from Thomas Drance of The Athletic,

On Tuesday, as the club took an optional morning skate ahead of Game 2 of its first-round series against the Nashville Predators, Demko was absent. It was reported, first by Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff and later confirmed by sources to The Athletic’s Rick Dhaliwal, that Demko will be out for Game 2. His status over the balance of Vancouver’s first-round series is now very much in question, with Tocchet describing the injury as “day to day.”

“He skated yesterday. He’s not going to play tonight,” said Tocchet. “It wasn’t the old injury and that’s all I really got for you guys.”

Demko is an ace in Vancouver’s hand when he’s healthy. The Vancouver starter won an astounding 35 of his 51 starts this season, while posting a .918 save percentage and a goals saved above average number bested only by Connor Hellebuyck. He is, without question, one of Vancouver’s most important players....

Between Casey DeSmith and Arturs Silovs, Vancouver has the goaltending depth to get a level of puck stopping that should still permit the Canucks to win games. You don’t expect Silovs or DeSmith to steal games (or steal an entire series) the way Demko can, but both of Vancouver’s auxiliary netminders have been good enough to win games in front of all year. Now they’ll have to continue to be as Demko recuperates.

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from Kevin Allen of Detroit Hockey Now,

CapFriendly.com shows Detroit Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman with $28.8 million in cap space remaining. But that amount will evaporate quickly as he begins to sign his players he wants to keep.

Yzerman has 13 returning players under contract. He has five restricted free agents, including Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond who will receive the majority of his cap space if they want long-term contracts. Other restricted free agents in the plans for next season are Jonatan Berggren, Albert Johansson and Joe Veleno. Berggren and Johansson won’t be waiver exempt in 2024-25, meaning they can’t be sent to Grand Rapids without passing through the waiver process.

“We have to make room for them and it’ll be up to them as individuals to earn that spot, whatever spot in the lineup they can. I wouldn’t rule out anybody, pick a name in GR,” Yzerman said. “I don’t want to say definitely they won’t be here because they’re winding down their season and hopefully are going to have a good playoff run and things can change over the course of a long playoff run and we could potentially see more players pushing for a spot on the roster.”

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The best of the best..

from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

In a battle of two divergent styles, Edmonton owned Game 1 by dictating how the game would be played for most of the 60 minutes. This game was about skating, passing and carrying pucks into the Kings zone, rather than the more deliberate — and boring — type of game L.A.’s one-three-one alignment is designed to produce.

“That’s not our model. That’s not the way we play,” stated L.A. defenceman Drew Doughty, whose Kings have lost two straight Round 1 series to Edmonton and got waxed in the opener of the 2024 edition. “It’s frustrating. We just have to put that game in the past and get back to doing what we do best and that’s playing good two-way hockey.”

Edmonton won the fight for how the game would be played, and as such, took a 1-0 series lead in this Round 1 series.

“We know that’s their game. We know they’re good,” Doughty said. “We’ve played them so many times, but that was probably the poorest we’ve played against them in the last three years in my opinion.”

read on and game highlights are here...

from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

In the final minute of Auston Matthews’ tour de force, with overtime seemingly looming, with the Boston Bruins buzzing, with Ilya Samsonov unsure of the location of the puck Matthews slid the disc under Samsonov’s pads.

There is no statistic for composure. There is no statistic for assuring victory. There is no statistic, overall, for being the most complete player on the ice in every zone and every way of a playoff victory.

There is a statistic for this though: The Maple Leafs and the Bruins are tied 1-1 after two games at the TD Garden. This playoff series is now a best of five. The blasted Leafs from Game 1, battled back in Game 2, made some stunning mistakes and some shocking errors and still wound up standing tall enough for a 3-2 hold-your-breath win Monday night over a clearly exasperated Bruins team.

You expect Matthews to score, because that’s what he does better than anyone in hockey. His 70th goal of this season didn’t happen in the regular season. And he set up two other scores. Three goals for the Leafs, three points for the giant, Matthews.

On a night the Leafs were losing at faceoffs, he was winning his. He did what he usually does, win puck battles, block shots, rarely turned it over, rarely get beat in any situation, and think the way great hockey players are supposed to think when the game and the series and maybe the season are all on the line.

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Below watch TSN on Matthews and watch the game highlights here.

from Ethan Sears of the New York Post,

The Islanders’ season-long kryptonite of holding a lead had gone away for a while.

But it reared its ugly head at the worst possible moment on Monday night, as the Islanders took a 3-0 lead and turned it into a 5-3 loss to the Hurricanes to go down 2-0 in the first round of the playoffs after Carolina scored three times in the last 2:30 to complete the comeback, with Jordan Martinook netting the winner.

It’s the second time the Islanders have blown a 3-0 lead against the Hurricanes this season, but unlike the first one on Nov. 4, this will be excruciatingly tough to get over....

It looked as though the Islanders — despite having sat back and absorbed pressure for most of the night — would somehow get out of the night alive when they entered the final three minutes hanging onto a 3-2 lead....

But quickly following Carolina’s timeout with 2:49 to go, Sebastian Aho deflected in Andrei Svechnikov’s shot at the right post with the extra attacker on for Carolina.

Just nine seconds later, Martinook completed the Islanders’ collapse, beating Noah Dobson to the left post off the faceoff and sticking the puck in.

“Obviously the tying goal, we lost our coverage,” said a shell-shocked Patrick Roy. “I was going to call a timeout right there and I said, ‘We’ll see if the puck goes in our zone. If it goes in our zone, I will call a timeout to cool off a bit.’

more

Catch the game highlights here.

from Eric Duhatschek of The Athletic,

We’ve debated this topic endlessly before, and the most common practical solution — which has also been suggested by several NHL general managers over the years — is to tweak the rules as they apply to LTIR and make every team be cap-compliant for every playoff game, which they aren’t obliged to do at the moment. It would be a simple fix and one that might tone down the anger and suspicion surrounding the current system.

Question: If teams had to be cap-compliant for every playoff game, how would Vegas have looked with Stone, Hertl and Hanifin all in the opening night lineup vs. Dallas?

Before we add up the totals, what’s your guess?

Are they cap-compliant? Close to compliant? Or miles over?

The correct is b) close.

For the 20 Vegas players in the lineup against Dallas, the salaries add up to $84.247 million, or $747,000 over the 2023-24 salary cap of $83.5 million.

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* On the heels of his 100-assist season, Connor McDavid recorded the first five-assist outing in the playoffs since 1998 while Zach Hyman netted the first hat trick of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs in a high-scoring Oilers win.

* Sebastian Aho and Jordan Martinook scored nine seconds apart in the final minutes of regulation to help the Hurricanes pull off just their third three-goal comeback win in franchise postseason history and take a 2-0 series lead.

* The Golden Knights made the first step at defending their 2023 Stanley Cup championship as they skated to a 1-0 series lead.

* The Maple Leafs evened their series at 1-1 as it shifts to Toronto and now own the third-most postseason wins in Game 2s after suffering a Game 1 loss over the past 30 years.

* Four teams will have the opportunity to tie their series during a four-game Tuesday as the Capitals, Lightning, Avalanche and Predators will each be eyeing road wins to even their First Round matchups.

Six playoff games have been played in 2024, the home team has yet to lose. Does it continue tonight?

Enjoy your holiday.

added 5:08pm,

via the YouTube page of the NHL,

NHL bloopers, wacky and lighthearted moments from the last few weeks of the regular season including an unfortunately timed broken stick, a solar eclipse preview in Washington and the epic conclusion of the Fleury / Duhaime prank wars!

Watch the 20 minute video below.

from Tracey Myers of the NHL's website,

Miragh Bitove got to see firsthand when the Vegas Golden Knights players and staff had their individual celebrations with the Stanley Cup last offseason.

This season she’ll travel even more in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and offseason as one of the Cup handlers.

“It’s exciting,” said Bitove, who has been an archivist with the Hockey Hall of Fame since 2005. “It’s really neat to get to watch people at the top of their game and get to see how they choose to celebrate with something they’ve been dreaming about their whole life in sports. That part is exciting but also just meeting people along the road.

“I love meeting all different kinds of people and finding common ground and learning about people and hearing people’s stories about their associations with the Cup. That always keeps it interesting and entertaining and it’s an honor.”

Bitove, who will become the first woman to be a Cup keeper, isn’t a stranger to traveling with the hardware: when the various trophies and Stanley Cup are brought to events such as the NHL Awards or NHL Draft, Bitove is there with them. Now she’s also part of the offseason traveling tour, which includes a group of Cup handlers and keepers who rotate through 100 days of travel to celebrate Cup days with the winners. She’s not sure how much her travel will increase this year, but it will be more than the 24 days she spent traveling last summer.

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from Paul MacLean at the NHL's website,

The Coaches Room is a regular feature throughout the 2023-24 season by former NHL coaches and assistants who turn their critical gaze to the game and explain it through the lens of a teacher.

In this edition, Paul MacLean, former coach of the Ottawa Senators, who won the 2013 Jack Adams Award voted as NHL coach of the year, and assistant with the Anaheim Ducks, Detroit Red Wings, Columbus Blue Jackets and Toronto Maple Leafs, looks at how coaches deal with matchups in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

For coaches, the Stanley Cup Playoffs become a whole different beast, mostly because you only get seven games and in those seven games you're playing against the same team.

Before you get to the playoffs, in your preparation, you define all the things your opponent does well and maybe they don't do well, and you discover the identity of your opponent and their style of play.

Then you look at whether your style is better than theirs and what adjustments you potentially have to make game to game. And the adjustments can go not just game to game, but period to period and a lot of times, it goes shift by shift.

If we're talking about the Los Angeles Kings and the Edmonton Oilers, Connor McDavid's shifts versus somebody are going to be different than Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' shifts against somebody or Derek Ryan's shift against somebody else. They might play those shifts differently and adjust according to who the opponent is and who is on the ice at that time.

It takes a lot of practice from the team and preparation from the coaching staff knowing what things a team must do to counter the opposition and be ready to do it and execute it at the right time.

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from Max Bultman of The Athletic,

With the 2023-24 season in the books, though, and the proud franchise’s playoff drought now at eight years, one thing is clear: Expectations have begun to arrive in Detroit.

Arriving at the same time, however, is a complicated, challenging reality: Though the Red Wings took steps forward this year, they did so with a roster made up largely of veterans — not all of whom will be back next season. Yzerman has said he has interest in bringing all six of Detroit’s unrestricted free agents back, but realistically, he will have to prioritize certain players over others — and likely also do some subtracting elsewhere to make room on the roster and salary-cap ledger. Especially with young cornerstones Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond in need of new contracts.

And when some of those veterans inevitably depart, that will leave holes to fill and lost production that will need to be made up. Likely, those will be filled at least in part by younger players.

In some ways, that possibility is exciting. Yzerman’s conservative approach to promoting young players has been among the most criticized aspects of his GM tenure, and this season, despite the team’s rebuilding status, only one player with rookie status dressed for Detroit: Simon Edvinsson, who played in only 16 games.

Edvinsson looks locked into next year’s lineup, after an excellent stint to close the year, and in addition to him, Yzerman singled out forward Jonatan Berggren and defenseman Albert Johansson as players the team will need to make space for, as both will no longer be exempt from waivers.

“As far as young guys, anyone else, I wouldn’t rule out anybody,” Yzerman said.

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from Sean Keeler of the Denver Post,

Avalanche fans deserve Justus.

Do whatever it takes, Jared Bednar. Nyquil. Mucinex. Voodoo. Anything that gets Avalanche backup goaltender Justus Annunen healthy and ready to start Game 2 of this Avs-Jets series. Anything that gets No. 1 netminder Alexandar Georgiev away from the crease and out of the firing line.

Love Georgie.

He’s toast.

The Winnipeg Jets know it. John Buccigross knows it. The moose wandering around south Manitoba know it. Over his last six appearances, dating back to April 5, Georgiev’s given up 29 goals. Bednar, the Avs’ venerated coach, isn’t just running out of options here. He’s running out of time.

Winnipeg put seven more past No. 40 in Game 1 of their Stanley Cup Playoff series Sunday, roughly a week after peppering him for a touchdown and extra point at Ball Arena.

This time, it took two periods for Georgiev to become Fourgiev. It took three for him to become Sevengiev.

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from Ed Graney of the Las Vegas Review-Journal,

“Our goal at the start of the year was to make the playoffs, and we did that,” defenseman Brayden McNabb said. “Maybe not the exact way we wanted. There have been ups and downs. It took us awhile to find our game.

“Of course, you’d always like to have home ice. That’s always going to be an advantage. But getting into the playoffs is the most important thing. We need to understand that.”

Funny. It’s always interesting what players and coaches say about flipping the proverbial switch. About reaching a point such as a first-round playoff series and wiping the slate clean.

The Knights at their healthiest and best needn’t worry about such things. They’re good enough to repeat, on paper and on the ice. But there have been enough hiccups (and injuries) throughout the season that just showing up won’t be enough. They might have found their game along the way, but they need to be more consistent with it.

In other words, it’s go-time.

“This is what we wanted, what we battled all year for, and now we just have to prepare for it,” center Nicolas Roy said. “When you get into the playoffs, it’s a new season. Obviously, we didn’t have as good a season as last year, but we want to prove we have the same team or even a better one. I think we can go all the way.

“Flipping the switch is a tough question. I just think you want your game to be in a good spot. It’s tough to flip a switch, but I do think our game is in a good spot right now.”

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In terms of land-based and online gambling and entertainment connected to gambling, Ontario is a unique province. It has recently updated its gambling regulations to keep them in line with the actual situation in the industry and to meet the existing demand among citizens.

* The Jets outlasted the Avalanche in a 13-goal, back-and-forth thriller that concluded as just the second game in Stanley Cup Playoffs history to feature two teams combine for at least six goals in multiple periods.

* Dakota Joshua appeared in just his second-ever postseason game, scored one of two Vancouver goals in 12 seconds and helped the Canucks rally to a Game 1 win against the Predators.

* Home teams improved to 6-0 in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Only four other postseasons in NHL history have featured the home team win the first six or more games to begin a playoff year: 1965 (10), 1959 (9), 1970 (8) and 1962 (8).

* The last two Western Conference series begin Monday as the Oilers and Kings meet in the First Round for the third straight season while the Stars and Golden Knights face off in the postseason for the third time.

from Bob Duff of Detroit Hockey Now,

Detroit Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider probably doesn’t realize that it’s been 16 seasons since an NHL defenseman was able to dish out over 200 hits and block more than 200 shots in the same season.

It’s a certainty, though, that he knows well the most recent guy to do it. This is because that guy is him.

This season, Seider was accounting for 211 hits. He was also sacrificing his body in front of 212 pucks, finishing second in the NHL in blocked shots. Seider wound up eighth among NHL blueliners in hits.

“He shows up every game, he battles hard every game,” Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman said of Seider. “He blocks shots, he gets hits, he makes plays.

“We’re asking him to do a lot and he’s got the mental toughness to weather it all.”

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Discussion is welcomed.

from Mike Vorel of the Seattle Times,

Starting, of course, with the fates of Francis and Hakstol. While it’s unlikely the Kraken exile their 61-year-old GM, Francis’ player-personnel decisions warrant scrutiny. After Seattle surprised last season on the strength of its scoring depth, that versatility vanished. Departees Daniel Sprong (18 goals and 25 assists for Detroit), Morgan Geekie (17 goals and 22 assists for Boston) and Ryan Donato (12 goals and 18 assists for Chicago) all made positive impressions elsewhere, while additions like Kailer Yamamoto (eight goals and eight assists) and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (four goals and three assists) provided no such playmaking.

Still, it’s a coach’s job to put his players in positions to succeed. And while injuries to Dunn, Andre Burakovsky and Jaden Schwartz certainly didn’t help, it’s difficult to argue Hakstol maximized his talent.

Aside from injuries and unmerciful hockey gods, mainstays like McCann (70 points in 2022-23 to 62 in 2023-24), Beniers (57 to 37), Eberle (63 to 44), Gourde (48 to 33), Brandon Tanev (35 to 16) and Eeli Tolvanen (16 goals in 48 games last season, 16 goals in 81 games this season) all saw their statistics slip.

That comprehensive corrosion typically comes down to coaching.

After three seasons under Hakstol, the second-longest-tenured Western Conference coach, it may be time for a new voice and system in Seattle.

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from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

The Rangers are set up for the future — really they are — with young’uns like Brennan Othmann, Brett Berard, Gabe Perreault and Drew Fortescue set to join the band on Broadway before all that long. Which means that even if this year’s team falls short, the window will not close on this group.

But that is not the rallying cry as the playoffs commence at the Garden on Sunday afternoon with the opener of the 1 vs. 8 matchup against the Caps. There is urgency here. There is a sense that the time has come.

Thirty Years Is Enough.

“I think we’ve proven to ourselves what we are capable of doing,” Mika Zibanejad told The Post following Saturday’s practice. “We don’t need to introduce changes to our system or to our approach.

“We’ve been trying to build toward this all year. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of it. You never know what type of challenges you are going to confront but I think we’ve done a lot of good things through the year that has given us a feeling of confidence.

“We’re as prepared as we ever could be for this.”

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from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- Why won’t Utah have a name and logo for its first season? It’s April. The season starts in October. Surely, a name, a logo and a jersey is more than possible by then. The best thing about the Seattle Kraken through three NHL seasons: Their jersey.

- There are 16 teams in the Stanley Cup playoffs, three of them are starting Canadians in goal — Edmonton, Los Angeles and Vegas. Of the other 13 starters, six are Russians and five are Americans.

- Hoping to see Derek Lalonde back on Sportsnet this playoff season. The Red Wings coach was a breath of fresh air on television last playoff season.

- The Ottawa Senators, New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres all desperately need a head coach. Will any of them have the stones or the money to hire the best coach available, Joel Quenneville?

- Got thinking about this when former NHL referee Wally Harris passed away the other day. Time was, I knew just about every NHL ref by name and face. So many of us did. We used to travel with them. We used to eat in the same coffee shops or have the occasional drink in a lobby bar. I knew Bryan Lewis and Andy van Hellemond; Denis Morel, Kerry Fraser and Dave Newell; Bruce Hood, Bill McCreary, Wally and a whole slew of linesmen. Yesterday, the NHL put out its list of 22 playoff referees. I kind of knew two of them. The rest: Mystery names to me. I miss the days when NHL refs were allowed to have personalities and when they occasionally socialized with those who wrote about the game.

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from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

In grading the 2023-24 Detroit Red Wings, nearly everyone aced their finals — but the body of work over the whole season wasn't quite as stellar.

D Ben Chiarot: B

.. The buzz: Plays a heavy game, always ready to stick up for a teammate, was a solid, dependable partner for Moritz Seider down the stretch.

F Andrew Copp: C+

... The buzz: Asked to play in a defensive role, and didn't see much power-play time, which impacted his production. Given the expectations, the team needed to see more of a push to demand a top-six role.

F Alex DeBrincat: B-

... The buzz: Scored just 10 goals the second half of the season, going quiet at a crucial time (seven points in 19 games from Feb. 29-April 10) before erupting with seven points the final four games. Many a scorer is streaky, but scoring is DeBrincat's bread-and-butter, and it's disappointing the two-time 40-goal scorer didn't even reach 30 his first year with the Wings.

Coach Derek Lalonde and staff: B-

Derek Lalonde and associate coaches Alex Tanguay (offense, power play) and Bob Boughner (defense, penalty kill) kept the Wings determined through some turbulent stretches, and calm during an intense finish to the season. But the defensive structure was an issue all season, and slow starts marred the team especially in the second half. Losing Larkin shouldn't have impacted the team to the devastation that it did, and that's partly on the staff to do a better job managing the roster and forging lineups that deal better with missing one player. It's on Lalonde to show he's the right guy to take the next step, which is coaching the Wings into the playoffs.

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