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

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+