Does the NHL need to fix their playoff system? Yes. Will they? No.

The refs need to maintain the standard of calling penalties, from the regular season into the playoffs. They cannot suddenly let the clutching and grabbing go. And the corralling. The funneling of the opposition to the side. The sneaky little punches. Let all that go in the season and playoffs… or let none of it go in the season and playoffs. You can't do it one way and then switch to the other. It makes it useless building a skilled team that almost never loses in the regular season, because they just turn around and lose in the playoffs. It's one thing if it happens once in a while – topple the Leafs and the Penguins, sure. Upsets happen. But topple the Bruins and the Jets right after that? If the Lightning and Golden Knights fall, what will this tell the organizations? If Montreal and the Islanders face off in the Final what will GMs and coaches conclude? That toughness and defense – and only toughness and defense – win Cups. That won't be good for hockey (and certainly not for fantasy hockey). Coaches will do away with any semblance of a wide-open offensive style in the regular season in this copycat league. It just would have been nice to see the skilled regular season teams clash in the playoffs and may the best team win. Instead, we saw only Colorado – Vegas as wide-open, end-to-end excitement. I would love to see the same standards from October through June, so that the regular season has meaning. /rant

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And yes, I know that the Islanders are second in goals per game in these playoffs. They also have four empty-net goals and another three in overtime (which speaks to keeping it tight and only scoring because somebody has to score or the game won't end). No team has more OT goals then the Isles, and only Colorado has more EN goals.

Interesting to note – the Islanders have only scored at a higher rate than this year on four occasions in the playoffs: all four of their Cup years.

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The Isles were up 2-0 over Tampa Bay with a minute left before Brayden Point finally broke Semyon Varlamov's shutout.

If it's not one, it's the other…

Anthony Beauvillier: First 8 GP (4-5-9), Next 5 GP (0-2-2)

Matt Barzal: First 8 GP (0-4-4), Next 5 GP (4-3-7)

So which line do you cover?

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Ryan Pulock has four goals in the playoffs – three are game winners. He had two goals all season.

I noticed Ondrej Palat's ice time has been rolled back by 1.5 minutes in the playoffs. Sunday he saw his second-lowest of the postseason at 12:47, and he was minus-2. This is the impact of Nikita Kucherov back in the lineup. Even though they're linemates, Palat if off the PP.

Oliver Wahlstrom, who has been out with an injury since Game 5 of the first round, was back skating and was close to returning to the lineup, but didn't make it in. Coach Barry Trotz says he may not get into the lineup even if he is ready, as they like the team they're winning with. Wahlstrom's 21^st birthday was on Sunday.

Nikita Kucherov leads playoff scorers, as he did last year. Only five players in the last 50 years have led playoff scoring two years in a row: Wayne Gretzky (3x, of course), Guy Lafleur (3x), Mario Lemieux (2x), Rick MacLeish (2x) and Phil Esposito (2x).

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Since there was just the one game Sunday and really not a lot to say about it (rant aside), I thought I'd take my first real good look at the Seattle expansion draft. Of course I would use the best tools for this out there – found at Cap Friendly.

The Tougher Decisions:

In general, any player set to become a UFA a week after the expansion draft, I expose. Unless protecting them helps me best fit into the criteria (rare).

For Boston I chose protecting Jake DeBrusk and Trent Frederic over Craig Smith or Ondrej Kase.

For Buffalo I chose protecting Anders Bjork over Rasmus Asplund or Zemgus Girgensons.

For Calgary I assume Milan Lucic waives his NMC as he said he would.

For Chicago I chose protecting Henrik Borgstrom, Alex Nylander and Adam Gaudette over Brandon Hagel.

For Colorado I chose protecting Valeri Nichushkin over Joonas Donskoi. I went with age and upside there, as well as potential salary cap appeal.

For Edmonton, I leave Mikko Koskinen exposed because Seattle won't touch his cap hit and frankly I think the Oilers will buy him out if he goes unclaimed. So I guess that means Stuart Skinner gets protected, or potential UFA Mike Smith.

Not a decision here, but for Minnesota we're forced to expose Matt Dumba. This is because Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin have NMCs. I'd be begging Suter to waive his.

For Montreal, I protected Ben Chiarot over Joel Edmundson.

For Nashville, it was either protect Mattias Ekholm and use the 4/4/1 protection rule, or expose him and protect Kunin/Jarnkrok/Trenin and use the 7/3/1 rule. I chose to protect Ekholm, as defensemen don't grow on trees and you can only lose one forward.

For New Jersey I protected Yegor Sharangovich and Michael McLeod over Nick Merkley and Janne Kuokkanen.

For Ottawa I protected Filip Gustavsson over Matt Murray. Contract reasons. I think Seattle would skip over Murray, but even if they don't – Gustavsson is the top promising goalie prospect in the system.

For Philly, and this may sound crazy, but I protect Scott Laughton over Nolan Patrick.

For Pittsburgh I protected Jared McCann over Brandon Tanev (contract). I also protected Marcus Pettersson over Mike Matheson. I think Matheson's potential that he finally showed us down the stretch may get overlooked and Seattle doesn't touch him.

I protect Vince Dunn over Justin Faulk. I get that the latter is coming off a good year and the former is coming off a bad one, but that Faulk contract is an anchor and I don't trust what kind of year we'll get from him consistently.

I notice the Leafs will have to re-sign (likely) Alex Galchenyuk and Jason Spezza, so that the minimum of two signed forwards can be exposed. Plus another player, if they can't re-sign Hyman. Otherwise, Pierre Engvall gets exposed. Leaving it as is, they'd have to protect using the 4/4/1 rule, which means Justin Holl is protected while Engvall and Alex Kerfoot are not.

For Vancouver I protected Matthew Highmore over Tanner Pearson, for contract reasons.

The Seattle Kraken

Strategy – go through and choose goaltenders first. I want a veteran 'name' guy, but with a shorter contract. I want a prospect with high upside who is ready to play right now and has even gotten in a few NHL games already. And I want two other prospects who are close. A UFA signing can bring in another veteran as a No.3 in case the prospect isn't as ready as I thought.

Then go through and select defensemen (but before picking one you like, review the forwards available). Then the forwards. Then review the teams and make tweaks. I notice that several teams did a good job with rule manipulation (games played minimums, etc.) to paint Seattle into a corner and leave them with basically only a couple of not-great players to choose from. But that's what they gotta do!

Here is my team:

G – Cam Talbot, Vitek Vanecek, Adin Hill, Daniel Vladar

LD – Devon Toews, Brady Skjei, Jacob Larsson, Joel Edmundson, Gustav Forsling, Caleb Jones, Oliver Kylington

RD – Anthony DeAngelo, Scott Mayfield, Matt Roy

C – Calle Jarnkrok, Mason Appleton, Pierre Engvall, Mathieu Joseph, Kevin Stenlund

LW – James van Riemsdyk, Janne Kuokkanen, Brandon Hagel, Rasmus Asplund, Jason Dickenson

RW – Rudolfs Balcers, Zach Aston-Reese, Richard Panik, Auston Watson, Samuel Blais, Zack MacEwen

For the DeAngelo pick, besides the fact that I didn't want to go with Brett Howden or Colin Blackwell, I think the upside versus-the-personality debate leans too strongly in the favor of upside here. I think if he puts points on the board the way he can, Seattle fans will forget all about reputation. Can he keep his mouth shut? That's the big question. But the depth on defense makes this a worthy risk – they can simply bury him the way the Rangers did if it doesn't work out. As a bonus, Ron Francis can act very hesitant about picking DeAngelo and entice the Rangers into floating him a draft pick in exchange for taking him off their hands.

The forwards are light on talent, but it is what it is. Calgary, Detroit and Dallas left pretty much nothing. JVR and Jarnkrok would lead the offense, and this is a great opportunity for Balcers and Appleton to make their marks. And along with Kuokkanen and Hagel, those would be your best bets to be Seattle's version of William Karlsson/Jonathan Marchessault.

I do love the goaltending dynamic, and the left defense are strong. If ADA pans out, then the right defense will be strong as well.

This is a youthful team with some potential, but obvious growing pains. The cap hit is $54.4M, so plenty of room for trades. And I don't believe I'll get even half the players right, because teams will still trade and offer picks in order to get Seattle to lay off certain players.

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See you next Monday.