NEW YORK (May 31, 2021) – NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman today upheld the eight-game suspension that was assessed to Colorado Avalanche forward Nazem Kadri by the Department of Player Safety for an illegal check to the head against St. Louis Blues defenseman Justin Faulk during Game 2 of the teams’ First Round Stanley Cup Playoff series on Wednesday, May 19.

Commissioner Bettman heard Kadri’s appeal of the original decision, assessed May 21, at a hearing on May 27.

The incident occurred at 6:26 of the third period. Kadri was assessed a match penalty for illegal check to the head.

from Adam Hill of the Las Vegas Review-Journal,

The NHL’s most dangerous top line combined for 183 points in the regular season to lead the Colorado Avalanche to the Presidents’ Trophy.

It only felt as if they matched that total Sunday night.

Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen combined for eight points in Colorado’s 7-1 victory over the Golden Knights in Game 1 of the West Division final at Ball Arena.

“We played a good game,” Landeskog said. “It doesn’t mean anything going into Game 2. We’ve just got to follow it up and do the same thing again.”

The three combined for nine goals and 24 points in the first-round series sweep of St. Louis and picked up where they left off Sunday. Colorado has outscored its opponents 27-8 in starting the postseason 5-0.

continued

via the NHL PR department,

Game 7 Trends

* The team that scores first is 136-46 (.747) in the 182 all-time Game 7s in the Stanley Cup Playoffs (1-0 in 2021).

* Home teams own a 106-76 (.582) advantage in the 182 all-time Game 7s in the Stanley Cup Playoffs (1-0 in 2021).

* Ninety-one of the 182 all-time Game 7s in the Stanley Cup Playoffs (50.0%) have been decided by a one-goal margin, including one of three in 2020.

* Forty-five Game 7s in the Stanley Cup Playoffs have required overtime (24.9%), including one of three in 2020. Home teams have a 23-22 edge in those contests (0-1 in 2020, played at a neutral site).

Instead of me giving you a history lesson on Memorial Day, I am going to ask you who do you honor on this day?

I honor my father, who was a company clerk under General George Patton in North Africa.

I also honor an uncle who was a pilot in WWII and another uncle who served in the Korean War. Until the day he passed, he refused to eat rice of any kind after returning home from Korea.

One more person to honor, my mother who worked at the Willow Run facility, helping build airplanes.

May they all rest in peace knowing they served their country proudly.

THREE HARD LAPS

* For just the second time in their storied, century-old rivalry, the Maple Leafs and Canadiens will face off in a winner-take-all Game 7.

* Nathan MacKinnon continued his scorching start to the Stanley Cup Playoffs as Colorado cruised to a 1-0 lead in its Second Round series.

* Barclay Goodrow scored another timely postseason game-winning goal as the Lightning also opened their Second Round series with a victory.

The Colorado Avalanche defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 7-1 tonight.

This of course happened in the third period of a blowout game.

via Sportsnet's YouTube page,

Ryan Reaves shoved Ryan Graves down to the ice and kneed him in the face after crosschecking Philipp Grubauer in the back of the head. Reaves was assessed a match penalty for 'intent to injure' and ejected from the game. Jonathan Marchessault also received two double minors on the play, leading to a 9-minute powerplay for the Avalanche.

added 2:59am on 5/31/21, game highlights are below...

As discussed post-game on HNIC, Kelly Hrudey felt Alex Nedeljkovic was expecting a shot up high, thus pulling away from the post on a shot along the ice.

Here's the GWG by Goodrow.

added 8:03pm, game highlights are below...

Two game 1's of the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin today.

Full schedule is below along with some information bits.

Also, feel free to comment on the game today.

Last night Elliotte Friedman mentioned Seth Jones does not plan on re-signing with Columbus when his contract expires at the end of next season.

Today, Aaron Portzline wrote about it.

Seth Jones (CapFriendly, modified NTC, 10 teams on his list he can't be traded to)) is 26 and is in the top pairing in Columbus. He plays in all situations.

So what would it take to trade for Jones. It is going to be expensive, he will be wanted around the league.

This is a situation where Yzerman could use the plethora of draft choices he has stockpiled. Of course, it would take much more than that.

from Aaron Portzline of The Athletic,

Blue Jackets president of hockey operations John Davidson declined to confirm reports that star defenseman Seth Jones has told the club he won’t be signing a contract extension with it this summer.

“There was an agreement to keep the discussions private,” Davidson said. “The Blue Jackets will continue to keep things private.”

But Davidson has made it abundantly clear that the Blue Jackets won’t take the same approach with Jones that they did two years ago with forward Artemi Panarin, who eventually signed with the New York Rangers.

“The No. 1 thing we’d like to do is keep Seth,” Davidson told The Athletic on Sunday. “He has every right in the world to leave if he wants to not extend the contract, but we’ll do what’s best for our team. We just want players who want to be here.

“This is a different scenario (than in 2019). We were in a position (then) where we thought we had a chance to make a pretty good run at (the Stanley Cup). Beating Tampa Bay (in the first round) was great. Losing to Boston in six … it was a good series, and they lost in seven in the Final.”

continued (paid)

from Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times,

Maroon now is playing for his third straight Stanley Cup, and everyone around him says it’s no coincidence that he has such bragging rights. Maroon is a role player, doing the blue-collar work on the Lightning’s fourth line. But If there are certain qualities that make a winning player — like a positive mentality and a reputation for being a hard worker and a good teammate — Maroon possesses those.

“I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I try to do the best I can to keep the guys motivated, keep them light, keep them laughing in the room,” Maroon said. “Just knowing our structure, our system and what works and what does not work so I try to just remind the guys as much as I can. I try to be a good leader. It’s been fun to watch our team grow the last two years and the way we’ve changed our game and the way we’ve competed. We know how we’re supposed to win and how we’re not supposed to win.”

Maroon gets a lot of attention for providing physicality. He is the team’s enforcer and doesn’t shy away from confrontations. He can be an agitator at times, but he’s always there to defend a teammate. And the grit Maroon provides is something the Lightning needed to win last year’s Stanley Cup.

more

from Ed Graney of the Las Vegas Review-Journal,

An interesting and yet perhaps meaningless stat: When a team in a first-round matchup of the Stanley Cup playoffs goes seven games to win a series and then meets a higher seed that swept its opponent, the lower seed is 5-0 in that next round.

It’s a potential reality for the Golden Knights.

They’re just not expected to do so.

Welcome to unfamiliar territory, the Knights entering their best-of-seven showdown with the Colorado Avalanche as an underdog in a series that begins with Game 1 on Sunday night at Ball Arena.

The Westgate sportsbook opened the Avalanche at -175 on Friday night. The market grew a tad higher Saturday....

The Knights have advanced to the playoffs in each of their four years and just once have not been favored to win a series. That came during the 2017 expansion season against Winnipeg in the Western Conference Final.

The Knights won in five games.

read on

from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- When Craig Patrick was general manager of the Penguins, he used to talk a lot about maximizing his opportunities. In other words, he knew that he had Lemieux, then Jaromir Jagr, then the spectacular deal for Ron Francis. “We had to find a way to surround Mario with better players,” Patrick said. “We only had so much time to get it right.” Ken Holland must feel that way in Edmonton with McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Darnell Nurse on his roster. There is a certain responsibility now to get this right, to build a contender around his superstars. And the world is far more impatient now than it was when Lemieux was coming up in Pittsburgh.

- Colorado vs. Vegas should be great. My concern with the Golden Knights — strength down the middle, even with Nazem Kadri missing from the Colorado lineup. The four Vegas centres with Tomas Nosek out: Chandler Stephenson, William Karlsson, Nicolas Roy and Patrick Brown.

- Ken Campbell, out after 25 years at The Hockey News and The Toronto Star, is a rare gem in the hockey writing world. He can write games, off-days, features, report boldly on contentious subjects, tackle issues, and offer fearless commentary. He takes names and sides: Somebody needs to put him to work.

- Dumb hockey cliches: The fourth game is the hardest to win. And the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win in sports

- I don’t think Ron MacLean did anything but trip over his own awkward words on Hockey Night In Canada. But everything, it seems, offends somebody these days and hardly a day goes by without someone apologizing for something.

a few more notes...

Here is quick review of those games.

Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press when asked what one area of improvement would help the Wings make the playoffs,

With all that said about needing more offense, the one player the Wings need most in order to start advancing to the playoffs and eventually emerge as a Cup contender is an elite defenseman. That’s why Yzerman’s first big move after taking control of the Wings was to use the sixth pick in the 2019 draft on Moritz Seider.

PUTTIN' ON THE (MO)RITZ:Why Moritz Seider's buzz is building with Wings ahead of 'a huge step up'

Seider is a 6-foot-4 207-pounder who shoots right and projects to be a No. 1 D-man in the NHL. This month he finished his season with Rögle in the Swedish Hockey League with 28 points in 41 games, followed by five points in 13 playoff games. He’s currently playing for his native Germany at the World Championships in Latvia, recording three points in the first four games.

Time will tell whether Seider, 20, can become a player who moves the needle on the rebuild. More immediately, the draft lottery is June 2, when the Wings have the sixth-best odds, or a 7.6% chance, of landing the first pick in the draft. They have a 15.4% chance of landing in the top two spots, and while they cannot select third, fourth of fifth, they can fall back as far as eighth.

more ($$$)

from Neil Besr of Newsday,

Boston’s "Perfection Line" lived up to its hype and more, led by David Pastrnak’s hat trick. But their most eye-opening statistic was this one: Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand combined for 19 shots on goal. Nineteen!

The Islanders had 22 as a team, and their sputtering top line of Leo Komarov, Mathew Barzal and Jordan Eberle totaled three.

Barry Trotz said he thought his first line was "OK," but he did not rule out changes in advance of Game 2 on Monday.

The Islanders seemed mildly annoyed when reminded by reporters of the Bruins’ shots-on-goal edge, but they did not deny they must improve.

"They’re a volume-shooting team," defenseman Andy Greene said. "They shoot from a lot of bad angles to try to create havoc and traffic in front there. But at the same time, it’s probably something we can do a little bit better."...

Defending the "Perfection Line" does not require perfection, but it will require far more than what the Islanders accomplished in Game 1.

Sorokin had another strong game in goal, but he gave up too many rebounds, and on several occasions lost track of where the puck was after saves. He figures to get the start in Game 2, and should.

As for Pastrnak and friends, the Islanders must give them far less room to operate.

"We’ve got to challenge them a little bit more," Trotz said. "We backed off . . . We have to tighten up there."

more

fromLance Hornby of the Toronto Su,

The Maple Leafs had a dream they were starting their first Stanley Cup journey since 1967.

It’s fast becoming a nightmare from 1987, the last and only Toronto team to blow a 3-1 series lead when the other 11 finished the job. And though they still have their emergency seventh game option against the Montreal Canadiens on Monday, the longest-serving members of his team have lost the last three since 2018 with everything on the table.

After the Leafs were in command of this series, they’re trying to avoid becoming the 30th team in NHL history to suffer such a fate. There has been role reversal as the course of the week, the Leafs going from a pro-active game plan that produced three straight victories to sitting back too much with little room for their skill players.

“I believe in this group,” insisted Nick Foligno. “You look around the room at our guys with the ability they have, I feel confident.

“This happens for a reason, Sometimes this is what catapults you.”

continued

from Luke Fox of Sportsnet,

Pucker factor.

That’s the military term for it.

How do you respond under duress? When the stakes are higher than the resale prices for the first fan-attended Canadian hockey game in 14-plus months? When history and past trauma and 2,500 Olé, Olé, Olés are cracking your amour if not your psyche?

continued

from James Mirtle of The Athletic,

THREE HARD LAPS

* Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored the overtime winner in front of 2,500 fans at Bell Centre as the Canadiens earned another wild win over the Maple Leafs and forced Game 7 in their First Round series. The winner-take-all showdown is scheduled for Monday at 7 p.m. ET (CBC, SN, TVAS, CNBC).

* David Pastrnak accounted for three of the Bruins’ five goals as Boston earned a Game 1 win with a near-capacity crowd in attendance at TD Garden.

* Two more Game 1s will be contested today with the Hurricanes-Lightning and Avalanche-Golden Knights meeting in a postseason series for the first time.

David Pasrnak with a hat trick. Bruins go up 1-0 over the NYI.

Video starts right before the OT goal but you can scroll through the whole game with Mr. Dangle's commentary tossed in.

NEW YORK (May 29, 2021) – The National Hockey League today announced the dates, starting times and national television coverage for the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs Second Round. Three of four Second Round matchups are set. The Winnipeg Jets’ Second Round opponent will be the winner of Game 7 of the First Round series between the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs, which has been set for 7 p.m. ET on Monday, in Toronto (Sportsnet, CBC, TVA Sports, CNBC). Below is the complete Second Round schedule, with scenarios listed if either Montreal or Toronto advances. All times listed are ET and subject to change.

Habs win 3-2 in OT.

added 11:09pm, a longer video of the OT goal is below. added 11:22pm, Game highlights are below.

Elliotte Friedman, Chris Johnston and host David Amber discussed- Tavares won't play a game 7 if there is one, still a process. No clear path for fans in Toronto or Winnipeg, Seth Jones told the Blue Jackets he won't re-sign in Columbus and Mike Sullivan expected back in Pittsburgh.

Jack Eichel will be finished with his rest period next week and the two sides will meet to see what direction they will take.

via Sportsnet,

note 1:11pm, posted this one way too early but it is what it is. I will move to top if needed closer to game time.

The Montreal Canadiens need a home (2500 fans allowed) win against the Toronto Maple Leafs to force a game 7 on Monday.

Meanwhile round 2 is here with game 1 between the New York Islanders and Boston Bruins.

Hope everyone has had a great day and now it is time for hockey.

Tonight's schedule is below.

original post was on 5/28/21 at 9:06am 5/28/21, just moving this up to top of page.

With two series undecided at this point, I will give you the option of choosing the possible matchups thus assuring you will have all your bases covered.

With the second scheduled to start before the first round is complete, this is the only fair way to do this.

How did you do in the first round?

Time to make your picks and they should be in by 8:00pm ET Saturday.. Bonus points if you get the number of games it will take to win the series. If you did not participate in round 1, no problem, feel free to start with round 2.

East

New York Islanders vs. Boston Bruins

Central

Carolina Hurricanes vs. Tampa Bay Lightning

West (make both picks or wait until Wild/Knights game is over late tonight)

Colorado Avalanche vs. Vegas Golden Knights

Colorado Avalanche vs. Minnesota Wild

Canadian (pick both scenarios, game 7 game 6 Leafs/Canadiens is Saturday night at 7:30pm ET)

Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Winnipeg Jets

Winnipeg Jets vs. Montreal Canadiens