Avalanche 5, Jets 1 (Colorado leads 3-1)

A dominant performance on Sunday gave Colorado a commanding 3-1 lead in their first-round series against Winnipeg. The Avalanche were led by a hat trick from Valeri Nichushkin, who moves into a tie with Zach Hyman as the leading goal-scorer of these playoffs. Both players have six goals through four games. In the second half of the regular season, Nichushkin missed two months of action while in the NHL's Player Assistance program. He also missed a few games after that due to injury. Those factors likely explain why his offense fizzled down the stretch as he posted just three points in his final eight appearances of the regular season. This early playoff production is a welcome sign for an Avs' team that needs all hands on deck to recreate their Stanley Cup-winning magic from two seasons ago.  

Connor Hellebuyck made 60 appearances in the regular season. He allowed four or more goals in just 10 of those 60 games – 16% of his outings. In the playoffs, he's allowed four-plus in all four of his starts so far. Hellebuyck hasn't been the game changer that he was during the regular season, but he's also up against an incredibly talented Avalanche group. To make matters worse, the Jets' team he's playing behind hasn't been doing him any favours.

The final shot count of Sunday's game read 35-27 in Colorado's favour. At first glance, that doesn't seem too lopsided and my description of the Avs' performance as 'dominant' seems exaggerated. However, after two periods, Colorado outshot Winnipeg 30-16 and held a 4-1 lead. Their urgency for offense understandably evaporated in the third period as they had the luxury of sitting back on a three-goal cushion. We saw a similar story play out in Game 2. 

Colorado has now outshout Winnipeg in all four games of this series. With the team playing so well in front of him, Alexander Georgiev has started to build some confidence. After giving up seven in Game 1, he's allowed a total of five goals in Games 2, 3 and 4. Competent goaltending was the only glaring weakness of this Colorado team. If Georgiev's confidence continues to grow, the Avalanche will be incredibly tough for opponents to overcome. 

Cale Makar and Arturri Lehkonen were also important parts of Colorado's win on Sunday as both players tallied a goal and an assist. Makar has eight points through four games of the postseason – a point total that ranks second to only Connor McDavid. Lehkonen is close behind with seven points of his own.

Oh my god Cale Makar pic.twitter.com/L0SAfibret

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) April 28, 2024

Canucks 4, Predators 3 (Vancouver leads 3-1)

Preds' fans, I'm sorry to make you relive this…

Three minutes left on the clock. Nashville has a two-goal lead and the series seems destined for a 2-2 tie. Elias Lindholm has other ideas, sending a beautiful cross-crease pass to Brock Boeser, who puts it past a sprawling Juuse Saros to bring Vancouver within one. 

BROCK BOESER PULLS THE CANUCKS WITHIN ONE! 🥵 pic.twitter.com/XWq7R7MRmS

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 28, 2024

Two minutes left in the game. Colton Sissons reaches the hash marks in Vancouver's end while the Canucks' net is empty. He sends a backhand attempt on net, presumably destined to give Nashville some breathing room. Instead, fans at Bridgestone Arena are forced to hold their breaths as he hits the post. When they finally exhale, it's a sigh of disappointment not relief. Eight seconds left in Game 4, Boeser completes his hat trick, tying the game at three and forcing overtime. Barely a minute into the extra frame, Lindholm puts home the winner and places the Predators on the edge of extinction. 

LINDHOLM WINS IT FOR THE CANUCKS 🚨 pic.twitter.com/I9HWl9iWVV

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 29, 2024

Lindholm was an integral piece of Vancouver's comeback on Sunday night. A few more playoff performances like this should mitigate the damage his reputation suffered after a 44-point regular season. He needs all the leverage he can get prior to contract negotiations this summer. 

With an injury keeping Casey DeSmith out of Game 4, Arturs Silovs was thrust into his first NHL playoff appearance. The 23-year-old netminder had just nine games of NHL experience before Sunday's start but held his own, stopping 27 of the 30 shots Nashville threw his way. It's crazy to think that Vancouver had a different goalie in net for each of their wins so far. Thatcher Demko took Game 1, DeSmith Game 3, and Silovs Game 4. It'll be interesting to see who gets the nod in Game 5. It sounds like DeSmith should be healthy by then, and considering he's significantly more experienced than Silovs, I imagine he'll be trusted with closing out the series.  You've likely heard already, but Demko probably won't be available in round one as he's out week-to-week with what's believed to be a torn ACL.  

Tocchet notes that Casey DeSmith should be an option for Game 5. #Canucks

— Thomas Drance (@ThomasDrance) April 29, 2024

Juuse Saros, who had been one of the league's top netminders in recent years, had a lacklustre showing this past regular season. It seems that poor play has carried into the playoffs, where he sports the worst save percentage of any goalie with multiple postseason starts – holding an .857 through four games. In fairness, it's been hard for Saros to have his usual impact because he hasn't faced a high volume of shots. The Canucks sit last among playoff teams with just 17.8 shots per game. For reference, Nashville sits second last and is all the way up at 25.8. 

What is it with big-name goalies in this year's playoffs? Halfway through round one, Saros, Hellebuyck, Ilya Sorokin ,Sergei Bobrovsky, Jake Oettinger, and Andrei Vasilevskiy are all rocking sub-900 save percentages. 

~

Rangers 4, Capitals 2 (New York wins the series 4-0)

Underdog stories and upsets are part of what makes this time of year so special in the NHL. Unfortunately, Washington didn't get that memo. Okay, maybe that's unfair. A more accurate assessment would be that they didn't have the tools necessary to write the underdog story we were starving for. Instead, the most predictable outcome was realized. The team that finished first overall in the regular season, scoring 53 more goals than they conceded, ended up sweeping the team that ranked 17^thoverall, who conceded 37 more goals than they scored. 

With his team facing elimination, Alex Ovechkin saw just 15 and a half minutes of action and failed to record a shot on goal. Ovi finishes the series without a point and with just five shots on goal – four of which came in Game 3. It was an incredibly disappointing postseason for Washington's 38-year-old captain, but I put more stock into his strong second half of the regular season – where he put up 23 goals in 36 games – than I would in his poor playoffs. 

Washington scored seven goals in this series. Two of them were scored by defensive defenseman Martin Fehervary. No disrespect to Fehervary, but when he's your leading scorer in the playoffs, you're probably not going very far. 

Special teams ended up being a pretty significant factor in this series. Washington scored on 2/17 power-play opportunities (11.8%), while New York converted on 6/16 (37.5%). The Rangers were one of the best teams with the man advantage during the regular season and that's continued early on in the playoffs. That top group of Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Vincent Trocheck and Adam Fox has been really successful for a long time. I know it's not the focus right now, but it reminds me that Alexis Lafreniere doesn't really have a clear path to prominent power-play time – because 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. Although he broke out with 57 points during the regular season, it'll be hard for him to take that next step without a role on PP1. 

THE RANGERS RE-TAKE THE LEAD AND CHAOS ENSUES 😱 pic.twitter.com/1RjKdyHeCI

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 29, 2024

The gap in goaltending between the two teams also contributed to the final result. Igor Shesterkin finished the series with a 1.75 GAA and .931 SV%, while Charlie Lindgren ended up with a 3.58 GAA and .864 SV%. Sure, Lindgren was up against a much more intimidating offense, but his heroic stints during the regular season couldn't be replicated in the playoffs. 

The Rangers await the Islanders or Hurricanes in round two. Carolina is currently up 3-1 in that series. 

Oilers 1, Kings 0 (Edmonton leads 3-1)

With Sunday's final game starting at nearly 11PM EST, I was prepared for a lovely night of sleep deprivation. Fortunately, the hockey gods had mercy on me and Game 4 between Edmonton and LA ended up being a relatively low-event affair. Despite getting outshot 33-13 – yes you read that right – Edmonton stole a 1-0 win in LA thanks to a strong performance from Stuart Skinner. The Oilers returns home with a 3-1 stranglehold on this series. 

The lone goal of this game was scored by Evan Bouchard on the man advantage. Edmonton leads the league with eight power-play goals so far in this year's playoffs. Although the Kings finished the regular season with the league's second-best penalty kill overall, they struggled down the stretch and haven't been able to shut down Edmonton's lethal top group. 

Bouchard with a blast 🚀 pic.twitter.com/OVJ0k59uIn

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 29, 2024

Since Cam Talbot gave up 16 goals over the first three games of this series, LA handed the net over to David Rittich on Sunday. Although Rittich only allowed one goal, he was nowhere near as busy as Talbot had been. Talbot faced 44 shots in Game 1, 31 in Game 2, and 40 in Game 3. Rittich only faced 13 in Game 4. Still, I'd expect him to start again in Game 5.  

~

Thanks for reading! If you ever have any fantasy hockey questions, follow me on Twitter @BrennanDeSouza and shoot me a message!