LA loses at home - Canes whip Devils to move onto 2nd round - Nighties beat Minni - and the Sens plant the round one exit buds in the fertile CoTU psyche.
LAST NIGHT'S ACTION
Canes push Jersey onto the golf course - win 5-4 in 2OT and take series 4-1.
The thoughtless players from Lost Wages ruin Flower's great comeback narrative with 3-2 OT win and lead 3-2 in the series. A series we have no interest in following and fortunately we won't have to not follow in a mere 2 games.
As Westy predicted the sheer weight of entitlement can be a game changer. And the Oil slickers have LA on the ropes. For the 4th straight round one exit for LA. tOil win 3-1 in LA and Kings ain't coming back.
The gnashing of nerve endings in the CoTU had the entire country either nervously giggling or giggling nervously as the Sens shutout the Laffs 4-0 in the most important rink in hockey. Will the Laffs be bounced in round one, again? Maybe.
TONIGHT'S ACTION
Eastern Conference First Round, Game 5
7 p.m. ET; MNMT, ESPN, SNP, SNO, SNE, TVAS, CBC
Washington leads best-of-7 series 3-1
Can Montreal pull off an Ottawa and make the series a series? Hope so. Hope is the next best thing to a plan.
Canadiens projected lineup
Cole Caufield -- Nick Suzuki -- Juraj Slafkovsky
Josh Anderson -- Christian Dvorak -- Brendan Gallagher
Alex Newhook -- Jake Evans -- Ivan Demidov
Emil Heineman -- Oliver Kapanen -- Joel Armia
Mike Matheson -- Alexandre Carrier
Kaiden Guhle -- Lane Hutson
Arber Xhekaj -- David Savard
Jakub Dobes
Cayden Primeau
Scratched: Jayden Struble, Michael Pezzetta
Injured: Sam Montembeault (undisclosed), Patrik Laine (upper body)
Capitals projected lineup
Alex Ovechkin -- Dylan Strome -- Aliaksei Protas
Connor McMichael -- Pierre-Luc Dubois -- Tom Wilson
Andrew Mangiapane -- Lars Eller -- Ryan Leonard
Brandon Duhaime -- Nic Dowd -- Anthony Beauvillier
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, Taylor Raddysh
Injured: Martin Fehervary (lower body), Sonny Milano (upper body)
Status report
Laine will not play; the forward practiced Tuesday after missing Games 3 and 4. ... Carrier will be a game-time decision after being hit by Wilson in the third period of a 5-2 loss in Game 4 on Sunday. ... Dobes will make his first Stanley Cup Playoff start with Montembeault, a goalie, not making the trip. ... Protas is expected to return after being a full participant at practice Tuesday; he has not played since April 4 because of a skate cut on his left foot.
Eastern Conference First Round, Game 5
7:30 p.m. ET; FDSNSUN, SCRIPPS, ESPN2, TVAS2, SN360
Florida leads best-of-7 series 3-1
This is the nastiest, dirtiest series. That it's happening in the hockey swamplands with our old friend Ratchand is probably just a coincidence.
Panthers projected lineup
Carter Verhaeghe -- Aleksander Barkov -- Sam Reinhart
Evan Rodrigues -- Sam Bennett -- Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen -- Anton Lundell -- Brad Marchand
A.J. Greer -- Nico Sturm -- Jesper Boqvist
Gustav Forsling -- Seth Jones
Niko Mikkola -- Dmitry Kulikov
Uvis Balinskis -- Nate Schmidt
Sergei Bobrovsky
Vitek Vanecek
Scratched: Tomas Nosek, Jonah Gadjovich, Jaycob Megna, Mackie Samoskevich
Injured: None
Suspended: Aaron Ekblad
Lightning projected lineup
Jake Guentzel -- Brayden Point -- Nikita Kucherov
Nick Paul -- Anthony Cirelli -- Gage Goncalves
Conor Geekie -- Yanni Gourde -- Mitchell Chaffee
Zemgus Girgensons -- Luke Glendening
Victor Hedman -- JJ Moser
Ryan McDonagh -- Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg -- Nick Perbix
Darren Raddysh
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jonas Johansson
Scratched: Cam Atkinson, Max Crozier
Injured: Oliver Bjorkstrand (lower body), Brandon Hagel (undisclosed)
Status report
Ekblad, a defenseman, will serve the first of his two-game suspension for elbowing Hagel during Game 4 on Monday. Hagel, a forward, left the game after the hit and did not return and won't play Wednesday. ... Cirelli and Hedman did not participate in morning skate (maintenance), but will be in the lineup. ...Crozier, a defenseman, was recalled from Syracuse of the American Hockey League on Wednesday.
Western Conference First Round, Game 5
9:30 p.m., ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, ESPN, FDSNMW
Best-of-7 series tied 2-2
Back home in the Peg, Jets have Vilardi back on the 1st line. That's good. Hellebuyck starts in net. That might not be. Oh well... as we Nucks fans know, winning the Prez trophy is so much better than that Fake Cup thing.
Blues projected lineup
Pavel Buchnevich -- Robert Thomas -- Jimmy Snuggerud
Jake Neighbours -- Brayden Schenn -- Jordan Kyrou
Alexandre Texier -- Oskar Sundqvist -- Zack Bolduc
Alexey Toropchenko -- Radek Faksa -- Nathan Walker
Cam Fowler -- Colton Parayko
Philip Broberg -- Justin Faulk
Ryan Suter -- Nick Leddy
Jordan Binnington
Joel Hofer
Scratched: Mathieu Joseph, Matthew Kessel
Injured: Dylan Holloway (lower body), Tyler Tucker (lower body)
Jets projected lineup
Kyle Connor -- Mark Scheifele -- Gabriel Vilardi
Alex Iafallo -- Vladislav Namestnikov -- Cole Perfetti
Nino Niederreiter -- Adam Lowry -- Mason Appleton
Brandon Tanev -- Morgan Barron -- Jaret Anderson-Dolan
Josh Morrissey -- Dylan DeMelo
Dylan Samberg -- Neal Pionk
Logan Stanley -- Luke Schenn
Connor Hellebuyck
Eric Comrie
Scratched: David Gustafsson, Dominic Toninato, Haydn Fleury, Colin Miller, Ville Heinola
Injured: Nikolaj Ehlers (lower body), Rasmus Kupari (concussion)
Status report
Suter is expected to play after being scratched the past two games. ... Tucker is day to day after the defenseman was injured during Game 4. … With Vilardi’s return, Iafallo goes to the second line, Niederreiter the third and Barron moves to center on the fourth line. ... Ehlers, a forward, skated in a noncontact jersey Wednesday.
(All lineup projections courtesy of nhl.com so blame them, not us)
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
We have to watch the same old teams beating their same old brains out, so Chris gets to take us for a drive again. Even if it's on the wrong side of the road.
Reject fascism (We did! pretty much), fuck the Conservatives and Trump, too! Enjoy the games, everyone!
