Crazy night in Tampa made us realize how different Nucking hockey would have been if JB had picked Upchuk in 2016- then he could have traded him to Florida and we'd still not make the playoffs.
LAST NIGHT'S ACTION
As ever, Westy and jimmi's Floridian predictions get off to a bad start. Cats zap Bolts 6-2 in Tampa. Electrifying!
Staying east of sanity, appears the Devils having lost their last Hughes brother are still losing games. Unless the details in the Devils change, this series could be the first sweep of round one.
Minni comes back to steal a game in Vegas, just like Kent knew they would. Got out to a 4-0 lead before the Nighties potted a couple self-respect tallies. Series now tied at 1-1 and anything can happen. It won't... but still.
Saving the most important for last... which kinda implies it's not that important, but that's not important. The important part is another home game in CoTU. Another game the Laffs beat the inexperienced, but tough and mean Sens. This time 3-2 in OT.
TONIGHT'S ACTION
CANADIENS (WC2) at CAPITALS (1M)
Eastern Conference First Round, Game 2
7 p.m. ET; MNMT, ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC
Washington leads best-of-7 series 1-0
Canadiens need to steal a game in the capitol of grifters. How hard can it be? Montreal came back to almost win last game. Also, even if they don't win, they can just claim they did on their own TV network.
Canadiens projected lineup
Cole Caufield -- Nick Suzuki -- Juraj Slafkovsky
Josh Anderson -- Christian Dvorak -- Brendan Gallagher
Patrik Laine -- Alex Newhook -- Ivan Demidov
Emil Heineman -- Jake Evans -- Joel Armia
Mike Matheson -- Alexandre Carrier
Kaiden Guhle -- Lane Hutson
Jayden Struble -- David Savard
Sam Montembeault
Jakub Dobes
Scratched: Arber Xhekaj, Michael Pezzetta, Oliver Kapanen
Injured: None
Capitals projected lineup
Alex Ovechkin -- Dylan Strome -- Anthony Beauvillier
Connor McMichael -- Pierre-Luc Dubois -- Tom Wilson
Andrew Mangiapane -- Lars Eller -- Ryan Leonard
Brandon Duhaime -- Nic Dowd -- Taylor Raddysh
Jakob Chychrun -- John Carlson
Rasmus Sandin -- Matt Roy
Alex Alexeyev -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Logan Thompson
Charlie Lindgren
Scratched: Ethen Frank, Dylan McIlrath, Ethan Bear, Clay Stevenson
Injured: Aliaksei Protas (lower body), Martin Fehervary (lower body), Sonny Milano (upper body)
Status report
The Canadiens did not hold a morning skate. … Gallagher, who was absent from practice Tuesday, is expected to play. … Fehervary had surgery to repair a meniscus injury in his right knee and the defenseman will miss the remainder of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. … Protas, a forward, skated in a regular jersey before the morning skate and did 1-on-1 work with skills coach Kenny McCudden. … Alexeyev, who lost three teeth and chipped three others from taking a high stick late in the third period on Monday, skated and is expected to play.
Western Conference First Round, Game 3
9:30 p.m. ET; Victory+, ESPN, ALT, TVAS2, SN360
Best-of-7 series tied 1-1
The ongoing battle of the central keeps going. All of this could have been avoided, but the league wouldn't award both slots to the Nucks as we ordered. Now we have to watch some very talented players try to end a deadlocked series. This series could very well go the full 7 as it appears the Stars have figured out how to win a game when it counts.
Stars projected lineup
Mikael Granlund -- Roope Hintz -- Mikko Rantanen
Mason Marchment -- Matt Duchene -- Tyler Seguin
Jamie Benn -- Wyatt Johnston -- Evgenii Dadonov
Oskar Back -- Sam Steel -- Colin Blackwell
Thomas Harley -- Ilya Lyubushkin
Esa Lindell -- Cody Ceci
Lian Bichsel -- Alexander Petrovic
Jake Oettinger
Casey DeSmith
Scratched: Mavrik Bourque, Mathew Dumba, Brendan Smith
Injured: Miro Heiskanen (knee), Nils Lundkvist (shoulder), Jason Robertson (lower body)
Avalanche projected lineup
Artturi Lehkonen -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Martin Necas
Jonathan Drouin -- Brock Nelson -- Valeri Nichushkin
Gabriel Landeskog -- Charlie Coyle -- Joel Kiviranta
Parker Kelly -- Jack Drury -- Logan O’Connor
Devon Toews -- Cale Makar
Samuel Girard -- Josh Manson
Ryan Lindgren -- Sam Malinski
Mackenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood
Scratched: Erik Johnson, Keaton Middleton, Jimmy Vesey, Miles Wood
Injured: Ross Colton (lower body)
Status report
Stars coach Pete DeBoer said he was sticking with the same lineup as in Monday’s 4-3 overtime win in Game 1. … According to DeBoer, Heiskanen, a defenseman who is day to day, is “getting closer.” … Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said “we’ll see" when asked whether Landeskog would play in Game 3. The forward left early rather than staying on late to skate with the other healthy scratches. … Malinski is expected to play after missing the first two games as a healthy scratch.
Western Conference First Round, Game 2
10 p.m. ET; FDSNW, MAX, TBS, SN, TVAS, CBC
Los Angeles leads best-of-7 series 1-0
Can we expect another exciting 6-5 game? Watching the 1st game of this series, Taco considered taking a gig coaching lawn bowling in Shaughnessy. In tinsel town, the 80s never left.
Of course, just to make a mockery of our mockery, LA or worse, the Oil lock it down for a boring 1-0 outcome.
Oilers projected lineup
Leon Draisaitl -- Connor McDavid -- Corey Perry
Evander Kane -- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -- Zach Hyman
Trent Frederic -- Adam Henrique -- Connor Brown
Vasily Podkolzin -- Mattias Janmark -- Viktor Arvidsson
Darnell Nurse -- Evan Bouchard
Jake Walman -- John Klingberg
Brett Kulak -- Ty Emberson
Stuart Skinner
Calvin Pickard
Scratched: Derek Ryan, Kasperi Kapanen, Olivier Rodrigue, Joshua Brown, Max Jones, Jeff Skinner, Cam Dineen
Injured: Mattias Ekholm (undisclosed), Alec Regula (knee), Troy Stecher (undisclosed)
Kings projected lineup
Andrei Kuzmenko -- Anze Kopitar -- Adrian Kempe
Warren Foegele -- Phillip Danault -- Trevor Moore
Kevin Fiala -- Quinton Byfield -- Alex Laferriere
Jeff Malott -- Samuel Helenius -- Alex Turcotte
Mikey Anderson -- Drew Doughty
Vladislav Gavrikov -- Jordan Spence
Joel Edmundson -- Brandt Clarke
Darcy Kuemper
David Rittich
Scratched: Kyle Burroughs, Akil Thomas, Jacob Moverare, Trevor Lewis
Injured: Tanner Jeannot (undisclosed)
Status report
Kane will make his season debut; he had surgery Sept. 20 to repair two torn hip adductor muscles, two hernias and two torn lower abdominal muscles, and then had arthroscopic knee surgery Jan. 9. … Klingberg will return after missing the final 10 games of the regular season and a 6-5 loss to the Kings in Game 1 on Monday because of a lower-body injury. … Los Angeles is likely to dress the same lineup it in Game 1; coach Jim Hiller did not answer when asked if he were considering lineup changes.
(All lineup projections courtesy of nhl.com so blame them, not us)
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
Since we're reliving 80s run away hockey, only fitting we anticipate more retro-stalgia in song as well as reflecting where the Nucks were playing this day last year. Losing 4-1 to Preds in the ROG. Never mind.
Reject fascism, fuck the Conservative Party and Trump, too! Enjoy the games, everyone!
