Hockey Rambling

Leafs Nation is sweating bullets right now, hoping that “it was 3-1” doesn’t become the new “it was 4-1.” Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored with just under five minutes left in the first overtime period to send Montreal to a Game 7 in Toronto on Monday. https://twitter.com/Sportsnet/status/1398835628742254592 The first two periods of this game provided no goals. [...]

The first Game 7 of the 2021 playoffs was played on Friday, with one team’s leading goal scorer making his series debut in the nick of time. Max Pacioretty returned to the Vegas lineup for his first game since May 1. He scored the eventual game-winning goal while skating 16:28 in his usual spot on [...]

When the injury to John Tavares came, I honestly feared the absolute worst. It was one of the most gruesome headshots I have ever seen a player take in the NHL, and I’m old enough to remember Paul Kariya getting cross-checked in the face by Gary Suter. That is why this clip of Tavares skating [...]

In thinking about the Florida Panthers, one thing came to mind: if you were Florida’s GM, what would you pay to get rid of Bobrovsky’s contract? This is a good exercise because it’s helpful in dynasty cap leagues as well. We have all been stuck with contracts we don’t want and had to devise a [...]

The Oilers getting swept out of the playoffs early Tuesday morning was not something that most of us projected. Edmonton outplayed Winnipeg, and the Jets barely led at all in the last three games. It could have gone either way, and I really hope this is the real kick in the pants that Edmonton management [...]

Ondrej Kase has been shut down for the year by the Boston Bruins. Remember that he was injured very early in Boston’s regular season, missed four months, returned for a few shifts for a game a couple weeks ago, was injured again, and is now done for the year. In total, going back to 2018-19, [...]

I don’t think there are any more playoff drafts at this point, but just in case – you can pick up my Playoff Draft List here. Later this week I will set up the shop for pre-sale of next season’s items. If you’re a subscriber and the payment went through, then you’re already signed up [...]

The Tampa Bay Lightning have taken a commanding 3-1 series lead against their cross-state rivals. However, it may have come at a cost. Nikita Kucherov scored a third-period power-play goal and added three assists to go with a plus-2 and four shots. However, he left the game later in the third period after taking a [...]

Late Friday, the NHL announced that Nazem Kadri had been suspended for eight games for his hit to the head of Justin Faulk. I don’t say this all the time about the Department of Player Safety, but the NHL made the right call given the severity of the hit and Kadri’s suspension history. Kadri has [...]

It’s hard to imagine that the NHL’s oldest rivals have gone 42 years without facing each other in a playoff series. The rapid growth of NHL expansion combined with the two teams playing in separate conferences for a while have factored into the wait, so it’s ironic that they’ve been brought back together in a [...]