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Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
The 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs are only a couple of weeks old, but there are already some lessons to be learned from them.
Here’s a look at some of the moments, trends and revelations from the NHL postseason so far, from being haunted by the past to leading into controversy to the pure hockey ecstasy of Connor McDavid.
Enjoy!
Maybe just don’t take any penalties against the Oilers?
The first unit of the Edmonton Oilers‘ power play is poetry.
They’re like the Sedin quintuplets, having that inherent hockey sonar in the attacking zone. It’s like watching a jam band at the peak of its powers, every musician implicitly understanding their role in the ensemble and knowing how to change key when it’s time for improvisation.
Edmonton scored at least one power-play goal in each game against the Los Angeles Kings and has converted with the man advantage in 15 of its past 17 playoff games overall. It’s power play is so good that it scores at even strength, too; in Game 5, the Oilers scored goals four seconds and three seconds after Los Angeles penalties expired.
The Oilers scored nine times on 20 power-play chances. Here’s a stat I had to triple-check to make sure it was real: After five games, Edmonton’s power play had a higher goals per game average (1.80) than the entire Washington Capitals‘ offense (1.75) and it was tied with the entire Toronto Maple Leafs‘ offense (1.80).
You have Evan Bouchard and his booming shot at the point as an option. You have Zach Hyman planted in front of the goalie. Then you have Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl freelancing like a jazz trio in the middle.
McDavid is already a human cheat code on the ice, but to watch him on the power play is to wonder how anyone could even hope to defend it. He glides around the offensive zone, in and out of tight spaces, using his sixth sense to develop plays.
Frequently the play that develops is a quick pass to Draisaitl in the low slot. Alex Ovechkin has the “Ovi Spot.” Draisaitl has “Drai Island,” where he snaps the puck so quickly and accurately that even a save can sometimes turn into a goal: Witness David Rittich‘s glove crossing the line in Game 5:
The scary thing about the Oilers’ special teams was that their power play wasn’t even the best thing about them in Round 1.
“The penalty kill not giving up a goal, that’s really impressive,” said McDavid, whose PK went 12-for-12. “Everybody on the kill was moving their feet, doing their job and sacrificing their bodies, which is not the most fun thing to do.”
So in summary, do not take penalties against the Edmonton Oilers. Be a bunch of Lady Byng winners out there. Sure, you’ll deprive us from watching this symphony of scoring. But you might just have a chance at beating them.
Make your depth generational
The age gap between Dallas Stars forwards Joe Pavelski and Wyatt Johnston is almost equal to one Wyatt Johnston. Pavelski is 39. Johnston is 20 with a birthday in May.
The template for a Stanley Cup-winning team is a simple one, and the Stars fit it. You need two exceptional centers; they have Roope Hintz on the top line and Tyler Seguin making an impact, but the emergence of Johnston has him up on the second line. You need an elite defenseman and they have one in Miro Heiskanen, who is averaging over 27 minutes per game. You need a goalie who won’t lose you a series; in Jake Oettinger, they have one that can win you one, too.
But what’s remarkable about the deep roster that GM Jim Nill has constructed here is the way it spans the generations.
In winning three games in a row to take a series lead on Vegas, coach Peter DeBoer called the Stars “hungry, confident and excited.” In their roster eras tour, those could be the subheadings.
Hungry: Dallas has eight players who have appeared in the postseason who are over 32 years old, from Pavelski and Suter to Evgenii Dadonov (34) and Matt Duchene (33) to Jamie Benn (34) and Seguin (32). In that group, only Seguin has a Stanley Cup ring.
Confident: The 24-to-30 group is in its prime and putting up numbers. That’s where you find Oettinger (25), Hintz (27), Heiskanen (24) and Jason Robertson (24).
Excited: Then you have the youngin’s who are making a huge impact. Johnston has three goals, Logan Stankoven has two helpers and is getting better every game, and Thomas Harley is playing nearly 24 minutes. They’re the youthful spark the lineup needed.
There’s no guarantee that Dallas gets through Vegas. But if the Stars do, it’s all in place. Now they just have to do something with it.
You can’t escape your (immediate) past
Stop me if you’re heard this one before: The Boston Bruins have a 3-1 series lead, dropping Game 2 at home and then walloping their opponent in Game 4 on the road. They lay an egg in Game 5 with a chance to close out the series, losing in overtime. They fully squander their series lead by losing Game 6 on the road in regulation, pushing the series to a Game 7.
It happened against the Florida Panthers last season. It’s happening again this season with the Toronto Maple Leafs. And the Bruins are going to have to seriously figure themselves out to prevent the same series result.
Coach Jim Montgomery after Game 5: “I have no problem talking about last year. Having failures in life and not learning from them is how you can repeat stuff. For me, it’s about picking yourself back up and talking and being honest with each other with where we’re at.”
Montgomery after Game 6: “We’re not living in the past.”
Of course they’re thinking about the Panthers, who ended the Bruins’ regular-season record-setting season and the careers of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci in the first round. Of course they’re thinking about having lost a sixth straight game with a chance to clinch a playoff series, tied for the seventh-longest streak by any team in NHL history.
“Not only are you against your opponent, but you’re against human nature too,” defenseman Charlie McAvoy said. “All that stuff happens between the ears. That’s on us to be a mature group here. To stay in the moment and stay together.”
Credit to the Maple Leafs for simplifying their game without Auston Matthews in the lineup, playing like their playoff lives depended on it and finally getting postseason heroics from a goaltender in Joseph Woll. But when Montgomery says that he doesn’t recognize his team for 90 minutes in Games 5 and 6, there’s more at play here than just an opponent finding another level.
“Right now, we’re not happy with our game,” Montgomery said.
When this series started, the idea that the Maple Leafs could win a Game 7 in Boston seemed ridiculous — against their tormentors, with 56 years of playoff disappointment weighing on them. Now, not only is it plausible, it’s the Bruins who are feeling the weight of history on their backs.
History does favor the Bruins in one regard: According ESPN Stats & Information, no team in NHL, NBA and Major League Baseball history has blown a 3-1 series lead in consecutive seasons.
No pressure.
There’s no avoiding the Matt Rempe discourse
In 17 regular-season games, Matt Rempe became a cult hero in New York and a magnet for controversy around the rest of the league. There was discourse about the frequency and style of his fights. Discourse about the way he used his 6-foot-7 frame to hit opponents, eventually resulting in a four-game suspension after an elbow to the head of New Jersey Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler. Discourse about whether he even belonged in the NHL while playing 5:38 minutes per game and collecting 71 PIM.
Oh, and the New York Rangers are 18-2-1 with Rempe in the lineup.
In the first round against the Washington Capitals, Rempe scored a goal in the Rangers’ Game 1 win and injured two players on checks in Game 3: Defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk, who left the game and didn’t play in Game 4; and forward T.J. Oshie, who said he broke his hand on a Rempe hit.
When asked if he was aware of the outrage over his hits, Rempe said he spent the night playing Halo against teammate Chris Kreider at the team hotel.
Rempe is the most talked-about player who allegedly no one should be talking about. The Canadian Press said he’s “something of a cult hero thanks to his fists and his enormous frame.” The New York Post called him “the NHL’s Public Enemy No. 1.”
There’s a chance the Rempe discourse could end in the second round if a healthy Filip Chytil takes his spot in the lineup. Or maybe the Rangers feel that a player skating less than seven minutes per game in the playoffs is vital to their success.
“Players love him. He’s been a big part of our team, a big part of momentum, a big part of just the attitude and the energy around the Rangers recently,” Rangers captain Jacob Trouba said.
Rick Tocchet should have challenged that goal
To the surprise of no one, goaltender interference continues to perplex and infuriate NHL coaches. Look no further than Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper’s post-elimination treatise on two calls that went against his team, with a critique so pointed that he ended up apologizing for a portion of it.
The inconstancy of these calls has made coaches hesitant to use challenges for video reviews, especially with a minor penalty for delay of game as the price for guessing incorrectly. That was certainly the case in Game 5 between the Vancouver Canucks and Nashville Predators, when coach Rick Tocchet declined to challenge the Roman Josi‘s goal that tied the score at 1-1.
Josi appeared to make contact with goalie Arturs Silovs as he buzzed the crease. Nashville winger Gustav Nyquist was one of two players to crash the crease as Silovs’ body knocked a loose puck into the net.
“If we’re down 2-1, then maybe [I’d challenge]. But it’s 50-50 at that point,” Tocchet said. “We just looked at it. I don’t know what the NHL would do on that one. I don’t. So, if I don’t know 100 percent — it’s a 1-1 game. We thought about it, but I thought it was 50-50, personally.”
There’s a couple of flaws in this logic. First, I’m not sure any goalie interference call is “50-50.” Time and again the NHL has shown deference to its netminders, which is one reason Cooper said “I think we’re letting the goalies off the hook” in his commentary.
As ESPN’s Dave Jackson said: “I really don’t think there’s a definitive answer and that might be called different on any given night depending who is in the NHL war room.”
But let’s say it’s actually a “50-50” chance. Let’s say it’s a coin flip. Heads, the score is tied and the Canucks have to kill a third-period power play — keeping in mind that they have killed every Nashville power play in the series until Josi’s controversial goal. Tails, Vancouver still has the lead.
Don’t you have to flip that coin?
Nashville would score the game-winning goal five minutes, 31 seconds later.
Embrace your dorky side
The pressure of the Stanley Cup playoffs has crushed countless championship contenders. Not only do teams have to excel on the ice, they have to have the right mindset off the ice.
To that end, we’re happy to report that the Florida Panthers — last season’s Cup runners-up, seeking their first championship ever — are delightful goofballs.
“We’ve got some unique guys in there,” coach Paul Maurice said, via the AP. “We’ve got some guys that just don’t look like professional athletes and they’re elite at it. Lots of different personalities. So, what I think you find is because of the room the way it is, so accepting, guys are completely comfortable truly being themselves — and then that weirdness or uniqueness comes out.”
Like the team continuing to use the “vibes cat” on social media after wins and still having fans tossing rubber rats on the ice.
Like defenseman Brandon Montour wearing a homemade T-shirt honoring teammate Nick Cousins to a news conference because “the media, everyone was giving him a little heat this year, paying my respects to a good player and good guy.”
It might start at the top. Maurice is perhaps the best quote in the playoffs. Among his recent hits:
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“I have cats. We have our spots on the couch everyone is allowed to take.” — Maurice on watching hockey after clinching their series.
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“He’s mean to small animals, squirrels especially.” — Maurice on star winger Sam Reinhart, in an effort to “tarnish” his reputation and bring his free agent price down.
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“His kids may not be.” — Maurice when asked if goalie Anthony Stolarz was fine after taking a hit to the lower body.
The Panthers are fun. And we haven’t even seen our first Matthew Tkachuk overtime goal celebration yet.
Teams aren’t running the marathon
If there’s one word to describe the opening round of the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs, it would be “brief.”
Five of the eight series wrapped up before Game 6, including the New York Rangers‘ sweep of the Capitals. A few of these matchups were even more lopsided than the series tallies would indicate, offering brief moments of uncertainty in what were otherwise drama-free first-rounders — which is what happens when your postseason doesn’t have the intrinsic joy of sudden-death overtime to amplify the spectacle.
Through Thursday night, there have been only six overtime games in the first round. If that holds, that would be the second-lowest amount of overtime games in the first round of the playoffs under the wild-card format (which began in 2014). In 2018, there were only five games that went to overtime. Incredibly, four of those games were in the same series: The Capitals’ six-game triumph over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
It’s not just the lack of overtime this postseason, it’s the lack of those marathon overtimes that make the playoffs unique. So far, there’s only been one multiple overtime game in the first round, which was Game 4 between the New York Islanders and the Carolina Hurricanes. The only other season to have just one multiple-OT game in the wild-card era was 2023, when the Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins went to triple overtime in Game 1.
There’s obviously still time for some added OT drama. The Dallas Stars vs. Vegas Golden Knights series and the Vancouver Canucks vs. Nashville Predators series both already have one OT game to their credit.
1:24
Bucci breaks down the Rangers’ Cup chances with McAfee
John Buccigross analyzes the Rangers’ sweep of the Capitals and notes things will get much more difficult starting in the second round.
Embrace your salary cap controversy
The Golden Knights did nothing wrong in bringing captain Mark Stone off long-term injured reserve in time for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs after recovering from a lacerated spleen. The collective bargaining agreement allows for this creative accounting. In the words of GM Kelly McCrimmon, “the National Hockey League polices all of this, so the rules are rules and the NHL watches this very carefully.”
The only way those rules change would be if the league’s general managers wanted them to change — which the majority of them don’t, seeing as how they can or will use that salary cap relief themselves at some point. Would forcing a player who is on LTIR in Game 82 to miss the first game or two of the playoffs make sense as a remedy for this alleged skullduggery? I think so, but it’s a solution to a problem that the NHL’s general managers and leadership doesn’t believe exists.
Still, there’s a prevailing sentiment from many fans that teams like Vegas have “cheated” the salary cap. And they no doubt got saltier than an arena pretzel when they saw this recent Jersey Foul:
I wish I was joking folks. 😳
Mark Stone’s wife, Hayley Thompson poses with a fan wearing an LTIR #61 jersey🤣 pic.twitter.com/ALoibydBul
— THE CAYDEN LINDSTROM FAN CLUB (@German_Diver) April 30, 2024
Yes, it’s the “long-term injured reserve” Stone jersey, as noted by Stone’s spouse Hayley Thompson.
It should be mandatory that if a team spends any time and energy defending their injured reserve salary cap strategy, they should be required to lean into the trolling if it’s successful.
There’s victory, and then there’s “Nikita Kucherov sitting on a boat between the Stanley Cup and the Lombardi Trophy while wearing a T-shirt that reads ‘$18 million over the cap'” victory.
The Team USA goalie race could be upended
Beginning next year, international hockey tournaments are going to be top of mind. There’s the Four Nations Face-Off in February 2025, a precursor to the NHL’s return to the Winter Olympics in 2026, where Team USA will try to win its first gold medal in men’s hockey since Mike Eruzione was making miracles.
The greatest advantage the Americans have over their rivals is in goal, where they have startling depth. Among the options: Jake Oettinger (Stars), Thatcher Demko (Canucks), Jeremy Swayman (Boston Bruins), Charlie Lindgren (Capitals), John Gibson (Anaheim Ducks) and above all of them Connor Hellebuyck (Winnipeg Jets), who is expected to win his second Vezina Trophy this summer as the league’s top netminder.
It’s hard not to think about the competition when watching the playoffs. Oettinger has those Dallas fans showing up to home games in otter masks nodding in approval. Swayman entered Thursday night’s Game 6 with the best save percentage (.952) and goals-against average (1.49) in the playoffs. Demko looked good in his only appearance before suffering an injury, and was arguably the second best goalie in the regular season, earning a Vezina nomination.
And then there was Hellebuyck. Who was terrible.
The Jets goalie finished the playoffs with an .870 save percentage and a 5.23 goals-against average. Money Puck had him as the worst goalie in the playoffs in goals saved above expected per 60 minutes (minimum two games played). Ditto Stathletes had him at minus-5.6 goals saved above expected in all situations.
Now, that sounds pretty bad, which is why it was surprising to hear Hellebuyck say he was “playing the best hockey of my career” and that he was “in that zone.”
He gave credit to the Avalanche for successfully screening their shots.
“You got to give them some kudos for what they did, but looking back, I don’t know if I even saw half the pucks go in the net,” he said. “They did a great job, but for me to not be able to put my foot down on a single game is really heartbreaking because it’s not typically how I do things.”
He also agreed that it was the breakdowns in front of him that led to his performance.
“Yeah, definitely. I think in a lot of those games I was stealing some goals,” he said. “That being said, I absolutely need to be better if we’re going to win.”
Hellebuyck has his champions among fans and in the goalie community that do believe it was more a combination of the Jets’ hapless defense and the Avalanche’s superior attack than the Vezina finalist’s own failings. It’s one thing to give up chances off the rush or in the inner slot; it’s another when those chances are coming from Nathan MacKinnon. Hellebuyck called out his team for not making the necessary adjustments to prevent those chances in the five-game loss to the Avs.
Looking at his postseason history, there have really only been two series where you could say Hellebuyck put his stamp on them: The Jets’ 2018 win over the Minnesota Wild and their 2021 victory over Edmonton. Otherwise, he hasn’t been a difference-maker.
How this performance impacts his standing with the national team remains to be seen, although it’s hard to ignore what Oettinger and Swayman have accomplished so far. To Hellebuyck’s credit, it sounds like this disaster against Colorado might be the thing that pushes him to reconsider how he handles that pressure — and that could help his case.
“It’s just the way my mentality is, I’m trying to put everything on my shoulders,” he said. “I don’t think that’s the right way to go about playoffs anymore.”
Again, for Team USA, it all boils down to a good roster problem to have.
Your snark can benefit others
The Carolina Hurricanes have long held the crown as the NHL’s sassiest and most entertaining social media team — and if you look around the league, you understand that those two terms can be very mutually exclusive in other cases.
This postseason, they’ve decided to leverage that snark for a good cause.
On April 22, the Hurricanes rallied from a 3-0 deficit in Game 2 of their series against the Islanders to win 5-3, a rally that included the game-tying and winning goals scored in a span of nine seconds. On X, Carolina had a one-word response to this development:
“CRY.”
This obviously set off Islanders fans and sparked debates about class and appropriateness — you know, the usual. It was such a sensation that the Hurricanes created a T-shirt with the word grafted onto their flag logo.
Perhaps seeking to reset their karma meter, the team announced that “a portion of proceeds will benefit the National Diaper Bank Network,” which is an organization dedicated to “ensuring that every child in the U.S. has an adequate supply of diapers.” Cry, diapers … You get it.
Here’s hoping the Hurricanes never lose their snark. And bring back the “duck, duck, goose” Storm Surge while you’re at it.