More traditional playoff hockey likely in second round

With full arenas around North America buzzing for the NHL playoffs for the first time in three years, the first round overflowed with energy that sometimes amounted to blowouts and full penalty boxes.

By the time almost every series reached Game 6 — and five got to Game 7 — signs were already starting to emerge that made it look like a more traditional postseason.

Penalties were on the decline, comebacks and drama on the rise and with the eight teams making up some of the league’s best, the second round and beyond will likely resemble more of the old-school playoff hockey fans and players are accustomed to this time of year.

“The deeper you go, the more intense it gets,” Colorado defenseman Cale Makar said. “That’s why playoff hockey is a lot of fun.”

It wasn’t a lot of fun early on, when the team that scored first won 26 times out of 32. The first week also had 14 games decided by two or more goals, not counting emptynetters, and there was just one multigoal comeback.

Then there were nine come-from-behind victories in the final 19 games of the first round, including the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Panthers erasing a three-goal deficit against Washington. Four games went to overtime in the final four days — more than the first eight combined.

As games got tighter with bigger momentum swings and series went down to the wire, penalty calls followed suit. It was still the most penalties called in the first round in almost a decade — just over 10 a game, the highest since 2014 and an average of more than two above the regular-season pace.

“The standard is the standard: It’s not a regular-season standard, it’s not a playoff standard,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said at the start of the playoffs. “We continue to reinforce to the officials, ‘We want you to call the NHL standard.’ And that standard is to reinforce speed and skill, and the officials are doing that.”

The officiating at times dominated the conversation during and after games because there were more penalties and power plays each night than in the regular season.

“I’ve never seen it like this,” said Tampa Bay forward Pat Maroon, the only player to win the Stanley Cup each of the past three years. “It’s killed a lot of momentum 5 on 5. It’s been a weird playoff for me. I’ve never seen this amount of penalties before in a playoff. It seems like it’s preseason again with all the calls on both sides.”

Elsewhere: Maple Leafs winger Mitch Marner was the victim of a carjacking in Toronto, the hockey team said as city police investigated. Marner was not hurt in the carjacking that took place in east Toronto on Monday evening, the team said.