Playoff Open Thread: May 31st
The first round ends tonight!
*Yesterday's Games*
Tampa Bay Lightning 2, Carolina Hurricanes 1
This was a great Game 1, full of awesome goaltending, odd heroes, high offence... and then it was decided by a bad goal. The Canes, for their part, looked fantastic, pouring the offence on all game, only to be stymied by Andrei Vasilevskiy. Just as it was looking like Vasy would steal the win for his team, a Jake Bean point shot took a fortunate bounce and tied the game up. However, Barclay Goodrow would beat Alex Nedeljkovic with a stinker late. It was a lofted shot from the side wall that Nedeljkovic completely misread, letting it beat him short side. It was inexplicable, and eerily reminiscent of a goal Patrick Lalime allowed from ----MEMORY REDACTED-------- It was a sad way to end an otherwise competitive game, and I look forward to the rest of the series.
Vegas Golden Knights 1, Colorado Avalanche 7
I've been saying repeatedly the winner of this series wins the Cup and, oh boy, does it look like this one's already over. The Avs completely steamrolled, plastered, lambasted, embarrassed, and any-other-word-you-can-think-of-ed the Knights last night. It was one-sided and embarrassing. Robin Lehner looked more than a little lost, the team in front of him looked disinterested, and Nathan MacKinnon was otherworldly. The good news for Vegas is they're better than that game showed, and there's no aggregate in the NHL.
*Tonight's Games*
Montreal Canadiens @ Toronto Maple Leafs, Series 3-3, 7 pm
The second and final Game 7 of Round 1. Toronto's the better team, but the Habs are in their heads after consecutive OT wins. I'm looking forward to no longer knowing one of these teams has to win a game.
New York Islanders @ Boston Bruins, Boston leads 1-0, 7:30 pm
Boston was better in Game 1. Considering the Bruins are rounding into form at the perfect time of year, and considering their depth of talent, this could be a short series unless the Isles take a big leap forward.
