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

from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

Bernier is coming off a three-year, $9 million contract. Thomas Greiss, who rebounded from a poor start to post a .912 save percentage and 2.70 GAA in 34 games, was signed last October for two years, $7.2 million.

There are multiple goaltenders who could hit the open market this offseason, but high-profile ones such as Tuukka Rask (Boston Bruins) and Pekka Rinne (Nashville Predators) are either likely to re-sign with their previous teams or make more sense for a team in win-now mode.

If Yzerman wants to bring in somebody younger, Chris Driedger could be an interesting choice. He’s 27, and coming off a two-year, $1.7 million contract. The 6-foot-4 Driedger spent the past two seasons with the Florida Panthers, backing up Sergei Bobrovsky. Driedger went 14-6-3 in in 23 starts with a .927 save percentage and 2.07 GAA in 23 starts this season. He played three games in the playoffs, posting a .871 save percentage and 3.70 GAA, after Bobrovsky failed to impress in Game 1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Re-signing Bernier would seem to be the safest route, perhaps on a short-term deal in the $3 million range. Bernier has developed the mental toughness to play on a team in a rebuild, able to block out losing games in a way he wasn’t able to when he was with the rebuilding Toronto Maple Leafs from 2013-16. He was traded during the summer that the Leafs — the NHL's worst team in 2015-16 — won the draft lottery and were able to add Auston Matthews, transforming the franchise.

more ($$$)

THREE HARD LAPS

* The Hurricanes scored three unanswered goals – bookended by markers from Sebastian Aho – to rally from a 3-1 deficit in Game 6 and earn a series-clinching overtime win over the Predators.

* The Canadiens capped a wild game at Scotiabank Arena with a goal just 59 seconds into overtime to cut their First Round deficit to 3-2. The series shifts back to Bell Centre for Game 6, where 2,500 fans will be in attendance as Montreal looks to avoid elimination again.

* The Golden Knights and Wild will contest the first Game 7 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs tonight at T-Mobile Arena.

The Canes defeated the Nashville Predators 4-3 to win the series 4-2.

Carolina will now face the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Post-game videos coming, either very soon or in the morning.

added 12:36am,

OT goal is below.

added 1:02am, OT goal again and handshkes in one video, watch below. added1:11am, Game highlights below.

"The Dangler" (my nickname for him, was doing live coverage of the Leafs/Habs game while watching the game via YouTube.

Here is his reaction to the Montreal OT goal. You can watch the full game with him by scrolling back about 3 hours.

First the OT game winning goal, below are the game highlights.

Two possible elimination games tonight. The Montreal Canadiens are in Toronto to face the Leafs and must win to extend the series to 6 games.

The Carolina Hurricanes are on the road to play the Nashville Predators and with a win tonight, they will win the series 4-2.

NEW YORK (May 27, 2021) – The National Hockey League today announced the Second Round of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs will begin this weekend.

Game 1 of the Second Round series between the MassMutual East Division New York Islanders and Boston Bruins is set for 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 29, in Boston.

Game 1 of the Second Round series between the Honda West Division Colorado Avalanche and the winner of Friday’s First Round Game 7 between the Minnesota Wild and Vegas Golden Knights is set for 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 30, in Denver.

Both games will be broadcast on NBC in the United States. Canadian broadcast information for the games as well as the complete 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs Second Round schedule will be announced when available.

If necessary, starting times and national broadcast information for additional First Round games will be announced following tonight’s games.

Just short of 3 1/2 minutes long.

from Ken Dryden at The Washington Post,

It was an awful sight. The play during a first-round game of the Stanley Cup playoffs last week seemed routine — Toronto Maple Leafs center and captain John Tavares was checked by Montreal Canadiens defenseman Ben Chiarot. But as Tavares fell, Montreal’s Corey Perry, speeding toward the play, jumped to avoid Tavares but instead struck him hard with a knee to the head.

Everyone instantly knew it was bad. Every player, every coach, everyone watching at home. The Toronto arena, empty of fans, somehow got even quieter. No one could do anything but wait, in fear and hope, as medical personnel attended to Tavares.

The players’ somber reaction to the injury seemed so respectful, so right. How would these teams — historic rivals facing each other in the playoffs for the first time in 42 years — now get back to playing? Then came the answer. The Leafs’ Nick Foligno, by word or gesture, said to Perry, the player who had accidentally injured his teammate: Let’s go. They dropped their gloves and the fight began.

It was so wrong. So tone-deaf to the moment and to both teams’ initial response.

The Code.

continued

NEW YORK (May 27, 2021) – Owen Power (Mississauga, Ont.), a 6’ 6” defenseman from the University of Michigan, ranks No. 1 among North American skaters for the 2021 NHL Draft as the NHL Central Scouting Bureau today released its final rankings. Power is one of three players from the University of Michigan to be ranked among the top six, alongside No. 3 center Kent Johnson (Port Moody, B.C.) and No. 6 center Matthew Beniers (Hingham, Mass.). No NCAA team has ever had three players selected in the first round of the NHL Draft in the same year.

“For the University of Michigan, this season was a once in a lifetime occurrence where three of the best prospects in the NHL Draft class competed on the same team,” said NHL Director of Central Scouting Dan Marr. “Each plays a different position and style, and all contributed as freshmen. Credit to Coach Mel Pearson for placing them in leadership roles to contribute and develop at the NCAA level. He helped guide them to be the best they could be.”

Rounding out the top-five North American skaters are No. 2 Mason McTavish (Carp, Ont.), a center for Peterborough of the Ontario Hockey League who played on loan with Olten of the Swiss second division in 2020-21; No. 4 Luke Hughes (Manchester, N.H.), a defenseman from Team USA’s Under-18 National Team Development Program and the brother of recent high-end selections Quinn Hughes (No. 7 by VAN in 2018) and Jack Hughes (No. 1 by NJD in 2019); and No. 5 Dylan Guenther (Edmonton, Alta.), a forward from Edmonton of the Western Hockey League.

Islanders/Penguins, Lightning/Panthers and Islanders/Golden Knights are up first, followed by more of the same teams, highlighting the goalies is below.

ffrom Michael Traikos of the National Post,

What the Foster Hewitt is happening?

Toronto and Montreal had not played each other in the playoffs since 1979. And the thinking was that the time apart would add fuel to a fire that has been burning for more than four decades.

We expected raw emotion, pent-up passion and bad blood. Hatred. More than anything, we expected a close-fought, seven-game series that would take us back to the glory days of Bower and Keon and Dryden and Lafleur, back when the two Original Six franchises divided the country’s fandom.

Instead, with the Leafs leading the Habs 3-1 in a one-sided series that already feels like it’s over, the hockey has been kind of boring and uneventful.

There have been no overtimes. No stirring comebacks. Aside from the nasty — and accidental — knee to the head that John Tavares received in the series opener, there’s been no bloodshed or anything resembling hatred.

Honestly, we waited 42 years for this?

continued

from Dave Hyde of the South Florida Sun-Sentnel,

It was a good series, a fun series — a season in a series, really. Game 1′s thriller was a reason to fall in love with hockey. Down 2-0, if the Panthers continued quickly out the door they’d have squandered all the good edge and positive energy of their regular season.

Even pulling to within 2-1, there were lingering questions about what it all meant. Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky was benched, then returned — and then was benched again in Game 4. He’s never played like the goalie with the NHL’s richest contract.

That money looked to weigh down the offseason, and maybe the next season or two, with five years left on a $70 million deal.

And then Game 5 happened.

Rookie Spencer Knight’s performance didn’t just make Bobrovsky’s story a secondary concern — one more for General Manager Bill Zito to solve this offseason than anything else. If possible. If someone wants to take that contract.

As it is, Knight became the future of the franchise. It seems crazy to anoint him that after he’s only played six NHL games. But sometimes you know. Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson needed two weeks of summer practice to make a fifth-round pick in Zach Thomas his middle linebacker and cut the veteran Jack Del Rio. Jack McKeon took one September of Miguel Cabrera and said, “He’s in the lineup for as long as I’m here.”

Knight looks to be that guy.

more

from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

In a lot of ways, these Islanders remind me of the 1960s Maple Leafs. Well, except for those four Stanley Cups within six years, that is. Or at least so far, wink, wink.

Those Toronto teams were not only built for the playoffs, they were better in the postseason than during the regular season. A top seed only once in their four championship seasons, their unique slow-it-down, tight-checking approach to the 70-game regular season prepared them perfectly for the playoffs.

And so it is on the Island, where the precepts of both executive-in-chief Lou Lamoriello and head coach Barry Trotz do not bend to serve the flavor of the day. From Day 1, it’s all about grinding, being responsible without the puck and taking hits to make plays. It is about playing a demanding style under which a straight line is the shortest distance taken between two points.

It is about playing playoff hockey from beginning to end.

The Islanders are a quarter of the way to their first Cup since 1983 following their first Coliseum closeout of a series since 1993’s six-game, first-round victory over Washington ended with Pierre Turgeon taking that dishonorable hit from Dale Hunter that likely doused the team’s Cup hopes.

continued

from Ed Graney of the Las Vegas Review-Journal,

Consistency is most always a valued trait in sports, but not this kind: The Knights on Friday head to Game 7 of a playoff series for the third time in as many seasons after losing all of a 3-1 advantage.

It’s the Minnesota Wild who rallied back this time, the capper a 3-0 victory in Game 6 on Wednesday of this divisional playoff at Xcel Energy Center.

It means the series will be decided in T-Mobile Arena, which will host a Game 7 for the first time....

“It’s a new year and (the past) doesn’t really matter,” Knights forward Reilly Smith said. “It’s an opportunity to come out in your home arena with all your fans excited and full of emotion.”

Feeling things out. Waiting for the other to make a critical mistake. Call it whatever you want, the Knights and Wild spent an opening two periods Wednesday playing as if whichever scored first would immediately be declared the winner.

It was a Game 6 with Game 7 nerves.

read on and below watch the game highlights plus another goalie interference call...

Is it just me or have you noticed more bitterness, more complaints, more of anything negative about our game? I find it astonishing what people are complaining about. Refs, video reviews, game times the color of sweaters, even negative views of those who bring us the game, the play-by-play and analysts folks.

Oh wait, it happens every year and will continue to happen every year. It's just not in our little hokey world, it is everywhere, Check out the big boys like CNN, then go to Fox News, it's the complete opposite. I have decided it's not me, it is them, every one of them.

I am going to trust my mind, my judgement, my everything. I'd rather discuss a high risk merchant processor for US company than read something that is trying to sway me instead of inform me.