JUNE 25 DRAFT

What The Puck?!

Written by Chase Howard

Photo by Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

1st Branch

Montreal Canadiens vs. Vegas Golden Knights

What a series for the second round in a row I find myself astonished at the refusal to quit from the Canadiens, their smart play particularly in the neutral zone, and the otherworldly hot stretch Carey Price has been in since basically overtime of game 6 against the Leafs. Not that the Jets or Leafs were but this Vegas team was far from bad. They tied Colorado for the most points in the regular season; they had one of the league's best Corsi and SRS ratings, they finished top five on both offense and defense. Montreal meanwhile had the least points and goals scored in the regular season of any playoff team. Then why did these semi-finals look like two even talented teams battling for their playoff dreams? Did I mention three of the six games went to overtime and every game was either decided by a goal or was weirdly 4-1? Yet here we are with the Montreal Canadiens having come out of this series soundly and deservedly let's look at how.

Firstly let's give some credit to the big four defensemen patrolling the Canadiens blue line, Shea Weber, Jeff Petry, Ben Chariot, and Joel Edmundson. I'm not even sure the Canadiens have other defensemen as these guys are always on the ice averaging at least 23 minutes apiece in the playoffs. (Weber 25:38 average ice time per game) Chiarot (25:37), Petry (24:23) and Edmundson (23:22)). These guys make opposing players battle for every inch towards price and are a major reason for the success of Montreal’s penalty-killing unit, which has not allowed a power-play goal in 13 games since Game 4 of the first round. Next let's give credit to key additions by Montreal namely signing a trio of Stanley cup winners in the offseason Tyler Toffoli, Corey Perry, and Jake Allen. Lastly, the man himself Carey Price has been dominant, he sits tied for first in the playoffs in save percentage (.934) and second in goals-against average (2.02) behind Jack Campbell of the Maple Leafs (1.81) who lost to Price in the first round. The Canadiens find themselves in pursuit of their 24th Stanley Cup and the first since 1993. The Canadiens have the most all-time Stanley cups, the only other teams with more than six are the Toronto Maple Leafs (13) and the Detroit Red Wings (11). Just so you know Carey Price has stopped 93.4 percent of shots in these playoffs, erasing nine goals above expectations (*impressed whistling sound).

• Original Prediction 4-2 Vegas

• Final Score 4-2 Montreal

2nd Branch

Tampa Bay Lightning vs. NY Islanders

This series was just as good as the one above (let's take a brief moment to appreciate how good these semi-finals were). This series went back and forth all the way to the end of the very needed seventh game. There were multiple moments where Tampa seemed to grab control of the series like when they went up 2-1 or 3-2 in the series the second after an 8-0 drubbing of the Islanders in game five. Yet the Islanders refused to quit, scoring high effort gritty goals, and only when the siren sounded at the end of game seven (a 1-0 Lightning victory) did Tampa finally let out the breath they had been holding. Andrej Vasilevskiy made 18 saves for his second shutout in three games to help the Lightning return to the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight season. Despite 30 saves from Seymon Varmylov one mistake was all that was needed, as Yanni Gourde scored the game's only goal shorthanded on a beautiful feed from Anthony Cirelli in the second period.

This game started out as a duel between these studs as Vasilevskiy made a right-pad save on an Anthony Beauvillier breakaway chance at 2:25 of the first period. Varlamov quickly responded with a beauty blocker save on a quick wrister from Victor Headmen at 8:58, one of 15 saves he made in the first period. After being injured in the first period of game 6 Nikita Kucherov was questionable to play, yet suited up registering two shots and two hits in game 7, Kuchie currently leads the Lightning in playoff scoring with 27 points. The Lightning has not lost consecutive postseason games since the 2019 Eastern Conference First Round (14-0), the longest such run in NHL history, Vasilevskiy has been in goal for each victory. The only bit of bad news for the Lightning if you can call it that is Brayden Point's astonishing streak came to an end at nine games, one short of Reggie Leach for most consecutive playoff games with a goal in NHL history. Fun fact of the day this series apparently had the first NHL playoff game 7 to end 1-0, with the only goal being scored shorthanded.

• Original Prediction Lighting in 7

• Final Record Lighting in 7

3rd Branch

Hakestol Hired

The Seattle Kraken has finally finished their quest to find their inaugural head coach and that man is Dave Hakestol. Kraken general manager Ron Francis confirmed that the initial list had between 50 and 100 names, this was eventually narrowed to eight candidates who all were interviewed multiple times. Francis said, “We wanted someone who had experience, had been a head coach in the NHL before”. The Kraken GM further elaborated “There are so many things, learning the players, learning the teams, learning the systems, and quite frankly the pace of the NHL is unlike anything else, so we wanted someone who had been through that experience”. The 52-year-old Hakestol had spent the last two years as a key assistant coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs, mostly focused on their defense. Before this he served as the head coach of Philadelphia for the better part of four years, getting let go 31 games into the 2018-19 season. This move can be tied back to when Hakstol was an assistant coach for Canada at the 2019 IIHF World Championship when it finished second. Francis was part of the management group, as was Kraken assistant GM Jason Botterill, then the GM of the Buffalo Sabres. Of the job Hakestol said, “it's a once in a lifetime opportunity”.

Quick hits

• The Moose Mark Messier has reached a multi-year deal with ESPN to join as a studio host for next season. If you recall, the NHL, ESPN, and The Walt Disney Co (what don't they own?) agreed to a seven-year television, streaming and media rights deal back in March, which begins with the 2021-22 season. Of this Messier Said “The NHL is beginning a new era with ESPN and The Walt Disney Company, with an exciting, evolving game and phenomenally talented players, and I am thrilled to be a part of the team,” Messier is a living legend having won the Stanley Cup six times in his 25-season NHL career and is the only player to captain two teams to the Cup, the Edmonton Oilers in 1990 and New York Rangers in 1994. He also won the Cup with the Oilers in 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1988. His 1,887 points (694 goals, 1,193 assists) are third in NHL history, after Wayne Gretzky (2,857 points) and Jaromir Jagr (1,921), and he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007.

• The National Hockey League announced today that it would reveal the winners of its five remaining regular-season trophies during "2021 NHL Awards presented by Bridgestone”. This will be a 30-minute show that will air at 7:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, June 29, on NBCSN in the U.S. as well as Sportsnet and TVA Sports in Canada. The five remaining awards to be announced are Calder Memorial Trophy, Hart Memorial Trophy, James Norris Memorial Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award, and Vezina Trophy. Following the program, all winners will be made available to the media via Zoom. Those details will be shared on Tuesday

• The Stanley cup finals kick off Monday night at 8 pm and I strongly recommend you get settled early, maybe go to the bathroom at 7:45 pm; as you will not want to miss a moment. A few key matchups could determine this series. Firstly there is the deadly Lightning top-six forward group vs. the above-mentioned big-bodied Montreal defenseman. Then we have two absolute studs between the pipes, a single mistake in net this series might make all the difference as goals are likely going to be hard to come by (a fun fact the highest average of any score for an NHL game is 3-2 which happens about 10% of the time). Lastly, the Lighting power play has already scored 20 goals this postseason and has a percentage of 37.7, well the Montreal penalty kills if you recall from above has not allowed a goal since game four of the first round despite 8 attempts for the Jets and 13 more from the Golden Knights. This one is particularly important as between these two teams there are about 17 minutes of penalties on average per game so far in these playoffs, whichever penalty unit can stake out an advantage over the other may set the tone for the whole series

  • Official Prediction Lightning in 6