Mother's Day weekend was not kind to the Canadian teams. Each Canadian team managed to lose its weekend game in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Toronto and Edmonton were on the verge of going up 3-1. Calgary was hoping to get a 2-1 advantage.
Toronto and Calgary posted Game 1 shutouts while Edmonton posted a Game 2 shutdown. The teams were capable of pulling that off.
Toronto picked a great time to win a game where the Maple Leafs didn't score first. Calgary scored its first road playoff win (non-bubble) since 2015 with the Game 4 victory in Dallas. Edmonton had a marvelous comeback against Los Angeles but couldn't get anything going in overtime last night.
ESPN showed anthems when possible. NBCSN didn't seem to understand how important this was to the audience.
When we checked into the ESPN app, the one game you couldn't find was the late game involving the Canadian team. Like NBCSN, ESPN isn't showing anything earlier before joining in the coverage.
Gord Miller has been a huge advantage on the ESPN side. Miller has done enough U.S. telecasts to be comfortable reading material such as "America relies on Dunkin." We enjoy when he works a game because he is generous to his analysts. Miller interjects some amazing facts that no U.S. announcer could possible know. He also likes having a good time.
Miller was talking about the Edmonton Oilers back in the 1980s. Cassie Campbell-Pascall asks if he was there. Miller admitted that he was there. This is a small thing but Miller approaches all of this as a fan, like he knows what we need and is happy to serve it up.
Most announcers give you what is on the menu. Getting Gord Miller to call a game is like ordering from the secret menu.
The ESPN announcers covering the Maple Leafs have done fine.
The overall coverage has been odd at times like not showing replays of penalties. There was a too many men penalty without showing the infraction. A flaw in otherwise good coverage.
So TNT brought in a bunch of familiar names to cover Thursday-Monday. Jennifer Botterill is part of the TNT and Sportsnet coverage. Julie Stewart-Binks is a Canadian who we remember sharing Canadian history with the Fox soccer coverage. Drew Remenda covered the Edmonton Oilers and worked on Hockey Night in Canada. Meaghan Mikkelson is a 3-time Olympian for Canada in women's hockey.
Randy Hahn and Bret Hedican cover the San Jose Sharks. Dave Goucher calls the Las Vegas games. Darren Eliot provided analysis for the Detroit Red Wings and, in ancient times, Versus (really). John Forslund, who is not a fan of Canada, was likely thankful to not be on Canadian soil. His day job is with the Seattle Kraken.
Brendan Burke, Darren Pang, Eddie Olcyzk, and Keith Jones are regular TNT people. Butch Goring and Botterill work with Burke at MSG with the NY Islanders.
The matchups were reasonably creative. One game with Forslund is one too many but what the heck. He is a better local announcer than a national one.
Like ESPN, we see penalties called without replays to show the actual infraction.
ESPN goes straight from one game to the next. TNT insists on dragging its feet in the previous game followed by a long commercial break followed by an unneeded trip to the TNT studio.
The Game 1 loss meant 12 of the last 14 Edmonton Oilers playoff games resulted in a loss. This is with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Even the Toronto Maple Leafs won 3 playoff games in 2021.
The only recent playoff wins came with Game 6 with Anaheim in 2017 and Game 2 with Chicago in 2020. Winnipeg swept Edmonton in 2021. The Oilers missed the playoffs in 2018 and 2019.
Games 2 and 3 changed this dramatically, games that weren't close.
Your humble narrator hated the Kyle Clifford hit in Game 1. Felt that was worth a 5-minute penalty and the game misconduct.
The 1-game suspension was a bit of a surprise, though Clifford wasn't going to play in Game 2 anyway.
What I honestly don't get is when other players get worse hits and they are barely called as 2-minute minor penalties. The Clifford hit was obvious but many other hits aren't obvious.
As much as I write about hockey, I can't tell borderline offsides calls and what level of violence makes a significant penalty. If Ray Ferraro can't make me understand offsides calls, no one can.
The Montréal Canadiens had the best odds for the top pick at 18.5%. There was a fear that the New Jersey Devils would take the top spot. The Devils move up to the second pick. The Habs get the top pick on what may be the Shane Wright draft.
The Canadiens haven't drafted #1 overall since 1980 with Doug Wickenheiser. While Garry Monahan (1963), Michel Plasse (1968), and Rejean Houle (1969) were significant in their own right, the most famous overall #1 pick for Les Habs was Guy Lafleur (1971).
The Habs made a deal to get the Oakland Seals #1 pick in the 1971 draft. That pick ended up as the top pick of the draft.
The last time the #1 pick was selected in the same city was when Wendell Clark was the top pick for the Toronto Maple Leafs in Toronto.
New Jersey was the only team to move up in the NHL draft. The Ottawa Senators will continue to draft at 7, Winnipeg Jets stay at 14, and the Vancouver Canucks remain at 15.
Les Habs will host the 2022 NHL Draft at the Bell Centre on July 7-8.
The last 3 Kraft Hockeyville winners are all from Atlantic Canada. When those NHL preseason games finally get played, there will be a lot of hockey in that region.
Sydney, NS is the 2022 winner. The $250,000 in upgrades will go to the Canada Games Complex. Glad to see that the project will increase ice time for girls in that area.
The 2020 (Twillingate, NL) and 2021 (Elsipogtog First Nation, NB) winners still have not played their NHL preseason game.
The other 2022 Kraft Hockeyville finalists were Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC; Douro-Dummer, ON; and Princeton, BC.
Pierre McGuire hasn't just been a TV analyst with TSN and then NBC. McGuire has worked in NHL front offices. Taking the job of senior vice president of player development with the Ottawa Senators seemed like a smart move.
Well, 10 months ago into the job, McGuire is out of work.
We liked the TSN version; his NBC act got really bad at the end (still better than Brian Boucher).
Studio work would be a decent fit, if McGuire ends up on television again. The NHL Network might be the best and ideal destination.
How do you get from Edmonton to Los Angeles? In 2019, you would have flown directly between the cities. In 2022, you fly to Vancouver, bus to Bellingham, WA and then fly to Los Angeles.
Some teams are taking awkward ways to get to the United States depending on their security over COVID-19 testing. As CBC News noted, "Current restrictions require people entering the States via air to provide a negative COVID-19 test, something not required at a land border crossing."
The Toronto Maple Leafs, and many MLB teams, took the bus to Buffalo. Tampa Bay, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Calgary chose to fly directly.
Las Vegas and Tampa Bay were the only U.S. teams that traveled to Canada in the 2021 playoffs where the rules were very different. The teams do get a travel day to use as they wish.
Stanley Cup playoffs and Canadian provincial politics often meet. The Ontario election is set for June 2. This election will likely have a plethora of political ads. Watching Rogers Sportsnet West or Pacific might be better than Rogers Sportsnet Ontario to avoid the ads. The CBC stations you pick could also be away from Ontario if you timeshift with cable or satellite.
If you live in Ontario, you may choose to limit access to the ads yet still do research on which party is best for your needs. For those fans turning 18 by June 2, welcome to participation democracy. Adults make politics out to be worse than the reality.
Might be smart to have the Toronto Maple Leafs avoid playing on June 2.
A reminder that we are updating our playoffs preview with the rest of the CBC and U.S. television games for the first round.
photo credit: @mapleleafs
Twitter capture: @canadian_xing
