The Winnipeg Jets still came out of Nashville with a split, gaining home-ice advantage in the second round of the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs. Still, a reversal in overtime in Game 2 would have made the series a lot sweeter.
Mark Scheifele scored the game-tying goal with under a minute in regulation in Game 2, continuing his hot scoring hand.
Game 1 proved successful on the scoreboard for the Jets despite Nashville dominating the shot chart over Winnipeg 48-19, 20-4 in the 1st period. Connor Hellebuyck had a career-high 47 saves, though his 163-minute shutout streak was snapped.
Winnipeg went the first 70 minutes of the playoff series without a power play. Even in an "everything goes" mentality, that falls short of good officiating.
Vancouver and Edmonton didn't make any drama on Saturday night. Calgary had traded its 1st round pick but that pick stayed in its original position.
Montréal got some temporary drama jumping into the Top 3 picks of the Rasmus Dahlin sweepstakes aka the 2018 NHL Draft Lottery. However, the Canadiens only went from 4th to 3rd.
The biggest Canadian loser was the Ottawa Senators, the team that entered the night with the 2nd pick but fell back to 4th, the worst possible pick for the Sens, assuming Buffalo did and got the top pick.
Ottawa could send the pick to Colorado in the Matt Duchene trade but should send the 2019 1st-round pick instead.
The biggest winner was Carolina, the team that went from 11th to 2nd, a team that should have been in Quebec City.
The artificial drama might have been good TV to the casual fan. I took my own advice and had a good time on Saturday and caught up the next morning.
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Chris Cuthbert, AJ Mleczko, Brian Boucher called Games 1 and 2 on NBCU. Cuthbert helped out a lot with anything Winnipeg related, a good thing since Boucher chased the yellow lights of Nashville. He did pour on praise for Hellebuyck, but still does very little homework on Canadian teams. Patrik Laine hardly came up in Game 1. They talked about Laine a bit more in Game 2 but still never mentioned being second in goals this season.
Mleczko brought solid analysis. She follows a little too close to Boucher at times deferring to his broadcast experience, not his expertise.
We were hoping for CBC feeds in the NHL Network rebroadcast matinees, but got the NBCU feed instead. That may be a second-round rule. The U.S. audience deserves a comparison. Even those rebroadcasts will be limited since the U.S. channel will carry the IIHF World Hockey Championship from Denmark. Look for a lot of TSN simulcasts.
2018 Stanley Cup notebook: Winnipeg Jets thrown off by Minnesota blizzard
2018 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs preview
Brian Burke just left his role as president of hockey operations for the Calgary Flames. So what is Burke going to do now? He'll be a studio analyst for Rogers Sportsnet. Burke is entertaining and straightforward so that should be fun for the Canadian TV audience.
CanadianCrossing.com NHL coverage
The NHL Network gave us a 2-hour CBC matinee rebroadcast for Game 7. That allows for more CBC promos, though as we've noted, the promos are wafer-thin.
There were only 4 promos in Game 7. The 3rd period promos might have been edited out but that is sadly doubtful.
2 of the 4 promos went to apps. The track and field is being streamed on May 4. The National being streamed on Facebook is relevant beyond Canada's borders since Americans can watch The National via Facebook.
Game 7: CBC news app; IAAF Diamond League track and field (1st); CBC TV app; CBC The National via Facebook (2nd)
Twitter capture: @canadian_xing
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