All Rounds Done, Part One

Just like that, it was done. The Stanley Cup Final was suddenly over and the Pittsburgh Penguins were once again the champs.

Below are some thoughts about the 2017 SCF now that it has come to an end, and rather than do one post I will do two: This one focuses on the Nashville Predators who came up short, and the next will focus on the Penguins who came up big.

The Whistle

First, let's put to bed the matter of "the whistle," since it has been subjected to vitriol not just from Predators fans but from the unfathomably large population of Pittsburgh haters that lives from coast to coast.

A minute into the second period of the decisive Game Six, with the score tied at zero, Filip Forsberg fired a shot that Matt Murray stopped. From the spot where referee Kevin Pollock was watching, Murray appeared to have also caught it. Unable to see the puck, Pollock did what refs are supposed to do when it's not in the net and they can't see it in the crease: He blew the play dead.

It's almost certain that Pollock thought Murray was holding the puck, but he wasn't. Murray was turned almost perpendicular to the goal line, and the puck landed on the other side of his frame so that his own body blocked it from Pollock's view. Nashville's Colton Sissons saw it sitting there and managed to make a move and jab it home -- but not until an instant after the whistle sounded, and thus there was no goal.

To recap: The call was in keeping with the rules and therefore was not wrong. But it still sucked, and royally so, because Pollock blew the whistle so quick. If I was reffing I would have spent more time looking for the puck before deciding I couldn't see it. I would have at least tried to get a view from another angle. However, none of that changes the fact that the call was per the rules.

Regardless, the main purpose of this segment is not to say that the call was legalistically correct; it is to point out that the call was not the reason Pittsburgh won and Nashville lost on Sunday. Pollock called the play dead with two-thirds of the game left to play, and then he and the rest of the officiating crew more than made up for it by allowing the Predators to ignore the rulebook for the rest of the night. The Predators, including sainted Pekka Rinne, committed many obvious penalties and literally were not called for even one of them.

Every single power play after Pollock's whistle (and even before it) belonged to the Preds, including a stint of 5-on-3 during the third, yet they barely generated any chances during all those golden gift-wrapped opportunities. Do I really need to point out that that is not how a champion performs when everything is on the line? A champion does what Pittsburgh did: Rise up and snuff out its opponent's chances. Hence, Pittsburgh is a champion and Nashville is not. Sounds harsh, is true.

A radio host here in Tampa who is extraordinarily knowledgeable about hockey, and who was openly rooting against the Penguins, moaned on Monday that the Preds "never recovered" from the blown-dead call. That sentiment has been echoed across the fruited plain. Here's my problem: A championship team is, by definition, a team that will not lose over one crap-luck call that happens when two-thirds of a game remains to be played -- especially when the overwhelming majority of calls throughout the game go for them rather than against them, and when they get four power plays and their opponent gets zero. Champions capitalize on at least one power play when the grail is in sight. Champions take the one crap-luck call and use it as gas to pour on their competitive fire, and as a result that fire burns so hot it scorches the earth and leads them away from defeat and straight to victory.

The '85 Bears, '99 Rams, Joe Montana 49'ers... 1980's Miami Hurricanes, 1990's Nebraska Cornhuskers, 2010 Auburn Tigers... 2002 Red Wings, Gretzky-Messier Oilers, LaFleur-Dryden Habs... Can you imagine any of those teams wilting and losing due to one shitty-but-not-wrong call not going their way? Of course not, because wilting and losing over spilled milk is the opposite of what champions do. Champions wipe up the milk and burn down the kitchen.

A team capable of getting derailed by a lone unfavorable call early in a contest is a team not capable of winning a championship -- at least not yet. I believe that even if Sissons's goal had stood, the Penguins would have found a way to win on Sunday. I suspect this series wasn't going to a seventh game no matter what, especially when you look at how the Penguins kept improving all the way from the beginning of Game One through the end of Game Six.


Which is not...
...to take anything away from the Spring 2017 edition of the Nashville Predators. These Preds were a great group of guys supported by a great swath of fans, and they accomplished a lot and I loved watching them play. Their future is bright and they may yet get to drink from the Cup.

They and their fans should realize that before the Gretzky-Messier Oilers became the dynasty remembered for winning five Cups in seven years, they reached the SCF and got swept by a New York Islanders squad that had won the three previous Cups. Sure, the Oilers were overflowing with Hall of Fame talent in 1983, but those future Hall of Famers needed to have their asses handed to them by champions in order to learn how to become champions themselves.

The 1993-94 Red Wings had the best record in the Western Conference, but got bounced in the first round of the playoffs by bottom-seeded San Jose... The following year they had the best record in the entire NHL, only to get swept in the SCF by fifth-seeded New Jersey... And the year after that they had the best record in NHL history, yet failed to even make it to the SCF because they fell in the third round to eventual champ Colorado... It was not until the year after that, in their fourth kick at the can, that those Wings finally broke through and won it all -- and today, all anyone remembers about that era is that the Wings won back to back Cups in '97 and '98 and three Cups in the five calendar years from June '97 through June '02.

Your time may come, Nashville... or it may not, since sports are capricious... but there is more reason for you to be happy and optimistic than there is for you to be sullen and cynical, so you should seize the former mindset as you skate into next season.


Depth and youth
One of the Penguins' defining traits during their consecutive title runs has been how deep their talent runs, and how their resulting ability to get bushels of goals from anywhere on their roster makes them so hard to put away. Well, if these playoffs taught us anything, it's that the team from Music City is almost as strong in that regard.

We all knew coming in that the Preds were deep on the blue line, but most of us thought their forward depth was not remarkable, and boy did we find out we were wrong! Yes, there is the oft-cited fact that the Preds' 14 game-winning goals during the playoffs were scored by 12 different players -- but then there is the less-cited fact that 19 different Preds, including 15 forwards, scored goals for them during the playoffs (nearly equaling the all-time record of 21 players and 16 forwards, which was set three decades ago by the '87 Flyers).

Of their eight players who recorded double-digit points in the playoffs, four are under the age of 25 and the oldest (P.K. Subban) is just 28. Their three highest scorers from the regular season (Viktor Arvidsson, Ryan Johansen, and Filip Forsberg) are 24, 24, and 22, respectively, and all three of them were impact players during the post-season as well, as Forberg led the team with 16 playoff points and Arvidsson and Johansen finished tied for third at 13. Damn.

The depth gets even more impressive when you consider the unlikely stories of Pontus Aberg (who has the coolest name in sports) and Frederick Gaudreau... Prior to this post-season, the 23-year-old Aberg had played in only 15 NHL games and scored only one NHL goal; but then he tallied three assists and two goals in the post-season, including what was arguably this year's best playoff goal of anyone from any team, plus the game-winner in Game Five of the Eastern Conference Final... Meanwhile, prior to this post-season the 24-year-old Gaudreau had played in only nine NHL games without scoring a single goal; but then he bagged three goals in the Stanley Cup Final, including the game-winners in the only two SCF games the Preds won... I don't believe this is coincidence. I believe there is something special and infectious in the team's culture, something that infuses everyone who enters that locker room and laces up skates and pulls on a sweater emblazoned with a saber-toothed cat.

If you're on the Nashville bandwagon, you gotta be enthused by demographics like those above, for they provide ample reason to believe your team will be a competitor well into the foreseeable future.


But be that as it may..
...it would be unwise for the Preds and their fans to take their eye off of Father Time, for he is undefeated and lurks in the locker rooms of all teams... and he is on the prowl with a chance to take out key contributors even on this impressively young club.

No matter how much we talk bout Nashville's balanced scoring and well-oiled defensive corps, we all know that goaltender Pekka Rinne was their best player during their playoff run, and we all know they wouldn't have gotten so close to Xanadu without him playing so spectacularly. Rinne will turn 35 before Thanksgiving gets here, and while I believe he has a few more good years in him, there's no denying that he is at the age where Father Time could pounce at any time and make his skills deteriorate drastically.

Should Father Time strike Rinne, to whom will the Preds turn to protect their net? Do you really believe Juuse Saros has what it takes to deliver a title, to steal wins against contenders when the Preds' skaters are struggling to score?

Father Time is also breathing down the neck of team captain Mike Underwood Fisher, who turned 37 last week and has now logged 17 seasons in the NHL. You won't find Fisher putting up Arvidsson-like stats these days, but you will find him doing tons of other things that are vitally important for a team to contend. He is a force in the face-off circle, blocks shots, sets up teammates, and provides invaluable leadership. His steady character (he's an avowed Christian who exhibits calm in the midst of storms) affects teammates in positive ways and is the kind of thing that can make a difference in the clutch.

Fisher's contract ends at the end of this month and there is no doubt that if he plays in the NHL next year, he will once again do so for the Nashville Predators. But what if he decides to hang up his skates instead of signing a new contract? What if he does sign another contract, only to have Father Time strike in the near future and render him unable to contribute like before?

The Predators' youth is impressive and suggests they will be competitive for a long time... but their chances of winning it all will go down if Rinne and/or Fisher are no longer as effective as they have been... in fact, their chances will go way down if Rinne is the one whose effectiveness takes a big drop... and so it would behoove the Predators to keep the pedal to the metal and keep pushing to win now, rather than listen to the Sirens who sing about the promise of "the future."


In closing...
...you were a great story, Nashville/Smashville, and you should continue to be, but the Penguins were better... and although a fine line is thinner than gossamer, it is still a line, and the difference between "almost there" and "there" is simultaneously tiny and huge... and while on the one hand that sucks, on the other hand it means you had a helluva run... you were not best-in-the-world material this spring, but you were second-best-in-the-world material, and that ain't bad.

Three Rounds In

Some more thoughts on the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs, now that the conference rounds are done and the Stanley Cup Final is set:

Nash-Pitt
Music City versus Steel City. The 'Ville from the South versus the 'Burgh from the North. Two great hockey markets, one of which is the oldest in the United States while the other is in only its second decade among the pros. Two loud and cocksure fan bases. Two teams loaded with speed and skill.

This is the SCF everyone not from Ottawa or Anaheim wanted to see, or should have, and I am glad we get to see it. The only way I could be happier is if my Tampa Bay Lightning had made it instead of the Pittsburgh Penguins, but 'twas not meant to be this year.


The "Old Guys"
In my May 11th post I gave shout-outs to some of the non-whippersnappers who have excelled in these playoffs. Today I am going to follow that up by pointing out that the best player in the ECF was 36-year-old Craig Anderson, and by pointing out that the best player in Game Seven was 37-year-old Chris Kunitz, who scored the first goal and then scored the winner 5:09 into the second overtime. Kunitz also set the screen of Anderson that enabled Pittsburgh's other goal, which was scored by Justin Schultz.

What does this mean? Mostly, it means I get to quote Fred Sanford -- "Old! Who you callin' old?" -- in back to back hockey posts. I have to be the only person on Earth who has ever done that!

The Housley Effect
Phil Housley was one of the best defensemen of his era, a fact that gets overlooked because of how often his offensive stats are cited. The 1,232 points he tallied made him the highest-scoring American player at any position in NHL history, and today, a full 14 years after he played his final game -- 14 years of unprecedented numbers of Americans excelling in the league -- only one person has managed to pass him on that list.

Where was I going with this? Oh yeah: Phil Housley has been an assistant coach for the Nashville Predators since 2013, and his mark is firmly imprinted on them as they enter the SCF for their first time ever.

He is a Hall of Fame defenseman, which tells you he ain't the kind of person who believes you should ever ignore your defensive responsibilities, but a big part of his philosophy is summed up by the old adage that the best defense is a good offense. What better way is there to defend against an opponent than by getting the puck out of your end and moving it to their end, then sapping their energies by preventing them from exiting and by generating scoring chances and applying constant pressure? The Predators' defensive corps executes that philosophy to the hilt up and down its depth chart, and it is a major reason they won the West.

Nashville's top four D'men -- P.K. Subban, Mattias Ekholm, Ryan Ellis, and Roman Josi -- are among the best in the world when it comes to moving the puck and passing it and creating points. Three of them (Subban, Ellis, and Josi) were among the team's top five scorers this season, despite the fact that the team has lots of good forwards. This is not by accident or mere coincidence.

Housley will tell you he is fortunate, that he is blessed by being able to coach talented blueliners such as these. They will tell you they are fortunate, that they are able to excel because Housley communicates a philosophy with which they agree and he trusts them to put it into action -- because he gives them the green light to use their skills, rather than trying to put a leash on them like so many coaches prefer to do with players.

There is some truth to both, and Ellis summed it up nicely when he recently said: "Phil has been awesome. Since Day One he came in here, I think for a lot of the D he was a similar player as the way he thought the game...it's easy to listen to a guy like that and take what he has to say and understand it and learn from it."

The bottom line is that one of the main reasons the Preds are fun to watch is that they have a group of dynamic players at a certain position, who are able to execute a dynamic style preached by a coach because they and he embrace the same vision. Enjoy watching them play over the next 9 to 18 days, before this season moves into the history books.


The Veteran Effect
The Pittsburgh Penguins play an uptempo style with lots of urgency, but never seem desperate or panicked. There is a tinge of serenity about them that seems inconsistent with the game itself and especially with their pace of play. This comes largely from their veteran presence and the personality of their longtime captain, Sidney Crosby.

Contrary to what media profiles might make you think, Crosby should not be confused with an angel or saint. He hits hard and doles out his fair share of calculated slashes and cross-checks. Still, his game is based on skill without goonery and he never lets opponents get under his skin even when they play dirty (see Senators, Ottawa; ECF, Game Six). Watch Crosby on the bench and he is collected. Watch him in interviews and he comes off calm and even-keeled, as the kind of man who keeps everything in perspective. Seeing as how he is the Pens' leader and has everyone's respect, his demeanor certainly rubs off on others.

He and Evgeny Malkin are superstars in their twelfth and eleventh seasons in the NHL, respectively, and they have never played for another team. This is their fourth trip to the SCF and they won the Cup their last two trips. They continue to shine despite their supposedly advanced ages, with Crosby leading the league in goals this regular season and Malkin's 24 points during this postseason (7, 17) being more than anyone else in the league.

The aforementioned Chris Kunitz is now in his ninth season with the Pens. He has been to the SCF three times before (with the Pens in 2009 and 2016, and Anaheim in 2007) and won the Cup each time.

Marc-Andre Fleury is in his thirteenth season with the Pens, and like Crosby and Malkin has never suited up for another franchise. Although he lost his starting job to Matt Murray after getting injured last year, he is the winningest goalie in team history and won the Cup as their starter in 2009. When called on this postseason after Murray got injured, Fleury played like a Conn Smythe winner and was the team's best player through the first two rounds. Without him acting as their backstop, the Pens would not have made it past the second round.

Trevor Daley (thirteenth year in the league) returned from injury late in the the ECF, and when he did, Pittsburgh's defensive play sharpened instantly and noticeably all along the blue line.

Getting back to the matter of Malkin being the NHL's leading points scorer this postseason, I feel compelled to mention that Crosby is second on that list with 20 (7, 13) while one of the two players tied for third is another Penguin: Phil Kessel. Though Kessel (7, 12, 19 this spring) is in only his second year with the Pens, he has been one of the NHL's best scorers for eleven years and was the Pens' best player during last year's postseason title run. Of the 231 NHL players who have appeared in 50+ playoff games over the decade-plus that Kessel has been in the league, he ranks first in goals per playoff game.

This high degree of certainty, dependability, and successful history among Pittsburgh's veteran core acts like a car battery that charges itself while running the engine. The veterans know what to do and act like it, the young players see that and emulate it, and results follow. It is not by accident or mere coincidence that young guys like rookie Jake Guentzel and second-year winger Bryan Rust have made an impact in the 'Burgh this spring.


Prediction
The Penguins are insanely deep when it comes to forwards, the Predators when it comes to defensemen. The Penguins' injuries are concentrated on their blue line, the Predators' among their forwards. The Penguins have an outstanding young goalie who already has a ring and has shone in the three games since he returned from injury, while the Predators have an outstanding graybeard who has played like a Conn Smythe winner ever since the playoffs began.

In other words, this is a compelling and evenly matched SCF, so I am simply going with my gut. Because my eyeballs have been telling me the Predators look like a team of destiny, I predict they win it all. In six games. Which means they will lift the silver chalice in front of their home fans and the scene up and down country music's Broadway will become the stuff of legend. A big part of me thinks that would be a truly great thing.

But an equally big part of me thinks about the long-lived excellence that so many of Pittsburgh's players have been able to sustain, and admires the hell out of it. That part of me believes it would be a truly great thing for those guys to get their names engraved on the chalice again to further cement their legacy, to make their greatness undeniable. Three championships across nine years would place the Crosby/Malkin Penguins ahead of the Brodeur/Stevens Devils, who also won three in nine but did so before the salary cap.


Random Stuff
Mike Sullivan was born in Marshville, Massachusetts and Peter Laviolette in Franklin, Massachusetts. That makes this the first SCF in which both head coaches are U.S.-born.

Game Seven of the ECF was one of the better Game Sevens in years.

The Predators' twelve game-winning goals through the first three rounds were scored by eleven different players. How's that for balance?

I was planning on dedicating part of this post to defending the character of the Anaheim Ducks, and another to defending the quality of Ottawa's play and dedication of Ottawa's fans -- but I've already gone long so I'll save those topics for another post (maybe).

Here is proof that P.K. Subban does not neglect his defensive duties, and that he in fact meets and exceeds them in the manner you would expect from one of the world's best defensemen.

Here is a brief and incomplete yet very informative article about the history of the playoff beard.

And lastly, am I the only one who thinks Filip Forsberg could pass for Errol Flynn? Should someone check to see if the swashbuckle thespian was gallivanting around Sweden back when Forsberg's grandmother was of childbearing age?

Two Rounds In

Some more thoughts on the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs, now that the second round is in the books:

The "Old" Guys
From Kucherov to Tarasenko, to McDavid and Eichel to Matthews and Laine (to name but a few), the NHL has recently been blessed with an influx of extremely young players with extremely high-end skills. Tons of ink has been spilled on this topic and rightfully so.

But the sheer volume of ink (combined with a weirdly worshipful attitude toward youth being displayed in venues like Puck Daddy) has created a false impression that hockey players peak a couple years before they turn 25 and are well past their primes before they turn 30. Fortunately, these playoffs are providing plenty of antidotes to that way of "thinking."

Pekka Rinne and Marc-Andre Fleury are the highest performing players so far this postseason and their ages are 34 and 32, respectively.

Evgeni Malkin's 18 points this postseason (5 G, 13 A) are more than anyone else. He turns 31 in July.

Yes, 20-year-old Connor McDavid was the NHL's leading scorer in the regular season and is sure to be named its MVP at the awards show next month -- but in the second round of the playoffs, he was neutralized by 32-year-old Ryan Kesler whenever they were on the ice at the same time.

Again, McDavid was the NHL's leading scorer in the regular season and is sure to be named its MVP at the awards show next month -- but in the battle between his Edmonton Oilers and the Anaheim Ducks, the latter's 31-year-old Ryan Getzlaf was, in the words of TSN's Frank Seravalli, the "best player in this second-round series -- and it isn't even close."

A player racing past an opponent's defensive corps, then deking the opposing goalie and slipping the puck through his five-hole to score, is not unheard of -- but Pittsburgh's Matt Cullen is forty and he did that to break a scoreless Game Two tie against Washington when Washington was on the power play!

Like Fred G. Sanford once protested: Old! Who you callin' old?


Pens-Caps
It had to go like this, just had to... Penguins versus Capitals in Round Two for the second straight year... with the Caps having the best record in the league for the second straight year, yet the Pens being the defending Stanley Cup champs... and the Pens taking the series of course, this time via a Game Seven shutout in the Caps' building, just for kicks.

The history of Washington's playoff futility against Pittsburgh over the years, and their inability to get past the second round during the past decade despite being a perennial Cup contender, has been written about time and again. However it felt like the script might be different this time, because the Caps seemed to dominate every game and their youngsters Evgeny Kuznetsov and Andre Burakovsky seemed oblivious to pressure.

Washington frequently controlled long stretches of play in their offensive zone. They had dominant possession numbers and controlled 61.5 percent of the shot attempts at 5-on-5. They outshot Pittsburgh in literally every one of the seven games, often by wide margins. They banked 32 or more shots on goal in five of the games and never registered less than 26, whereas Pittsburgh was thrice held to 18 or fewer shots on goal and only twice registered more than 22. For the series, the Caps outshot the Pens by a staggering 229-154.

But in the end, none of that mattered. The Pens' quality depth was so good that whenever they found an inch, they took a mile and put the puck in the net no matter which line was on the ice -- such as in Game Two, when they netted 6 goals on 17 shots while the Caps managed just 2 on 36,  and in Game Four, when they were outshot 38-18 but won 3-2.

And let's face it: The reason Pittsburgh's superior efficiency was able to make a difference was that Marc-Andre Fleury's goaltending was nothing short of brilliant. He kept the Penguins in games until their snipers were able to ripple the nets and thereby fire darts through Washington hearts. He faced 75 more shots than Washington's Braden Holtby and surrendered fewer goals -- and many of his saves were so spectacular they qualified as grand larceny.


Makes you go hmmm...
In his first year as head coach of Tampa Bay, Guy Boucher had the Lightning in the Eastern Conference Final. Now in his first year at the helm in Ottawa, he has the Senators in that same position. This means that in fewer than four full seasons as an NHL head coach, Boucher has twice reached conference finals -- not bad for a 45-year-old scarface who never played in the league and has degrees in history, biology, and agricultural engineering.

Bryan Rust's winning goal in Game Seven on Wednesday marked the eighth time in his two-year career that he's recorded a point in an elimination game.

Prior to this year, Justin Williams was 7-0 in Game Sevens and known as "Mr. Game Seven" -- but now he plays for the Capitals, which means that streak has gone the way of the dodo.

Although there has been incredible depth of superb goaltending this postseason, there have already been 21 games in which teams came from behind to wipe out deficits of two or more goals.

After an outstanding Round One, Henrik Lundqvist fell a ways back toward Earth in Round Two. There was nothing he (or any other netminder) could have done to stop Jean-Gabriel Pageau's two late goals that forced overtime in Game Two, but be that as it may, there is no getting around the fact that Lundqvist wound up on the losing end of two games in which his team scored 4+ goals on the road. His numbers were still impressive for the two rounds -- his .927 save percentage ranks third among the 21 goalies who have logged ice time these playoffs -- however his window is closing and now he needs stout defenders in front of him more than ever.

Many people (including me) thought it was silly for Ottawa to adopt a "win right now" strategy this year when they didn't make the playoffs last year, didn't seem good enough to scare anyone, and are financially strapped. But after one go-round with Dion Phaneuf, Derick Brassard, and Alex Burrows on their roster, it's hard to laugh at the Senators now.

Am I the only person who can't see Drake Caggiula's name in print without thinking that the surname is Calligula?

In their entire franchise history, the Penguins have never lost a Game Seven on the road (they're 6-0 after Wednesday).


I call on...
...the league to crack down on embellishment next season, and to make its crackdown severe and obvious.

...the Anaheim crowd to behave in every game of the WCF just like you did in Game Seven on Wednesday.

...Edmonton fans to not spend the next twelve months bitching about non-reversals as they relate to goaltender interference non-calls. You've got nothing on Buffalo fans circa 1999.

...Nashville fans to continue showcasing just how great a hockey market your city is.

...Corey Perry to stay out of the crease.


And...
...that's enough for now, other than my prediction, which is this:

Erik Karlsson will have a great ECF but it won't be enough to overcome Pittsburgh's depth, even though Pittburgh's blueline is depleted... and meanwhile the Ducks will be their provoking and annoying selves in the WCF, but it won't be enough to overcome Pekka & the Preds, who are playing like they're destined to win the West and perhaps more... and so, we will have Pittsburgh-Nashville on stage in a couple weeks.

Bring it on!

One Round In

Some thoughts on the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs, now that the first round is in the books:

No Sevens?
Is it just me, or does it seem strange that none of the first round series went seven games? It seems like there are usually a couple that do... but the lack of sevens does not mean there was a lack of drama, for overtimes were aplenty, especially in the breakneck series between Washington and Toronto which saw five of its six games go to OT.


The King is Back
Two years ago, Henrik Lundqvist was his usual unflappable post-season self as he backstopped the New York Rangers to within one game of what would have been their second straight Stanley Cup Final.

But one year ago he looked horrible when the Rangers were eliminated by Pittsburgh in the first round. He surrendered 4.39 goals per game, recorded an abysmal .867 save percentage, and was pulled from the net three different times. Then he followed that up with the worst regular season of his career -- a regular season during which he turned 35, so it's obvious to see why many observers, myself included, suspected that his status as an elite goaltender had come to an abrupt halt.

But when the puck dropped to start these playoffs, the determined Swede donned his armor and wielded his sword and proved us wrong. Throughout this season's first round, Lundqvist rang up an eye-popping .947 save percentage and 1.70 GAA, and based very largely on those sinews his Rangers vanquished the Atlantic Division champion Habs, who were also backstopped by a goalie who is considered a creme de la creme generational talent.

Montreal's top five scorers, combined, only managed two goals against Lundvist for the entire six-game series. Their top scorer, Max Pacioretty, did not score at all against him.

It's good to know there is something you can count on, like snow in Tahoe and sunshine in San Diego and the swallows returning to Capistrano. The eleven days from April 12th through 22nd assured us that Henrik Lundqvist excelling when it matters most is one of those things.


Between the pipes
Defense wins championships everywhere. In hockey, goaltending wins 'em even more so. If you want to see just how important the goalie position is, look not only to Lundqvist in New York but also to the men between the pipes in St. Louis and Nashville.

Last year the big question in St. Louis was which one of the goalies in the Blues' well-performing platoon they would choose to keep. Now that they've dispatched the Minnesota Wild, it is obvious they made the right decision opting for Jake Allen over Brian Elliott. Although the Wild soundly outplayed them in the series, averaging 10 more shots per game and out-Corsi'ing them 60.11 to 39.89, the Blues prevailed in five games and never appeared to have any doubt that they would prevail. That is a direct resut of stellar goaltending.

Meanwhile, in Music City, Pekka Rinne spent the first round performing like some cyborg combination of Plante and Tretiak and Hasek all in their primes. Chicago entered the series not only a mere 22 months removed from their second Cup in three seasons, but still in their prime and sporting the best record in the Western Conference -- only to find that Rinne has suddenly become impregnable. The 34-year-old Finn did not allow a goal until Game Three, pitching shutouts in both road games and logging a supernatural .976 save percentage. He even tallied a pair of assists, thus equaling the points production of star Blackhawk forwards Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. And just like that, the top-seeded Blackhawks were not only eliminated from the dance but swept from the dance, like a helpless puck slapped into the corner by a kick save.

I've been watching hockey for decades and do not recall a goalie having as dominant a series as Rinne just did. If he has another one like that, he will be so far ahead in the Conn Smythe conversation that he'll be lapping the field.


Bring it on
By which I mean, the about-to-commence series between the Penguins and Caps. Nothing says Eastern Conference playoffs like these two facing off -- and as everyone knows, nothing screams shrink's couch any louder than a Washington Capitals hockey club entering the second round and seeing the team in yellow and black lining up across the red line.

To be sure, Washington's playoff fragility, whether real or perceived, goes much deeper than the ground beneath Pittsburgh. For a decade now the Caps have been an elite team that is always talked about as legit Cup contenders (and often as the Cup favorite) yet they have not gotten past the second round in all that time. They were the top seed in 2010, but lost to bottom-seeded Montreal. A year later they were again the top seed, but got swept by Tampa Bay. And they dropped three consecutive Game Sevens to the Rangers.

But their playoff submission to Pittsburgh stretches even farther back. The teams have met nine times in the post-season since 1991, with the Penguins winning eight of the nine series despite having trailed in eight of them. Last year might have been the biggest mic drop, seeing as how the Caps had by far the best record in the NHL only to have the Penguins eliminate them in the second round en route to winning the Stanley Cup.

On an individual basis, Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby and Washington's Alexander Ovechkin began their NHL careers in 2005, have never changed teams, and are considered the top two hockey players on Earth across that period of time. However, across that period Crosby has two Stanley Cup rings and two Olympic gold medals testifying to his greatness, while Ovechkin has not touched the Stanley Cup and has not won an Olympic medal of any type.

Will this be the year things change? The Caps again have the best record in the NHL, so they are again favored against the Pens and again have home ice advantage. But does that make their chances better or does it invite the kind of psychology that makes their chances worse? I can't wait to find out.


et ceteras
If Nashville makes a run to the Finals (and especially if they win the Cup once there) it should be a marketing gold mine for the NHL. The Predators are a model franchise with a fervent fan base; Carrie Underwood comes to their games because she is married to their star centerman, Mike Fisher; and the most charismatic star on this Deep South team is P.K. Subban, a black man. A marketing gift such as this would be like manna from Heaven -- so rest assured that if the gift is given, Bettman & Co. won't take advantage of it and NBC will short-sightedly sulk that Anaheim (LA!) didn't win the West.

I am experiencing cognitive dissonance. I have long thrown barbs at the Maple Leafs organization and its fans, and especially at the propaganda pawns who pretend to be objective journalists while obsequiously praising the Leafs franchise -- which hasn't won a Cup in 50 years -- as the pinnacle of the world of hockey. Nonetheless, I found myself guiltily rooting for their plucky roster of youngsters after the playoffs began, and I found myself admitting that the Leafs contending is good for the game. This goes against everything I believe, and I am slapping my head over it.

No matter what I said in the above paragraph, if the Leafs ever face the Lightning in the post-season, I hope they get blown out four straight games and become a laughingstock. I hope Victor Hedman shuts down Auston Matthews, and Anton Stralman intercepts every pass Mitch Marner attempts.

Ryan Kesler versus Connor McDavid. The pesky irritant from Michigan versus the poetic icon from Ontario. This is the individual battle, the game within the games, that I most want to watch this round... Kesler's Anaheim Ducks are the veteran squad aiming to hoist the Cup before their window closes, while McDavid's Edmonton Oilers are a youthful bunch hoping to bring it back to Alberta for the first time since 1990; but it's the individual clash between these two forwards that I am most eager to watch, for you know Kesler will be sent out to badger defend against the phenom who dazzled with 70 assists and 30 goals this season.

Derick Brassard versus Mika Zibanejad. This is the individual battle I most want to watch in the East. Granted, it's not technically an individual battle because it's not like the one will be sent out to defend against the other. But they were traded for each other in the offseason, with Brassard going from New York to Ottawa and Zibanejad going from Ottawa to New York; and with the Rangers and Senators facing one another this round, it will be impossible not to compare and contrast... Ottawa wanted Brassard specifically because of his history of playoff production, and after a ho-hum regular season he made them look like geniuses by leading the team with eight points during their six-game playoff win over Boston. Meanwhile, down in the Big Apple, Zibanejad proved that he too knows how to deliver when it counts by scoring the overtime winner in Game Five and assisting on the the game-tying goal in what turned out to be the decisive Game Six.


And with that...
...I need to put down my pen stop typing. Bring on the games!

The Grail in Grasp

Driving into Pennsylvania from West Virginia, traveling north through the Alleghenies on US 19, you are treated to a landscape of forested mountains and scenic valleys. The further you get from the state line, farms gradually become less prevalent and dottings of homes more prevalent, but Nature continues to dominate. Even when buildings become ubiquitous enough to signal you're in a suburb, it doesn't really feel like it because the slopes are still wooded and trees still reign.

After an hour or so, US19 and Interstate 376 hook up as one road. Before long the road leads you into the 56-year-old Fort Pitt Tunnel, which bores through Mount Washington for almost seven-tenths of a mile... and when you emerge from the darkness on the other side, this is the view you immediately see:

It is the most startling introduction to a city anywhere in these United States and perhaps the world. While the steep north slope of Mount Washington rises directly behind you, the modern skyline of downtown Pittsburgh stands, wholly unexpected, directly in front of you; and the Monongahela River flows roughly six stories below, for you are now driving across the upper deck of the world's first computer-designed bowstring arch bridge. It's striking, the difference between what lies north of the mount versus south of it.

Moments later you exit onto the streets of downtown and head east for a few blocks on Boulevard of the Allies, paralleling the Monongahela, before turning north and making your way to Fifth Avenue. That is where you find Consol Energy Center, home to the hockey team that on Sunday proved itself the best on Earth.

If you stand there, you will not only be standing next to the home of the Pittsburgh Penguins -- you will be standing in the heart of our nation's true hockey capital.

*     *     *     *     *

I know many people call Detroit "Hockeytown," but that's only because they are susceptible to advertising gimmicks. I'm not saying there are no good hockey fans in Detroit, but I am saying -- because it's true -- that it was a 1996 marketing campaign that first referred to Detroit by that name.

Because the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in 1997, the name stuck even after Detroiters failed to sell out playoff games during their 2008 championship run... but if you want to know which American burg has the longest standing legit claim to the title of "Hockeytown," look not to Eastern Michigan but to Western PA, and let your eyes fall upon the 'Burgh.

Although there is no question that Canada is both the cradle and Everest of hockey, it was south of the border, here in Pittsburgh, that the game was first played indoors on man-made ice on a regular basis. That was way back in the 1890's and the venue was the opulent Schenley Park Casino, not far from the University of Pittsburgh.

And it was here (in 1896) that the world's first professional hockey league, the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League (WPHL), was both founded and based. Back then, in Canada it was illegal to pay people to play sports, and therefore many of the best Canadian players started moving here to play in the WPHL. That forced Canada to change its laws, which in turn led to the creation of the National Hockey League, so it can be said that without Pittsburgh there would be no NHL.

Despite the fraudulent concept of the Original Six, whose members include Detroit but not the 'Burgh, history shows that Pittsburgh had an NHL team prior to Detroit. It also shows that Pittsburgh had an NHL team prior to another of the Original Six, namely Chicago.

This means that of the so-called "original" six cities, one-third fail to pre-date the 'Burgh when it comes to NHL hockey being played there. And if you look at things from a franchise-specific perspective, it turns out that fully half of the so-called "original" six franchises (namely the Red Wings, Blackhawks, and NY Rangers) fail to pre-date the 'Burgh's original team in the league.

*     *     *     *     *

The first NHL franchise in Pittsburgh was called the Pirates, and it was the city's first professional sports team to wear the yellow and black colors that have become synonymous with the city. Pittsburgh's current pro teams -- the Penguins, Steelers, and baseball Pirates -- all wear yellow and black.

Obviously, the hockey Pirates did not survive to the present, but that was not due to a lack of hockey enthusiasm among the citizens. The primary causes of the Pirates' going under were the financial losses suffered by their owners in the 1929 stock market crash, and the Great Depression economy that followed (and it's hard not to suspect that the losses were exacerbated by the fact that the owners were a bootlegger and a fight promoter).

The Pirates had a lasting impact on the game despite playing for less than a decade. Under the tutelage of player-coach Odie Cleghorn, they were the first team to change players on the fly, and the first to use set lines rather than just leaving their best players on the ice until they couldn't go any longer. Four Pirates are in the Hall of Fame.

Unfortunately, after World War II got going the NHL went ages without expanding, and even if it had expanded sooner than it did, Pittsburgh might have been left out because it lacked an up-to-date arena as the post-war years began to unfold.

Nonetheless, the minor league Pittsburgh Hornets kept hockey very much alive in the city, playing most of their history in aging Duchesne Gardens and sometimes allowing kids to skate on the ice after games:





In 1961 the "arena issue" was solved by the opening of the 17,000-seat, retractable-roofed Civic Arena, whose appearance combined with its eventual use for hockey caused it to be known as the Igloo:





When the NHL finally expanded in 1967, the Penguins came into being.

As everyone knows, Mario Lemieux suited up for them starting in the mid-1980's and was arguably the best player of all time, with apologies to Gretzky and Howe.

Later he was joined by Jaromir Jagr, who also has a claim to that "arguably the best ever" title (with apologies to Gretzky, Howe, and Lemieux).

Powered by Lemieux and Jagr, the Penguins won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992.

After losing the 2008 Stanley Cup Finals to Detroit in seven games, they again faced Detroit for the Cup in 2009, and that time won in seven games to secure the franchise's third world championship.

Which brings us to this year's version of championship Pens...

*     *     *     *     *

The Penguins have remained talented ever since they won it all in '09. However, many people have been less than impressed with their post-season results because they experienced three first round eliminations and no return to the SCF during the six seasons from 2010 through 2015.

Of course that's not fair, especially when you consider the roster turnover, coaching changes, and amount of time Sidney Crosby missed with concussion issues. Those who talked about the Pens as post-season flops seemed not to notice that they made it to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2013 and to the second round in 2010 and 2014.

But for the first two months of this season, it looked like the naysayers might be right to say the Pens weren't good enough to win it all. They appeared wayward, Crosby was struggling, and in mid-December their place in the rankings was low enough that they would have missed the playoffs had the season ended at that time.

That is when ownership pulled the trigger by firing head coach Mike Johnston and replacing him with Mike Sullivan from their Wilkes-Barre/Scranton affiliate -- and did that move ever pay off, as the team caught fire and Crosby got his groove back.

Down the home stretch, the Pens were the hottest club in the league and looked like the kind of machine nobody would want to face in the playoffs. They didn't miss a beat even when Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury went down with late-season injuries that caused them to spend 1.5 and 2 months out of the lineup, respectively.

Then came a post-season run that can truly be called spectacular... First they blew the Rangers out of the water, averaging 4.2 goals per game and chasing Henrik Lundqvist from the net three times... Next they eliminated the Washington Capitals, who had the best record in the league and were favored to win it all... Then they overcame a 3-2 series deficit to win the Eastern Conference Finals over the Lightning in seven games (damn it)... And finally, they controlled San Jose for most of the Stanley Cup Finals before closing it out Sunday night in Game Six.

They officially became the champs at 10:47 Pennsylvania time, 7:47 California time. This edition of the Penguins is the fourth in franchise history to win the Cup, and may very well be the best of the four. But they have so many key parts to mention, where do you even start?

*     *     *     *     *

Sid the Kid:  It might seem strange to still be calling Sidney Crosby "the kid" after 11 seasons in the NHL, but don't forget that he's played all those years and is still only 28... A month and a half into this particular campaign, he was a miserable 157th in the league in points; but after he got rolling, he became unstoppable and roared up the rankings to finish third with 85 points (36, 49) in 80 games played... Crosby's post-season was filled with faceoffs won at key times; perfect field generaling; more between-the-legs passes than anyone could count; and a tally of 19 points on 6 goals and 13 assists in 24 playoff games. His OT goal in Game Two of the ECF prevented the Penguins from falling into a 2-0 series deficit against the Lightning (damn it) that might have been too steep for them to overcome. This centerman from Nova Scotia absolutely earned the Conn Smythe he received on Sunday.

Malkin:  You wouldn't know it if all you did was listen to what media people say, but Evgeni Malkin registered just one fewer playoff point than Crosby (6, 12, 18) despite missing the last month and a half of the regular season and therefore having to cope with rust. He was all over the ice in the last two rounds, and his game-winner in Game Four of the SCF gave his team that 3-1 series lead which almost guaranteed they would win the whole thing.

HBK:  Even more so than established stars Crosby and Malkin, it was the so-called HBK Line that made Pittsburgh's motor run from playoff start to playoff finish. Comprised of Nick Bonino (the B) centering Carl Hagelin and Phil Kessel (the H and K), this trio rang up an astonishing 56 points on the stat sheet and proved to be the league's most prolific post-season line... and to top it off, none of them played for the Pens the year before, with Kessel and Bonino being acquired during the offseason and Hagelin being brought in via trade in January... and to illustrate just how insanely deep the Penguins are at forward, this unit is their third line.

Team D:  Trevor Daley is the Penguins' best defenseman, and entering Game Four of the ECF they were already short-staffed defensively and Daley had logged the second-most playoff ice time of anyone on the roster. So when he suffered a broken ankle in that contest that would sideline him indefinitely, it was the kind of loss that would cripple most teams -- but not this one... The Penguins responded by playing committed, disciplined, team-wide defense until such time as they would hoist the Cup. They blocked shots, took away passing lanes, and cleared the puck from their zone so that their opponent, be it Tampa Bay or San Jose, had to struggle just to set up on offense.

The Rookies:  Much has been said about Matt Murray, and for good reason. Called up from the minors in December, he made his first NHL appearance six days before Christmas and played in only 13 games before the playoffs started; but with Marc-Andre Fleury not medically cleared to return from his concussions, Murray eagerly assumed the starting goaltender role for the playoffs and played so well that he received serious Conn Smythe consideration... However, another rookie deserves almost as many accolades: RW Bryan Rust, the former Notre Dame star who plays on the Penguins' bottom line but seemed to have top-six impact every time he was on the ice. Playing with a perfect blend of grit and grace, Rust scored both Pittsburgh goals in their Game Seven win in the ECF (damn it) and his six total goals in the post-season were just as many as Crosby and Malkin.

And there are plenty of other key pieces that could be talked about, but I am going to focus on one...

*     *     *     *     *

Kessel:  As much as Crosby deserved the Conn Smythe, Phil Kessel deserved it more. His 22 playoff points (10, 12) led the team. He played fast, shrewd, and clutch, seeming to electrify the ice every time he stepped on it.

One wouldn't think that a player with Phil Kessel's resume would need to prove his worth. Drafted fifth overall by Boston, he scored 36 goals during a dazzling 2008-09 season when he was just 21. After being traded to Toronto, he spent six years in the self-proclaimed hockey capital of the world and was always the best forward on the team, scoring 30+ in four of those six years... And if you're talking about post-season productivity, just consider that Kessel's career rate of 0.5 goals per playoff game ranks third-best of all active players over the last 16 years. Also, coming into this year he ranked second in primary playoff points since 2007 among all players who logged at least 200 minutes of playoff ice time across that span.

But unfortunately for this 28-year-old Wisconsinite, playing in Toronto isn't good for your reputation if you happen to have been born in the United States. A venomous strain of anti-American bigotry flows through the veins of many members of the Toronto media, and a softer but still palpable strain of that prejudice flows through the veins of some Toronto fans.

Never mind that Kessel was the Leafs' best player and often their only good forward: When the Queen City's partisans needed to blame someone for their team's inability to be a contender, their arrows inevitably got aimed at the team's highest profile American.

Unable to find anything in his playing style or productivity to criticize, they decided to claim that he eats too many hot dogs and thereby keeps himself from being the best he can be, which thereby undermines not just his own character but that of his teammates. Thus, many Leafs fans said their team would be better off without him. Seriously.

To be fair, I too am guilty of poking fun at Kessel's, shall we say, uncoventional body shape (if that was really me who referred to him as "a rotund, cholesterol-soaked dead ringer for John Kruk"). But hey, whoever (ahem) wrote that was just joshing and engaging in jocular hyperbole. I am glad to see Kessel stick his finger in the eye of his detractors and do so without saying anything negative about them.

*     *     *     *     *

In closing, I am disappointed that the Tampa Bay Lightning fell short of grasping the holiest grail in sports this month. But I take comfort in knowing that the only team that could stop them is truly the best one on the planet.

If the Bolts had to lose, there is no other team or organization I would rather lose to, and no other city I would rather see staging a championship parade. The Igloo has been replaced by Consol Energy Center, and Mario Lemieux has been replaced by Sidney Crosby on the ice; but Lemieux is not only still around the team, he now owns the team, and Crosby has proven himself a worthy heir to Lemieux's crown.

The Penguins are still the Penguins, Pittsburgh is still a hotbed for hockey passion, and the Cup being there is good for the game.

Two Rounds In

I already opined about my Bolts when they advanced past the second round by ousting the Islanders. They start the Eastern Conference Final tonight against the Penguins; but first, now that the rest of the second round series have ended, here are more of my overall brain droppings about this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs:

Old Time Hockey

One of the ironies about Slap Shot is that so many people believe its signature phrase -- "old time hockey" -- refers to bare-knuckled fisticuffs. But in reality, when Paul Newman's character Reggie Dunlop called for "old time hockey" before leading the Charlestown Chiefs onto the ice for their final game, he was imploring them to abandon such tactics and "play it straight."

Why am I talking about a movie from 1977? Because the ECF between Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh provides a golden opportunity to see the kind of old time hockey Dunlop was talking about, the kind based overwhelmingly on speed and skill -- and this is true despite the fact that Steven Stamkos, the only NHL player to have recorded a 60-goal season in the last nine years, remains sidelined by blood clots.

I do not mean to sound pompous, or self-righteous about my team. Hockey is and should be a rugged sport in which you can't win without checking hard and fighting through checks, and the Lightning and Penguins both have players who exploit the gray area to get under a foe's skin (see: Callahan, Ryan; Letang, Kris).

But both teams play it clean, not dirty, and are about excellence rather than corner-cutting. Thanks to their abundance of talent, they succeed while living up to the ideal.

Pittsburgh's virtuosi include Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel, and Matt Cullen... Tampa Bay's include Nikita Kucherov, Tyler Johnson, Victor Hedman, and the suddenly cresting Jonathan Drouin... And as if to put the lie to the word "old" being in the phrase "old time hockey," seven of those eight players are in their 20's and all four of Tampa Bay's are 25 or younger.

Get ready for playmaking, shooting, and entertainment galore. The Pens are favored, and should be given their down-roster points production, but it will not be a big surprise if the Bolts knock 'em off.

Reputations

They can be a blessing or a bitch. Some are deserved and some are not.

It would be hard to argue that the Washington Capitals haven't earned their reputation as post-season underachievers. Despite always being loaded with talent and often fielding teams that look like legit Cup contenders, they haven't even made it to a conference final over the last 18 years... Five years ago they were the top seed in the East, but got swept in the second round by Tampa Bay... This season they had far and away the best record in the NHL and many observers were expecting them to win it all; yet they just got eliminated in the second round by the Penguins, a franchise which has now prevailed in eight of the nine playoff series between the two.

So the Caps as an organization deserve their rap, but how fair is it to extend that rap to some of their individual players?

Lots of people hate Alexander Ovechkin (not without reason) and every one of them enjoys calling him a playoff choker because the Caps never get past the second round.

But take a look at the numbers and you will see that Ovechkin himself plays extremely well in the post-season, as evidenced by him notching 82 points (on a perfectly even 41 goals and 41 assists) in 84 career playoff games. That puts him at a playoff PPG average of .976, which is better than Jaromir Jagr (.966) and Brett Hull (.941) and way better than Pavel Datsyuk (.720). Nobody has ever accused those other three players of disappearing in the playoffs, have they?

The dude can't play on all four lines, nor can he stop something from happening in the right circle when he's jockeying for position in the left circle. Perhaps people should look somewhere else to find blame for Washington's post-season defeats. Just sayin'.


The WCF
Speaking of reputations, boy did the San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues put to rest the long-standing and widely-held belief that they lack the character to succeed in the post-season. Their upcoming battle in the Western Conference Final will not be as old-time-hockeyish as the Bolts-Pens battle in the East, but it won't be far behind on that meter and it will be ahead on the hard-hitting meter.

It should be a joy to watch and I think the Sharks will pull it out. They have the edge on the ice, for as good as Tarasenko and Stastny are for St. Louis, having them is just not the same as having Thornton, Pavelski, Couture, and Burns. Plus, the Sharks have the edge behind the bench.


Goaltending
It goes without saying that goaltender is the most important position in hockey, but has there ever been a more vivid illustration of that truth than this year's Dallas Stars?

They were a high-flying scoring machine, finishing with more goals than any other team and 17 more than the next-closest team in that metric. They had the best record in the Western Conference. Their roster included the league's second-leading points-scorer in Jamie Benn and one of its most respected defensemen in Johnny Oduya.

And despite all that, everybody knew their chances of winning the Cup were no more than a snowball's chance of not melting after floating across the River Styx -- all because the Stars' two-headed goaltending platoon was not up to snuff.

Antti Niemi logged time in 48 regular season games, Kari Lehtoen in 43, and they managed unintimidating save percentages of .905 and .906. In the playoffs those numbers did what they absolutely could not be permitted to do -- get worse, with Lehtonen's save percentage slipping to .899 and Niemi's plummeting to .865. Their combined goals-against average went up by .45 per game even though their shots faced went down by 1.5.

Two of Dallas's four losses to St. Louis were by the score of 6-1. In Wednesday's series- and season-ending defeat, Lehtonen surrendered three goals on the first eight shots, including one with 3.5 seconds left in the first period.

Dallas's roster is stacked and will continue to generate strong winning seasons for the team. But until something major changes in goal, they will remain DOA for every post-season and that will prove a major frustration for their fans.


Conn Smythe
Since we're all the way to the conference finals, it's not too early to talk about which players are in the running for the Conn Smythe from each team. As I did last year, I am not going to mention goalies for the simple reason that they already have the inside track.

Tampa Bay Lightning:  Victor Hedman. As much as I want to give my hypothetical vote to Nikita Kucherov for his impeccably clutch goal-scoring, there is no getting around the fact that Hedman, a defenseman, has carried an insanely disproportionate load of work due to the absence of Anton Stralman. He just got done making John Tavares a non-facor in the second round and is playing superb on offense as well as defense, having produced nine points (versus only eight penalty minutes) in ten games.

Pittsburgh Penguins:  Phil Kessel. For once I have something in common with Leafs fans, which is that I don't understand how Kessel -- a rotund, cholesterol-soaked dead ringer for John Kruk -- can possibly be a skilled sharphooting NHL forward. But he is, and so far he and his line are the straw that is stirring Pittsburgh's drink this post-season. He has 12 points in 11 games, including the first two goals in Tuesday's series-clincher against Washington.

St. Louis Blues:  Vladimir Tarasenko. 7 goals and 6 assists for a total of 13 points in 14 games, despite being underutilized and played for too few minutes by Captain Kangaroo Ken Hitchcock. Just imagine what he would be doing if he had a ballsier coach like Joel Quenneville or Jon Cooper calling the shots.

San Jose Sharks:  Joe Pavelski. The old mountain man in me wants to nominate Joe Thornton and his crazy ass beard, but I gotta be honest: No matter how incredibly Thornton passes the puck and sees the ice, my eyeballs tell me that it's Pavelski, the 31-year-old spark plug from Plover, Wisconsin, who is making the Sharks' engine run. He is always doing something good with the puck, always buzzing his opponents, always making things happen.


And now...
...bring on the games!

One Round In

I already opined about my Bolts when they advanced by ousting the Red Wings. Now that the rest of the first round series have ended, here are some of my overall brain droppings -- so far -- about this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Half wrong

That might not prove to be the correct phrase, but my post from 12 days ago predicted that this year's champ "will be either LA or St. Louis" -- and LA got eliminated six days ago.

LA's quick departure at the hands of their prior whipping boys, the San Jose Sharks, was especially shocking. The Sharks are very good but have a reputation for post-season flops -- particularly against their downstate rivals, since the last two times the Sharks made the playoffs, in 2013 and 2014, it was the LA Kings who eliminated them. The 2014 elimination was historically notorious, as they charged to a 3-0 series lead only to see the Kings roar back and win four in a row, sending them home with their tails tucked between their fins, after which the Kings rolled on to win the Cup for the second time in three years.

With the Kings re-energized and playing powerfully this season, and Vinny Lecavlier enjoying a renaissance after arriving in a mid-season trade, it appeared they were set to make a deep run that could potentially end with them hoisting the Cup for the third time. However, it was not to be.


Dionne Warwick
Do You Know the Way to San Jose? Now that the Sharks have bared their teeth and exorcised their ghosts of playoffs past by hip-checking LA out of the race, it's worth wondering if they've figured out what it takes to be a champ.

It's also worth wondering if the Kings' tenure as an elite contender has run its course. After winning two titles and ten of eleven playoff series from 2012 to 2014, their last two campaigns have finished with them missing the playoffs in 2015 and getting bounced in one round in 2016. Plus, Jonathan Quick's performance has dropped off precipitously, which brings me to my next segment.

In decline?

Jonathan Quick and Henrik Lundqvist are still good goalies, and each of them might have enough gas in his tank to backstop a team to a title. But after this season, it's clear they are no longer among the top half-dozen (or maybe even top dozen) goalies in the game. And with Lundvist now 34 and Quick having turned 30 a few months ago, it's reasonable to ask if we will ever again see them dazzle like they did in the very recent past.

During the Kings' first Cup run in 2012, Quick earned the Conn Smythe with an otherworldly post-season that included a .946 save percentage and 1.41 goals-against average. In 2013 his post-season numbers dipped, but almost imperceptibly, as he remained superb at .934 and 1.86 and equaled his previous year's mark of three playoff shutouts. In 2014 the dip was more pronounced, to .911 and 2.58, but those numbers were still good enough to win the Cup and Quick turned in a bevy of clutch, highlight reel saves along the way... But now, after LA missed the playoffs in 2015, his 2016 post-season ended with positively pedestrian numbers of .886 and 3.04, which places him behind 15 other goalies who logged ice time in the first round.

Meanwhile, back East, Henrik "The King" Lundqvist was horrible throughout the week and a half his NY Rangers participated in these playoffs, surrendering 4.39 goals per game with a putrid .867 save percentage. He was pulled from three of the five games in the series, and that was after being yanked on eleven different occasions during the regular season... Sure, his team was thin on the blue line and his teammates gave him no goal support against Pittsburgh, but even if they had, the Rangers still wouldn't have had a chance. And most tellingly, Lundqvist lost his cool several times, which is not a good look for a man reputed to be the most unflappable player in the league.

Farewells

Every playoff round is marked by a number of sudden conclusions. Not only do teams' seasons come to an end, but so do some players' careers. This year, Round One brought the curtain down on the NHL careers of two of the finest hockey players of the last 15 years: Pavel Datsyuk and the afore-mentioned Vincent Lecavelier.

The Lightning drafted Lecavelier with the first overall pick in 1998, and he went on to become one of the most revered figures in Tampa Bay sports history. During his 15-year tenure with the team, he served as its captain and played a key role in it winning the Stanley Cup in 2004, and in it coming within one goal of returning to the finals in 2011. He was the first player in team history to score 50 goals in a season, with his 52 in 2006-07 topping the entire NHL and earning him the Rocket Richard Trophy. In addition, Lecavalier was MVP of the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, which was won by his Team Canada.

Unfortunately he became a salary cap casualty in 2013, as the Lightning opted to buy out his contract. He spent most of the next three years being misutilized and often scratched by the Flyers, until that mid-season trade to LA led to a revival of sorts, with him becoming a major contributor on the Kings' special teams and chipping in 17 points.

Forever the good soldier and company man, Vinny Lecavelier always worked his butt off, always played productively, and never complained. A married father of three, he has routinely spent personal time visiting with critically ill children at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, FL, where he donated millions of his own dollars to create a facility for the treatment of pediatric cancer and blood disorders. Lecavelier is exactly what a superstar athlete cum role model is supposed to be... and the same can be said of Pavel Datsyuk, the 37-year-old centerman from central Russia who has played for the Detroit Red Wings since 2002, never once wearing the jersey of any other NHL organization.

Much like Igor Larionov, another Russian centerman who preceded him in starring for Detroit, Datsyuk's cerebral play was a perfect meeting of brains and skill. Although his points totals never jumped off the page at you, he made special things happen whenever he was on the ice, earning him the nickname "Magic Man," and was universally recognized as one of the world's most elite hockey players. He finishes his NHL days with 918 points in 953 regular season games, plus 113 in 157 playoff games.

Balance and all-around proficiency were Datsyuk's hallmarks. As if to prove that point, he won the Selke Trophy (for the forward who demonstrates the most skill at the defensive aspects of the game) three straight times from 2008 to 2010. The 2007-08 season ended with him leading the Wings to the Stanley Cup and leading the league with 144 takeaways -- compared to 86 for Mike Modano, who finished second in that stat.

On top of all that, Datsyuk won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy (for good sportsmanship) four straight times and has doggedly battled back from injuries in recent years.

Like Vinmy Lecavelier, Pavel Datsyuk is a man who sacrifices for the game but has his head screwed on straight and his priorities in order. His recent (apparent) decision to return to Russia, and thus forego the $7.5 million he would make by remaining in Detroit and playing out the final season of his contract, is based on family matters.

There is still a chance that one of them (especially Datsyuk) will change his mind, but that doesn't seem likely and it is sad to see them skate into the sunset. If only there were more professional athletes like them.


Wild indeed
The best game (or maybe I should say best period?) of Round One was Sunday afternoon's decisive Game Six between the top-seeded Dallas Stars and eighth-seeded Minnesota Wild.

Trying to force a Game Seven, and playing their first home game since hometown hero Prince passed away, the Wild paid tribute to him with a purple-saturated light and laser show prior to faceoff. Then they went out and got thoroughly dominated for the first two periods... Limping into the locker room for the second intermission, they trailed 4-0. But when they returned to the ice for the third period, they mounted a furious, adrenaline-fueled rally that had the crowd inside Xcel Energy Center rocking like Hendrix was in the house

3:48 into that final stanza, with the Wild on a power play, Jared Spurgeon pulled them within 4-1 when he found the puck amidst a goalmouth scrum and poked it in... Then, a mere 16 seconds after the ensuing faceoff, it became 4-2 as Minnesota broke into the Dallas zone and Jonas Brudin converted a perfect cross-ice feed from down low by Erik Haula... And 4:35 after that, with Minnesota on another power play, Spurgeon struck again when he took a cross-ice pass from Mikko Koivu and rifled it into a quite open net.

Just like that, with more than half the third yet to be played, the Wild had closed the gap from 4-0 to 4-3. The crowd's decibels spiked. Some 17,000 Minneapolis-St. Paul versions of the terrible towel were whipping in circles from the fists of upraised arms. You sensed that a historic, perhaps series-changing comeback victory was in the making.

Until the 10:28 mark. That's when a fluky bounce resulted in the puck being behind the Wild's goal line and the Stars being on the receiving end of the hockey gods' beneficence. Although Dallas's Alex Goligoski was credited with the goal that made it 5-3 Dallas, it was really scored by a tag team of Minnesota goalie Devan Dubnyk and Minnesota forward Charlie Coyle.

After losing sight of Goligoski's shot (which did not go in), Dubnyk skatterhopped in the crease while looking for the puck and decided to go down on his right leg... meanwhile, Coyle, who did see the puck, came swooping in from the left circle to clear it... but Coyle got there just as Dubnyk's foreleg touched the ice, with the puck resting on the net side of his pad rather than the open ice side... and with Coyle's and Dubnyk's converged momentum moving in the direction of the net, their sliding bodies pushed the puck backwards and across the goal line to make it 5-3 Dallas.

That sounds like a deflating moment, but the Wild had come too far back to let their surge die because of something fluky, so they kept attacking; and with 4:47 left, Jason Pominville scored off assists from Spurgeon and Nino Niederreiter to pull within 5-4. That amounts to four goals scored by one team in 11 minutes and 25 seconds, with yet another goal scored by their opponent during the same span.

When Pominville's shot went in, the crowd erupted and you could feel the momentum shift massively, as if the ice surface became tilted into Minnesota's offensive zone. You could just sense that the Wild were gonna tie it and force overtime; and as the final minutes played out, that sense never went away because they kept creating good chances and taking good shots.

The gut punch came with just 34 seconds remaining. That is when Niederreiter smacked a puck to the net and -- depending on your rooting interest -- it either crossed the goal line before it was stopped by the right pad of Dallas goaltender Kari Lehtonen, or Lehtonen's pad stopped its momentum just in time to keep it out.

Remember that in hockey, the entire puck has to be behind the line for it to be a goal. Unlike football, in which it counts as a touchdown so long as any molecule of the ball "breaks the plane" of the front of the goal line. With that in mind, I think it's clear this was not a goal, though the margin of difference was tiny and I get why that rankles some people.

So close, and yet so far. But such is the story of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

In the 34 seconds between that agonizingly close call, the Wild kept applying pressure, but it was all for naught.

Thrill of victory, agony of defeat. Game of inches. Thin line between victory and defeat. Never stop giving it your all... Apply every sports cliche you can think of and it will fit that Game Six. Gotta love it.


Looking forward
Regarding the series that will take place in Round Two:

Lightning-Islanders: My first thought was "should be a barnburner, good chance it'll go seven." Then the Lightning laid an out of sync stinker last night in Game One. I wasn't surprised they lost because I expected them to be rusty after their long layoff, but that performance was inexcusable. They should bounce back and will definitely do better, but they need to bounce back fast and do a lot better if they think they can make it to the conference finals for the third time in six years.

Penguins-Capitals: Actually, that's all you gotta say. "Penguins-Capitals," or "Pens-Caps" if that's your style. These franchises have playoff history against each other and are superbly matched.... The Pens have a slight edge when it comes to skaters, but what does that really mean when the Caps bring the likes of Ovechkin and Kuznetsov?... The Caps have a significant edge in goal since they are starting Braden Holtby while the Pens, thanks to Marc-Andre Fluery's lingering concussion issues, are starting 21-year-old rookie Matt Murray... But then again, Patrick Roy was a 20-year-old rookie when he backstopped Montreal to the title in '86.

Blues-Stars:  Are the Stars really worthy of the #1 seed when they have so many question marks in net? Are the Blues really ready to make a difference in the post-season now that they've gotten past the first round? Will Ken Hitchcock's refusal/hesitance to play Vladimir Tarasenko more than 20-21 minutes come back to bite the Blues in the derriere?

Sharks-Predators:  One of these teams will be going at least as far as the Western Conference Final. Which is good, because up until now they have both been saddled with the reputation of playing very good in the regular season then underperforming in the post-season. Now, will Pekka Rinne finally get some playoff credentials to match his multiple appearances as a Vezina finalist, or will it be Joe Thornton who finally turns in a post-season that's worthy of his skills? I hope they both do well individually, but I am predicting the Sharks will take this series and have even odds of winning the WCF.


Bring on the race, chase, fire, and struggle. If you don't enjoy the Stanley Cup Playoffs, you suck.

Much more thrill than agony

For the Tampa Bay Lightning, the 2013-14 season ended in the first round of the playoffs. With Vezina finalist Ben Bishop sidelined by injury, they lost four straight games to Montreal and suffered the ignominy of a sweep.

A whole season and post-season have since passed without the Bolts experiencing another four-game losing streak. In fact, they did not even experience a three-game losing streak until Games Four through Six of the Stanley Cup Finals, when the dynastic Chicago Blackhawks edged past them to wipe out their 2-1 series lead and make them finish as runners-up rather than champs.

Now that the 2014-15 season is over, we know it was not only a major step forward but also the second-best season in franchise history. With that said and more than a week having passed since we felt the bitter sting of our team coming up short in its quest to win the Cup, it is time to take a look back and appreciate what we witnessed.

*     *     *     *     *

The goal of every athlete is to win his sport's ultimate championship and the dream of every sports fan is to see his team reach that pinnacle. But dreams aside, some fans have, shall we say, a complicated relationship with reality; and all fans must temper their dreams with those cursed buggers known as "expectations."

Fortunately, most of us Lightning fans are knowledgeable about our team and the NHL at large, and those who are new to the fold are quick studies. Remembering the whimper of last year's early exit, our initial hope was simply that the Bolts improve; specifically, that they improve by advancing past the first round, which had not happened in these parts since 2011.

When the playoffs began and we looked at the Bolts' maturation from last year and outstanding performance across the course of the regular season, we knew they were among the six or seven teams that had a legitimate chance to win it all. After all, their 50 wins and 108 points were both franchise records, exceeding the marks set by the 2003-04 squad that won both the Stanley Cup and President's Cup.

However, we also knew that these Bolts were extremely young (with 15 players age 25 or younger) and thin on championship experience (with only one player having ever played on a Cup-winning team).  We knew that as a unit, they had yet to win a single playoff game, and that Ben Bishop had yet to even appear in a playoff game. Finally, we knew their team defense remained their primary weakness even though it was improved compared to 2013-14... And so we chewed our bottom lips with realistic fear even as we daydreamed with realistic hope. We kept reminding ourselves that if the Bolts advanced, we would consider the season to be a success and the sky to be the limit.

With that in mind, this season was not only a success but a rousing one. In the final game of the regular season, the 2014-15 Bolts avenged the 2010-11 Bolts' Game Seven loss in the Eastern Conference Finals by defeating the Boston Bruins to keep them out of the post-season... Then they advanced past the first round by overcoming a 3-2 series deficit to the Red Wings and shutting them out in Game Seven... Then they advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals by discarding the Montreal Canadiens and Carey Price, who is reputed to be the best goaltender on the planet... Then they won the Eastern Conference and advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals by discarding the New York Rangers, who not only had the best record in the NHL but also had Henrik Lundqvist, who is reputed to be the clutchest goaltender on the planet.

Plus, by eliminating the Rangers the Lightning: 1) prevented Martin Iscariot St. Louis from winning a Cup at their expense, and 2) became the first NHL team ever to vanquish three Original Six franchises in a single post-season.

Along that road to the finals, Ben Bishop became only the third goalie in NHL history to record two Game Seven shutouts in a single post-season. The Bolts ended what was arguably the most legendary streak in sports by becoming the first team in the Rangers' 88-year history to defeat them on their own ice in a Game Seven. And they also ended Lundqvist's much ballyhooed streak of six straight Game Seven victories.

They played better with each passing round even though they faced a tougher foe each time... Their team defense improved dramatically and became a strength rather than the weakness it was thought to be at the end of the regular season... Their top defensive pairing of Victor Hedman and Anton Stralman emerged as arguably the best in the league... And their second forward line -- the so-called Triplets Line of Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, and Nikita Kucherov -- emerged as arguably the best in all of hockey.

Jon Cooper, who no one had heard of a couple years ago, became universally regarded as one of the NHL's best coaches and the face of its coaching future.

In the same vein, the Lightning became universally regarded as a bold organization that trusts its people and is unafraid to buck conventional wisdom.

Them ain't bad apples if you ask me, and they're a far cry from the rotten ones that plagued the organization before it was bought by Jeff Vinik.

*     *     *     *     *

We should appreciate how many highlights there were during the playoff run.

Against the Red Wings, there was the pile on rout in Game Two and the exhilarating rally to pull out Game Four in overtime... There was the great play (and harbinger of things to come) that ended Game Four when Victor Hedman exploded down the right side, drew Petr Mrazek out of the crease, then feathered a cross-ice pass to Tyler Johnson for the winner... There was the beautiful, stunned silence that fell on Joe Louis Arena when Johnson's winner went in... There was Ben Bishop rising to the occasion in Game Seven, willing the Bolts to victory by pitching a shutout when they were outshot 31-17... There was Braydon Coburn scoring the Game Seven winner from the top of the circle, 3:58 into the third, when he one-timed Ryan Callahan's pass high and inside the opposite post while Mrazek desperately scrambled to the near one.

That series showed the Bolts were unafraid of adversity, that they could withstand the hottest of pressure cookers and come out on top... It showed that despite their youth, they could defeat a playoff-seasoned veteran squad loaded with championship experience... It showed they could do all of those things even when Steven Stamkos, the NHL's second-leading scorer in the regular season, went the whole series without putting the puck in the net... But perhaps most memorably, the series featured Johnson's arrival as an electrifying star that the entire hockey world knows about.

Against the entitled revered Habs, there was that stupendous six-goal outburst in Game Two, with the power play finally breaking out with four goals and Stamkos finally scoring on this breakaway against Carey Price... There was Tyler Johnson scoring with 1.1 second left in Game Three, using one move of his stick to break an NHL record and give the Bolts a 3-0 series lead... On that goal, there was Victor Hedman again with the assist, from all the way down in the corner of the offensive zone as if he was a forward rather than a defenseman... And there was Stamkos asserting his authority by unleashing this wrister to beat Price on what proved to be the series-winner in Game Six.

That series showed that Round One was no fluke. It showed that the Bolts were not intimidated by goaltending excellence. It showed they had what it takes to keep getting better even as they got deeper into the playoffs. And as Johnson recorded five points at Montreal's expense, it showed that his stellar play versus Detroit was not an anomaly.

Against destiny's supposed child (a.k.a. the 2014-15 New York Rangers) there were the fireworks of hanging six goals on Henrik Lundqvist not once, but twice, and in back-to-back games at that... There was the Triplets Line befuddling Lundqvist so much that he seemed ready to throw in the towel with his comments immediately following Game Three... There was Johnson notching a natural hat trick in Game Two, by virtue of a short-handed goal on a 3-on-5 penalty kill, followed by a picture perfect top-shelfer off a power play feed from Stamkos, followed by this greasy even-strengther on which the diminutive centerman prevailed in a multi-player goalmouth bang-up... Then there was Nikita Kucherov defying conventional wisdom to win Game Three in overtime, when, as his linemates went off for a line change, he charged down the ice, skated across the Rangers' blueline, used a backpedaling defenseman as a screen, and rifled a wrist shot so fast that it made it from the point to the back of the net before Lundqvist had a chance to react... And, there was a Crimson-on-Crimson goal to win the series when Alex Killorn (Tampa Bay's Harvard grad) circled atop the crease while being defended by Dominic Moore (New York's Harvard grad) and somehow managed to slip the puck through Lundqvist's five hole.

That series proved that... well, there really wasn't much left to prove as far as the Lightning belonging in the NHL's elite, but the series proved it anyway. It showed that they were not intimated by reputation and history. Prior to Game Seven, when Stamkos was asked about Lundqvist's six-game winning streak in Game Sevens, he made our hearts pound with pride and confidence by answering that "he's a great goaltender, but he's never played the Tampa Bay Lightning in a Game Seven before."

Then came the Stanley Cup Finals, and although the ultimate outcome wasn't what we wanted, those finals still provided moments that I remember only with a smile. There was Nikita Kucherov deftly redirecting Jason Garrison's shot past Corey Crawford to even Game Two just 92 seconds after Chicago had taken the lead... Later in the same game, there was Garrison scoring the winner (off an assist from Hedman, of course) some five minutes after Chicago tied it on a goal that should have been disallowed because of goaltender interference... There was Cedric Paquette completing a third period comeback to win Game Three, by knocking in a perfect centering feed that came, of course, from Hedman... There was 20-year-old rookie netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy, playing Game Four when Ben Bishop was injured and performing so well that he looked like an unflappable veteran... There was Johnson playing most of the series with a broken wrist, Bishop playing much of it with a torn groin, and Kucherov returning for Game Six after absorbing this excruciating collarbone cracker in Game Five.

Unfortunately for us, Crawford shut the door in Games Four through Six and played every bit the role of Jacques Plante or Martin Brodeur, turning aside seemingly every Lightning chance and overturning the fact that the Lightning played more than well enough to win. If you've watched enough hockey, you know that in a situation like that there really isn't a damn thing you can do.

*     *     *     *     *

There is no point in playing the "what if" game. On the one hand it rejects reality because it seeks to ignore or deny what actually happened. On the other, it is blind to the fact that both sides can play "what if" with equal legitimacy. If a Bolts fan gripes that Stamkos missed a partially open net in the waning seconds of Game Four that would have forced overtime, a 'Hawks fan could just as easily gripe that Marian Hossa missed an entirely open net in Game Three that might have changed its outcome.

Nonetheless, I am writing this from a Tampa Bay point of view so I am going to indulge my feelings and ignore what my rational brain tells me to acknowledge.

If Stamkos had gotten that puck into the net, the Bolts likely would have prevailed in overtime -- which would have given them a 3-1 series lead, which would have probably led to them winning the Cup.

If Ryan Callahan had converted his breakaway opportunity late in Game One, which came less than two minutes before Chicago tied it up, then Chicago's comeback likely wouldn't have happened -- in which case the Bolts: 1) would have headed north with a 2-0 series lead instead of a 1-1 tie; 2) would have held a commanding 3-0 series lead after Paquette's Game Three winner; and 3) almost certainly would have won the Cup... For that matter, if Callahan had converted and Stamkos had scored into the partially open net in Game Four, the Bolts probably would have swept the Blackhawks.

If Ben Bishop hadn't inexplicably done this when Game Five was tied at zero, the Bolts might have gotten the crucial first goal and won the game -- in which case they would have entered Game Six leading the series 3-2 instead of trailing it 3-2.

But like Stephen King once wrote, "If is the only word a thousand letters long."

*     *     *     *     *

It is impossible to look back at the 2015 playoff run without wondering what it might portend for the future, so here I go a-wondering.

We are blessed to have just one unrestricted free agent, and even more blessed by the fact that that UFA is the sadly unproductive Brenden Morrow. Given Jon Cooper's belief in his players and trust in his youngsters, next season's Bolts should look very much like this season's, and that is a decidedly good thing.

It is when we get beyond next season that things get "interesting" from a roster perspective. Stamkos will become a UFA unless Yzerman signs him to an extension before then (which I believe Yzerman will do).

The Triplets will start becoming restricted free agents. Since they are all bargains at their current salaries, they are sure to receive big offers from other clubs.

Hedman will be a UFA after two more seasons. By then he will deserve the salary of a Norris Trophy winner regardless of whether he has received the award.

Callahan will be thirtysomething, and given his injurious style of play, will he still be effective?

The most "interesting" scenario regards Ben Bishop, who is slated to become a UFA after next season. Because he was a Vezina finalist last year and almost won the Cup this year, he will command a lot of money unless he has a major drop-off in 2015-16.

Given Andrei Vasilevskiy's otherworldly talent and how well he has played in relief of Bishop -- and given the significant upside of third-stringer Kristers Gudlevskis -- the Lightning will be faced with a migraine-inducing, crossroads of a decision: Do they keep a playoff-proven upper tier goalie, in which case they will be forced to part with other key contributors because there just isn't enough room under the salary cap? Or do they part ways with him in order to have enough cap room to re-sign some of their other stars, which means they must turn the goaltending keys over to a couple of guys in their early twenties who have never gone through the rigors of starting a full season in the NHL?

Does Cooper give Vasilevskiy more starts next season, in order to provide the organization with more info on which to base its decision? If Yzerman finds himself leaning towards letting Bishop walk, does he deal him to another team at the trade deadline so that he gets something in return, something like a quality fifth or sixth defenseman?

Yes, the business side of hockey sucks. But the business side of hockey is part of the reality of hockey, and every winning team has to deal with it.

Fortunately, we have outstanding ownership and outstanding management, and I believe they will maintain this team's core and keep the Lightning among the league's handful of contenders for a long time.

Still, the window of opportunity is now open. Here's hoping that the Lightning are able to proceed through it, and that they proceed through it sooner rather than later.

Actually, I hope they do so both sooner and later.

Go Bolts!