from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- At least one of the Eastern Conference teams in the playoffs right now won’t be in next year’s Stanley Cup playoffs. Tampa Bay, with Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman and Nikita Kucherov, will be a playoff team next year, maybe even a Cup contender.

- I wouldn’t have hired Gerard Gallant as first coach if I was running the Vegas Golden Knights. It’s not that Gallant isn’t a decent coach. He is. It’s that he has almost no personality for public consumption. You’re going to have to sell hockey in Vegas. Speak on TV. Go to banquets. Get people who have no interest in hockey interested. Gallant can’t do that. It’s not really in GM George McPhee’s wheelhouse either.

- It ended rather badly for John Tortorella in Vancouver. He got fired. His assistant coaches, Mike Sullivan and Glen Gulutzan, got fired. Two years and some later, all three coaching in the playoffs and Sullivan already a Stanley Cup winner.

- Ryan Getzlaf is back looking like Ryan Getzlaf again, which isn’t good news for the Calgary Flames or anybody else who plays the Anaheim Ducks.

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