Happy Monday y'all! What a shocking, but truly uneventful series between the Colorado Avalanche and the Vegas Golden Knights.

Before we get into the conference finals, I just wanted to take a moment to say rest in peace, Mr. Claude Lemieux. If you or someone you know feels any kind of inkling to hurt someone/yourself, let it out. Find someone to talk to, even if it's for five minutes. It doesn't matter if it's your best friend or someone you interact with on the forum pages. My DMs are always open 

Now back to the ice. From what the games looked like, it seemed like a lot of players on the Avalanche were hurt, but we know for sure that both Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon were dealing with injuries, and you never want to lean on that as a cop out, but when your top two players can't compete like they normally do, you are playing on borrowed time. Honestly though, the way John Tortorella and co. game planned for this squad, I am not sure it would have mattered if they were fully healthy. The Golden Knights looked like a pre-lockout trap team and they made Colorado very uncomfortable. 

Where do the Avs go from here? They have about three million in cap space, but the youngest player on their books right now is 27 years old. Makar is a free agent after the 2026-27 season and with the rising cap, I don't think there is a chance he gets anything lower than MacKinnon. I can't see him getting traded, but if you wanted to replenish the cupboard and bring a few young players in to build around the NateDogg, this could be one way to go.

Vegas faces a similar question this summer, but they have one more series to go so we'll dive into that once the Cup has been awarded.

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I don't think there ever will be a formula to get playoff formats/seasons right. If you have ever been apart of a team, it's just about finding the right consistency and always giving it your all. When you have six months worth of games, you'll hit highs and lows and it's about how you manage those.

I personally like the divisional playoff format, but I think there should be a lot more inter-division games during the season, like when they used to play each other seven or eight times during a campaign. For a new postseason layout, the format would see the two and three seeds pit against each other while the division winner still plays a wild card team, but the wild cards can come from either conference. So, in this case, the Washington Capitals would have been wildcard three and the Utah Mammoth would have been wildcard four while the LA Kings would have not participated.

We would have seen the following match ups:

Avalanche (Division 1) versus Mammoth (Wildcard 4)

Carolina Hurricanes (Division 2) versus Capitals (Wildcard 3)

Buffalo Sabres (Division 3) versus Ottawa Senators (Wildcard 2)

Golden Knights (Division 4) versus Boston Bruins (Wildcard 1)

As you can see, we still have divisional matchups in the first round, along with a fun new playoff matchup AND the league is able to get in at least one more deserving team. Let me know what you think of this format over on Twitter, @LAM1926.

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Edmonton Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard suffered an upper body injury after a hit from American defender Ryan Lindgren. Depending on where you get your news, Bouchard may have suffered a concussion towards the end of the season and played with symptoms during the playoffs. Two concussions in two months is definitely something to monitor over the summer and may ignite some trades in your keeper/dynasty formats. If your leagues still count PIMs, keep tabs on when that first Oiler/Seattle Kraken game is as I'm sure guys will want to make Lindgren answer the bell.

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It's pretty depressing we have, at most, seven games of hockey left for this year. With the draft right around the corner, make sure to check out all of our coverage over at DobberProspects and keep checking in over the summer as trades and free agency start. Have a great week everyone and enjoy the greatest trophy in all of sports!