NEW YORK (June 2, 2021) – The 2021 NHL Draft Lottery, used to determine the order of selection for picks 1-16 in the first round of the 2021 NHL Draft, will be conducted at NHL Network’s Secaucus, N.J., studio tonight – Wednesday, June 2 – at 7 p.m. ET.

The event will be broadcast live on NBCSN and NHL Network in the U.S. as well as Sportsnet and TVA Sports in Canada.

The general manager of the winning team will be available to media via Zoom during the first intermission of Game 1 of the Second Round series between the Winnipeg Jets and Montreal Canadiens (details below).

If you missed it in an earlier post, the odds for the lottery is listed below.

Also, The Word on Woodward is streaming a draft lottery show. I am not going to embed it but you can watch it here.

added 7:17pm, Wings wil pick 6th in the NHL Draft.

added 7:24pm, 1. Buffalo, 2. Seattle, 3. Anaheim

from Kristen Shilton of TSN,

The Maple Leafs have run out of excuses for their postseason shortcomings.

Perhaps it’s because losing has become all too familiar. When Toronto fell to Montreal in Game 7 of its first-round playoff series on Monday, it was the fourth time in five years that the Leafs had been jettisoned from the opening round, and third time it happened in a decisive Game 7.

The Leafs were coming off an impressive regular season where they won the North Division, and were facing a Montreal team they finished 18 points ahead of in the standings. Toronto had a 3-1 series lead over the Canadiens too, and then blew it in stunning fashion.

“The end result is terrible, it's not what we wanted,” said Mitch Marner on Wednesday during the Leafs' locker clean-out. “This year we had the talent, we had the will, we had the fight. It just didn't come through, and it’s always the same words at the end of the year. We had three cracks at it, and we’re all very disappointed because we had such high confidence that we were a team that was meant to do a lot more.”

No one has taken more heat in the wake of Toronto’s latest loss than Marner and Auston Matthews. Playing together on the Leafs’ top line, the duo produced only one goal and nine points through seven games, and they were a non-factor offensively in Toronto’s final three losses with a paltry three assists combined.

It was baffling to see the two rendered so ineffective, given how strong their regular-season performances were.

continued

TORONTO (June 2, 2021) – The National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) announced today the three finalists for the 2020-21 Ted Lindsay Award (TLA) are forwards Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers. The TLA is presented annually “to the most outstanding player in the NHL,” as voted by fellow members of the NHLPA.

Crosby is seeking his fourth TLA, while McDavid is vying for his third such honour and Matthews is a first-time finalist. All three players led their respective teams to the playoffs, with Crosby leading his team in points for the 11^th time in his career, McDavid winning his third Art Ross Trophy and Matthews winning his first Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy.

The 2020-21 TLA recipient will be announced during the Stanley Cup Final (exact date TBD). Formerly known as the Lester B. Pearson Award, the TLA is the namesake of the first president of the original Players’ Association and NHLPA pioneer, Ted Lindsay. This season marks the 50^th season of the award.

The three TLA finalists received the most votes from their fellow players based on their 2020-21 regular-season campaigns, and are listed in alphabetical order as follows:

via the YouTube page of the Detroit Red Wings,

Today's episode features an in-depth look at tonight's NHL Draft Lottery and an update on the Red Wings’ latest entry-level signings in Wyatt Newpower, Jonatan Berggren and Eemil Viro.

Also, Seattle Kraken broadcaster and Detroit native Everett Fitzhugh joins us to discuss the Kraken, the Expansion Draft and NHL Playoffs.

Stream is schedule to start at 12pm, watch it below.

From week 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

Most franchises just exist, in their own markets, within their own fan base, in their own quiet way, but it seems so much of the hockey world is engaged and rather obsessed with what is right and what is wrong and what is next for the Maple Leafs.

The Leafs spend more than other teams on their operations. They overpay their players. They coddle them. They provide them with layers of support. They have more middle management with titles than almost any team in hockey. And they get more coverage, locally, nationally, especially on the two sports networks in Canada, than anyone else in the game.

So they are liked and loved and loathed by those who work in and around the game — and they are watched and studied, like it’s the latest release from Amazon, and by the way, there is a documentary coming out this season, one of the really dumb ideas to be part of for a team that doesn’t need any more dumb ideas.

This is the time of year to scream. This is another body blow to the solar plexus. And this is complicated, which makes it all the more confusing.

Normally, you look at the upper management of the team and wonder who pays the price for the latest Leafs failure. Isn’t that how it usually works? That’s what hockey people want to know.

Who’s getting fired and who’s getting traded and whose contracts aren’t being renewed?

more

from Mike G. Morreale of NHL.com,

The 2021 NHL Draft Lottery will set the order for the first 15 picks of the 2021 NHL Draft when it is held Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, TVA, NHLN).

The first round of the draft will be held July 23, with rounds 2-7 on July 24.

The Buffalo Sabres, who finished last in the regular-season standings, hold the best odds (16.6 percent) of winning the No. 1 pick. The Anaheim Ducks have the second-best odds (12.1 percent). The expansion Seattle Kraken, who begin play next season, have the third-best odds (10.3 percent), equal to the New Jersey Devils, who finished with the third-worst record in the regular season.

The Kraken have the same lottery placement as the Vegas Golden Knights ahead of their first season in 2017-18, and are guaranteed to pick no lower than No. 5 in the first round.

The odds for the 16 teams that failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs are based on inverse order of the regular-season standings. To accommodate the addition of Seattle, the odds of the 15 other teams participating in the lottery were reduced proportionally from the odds used in the 2020 NHL Draft Lottery.

The NHL announced March 23 that two drawings will be held, to determine the top two picks in the draft. Since 2016, the first three selections had been determined by the lottery. The change was made to reduce the likelihood of the team with the worst record dropping in the draft order. That means the Sabres will pick no worse than No. 3 in the 2021 draft.

The Arizona Coyotes will be part of the drawings but forfeited their first-round pick because of violations of the NHL Combine Testing Policy during the 2019-20 season. The Coyotes also had to forfeit their second-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft.

If Arizona wins either lottery drawing, a redraw will be conducted.

continued

Draft Lottery odds are below.

from Eduardo Encina of the Tampa Bay Times,

As the regular season was winding down last month, and the Lightning were losing leverage for home-ice advantage in the playoffs, it didn’t worry anyone inside the Tampa Bay locker room.

For good reason. The Lightning won the Stanley Cup isolated and without fans in the bubble a year ago. So far this postseason, they’ve gone into two road arenas and silenced the opposing team’s fans.

The Lightning took control of their first-round series win over the Panthers by taking the opening two games in Sunrise, and after Tuesday’s 2-1 win over the Hurricanes at PNC Arena, they’ve done the same against the Central Division champions in the second round.

They fed off the energy of the largest crowds they’ve played in front of since the pandemic began — two nights of near-capacity 16,299 raucous fans in Raleigh.

“There were a couple points when if we had won (a few) games at the end of the season, we would have had home ice against Florida,” said Lightning forward Alex Killorn, whose second-period goal broke a scoreless tie. “And we weren’t too worried about it in a sense because we knew that, regardless of home or away, we’ve had enough experience in the playoffs that it wasn’t going to faze us. These crowds are great; they’re actually super loud and that energy can work both ways. It can get us going, too.”

continued

THREE HARD LAPS

* Andrei Vasilevskiy backstopped the Lightning to their second 2-0 series lead of the 2021 postseason.

* The Presidents’ Trophy-winning Avalanche look to join rare company with a six-game streak to begin a playoff year.

* The Jets and Canadiens will commence their Second Round series with 500 fully-vaccinated healthcare workers in attendance.

The Lightning defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 to go up 2-0 in their series. Games 3 & 4 (Thursday/Saturday) are in Tampa.

The game-winning goal is below.

added 10:46pm, Below are the game highlights.

Only one game tonight, the Tampa Bay Lightning face the Carolina Hurricanes. The Lightning can go up 2-0 with another road win.

Watch on NBCSN, SN & TVAS.

Below, numbers before game 2.

Two minutes and nine ticks long.

Get ready for some great hockey.

NEW YORK (June 1, 2021) – Boston Bruins forward Jake DeBrusk has been fined $5,000, the maximum allowable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, for cross-checking New York Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield during Game 2 of the teams’ Second Round series in Boston on Monday, May 31, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced today.

The incident occurred at 13:04 of the third period.

The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

Watch below.

Bob Duff, formerly of the Windsor Star, will also be joining Kevin Allen.

NEW YORK (June 1, 2021) – Marc-Andre Fleury of the Vegas Golden Knights, Philipp Grubauer of the Colorado Avalanche and Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning are the three finalists for the 2020-21 Vezina Trophy, awarded “to the goaltender adjudged to be the best at his position,” the National Hockey League announced today.

NHL general managers submitted ballots for the Vezina Trophy at the conclusion of the regular season, with the top three vote-getters designated as finalists. The winners of the 2021 NHL Awards presented by Bridgestone will be revealed during the Stanley Cup Semifinals and Stanley Cup Final, with exact dates, format and times to be announced.

Following are the finalists for the Vezina Trophy, in alphabetical order:

A bit over 7 minutes to watch.

Just over two minutes long.

from Tara Sullivan of the Boston Globe,

Playoff hockey guarantees that nothing comes easy, even if the Bruins had started to make it look that way.

One bad mistake and one overtime breakaway brought an end to their era of good feeling Monday night, a 4-3 overtime loss to the Islanders ending their five-game postseason winning streak and knotting their second-round playoff series at a game apiece.

From a strong first period when it seemed good feeling would hold, across an ugly second period when it seemed all hope was lost, through a resurgent third period when hope was rallied again, it was an overtime mistake by young defenseman Jeremy Lauzon that punctured the Bruins balloon for good.

Lauzon’s “ill-advised” (Bruce Cassidy’s description) cross-ice pass to nobody was picked off by Casey Cizikas and deposited at 14:48 of the OT into Tuukka Rask’s net, a mistake that brought another of playoff hockey’s truisms to life for the Bruins.

It’s not a series until the home team loses.

This is definitely a series now.

contiued

from Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette,

One of the great traditions in playoff hockey is the exchange of handshakes after the final game of a series and, as the TV cameras recorded the moment after the Canadiens’ series-clinching 3-1 win Monday, you couldn’t miss Auston Matthews as he paused to exchange words of congratulations with Phil Danault and Carey Price.

The Canadiens rallied from a 3-1 deficit to the win the best-of-seven North Division semifinal in seven games and Danault and Price played the key roles in thwarting Matthews and his linemate Mitch Marner.

Matthews came into the series as the NHL’s top goal-scorer but he managed only one goal in the series and he failed to earn a point in four of the seven games. As for Marner, he’s more of a playmaker but he collected only four assists and hasn’t scored a goal in his last 18 playoff games.

“I hope everyone realizes how important Phil is and how good of a series he had,” said Brendan Gallagher. “I talked about Matthews and Marner and how difficult they are to play against, Phil had that matchup in the series. We’ve got Pricey back there and we’ve got (Jeff Petry, Shea Weber and Joel Edmundson) going up against them, but Phil is equally as big in that. I know he realizes, and I hope everyone else does, just how important he was to us in the series.”

Price was at his best in the three games in which his team faced elimination, but it was no surprise when he deflected attention from himself.

continued

All Leafs, all the time? Not here, one post, call it a Leafs wrap if you so desire.

from Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun,

They’ll be remembered, not in a good way, as possibly the best Maple Leafs team never to win a playoff series.

Despite changing the blueprint to end a streak of first-round failures, Toronto is once again an early casualty. For the fifth time in the lifespan of the core — Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and Morgan Rielly — they were on the wrong side of the handshake line when they couldn’t seal the deal.

The Montreal Canadiens go on to meet the Winnipeg Jets, who’ve waited an extra week as the Leafs agonizingly blew a 3-1 series lead, culminating Monday at Scotiabank Arena in a 3-1 loss to the fourth-seeded Habs.

“It’s really hard to put into words, we’re obviously devastated,” said coach Sheldon Keefe, who was saving any post-game speech to the players for exit meetings later this week. “We thought we were capable of a lot more.”

continued

from Luke Fox of Sportsnet,

Dubas has forever preached process, that progress is not linear the way fans would prefer it. In other words, that a team which hasn’t won a single series since YouTube was invented could suddenly win four one spring. If you keep betting on talent.

Eager to win during the Matthews-Marner prime, Dubas has also been the spendy type, both in draft capital and literal capital. (The Leafs used up four of their seven 2021 draft picks on this run.) He’s identified needs and hunted them down.

Eight Maple Leafs who dressed Game 7 will be unrestricted free agents. Three more (David Rittich, Ben Hutton, Riley Nash

Of that group, Jason Spezza, the best bang-for-your-buck veteran in the league, is worth re-signing. Dubas should take a run at Zach Hyman, too, although the power forward will have tempting suitors elsewhere. Bogosian, 30, certainly earned his $1 million. Would he take that sum short-term again?

more

from Kristen Shilton of TSN,

Poor Steve Danlge, a life-long fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs. The rant starts around the 1:19 mark and goes for about 1/2 hour.

THREE HARD LAPS

* The Canadiens won a historic Game 7 against the Maple Leafs to complete their rally from a 3-1 series deficit, the third time they've done so in a best-of-seven.

* The Islanders pulled even in their Second Round series via an overtime winner by Casey Cizikas.

* The Hurricanes will look to even their Second Round series on home ice tonight against the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Here's the overtime goal by Casey Cizikas.

added 11:27pm, Game highlights are below.

NEW YORK (May 31, 2021) – The National Hockey League today confirmed the matchups, dates, starting times and national television coverage for the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs Second Round. Starting times and broadcast details for games listed as TBD will be announced as they are determined. All times listed are ET and subject to change.