from Cathal Kelly of the Globe and Mail,

You can judge the quality of a person’s career by the number of acts they manage to fit into it.

Most of us get three – enter workforce; work; retire and/or die. Sidney Crosby, the world’s oldest 33-year-old, has had a half-dozen.

Act 1: The Arrival of the Savant. Act II: The Takeover. Act III: The Concussion Years. Act IV: The Resurrection. Act V: The Return to Glory. That puts us somewhere in the midst of Act VI.

Crosby’s sixth act is becoming a bit of a mess. What exactly is the motivation of the Pittsburgh Penguins captain here? What’s his purpose? What does he do? It isn’t winning, that’s for sure. It’s more like existing (but a lot better paid than if you tried it).

Six acts is a lot to live, and it’s beginning to feel like a lot to watch as well. There is a natural point at which fans want their heroes to begin shuffling off the stage. It’s not that they’ve stopped liking the guy. It’s that they’ve grown tired of hearing the same stories. They want new stories.

continued

The article has caught the attention of Pittsburgh media.

from Chip Scoggins of the Star Tribune,

One goaltender was spectacular. The other was perfect. As duels go, this one served as a master class.

When it was over, the Game 1 headline carried a striking message: The Wild won a playoff game because of impenetrable goaltending.

Brought to the organization this season to provide calm, consistent goaltending, Cam Talbot rewarded that faith in him by blanking the Vegas Golden Knights 1-0 in overtime in what became a fantastic stand-off against Marc-Andre Fleury.

The teams combined for 72 shots, many Grade A chances. Shooters did everything possible to put themselves in position to score. The goalies were just better.

continued

Game highlights are below.

from Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

The Penguins did what good teammates do after their 4-3 overtime loss to the New York Islanders on Sunday. They lined up, one by one, on a Zoom call and had Tristan Jarry’s back. The rest of us can point the finger at Jarry as the primary reason for the painful defeat. They did not....

Jarry was the biggest question for the Penguins coming into this first-round series because of his lack of postseason experience with just one playoff start.

That question seems even more troubling after Jarry’s performance Sunday....

But three of the four goals that Jarry allowed were questionable at best. That is not good enough to win a playoff game. It’s not even close to being good enough.

Palmieri turned the corner on Marcus Pettersson and was able to score high on Jarry early in the game when Jarry was deep in his crease. Pageau beat him over his shoulder to tie the game, 2-2, early in the third period on a shot he saw all the way. Palmieri beat him over his left shoulder on the short side to win the game at 16:30 of overtime.

It was a stunning, hurtful ending for Jarry, who had been 8-1-0 against the Islanders, including 6-0-0 at home with a .930 save percentage.

more

Watch the game highlights below.

from Emily Kaplan of ESPN,

Anthony Mantha was accustomed to hating this time of year.

The 26-year-old, a 2013 first-round pick of the Red Wings, became a regular for Detroit in 2016-17 -- right after the franchise's NHL record streak of 25 consecutive playoff appearances ended. The Red Wings entered a rebuild, with no end in sight. Finishing toward the bottom of the standings year after year became a grind.

"It sucks," Mantha said. "You're playing hockey because you want to play in the playoffs. And when you don't have the chance, and you just pack every summer to go back home, and you're like, 'I'll just take two weeks off and start training again.' I mean, there's no motivation in that."...

And because it's the Capitals -- who have missed the postseason just once in the past 14 years, and will be vying for championships as long as Alex Ovechkin is on the roster -- it meant a chance to experience the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time.

Asked what he wants fans in Washington to know about him, Mantha replied: "I want them to know that I can be a difference-maker."

much more

Watch the hit below.

from Greg Cote of the Miami Herald,

This was the best regular season in club history. But does that make this the best team the Cats have had?

Prove it.

The chance started Sunday night, but ended in a crushing 5-4 home loss to Tampa Bay to begin the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Florida rallied from two deficits to lead 4-3, only to lose Game 1 of this Sunshine State Showdown series in the first round of the postseason, with Game 2 back in Sunrise Tuesday night.

Tampa tied it 4-4 with its third power-play goal of the night, and won it with 1:14 left in regulation. The Panthers’ penalty killing was the deflating factor.

“Five on five we played well,” said Aleksander Barkov. “On the penalty killing we needed to be a little bit better.”

The Cats played with maximum heart. That isn’t enough to beat the reigning league champions.

“It’s a long series. We just have to put it behind us and be fresh for the next one,” said Cats goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. “They have a good team and we have a good team. We just have to forget this one.”

Said second-year coach Joel Quenneville: “A lot of positives. But also things we need to work on.”

Regular seasons don’t mean much now. Here forward is all that matters.

The Panthers are South Florida’s best major team right now; sorry Miami Heat. But the onus was on Florida to prove that it should be nobody’s underdog in these teams’ first-ever postseason meeting.

Sunday was only the 26th home playoff game in Panthers history, and only the 15th since 1996.

It makes this feel like the club’s biggest series in 25 years.

more

Below, watch the game highlights.

Brooke Fletcher of Bally Sports Detroit talks with Joe Veleno regarding his this play in Sweden and Detroit.

THREE HARD LAPS

* Brayden Point scored late as the Lightning outlasted the Panthers in the fourth playoff game in NHL history to feature four lead changes.

* Cam Talbot outdueled Marc-Andre Fleury as the Wild stymied the Golden Knights en route to a Game 1 victory.

* Each of the first three games of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs required overtime, marking the first time the first three completed games in a postseason required extra time.

The first Stanley Cup Playoff game is at 12:00pm ET when the New York Islanders take on the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The full schedule for today is below and feel free to discuss the games right here.

from Dave Poulin at the Toronto Star,

What had I just watched? How could I write something different about the Oilers captain? I had to ask around, hence that first text. The cascade that followed was tremendous.

The answers were almost instantaneous, no matter the time of day. I texted a current player during what I was sure would be practice time, and his answer came back 30 seconds later: smart. I laughed, wondering if he had his cellphone tucked into his glove while on the ice.

The one-word answer was rare. People clearly wanted to say more. Unparalleled. Electrifying. Dominant. Those three came from a current player, who added, “I do think his complete tool kit is unmatched by any other player in the league … and he seems to dominate game after game in a different more exciting way each time.”

Incandescent. Scintillating. Sublime. This combination platter was delivered by a noted scribe who used the same formula to over-deliver as the player had. When I challenged him on the direction of what I had asked, he simply answered in another language: Nonpareil, clearly enjoying the exercise. The next morning, at 6:30 a.m., a detailed essay awaited in my inbox, eloquently expanding on his thoughts about McDavid, full of adjectives and verbs.

A lot of what I received dealt with his speed.

more

from Chip Scoggins of the Star Tribune,

The performance was a dud, to put it kindly. Sloppy mistakes, careless passing, no real focus.

The Wild coughed up turnover after turnover against Anaheim — one of the two worst teams in the NHL — in a textbook case of playing down to the competition. It was a moment ripe for a letdown loss earlier this month in the final push of the regular season.

Then the rookie sensation decided he'd had enough of that nonsense.

Kirill Kaprizov skated the puck up the wing in overtime, fired a shot from the circle, kept moving toward the goal, corralled his rebound in traffic and tapped in the game-winner. A piece of cake.

Just like that, overtime was finished after 17 seconds.

That singular play — and many others from the Thrill's rookie archive — helps explain why the Wild's playoff fate doesn't feel as hopeless as in previous years. The lineup finally has a true goal scorer, a guy who can make a play on his own in clutch moments.

Who needs puck luck when you have a superstar?

continued

from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

- Smart for the NHL to schedule Vancouver games in the afternoon to get its elongated season over. Not smart to schedule both playoff series in Canada with back-to-back games without a day off in the first round. They should have found a way around that … Hall of Famer Jimmy Rutherford is in demand and a number of NHL teams have asked about his availability. The team that needs leadership help more than any other: The forever-confused Buffalo Sabres.

- Ottawa’s D.J. Smith will not win the coach of the year award in the NHL — he may not even be a finalist — but what a tremendous job he did with the Senators this season under challenging circumstances.

- Playoffs always come down to your best players being your best players. Rielly should be one of the Leafs’ best players and leaders. He needs to start the playoffs at a much higher level than he ended the regular season.

more on the last topic plus other hockey notes...

from Shawn Windsor of the Detroit Free Press,

Steve Yzerman said he’d be quick about meeting with his coach, Jeff Blashill, after the Detroit Red Wings’ season ended. He did not say he’d be quick about deciding Blashill’s fate.

This shouldn’t surprise anyone. Yzerman can’t be rushed....

the Wings were the worst team in the league last season. This year, they're tied for the fifth-worst record (with the potential to fall if Vancouver wins any of its' pandemic-stalled games this week). And if you are judging by record — or points — it's hard to justify extending Blashill, especially in a league that fires more of its coaches than any other; Blashill is the third longest-tenured coach in the NHL.

And yet?

Wins and losses aren’t the only way to measure a coach.

No, what Yzerman is trying to determine — and likely already has in some fashion — is whether Blashill is the right coach for the current roster, and for the roster Yzerman envisions the next couple of seasons....

Convincing an up-and-comer to start from (almost) scratch in Detroit won’t be easy. Though Yzerman may have the cache to pull it off.

Again, the question is whether he thinks he must. Blashill was once a promising coaching prospect, too, with a Calder Cup win in the AHL in Grand Rapids. When he had decent talent, it was easy to see his worth.

I’d argue he’s shown his value this past season as well. In a difficult year, when he lost a half-dozen players to COVID protocol nearly out of the gate, Blashill’s team got better, particularly the last six weeks of the season, particularly on defense.

Is that enough?

Possibly.

more ($$$)

THREE HARD LAPS

* The opening contest of the First Round required overtime for the second time in as many years, with Nic Dowd scoring the winner less than five minutes into the extra frame to power the Capitals past the Bruins in Game 1.

* Less than a week shy of his 40th birthday, Craig Anderson entered Game 1 in relief of Vitek Vanecek and became the oldest goaltender in franchise history to earn a win in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

* Three more First Round series start today, beginning with a matinee between the Penguins and Islanders followed by the inaugural head-to-head playoff meetings between the Golden Knights and Wild, as well as the Panthers and Lightning.

Watch it.

Topics discussed by the HNIC panel- The future of Seth Jones in Columbus, perhaps a shake up in Vancouver, the NHL schedule for next season, Team Canada and David Perron on the Covid list.

via Sportsnet,

The Boston Bruins vs. the Washington Capitals kickoff the post season at 7:15pm ET on NBC, CBC, SN and TVAS.

Feel free to discuss the game, the playoffs or anything NHL.

Below, see the playoff broadcast teams for NBC Sports and Sportsnet.

from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

So I watched as Pekka Rinne, the estimable 38-year-old Nashville goaltender, took a victory lap around his home ice to a standing ovation following the May 10 shutout of Carolina in his 683rd — and perhaps, last — game for the franchise.

And all I was thinking was: This is the way Henrik Lundqvist deserved to go out as a Ranger — with cheers and gratitude ringing in his ears from the adoring Garden faithful, and not with the anticlimactic buyout that followed The King’s slide into near obscurity those final months of 2019-20.

But that’s not all. Because it is my belief general manager Chris Drury and the Blueshirts should target the impending free agent Rinne to fill the role as backup goaltender to Igor Shesterkin next season if he is on the market. Yes, of course, that would entail dealing Alexandar Georgiev, but that is a move that would serve the best interests of both parties.

The Rangers need an infusion of leadership in all corners of the room.

continued with more hockey topics...

from Chris Johnston of Sportsnet,

Throw the windows open, turn on your television and soak in that sensation: The buzz is back after the long lockdown winter.

There’s something special about the arrival of the Stanley Cup Playoffs every spring; about games bubbling over with intensity and emotion and swings of momentum that elevate hockey to its stomach-twisting best.

But it’s bound to hit differently this time around, in part because we’ve waited a little longer and endured a bit more. These playoffs mark the culmination of a challenging 56-game regular season that required the NHL to be nimble in navigating the COVID-19 pandemic -- complete with stops and starts for several teams -- while staging games predominantly in empty arenas.

The reward is a two-month chase for the Stanley Cup that coincides with North America starting to come back to life.

Not only has the league arrived here in a healthier place, able to ease some protocols with many players fully vaccinated, but it’s going to be allowed to open its doors for fans to a degree not possible since the pandemic took hold in March 2020.

continued

from Matt Porter of the Boston Globe,

Turning talk into trade, when it comes to a potential Eichel-to-Boston deal, is another matter.

Can the Bruins afford the cost of one of the game’s premier centers? From a cap-space perspective, sure. The 24-year-old Eichel has been hurt much of this season, but is paid like a player who put up 36 goals and 78 points in 68 games last season on a struggling team. He carries a $10 million hit for the next six years.

One way to afford him: let unrestricted free agents David Krejci ($7.25 million), Jaroslav Halak ($2.25 million), and Sean Kuraly ($1.275 million) walk, which would free up $10.775 million in cap space. That’s without considering a Hall extension, and other UFAs (Mike Reilly, due a raise on his $1.5 million AAV). The Bruins will also shed David Backes’s $1.5 million retained cap hit this summer. Money doesn’t have to be the holdup.

Do they have a need for Eichel? Certainly not at this moment. The Capitals entered Saturday’s Game 1 against the Bruins trying to find ways to stop Patrice Bergeron’s line and the Hall-Krejci-Craig Smith connection, both firing with equal fury. Imagine if that continues this postseason, Krejci takes a haircut ($5 million on a short-term deal) and Hall falls a bit behind Brad Marchand ($6.125 million) on the salary scale. That’s one formidable top six entering 2021-22.

Given the ages of Bergeron (36 in July) and Krejci (35) and their mileage, it wouldn’t last forever. Bergeron’s contract expires after next season. Krejci, if he returns, could be year to year. Bringing in a 24-year-old, all-world talent from North Chelmsford, and showing him how Bergeron and Marchand operate (see: Hall, Taylor), could be ideal.

Whether they want to ante up for Eichel, the Bruins do need centers.

more plus other topics...

Questions will be answered.

from Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe,

For the first time since dropping Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final, the Bruins will be on the ice Saturday night for a playoff game with real live fans in the stands, and that sweet, intoxicating scent of postseason acrimony in the air.

Bubble-free hockey, Stanley Cup play as we used to know it — albeit with the crowd still downsized because of COVID protocols — begins anew with the Bruins and Capitals set to slug out a best-of-seven series.

It will be fast, for sure, and it could be a rough one from the start. Neither side will need to ease into this one. All the “feeling out” died between the Capitals and Bruins over the course of eight regular-season matchups, including March 5 at the Garden when Washington forward Tom Wilson drove Brandon Carlo’s noggin hard into the glass and was suspended for seven games.

“I think it will come to a head quicker,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy predicted, just before his club flying here for Saturday’s 7:15 p.m. puck drop. “Bad blood’s already there.”

“Discipline is what we talk about,” added Capitals coach Peter Laviolette, noting the importance of controlled emotions, intelligent play at this time of the year. “But then the games get played and you hope you are on the good side of that.”

continued

from Don Brennan of the National Post,

“When we’re skating and we’re physical, I think we give them a lot of issues, whether that’s forechecking or defending,” said the St. Louis Blues captain, whose team takes on the Avalanche in a West Division first-round matchup that begins Monday. “When we play our heavy game and commit to it, and put pucks in and don’t feed their rush, we make it tough on them, and find ways to beat them. That’s what we’ve got to do. That’s got to be our focus. We know that they have a lot of talent over there. They work hard, but for us, it’s an exciting challenge.”

And then, in dropping the hammer, the 2019 Conn Smythe Trophy winner added:

“We’re going to have some fun, and we’re going to beat them.”

Bam!

more

“I didn’t come here to lose in the first round and hopefully get a nice contract. I want to have a deep playoff run and when it’s time to take care of that other stuff, that’s what I’ll look to do. But it really hasn’t been on my mind and it really shouldn’t be.

“I think we’re all here to win a Stanley Cup. If we made that happen or we had a great run and some good things happen, I think everyone will be taken care of and we’ll figure that out later.”

-Taylor Hall of the Boston Bruins. Michael Traikos has more on Hall at the National Post.

note- original post was 11:33pm on 5/13/21

Raise your hand if you thought we would not be seeing the playoffs until April, 2022.

You have until Saturday at 7pm ET to get your picks in.

For the first timers, I make it very easy for you to pick the winner, just copy and paste the teams involved in each series, make your pick and if you'd like, tell us how many games each series will last. Extra credit if you want to name the team who will win the Cup.

My plans, I will be putting up an open post every day a game(s) is scheduled right through the SCF.

Of course, I will be doing what I do on a regular basis to keep all of you informed about our great game.

First round matchups are below.