MAY 7TH FINAL

What The Puck?!

Written by Chase Howard

1st Branch -Matthews and McDavid

Toronto Maple Leafs star center Auston Matthews is now this season only 40 goal scorer and has done this in an astonishing 49 games while battling a consistent wrist injury. To put this into context the only other player above 30 this year is McDavid with 31, and the last time a player scored 40 in 49 games or less was Pavel Bure in 48 games in 1999-2000, so it's safe to say Matthews is scoring at a legendary level. Speaking of unreal scoring, how can we not talk about Edmonton Oilers phenom Connor McDavid (remember way back when I called this year of the Connor's)? Well, McDavid leads the NHL with 96 points (31 goals, 65 assists), for those keeping score that's 19 more than the second-place player, teammate Leon Draslatil, and 30 more than third-place Leafs winger Mitch Marner. McDavid has three games left to score four points and hit 100 on the season. If he does he will be in a truly elite territory as the first player to do so in the first 56 games in a quarter-century; btw the last two guys were Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr in 1995-96 for the Pittsburgh Penguins, damn fine company to be in. McDavid might only need one game to hit 100, so you’ll probably want to tune into Oilers vs Canucks tonight @ 10 pm (eastern)

2nd Branch -Making the cut

As discussed last week we are quickly closing in on the end of the season and the playoff races are all but decided. Let's take a quick look at how the divisions are shaking out:

The Discover central has managed to stay interesting despite having three teams the Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers, and Tampa Bay Lightning all clinched with the Panthers and Lighting set to meet up in round 1 of the playoffs. The fourth and final seed is currently held by the Nashville Predators, but they can’t let up yet as the Dallas Stars are 2 points behind (and recently returned their best goal-scorer Tyler Seguin) as both teams have two games left to play.

The Honda west is all but set as the top three seeds Vegas Golden Knights, Colorado Avalanche, and Minnesota Wild have all clinched and despite not having clinched yet St Louis controls its own destiny for the last playoff spot, and barring a collapse this result should hold. Their only real threat is the LA Kings who are 8 points back with 5 games left and need some help in the form of a few Blues losses to have a chance.

When it comes to the MassMutual East division all of the top four seeds currently ordered Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals, Boston Bruins, and NY Islanders have clinched, so this division is a wrap. Wait a second, all these seeds are only separated from two points except the Bruins and Islanders for which it is three. We know who is coming to the dance but not who they will be on the floor with… at least not yet.

Lastly, the Scotia North Division has seen its top three seeds clinched by the Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, and Winnipeg Jets. Partially due to this being the division with the most games left the last spot is still up for grabs. While this is largely due to the Vancouver Canucks, who are the only NHL team to play less than 50 games at this point (48), it seems that the only team that could benefit is Montreal as they have a stranglehold on the fourth and final spot. While mathematically nobody in this division is out (wait Ottawa is most definitely out) it is only a matter of time before Montreal clinches the last spot.

3rd Branch -Mayhem in Manhattan (Not a J-LO sequel)

(Warning rant ahead)

What a week, it's crazy how it is that in the world especially of sports a small seemingly insignificant event can so quickly spiral into a scintillating scandal. Take this past Monday's game between the New York Rangers and the Washington Capitals, which was not supposed to be particularly notable. Thanks to a litany of factors, perhaps most chiefly known troublemaker Tom Wilson this happened:

This was not a good look for pretty much anybody and most thought the NHL would be quick to hand Wilson, if not multiple people involved a suspension. Instead, no suspensions were levied by the NHL's Department of player safety and the only notable punishment was a fine to Thomas Wilson for $5000, which is the max fine and the same fine given to Henrik Lundqvist for squirting water into Sidney Crosby face a handful of years ago (seriously google it).

The New York Rangers who are now without star Artemi Panarin for the rest of the season publicly called out The NHL's Department of player safety (in a letter commissioned by team owner James Dolan) and more specifically head George Parros, even calling for him to resign or be replaced. Then on Wednesday the Rangers and Capitals were set to play again, and big surprise there were fireworks right away

.

Take note NHL this is what you get when you don't police the players; they start policing themselves, which one may argue is always it was and always should remain. The NHL then announced they were fining the Rangers organization 250,000$ (smidge more than Wilson) for their comments regarding the situation with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman saying “Public comments of the nature issued by the Rangers that were personal in nature and demeaning of a League executive will not be tolerated” Bettman went on to say “It is terribly unfair to question George Parros' professionalism and dedication to his role and the Department of Player Safety”. Then before you know it the Rangers fire their president John Davidson and GM Jeff Gorton. Senior team advisor and now introducing new General Manager Chris Drury (who played for the Rangers from 2007-11) stated that the decision was in the works for a while and had nothing to do with the statement or fine. I believe him on the first part, the second I’m not so sure. I doubt it was critical as the poor performance of the team and lack of progress on their rebuild were but it didn’t help.

Overall nobody really won here the league looks weak, divided, and as per usual all about the money. The Rangers have answered more questions about this than actual hockey despite changing their General Manager this week. The department of player safety remains controversial and inconsistent, and look no further than this week as Shayne Gostisbehere was suspended for this play:

This was not talked about but was clearly dirty and deserved punishment. With Wilson, one would like to think it's similarly cut and dry but unfortunately, that's just not the way it is. For one he's a noted pest who's been in more than a few meetings with the league's department of player safety, and because of that there's always going to be a higher degree of attention on him for stuff like this, however, that's arguably fair. What doesn't seem fair is when scenarios are treated so differently, for example, let's say you fall on a player but then seemingly punch them while you're on top of them on the ice. Then get grabbed by a teammate who you proceed to take down to the ice and continue to try the punch while he's down to the point that yet again another teammate gets involved, and this time you slam the guy not once but twice down on the ice while he's not wearing his helmet.

Also, imagine you are a goaltender skating by a scrum and you squirt water at a player causing seemingly nothing but mild annoyance and amusement, do you think both these plays deserve the same punishment in the form of a $5,000 dollar fine? Well the NHL did as Henrik Lundqvist got fined for this. The same as Wilson, that just doesn't sit right with me.

Don't get me wrong I'm a supporter of ole time tough hockey but there's a line and it's one thing to be tough but there's no place in the game for trying to hurt other guys; the NHL blew this one and it has them looking like stumps. (you saw Tree’s Three this week right?)

Quick hits

• Shout out to Los Angeles Kings Center and Captain Anze Kopitar with a goal and an assist Monday became the fourth Los Angeles player to reach 1,000 career points on Sean Walker's empty-net goal. Kopitar said of the experience “It's definitely exciting/nerve-wracking, I caught myself thinking about it a little too much and told myself to relax a little bit, play, and just let it happen." Congratulations to Slovenian and perennial Selke candidate

• Steven Stamkos said that he and star teammate Nikita Kucherov are planning to be back for the start of the playoffs for the Tampa Bay Lighting. The Lightning is sure to benefit from having the two elite offensive players back in the line-up, and even though at first glance you might not think they need it given they sit tied for third this season in goals scored, the team they’re tied with just so happens to be the team they're playing in the first round the Florida Panthers, side note this series could get real interesting.

• Quick shout-out to Calder Trophy candidate and possible winner in another year (Krill the thrill though) Jason Roberston of the Dallas Stars. Robertson was reminded this week by his father of the impact he can have as an Asian-American in the NHL. His father told him of how he was able to get tickets because of Jason for a friend and his two daughters to see an NHL game. After the game, the two girls relayed to the father that they had never seen hockey before, one of them even going on to say she now wanted to be an NHL player when she grew up. This type of story is always great to hear and it never hurts to remind someone that your race or religion, or really anything of that ilk is not and definitely should not be a barrier to you doing the things you want to do, and if that's play hockey then get out there on the ice.