Is NHL playoff physicality out of hand?
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Good morning! Today is Day 13 of the NHL playoffs. Three teams are eliminated and only Game 6s and 7s are left in Round 1. Buckle up 💥🚗
Eulogies for the Devils, Habs and Bolts
The badly injured Devils and plucky Canadiens exiting stage left first and second isn't much of a surprise, as those were two of the more predictably lopsided series coming in. Expect both teams back with better showings a year from now, given their young talent.
But the Lightning getting dumped in five games is a significant surprise, even at the hands of the defending champion Panthers. Tampa Bay looked like a serious contender all year, with the NHL's seventh-best record this season and second-best goal differential. Andrei Vasilevskiy was back as a Vezina Trophy candidate and Nikita Kucherov led the league in scoring.
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Now they're done after managing one measly playoff win.
In part, it shows how important winning your division and avoiding that nasty 2-3 hole can be in this format. But there will have to be some soul-searching in Tampa, as it's an older team and has lost in Round 1 three years in a row.
The Lightning have had so much success, but with an ownership change coming and the Panthers seemingly going to be formidable for a while, you wonder if that group has another Cup run in them.
One other note on what we've seen in the opening round …
Is the NHL taking dirty hits seriously enough?
I wrote a spin-around-the-league column earlier this week, and one of the things that really stood out was how many readers were upset in the comments about missed calls and cheap shots.
It highlighted one of the things I haven't loved about the first round so far: just how many players have taken late hits or blows to the head and had to leave games.
• The Hurricanes lost starting netminder Frederik Andersen to a goal-mouth collision that could have been called.
• Brandon Hagel couldn't play for Tampa last night in an elimination game after experiencing Aaron Ekblad's forearm to the face.
• Leafs veteran John Tavares took an uncalled elbow to the head and went to the quiet room in overtime of Game 4.
• And the Jets lost Mark Scheifele last night after a hit from Brayden Schenn when he didn't have the puck.
Then there were the other cheap, late hits traded in the Panthers-Lightning series: Hagel on Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk on Jake Guentzel and Niko Mikkola on Latvian Gretzky Zemgus Girgensons.
I know the league brass and fans want the physicality the playoffs bring, but there's been too much line-crossing already. It was encouraging that both Hagel and Ekblad were suspended, but there could have been more significant penalties on the other plays.
It's something to monitor as we head deeper into the playoffs and the war of attrition becomes a bigger factor. No one wants to see stars missing games for bad hits and suspensions, and no one wants that to be what decides a series.
Sorting the contenders from pretenders
Here's a quick rundown of where every team stands after the Jets eked out a Game 5 win over the upstart Blues last night in whiteout Winnipeg. Teams in bold played last night:
• Advanced: CAR, FLA, WSH
• Up 3-2: DAL, EDM, TOR, VGK, WPG
• Down 2-3: COL, LA, MIN, OTT, STL
• Eliminated: MTL, NJD, TBL
Now that we're down to 13 teams playing for the Stanley Cup, some matchups in the next round are already coming into focus.
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The Capitals earn a date with the Hurricanes for the Metro crown, while Florida awaits the winner of Leafs-Sens in the Atlantic. The West is far less settled with every series still going, but if the teams up 3-2 move on, we'd get two amazing matchups: Jets-Stars and Golden Knights-Oilers.
It certainly pays to be in the East this year, as whoever comes out of the West will be limping after so many long, hard series. Expect Round 2 to get going ASAP as the league races to award the big mug before late June.
Click here for Dom Luszczyszyn's updated probabilities after last night's games.
Teams with the best Cup odds on May 1
Who's leading our MVP watch?
With three series wrapped and the rest of Round 1 winding down, it's time for our weekly Conn Smythe ranking. Extra points go to players on teams that have advanced or are ahead in their series. Direct all complaints to Sean McIndoe on social media:
❓Shayna Goldman digs into all of the key matchups to watch in the many Game 6s coming up. Somehow the Leafs versus their playoff demons didn't make the list.
🥅 The PWHL is expanding to Vancouver and Seattle. Hailey Salvian has a great explainer that gets into how that will work given the distance between those two new teams and, well, everyone else.
🏒 The wild story of how top Hurricanes prospect Alexander Nikishin finally got to Carolina, by way of Saudi Arabia (!?). It'll be fascinating if he becomes a factor for them in Round 2, given the Hurricanes were one of the East's contenders without the KHL star.
🍁 ICYMI: Canada has a new Prime Minister. And he used to be a goalie. Fluto Shinzawa has this fun profile of Mark Carney, who'll now need to stop the knucklepuck that is tariffs and tarnished U.S. relations.
📢 Our newsletter co-conspirator DGBee will make you laugh and cry as he breaks down how this latest Maple Leafs mess could end. TBD if anything gets lit on fire in the next few days; I don't think I'm parking downtown for Game 7.
🎙️ Check out 'The Athletic Hockey Show' throughout the NHL playoffs as our cast and crew, with special guest Frank Corrado, analyze the action.
📺 Maple Leafs @ Senators
7 p.m. ET on TBS / SN
Last week when we told you to stay tuned to this game, the big storyline was whether there would be a sea of blue-and-white Leafs fans in the crowd. That did not happen … and the narrative has shifted to dramatics on the ice. Will the underdog Senators push this one to Game 7? Can the Leafs avoid the ignominy that would come with blowing a 3-0 series lead? Must-see TV, either way.
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📺 Golden Knights @ Wild, Stars @ Avalanche, Kings @ Oilers
7:30 to 10 p.m. ET on ESPN / TBS / SN
Four Game 6s in one night is an embarrassment of hockey riches. The only shame is with games overlapping, it'll be hard to watch them all — although kudos to the NHL for staggering the start times for us channel flippers. With Minnesota, Colorado and Los Angeles all facing elimination, expect great hockey as they try to earn a Game 7 on the weekend.
The full NHL playoff schedule is here. Try streaming games like these for free on Fubo.
Breaking: Ovechkin loves goals
You may have heard Alex Ovechkin bested Wayne Gretzky's career regular-season goals mark during the season, but he managed to match another Hall of Famer last night, too.
His goal in the Capitals' win moved him to 76 career postseason tallies, tying him with Mario Lemieux for 12th in NHL history.
Ovechkin has his work cut out to catch Gretzky in this stat, however. The Great One's record of 122 postseason goals is 46 more than Ovechkin has as the league's active playoff goals leader.
The next-highest players who are still active this postseason? Corey Perry and Brad Marchand, who both have 56 career playoff goals, good for 44th all time.
• Speaking of Perry, he's approaching some heady company in career playoff games played. Tonight's Game 6 in Edmonton will be his 221st postseason game, tying him for 11th in NHL history with Bryan Trottier.
• If the Oilers go on a long run, Perry can climb as high as fourth this spring, passing luminaries like Mark Messier and Larry Robinson. Perry turns 40 in a couple weeks, however, so it feels unlikely he can take a run at Chris Chelios' all-time mark of 266.
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Streaming links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.
(Top photo of Brayden Schenn: Cameron Bartlett / Getty Images)
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