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.

They defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1 tonight to win the series 4-3.

The Canadiens will now play the Winnipeg Jets.

Post-game videos coming.

added 9:42pm, Corey Perry with the GWG. added 9:48pm, Handshakes below. added 10:02pm, Highlights below.

Roughing/Unsportsmanlike conduct

via Sportsnet,

Big game of the night, NYI/Boston, Islanders need a win to even their series at 1-1.

The other game is Montreal/Toronto game 7. By not hyping this game, I am trying to reach out to the hockey gods for a great game.

Full schedule is below.

Three minutes of your time.

from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

Red Wings fans who strolled from the barbecue or lawn chair Monday had another chance to gaze at the Red Wings' future.

Moritz Seider was playing for Germany in the world championships against Team USA — and didn’t look out of place as a 20-year-old defenseman.

Team USA won the game 2-0 — which included a scary moment for former Red Wing Justin Abdelkader, who suffered an apparent knee injury — but Seider did all his could with three shots on net in 16 minutes 33 seconds (second among German defensemen) and playing with poise all over the ice, on both specialty teams.

One more reason to be excited about the upcoming Wings’ season.

“He’s got a lot of work to do, but there’s a lot of potential for him,” said general manager Steve Yzerman, during Yzerman’s season-ending media session. “We’re excited to have him here next year. Our hope is he’s ready to play for the Red Wings at the start of the season.”

continued (paid)

Watch the incident below.