Saturday was just another day of Stanley Cup playoff action. In the past we’d be surprised, perhaps, by two more Stanley Cup playoff games featuring rivetting, mind-bending comebacks pulled off by the winning teams – but that’s just par for the course this postseason, it seems. 

Nows the time, the time is now; so let’s ramble on, and unpack Saturday night’s action.

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We’ll start with the matinee in Boston, Game 2 between the Canadiens and the Bruins.

On a purely subjective level, you’ve got to admire how the Canadiens are approaching this series from an “on-ice discipline” perspective – staying calm, turning the other cheek, counting on the power-play to make the Bruins pay for their punk-test nonsense. So far the Habs have executed that game plan perfectly, which is impressive since it’s a lot easier said than done. Its paid off in the form of a 9-to-5 advantage in power-play opportunities in Montreal’s favour so far in this series.

Boston’s third period offensive outburst on Saturday afternoon will surely ease some of their frustration, which got the better of the Bruins especially late in the second period on Saturday. But still, Montreal’s Mennonite approach to Boston’s after the whistle shenanigans seems to be annoying the Bruins. If the Habs can sustain this, and again that’s easier said than done, it could prove critical.

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Praise for Montreal’s overall demeanor aside, boy were they ever lucky to escape Boston with a win from one of the two games this weekend (even though the Habs were roughly five minutes from having a 2-0 series lead). The Bruins were clearly the better team in both Game 1 and 2, and controlled 59% of shot attempts in the initial two games of the series (taking into account all situations). If that keeps up, this series will be over in a hurry barring some immortal-type performances from Carey Price in net.

Of course, there’s reason to think that won’t keep up as the series shifts to Montreal. Boston has long been pretty reliant on the defensive play of Zdeno Chara, and why not – he’s a surefire first ballot hall of famer and the best defensive defenseman since Chris Pronger in his prime. In Games 1 and 2 of this series, Chara was on the ice for fully 83.3 percent of the even-strength ice-time logged by Montreal’s top forward line (using David Desharnais as the proxy).

Michel Therrien isn’t my favorite coach, but he’s competent enough that he should be able to use last change at home to get that number down closer to 60% in Games 3 and 4. That could matter an awful lot, particularly since the Desharnais, Pacioretty, Vanek line (again using Desharnais as the proxy) was buried to the tune of 16 shot attempts for, and 33 attempts against – or a 32.6 percent corsi for ratio – in the opening two games of this series. 

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It certainly looks like Bruins defender Dougie Hamilton might be the breakout young star of this postseason, that is if he can sustain the level he’s been performing at over the past few weeks. Obviously skating on Zdeno Chara’s right-side is among the best jobs in professional hockey (just ask Steve Kampfer), but that shouldn’t diminish what Hamilton has accomplished of late. His offensive skills, and puck-moving abilities are obvious; but his two-way play has come a long way – even if he’s very obviously not driving the bus defensively on a pairing with Chara.

Still, in addition to scoring a rally-keying goal in the third period on Saturday; Hamilton’s two-way play has been superb. In Games 1 and 2 of this series, the Bruins have outshot the Canadiens 24-8 with Hamilton on the ice at even-strength; an absurd ratio. If Hamilton continues to get a long leash from Bruins coaches – and I’d qualify this by pointing out that even though Hamilton’s most frequent defense partner of late is Chara, the young defender is still logging “third pairing” minutes in terms of the volume of his even-strength ice-time – he could be a very intriguing late round sleeper pick next season.

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A little bit of controversy erupted on Saturday when Canadiens defender P.K. Subban bailed out of a hit that was about to be thrown by Shawn Thornton. Thornton seemed to be injured on the play, although he returned to the game shortly thereafter. 

In talking to reporters about the incident post-game Thornton said that Subban had apologized to him after the collision (for god know what reason) and added, “I think [Marchand] got 5 games for that,” referring to Marchand’s infamous, predatory low-bridge that concussed Vancouver Canucks defender Sami Salo in January of 2012. 

To put it as objectively as I can: that is a blatant false equivalence. I’d argue that had Subban not bailed on Thornton’s hit it would’ve been a pretty clear cut example of boarding (just based on Thornton’s positioning behind Subban, and Subban’s proximity to the boards). Further, in explaining Marchand’s five-game suspension on 9 January 2012, Shanahan said the following about potential exceptions to the NHL’s clipping rules: “We understand that in certain circumstances a player may duck or bail instinctively in order to protect himself from an imminent or dangerous check.” Pretty clear that’s what happened on this play.

Continued Shanahan: “We do not view this play (Marchand’s low-bridge on Salo) as defensive or instinctive – rather we feel this was a predatory low-hit…” So really there’s no comparison.

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On the Bruins comeback: it seems to me that Carey Price’s luck just ran out a bit, and that takes nothing away from how extraordinarily well he played in the first two games of this series. As good as Price’s performance was, however, I think you had to know that his luck was bound to run out (or, at least Marchand knew).

When Price made stops like his Tim Thomas-like sprawling stymie of Torey Krug in the first period of Game 1, or his second period shimmy blocker save on Loui Eriksson in Game 2; those were great saves, but also the types of chances that eventually are going to go against a goaltender, no matter how good he is. When Price was beaten three times on six shots in the third period on Saturday, I basically think that’s what happened – though I’m sure Price would like that bad-angle game-tying goal Bergeron scored back. 

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Moving out West to the Battle of Los Angeles (lights out, guerilla radio – turn that $#!% up), the Los Angeles Kings managed to a take a 1-0 series lead and wrest home-ice advantage away from the Anaheim Ducks with a late comeback win in Game 1. The Kings were seven seconds away from losing the first contest when Mike Richards made a pretty incredible play to retrieve a puck after his shot was blocked, and throw it out front to Marian Gaborik who tapped it past Ducks starter Jonas Hiller.

Gaborik was at it again in overtime, deflecting an Anze Kopitar slap-pass past Hiller for the game-winner. It was the latest in a series of last minute heroics in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and a pretty cool ka-ching moment for a pending unrestricted free-agent like Gaborik.

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The Los Angeles Kings are a crushing puck possession team, the best in the league by a fair bit. But they’ve consistently struggled to finish scoring opportunities at an even average rate over the past several seasons (it’s a major reason they were the 8th seed in 2012). Gaborik, on the other hand, is a player who has always finished at an elite rate; his principal value is derived from his ability to drive shooting percentage, rather than to drive “Corsi for” percentage – which is fine for the Kings, they have enough possession drivers as it is. 

What L.A. lacked was an elite skilled finisher like Gaborik, a player talented enough to manufacture goals out of nowhere; kind of like what Patrick Kane does for the Blackhawks. This, by the way, is explicitly the angle that Kings general manager Dean Lombardi was playing at when he acquired Gaborik for pennies on the dollar from the Blue Jackets at the deadline. 

Gaborik has given that L.A. top-line an extra gear offensively, and his presence in the lineup pushes the likes of Jeff Carter and Dustin Brown onto secondary and tertiary forward lines respectively. The Gaborik trade is looking like one hell of a trade deadline acquisition so far. 

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One interesting side note on Gaborik’s ability to drive shooting percentage: there was a time when he was just flat out the best skater in the league. In those days I suspect he drove shooting percentage in part because more of his shots were breakaways than your average NHL forward. These days that extra gear is dulled – it isn’t entirely gone, but he’s less of a freak than he was when he was literally the only reason to watch a Minnesota Wild game (and formed a really exciting top-line with Pavel Demitra). But Gaborik still seems to drive percentages even while moving with somewhat less pace than he has in the past.

His two goals on Saturday were a good example of how he’s adapted: he’s still got fantastic hands, and he’s incredibly sneaky about positioning his relatively slight frame at the net-front.

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Robyn Regehr left Saturday’s game with an injury, and might be out of the lineup for a bit. I hate to say this about a steady veteran player like Regehr, but the Kings might be better off with Alec Martinez logging more minutes (and Regehr logging significantly fewer). Martinez had a hell of a game on Saturday – a clutch save, and a power-play goal – and is an under-rated puck-moving defenseman. I know Sutter loves his plodding shutdown guys, but if Los Angeles inserted more speed into their top-four (by rolling with Drew Doughty-Jake Muzzin and Slava Voynov-Martinez), they might be even more formidable in my opinion.

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Comeback aside, the Ducks showed better than I thought they would against Los Angeles. I still think the Kings will make relatively quick work of the Ducks in this series, but results aside – the Ducks hung with Los Angeles on Saturday, and out-performed my expectations in doing so. 

Now that said, an over-matched team – which I believe the Ducks are in this series even though they took 9 of 10 points from L.A. during the regular season – really can’t afford to blow a game like Anaheim did in Game 1. But if the Ducks can play the way they did on Saturday all series, they’ll have a fighting chance to topple the Kings. I didn’t think they had that in them.

Thomas Drance is a news editor at theScore.