In the second round of this year's ensconced-in-the-bubble NHL playoffs, all four series stood at 3-1 entering Game Five. Had you told me then that three of those four series would go all the way to Game Seven, I wouldn't have believed you, but go the distance they did. Now that the conference finals are upon us, here are some thoughts about what has happened.
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First I have to tip my hat to the person or persons, apparently from the Dallas Stars' fan base, who crashed Wikipedia on Friday and provided me with comic relief when I really needed some.
Game Seven of the Dallas-Colorado series started in the afternoon while I was still working. I did not watch any of the game but kept glancing at the updates on my phone as the goals kept coming and the score kept changing. Eventually it went to overtime before the Stars came out victorious by a score of 5-4.
As soon as I saw the final I clicked on the game summary, mostly to see who potted the winning goal but also to see who else scored. That's when I saw that somebody I had never heard of, Joel Kiviranta, recorded a hat trick that included the game-winner in overtime. In addition to his name being unfamiliar, it struck me as unusual because "Kiviranta" sounded positively Finnish while "Joel," despite its Hebrew origins, is a run-of-the-mill North American moniker rarely associated with Europe.
But I digress. Wondering who this Joel Kiviranta dude might be, I typed his name into the search window of my iPhone, which shimmied me over to Wikipedia... and at that moment, this is what the opening sentence to his brief Wikipedia page read: Joel Kiviranta (born March 23, 1996) is a Finnish professional ice hockey player and is widely considered to be the best NHL player of all-time.
Some 10 or 15 minutes later, the "best ever" statement was gone but the following sentence had been added to close out the introductory paragraph: Owner of the Colorado Avalanche and the GOAT of the year.
Not long after seeing that update I returned to the Wikipedia page yet again, just see if there were any further revisions. This time the entire introductory paragraph was gone, but underneath Kiviranta's photograph was the following caption: Joel Kiviranta, daddy of the Avalanche.
As you probably know by now, Kiviranta was never drafted by any NHL team despite being draft-eligible for the last six years. However, former Stars player Jere Lehtinen -- who played his entire career with the organization, won three Selkes, assisted on the Stanley Cup-winning goal in 1999, and had his jersey number retired in 2017 -- is now the GM of Finalnd's national team, and he gave the Stars a call and told them that Kiviranta would be worth taking a flyer on. So they inked him to a piddling two-way contract in June 2019 and assigned him to their AHL affiliate on the outskirts of Austin.
As is often the case with AHL'ers, Kiviranta received a few call-ups to the big club for quick look-sees, or when roster players got hurt and needed a short break. But prior to Friday he had appeared in only 11 NHL games and scored just one goal, and he was inserted into the lineup for Game Seven solely because of an injury sustained by Andrew Cogliano in Game Six. It was his first-ever NHL playoff game, and boy did he deliver as he scored thrice, forced overtime with this, and then won the series with this wicked one-timer.
What a great story, and what great Wikipedia entries as well!
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Joel Kiviranta wasn't the only newish 24-year-old to make a mark in the Western Conference during the second round.
The Vancouver Canucks trailed the Las Vegas Golden Knights three games to one when when they learned that Jacob Markstrom, their starting goaltender and best player this season, was unable to play due to injury. So up stepped San Diego native Thatcher Demko, with only 37 NHL appearances to his name and a salary less than one-third that of Markstrom's.
And how did Demko respond? Although the Knights dominated the Canucks and outshot them 43-17, he valiantly denied them time and again by stopping 42 of those 43 shots and allowing Vancouver to escape with a 2-1 win thanks to opportunistic goals by Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson.
Next came Game Six, in which Vegas dominated again and bombarded Demko with 48 shots on goal. And this time he denied every single one of 'em, pitching a shutout and allowing Vancouver to skate away with a victory and force a seventh game despite getting more than doubled up on the shot clock.
Game Seven didn't get any easier, as he was forced to fend off 34 Vegas bullets while his teammates managed to put only 14 shots on net at the other end. Nevertheless, Demko kept the Knights off the scoreboard all the way through the first and second periods and for almost three-quarters of the third, up until Shea Theodore managed to thread the puck through a screen of bodies that was so thick no goalie on Earth could have seen it. That was the only one that got by Demko, but it was all that was needed since he had no run support.
Across those starts his save percentage was .984 against what looks like the best team in the NHL, and he carried the Canucks all the way to Game Seven of a series they should have lost in five. That certainly makes things interesting for their front office because the 30-year-old Markstrom, coming off a career year, is heading into unrestricted free agency where his value is assumed to be north of $5 million per annum on a contract of 5+ years -- compared to the $3.67 million he made this year. Demko, on the other hand, is six years younger and has a year remaining at just $1.05 million; and because Demko will only be a restricted free agent after next season, he can almost certainly be re-signed then for less than Markstrom may command several weeks from now.
Prior to the week that just ended, it was universally believed that the Canucks would make a significant offer to Markstrom before the NHL's off-season officially begins; i.e., that they would keep him in the fold with a hefty raise without him ever having to go to market. But now the wheels have to be turning in their heads, seeing as how the salary cap is going to be flat (and might even go down a year from now) due to revenue losses brought on by Coronavirus -- and seeing as how they have a slew of other big names who will also be needing new contracts next year and the year after that.
Maybe three games is a small sample size to go on where Thatcher Demko is concerned, but maybe it's not. Those three games were in a four-night span, under pressure, against an elite opponent who was playing at its peak and was not taking anything for granted. And as a youth, he did backstop Team USA to the silver medal at the 2012 Under-17 World Championships. And at Boston College, he did win the 2016 Mike Richter Award as the NCAA's top goaltender. And Vancouver did, after all, draft him in the second round.
In other words, it's not as if the Canucks would be taking a shot in the dark if they decide to go with Demko instead of Markstrom.
Markstrom has been on record saying he wants to remain in Vancouver, and I can't help but think that while he certainly didn't want the team to lose when he got injured a week ago, he must be sitting there today wondering what the hell to expect now. He is not the only well-known goalie heading into free agency this off-season -- Braden Holtby, Robin Lehner, Corey Crawford, Anton Khudobin, and Cam Talbot are all in that same boat -- so this figures to be a buyer's market rather than a seller's market, especially when you consider that the pool of restricted free agens includes the likes of Matt Murray, Tristan Jarry, and Alexander Georgiev. Things sure have become interesting, if not comfortable, in British Columbia.
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Since we are now halfway through the post-season, it's time to talk about which players are making a case for the Conn Smythe. In my unassailable opinion, of course, and limited to one player for each team still standing!
Dallas Stars: Miro Heiskanen. Including the play-in bouts, Heiskanen has 21 points in 16 games, tops on his team and tied for second-most of anybody in the league this post-season. And did I mention that he's a defenseman, and that he has pulled off this insane stat line without shortchanging any of his defensive responsibilities? This one is easy to pick.
Las Vegas Golden Knights: Shea Theodore. Yes, 'twas Theodore who finally solved the Riddle of Thatcher Demko and sent Vegas to the Western Conference Final. And that was far from the first time he's made a difference in the offensive zone since the NHL resumed play, for he has put the puck in the back of the net six times and also dished out ten assists. This puts him in the team lead for points, and, like Heiskanen, he is doing this as a defenseman.
New York Islanders: Jean-Gabriel Pageau. It is true that Mathew Barzal is skating silky smooth at sonic speed and making things happen, and it is true that Anthony Beauvillier leads the Isles in playoff points. But for my money, Pageau deserves their nod for playoff MVP because of his impeccable two-way play. The 27-year-old centerman routinely gets sent out against the opposition's top offensive threats, and he routinely neutralizes them. And he has remained an offensive threat himself with a 20.0 shooting percentage and 9 points contributed (7 goals, 2 assists).
Tampa Bay Lightning: Victor Hedman. I'll just cut-and-past what I wrote in my previous post and repeat it here: "...if I had to pick the top Conn Smythe candidate for this team it would be defenseman extraordinaire Victor Hedman. The 29-year-old from Ornskoldsvik, Sweden has eaten monster minutes and performed near-perfectly in all three zones, on both sides of the puck, in both series."
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Now how about two dream scenarios, one per conference, that would make for a great storybook ending to this weird season?
Western Conference: Dallas hangs with heavily favored Las Vegas, and forces the WCF to a seventh game after chasing Robin Lehner from the net in Games Five and Six by scoring a half-dozen times in each... Peter DeBoer benches Lehner for Game Seven and sends out Marc-Andre Fleury, who avenges himself for his agent's tweet by stopping all 38 Dallas shots in regulation; however, it goes to overtime tied at zero and then Joel Kiviranta (who else?) scores top-shelf to send Dallas to the SCF for the first time in 20 years... Then the SCF also goes to a 0-0 Game Seven overtime, and this time Jamie Benn, the captain, scores the decider to finally win that elusive Cup after all these years... After taking his spin around the rink with the Cup, Benn hands it off to 34-year-old Anton Khudobin in recognition of his outstanding work after assuming the starting goaltender role when Ben Bishop got injured. Khudobin then hands the Cup off to fellow 34-year-old Alexander Radulov... Khudobin becomes the first person from Kazakhstan to get his name engraved on the silver pedestal, and Raduolv lives out the dream of many who came before him by sending a mocking text to Marc Bergevin after indulging in multiple shots of post-game vodka.
Eastern Conference: The Lightning and Islanders engage in a seven-game defensive slugfest to see which team gets to represent the East in the SCF. Trailing three games to two, the Bolts find themselves facing elimination for the first time all post-season and Andrei Vasilevskiy delivers for them by shutting the Isles out in Game Six... Game Seven enters the final 30 seconds tied at one with the Bolts in the offensive zone. Nikita Kucherov has the puck on his stick high in the right circle, looks to Brayden Point curling into the slot, and starts to slip one of his patented assists to him -- but just as the NY defense along with G Semyon Varlomov follow Kuch's body language and shift their gaze to Point, Kuch fools everyone by rifling a no-look, fast-as-Lightning wrister inside the near post to win the series... Then the SCF begins with Steven Stamkos returning Lazarus-like from injury and playing like he hasn't missed a beat. Tampa Bay battles Las Vegas to see which team will make history, and that team turns out to be the Bolts. Hedman and Stamkos score the goals in a 2-1 Game Seven triumph, with the latter's being the Cup-winner... One week into the off-season, Stamkos makes like Mike Bossy and retires young because he does not want his injury problems to rob him of his long-term health. His salary thus comes off the books, opening up precious cap space which the team uses to re-sign several core players, and then he takes a front office role with the organization and cements his legacy as the undisputed Best Bolt Ever.
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Hey, a man can dream, can't he? With that, I'd better stop writing now.
Enjoy the next two rounds everyone!
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