The Good Stuff From The First Round – Eastern Conference
7 years ago
If you needed a reminder that the playoffs are mostly a complete and total crapshoot, you needn’t look any further than what just transpired over the last few weeks. Boston, out. Chicago, out. Minnesota, out. The teams with the third, fourth, and fifth best records in the league are already done.
Still, though, the postseason has always been full of surprises, and this year was no different. From emotional comebacks, to the fall of a once great empire, to the emergence of new ones, round one of the 2017 NHL playoffs had it all. Here’s a look back at the East, series by series, at the two weeks that were.
TORONTO VS. WASHINGTON
If you don’t think this series was the best of the first round, you’re not paying attention.
No one gave the Leafs a shot heading into this series, and for good reason. This is supposedly ‘Washington’s year’, and while the Leafs were a nice story, no one in their right mind picked them to win. The funny thing is, Toronto may have been the only team in the league with enough firepower to keep up with the Caps, and it showed. Washington ended up winning 4-2, with five of the six games going to overtime, and each game having been decided by one goal.
Here’s the best from this series:
Dart Guy
I mean, come on. At this point, Dart Guy may actually be the story of the playoffs. God damn, I love this guy. Enjoy this thread of the best Dart Guy edits.
You’ll notice that eight of the 10 profiles who liked/retweeted this tweet all have the same profile picture. This was my only beef with the emergence of Dart Guy. I didn’t know who was who anymore.
My personal favourite…
Even Auston Matthews’ parents wanted to meet the legend.
Dart Guy did a few interviews after his rise to fame and actually seems like a decent guy. I’m happy for him. You should too.
Tom Wilson’s emergence as an elite NHL goal scorer
Tom Wilson is a terrible, terrible NHL player. For some reason, though, players from Toronto always seem to perform well against the Leafs and that’s exactly what happened here. Check out this sick snipe from overtime in game one.
Then, check out the soft hands here from Wilson. A real goal scorer’s goal.
Lastly, Wilson capped off his series with this goal after he totally should not have been called for charging after hitting Morgan Rielly.
Tom Wilson had three goals in this series. He has 21 regular season goals in his career… in 313 games. Of course.
The young Leafs’ play
As mentioned, this was by far the closest series of the first round. This was due more to Toronto playing well rather than Washington playing poorly. There are a few moments from Toronto’s perspective that stand out to me.
The first was ‘The Shift’.
It’s game two, and the Leafs have spotted the Capitals a 2-0 lead. Things are looking bleak, and many are wondering if, at this point, Toronto’s going to be able to steal a game. Then, seemingly out of nowhere – The Shift. Kadri blows up Orpik twice, Komarov goes after Ovechkin, and Matthews gets his first career playoff goal. It’s beautiful.
The next moment came in the same game in the second period. Toronto was down 3-1, killed off two penalties, one of them a two-minute 5 on 3, before Connor Brown scored to make it a one-goal game. Then, just before the end of the second, Nylander scored to tie things up at 3.
Of course, this game ended on Tyler Bozak’s overtime winner, but it would have never gotten to that point without that unbelievable second period. One of my good friends, @djsannen, described the second period of game three the “gutsiest period in Leafs hockey in probably 15 years.” He’s not wrong.
All the overtime winners
As mentioned, 5/6 of this series’ games went to overtime. That’s insane. The Caps scored two more goals than the Leafs through all six games. That’s how close this thing was.
Let’s take a moment to appreciate every overtime winner scored in this series except for Tom Wilson’s, because it’s been ‘appreciated’ already.
First, let’s take a look at Kasperi Kapanen’s first career overtime playoff goal, and what was his second of the game. What a pass from Brian Boyle. Also, does Kapanen ONLY score huge goals? My god. This one came in double overtime.
After that goal tied the series at ones, Tyler Bozak scored to give Toronto a 2-1 series lead, and the world a great Instagram picture.
Then, two games later, who else but Justin freakin’ Williams gives Washington the 3-2 series lead.
And lastly, the winner. Marcus Johansson ends the series, setting up a Washington/Pittsburgh second round matchup.
KADRI VS. OVECHKIN
This was a seriously nasty series. I know there’s not much history between these two teams, but man, you could barely tell. Things came to a head when Nazem Kadri took a run at Washington’s captain, Alex Ovechkin.
There are two sides to this. One, people say Ovechkin was trying to sidestep the hit, which made it worse. The other side says that regardless of if Ovechkin sidestepped or not, Kadri should have never thrown the hit. I’m not a huge fan of hip checks and I think they’re super dangerous. I can’t say I loved seeing this hit from Kadri.
However, Ovechkin got his revenge a few games later.
This is really quite amazing when you think about it. Ovechkin literally picks up Kadri, who weighs nearly 200 pounds, using pretty much just his back. Then, he proceeds to body slam him to the ice. I’m a big Kadri fan but man, that was kinda funny to see.
This series was easily the best of round one – sad to see it end.
BOSTON VS. OTTAWA
Many were wrong about how this series was going to unfold, including me. Ottawa, honestly, kinda sucks. They were the only team to qualify for the playoffs with a negative goal differential, and should not have even made it to round one. Alas, here we are.
Boston was the heavy favourite, especially from those in the stats community. They do well fancy stat-wise and have some elite players. Ottawa, meanwhile, has an AHL d-core being dragged along by Erik Karlsson, Mike Hoffman, and Mark Stone. How they’ve gotten to this point, we will never truly understand.
Regardless, here’s the best from this series:
‘The Pass’ & Karlsson somehow just now becoming elite
Erik Karlsson has been the NHL’s best defenseman for each of the last six seasons, and I don’t think the gap is relatively close. He’s a generational player, and the fact that he only has two Norris trophies to his name is disgraceful. He should go down as one of the best blueliners to ever play in the NHL.
This is why it absolutely blows my mind that just now Karlsson is getting the recognition that he’s deserved for years. This isn’t necessarily a hockey-specific gripe, but sports people, in general, put way, way, way too much weight on winning when evaluating a single player. It is quite possibly the dumbest train of thought you can have as a sports fan.
Erik Karlsson single-handedly beat the Boston Bruins. He had six assists in six games (one of which I’ll get to shortly) and LOOK AT THIS. Look at his TOI by game.
Are you kidding me? Oh, yeah, HE ALSO PLAYED THE ENTIRE SERIES WITH A FRACTURED HEEL.
Anyways, to ‘The Pass’. As mentioned, Erik Karlsson had six assists during this series. Here’s the one that had everyone talking.
Like, this guy is absurdly good. Also, kudos to Mike Hoffman for the beautiful finish on the play, which made this sequence as a whole that much more impressive.
Clarke MacArthur’s comeback
NHL players get hurt all the time. Sometimes they come back, sometimes they don’t. It certainly looked like Clarke MacArthur was never going to play again after suffering what seemed like his 40th concussion during a two-year period during training camp. Everyone was pulling for him, but things looked bleak.
Then, just before the end of the regular season, word came that MacArthur was going to suit up for his first game since early on in the 2015/16 season. Honestly, I was scared for him. Who knows what another hit to the head could have done to him. We all talk about someday, someone getting killed on the ice. I was legitimately worried.
MacArthur suited up for four regular season games, going pointless. It wasn’t really about the production with him, it was more about him just being able to play hockey again.
Then came the playoffs.
In game two, MacArthur scored his first goal in over two years.
That, in itself, was a great moment. You can see it in his reaction just how pumped he was. It’s so easy to root for the guy. Who could imagine what would happen next?
It’s game 6, with the Senators ahead in the series 3-2. The Bruins were down in the game, but came back to force overtime. Just a few minutes in, David Pasternak takes a penalty, sending Ottawa to the powerplay. This is what happened next.
I mean, come on. This has to be one of the best feel-good stories in the NHL’s recent history. What a moment. Also, check out MacArthur celebrating and the goof Bruins fan giving him the finger. Priceless.
This is just the best.
Craig Anderson
Another emotional story this season for the Senators was that of Craig Anderson and his wife, Nicholle. Nicholle is battling a rare form of cancer, and, as one would expect, Craig took a large portion of the season off to be with his wife.
Anderson did return to the team in the regular season, playing 21 games down the stretch for Ottawa. He was also the team’s starting goaltender heading into the playoffs after posting a .926 SV% in his regular season duty.
Unfortunately, Nicholle was not always able to watch her husband play. Luckily, though, she was able to make it to game six, which prompted this after the game was over.
Leaf fan, Hab fan, Bruins fan – doesn’t matter. Good for Anderson and good for MacArthur.
Beach Ball
It’s always fun when you see something for the first time. This situation was exactly that.
I mean, the refs seem to turn a blind eye all playoffs… he couldn’t have just turned around and thrown it in the penalty box? I’m glad he didn’t. This is much more entertaining.
MONTREAL VS. NEW YORK
Okay, I’d be lying if I said that the way Montreal’s season has gone hasn’t been amusing. I mean, the whole Subban/Weber situation, their handling of Alex Galchenyuk, bringing in Claude Julien, the emergence of Alex Radulov… It’s been a fun ride.
New York’s had an interesting season as well. They got off to a fantastic start, had a goalie controversy, and somehow coaxed 27 goals out of Michael Grabner. This was a matchup between two teams who’s windows are quickly coming to an end.
Here’s the best from this series:
Fans want Carey Price gone
This was a fairly even matchup heading in, although I would say the majority of fans and media picked the Habs to win. That’s why, when they lost, Montreal fans reacted, well, exactly how you’d expect.
I mean, it’s not like Montreal has ever traded away one of their best players in a knee-jerk reaction to things not turning out the way they thought they would. Nope. Never. Look, even GM Marc Bergevin says they’re not going to trade him! I mean, he’s serious when he says Price isn’t going anywhere. Whoa. This guy’s a straight shooter.
Just for fun, though, if the Habs were to trade their franchise cornerstone, I wonder what kind of player they’d target in return?
Who’s a goalie that would fit that description? Ah, Jonathan Quick!
Haha. Oh man. It’s just too easy.
Shea Weber was, in fact, NOT the difference maker
What a perfect transition to our next topic, Shea Weber.
Did Shea Weber have a nice season in Montreal? Yes, he most certainly did (although Matt Hunwick had more 5v5 points than him this season). The argument was never that Shea Weber is bad, because he’s still a useful player. The argument was that Montreal significantly downgraded their defense by making the trade, which came true.
Would Montreal have made the playoffs with Subban playing those minutes instead of Weber? Yes, absolutely. Eight more years of a clearly declining Weber is not something I’d be looking forward to if I were a Habs fan.
Lundqvist found his form
Hank took a lot of crap this season. He was even relegated to backup duty for a portion of the year. The thing is, though, that he’s a hall of fame goalie who’s still got lots to give to the game.
Was Lundqvist’s .910 regular season SV% good enough? No, it wasn’t, and some of the flak he recieved was definitely warranted. This is a guy with a great playoff record, though, and he definitely turned it on when it counted.
Throwing this one in just for fun.
Hank was great and has reclaimed his status as ‘king’, at least for now. He and his .947 sv% are what won New York the series.
Pacioretty can’t score
Six games. One assist. Zero goals.
COLUMBUS VS. PITTSBURGH
For as much hype as the Jackets received this season, they sure are a mediocre team. John Tortorella did not suddenly become a good coach – he sucks. They have some nice players, but overall, they’re a slightly above average roster. They overperformed big time.
On the other hand, Pittsburgh is an excellently constructed team which happens to include two of this generation’s best players in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Yeah, they’re missing Kris Letang on the back end, but they’re still a vastly superior team than the Jackets. I don’t know why they bothered to play this series, to be honest.
But, they did, and things happened. Here are the highlights:
Columbus has THREE playoff wins in their franchise’s history
The Columbus Blue Jackets are one of sport’s saddest franchises. Does it look like they’re starting to turn things around? Yeah, it does, and they’ve got some nice pieces throughout the organization. As a whole, though, the Jackets’ resume is sad.
They have three playoff wins in their 17-year history. The team they broke into the league with, the Minnesota Wild, have more series wins (4) than the Jackets have won games.
Oh, yeah. Of those three wins, the one win they picked up this season was their first ever regulation playoff win. ‘Lumbus gonna ‘Lumbus.
Matt Calvert tried to kill Tom Kuhnhackl
I don’t really know what prompted this, but, it happened.
I’ll give you guys ONE guess as to how many games Calvert was suspended. Five? No, come on, it’s the department of ‘player safety’ we’re talking about here. Three? Nope, closer. Two? Nah, that’s too harsh. ONE GAME. Matt Calvert was given one game for trying to end Kuhnackl’s life.
Zach Werenski’s face
Poor Zach Werenski. His team got absolutely throttled in the playoffs, and so did his face. Here he is, defending Phil Kessel, when all hell breaks loose on his noggin.
He actually came back in the game, wearing a full face mask. Unsurprisingly, after the game, it was ruled that Weresnki would miss the rest of the playoffs. Don’t think it looks so bad on video? Take a look at the aftermath.
Pretty badass, right? I mean, yeah, it hurts, but you look cool as heck. Anyways, this random dude wanted to look just as cool, so he put Zach Werenski’s busted up face on a shirt and wore it to Columbus’ next home game.
That’s actually hilarious. I want to wear a shirt of this guy wearing a shirt of Werenski’s face. Now THAT would be a good time.
(Stay tuned. The West will be out tomorrow)
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