We’ve reached that point in every hockey season where the schedule gets lighter, and lighter, until the NHL-game faucet is switched off entirely for the summer. It’s a bittersweet time, on the one hand the hockey being played in the conference finals and the Memorial Cup should be rivetting; on the other, hockey is almost over for the 2013-14 League Year. 

So make sure to savor every last drop. If it’s clear that the Kings are going to defeat the Ducks in a blowout seventh game – watch that third period. If the Rangers pump three power-play goals into Peter Budaj in the first five-minutes of an already lopsided Eastern Conference Final game: stick with it. If you don’t, you’ll regret it come early August!

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In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final on Saturday night the New York Rangers unceremoniously flattened the Montreal Canadiens, as New York stepped on the accelerator in the final minute of the second period and for the first five minutes of the third on their way to a 7-2 blowout victory. If you’re in the mood to read the quick write-up I did at theScore yesterday: check it out here. 

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One of the most pronounced features of New York’s blowout on Saturday wasn’t their offensive explosion, but their quality team defense. Lundqvsit made some nice saves – a second period glove stop to frustrate an electric end-to-end P.K. Subban rush in particular – but it helped that Rangers defenders were able to contest and stuff a rather ridiculous proportion of Canadiens shot-attempts. At even-strength the Habs attempted 41 shots on Saturday afternoon, of which Rangers defender blocked 49% (or 20). 

It’s unlikely that the Rangers will manage to continue their high-wire Dikembe Mutombo-act throughout this series, certainly a 49% blocked shot rate is not going to prove sustainable, but you have to give them kudos for the way they executed defensively in Game 1. Doesn’t get any better than that.

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Rangers forward Rick Nash finally scored his first goal of the postseason, on his 54th shot. On Friday, Nash was asked whether or not he was “due” to find the back of the net this playoffs and his response was pretty great: “I’m overdue, I would definitely say overdue” he replied per NHL.com, which reminds me oddly of this fantastic exchange between Matt Damon and Alec Baldwin in The Departed. 

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Meanwhile Nash’s coach Alain Vigneault had this to add about his top winger’s offensive struggles:

“We analyze the scoring chances for and against, and he [Nash] is our top player. For some reason he’s in a little bit of a funk right now as far as finding ways to put the puck in the net, but the looks are there. We all believe, and I hope he believes the same thing, that as soon as one goes in more are going to go in.”

So Alain Vigneault analyzes scoring chances for and against postgame, meanwhile his successor in Vancouver reportedly didn’t even watch game-tape of upcoming opponents. Sure seems like the coaching swap was a winner for the Rangers, eh?

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Speaking of forwards acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets in recent years, Rangers forward Derick Brassard has had one hell of a postseason and was critical in New York’s Game 6 and 7 victories over the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Metropolitan Division finals (or is the second-round still referred to as the Eastern Conference quarterfinals? I’m confused). 

But Brassard left Game 1 after a big hit by Canadiens defender Mike Weaver early in the first period. Brassard was battling a lower-back injury in mid-April that caused him to miss some practices, although, it didn’t cost him any games. He was spotted receiving a massage on the bench following the Weaver hit, and took just one more 40 second shift before heading down the tunnel to the dressing room. He didn’t return to the contest. 

Brassard is listed as day-to-day, but his absence – if it’s prolonged – will hurt the Rangers power-play (though that didn’t seem to matter in the third period Saturday), and also diminishes their forward depth. I guess if Dominic Moore can keep making no-look cross crease backhand feeds then the Rangers will probably survive; but their skilled third line has laid waste to all comers in the Stanley Cup playoffs thus far, and seemed well suited to exploiting Montreal’s overall lack of blue-line depth.

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That Brassard/Carl Hagelin/Benoit Pouliot third-line is very interesting, particularly because it flies in the face of some of what we’ve been told a third line “should” be. The Rangers have a quality fourth-line (Brian Boyle, Moore and Derek Dorsett) that they bury in the defensive zone – to such an extent that they’re a borderline special teams unit – and that allows Vigneault and company to ice guys like Pouliot and Brassard who, in the past, might’ve been pegged with that tricky “can’t kill penalties or play on a checking line, but aren’t productive enough to play in the top-six” label. 

Essentially by using their fourth-line the way they do (and it’s similar to what Joel Quenneville does with Bollig/Krueger/Smith), the Rangers can afford to ice a third skilled line, and that third skilled line has pulverized opponent’s bottom pairings all postseason long. I’m a big fan of this approach.

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Habs general manager Marc Bergevin told reporters that he’s made a decision on whether or not to extend Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien prior to Game 1, and we can infer that he means that in an affirmative way. The Canadiens bench boss will head into his “lame duck” final year next season, and after the Canadiens’ playoff success, I don’t think anyone would be surprised to see the team make a longer-term commitment to him.

I’m not a huge Therrien fan, in particular his fondness for players like Doug Murray over younger, better players like Nathan Bealieu and Jared Tinordi; but you’ve got to give it to him for the job he’s done in the playoffs. His most important adjustment by far has been to ride Subban for 28ish minutes per game, up significantly from the minute burden Subban logged in the regular season. It gave the Canadiens an extra gear against Boston and Tampa…

Of course, how much credit should you give a coach for just “playing his best player more” in the postseason? Probably not too much.

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Jacob Trouba, who you might remember left Winnipeg’s last game after getting hit by a puck in the face, has left the Worlds with an undisclosed injury. All USA Hockey is saying is that Trouba is flying home for “precautionary reasons” which leads me to suspect that perhaps his face injury is still lingering. Trouba’s going to be a beast next season, both in real world terms and in fantasy hockey terms, if he can stay healthy – so hopefully he recovers quickly.

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Blue Jackets forward R.J. Umberger reportedly requested a trade out of Columbus during his exit interviews this past spring. The Jackets will apparently do what they can to move Umberger, but it’s unlikely to prove easy as a result of his $4.6 million cap-hit and $13.5 million in remaining salary. Umberger has the size and two-way acumen to perhaps attract some interest, but that’s a lot of money to commit to a forward who probably shouldn’t be playing top-six minutes at this stage of his career – at least not on a contending team. In all likelihood the Jackets are going to have eat a bit of salary in any Umberger deal.

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Interesting quotes from Zdeno Chara on how Boston’s constipated breakout vs. Montreal impacted their entire puck possession game. The Bruins have gone with the “size wins” model for years, but when you look at the teams remaining this postseason, it’s pretty clear that speed kills in the playoffs. It certainly killed the B’s.

As such, don’t be surprised to see Shawn Thornton and Jarome Iginla jettisoned this offseason; and I’d wager speedy AHL forward Ryan Spooner gets a very long look at Bruins training camp this upcoming fall.

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The Edmonton Oil Kings play the host London Knights tonight in Memorial Cup action. If you’re looking for a draft eligible prospect to check out, don’t miss Monday’s game between Val D’Or and Guelph – (I think the Storm are the best team at this tournament, by the way). Guelph center Robbi Fabbri, fresh off of winning the award for OHL playoff MVP, is one hell of a prospect and I think he’s pretty undervalued by the industry in general. Corey Pronman has him at 15 in his latest top-100 rankings for ESPN and that’s the highest I’ve seen Fabbri listed. 

His statistical profile is tantalizing though, and it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see him become this year’s Bo Horvat, who was sort of the highest riser ahead of the 2013 draft. Consider that, among first time draft eligible players Fabbri is second in the entire CHL is even-strength goals scored (behind only Jake Virtanen). Among first time draft eligible CHL players, he was also second in even-strength goal differential (behind only Nikolaj Ehlers).

It’s tough to suss out what’s Fabbri’s impact and what’s the result of him playing on an absolutely stacked Storm club, but he’s a heady (if undersized) player with skill to burn. If he doesn’t go supernova (a la Horvat) and is available late in the first round, someone is going to get a steal.

Thomas Drance is a news editor at theScore.