We were a;; excited by the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs the last two weeks. Five series went to a Game 7. Games were thrilling, well-played, and entertaining.
The second round? Not so much.
The Florida Panthers, winners of the regular season’s President’s Trophy, are on the verge of a sweep by the Tampa Bay Lightning. This series has been dreadful to watch.
The Panthers’ offense has evaporated in the heat of May, and the smothering defense of the Lighting. The Florida offense has collapsed throughout the entire playoff season though. The Panthers were scoreless in 25 power play chances until Sam Reinhart scored with the extra skater in the first period in Sunday’s 5-1 loss to the Bolts.
The clash of Floridian Titans has been little more than a tussle between a prepared roster, and a B side.
“The will — they’re blocking shots, we’re not, really,” Panthers coach Andrew Brunette said. “They’re managing different situations, and I think we’ve managed that fine, to be honest. But they’ve just got a little bit more will. When there’s a loose puck, they’re kind of outbattling us, and they want it a little bit more.”
The Panthers are 1-for-25 on the power play in nine games.
“We know we can do it,” Florida forward Jonathan Huberdeau said. “We have that kind of team. We have resilience. We showed it all year, so why not do it right now?”
The Lightning have a head of steam going, and want to complete the sweep and gain some rest while the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers extend their series.
“At this time of the year, it’s about winning and you need to do what’s going to produce the wins,” Tampa’s Steven Stamkos said. “It’s not always pretty and it’s not always going to be the highlight plays, although there are some, especially with [Kucherov] out there.”
Speaking of which, the Rangers pulled out a 3-1 win on Sunday over the Canes. The Game 3 win put the Rangers back in the series, trailing, 1-2.
Igor Shesterkin made 43 saves, 35 of them in the first two periods.
“Igor was outstanding for us and that was the key,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. “He’s the key for our group.”
Shesterkin did flub on the Carolina goal, a shot he should have stopped.
“When you miss a goal you get a little disappointed for a second, you say a few mean words and you forget about it,” Shesterkin said.
New York was 1-for-2 on the power play while their penalty killers were perfect in three chances.
“It felt good the way we were going,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “But we just couldn’t put the puck in the net.”
The big names stepped up for the Blueshirts with Mika Zibanejad hitting for the power play goal, and Chris Kreider adding a snipe.
Out west, the St Louis Blues were humming until Saturday night, when Jordan Binnington went down with an injury. He was in collision in the crease and has an apparent lower body injury. His prognosis is unclear, and his return is even foggier.
“He’s playing good hockey for us,” Blues center Brayden Schenn said. “Came in and got his mojo back and his swagger back. Feel for him. Obviously unfortunate injury and at the same time, we have full confidence in Ville. Both guys have had the net at times this year and both guys are very capable of winning hockey games. We’re looking forward to seeing what Ville can do and when he’s in the net, we’re just as confident with ‘Binner’ there and just got to play hard in front of them.”
The Blues will now lean on Ville Husso for the remainder of the series. The Blues recalled goalie Charlie Lindgren from the Springfield Thunderbirds of the American Hockey League.
“He’s done a great job down there (in Springfield),” Berube said of Lindgren. “He just had a game he won (with) 50 saves down there in the minors. He’s played well. He’s a good goalie.”
The Colorado Avalanche lead that series, 2-1. Game 4 is this evening in St Louis.
“We’ve moved on from it,” Blues coach Craig Berube said Sunday. “I don’t really want to talk about it anymore because it doesn’t do anything to talk about it anymore. We’ve got to get focused for tomorrow’s game, and focusing on that play and focusing on Kadri doesn’t help our team.”
The Blues will need a solid effort from Husso and hope he returns to regular season form.
“It’s always tough,” Blues captain Ryan O’Reilly said. “Obviously, Binner’s the heart and soul, playing unbelievable, but I think it kind of took the momentum away and took us a little too long to kind of get it back going again. Things like that happened. We’re a deep team, and we could have done a better job of getting the momentum back and adjusting.”
The defenses in Calgary and Edmonton have suspect in their series so far.
Game 1 ended in a 9-6 free for all in favor of the Flames. The Oilers have rallied back with two wins to take a 2-1 lead with Game 4 set for tonight in Calgary.
Jacob Markstrom has not been the goalie of the regular season in the playoffs.
Though to be fair, the Flames have left Markstrom no choice but to sue for non support.
“We all know that we weren’t good enough in front of him,” Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson said. “What, three 2-on-1s for goals? We leave him out to dry. How many odd-man rushes did they have today, especially in the second period, and they capitalized. It just wasn’t good enough and it cost us.”
Evander Kane hit for a natural hat trick in the middle frame on Sunday to drive the Oilers to a 4-1 win in Game 3.
“Just happy to be a part of this group,” Kane said. “I think it’s fun when you win, and you want to have that feeling last as long as you possibly can. I’m just trying to do my part to bring what I can to this team and help us be successful.”
The poor defensive efforts have left Markstrom alone facing down seemingly endless rushes from the Oilers.
“What were they, four odd-man rushes, I think?” Calgary forward Matthew Tkachuk said. “I thought he was awesome tonight, [Markstrom]. He made so many great saves and kept us in it in the first, and we didn’t play that great in front of him in the second.”
That has t stop.
This week, we can only hope for entertaining games, and better play from seven of the eight clubs left on the ice playing. The Lightning are playing just fine.
We’ll see.
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