NFT: NHL Playoffs are here! Starts tonight

O for SEA. Take the series lead 2-1.

SEA is a fun team to watch for year 2 - them and Vegas seemed to have cracked the expansion code far easier than their predecessors. Has the pendulum swung too far toward helping these teams? I'm not saying the league should expand any more, 32 teams might even be too many, but I expect franchise teams should struggle initially - which should be ok for the league since in the early years it's a novelty - people will go anyway regardless of record.

Or did we just get some shrewd GMs?

yesterday were excellent. I had to flip between NYR vs NJD and TOR vs TBL because they were close in timing, but from what I saw NYR vs NJD was a great playoff game.

Matinee (1pm) in NY, with a pivotal game 4, NYI vs CAR. CAR leading the series 2 - 1.

mid-afternoon (3:30pm) in FLA, with another pivotal game 4, FLA vs BOS. BOS leading the series 2 - 1.

Dinner theater in MIN (6:30pm) and same theme, pivotal game 4, MIN vs DAL. MIN leading the series 2 - 1.

Night cap in LA (9pm) and to finish the theme, pivotal game 4, LAK vs EDM. LAK leading the series 2 - 1.

I call game 4 pivotal because either a team is going up 3 to 1 and a comeback becomes a longshot or it's tied 2 - 2 and anyone's series.

I don't care that they're good right away. It gives another opportunity to see a different sport in a different city. 10 years ago I never would've guessed I had the chance to see hockey in Vegas or Seattle.

In comment 16094448 Route 9 said:

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I don't care that they're good right away. It gives another opportunity to see a different sport in a different city. 10 years ago I never would've guessed I had the chance to see hockey in Vegas or Seattle.

I think the locals probably feel the same way - I went to a game in Vegas and I thought MTL put on a good, entertaining show, but they have nothing on Vegas. It's a fun crowd and I don't expect that to change too much if the team is bad.

I'm going to start going to some more away hockey games next year. I went to Jersey, Philly and Washington this year. Any recommendations on who to check out ... next?

In comment 16094474 Route 9 said:

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I'm going to start going to some more away hockey games next year. I went to Jersey, Philly and Washington this year. Any recommendations on who to check out ... next?

the mecca. MTL, the Bell Center doesn't have the "charm" of the old forum, but it's a great place to see a game. and MTL is fun.

Vegas 100% should be on your list.

Nashville is an awesome time.

Boston is great for a game. good crowd, lots to do around the arena.

I have never been to a game in Raleigh, but I did go to Raleigh for work recently and I feel like I could live down there. What a nice city. I stayed in Cary, NC and I was blown away how easy it was to commute to Raleigh (the airport) and even the city, and the community was beautiful.

So, CAR is on my list to go to.

I'd also like to see games in Denver, Minnesota, and Seattle - but I haven't yet.

I have never had a bad time at a hockey game, but lower on my list of "must see" arenas would be Toronto, Pittsburgh, Chicago, San Jose, Tampa - of the arenas I have been to - good times, but nothing special.

Tampa is a fun experience but wouldn't put it as a must see. Arena's nice, crowd is very good.

I like the arena better than Newark and the Panthers. The Panthers are great to see because you get great seats for nothing.

I went to Nashville Denver and Seattle but for Giants games. Nashville is kind of overrated. The amount of noise there and shitty music is just way too much and I'm only getting older lol but will definitely go to Rangers/Predators there when I can.

Oh yeah and I've been to Carolina for Giants/Panthers.

I was going to go to Pittsburgh or Buffalo for hockey as well this year but couldn't make it.

but I have been to a few in PIT. It's fun, just not special. If you could work it out to go to a hockey game on a Saturday night then football game on Sunday, it would be cool.

yesterday that Panarin is 1 for 11 on breakaways this year after missing the one yesterday.

I always felt like Panarin's best trait is passing, but he has a sick wrist shot, and I feel like he's just not good with it in motion vs the set up. I think it's fixable if someone wants to work with him on it. I wonder what he's like in his career on breakaways - to know if this year is an anomaly.

playing for what is likely their playoff lives and head to the 3rd down 3.

Uphill climb, not watching the game, but hope they at least make it interesting.

I am rooting for the Panthers but am still relatively unbiased - the Bruins get away with so much holding and hooking.

The officiating in most games has been really inconsistent imo.

finally broke the Bruins PK streak. They had been unreal.

3 - 2 Bruins, with 13 left in the 3rd

leaky, gives the goal right back.

He looks pretty shaky.

no Bergeron, No Krejci, no problem.

Taylor Hall playing like a Hart winner.

Barkov nowhere to be found. In fact if I didn't know he was on Florida I wouldn't even know he was playing in this game.

Tkachuk and Bennett the only Panthers noticeable at all. Other than Bobrovsky who is noticeable for the wrong reasons.

a great game in MIN, DAL wins 3 - 2 to even up the series.

Oettinger was amazing.

They need to get rid of that "Zibanejad scores" sound bite during the commercials. I was at work and heard that and thought it was a real goal last night.

Edmonton ties it at 4-4


LATE NIGHT WILDNESS

(and I say him more than Draisaitl, McDavid or Hyman/Kane/Bouchard because EDM is expected to score but their goalie is their Achilles heel) saves the Oilers season (for now), Skinner was brutal.

Great game though.

LAK are a good team. I don't get to see them much.

Tonights games:
a bunch of pivotal Game 4's:

NJD @ NYR 7pm (NYR lead 2-1)
TOR @ TBL 7:30pm (TOR lead 2-1)
LVG @ WIN 9:30pm (LVG lead 2-1)
COL @ sEA 10:00pm (COL lead 2-1)

a thing of the past or just some weird anomaly?

Dave Starman
@DStarmanHockey
·
36s
Sunday marked the second consecutive day and third time this postseason that all four road teams won (also April 18) – the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs is the first to feature three or more such days in a single postseason.

called the Bruins top heavy *cough cough Brett* but seeing what they are doing without Bergeron and Krejci (1C and 2C) is kind of scary to think about if they get healthy.

On that front, they have two days off before game 5 (Celtics conflict?) and word is Bergeron is likely to return. Krejci still out.

I thought FL outplayed them for large parts of the game yesterday but Ullmark was excellent and Bobrovsky sucked.

Their depth is better than I thought, though.

goalie in the playoffs are so critical, not like they aren't in the regular season, but you can still win a lot of regular season games with mediocre goalies.

FLA better hope Spencer Knight gets his personal demons straightened out or they're forked.

because no sense stirring up a hornets nest, but I do think it's kind of comical that all of a sudden Rangers fans feel like players have complete control of their bodies and how they fall, where they land, and 100% know intent of the player, but Chris Kreider crashing into goalies is just incidental.

whose depth is impressive is CAR.

No Svechnikov, Teräväinen, and Pacioretty (though losing patches helped with LTIR and was predictable) and they're still getting secondary scoring.

In comment 16095130 pjcas18 said:

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because no sense stirring up a hornets nest, but I do think it's kind of comical that all of a sudden Rangers fans feel like players have complete control of their bodies and how they fall, where they land, and 100% know intent of the player, but Chris Kreider crashing into goalies is just incidental.

I watched that video a couple of times and am not nearly as convinced as other Ranger fans about his intentions.

I'll add, I've seen videos of myself (at slower speeds and less skill of course) look to be doing something intentionally dirty when I know my intentions were clean (and vice versa).

In comment 16095156 BrettNYG10 said:

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In comment 16095130 pjcas18 said: Quote: because no sense stirring up a hornets nest, but I do think it's kind of comical that all of a sudden Rangers fans feel like players have complete control of their bodies and how they fall, where they land, and 100% know intent of the player, but Chris Kreider crashing into goalies is just incidental. I watched that video a couple of times and am not nearly as convinced as other Ranger fans about his intentions. I'll add, I've seen videos of myself (at slower speeds and less skill of course) look to be doing something intentionally dirty when I know my intentions were clean (and vice versa).

I have no idea about the fall, but I do think the roughing call on Shesterkin was a joke.

In comment 16095156 BrettNYG10 said:

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In comment 16095130 pjcas18 said: Quote: because no sense stirring up a hornets nest, but I do think it's kind of comical that all of a sudden Rangers fans feel like players have complete control of their bodies and how they fall, where they land, and 100% know intent of the player, but Chris Kreider crashing into goalies is just incidental. I watched that video a couple of times and am not nearly as convinced as other Ranger fans about his intentions. I'll add, I've seen videos of myself (at slower speeds and less skill of course) look to be doing something intentionally dirty when I know my intentions were clean (and vice versa).

lol, yeah when I watch videos of our team I'm always amazed at how slow we look. I blame the technology. Before Live Barn it was private, lol, now unfortunately our games get broadcast to the "fans" and are archived.

I think players can do some things to adjust/influence how they fall or land (like I think even Kreider probably could have at his rate of speed on the Price play), but I will never pretend to know intent and I'm also not going to conveniently pretend to know based on the teams impacted by the play.

In comment 16095161 NYerInMA said:

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In comment 16095156 BrettNYG10 said: Quote: In comment 16095130 pjcas18 said: Quote: because no sense stirring up a hornets nest, but I do think it's kind of comical that all of a sudden Rangers fans feel like players have complete control of their bodies and how they fall, where they land, and 100% know intent of the player, but Chris Kreider crashing into goalies is just incidental. I watched that video a couple of times and am not nearly as convinced as other Ranger fans about his intentions. I'll add, I've seen videos of myself (at slower speeds and less skill of course) look to be doing something intentionally dirty when I know my intentions were clean (and vice versa). I have no idea about the fall, but I do think the roughing call on Shesterkin was a joke.

the officiating all playoffs has been terrible.

I think I'm bending my knees (wrong), I think I work hard every shift (wrong), I think I'm decently fast (wrong).

in for Lightning tonight. Seeing him collapse on his way to the bench I thought this was going to be a serious incident.

Glad it wasn't.

Hockey players are the toughest athletes.

looks like he got faster.

Toronto cuts it to 4-3

I remember in 1999 it was impossible to come back from down 3 goals in the 3rd period and now it seems like it happens every night

in Tampa

come all the way back.

Lightning are done.

Good. Fuck those clowns.

The road teams continue their winning streak. Devs-Rangers knotted at 2. Toronto with a wild win. The Kracken up 2-0 trying to even that series. It's been all of one week and the playoffs have already been a crazy ride.

in OT to tie up the series with COL.

WIN loses Scheifele (in addition to Morrissey and already down Ehlers) and comes up short vs LVG. Scheifele is not ruled out for the series. LVG up 3 - 1.

Just 3 games today with BOS getting the extra day due to Celtics vs Hawks.

Today, 1st possible handshake game:

CAR up 3 - 1 can close it at home vs NYI @7pm
MIN @ DAL in game 5 of a tied series @8pm
LAK @ EDM in game 5 of a tied series @9:30pm

pj, did you think this was a penalty?

I don't really understand running the goalie rules. It wasn't intentional, but I thought for sure it should have been called.

Didn't impact the game because NYR was never scoring on the power play.
Twitter - ( New Window )

In comment 16096361 BrettNYG10 said:

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pj, did you think this was a penalty? I don't really understand running the goalie rules. It wasn't intentional, but I thought for sure it should have been called. Didn't impact the game because NYR was never scoring on the power play. Twitter - ( New Window )

Do you think the Kreider play on Price was a penalty?

Your question prompted me to rewatch that play.

Yeah, I think so. Especially real-time. Replay makes me think he was tripped a little but I probably still would have called it.

In comment 16096376 BrettNYG10 said:

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Your question prompted me to rewatch that play. Yeah, I think so. Especially real-time. Replay makes me think he was tripped a little but I probably still would have called it.

I'm not sure. I view the two plays as similar. I think Kreider had more time to adjust his landing spot. Hischier was bang bang in the crease.

I don't think either play was intentional (at least not to injure) though I always thought having played the game so long, and been at high speeds (relatively speaking) and I felt like to an extent I could control where my body went while falling, and Kreider picked a soft landing spot. IOW, he could have done more to avoid Price. IMO.

Hischier only choice was to not go to the net and he was receiving a pass, so he basically did the same thing as Kreider, but with less room to adjust so once he got in the paint there was no other outcome.

I don't know if either is a penalty, defenders had their sticks in the vicinity of the players so fans of the players will probably point to that as the cause for the outcome, but IMO if one is a penalty, they both are.

I don't think either are intentional, but I don't weigh that into consideration. Accidental falls/light trips still fall on the skater, IMO.

there wasn't more reaction by the Rangers. It seems like in 2023 after every goalie save there is 30 seconds of face washes, slashes and light scrums, but on that play there was nothing. Go figure, lol.

So I figure it was either because Hischier stayed down at fist and it defused the situation a little or they knew he was driving to the net and it's a hockey play.

Not sure. That is a play I'd love to get the players honest thoughts on, I wonder if the beat writers will ask anyone.

dirty play by Makar.

NHL Player Safety
@NHLPlayerSafety
Colorado’s Cale Makar has been suspended for one playoff game for Interference against Seattle’s Jared McCann.

But I wouldn't have had much of a beef if they called it goalie interference. There was a defensive stick in the vicinity but I don't think it had much if anything at all to do with him going down. Nico and the Devils in general seem to have a real hard time staying on their skates. It's a recurring issue, not just this series. I'm a little surprised the Rangers didn't react at all. Maybe having just given up a goal and only about 10 minutes left the last thing they wanted was to put the Devs on the PP. Lost in the mix it really was a spectacular save by Shesterkin. Probably the best of the series by any goalie. I know Ranger fans may see it that way and that's fair but I don't think any Devils outside of maybe Timo are purposely driving at Shesterkin. It's not their style at all.

that was ugly.

Blast from the point hits Sebastian Aho square in the face and Brock Nelson swats it in to the net out of mid-air directly from Aho's face.

NYI up 2 - 0

on. If Sorokin plays like that at home for game 6, they can force game 7, then who knows what happens.