More fizzle than sizzle in first round
There were blowouts and sweeps, expected finishes and not a whole lot of drama. Only one series went the distance and there were only a handful of overtime games.
In other words, the first round of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs left a lot to be desired. Maybe, with Washington and Pittsburgh playing in the second round, the best is yet to come. It better, because so far the games have had all the drama and intensity of a Wednesday night in February.
Stars are shining
It’s a bit of a surprise to see Austin Watson’s name among the top-15 scorers in the playoffs, considering he only had 19 points with the Predators this season. But so far, he’s the exception. From Sidney Crosby (13 points) and David Pastrnak (11 points) to Nikita Kucherov (10 points) and Alex Ovechkin (eight points), the names at the top of the scoring list are the ones that were there for 82 games during the regular season. A player to watch for in the second round is Nashville’s Filip Forsberg, who had four goals and six points in six games, as well as two goal-of-theyear candidates.
Goalie-go-round
Heading into Game 7 between the Leafs and Bruins, there had been 244 goals scored in 42 games (5.81 goals per game), which maintains the rise in scoring that came during the regular season (5.86). The goaltending was awful for some of the teams that lost in the first round. New Jersey’s Keith Kinkaid, who had stolen the starting job from Cory Schneider during the regular season, lost it after giving up nine goals in 4 1/2 periods. The same thing happened to Washington’s Philipp Grubauer and Colorado’s Jonathan Bernier. Philadelphia tried three goalies in net, with varying degrees of failure.
Early Conn Smythe consideration
Who did you pick first: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin or Phil Kessel? When filling out future playoff pools, you might want to add Jake Guentzel to that list. While the second-year forward only scored 48 points in the regular season, Guentzel has once again come up big when it matters the most. He is tied with Crosby for the scoring lead with six goals and 13 points in six games. That’s more points than Malkin and Kessel have combined. Not that it’s unexpected. A year ago, Guentzel led all players with 13 goals as a rookie in the playoffs.
Trade grades
It’s not surprising that the Sharks’ Evander Kane scored three goals and one assist in a four-game sweep of the Ducks or that Winnipeg’s Paul Stastny and Tampa Bay’s J.T. Miller each chipped in with a goal and four points. In terms of disappointments, Tomas Tatar was a healthy scratch for two of Vegas’ four games.
Biggest shock
The fact that Vegas not only advanced to the second round but also swept Los Angeles to get there should not have been a shock. After all, the Golden Knights did win the Pacific Division and had been one of the best teams all season long. At the same time, if there was a series ripe for an upset, it was this one. While Vegas had no playoff experience, Los Angeles had won two Stanley Cups in the past six years. But in the end, it was Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty — not William Karlsson and Jonathan Marchessault — who looked overwhelmed by the situation.
Policeman Parros
There’s a new sheriff in town and he isn’t afraid to wield his power. In his first season as the head of the department of player safety, George Parros made it clear that if you broke the rules you would sit out games regardless of whom you were or how valuable you were to the team. He has continued that no-nonsense approach in the post-season, with Los Angeles’ Drew Doughty, Nashville’s Ryan Hartman and Winnipeg’s Josh Morrisey each receiving onegame suspensions. But it was the three-game penalty that Toronto’s Nazem Kadri received for boarding Boston’s Tommy Wingels that sent the loudest message going forward.
Big-time blowouts
The days of tight-checking, low-scoring, physical blood fests appear to be over. The games in the first round might as well have taken place in the doldrums of mid-February. The Bruins outscored the Leafs 12-4 in Games 1 and 2. Pittsburgh beat Philadelphia 7-0, 5-1, 5-0 and 8-5. The Jets beat the Wild 5-0 in Game 5, the Predators beat the Avalanche 5-0 in Game 6, and the Sharks pummelled the Ducks 8-1 in Game 3.
So much for parity
We often like to say that once a team makes the playoffs, anything can happen. The Predators were proof of this a year ago, when they reached the final as the 16th seed. But this year was different. The better team on paper was the better team on ice. The only upset was the sixth-place Sharks (100 points) defeating the fifthplace Ducks (101 points), and yet San Jose actually had one more win than Anaheim in the regular season. If this pattern holds true, then bet on Nashville, Vegas, Tampa and Washington reaching the conference final.
Say good night to all-nighters
It was during the 1936 Stanley Cup playoffs when Detroit beat Montreal when Modere “Mud” Bruneteau scored the game’s only goal, scoring on the Red Wings’ 67 th shot past Maroons goaltender Lorne Chabot at 16:30 of the sixth overtime period to decide the longest game in NHL history.
This year, the teams were more considerate of fans’ sleep schedules. Though the Capitals and Blue Jackets needed overtime to decide four of their games, only one other series went beyond regulation time. The reason for this is simple: the outcomes weren’t very close. Only nine of the 42 games were decided by one goal, while 10 games had a differential of four goals or greater.