After a thrilling conclusion to the first round last night, Round Two gets underway in the Centre of the Universe as the Leafs host the defending champs in Game One of the Eastern Conference Semi Finals.
LAST NIGHT'S ACTION
Gotta hand it to the NHL, that was one hell of a first round. While some of the Eastern Conference series left a little to be desired (cough Carolina and Washington cough), overall, there was some pretty fantastic hockey on a nightly basis, and they saved the best for last with a weekend of utterly mad Game Sevens!
It was looking pretty bleak for the Jets, who were down 2-0 early in the first period, and the St Louis Blues appeared to be in control. The Jets would get one back on a brilliant Cole Perfetti deflection in the second, but the Blues answered back, heading to the dressing room with a 3-1 lead after forty minutes of play.
The Jets needed Connor Hellebuyck to shut the door, and he did that, while the Jets turned on the pressure, outshooting the Blues 15-4 in the final frame, but it looked as though Jordan Binnington could not be beat. Then, with just under 2 minutes remaining, Vladimir Namestnikov would score to make it 3-2, setting the stage for a frantic last minute scramble, and Cole Perfetti's second of the game with 1.6 seconds remaining to send it to OT. The first extra frame solved nothing, but in the second OT, a Neil Pionk point shot would bounce off a Blues defender and then Adam Lowry in front of the net, past Binnington to give the Jets a series victory and a date with Dallas in the second round. That series will get underway on Wednesday.
TONIGHT'S ACTION
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS (0-0) vs FLORIDA PANTHERS (0-0)
SCOTIABANK ARENA, TORONTO, ON
5:00 PM PST/ 8:00 PM EST
TV: SPORTSNET, CBC
The Leafs are into the second round after emerging triumphant over the Ottawa Senators in six games, while the Panthers dispatched the Tampa Bay Lightning in five. It's the second time these teams meet in the postseason in three years, and a lot has changed since that meeting. While Toronto's been tweaking things, trying to find the right pieces to compliment a core that may not be together should they fail again, the Panthers are trying to win their second consecutive Cup, and it's that reason why a team ten points lower in the standings gets a little more respect here.
This series won't be a blowout, but the Leafs are going to need Anthony Stolarz to absolutely steal a game or two against a Florida team with few weaknesses. If they have one, it's discipline, and a Toronto power play that was so good all season long can make a huge difference here. And as if they don't need any more motivation, being able to beat Brad Marchand, even if its not with the Bruins could certainly get them fired up. If they can get their star players rolling, and continue getting scoring from the bottom part of the lineup the way we saw in Round One, the Leafs could actually do this.
Matthew Knies -- Auston Matthews -- Mitch Marner
Max Pacioretty -- John Tavares -- William Nylander
Bobby McMann -- Pontus Holmberg -- Max Domi
Calle Jarnkrok -- Scott Laughton -- Steven Lorentz
Morgan Rielly -- Brandon Carlo
Jake McCabe -- Chris Tanev
Simon Benoit -- Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Anthony Stolarz
Joseph Woll
Scratched: Dakota Mermis, Philippe Myers, David Kampf, Artur Akhtyamov, Nicholas Robertson
Injured: Jani Hakanpaa (lower body)
Carter Verhaeghe -- Aleksander Barkov -- Sam Reinhart
Mackie Samoskevich -- Sam Bennett -- Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen -- Anton Lundell -- Brad Marchand
Evan Rodrigues -- Nico Sturm -- Jesper Boqvist
Gustav Forsling – Seth Jones
Niko Mikkola -- Dmitry Kulikov
Uvis Balinskis -- Nate Schmidt
Sergei Bobrovsky
Vitek Vanecek
Scratched: Rasmus Asplund, Jonah Gadjovich, A.J. Greer, Tomas Nosek, Matt Kiersted, Jaycob Megna
Injured: None
Suspended: Aaron Ekblad
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
Chicago based thrashers MISFIRE dropped their latest 'Product Of The Environment' on MNRK Heavy Records last week, and the lead single features some vocal help from EXODUS vocalist Rob Dukes. I dig the groove on this one, and think I might need to dig deeper on these guys. Here's 'Left For Dead'.
Enjoy the game, everyone. Fuck Trump, fuck fascism!
