Condensed 56-game schedule is affecting play
Tampa Bay coach: ‘Everybody’s tired’
It was the second night of a back-to-back and the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 10th game in 18 days and the defending Stanley Cup champions just didn’t have it.
“Everybody’s tired,” coach Jon Cooper said after that loss to Carolina. “Not just our team — all the teams.”
Fatigue has set in around the NHL with teams playing 50 games in just over 100 days as part of a condensed schedule that’s proving even more demanding than players expected. The 56-game schedule squeezed between mid-January and mid-May has taken its toll, leading to plenty of mental mistakes and wear-and-tear injuries for those gutting through the grind.
Just in time for the playoffs, too.
“We’re just trying to dig deep here,” Vegas forward Alex Tuch said. “We’re just trying to prepare physically and mentally for each game, and the more you take it game by game, the better it is.”
The teams in playoff contention all have a handful of games left before the postseason, which is just the trick for igniting energy levels for even the most worn-out and banged-up veterans. Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour is glad “there’s a finish line now.”
Getting there has been the hard part.
“We can all agree it’s been pretty tiring,” Edmonton forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “Every team’s going through it. We knew going in that it was going to be a bit of a grind of a season, and we’ve stayed with it.”
Not without some stumbles along the way. Virus-related postponements mangled the schedule of just about every team in the league, including Vancouver, which missed more than two weeks and still has nine games to play through May 19.
The rest of the NHL will be into the first round of playoffs by then, which is close enough to taste now. New York Islanders coach Barry Trotz likened it to running a marathon and getting to that final turn.
“We are getting more and more excited for (the playoffs), and I feel that helps us,” Minnesota’s Kevin Fiala said.
Contenders are hoping to get healthy by the playoffs. Tampa Bay expects to get Steven Stamkos back from his injury, and 2019 MVP Nikita Kucherov could be ready to go by Game 1 after missing the entire regular season following hip surgery.
Washington has been without Alex Ovechkin for all but 39 seconds for well over a week. Pittsburgh just got Evgeni Malkin back from a six-week absence. Florida has had a laundry list of injuries and still managed to clinch a playoff berth for the first time in five years.
“Guys have been very good about trying to stay fresh and trying to stay rested,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “We try to manage our ice time as best we can as opposed to going to practice on a day where we know that, hey, there’s not a lot of excitement in going and putting our skates back on. We’ve elected the latter half of the schedule here to have some days off and keep ourselves fresh, have morning skates and reinforce our team structure in games in video.”
Tuesday
PENGUINS 7, FLYERS 3: In Philadelphia, Sidney Crosby had two goals and an assist as Pittsburgh regained first place in the East Division with a win over Philadelphia.
Jake Guentzel had a goal and two assists for the Penguins, who moved two points ahead of idle Washington. Marcus Pettersson, Jason Zucker, Mark Friedman and John Marino also scored, and Tristan Jarry had 30 saves.
The Capitals have two games in hand over the Penguins with one week left in the regular season.
The Flyers, who have been eliminated from playoff contention, got goals from Justin Braun, Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny.
DEVILS 4, BRUINS 3 (OT): In Newark, N.J., Pavel Zacha scored his second goal of the game at 2:42 of overtime as New Jersey snapped Boston’s fourgame winning streak.
Jesper Boqvist and Yegor Sharangovich scored for New Jersey, which finished its home season with a 7-18-3 record. Mackenzie Blackwood had 33 saves in winning his fourth straight game.
Patrice Bergeron, Taylor Hall and Sean Kuraly scored for the Bruins.
HURRICANES 6, BLACKHAWKS 3: In Raleigh, N.C., Andrei Svechnikov stopped an eight-game goal drought by scoring twice, sending Carolina to the victory.
Svechnikov also had an assist on Teuvo Teravainen’s thirdperiod goal for the Hurricanes, who erased a 2-0 deficit and maintained momentum toward winning the franchise’s first Presidents’ Trophy.
Alex DeBrincat scored twice for the Blackhawks, who have dropped six in a row.
SABRES 4, ISLANDERS 3 (SO): In Buffalo, N.Y., Anders Bjork scored Buffalo’s last two goals in regulation and then had the deciding shootout goal.
Cody Eakin also scored for the last-place Sabres, who rallied past the playoff-bound Islanders for the second straight night. Victor Olofsson had two assists.
OILERS 4, CANUCKS 1: In Vancouver, British Columbia, Leon Draisaitl scored twice to lead Edmonton to victory.