NHL playoffs: Fast starts, blowouts
Comebacks have been few and far between early on
The first week of the NHL playoffs has been a stark contrast to the regular season that was full of multigoal comebacks and furious finishes.
The team that scores first has won an astonishing 26 of 32 postseason games. Only one team — Pittsburgh — has erased a deficit of more than a goal. And 14 games have been decided by two or more goals (excluding empty-netters).
And there have been plenty of those, too.
“In the first period, you can turn it off, which is somewhat unfortunate and somewhat unexpected,” back-to-back Stanley Cup-winning Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “This is an aberration for me because, to me, in a sport that has the greatest two months of playoff action that any sport can deliver, this has probably been one of the more underwhelming playoffs we’ve seen.”
Underwhelming perhaps game to game, with just three going to overtime through Monday and just two others decided by one goal at the final horn of the third period. But six of eight series were tied at 2 through four games — matching the most in league history in a single round.
An increase in penalty calls and power-play goals combined with the quality of teams involved has contributed to an uneven start to the playoffs following a regular season that featured 42 percent of games resulting in a comeback win of some sort. Every team but the Philadelphia Flyers rallied from two-goal deficits, while teams overcame three-goal margins 19 times.
“Good teams know how to close out games,” Boston coach Bruce Cassidy said Tuesday. “In the regular season, you’re just not as dialed in and you have some teams that just don’t do it that often. This time of the year, guys know what needs to be done: You’ve got to manage the puck at the blue line, you have to be willing to get in the shooting lane, you might have to take a punch in the head.”
With the notable exception of the rough-and-tumble Dallas-calgary series that more closely resembles old-school playoff hockey, goals are not hard to come by. Scoring is even up compared with the regular season: 6.5 goals per game compared with 6.2, which was the highest since the salary cap era began in 2005.
How goals are being scored is drastically different, however.
Almost a quarter of all goals have come on the power play, up from 19 percent in the regular season. The league reported 78 percent of goals during the season came at even-strength — tied for the second-highest since the expansion era began in 1967 — compared with just 62 percent in the playoffs.
Falling behind just isn’t a recipe for success in the first round, which could be explained by all eight teams in the Eastern Conference putting up 100-point seasons and most of the West being even.
“The elite teams are playing now,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’amour said. “Tougher to come back.”