
Hi haters. Photo by Bruce Bennett/Pool Photo via USA TODAY Sports
It was an uneven series, one that was criticized early for being boring before picking up speed as it went on. Despite the presence of some of the game's biggest offensive stars, the two teams combined to average just 4.5 goals a game, further evidence of the Dead Puck Era's ongoing existence that the league will no doubt continue to ignore. But the games were close, with all six coming down to the final minutes, and even when the ice seemed titled it never felt like the Sharks were out of it.
But the Penguins deserved it, and in the end they got it done. We'll spend the next few days talking about legacies, Crosby's in particular—his trophy case is now edging into some very exclusive territory. Attention will also turn to both teams' windows, and whether either can expect to be back here next year and beyond. And then, after a few days to catch our breath, it's full speed into the offseason, with the buyout period starting on Wednesday.
It's possible that the Penguins will have sobered up by then, but here's hoping the party is still going strong. The best team won, and earned it.
Top Five
Celebrating those who've had the best week.
5. Martin Jones—The heroic losing goalie is one of the Cup final's most enduring tropes, so much so that they occasionally win the Conn Smythe. Jones didn't quite get to that level, but he was spectacular over the last two games with the Sharks facing elimination. That was especially true in Game 5, when he made 44 saves to almost single-handedly prolong the season.
He kept it up last night, including a ridiculous save off of Phil Kessel with five minutes left to keep the Sharks' hopes alive. His play was so strong that it apparently even caused some sort of mind wipe on a pair of Penguins forwards that we'll get to in a bit. His overall numbers weren't great, but fans tend to remember the most recent highlights, and Jones provided plenty of them.
In the end, it wasn't enough. But it was a strong run from a guy who went into the season facing questions about whether he was a full-time starter or simply a product of the Kings' system. He won't be hearing those again for a while.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have a chance to make history Thursday night as they host the San Jose Sharks with a 3-1 series lead and the Stanley Cup in the building.
The series isn’t over yet, but a Pittsburgh win wouldn’t be a surprise given how things have played out. The Penguins have looked faster and have outshot the Sharks in every game, and have yet to play so much as a second while trailing. For a matchup that most figured would be close, the Penguins have had a surprisingly easy time of things.
One group that won’t be having an easy time: Conn Smythe voters. With perhaps just one game left to play in the post-season, a clear frontrunner has yet to emerge. Instead, we’ve got a handful of candidates, some with stronger cases than others.
Assuming the Penguins can finish things off at some point over the next three games, it’s going to make for a tough vote. [Note to editors: Delete this entire post after the Sharks’ Game 7 win.]
In the hours leading up to Game 5, let's try to help out those voters with a look at the options. We'll do this one candidate at a time, starting with the biggest name of the bunch.
Candidate #1: Sidney Crosby
The case for: He's Sidney Crosby. He's the Penguins' identity, their best player, and the focus of everything they do. Opponents game plan around him, he always faces the toughest competition, he plays in all situations and he gets the most ice time of any forward by a decent margin. If the Penguins are winning, there's a good chance Crosby is a big part of the reason.
On top of that, he's had decent numbers so far, with six goals and 17 points in 22 games. That's not quite the level of production we're used to from Crosby, but it's close. And given everything else he brings to the table it's more than enough to get him into the Conn Smythe conversation.
The case against: His post-season numbers may be somewhat deceptive; he lit it up in the Penguins' relatively easy opening-round win over the New York Rangers but only has three goals and nine points in 17 games since. He had three multi-point games in that series, but only one in the other three rounds combined. And it was only one series ago that he was being roundly criticized in the Pittsburgh media for not doing enough.
Maybe more importantly, he's been quiet so far in the Cup Final, limited to just two assists so far. A lackluster final doesn't rule a candidate out – the Conn Smythe is for the MVP of the entire post-season, not just one series, and Jonathan Toews won it in 2010 despite being held to just three assists in the final. But in a close race, voters may prefer somebody who's had a more obvious impact against the Sharks.
Bottom line: Crosby hasn't put up eye-popping numbers, but he's shown up at big moments — including an OT winner against the Tampa Bay Lightning and that faceoff-win assist on another OT goal in Game 2 against the Sharks.
Is that enough?
In the eyes of some, it apparently is. And in a tight race, he'll be a tempting choice for voters looking for a safe option – nobody's going to scream too loudly if Crosby's the pick.
So the case for Crosby is strong. Let's pencil him in for now, but see how some of other candidates measure up.
Facing the prospect of falling behind 3-0 in the Stanley Cup Final, the Sharks rallied back to win Saturday's Game 3 in overtime. As per hockey bylaws, we are now legally obligated to inform you that we have ourselves a series.
And that's good news; given the quality of the teams involved and the roads they've travelled to get here, you'd hate to have seen this series over early. And it almost certainly would have been over with a Penguins win. With apologies to Sharks fans having flashbacks to that series, a 3-0 deficit would have been game over—nobody is beating these Penguins in four straight games with the Cup in the building.
So that overtime really did feel like sudden death for the Sharks. And they'll live to fight another day thanks to Joonas Donskoi's winner, called here in typically understated tones by the Finnish broadcast.
And so, yes, we have ourselves a series, although exactly how much of one remains to be seen. Despite the one-goal margins, the three games so far have been shockingly one-sided, with the Penguins dominating for long stretches, while the Sharks have only looked like the team that rolled through the Western Conference for short bursts. Even in Saturday's loss, the Penguins could make a good case that they were the better team, and they still haven't trailed for a second of the series.
Maybe Donskoi's winner is the turning point, the moment that flips the switch and restores the Sharks to what we expected them to be. Or maybe it's just prolonging the inevitable. The story of the series so far has been the Penguins' speed; they seem to be just a half-step ahead of the Sharks at every turn, and it's added up to having the puck on their stick for most of the final. The shot clock isn't everything, but the Penguins are dominating it to a historical degree. And the way this has all played out has to scare you if you're a Sharks fan. After all, you can fix a lot of problems with smart game-planning and better matchups, but speed is speed.
Still, the Sharks are alive, and we have a series. Peter DeBoer and company have their work cut out for them if the series is going to be more than five games long, but thanks to Donskoi, they have a chance.
Top Five
Celebrating those who've had the best week.
5. Matthew Tkachuk—The NHL combine wrapped up over the weekend, meaning we're officially into that part of the draft lead up where we hear about stocks rising and falling. And nobody seems to be rising more than Tkachuk, the London Knights power forward and son of former NHL star Keith.
For months, the draft has been viewed as having a clear Big Three of Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine and Jesse Puljujarvi in that order, followed by about a half dozen players in the second tier who could go anywhere. But after scoring the Memorial Cup-winning goal last week, Tkachuk seems to have moved to the top of that group, and may even be pushing Puljujarvi for the third spot.
That's obviously good news for him. But it's great news for the Oilers, who seemed like the draft lottery's big losers after dropping down to No. 4 That pick soars in value if the Big Three becomes a Big Four. And given that the team is reportedly looking to trade the pick, the bidding could get very interesting over the next few weeks.
4. Donskoi's goal going in off Matt Murray's face—Seriously, we're all just going to pretend that didn't happen? After the game, I read glowing reports of how Donskoi had skillfully picked the top corner. If he picked anything, it was Murray's left nostril. Still a nice shot, still a clutch goal, but don't show me a Stanley Cup OT winner pinging off a goaltender's cranium and then expect me to unsee it.
Hockey fans around the world tuned in for last night’s game one of the Stanley Cup Final. Also tuning in: The 14 teams who came into the playoffs hoping to be there, but didn’t make the cut.
Of course, not all losses are created equal. Every playoff loss hurts, but some are far more crushing than others. So today, let’s take a look back at those 14 teams and try to answer the question: Who suffered through the most heart-breaking playoff exit?
We’ll look at three factors for each team. First, the expectations they were facing heading into the playoffs; obviously, the higher the hopes, the more drastic the drop when they’re not met. We’ll also factor in when and how the end actually came, with more dramatic losses adding to the pain. And we’ll consider what the future looks like, since a team with better days ahead won’t feel as devastated as one whose window is slamming shut.
We’ll count our way down from the least to most heartbreak, meaning we’ll start with the fan base that should be the least miserable with how things turned out. Let’s just say they may not be used to that.
Playoff expectations: 2/10. The Flyers came in as the East's eighth seed, drawing a matchup with the powerhouse Capitals. Some of the more analytically inclined made the case that they had a shot at the upset, but for the most part nobody really expected them to win.
How it ended: 4/10. After dropping the first three games by a combined score of 12-2, the Flyers switched to Michal Neuvirth in goal and stole Games 4 and 5. With their sense of hope springing back to life and visions of a historic comeback starting to percolate, their season ended with a 1-0 game six loss on home ice.
n Hextall, one that's being carried out with uncharacteristic patience. Just making the playoffs this year was an accomplishment.
Bottom line: 7/30. Bracelet-tossing aside, this was about as painless as an early exit can be.
Playoff expectations: 1/10. Heading into the Pacific Division as a crossover wildcard team, the Predators were given little hope by the experts. After all, everyone knew this division was coming down to an inevitable second round showdown between the Ducks and Kings.
How it ended: 6/10. After upsetting Anaheim, the Predators dropped a seventh game against the Sharks. Losing in seven is always tough, although at least this one was over quickly.
Window status: 3/10. The Predators are relatively young and still viewed as a team on the rise, although they're well into the diminishing returns section of Shea Weber's mega-deal.
Bottom line: 10/30. They were one win away from the conference final, so it certainly wasn't a pain-free experience. But they won a round, and you could make a good case that they were the only team in the playoffs that unquestionably exceeded expectations.
We're just hours away from the puck dropping on the Stanley Cup Final. We've made it through the long offseason, and the useless preseason, and the only slightly less useless regular season. We've made it past three rounds of the postseason, most of which were hard-fought and entertaining. We've run through all the storylines, made our predictions and clichéd our way through media day. Now it's time to settle this thing on the ice.
The matchup between the Penguins and Sharks (which we broke down in detail in yesterday's preview) is a good one. It doesn't bring much in the way of history, and after a few years of the league lucking into having at least one giant TV market in every final, this one may not draw the sort of numbers it deserves. But it will be fun. And if you're a neutral fan, one whose team is already long gone, that's all you can ask for.
I mean, if you can't get excited for a final that pits Joe Thornton against Phil Kessel, then I don't know what to tell you. Over the years, those two have become the poster boys for hockey's growing obsession with the "just can't win with him" narrative, constantly hammered for being the sort of player that wilts in the big moment no matter what the numbers actually say. Now they're both here, both playing great, and one of them is a few days away from a skate with the Stanley Cup. Will that be the moment that finally kills the narrative off? Of course not. But it will shut up it up, if only for a moment or two, and we'll all be thankful for it.
Get ready for hot takes if the next trophy Crosby raises isn't the Cup. –Photo by Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
This is also a matchup between two captains who couldn't have taken more different paths to this moment. Sidney Crosby has been the chosen one since his early teens in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia—the kid who was tagged as the next Gretzky or Lemieux before he could get a driver's license. And for the most part he's lived up to it, establishing himself as the best player of a generation. But he'll be facing the playoffs' leading goal-scorer in Joe Pavelski, a seventh-round pick who was too small and couldn't skate.
It's a matchup between two goaltenders who'd never started a playoff game before this year. San Jose's Martin Jones is in his third NHL season, the first two spent as a little-used backup. And he's the experienced one in this series, facing a kid named Matt Murray who's trying to turn his Steve Penney story into a Ken Dryden one.
It's the blessed franchise that always seems to have the next big thing fall into its lap vs. the cursed one with the history of heartbreak. It's two coaches who've both been on the job for less than a year. It's Malkin vs Marleau, Letang vs. Burns, and Metallica vs. D-Generation X.
And maybe most importantly of all, it's a matchup between two teams that aren't afraid to show off a bit of speed and skill and personality and yes, even fun. It really is still possible to win that way in today's game, even in an era where scoring stagnates and everyone seems to want to look and play the same. We're constantly told that the NHL is a copycat league; with these two teams in the final, we should probably hope it's true.
It's going to be fun. If we're lucky, it will be fun for seven games. As a fan, that's just about all you can ask for.
Top Five
Celebrating those who've had the best week.
5. World Cup rosters—Friday was the deadline for the eight World Cup teams to fill out their rosters for this September's tournament. And, of course, that means that hockey fans get to play our favorite game: Find The Snub. There were plenty to choose from.
Team USA didn't pick Phil Kessel or Kevin Shattenkirk. Team Sweden made some perplexing blueline choices, including leaving John Klingberg off the roster. Team North America (i.e. The Young Guns) didn't invite Alexander Galchenyuk. And as always, Team Canada left the most talent at home, as you'd expect given that it had the most to choose from. But some of those names are still surprises, including Corey Perry, Taylor Hall, Kris Letang and P.K. Subban.
The stacked Canadians will always have snubs, but it was still surprising to see this guy left off the roster. –Photo by Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
Those last two are especially perplexing, since Team Canada found room for Jake Muzzin, a reasonably good defenseman who's certainly never been considered a Norris contender. But there's a reason for that, as we'll see in the next section.
4. Handedness—Which side did Bobby Orr play? Paul Coffey? Ray Bourque? There's a good chance you're not sure, or at least had to think about it for a minute. Because for a long time, hockey fans never worried about which side a defenseman played, or which hand he shot with. They were just defensemen, two on the ice at a time, and dividing them up any further seemed unnecessary.
But in recent years, the distinction between left-handed defensemen and right-handed defensemen has become almost as important as that between left and right wingers. And at some point, Team Canada decided that splitting the blueline between left and right shots was absolutely crucial. It's why it found a spot for Muzzin, who shoots left, but not Subban or Letang, who shoot right. Team Canada is not alone; any roster discussions around NHL teams these days always seems to touch on who shoots from where.
If you feel like a defenseman's handedness was something we went from never mentioning to obsessing over, well, you're not wrong. One study indicates that this has only really been a concern for NHL teams over the last few years. Many trace its rise to Mike Babcock, who makes it a point of emphasis for any roster he fills out, including in his gold medal-winning stints with Team Canada. Chalk it up as just one more evolution of the game.
Still, it seems odd to think that a balance between lefties and righties would be enough to make up for the gap in talent between Muzzin and Letang or Subban, especially since defensemen used to be expected to be able to switch sides as easily as centers switch over to the wing for these tournaments. Team Canada has smart people running the show, and if it wins gold, then none of this will matter. But if not, Muzzin will join the club with guys like Rob Zamuner and Lyle Odelein as odd picks on teams that didn't get it done.
The Stanley Cup Final begins tomorrow night, with the Pittsburgh Penguins hosting the San Jose Sharks. It's an unlikely matchup, but a very good one, and the series has the potential to showcase some great hockey featuring some of the league's biggest stars. Here's how it all breaks down.
In this corner: The Eastern Conference champion Pittsburgh Penguins (48-26-8, +42 true goals differential). The Pens finished second in both the conference and the Metro Division, behind only the Presidents' Trophy winning Washington Capitals.
The road so far: They had a relatively easy time with the Rangers in round one, then knocked off those same Capitals in a tough second-round series. On Thursday, they finished off the Lightning in seven to win a series they'd trailed through five games.
The history books: The Penguins are making their fifth appearance in the final and gunning for their fourth Cup. The first two of those came in 1991 and 1992, when Mario Lemieux and a teenaged Jaromir Jagr led a ridiculously stacked team of future Hall of Famers. It's the third appearance in the finals for the Crosby-era team, which made back-to-back trips in 2008 and 2009 against the Red Wings, losing the first and winning the second. Back then, it seemed inconceivable that it would take that team seven years to get back.
Injury report: They're relatively healthy, with the only major piece missing being Trevor Daley, who broke his ankle against the Lightning. Daley doesn't carry the star power of some of the team's bigger names, but he was eating some tough minutes on the blueline, ranking second on the team in average ice time.
One player to watch: Kris Letang. Blueline depth was never the Penguins' strong point; unlike other teams (including San Jose), they don't have the luxury of a No. 2 guy who could be a No. 1 somewhere else. That's left Letang to do a lot of the heavy lifting, and he's done it well, looking like a Norris candidate this year. But with Daley out, he may end up playing 30-plus minutes some nights during this series. He's battled injuries over the years, and he's already earned one suspension this postseason with another near miss. With apologies to Crosby and his high-scoring friends, the Penguins could afford to lose any other player more than Letang.
Key number: 0—Number of times Bryan Rust had scored goals in back-to-back games over the course of his NHL career before doing it in Games 6 and 7 to help the Penguins come back to beat the Lightning. That seventh game was also his second two-goal game of the playoffs, something else he'd never done before this spring. Every Cup champion needs a few unexpected guys to overachieve at the right times, and Rust has been doing it for the Penguins.
Dominant narrative: Sidney Crosby's legacy. The hockey world loves to separate its stars into winners and losers; the guys who Rise To The Occasion versus the ones who Just Can't Get It Done. There's no bigger star than Crosby, and over the last few weeks there's been some questions over which group he belongs in. That was especially true after the Penguins fell behind the Lightning with Crosby slumping by his standards, going 11 games without a multi-point night.
A lot of that analysis was, well, not good, and it seems ridiculous to question the winning pedigree of a 28-year-old who's already captained a Cup winner and two Olympic gold medalists. But being ridiculous never stopped this stuff in the past, so expect to hear plenty about whether Crosby is displaying enough winner-heart-grit-compete over the next two weeks. If the Penguins lose, expect more heat on Crosby, regardless of whether he actually deserves it. If they win, he gets Certified Winner status, and becomes impervious to any further criticism. (At least for a few more years.)
The big question: Matt Murray is the guy, right? He took over the starting duties due to Marc-Andre Fleury's concussion, and held it until Game 5 of the Lightning series, when Mike Sullivan went back to his veteran. It was widely viewed as a mistake (although maybe not as dumb as it seemed); Fleury looked rusty, the Penguins lost the game, and Murray was back in net for Game 6. We all assume that's going to be a permanent state of affairs in this series, but Sullivan has planted just enough doubt that you wonder what it would take for him to make another switch.
OGWAC factor: The OGWAC, or "Old Guy Without A Cup," is a cherished playoff tradition. Most teams have at least one older player, maybe even a guy in the last season of his career, who's never won a Stanley Cup. It's impossible not to root for that guy; if his team wins, he's often the first one to have the Cup handed to him, and you can count on lots of postgame photos of him hugging it and crying. Hockey fans eat this stuff up.
So who's the best OGWAC left on the Penguins? Well... there really isn't one. There isn't a single guy on the roster who remotely qualifies as "old" and hasn't already won. Matt Cullen and Chris Kunitz already have rings. The oldest guy on the team without his name on the Cup is Ben Lovejoy, but he's only 32 (and had a small role on the Penguins' 2009 team). Eric Fehr is only 30. The team's best OGWAC may not even be a player at all; assistant coach Jacques Martin is making his first trip to the final in a 30-year NHL career.
Then again, maybe Phil Kessel should count. He's technically only 28, but playing in Toronto ages a guy 10 years.
With the San Jose Sharks eliminating the St. Louis Blues Wednesday night and the Tampa Bay Lightning and Pittsburgh Penguins headed to a seventh game Thursday, we’re just hours away from having our Stanley Cup Final matchup set. We’ll be down to the best of the best, going head-to-head with the greatest trophy in sports on the line.
And so today, let’s do what any true hockey fan does when confronted with greatness. Let’s ignore it, and pick on the guys who weren’t quite good enough instead.
We’re going to assemble a full lineup of the biggest disappointments from the 2016 playoffs – four centres, eight wingers, six defencemen, two goalies, and even a coach and GM. And we won’t shy away from including some big names. In fact, the bigger the name the better, since high expectations bring more disappointment when they’re not met.
When you look at it that way, finding someone from your favourite team on this list could be considered a compliment, which you should definitely keep in mind before immediately heading into the comments section to call me an idiot. (You still will.)
Let's get this out of the way first: No, Alex Ovechkin, the Caps' leading playoff scorer, did not make this team.
True, as Ovechkin's critics love to point out, maybe he didn't elevate his game – by which they presumably mean he should float around three feet over the ice by sheer force of will. But he wasn't a bust, or anything close to it.
Kuznetsov, on the other hand… ouch. After leading the Capitals with 77 points in a breakout regular season, Kuznetsov was limited to just two points in two rounds of the playoffs, which works out to an average of — *tries to do math in head* — not enough.
As with many guys on our list, a lot of that was bad luck – he went from 11.4 per cent on-ice shooting across all situations during the regular season to an almost comically awful 0.9 per cent in the playoffs. That's not a player (and all of his teammates) forgetting how to play, it's random chance striking at the worst possible time. Still, for a team that was desperate to go deep, having their leading scorer go cold at exactly the wrong time stings badly.
Yeah, I know, I don't like this any more than you do.
Heading into what was likely to be his last NHL post-season, Datsyuk had the makings of a feel-good playoff story.
Instead, the 37-year-old was held pointless as the Wings bowed out to the Tampa Bay Lightning in five. We're still not sure if he's heading home, although recent reports sure make it sound that way. If this really is the end, it wasn't the one his magnificent career deserves.
When the Rangers acquired Staal at the deadline, everyone cautioned that expectations should be reasonable. This wasn't the 2006 version of Staal, after all. New York was getting a guy on the wrong side of 30 who was having a tough season. And the relatively cheap price they paid reflected that – for once, they didn't even give up a first round pick.
But even given all that, they had to be hoping that a change of scenery and chance to play on a potential Cup contender would give Staal some sort of boost. Instead, they got six points in 20 regular season games and none at all in their first round loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The bar was low; Staal sailed well under it.
Typically, a one-point post-season from one of the league's best offensive players would be enough to earn a spot at the very top of the list. But given the injuries Giroux was battling, we'll bump him down to fourth-line duties. That will keep Flyers fans happy, right?
With the conference finals underway, we’re down to the NHL’s final four. The eyes of the hockey world are focused on the Sharks, Blues, Lightning and Penguins, and rightly so. One of those four teams will be our next Stanley Cup champion.
But four teams in the conference final also means 12 playoff teams sitting at home, wondering where it all went wrong. So let’s help those teams out and look at each of the dozen franchises that didn’t make the cut, and try to pinpoint the key flaw that sent them packing. And, more importantly, let’s ask the question: Can they fix it?
Dallas Stars
What went wrong? Goaltending. Hey, we might as well start off with the easy one, right?
The Stars were one of the league’s best stories, roaring back from a playoff miss to finish as the West’s top seed while leading the league in goals scored. They were also one of the most entertaining teams we’ve seen in years. But they went through the season with a massive question mark, and we all saw it: the goaltending duo was weak. Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi were good enough to get them to the second round, but a Game 7 meltdown against the Blues ended their season and drew a big red circle around the sport’s most important position.
Can they fix it? It won’t be easy. Before they can add anyone, the Stars will presumably need to subtract, and that’s no simple task. Their two incumbents carried a combined cap hit of $10.4 million, and both are locked in for two more years. Neither will have much trade value at that price. That doesn’t mean they can’t be traded – a willingness to retain salary and/or taking back an equally bad deal can open doors – but it’s possible that a buyout ends up being Jim Nill’s best option.
Even assuming that Nill can clear a spot on the roster, who does he go out and get? There are always goalies available in the off-season, but the tough part is finding the right one. The reality is that this is a league with about a half dozen sure-thing goalies, and a whole lot of question marks after that. Those sure-things aren’t going to be available, so Nill and the Stars will have to roll the dice.
History has shown that you don’t need a future Hall-of-Famer in net to win in this league. This year’s final four has shown it too. But you do need a guy you can trust, and the Stars just reminded us that finding that guy is no simple task. They’ll try again this summer, but it’s no sure thing that they’ll do any better.
Detroit Red Wings
What went wrong? The offence couldn’t finish. The Red Wings produced plenty of pressure against the Lightning, averaging 32 shots per game. But they never managed to score more than two goals in any game of the series, and ended up with just eight goals total. That included just one on the power play despite 25 attempts.
Can they fix it? We’ll cut the Wings some slack here. They were facing a strong defensive team with a hot goaltender, and their power play was decent over the regular season, ranking 13th. But the lack of offence wasn’t strictly a post-season problem. Detroit only scored 209 goals on the season, ranking just 23rd overall, and didn’t have a single player finish with more than 50 points.
So how do they get better? Losing Pavel Datsyuk won’t help, and if he heads home for Russia, as expected, he’ll leave a huge void. Henrik Zetterberg is 35-years-old, and his production has dropped sharply in each of the last two years. On the other hand, guys like Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist should improve with age and expanded roles, and Dylan Larkin is only just getting started.
Add it all up, and the Red Wings probably need help from outside the organization, either via free agency or trade. And to do that, they’ll likely need to find a home for Datsyuk’s cap hit first. That won’t be impossible, but Ken Holland has got some work cut out for him this summer.
Minnesota Wild
What went wrong? After splashing out on big-money franchise players in Ryan Suter and Zach Parise, the Wild have failed to surround them with enough talent to truly compete in a very tough Central Division.
The Wild spent big to build a team that could contend, but they could never beat the Blackhawks, and this year they were eliminated by what turned out to be a very flawed Stars team. Now they’re left with a core that’s old and expensive, most of whom are well into the stage of their careers where we should start expecting to see a decline.
Can they fix it? They’ve already made a big improvement, upgrading to Bruce Boudreau behind the bench. Adding one of the best coaches in the league could go a long way.
It may have to, because upgrading the roster is going to be a massive challenge for GM Chuck Fletcher. He’s largely locked into this core – they have nearly $50 million tied up in just nine players through 2017-18, and six of those guys are already over 30 today. Finding takers for any of those players in trades will be tough, and buyouts just kick the cap pain down the road.
Maybe Boudreau can work his magic and turn this group into contenders. The Wild had better hope so, because if there’s another realistic path to improvement here, it’s a tough one to find.
The second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs wrapped up last night in San Jose, with the Sharks demolishing the Predators, 5-0, to advance to the Western Conference finals. And unlike recent years, the NHL isn't going to kill the momentum by taking a few days off. We're right back at it tonight, with the Eastern Conference finals kicking off in Pittsburgh.
We've got an interesting final four this year, one that doesn't include any division winners, Canadian entries or Original Six teams. Let's see if we can sort it all out.
Eastern Conference
With the Presidents' Trophy winning Capitals knocked out, we're left with a pair of No. 2 seeds squaring off in a conference final that has no shortage of star power.
Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Pittsburgh Penguins
In this corner: The Lightning (46-31-5, +26) are looking to return to the Stanley Cup final for the second straight year.
The road so far: They've had by far the easiest path to the conference final, facing Detroit and the Islanders, who finished 15th and 10th overall, respectively. But you can only beat the teams that the brackets serve up, and the Lightning have done it with ease, needing just ten games to finish off the two series.
Injury report: Two key contributors, Steven Stamkos and Anton Stralman, have both missed the entire playoffs but could be back at some point. Stralman broke his leg in March and seems like he's on the verge of returning. Stamkos is trickier; he needed surgery after being diagnosed with a blood clot, and can't return until he's off blood thinners. That might happen any day now; it also might not happen before the playoffs are over.
One player to watch: Victor Hedman. When a team is rolling as well as the Lightning, there are plenty of players you could shine a spotlight on. Nikita Kucherov is filling the net, Tyler Johnson has been fantastic, Ben Bishop looks great and Jonathan Drouin is writing a nice little comeback story. But Hedman may be the key to the series. When he's at his best, he belongs in the top tier of NHL defensemen, right next to guys like Drew Doughty and Duncan Keith. And he was at this best against the Islanders, racking up four goals and eight points in five games while helping to keep John Tavares off the scoresheet after the opener. He'll have his work cut out against Sidney Crosby and friends, but if he's up to the job, he can change the course of a series on his own.
Key number: 57.3—Percentage of scoring chances that the Lightning owned this year when Stralman was on the ice, making him one of just six defensemen with over 1,000 even-strength minutes to be over 57 percent. That's a better mark than Kris Letang (56.8), Brent Burns (55.3), Shea Weber (54.1) or Keith (52.8). Again, Tampa has gone 8-2 in the first two rounds without him in the lineup. If and when he comes back, the Lightning blueline gets downright scary.
Even without Stamkos and Stralman, the Lightning aren't short on star power. –Photo by Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Dominant narrative: Redemption. The Lightning have been here before, going to last year's Cup final before losing the Blackhawks in six. Now they're back, and with the offense clicking and Stralman and Stamkos on the way back, they may be even better than last year's team. Still, they'll go into this series as underdogs, and with the lingering whispers that they haven't really beaten anyone to get here. They're not quite a "nobody believed in us" story, but they're not getting as much respect as a reigning conference champion typically would.
And in this corner: The Pittsburgh Penguins (46-26-8, +42), the league's hottest team over the second half.
The road so far: The Penguins had a relatively easy time with the Rangers in round one, knocking them off in five games. The powerhouse Capitals proved tougher, but Tuesday's Game 6 overtime winner by Nick Bonino sent them home, too.
Injury report: Olli Maatta returned to action Tuesday, so all the key players are available. That includes Marc-Andre Fleury, who's recovered from a concussion and is cleared to play, but has (so far) stayed in a backup role to rookie Matt Murray.
It really did seem like it was going to be the San Jose Sharks‘ year.
Just a few weeks ago, they were resting up after dispatching the favoured Los Angeles Kings in a surprisingly swift five games. When the Nashville Predators knocked off the Anaheim Ducks in seven, that set San Jose up with an unexpected home ice advantage, and they used it to jump out to a 2-0 series lead. After years of playoff disappointment, it looked like everything was falling into place for the Sharks to finally exceed expectations, and maybe even win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.
Things change quickly in the post-season. After failing to close out the series in Nashville on Monday, the Sharks now face a Game 7 tonight — one that most didn’t think they’d need against the wildcard Predators.
The Sharks still head into tonight as the favourite; they’ve got home ice, and have won all three games played at the SAP Center in the series. They’re the better team on paper. And a win would send them to a Conference Final matchup against the St. Louis Blues that they’d have a good chance to win.
But a loss… a loss, and we’re right back to where we always seems to be with this team. So today, let’s take a look back over the Sharks’ history of playoff disappointment.
1991 – 1999: THE EARLY YEARS
The team: We’ll lump the first eight years of franchise history into one entry, since they really didn’t have anything to do with the Sharks’ current reputation. After two years of record-breaking expansion futility, the Sharks broke through with their first decent season in 1993-94, making the playoffs and then shocking the Detroit Red Wings in the opening round.
They’d win another round in 1995, this time against the Calgary Flames in a Game 7 OT, before suffering through two more miserable years followed by two years of first round exits.
The disappointment: Any playoff loss hurts, but it would be hard to call any of these post-season performances a disappointment. The Sharks were never favoured, and in fact were never even a .500 team. And looking back, only their second round matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1994, in which they were one Johan Garpenlov crossbar away from advancing, feels like a series that got away.
Heartbreak rating: 2/10. Sure, the first few years of incompetence were rough. But those upsets against the Red Wings and Flames were fun, and the rest of it pretty much played out according to script.
—
2000
The team: The Sharks crack the .500 mark for the first time in franchise history. That’s enough to sneak them into the playoffs as an eight seed, where they draw the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Blues. Nobody gives them much of a chance, but they jump out to a 3-1 series lead before pulling off a Game 7 upset that’s punctuated with Owen Nolan’s long-distance dagger.
The disappointment: Coming off the high of that win, the Sharks sputter out of the gate against the Dallas Stars in Round 2. They’re shut out in each of the first two games and lose the series in five.
Heartbreak rating: 1/10. Maybe it didn’t end up being a Cinderella run, but that Blues upset was one of the highlights of franchise history.
—
2001
The team: The Sharks record a franchise-best 95 points, and finish second in the Pacific. This version of the team was led by Nolan and a 21-year-old Patrick Marleau, supported by a cast of “Wait, that guy played for the Sharks?” veterans like Gary Suter, Mike Ricci and Vincent Damphousse. Teemu Selanne arrives late in the season, and Evgeni Nabokov earns the Calder Trophy for his work in goal.
The disappointment: In a Round 1 rematch with the Blues, the Sharks drop a six-game series that could have gone either way. The turning point comes in Game 5, in which the Sharks take a 2-1 lead into the third but end up dropping a 3-2 decision on overtime on Bryce Salvador’s winner.
Heartbreak rating: 3/10. Expectations are slowly but surely increasing, and simply making an appearance in the post-season no longer feels like mission accomplished. Still, if you have to lose to someone, it was kind of nice to see it be the Blues. Those guys are stuck with a reputation for never winning anything in the playoffs.
—
2002
The team: The Sharks record 99 points to lead their division for the first time. It’s a veteran group – Adam Graves even makes an appearance – and it leans heavily on its goaltending duo of Nabokov and rookie Miikka Kiprusoff. They make it out of the First Round, beating the then-Phoenix Coyotes in six games and setting up a Second Round meeting with the Colorado Avalanche.
The disappointment: The Sharks lead the series three separate times, but can’t close. They hold a 3-2 series lead heading into Game 6 at home, but lose in overtime on a Peter Forsberg goal in a game marked by a third period earthquake. Then they drop a 1-0 decision in the seventh game, with Selanne missing an open net early on that could have changed the course of the game.
Heartbreak rating: 5/10. The loss to the Avalanche may not have been an upset, but the way it played out left a mark.
—
2003
The team: After what seemed like a breakout season, the Sharks unravel in 2002-03 and miss the playoffs. They fire coach Darryl Sutter in December, and GM Dean Lombardi follows a few months later. Spoiler alert: Those two guys show up again later.
The disappointment: The Sharks don’t even come close to the post-season, finishing 19 points back. They do wind up with two first round picks in the ridiculously stacked 2003 draft, but can only turn them into Milan Michalek and Steve Bernier. The two players taken right after the Sharks’ picks: Ryan Suter and Zach Parise.
Heartbreak rating: 2/10. Disappointment? Definitely. Frustration? Sure. But this can’t really qualify as heartbreak.
—
2004
The team: The Sharks roar back into the playoff picture with a 104-point season. They’re not exactly stacked – Nils Ekman is their second leading scorer – but they’re well-balanced and tough to score on. They beat the Blues and the Avalanche in the opening two rounds to advance to the Conference Final for the first time in franchise history. (That Avs series gets a little dicey – the Sharks take a 3-0 series lead, then lose back-to-back overtime games before winning game six – but otherwise it’s a fairly smooth ride.)
The disappointment: They end up facing the Flames, who are led by a couple of familiar faces: Sutter behind the bench and Kiprusoff in goal. The Sharks are the favorites, and a trip to the Cup final seems in sight. But they drop the first two games of the series at home, and end up losing in six.
Heartbreak rating: 4/10. On the one hand, the franchise is headed in the right direction again. On the other, they let a golden chance at a Final appearance slip through their fingers. They probably can’t wait to get back out there. Sure hope the league doesn’t cancel the next season.
The 2016 NHL playoffs have been nothing if not controversial. We’ve had blown calls, suspensions, non-suspensions and bad blood. There have been unfortunate soundbites and inappropriate gestures. And everyone from the players to the fans to the media have been involved.
If all of this sounds familiar, it should. We go through this same list every year. The NHL playoffs are a breeding ground for controversy, thanks to high emotions, an ever intensifying spotlight and razor-thin margins separating victory from defeat. On any given night, you can count on something happening somewhere that will have fans at each other’s throats. And there’s plenty more to come. After all, we’re only halfway through this year’s playoffs.
So this seems like a good time to regroup and remind ourselves that we’ve been here before and we’ll be here again. Here are the dozen controversies you’re likely to meet in any given post-season, including this one, and a refresher on how best to handle them.
The Crucial Missed Call
What happens: The play itself isn't flagrantly dirty – we'll get to those ones down below. But it's clearly a penalty, one you've seen called virtually every other time it happens. But this time, for whatever reason, there's no call. And inevitably, a game-changing play follows right behind.
Examples from this year: The missed tripping calls right before the tying goal in the final game of the opening round series between the Islanders and Panthers; depending on your perspective, maybe also Brian Boyle's late hit on Thomas Hickey that led to an overtime winner.
How to handle it: We all complain about referees putting their whistles away in the playoffs and insist that we want them to call the game by the rulebook – right up until one of them actually does, at which point we howl about officials thinking anyone paid to see them decide the game.
The Dirty Play (without a suspension)
What happens: Maybe it's a hit, maybe it's stick work, or maybe it's something else entirely. But somebody steps over the line, and fans and media everywhere demand a suspension that never comes.
How to handle it: We all spend a few days complaining about the Department of Player Safety never suspending anyone during the playoffs. Seriously, don't they realize that if they'd just give the guy something, even if it were only a few games, we'd all be happy?
Thanks to the NHL's annual tradition of always having that one series that drags on a few days longer than everyone else, the Western Conference is a bit late to the round two party. The East is already underway, with the Islanders beating the Lightning, 5-3, in Wednesday night's opener. We previewed the Eastern Conference yesterday.
Today it's on to the West, which suddenly looks wide open with the Blackhawks and Kings knocked out early.
Central Division
The champs are out, thanks to the St. Louis Blues and a pair of posts. That leaves the door open for some new blood in the conference final.
#1 Stars vs. #2 Blues
In this corner: The Dallas Stars (50-23-9, +37 true goals differential), the West's top seed and the league's most productive offense.
And in this corner: The St. Louis Blues (49-24-9, +22), moving on to the second round for just the second time in 14 years.
In round one: The Blues (barely) survived that seven-game war with the Blackhawks, while the Stars had more trouble than expected with the Wild in a six-game series.
Injury report: Dallas center Tyler Seguin's return to the lineup in the opening round lasted one game; his status for this series is unknown. The Blues are no doubt beaten up after the Blackhawks, but don't have any major names on the injury report.
Dominant narrative: Now that the Blues have knocked out the Hawks and at least temporarily slain their playoff demons, is this finally the year that it all comes together and they make a deep run? Despite decades of regular-season success, they've won just a single game past the second round since 1986.
The big question: Can the Stars win this way? Sure, winning 6-5 is all sorts of fun, and it can work in the regular season. But the playoffs are a different beast, we're told, and goaltending and defense are the keys to a Cup. The Stars don't have much of either, and it showed against the Wild. Dallas switched starting goaltenders twice, and might be doing it again to start this series after Kari Lehtonen's third-period meltdown nearly cost the Stars Game 6 in Minnesota. The Stars were still able to overpower the Wild, but it's hard to see them beating a complete team like the Blues without one of their goaltenders stepping up.
One player to watch: Vladimir Tarasenko. The saga of Tarasenko's ice time became a dominant storyline of the opening round, leading to what sure looked like a rift with coach Ken Hitchcock. He may be the most explosive player left in the Western bracket, but Tarasenko just doesn't see the ice as much as you'd expect, and when he does his shifts are kept remarkably short. Like most controversies, it's not a story as long as you're winning. But we know the Stars are going to score, and you wonder if the Blues will eventually have to let their top offensive weapon take the training wheels off.
The Chicago Blackhawks season came to an end on Monday night in St Louis, with a Game 7 loss in their opening round series against the Blues. Now, we wait and see what else ended with it.
An era? A dynasty? Something more? Or maybe just a chapter in an ongoing story, one that can’t end with a Cup parade every time even if it’s often seemed to.
The NHL is a far different league than it was before the 2005 lockout that wiped out an entire season and ushered in a new set of rules, and that makes it hard to put what the Blackhawks have done in historical context. In decades past, an NHL dynasty meant an unstoppable force, like the great Canadiens teams of the 50s and 70s. It was Al Arbour’s Islanders winning four Cups and an unthinkable 19 straight playoff series. It was the Gretzky-led Oilers powerhouse that followed them, one that won four titles in five years and only lost when it scored into its own net.
The Hawks, by comparison, have never even repeated as champions. They’ve won Cups in 2010, 2013 and 2015, making them the only team to win three titles in the post-2005 salary cap era. But they’ve also lost in the first-round three times since that first championship. Is that really a dynasty?
Well, yeah. In today’s NHL, it is. Because today’s NHL is designed to make it all-but impossible for the best teams to stay on top. There’s a hard salary cap in place, one that forces teams to stay under a preset budget. A good team can keep its core – the four or five players who define its identity – but they’ll become increasingly expensive, squeezing out the supporting cast that’s so crucial. Like a crab getting yanked back into the bucket, the NHL’s best teams are relentlessly pulled back to the pack. The system has resulted in an age of unprecedented parity and competitive balance, one that the league relentlessly promotes as a good thing.
Despite that, the Blackhawks have been able to keep winning. Not all the time, like teams could in the old days, but more than anyone else in the league could manage. Since emerging as a contender in 2009, Chicago have won 76 playoff games; the next best team have won just 54. They’ve got three Cups, while only one other team has even won two in the cap era. Hockey fans don’t argue about the era’s best team anymore, because there’s really no argument to be had. It’s the Blackhawks by a landslide.
And yet there they were on Monday, sent home in the first round by a longtime rival with a reputation for postseason failure. The title defense was over before it even really began.
So what happened? And more importantly, what happens next?
We'll have a new Stanley Cup champion this year. We know that much after the opening round, thanks to the Blues' Game 7 elimination of the Blackhawks on Monday. With the Kings already out and the Bruins not even getting an invite, the last six Cup winners are already done. Only two of the remaining teams have won a Cup in the salary cap era, and four have never won one at all.
And so now we're on to round two. Well, sort of.
The NHL is throwing a twist at us this year, starting the Eastern Conference second-round schedule Wednesday with the Islanders and Lightning even though the Western Conference's opening round hasn't wrapped up yet. So we'll split this preview in two, covering the East today and then wrapping up the West tomorrow once we know whether it will be the Ducks or Predators moving on to face the Sharks.
Metropolitan Division
We might as well start with the big one, a series featuring two star-packed teams with plenty of history and what seems like a fairly clear path to the final awaiting the winner. Other than that, not much on the line.
#1 Capitals vs. #2 Penguins
In this corner: The Presidents' Trophy winning Capitals (56-18-8, +57 true goals differential), moving on to the second round for the fifth time in eight years. They've lost each of their previous four visits, including three that went to Game 7.
And in this corner: The Penguins (48-26-8, +42), a team packed with elite talent that stumbled out of the gate before changing coaches and transforming into a powerhouse.
In round one: The Capitals raced out to a 3-0 series lead on the Flyers before losing two straight to resurrect the ghosts of playoff collapses past; they ended that talk, at least temporarily, by closing out the series with a 1-0 win in Game 6. The Penguins speed-bagged Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers in a five-game series.
Injury report: The big name is Marc-Andre Fleury, the Penguins' goalie who missed the entire first round with a concussion. He's been skating lately and could return at some point, but until then the Pens will rely on rookie Matt Murray, who played well against the Flyers. The Penguins did get Evgeni Malkin back during the opening round, and the rest of the key names are relatively healthy.
The Capitals are also in fairly good shape, although they've been missing veteran defenseman Brooks Orpik and winger T.J. Oshie looked shaken up by a high hit in Game 6 (but did return for the third period).
Dominant narrative: Ovechkin Crosby Ovechkin Crosby Ovechkin Crosby Ovechkin Crosby Ovechkin Crosby Ovechkin Crosby. The NHL spent years trying to market these two as the Magic vs. Bird rivalry of their era, but they've only actually met in the playoffs once before. That was in 2009, a seven-game Penguins win that many consider one of the best series in recent memory.
The playoffs are all about losing. Every year, 16 teams enter and 15 leave with their heads down, defeated and discarded. It's the cruel reality of the most unforgiving time of year.
But all losses are not created equal—some are far worse than others. And all teams aren't created equal. Some seem to take those bad losses a lot more often than the odds say they should. This year's opening round featured three of those teams in the Sharks, Capitals and Blues. All three have earned reputations for coming up small in big moments. All three saw the first round set them up to do it again, which, of course, also meant they had a chance to strike a blow against their demons.
The first team to stare down its past was San Jose, which finished off the Kings on Friday to become the first Western Conference team to punch a ticket to the second round. That doesn't exactly erase a reputation built over a decade-plus of postseason disappointment—remember, the Sharks had already been past the first round nine times since 2000, and that didn't stop anyone from deciding that they'd never gone far enough. But getting that win against Los Angeles certainly sends a message, and offers at least a small measure of payback for the epic 2014 collapse that saw San Jose blow a 3-0 series lead to the eventual Cup champion Kings. This year has always had a different vibe for the Sharks, with so many having written them off that they felt like plucky underdogs instead of pressure-weary favorites. They've still got a ways to go, but if knocking off the Kings doesn't count as getting it done when it matters, not much can.
Next up were the Capitals, facing down their history of taking big leads in playoff series and then watching them slip away. They'd never blown a 3-0 series lead, which is what they held heading into Game 4 against the Flyers. They lost that game, and then the next, outplaying the Flyers in both but being stoned by a red-hot Michal Neuvirth. That had Washington fans nearing panic mode for Sunday's Game 6, but the Capitals held on for a 1-0 nail-biter. They'll move on to face the Penguins, a team that factors heavily into that history of playoff misery, in a matchup that feels a lot like the unofficial Eastern Conference final.
And then you've got the Blues, a franchise with a nearly 50-year history of playing perfectly solid regular-season hockey, then fading out of the picture as soon as the playoffs get serious. They drew the worst-case scenario for their opening round matchup, facing the defending champion Blackhawks, and then responded with three wins in the opening four games. But everything changed once Game 5 arrived and Chicago's late-series super powers activated, and now we're headed to a Game 7 tonight.
Much like the Sharks and Capitals, the Blues can quiet all the history talk at least temporarily with a win. But heading into the game, they look an awful lot like a team in disarray. Ken Hitchcock is coaching for his job, and he's apparently decided to do it by picking a fight with his best player. Vladimir Tarasenko isn't playing anywhere near the minutes you'd expect, and he doesn't seem happy about it.
This all feels like the last thing the Blues need heading into a make-or-break game. And again, if they manage to earn a win, then we will forget all about the drama and start figuring out how well they match up against the Stars. But if not... well, sorry, Blues fan. The postseason narrative beast needs to be fed. And with only one team left to feed on, it won't be pretty.
Conn Smythe Watch
Celebrating those who are making the strongest case for postseason MVP honors.
5. Guys you've never heard of—It happens every year, and it's one of the best parts of the playoffs: The guy who gets to play the hero on the game's biggest stage, forcing the rest of us to pretend we have any clue who he is.
We saw it Friday in Florida, where the double-overtime marathon between the Islanders and Panthers was ended not by John Tavares or Jaromir Jagr or even Aleksander Barkov on the third sudden death penalty shot in playoff history. Instead, it was rookie Alan Quine, a former sixth-round pick who was playing in his seventh career NHL game. At around the same time Quine was playing the hero, it was San Jose rookie Joonas Donskoi who was scoring twice, including the winner, in the deciding game in Los Angeles. Many fans may not have even known Donskoi's name; now they even know his weird nickname.
Donskoi and Quine join other not-so-big names from this year's postseason spotlight like Jeff Zatkoff and Bryan Rust. Here's hoping a few can keep it up, and join the ranks of legendary unlikely playoff heroes like Steve Penney, Chris Kontos and Fernando Pisani.
The first round of the playoffs is a roller coaster for fans of the 16 teams involved, one filled with drama, tension and (hopefully) exhilaration. Sometimes, it can even be fun – at least as far as feeling like you’re going to vomit for two straight weeks can ever be considered fun.
But the first round can be a tough time for fans of the 14 teams that didn’t qualify for the post-season. Maybe you’re left agonizing over how close your favorite team came to making it. Or maybe you’re watching the league’s best go head-to-head and realizing how far away your team really is. In either case, it can make for a frustrating time.
So today, let’s offer up something that can be hard to come by at this time of year: Hope. Let’s go through all 14 of the teams who are sitting at home right now, identify one of their (in some cases many) areas of concern, and match them to a playoff team that can offer them a reason for optimism.
Ottawa Senators
The issue: They can’t – or won’t – spend to the cap.
But just look at: The Ducks. Ottawa owner Eugene Melnyk has long made it clear that he doesn’t feel the team needs to spend to the cap to be competitive, even going so far as to infamously claim that cost-per-point is the only stat he’s worried about. But while there are certainly examples of high-spending teams that don’t get value for their money, the recent history is fairly clear – you need to spend to contend.
That’s disheartening news for Ottawa fans dreaming of a Cup but they can draw some inspiration from a handful of teams that have had success despite a lack of spending. And no low-spending team has been better than the one that finished right behind the Senators on this year’s cap list: the Anaheim Ducks. (If the Ducks happen to fall victims to a stunning first round upset, remember that the Predators spent even less.)
Carolina Hurricanes
The issue: They need a major upgrade to their goaltending. Without a top prospect on the way or much to get excited about on the free agent market, they’ll probably have to hit the trade market to do it.
But just look at: The Wild. Granted, this may not be all that comforting to Hurricanes fans, since the Wild were the worst team to make this year’s playoffs and look like they’ll be easy fodder for the top-seeded Dallas Stars. But the Wild are a reminder that it is possible to find goaltending at a reasonable price, having added Devan Dubnyk last year for just a third round pick. So are the Flyers (Steve Mason) and Lightning (Ben Bishop). Those were all mid-season deals; you’d assume the Hurricanes will want a new starter in place by training camp, and prices for goaltenders tend to be higher during the off-season. Still, history suggests there will be good goaltending available at a reasonable cost. You’ve just got to find it.
Let's be honest: The NHL has changed over the years. Some might even prefer "evolved." But it's been unmistakable. Fighting has plummeted, reaching levels we haven't seen in five decades. We still argue over suspensions, but the stuff that earns a ban these days is downright mild compared to plays that went completely unpunished years ago. And while some still like to pretend that players had more respect for each other in the old days, truly vicious stuff like this or this or this has all but vanished from the modern game.
And, most fans would tell you, all of that is a good thing. Today's game, while far from perfect, is indisputably cleaner and safer than it's been in generations. The NHL doesn't get enough credit for that.
But here's where the cognitive dissonance kicks in. Because as much as we can all appreciate the strides the game has made over the years, it's hard to deny a simple fact about NHL hockey: Hatred is fun. Bad blood is fun. Playoff hockey is good, but playoff hockey played between two teams that seem to genuinely hold each other in contempt is so much better.
And that's never more obvious than in the opening round, where we're typically treated to eight concurrent hate-based plotlines. That's especially true early on, when there are messages to be delivered and tones to be set. Every hit is finished, every shove is reciprocated, and nobody skates away from a scrum without getting a shot in.
This year has been no different, as even teams that spent the season on their best behavior are suddenly at each other's throats. We expected bad blood in series between established rivals, like the Blues and Blackhawks or Kings and Sharks. And they haven't disappointed, playing some serious big kid hockey over the first few games. But the beauty of the playoffs is that you don't need a history to get to the hatred. The Ducks and Predators series has been full of sneakily dirty plays. The Wild and Stars are going hard. And it only took two games before the Islanders and Panthers were sucker-punching each other below the belt. Literally.
The list goes on. Game 2 between the Rangers and Penguins featured a controversial hit from behind by Ben Lovejoy on Derek Stepan, while the Flyers and Capitals have been dishing out big hits of their own. We've also seen seven fighting majors handed out so far. Three of those came in a wild line brawl between the Lightning and Red Wings in the final minute of Game 2, one that saw Detroit's Justin Abdelkader jump Mike Blunden, bloodying the Tampa winger before he could fight back.
(The two teams very nearly staged a rematch at the final buzzer last night; you know you've got some bad blood when even Henrik Zetterberg is dropping his gloves.)
So is this what NHL hockey should look like? Maybe not. Is it entertaining? Hell yes. If thinking that makes you a hypocrite, then plenty of hockey fans are going to fit the description.
And we should see more of it this week. The rough stuff tends to die down as a series goes on, as the stakes get higher and the cost-benefit of hammering someone at every opportunity starts to drop. By the weekend, as we're getting into games six or seven, things will have calmed down a bit.
But until then, we've got at least a few more games of first-round hockey hatred left to enjoy. Even if we're not supposed to.
***
So about the power rankings section...
It's early. We can all agree on that. Two or three games is way too soon to be crowning anyone, or to be writing anyone off. Remember, three games into last year's playoffs, it looked like it was finally the Islanders' year to win a series and the Lightning were on the ropes. Two years ago, we'd already finished the obituary for the Kings.
So yes, it's early. A lot can change, and a lot will change.
With those caveats out of the way, who's ready to start drawing some ironclad conclusions? That's what I thought. Onto the postseason power rankings.
Conn Smythe Watch
Celebrating those who are making the strongest case for postseason MVP honors.
5. Kari Lehtonen—The Stars looked like an easy team to figure out heading into the playoffs. They were the West's top seed, and went into their series with the Wild as heavy favorites and legitimate Cup contenders. But they'd have to get there the same way they'd won during the season: By pumping home enough goals to make up for a leaky blueline and shaky goaltending.
We're only two games in, but so far the Stars aren't following the script. They're up 2-0 on the Wild, and the offense, led by Jamie Benn, has looked fine. But Lehtonen has been the story, allowing just one goal on 48 shots. It's early, sure, but that has to feel like a concern to the rest of the Western Conference. The Stars are already the league's highest-scoring team, one that just got Tyler Seguin back from injury and is already apparently bored enough to start scoring physics-defying goals like this. Watching Dallas learn how to actually stop the puck would feel like the raptor figuring out how to work the doorknob in Jurassic Park.
4. Reilly Smith—The Bruins' castoff has put up four goals and eight points through three games, making him the leading scorer through the postseason's first few nights. This isn't quite John Druce territory—Smith is coming off the second 50-point season of his career—but it's fair to say he probably didn't go in the first round of too many playoff pools.
He'd be higher on this list if the Panthers weren't down 2-1 against the Islanders in a series that's quickly emerging as the most sneakily entertaining of the opening round.
Puck Soup is a podcast featuring me and Ryan Lambert. We release one free episode each week during the season, plus mailbags and other bonus episodes for Patreon subscribers.
"Biscuits" was the Vice Sports hockey podcast, hosted by DGB and Dave Lozo. It ran for two seasons; the final episode was in July, 2018. You can find the archives below:
