Articles in NHL Teams

via the YouTube page of the NHL,

The craziness continued into the Second Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs with the return of the rats, some blown tires, Hughes missing chiclet and a bookworm taking Dallas by storm.

from Luke Fox of Sportsnet,

- As Brendan Shanahan’s pursuit of a new Toronto Maple Leafs general manager begins with urgency and intrigue, get ready to hear a barrage of names linked to the seat vacated by Kyle Dubas.

Shanahan’s lone clue as to the type of candidate he wants to hire? Experience....

- Gerard Gallant wants right back in the game, under the proper circumstances.

More of a motivator than an X’s and O’s tactician, the fired New York Rangers coach will be willing to hop right back behind the bench of a team that is ready to run.

Think Calgary more than Columbus.

Hearing that Peter Laviolette — late of Washington and relaxing in Florida — is eager to get back to work as well. Although the way things unravelled with the Capitals, he may not be able to be as picky.

- Of all the NHL’s impending unrestricted free agents, who racked up the most points? Skated the most minutes? Registered the best plus/minus? Ripped the best points-per-game average? Secured the most wins?

If you guessed Alex Killorn (64 points), Dmitry Orlov (22:33), Tomas Tatar (plus-41), David Krejci (0.8 points per game), and Martin Jones (27), go to the head of the class.

That these players are all over the age of 30 illustrates the lack of young talent available on the free agent market this summer.

more on the first topic and other notes too

from Mark Lazerus of The Athletic,

Sergei Bobrovsky is having fun. Honest.

The Florida Panthers goaltender might look like he just came back from a trip to the post office, and he might sound like he’s talking about winning a neutral-site preseason game in front of a few hundred curious onlookers, and it might seem like he’ll doze off at any moment, but really, this is everything he’s ever wanted.

This atmosphere. This pressure. This level of mind-bending success. One hundred saves in two games....

Before Game 1: “It’s great to be here.”

After Game 1: “I’m really fortunate to be in this playoff. I’m happy to be here, very happy to be part of this team.”

After Game 2: “I’m fortunate to be here and happy to play hockey, playoff hockey.”

Also after Game 2: “I’m just happy to be in net at this time.”

Also after Game 2: “I’m just thankful for this spot.”

Sources close to Bobrovsky suggest he’s happy to be here. More on this story as it develops.

But hey, why shouldn’t he be? This is a man who’s lost that net multiple times in recent seasons.

read on ($)

from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- Toronto fans are funny. They loathe Sam Bennett and Radko Gudas for doing what they used to adore about Darcy Tucker and Tie Domi.

-On the list of activities for the new Leafs GM: 1.A Signing Matthews; 2. Deciding on coach Keefe or hiring a replacement; 3. Rebuilding the front office with Jason Spezza and possibly Pridham gone; 4. Deciding between Marner and Nylander or keeping both; 4. Deciding what to do with Matt Murray, his bad legs and his contract; 5. Figuring out how to revamp the Leafs defence, again.

- I bet if you asked Dubas today about the contracts he negotiated with Matthews, Marner and Tavares he would tell you he paid too much and gave up too much flexibility in the new negotiations. It’s one thing to give money and term. But to give money, term and no-trade arrangements is something he’ll learn from in the future.

- At 6-foot-4 and 238 pounds, wearing about 40 pounds of equipment, Frederik Andersen is far and away the largest player in the Eastern Conference final. So explain to me why someone of his size and strength can’t fight his way through to make a stop instead of having scores called off too easily for goaltender interference. Sometimes, interference is obvious, but sometimes the goalie doesn’t fight hard enough to make the save.

more, most on the Leafs... At least for me, the column is in large type and other things are messed up too...

* Matthew Tkachuk played overtime hero for the second straight game, tying the record for most overtime winners in a postseason and helping Florida become the sixth lower-seeded team in the past 15 years to take a 2-0 lead in the Conference Finals.

* The 2023 Eastern Conference Final has been a tightly contested affair, with the Panthers and Hurricanes within a one-goal margin for all 201:38 of playing time – the fourth-highest total through the first two games of a series in NHL history.

* The 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs is just the second in NHL history to have each of the first three or more games of the round before the Final require overtime with the only other instance coming over 90 years ago.

* The second Game 2 of the 2023 Conference Finals drops Sunday as Dallas aims to rally from a 1-0 series deficit for the third straight round while Vegas vies for a 2-0 lead.

Another overtime win by the Florida Panthers tonight, this time a 2-1 win.

Matthew Tkachuk with his 2nd ot winner in a row, he now has three ot winners this post season.

Below watch the game winning goal and game highlights.

via Sportsnet's YouTube page,

Elliotte Friedman discusses the latest news surrounding the Maple Leafs GM search, how the Dubas extension — in part — ultimately crumbled, and how other teams are responding following the news.

from Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun,

Eight years to the day after hiring Mike Babcock to coach the Maple Leafs, Brendan Shanahan has the Original Six club in a state of disarray.

Shanahan, the Leafs president, continues on in his position more than nine years after he was hired in April 2014, with nothing more than one playoff round win to show for the time he has been running the storied franchise.

Under Shanahan, the Leafs have become a team that wins regularly only if it’s the regular season, before annually falling by the wayside in the playoffs. This year, finally, came that first-round victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Then came the Florida Panthers, who threw a rink-sized bucket of ice-cold water over the Leafs’ dreams in a mere five games.

Under Shanahan, the Leafs talk every year about the desire to win the Stanley Cup, and if that stated wish was all that was required, the parade route would be worn out by now. Instead, the Leafs have never matched their skill, and expectations of themselves, with actual success in the post-season.

At some point, Shanahan is going to have to get it right with his hirings, isn’t he? How many more presentations have to be made to the MLSE board before someone peers over their reading glasses and realizes that with Shanahan running the show, the Leafs haven’t won?

continued

from Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal,

Bruce Cassidy pumped his fist on the bench as the announced crowd of 18,271 at T-Mobile Arena went wild and Brett Howden and Adin Hill were mobbed on separate areas of the ice.

The Golden Knights coach has described his group as “imperfect” at different times during the playoffs. They’re not without faults. What they are is deep, resilient and committed to winning hockey games by any mean.

That continued in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars on Friday. The Knights allowed the first goal for the ninth time in 12 postseason games. They blew two third-period leads. They still emerged with a 4-3 victory after Howden’s goal 1:35 into overtime.

The Knights continued to stare adversity in the face and fire right back. Their six comeback wins in the playoffs lead the NHL, and they’re 2-0 in overtime.

“Sometimes you have those seasons where you don’t overcome things,” Cassidy said. “We have that group that will this year.”

continued

Watch the game highlights below.

* One more unsung hero has emerged in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Brett Howden scored the third-fastest playoff overtime goal in franchise history to help Vegas take a 1-0 series lead in the Western Conference Final.

* After yet another Conference Finals series opened with extra time, the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs became the fifth in NHL history to feature overtime in both Game 1s in the round before the Final.

* Coming off of the sixth-longest contest in NHL history that was Game 1, the Panthers and Hurricanes will meet for Game 2 and can become the first Conference Finals/Semifinals series in 46 years to require overtime in each of its first two contests.

from Jesse Granger and Saad Yousuf of The Athletic,

When the puck drops for Game 1 of the Western Conference finals between Vegas and Dallas on Friday night at T-Mobile Arena, Stars coach Pete DeBoer will find himself in an oddly familiar role as he takes his place on the visitors bench.

It wasn’t that long ago he stood behind the opposite bench in that arena, wearing a Golden Knights lapel. It also hasn’t been that long since he coached against Vegas in the playoffs.

DeBoer’s history with the Golden Knights is long and complicated.

It started as a rivalry in 2017, when the upstart Vegas franchise quickly emerged as an adversary for DeBoer’s Sharks atop the Pacific Division. San Jose was an aging but talented group looking for a title before its window closed. The Golden Knights came out of nowhere to win the series.

Playoff matchups in back-to-back seasons stoked that rivalry, culminating with a fiery seven-game series in 2019 in which DeBoer and then-Vegas coach Gerard Gallant traded verbal barbs that were nearly as fierce as the play on the ice. DeBoer came out on top in the most dramatic way possible, with San Jose erasing a three-goal deficit late in the third period to win in overtime.

Less than nine months later, DeBoer was coaching the Golden Knights.

continued ($)

via the Toronto Maple Leafs,

Brendan Shanahan, President and Alternate Governor of the Toronto Maple Leafs, announced today that the club has decided to part ways with General Manager Kyle Dubas. Dubas's contract is set to expire on June 30 and he will not return as Toronto's General Manager next season.

"I would like to thank Kyle for his unwavering dedication over these last nine seasons with the organization, including his last five as General Manager. Kyle fostered a great culture within our dressing room and staff, and consistently pushed to make our team better season over season. We wish Kyle and his family the best moving forward and thank him for his valuable contributions."

from Kurt Dusterberg at the NHL's website,

Matthew Tkachuk scored with 13 seconds remaining in the fourth overtime, and the Florida Panthers won their seventh straight on the road in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, 3-2 against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final at PNC Arena on Thursday....

It was the sixth-longest game in Stanley Cup Playoffs history (79:47 of OT length), and the longest in franchise history for each team.

"Probably my favorite [goal] so far in my life," Tkachuk said. "Big to not let it go to five overtimes there. [Sergei Bobrovsky] played great, everybody followed. Total team effort for two games, basically."

Bobrovsky made 63 saves, and Aleksander Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe each had a goal and an assist for the Panthers, the second wild card from the East.

Florida is 5-0 in overtime in the postseason.

"At the end of the day, both teams spent what they had; that's a huge cost for both teams," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. "There were pieces of that game that both teams owned and looked exactly like they're supposed to look."

Frederik Andersen made 57 saves, and Seth Jarvis had a goal and an assist for the Hurricanes, the No. 1 seed in the Metropolitan Division....

"It's the worst way to lose, there's no way around it," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "A lot of ups and downs in that game. At the end of the day, it's one game."

read on

Below. watch the game highlights.

* Matthew Tkachuk scored with 13 seconds remaining in quadruple overtime to lift the Panthers to victory in the sixth-longest game in NHL history.

* Sergei Bobrovsky made 63 saves and became just the third goaltender on record with 50 or more saves in consecutive playoff games.

* The Golden Knights and Stars are ready to renew their rivalry, meeting in the penultimate round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the second time in four years.

With 13 seconds left in the 4th overtime, Matthew Tkachuk scored to give the Florida Panthers a 3-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Team Stats

More in the morning but in the meantime catch the game winner and the highlights below.

Best of luck to both teams.

via Sportsnet's YouTube page,

Paul Maurice and Rod Brind’Amour have a long history that began in Carolina when Maurice was a Head Coach and Brind’Amour was a player. Now they face off in the Eastern Conference Final.

“Honestly, there’s times I wake up, I don’t know what day it is,” Jones says, laughing. “There’s just been multiple meetings and getting together with the group that’s going to make this thing happen, getting prepared for the press conference, getting acclimated to a new office, getting prepared to go and do the conference final, which I’m getting on a plane now to head to Florida where our house is.

“Now I’m organizing a move at the same time and getting ready to transition from one job to the next. There’s a lot to manage.”

-Keith Jones, the new GM for the Philadelphia Flyers. Michael Russo of The Athletic has much more ($).

from Amalie Benjamin of the NHL's website,

These are four teams that don't always get the headlines and the publicity, that don't come from traditional hockey markets, that have everything to gain from the spot in which they find themselves, here in the Eastern and Western Conference Finals. Combined, the Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes, Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights have won the Stanley Cup twice, with the Hurricanes winning it in 2006 and the Stars in 1999.

They will begin the next step of trying to make some new history -- and some new fans -- when they start off the conference finals, with the Panthers and Hurricanes playing Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final on Thursday at PNC Arena in Raleigh (8 p.m. ET; TNT, CBC, TVAS, SN) and the Stars and Golden Knights playing Game 1 of the Western Conference Final on Friday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (8:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, CBC, TVAS, SN).

"A deeper playoff run will draw attention to the unique players that we have that you can come and enjoy watching play," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. "What happens in these runs, it's not just about getting excited because of the spectacle of playoff hockey. You want to get the connection to the home crowd too.

"There'll be a whole bunch of people who are going to buy (Panthers forward) Sam Bennett jerseys based on what they saw. And then I can say that about a bunch of different guys."

read on

from Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet,

The road to this point of the Stanley Cup Playoffs has been an interesting one, to say the least, with the Panthers relishing the role of underdog in knocking off the top-seeded and record-setting Boston Bruins in the seventh game in the opening round, then stunning the hockey world once again by ousting the Toronto Maple Leafs in five games, moving Maurice into the fourth conference final of his coaching career.

For the Hurricanes, it’s mostly been a business-like approach in knocking off the New York Islanders in six games and New Jersey Devils in five.

This is a group that’s enjoyed plenty of regular-season success, had a taste of the playoffs over the past few seasons and was supposed to be ready to take the next step, at least until an Achilles injury to Max Pacioretty and a torn ACL for Andrei Svechnikov sent the two high-scoring wingers to the sidelines, reducing them to the role of spectator.

As if that wasn’t enough to overcome, fellow forward Teuvo Teravainen suffered a hand injury in Game 2 of the opening-round series with the Islanders, taking another potent weapon out of the Hurricanes lineup.

Instead of wilting under the pressure and leaning on the excuse of not having enough offensive catalysts to persevere, the injuries seemed to have galvanized the Hurricanes. What is surprising is that the team is scoring at an even higher rate, all the while playing a structured style that has made it difficult for the opponent to penetrate.

As Maurice pointed out to reporters in Florida earlier this week, there are certainly similarities when it comes to the style these two teams play.

more

5 1/2 minutes to watch.