This Week in the NHL Bubble: Feuds and Beatdowns
Boston takes care of business
After a disappointing seeding round where the Bruins looked lifeless and lost every game, they reminded everyone which games actually counted. The Carolina Hurricanes made quick work of the New York Rangers, but the President’s Trophy winners reminded them that they were the best team in the league this year with a series win in five games.
All this despite the news of goaltender Tukka Rask opting out of the bubble to attend to an urgent family matter. Clearly the Bruins could handle this development, unlike plenty of insensitive dillweeds who put him through the ringer for his decision.
The Avs deliver a beat down
I think most people had the Colorado Avalanche winning their series against the Arizona Coyotes. I’m not sure everyone knew how much devastation they would leave in their wake on the way.
Darcy Kuepmer stole a game with an outstanding 49 save effort, a career high. But that was as close as the Coyotes would get as the Avalanche followed that up with consecutive 7-1 blowouts that legally gave Denver ownership of the city of Glendale. I don’t make the rules, I just report them.
The Isles are the real deal
I had resisted picking the New York Islanders in any playoff series since Barry Trotz took over behind the bench two seasons ago. Yeah he just won a championship with the Washington Capitals, but the Islanders lost John Tavares to the Toronto Maple Leafs and didn’t seem to have the star power other contenders had to go along with questionable goaltending.
I finally got over those feelings for this round and picked them to come out of the series against the Capitals due to their fantastic underlying numbers. They proved that they were the real deal against Alex Ovechkin (who had a great series) and company. Anthony Beauvillier in particular broke out and now shares the playoff lead in goals with six.
Maybe that performance will finally get him a date with Anna Kendrick? Hey Anthony, I appreciate you lending me your Lambo while my car was in the shop. You’re a great friend, dude.
The Philly reality show
The Flyers came in as the number one seed against the eight-seed Montreal Canadiens facing a tougher-than-expected series against a well-coached opponent. While the Flyers got the job done thanks mostly to Carter Hart coming up big as they briefly forgot how to score, the biggest storyline was the apparent feud developed between Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault and Brendan Gallagher.
After a cross check from Matt Niskanen broke Gallagher’s jaw, Vigneault told reporters: “In my estimation, Gallagher got up and seemed fine. He was talking to the referees. The whole time that he was on the bench, he was talking to our players for the rest of the game.” It seems Vigneault really is the perfect coach for the city of Philadelphia.
Dallas discovered a thing called goals
The Dallas Stars have had plenty of issues scoring under coach Rick Bowness this series. So it seemed questionable that they could take out the Calgary Flames who seemed to have that part of the game down.
They put those concerns to rest, at least temporarily, with a seven goal explosion in the decisive game six after going down 3-0 early in the first period. I wouldn’t expect this kind of scoring to be the norm, especially as their road now gets much steeper against the Avalanche. But it was at least fun for Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks fans to see Joe Pavelski, Corey Perry, and Andrew Cogliano move on.
Vancouver takes out the champs
The St. Louis Blues went through this season playing like the defending champs. Coming in to this series against a Vancouver Canucks team not ordinarily in the playoffs in a normal year felt like a formality to moving to the next round.
Bo Horvat, Elias Pettersson, and Quinn Hughes had other ideas.
The Canucks shocked the reigning champs by taking control of the series and showing the world that they’re on the rise. Combined with goaltender Jacob Markstrom’s performance in net, the Canucks showed that they shouldn’t be underestimated. Unfortunately for them, their next opponent is the juggernaut Vegas Golden Knights. Their run may be about to speared by a medieval sword.
Vegas runs the table
After the Chicago Blackhawks surprisingly took out the Edmonton Oilers in the play in round, they had the pleasure of facing the Vegas Golden Knights in a matchup that they hoped to hang on to dear life.
Despite an outstanding performance form goaltender Corey Crawford, the Golden Knights were too much for the Hawks to handle. Hey, not everything has to be surprising or unexpected.
The Bolts get revenge
The Tampa Bay Lightning have been waiting for this for more than a year. After one of the most shocking upsets in NHL history last year, the Bolts finally got revenge on the Columbus Blue Jackets, taking the series in five games.
A valiant effort by Columbus goaltender Jonas Korpisalo wasn’t enough as Tampa used the momentum from a marathon five overtime win in Game 1 to exorcise the demons and move on to a real test against the Boston Bruins.
Let us know in a comment below what your takeaways from the past week were!