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.

continued

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.”

more

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.”

continued

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.

more

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.”

continued

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.

more

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.

more ($)

from Like Fox of Sportsnet.,

The count is 1-0 for both the Boston Bruins and the can't-flip-a-switch crowd.

For all the talk of clean slates, brand-new years, and meaningless regular seasons, so many of the worrisome hallmarks of the Toronto Maple Leafs' scuffle down the stretch reared their ugly head in a tidy 5-1 victory for the home side in Game 1 on Saturday.

Asked before puck drop what his group had learned from its 0-2-2 regular-season series against the B's, Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe quipped: "We learned what doesn't work."

Well, the Leafs took a refresher course Saturday, as the vociferous TD Garden fans razzed "Sam-soooon-ov!" with glee, partied to five rounds of "Kernkraft 400," and left the barn chanting "Olé! Olé! Olé!"

continued

from Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun,

Never mind that the Maple Leafs didn’t have William Nylander in the first game of the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Where were Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner at TD Garden in Boston against the Bruins? Where was the solid goaltending that was being provided by Ilya Samsonov in the second half of the regular season?

hat was being provided by Ilya Samsonov in the second half of the regular season?

The best-of-seven series couldn’t have started much worse for the Leafs on Saturday night, falling in Game 1 by a score of 5-1.

When Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman made a quick pad save on Nick Robertson 90 seconds after the opening faceoff, it served notice that the Boston starter was going to be in a groove.

Not so with Samsonov, who was stuck in rut at the other end.

continued

Below, watch the TSN panel on game 1.

* Jake DeBrusk scored two quick goals and Evgeny Kuznetsov had two points in his first postseason contest with Carolina as the Bruins and Hurricanes picked up Game 1 wins during the first night of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

* Teams that take a 1-0 lead in a best-of-seven Stanley Cup Playoffs round own an all-time series record of 515-242 (.680), including a 355-119 (.749) mark when starting at home.

* Four more First Round series open Sunday, with the full-day slate getting underway when 57-goal scorer Sam Reinhart and the Panthers host Art Ross Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov and the Lightning at 12:30 p.m. ET.

* Game 1 between the Rangers and Capitals is set to pit Ryan Lindgren against his brother, Charlie, making them the fourth set of siblings in NHL history to go head-to-head in the Stanley Cup Playoffs where one was a skater and one was a goaltender. Click here to read more notes on all eight First Round matchups.

from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet,

Detroit GM Steve Yzerman indicated prior to the start of the season that he wasn’t sure if the Red Wings were a playoff team, and they just missed. But, as he said Thursday, he knows it is time. Yzerman laid it out very honestly. He wants to make room for prospects who will no longer be waiver-exempt, and has to know what the next contracts look like for Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider before committing to any of the unrestricted free agents.

The challenge for him is that some of those UFAs — Shayne Gostisbehere, Patrick Kane, David Perron — played very important roles and losing them would be impactful. (Gostisbehere was praised for his incredible keep-in at the blue line that saved a game against Montreal this week. An “X” follower named Stephen Geary correctly pointed out that he had a similar diving one years ago for the Flyers against Columbus. Maybe he should play shortstop for the Tigers in the summer.)

Perron enthusiastically declared his desire to return. Kane was more reserved, but was very excited discussing the future last weekend in Toronto. It’s clear he feels so much better than a year ago; he’s rejuvenated. (He and Max Pacioretty are similar in the sense that both say this will be their first “normal” summer in three years.) He really enjoys Detroit, but after a nomadic 14 months, I believe he wants to put down some hockey roots.

more league wide Thoughts...

Feel free to discuss the games tonight, the playoffs,. the NHL or anything hockey related.

A little over 8 minutes long.

from Carlos Monarrez of the Detroit Free Press,

So, Lalonde was asked, what is the next step?

“To improve,” he said. “We improved 11 points from last year. We had … six more wins than last year. We took a step. I think that next step is just improving on that.

“What does that look like? I don't know. But you see the growth in this group and the battle in this group. They pushed them. They push this group forward for sure.”

If Lalonde isn’t sure what improvement looks like for a team that missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker to an inferior Washington Capitals team they should have beaten a week ago at home, let me help him.

Improvement is one thing and one thing only next season: the playoffs.

Or put another way: the playoffs or bust.

Or put yet another way: If Lalonde can’t get this team over the hump in his third season and take the Wings to the postseason, it’s time to find his replacement because the rebuild has gone on long enough.

more ($)

original post was at 2:38am on 4/19/2024

Below you will find the matchups for the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

I've made it easy for you to copy and paste and entries should be in by Saturday at 5pm ET.

Non-members can post their picks on X and I will add them to the comment section.

from John Niyo of the Detroit News,

“You look at the black-and-white improvement, we improved 11 points,” said head coach Derek Lalonde, whose team went from 35 wins and 80 points a year ago to 41 wins and 91 points this season. “You can also look at it, black-and-white, we missed the playoffs. That's been hockey for 100 years, making the playoffs.”

For Lalonde, that should be the mandate now, even if it’s an unspoken one. A whopping 10 NHL coaches were fired this past season, and though he’s only been in Detroit two full years, Lalonde has a longer tenure than half of his peers around the league. Still, all this talk of improvement inevitably will take a back seat to black-and-white results.

Lalonde gets high marks from players for his even-keeled approach — “You know what you’re gonna get, and I really respect that,” captain Dylan Larkin says — and he and his staff deserve some credit for the way the team responded down the stretch after a disastrous month of March.

“Obviously, we weren't perfect,” Yzerman said. “But the most important thing from my vantage point was that our players are motivated, our players are determined and there's a good atmosphere within the locker room. And part of that is the coaching staff helps foster that or create that. So overall, I'm happy with the direction we're going, the coaching that we have.”

Still, what we have here is a team that improved dramatically on one end of the ice this season — Detroit’s scoring was up nearly a half-goal per game to finish ninth overall in the NHL — yet also allowed the ninth-most goals in a league where none in the bottom 10 made the postseason.

more ($)

from Mark Cannizzaro of the New York Post,

For the players on the Rangers who were with the team a year ago, which encompasses the majority of their dressing room, the sting hasn’t fully subsided.

And it won’t. Not until more is done this month, next month and possibly in June.

The Rangers exited the Stanley Cup playoffs far too early commensurate with their expectations when they lost a 2-0 series lead and fell to the Devils in seven games in the first round last spring.

The exorcism of those demons begins Sunday afternoon at the Garden, where the Rangers will play Game 1 against a Washington Capitals team they’re expected to dispatch en route to a deeper run into these playoffs.

“Going home early, that’s obviously hard and it sits with you,” Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said. “Throughout the season you’re constantly thinking about, ‘How can I be more prepared for this moment?’ It’s been something that we’ve been working for the whole year, trying to get back to this point and prove to ourselves that we can do it.’’

In the playoffs.

continued

* After the full playoff bracket was finalized in the last 81 seconds of regulation play in the 2023-24 regular season, the focus shifts to night one of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs as four teams embark on their championship-seeking journeys Saturday.

* The first night of the playoffs features two matchups between familiar foes: the Islanders and Hurricanes are meeting for the third time in six postseasons, followed by the Maple Leafs and Bruins renewing a 99-year-old rivalry that will now include four playoff series since 2013.

* NHL CommissionerGary Bettman joined Ryan and AshleySmith, owners of the new NHL franchise in Utah, for a press conference at Delta Center, where the club will begin play in 2024-25.

from Emily Sadler of Sportsnet,

Arizona Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo says he’s "sorry" for how things have unfolded in the desert, calling the decision to sell and relocate the team's hockey business to Utah "the most painful decision" of his business career.

During a press conference in Arizona less than 24 hours after the NHL officially announced the deal that moves the team from the desert to Salt Lake City under the ownership of Ryan and Ashley Smith, both Meruelo and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman expressed their condolences to fans and players for how things unfolded. They also offered up additional explanations about how and why the arrangement came to be....

Bettman closed the press conference by quoting American general Douglas MacArthur: “We shall return.”

much more

via TNT Sports,

via the NHL PR department,

The 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs open April 20th, the start of a two-month rollercoaster of upsets, overtime games, unsung heroes, and memorable moments. Whether you are wondering which fanbase has waited the longest for a Stanley Cup, what veteran you should root for or what players can climb NHL all-time lists this postseason, the #NHLStats team has you covered with a quick-hit cheat sheet.

from Kevin Allen of Detroit Hockey Now,

The Red Wings’ defense situation for next season is complicated. With Simon Edvinsson showing this spring that he’s ready to play in Detroit full-time, Detroit GM Steve Yzerman now have seven defensemen under contract.

The Red Wings also have Albert Johansson playing well for the Grand Rapids Griffins. He won’t be waiver-exempt next season. That means he must make Detroit’s roster or go through waivers to be sent down to the Griffins. He is a quality young defender with a penchant for sharp outlet passes. He won’t clear waivers.

All of that makes it more challenging to bring back soon-to-be-unrestricted free agent Shayne Gostisbehere next season. But Yzerman made it clear Friday that he plans to try.

“I’d like to see if we can figure out a way to do it,” Yzerman said. “He’s a valuable player for how we’re set up on the back end.”

continued plus talk on Detroit's UFAs.

If you missed Lalonde and Yzerman today, you can watch them in two separate videos below.

via the NHL PR department,

It started with the highly-anticipated debut of an 18-year-old No. 1 pick, was filled from startto finish by star-powered performances not seen in generations, spanned three countries (and four continents when including the preseason) and culminated with “sweet, beautiful, end of the season mayhem” that featured down-to-the-wire scoring and playoff races that had people calling 2023-24 the “greatest regular season in NHL history.”