Night One of the Second Round had everything, but seemed a little heavy handed with controversy and bad officiating. Will we see more of the same as two more series get underway?
LAST NIGHT'S ACTION
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS 5 FLORIDA PANTHERS 4 (Leafs lead series 1-0)
The Leafs came out fired up, and with a 4-1 lead after 40 minutes, one would assume that things were pretty much in hand for them. Unless you were actually watching the game, that is.
While comebacks have been the thing the past couple nights in the NHL Playoffs, this one, had it worked, would have needed an asterisk beside it. Early in the second period, Florida's Sam Bennett skated by Toronto G Anthony Stolarz, delivering what appeared to be an elbow to the head. Stunningly, there was no call on the play. Play would continue, but later in the period, Stolarz went over to the Leafs bench, vomited and left the game, bringing in Joseph Woll. Interestingly, despite a recent rule change allowing for it, Woll was not given any warm up shots.
Cue the third period, where two quick goals from the Panthers make the score 4-3, but Matthew Knies on a beautiful breakaway goal made it 5-3, which was handy as, infuriatingly so, Sam Bennett would score to make it 5-4. The Leafs would hold on however for the win and a 1-0 series lead. As crazy as it was that there was no penalty given to Bennett last night, the fact that DoPS was fine with the play, even after Stolarz was rushed to hospital, leaving the arena on a stretcher during the third period. It would appear that the NHL just simply refuses to learn the lessons of the past, and if you thought the officiating was bad in Game One, just wait for the refs to throw a Leaf in the box every time they breathe on a Florida player in Game Two.
This garbage at the end of the game from Matthew Tkachuk wasn't impressive, either.
TONIGHT'S ACTION
WASHINGTON CAPITALS (0-0) vs CAROLINA HURRICANES (0-0)
CAPITAL ONE ARENA, WASHINGTON, DC
4:00 PM PST/ 7:00 PM EST
TV: SPORTSNET
The two most well rested teams in the playoffs get started in this one, fresh off five game series wins over Montreal and New Jersey respectively. This series should show us which one of these teams are a fraud though, which is gonna be a lot of fun. Is it the suddenly good again Capitals, who needed a metric fuckton of bounces to come out on top in their series with the Habs, or the Canes, who dispatched a Devils team that was lacking some key pieces including Jack Hughes? Either way, this is definitely a hate watch kind of series, as both of these teams have some truly unlikable pieces.
Eastern Conference Second Round, Game 1
7 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS
Hurricanes projected lineup
Andrei Svechnikov -- Sebastian Aho -- Jackson Blake
Taylor Hall -- Jesperi Kotkaniemi -- Logan Stankoven
Jordan Martinook -- Jordan Staal -- Seth Jarvis
Eric Robinson -- Mark Jankowski -- William Carrier
Jaccob Slavin -- Brent Burns
Dmitry Orlov -- Jalen Chatfield
Shayne Gostisbehere -- Sean Walker
Frederik Andersen
Pyotr Kochetkov
Scratched: Jack Roslovic, Tyson Jost, Riley Stillman, Juha Jaaska, Scott Morrow, Ty Smith, Alexander Nikishin, Spencer Martin
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 -- Aliaksei Protas
Jakob Chychrun -- John Carlson
Rasmus Sandin -- Matt Roy
Alexander Alexeyev -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Logan Thompson
Charlie Lindgren
Scratched: Ethen Frank, Dylan McIlrath, Ethan Bear, Taylor Raddysh, Mitchell Gibson
Injured: Martin Fehervary (lower body), Sonny Milano (upper body)
VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS (0-0) vs EDMONTON OILERS (0-0)
T-MOBILE ARENA, LAS VEGAS, NV
6:30 PM PST/ 9:30 PM EST
TV: SPORTSNET, CBC
The question that loomed over the Oilers may get answered in this series: What if the Oilers were facing a team with competent goaltending? The Kings got barely outgoalied but definitely outcoached by the Oilers, but that won't happen against the Golden Knights, and the weaknesses of the Oilers will be laid bare by a Vegas team that can play better defence, has miles better goaltending and run and gun with any team, including Edmonton. Remember that series against the Oilers last year, where we saw just how dirty McDavid and Draisaitl can be when things aren't going their way? Keep that in mind when watching this series.
Western Conference Second Round, Game 1
9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC
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
Calvin Pickard
Stuart Skinner
Scratched: Joshua Brown, Cam Dineen, Max Jones, Kasperi Kapanen, Olivier Rodrigue, Derek Ryan, Jeff Skinner
Injured: Mattias Ekholm (undisclosed), Troy Stecher (undisclosed)
Golden Knights projected lineup
William Karlsson -- Jack Eichel -- Mark Stone
Brandon Saad --Tomas Hertl -- Keegan Kolesar
Ivan Barbashev -- Nicolas Roy -- Reilly Smith
Tanner Pearson -- Brett Howden -- Victor Olofsson
Noah Hanifin -- Alex Pietrangelo
Brayden McNabb – Shea Theodore
Nicolas Hague -- Zach Whitecloud
Adin Hill
Akira Schmid
Scratched: Alexander Holtz, Ben Hutton, Kaedan Korczak, Tanner Pearson, Ilya Samsonov, Cole Schwindt
Injured: Pavel Dorofeyev (undisclosed)
GAME DAY BATTLE HYMN
Matty Matteson is leading a pretty great life. Co-star of one of the most acclaimed shows on TV. Owner of a number of restaurants, as well as a line of food products. And now, a hardcore band that actually sounds pretty damn good. PIG PEN made their live debut last month in Toronto, the band features ALEXISONFIRE guitarist Wade MacNeil. This is the title track to the album 'Mental Madness', and has some live shots from that show in Toronto.
Enjoy the games, folks. Fuck Trump, and fuck fascism!
