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

from Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe,

According to Babineau, currently working on a book to commemorate the WHA’s founding in 1972, Topps/O-Pee-Chee returned his original Gretzky transparency sometime in 1979 or 1980. He’s convinced he has it in storage, tucked away in the bottom of a box, but he has yet to find it. His cut remains whatever’s left of that $17 fee.

“A roll of film in those days went for $5,” he recalled. “Then it was maybe another $6 to get the roll developed. OK, so now you’re at $11, for a payout of $17. And don’t forget, you were putting out $11 with no guarantee that you’d sell a single thing. Crazy!”

Decades after shooting the picture used for the coveted card, Babineau met Gretzky again and reminded him he was the guy who took his rookie picture. They were both in Sunrise, Fla., where Jaromir Jagr, then with the Panthers, had moved second to Gretzky on the NHL’s all-time scoring list.

“Really?” said Gretzky, when Babineau informed him he took the picture.

“And then he says, ‘OK, where was I playing?’ ”

Babineau fast forwarded through chapter and verse … WHA … Springfield … season wrapping up … Gordie Howe in the Whalers’ lineup.

“And he just looked at me, smiled,” said Babineau, “stuck out his hand and said, ‘You win.’ ”

Meanwhile, the $3.75 million sales price had Babineau factoring time spent ferreting through storage boxes this Memorial Day weekend. He is certain he still has the original transparency, and hopes maybe there’s a way to claw back a few more bucks from that long ago freelance gig.

more plus other hockey topics...

RIGA, Latvia – Conor Garland (Scituate, Mass.) and Tage Thompson (Orange, Conn.) each scored and Jake Oettinger (Lakeville, Minn.) contributed 22 saves to help the U.S. Men’s National Team to a 2-1 victory over Norway here tonight in preliminary round play at the 2021 IIHF Men’s World Championship. It was the fourth straight win at the world championship for Team USA.

Team USA is 4-0-0-1 (W-OTW-OTL-L) and will face Germany on Monday (May 31) in its sixth of seven preliminary round games. Opening faceoff is set for 9:15 a.m. ET and the game can be seen live on NHL Network.

“All the credit to the guys, this was a good hockey game," said Jack Capuano, head coach of the U.S. Men's National Team. "We knew coming in that this would be a tight game. Norway is a good team and made it tough. We’ve got to improve internally, control the penalties and give ourselves more opportunities moving forward."

from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

- So a changing of the postseason guard in the East, where the Penguins and Caps both failed to reach the second round for the third straight year. That had not happened since 2004 through 2007. They’re both graying, they’re both fraying and there was nothing either Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin could do about it.

And by the way, Tom Wilson never looked so insignificant as he did in Washington’s disorderly five-game retreat against Boston, the winger whom— altogether now — “everyone in the league would want on their team” chipping in with a single goal and a single assist while serving as a bystander to most of the action. Garnet Hathaway made more of an impression against the B’s....

- Do you know why else Connor McDavid is hockey’s version of Mike Trout? Because just as Trout decided to tie himself to a losing organization by signing a 12-year deal with the Angels in 2019, McDavid went all in with the Oilers, signing an eight-year deal with the Oilers in 2018.

So instead of being eligible to hit the open market after one more season, No. 97 has five more years coming up in Edmonton. As if, even in a flat cap world, McDavid would not have been able to match/exceed the $12.5 Million per he is earning with the Oilers

more on the first topic plus other notes too...

via the NHL PR department,

Series Scenarios

* Teams that take a 1-0 lead in a best-of-seven hold an all-time series record of 495-224 (.688) including a 5-2 mark so far in the 2021 First Round.

* Teams that hold a 3-2 lead in a best-of-seven own an all-time series record of 328-87 (.790), including a 4-0 mark so far in 2021.

Did You Know?

* This is the 10th day in the NHL’s expansion era (since 1967-68) to include games from different rounds. Ironically, the only other instances in the last 47 years involved the two clubs opening the Second Round today – on April 27, 2016, the Islanders opened the Second Round while the First Round continued and on April 24, 1983, the Bruins ended the Division Finals hours before the Conference Finals began.

* The remaining seven dates in the expansion era to include games from different rounds all saw contests from both the Quarterfinals and Semifinals (April 18, 1968; April 10, 1969; April 13, 1969; April 18, 1971; April 16, 1972; April 12, 1973; and April 18, 1974).

If Bill Zito was the general manager who signed Sergei Bobrovsky to his massive contract, and if head coach Joel Quenneville wasn’t one of the most powerful coaches in the game, no way $70-million investment the two-time Vezina winner is a healthy scratch for back-to-back elimination games.

This is an embarrassing situation. And in a flat-cap world with cost-effective Spencer Knight here, it’s difficult to see a way out.

Yes, GMs can buy players out or attach incentive and trade bad contracts.

For example, Toronto’s Kyle Dubas gave Carolina a first-round pick to take one year of Patrick Marleau’s paperwork off his hands.

What’s the going rate to take five years and $46.5 million in real dollars owed ($19.5 million of which is signing bonuses) for a goalie with a .906 save percentage?

Luke Fox of Sportsnet who has more weekly observations...

from Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun,

Want to attend the game between the Maple Leafs and Canadiens on Saturday night?

Drive to Montreal, convince Quebec border guards it’s essential travel, and then maybe sell your car once there to pay for some of the coveted 2,500 tickets for the first NHL game in Canada with fans in regular seats since the pandemic began 14 months ago.

Enough die-hards in Leafs Nation have the coin to make that happen. Hey, it’s merely a do-or-die game in the two teams’ first playoff meeting in 42 years, forced by the Habs’ season-saving 4-3 overtime win in Toronto on Thursday. Those people will pay for a chance to finally see a game live again, in hopes of witnessing their side win its first series in 17 years, having never beaten the Habs in the playoffs since 1967 and only eliminating their arch-rivals in their barn four times in 103 years.

As of Friday, the price for a single seat on Ticketmaster was in the $8,000 range with service charges. When the Canadiens first put the seats up as Quebec partially lifted its public events ban, they had three modest price ranges, $190, $260 and $330. The club let a few health care workers watch Games 3 and 4 from private boxes.

continued

from Nicholas J. Cotsonika of NHL.com,

The Minnesota Wild had chips on their shoulders, and they put images of casino chips on the sleeves of gray T-shirts for their series against the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup First Round.

In the middle of one chip was the Wild logo. In the middle of the other were two words:

"ALL IN"

The Wild are out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs after a 6-2 loss to the Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Friday, and it hurts.

They were 5-1-2 against the Golden Knights in the regular season, forced a Game 7 after falling behind 3-1 in the best-of-7 series, and still failed to advance past the first round for the first time since 2015. Forward Zach Parise faces an uncertain future.

Yet this is a team on the rise that can use this experience to improve.

"I think we all felt like we could beat these guys," defenseman Ryan Suter said. "Everyone else might think one thing, but the group of guys that we had, we felt confident in ourselves. We're pretty disappointed that it's ended the way it has."

continued

THREE HARD LAPS

* The home crowd left happy – and with fewer hats – following the first-ever Stanley Cup Playoffs Game 7 played in Las Vegas as the Golden Knights advanced to the Second Round.

* An NHL game in Canada will be played in front of fans for the first time in 14 and a half months as the Canadiens welcome both the Maple Leafs and a crowd of 2,500 to the Bell Centre for Game 6 on Hockey Night in Canada. Montreal will aim to force Game 7 against Toronto, a showdown seen only once before – nearly 60 years ago.

* For the first time since 2016, games in different playoff rounds will be contested on the same day as the Islanders visit the Bruins for Game 1 of their Second Round series.

VGK beat the Minnesota Wild 6-2 to advance to round 2 to play the Colorado Avalanche.

A lot of people where looking forward to an Avs/VGK matchup, now they have it.

added 11:59am,

Handshakes

added 12:17 on 5/29/21, below are the game highlights.

The Vegas Golden Knights host the Minnesota Wild with the winner moving on to round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The victorious team will play the Colorado Avalanche.

Buckle up!

Watch on NBCSN , CBC, SN, TVAS, ATTSN-RM, BSN & BSWI+

from Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette,

Tomas Tatar doesn’t want the relationship to end.

For the last three seasons, Tatar’s regular linemates with the Canadiens have been Phillip Danault and Brendan Gallagher. But when the Canadiens play the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 6 of their first-round playoff series Saturday at the Bell Centre (7:30 p.m., CBC, SN, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM) it could be the last time they ever play together.

The Canadiens are facing elimination for the second straight game after winning Game 5 by a 4-3 score in overtime Thursday night in Toronto. Tatar and Danault can both become unrestricted free agents at the end of the season and it seems unlikely they would both return with the Canadiens already up tight against the NHL salary cap. It’s also possible both of them will be gone.

“Honestly, I just want to enjoy every shift with Brendan and Phillip,” Tatar said Friday. “You never know when it’s going to be our last one. Both of us contracts expiring. NHL is a business. You can’t keep everyone. You have to make some decisions that have to be made at the end of the season. I had one of the best three years of my career, for sure, playing with these two guys. We were so close on and off the ice. Honestly, I just want to play as long as possible with them. So hopefully we can give it all tomorrow and we can play another game in this series. I just want to enjoy it with them. They are my great friends and we have become pretty close friends. So to me that’s something very special that was built here in Montreal with this team and I will probably never forget it.

continued

NEW YORK (May 27, 2021) -- The Vegas Golden Knights and Minnesota Wild will decide their First Round series Friday in the first Game 7 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs (9 p.m., ET, NBCSN, SN, CBC, TVAS). The Honda West Division rivals will meet at T-Mobile Arena, providing fans in Las Vegas their first-ever opportunity at witnessing one of sports' most compelling dramas.

The winner of Friday's game will advance to the Second Round and a meeting with the Colorado Avalanche to determine the Honda West Division's representative in the Stanley Cup Semifinals.

from TSN,

On Dec. 2, 1995, star goaltender Patrick Roy was left in net for nine goals in an 11-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings and went toe-to-toe with head coach Mario Tremblay in an infamous moment in the 112-year history of the Montreal Canadiens.

After 26 years of not speaking to one another, the former Canadiens teammates and friends finally came together to collaborate with Uber Eats to launch the "Tonight, I’ll be eating" campaign, helping restaurants in Quebec as the province works its way out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

TSN’s John Lu had the opportunity to sit down with both Canadiens legends to talk about how the opportunity to reconcile came about.

Watch and/or read the transcript at TSN.

from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

And the Leafs were a step slow, lacking playoff urgency, lacking speed and emotion, losing too many puck battles, not nearly competitive enough to eliminate the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night when they should have.

And still they had a chance late in regulation to win the series and an opportunity to come back and win in overtime.

That they lost in the first minute of the fourth period was really an indication of all that was lacking much of the night for a Leafs team that got down 3-0, fought back hard to tie the game at 3-3, then got caught on a poor Alex Galchenyuk turnover that turned into rare 2-on-0 breakaway in overtime, and gave Nick Suzuki one of the easiest and most important goals he will ever score.

This may be a new Maple Leafs team — and it is — but this was an old Leafs habit coming back to haunt them. The Leafs could have knocked Columbus out in the bubble last summer: They had to win Game 5. They didn’t.

read on

from Robby Stanley at NHL.com,

Sebastian Aho scored his second goal of the game at 1:06 of overtime to give the Carolina Hurricanes a series-ending 4-3 win against the Nashville Predators in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup First Round at Bridgestone Arena on Thursday.

Aho redirected a shot from Jaccob Slavin from the top of the left circle.

"I don't think we played, especially in the first two periods, and obviously Nashville, they were good, but I don't think we were quite there," Aho said. "The third period was an unbelievable effort through the lineup, and obviously [overtime] as well. It just shows that there's no quit in this team. We have that confidence that we're still in the game, even though we were down going into the third."...

Carolina scored three straight goals after being down 3-1. The last four games of the series went to overtime.

"It's been like that all year," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "We're playing games that aren't great, we look like we're probably out of it and then they just get it together. You've got a special group here. I mean, I know every coach would say that about their team, but we're proving it over and over and over. That's special."

more

from Paul Skrbina of The Tennessean,

Hynes hasn't had time to reflect on the ride to the postseason, but he was sure of a couple of things before Game 6.

One was that his team, after a lot of soul searching, had found its identity, that it had become "hard to play against.

"The confidence comes from the process ... that we've done it numerous times throughout the year. That's what the recipe is now," he said.

Except the recipe calls for more. Some changes and decisions will be made in the coming months of the offseason.

Will Rinne return to Nashville or go home to play in Finland or retire?

Will Mikael Granlund be back?

What to do with Duchene and/or Johansen?

Is Viktor Arvidsson, who missed the final four games of the series with an injury, part of the plans for the future?

These questions will have answers sooner or later.

"We're close," Johansen said. "We're very close."

more