The Toronto Maple Leafs got further in the Stanley Cup Playoffs than they had in a generation. The Edmonton Oilers didn't get a far as they did last year.
Well before the Victoria Day weekend, the NHL season is over for the Canadian teams. The Winnipeg Jets did better than the other remaining Canadian teams in making the playoffs.
Calgary, which came closest to making the playoffs of any Canadian team that didn't make the playoffs, fired their head coach (Darryl Sutter) during the second round of the playoffs long after the general manager quit in part because of the coach. The search will likely led to a new general manager, followed by the hiring of a coach.
The only thing more certain than death and taxes is consternation about Canadian NHL teams: the ones that made the playoffs and the ones that didn't get so fortunate. We don't cover that part of hockey. We just roll up in October and see where that year's mess will lead.
Next month marks the 30th anniversary of the last Canadian NHL team to win the Stanley Cup: the 1993 Montréal Canadiens. Whenever Toronto was honouring a player from the team that last won the Stanley Cup, a very old man would make his way on the ice. This needs to happen more often in Canada. The Gary Bettman curse continues: new and Southern teams in the mix. Bettman couldn't be happier. Canada cries when that happens.
We talk about NHL players and how they can act, depending on the team where they play. Sam Bennett didn't come across as a dirty player with the Calgary Flames.
Then again, Bennett couldn't have gotten away with the behaviour he showed for Florida against Toronto as a member of the Flames. Bennett had a vicious cross check to neck of Michael Bunting. That only cost a fine, the price of being rough. Bennett grabbed Matthew Knies in a headlock, dragged him to the ice, and punched him in the back of the head. A referee saw the whole thing: no punishment on or off the ice.
Knies didn't return to the series. Here is to hoping the next NHL commissioner will change the "playoff hockey" mentality. If I had children, I would have them watch a less violent sport, like the CFL.
Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl, along with Joe Pavelski of Dallas, managed to score 4 goals in a Stanley Cup Playoffs game and have his team lose that game. Both did so in Game 1 of the series.
Ray Ferraro was the last player to score 4 goals in a playoff game his team lost.
Hockey style is to downplay individual efforts if the team did not win. Still this was impressive.
The idea of playing Boston in the second round seemed like a cruel fate for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Florida seemed like a better choice. Don't know if the results would have been too different.
The Florida Panthers initially limited playoff tickets to U.S. residents and then had trouble selling out their arena for a playoff game. There was speculation that the spacing of the games in that area had something to do with the Panthers not wanting to go up against the NBA Miami Heat.
The Gary Bettman NHL strategy isn't working. The Carolina-Florida draw might be good in NASCAR country but not in the hockey world.
NHL suspensions. Each of these defencemen got a 1-game suspension. Las Vegas defenceman Alex Pietrangelo got a 5-minute major penalty and a game misconduct for an aggressive slash on Edmonton's Leon Draisaitl in Game 4.
Edmonton defenceman Darnell Nurse instigated a fight with a willing participant in the last 5 minutes of the game. Nurse's suspension was automatic.
Pietrangelo made an deliberate attempt to injure. If the punishment isn't a deterrent, especially when really trying to hurt a player, then this [bleep] will just get going.
We would love to be surprised that the referees disallowed a Toronto Maple Leafs goal at a key point in Game 5. The inconsistencies are inconsistent and random.
Morgan Rielly appeared to score for Toronto late in the second period of Game 5, tucking the puck behind the right pad of the Florida goaltender. An angle showed the puck crossed the line. There apparently was a whistle but not one people could hear.
This does happen in the regular season but also never in favour of a Canadian team in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
This came through the first 3 games of Toronto's first second-round series after breaking the streak. This didn't help, especially when games were close.
Joseph Woll is a good goaltender, but when Woll is your backup in playoff time, your team is in bad shape. Woll had to replace Ilya Samsonov, who was injured in a collision with Leafs defenceman Luke Schenn, early in the second period in Game 3. Woll started Games 4 and 5.
We liked Paul Maurice when he was a coach of the Winnipeg Jets. The team felt like they were in good hands. Maurice decided abruptly to leave the Jets. He didn't think he was getting through to the team. Maurice found himself in Florida, the team in Florida that seemed invisible.
The talent has certainly changed for that team but their success follows because of Maurice's leadership. As a former Maple Leafs head coach, beating his former team has to feel good to him if not to us.
The Edmonton Oilers win our unofficial award for the Canadian NHL team that went the furthest in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Oilers won this award last year. Every Canadian team wants to win this award and the Stanley Cup. For now, this is the best reward.
We have no news or speculation about the status of the Toronto Maple Leafs radio crew. We know the passion for this radio team of Joe Bowen and Jim Ralph sounds louder than any other radio team in Canada. That could be a Toronto bias and we acknowledge that.
The NHL released a day for Game 2 of the Edmonton Oilers series. Then that day changed. The move led to a lot of fans having to change or cancel their plans to travel to Las Vegas.
We had known for some time that the U.S. TV outlet was unknown and that a Game 6 would be on Mothers Day. The time and network didn't kick in until Saturday morning for a late Sunday night game. Was curious if ESPN and TNT were fighting to carry the game or not carry the game.
Not sure how you grow a game when you only have a single game on Sunday and the game doesn't start until 10 pm Eastern.
The embarrassment of ESPN running a 9-1 baseball game while ESPN2 started the Game 6 coverage is one people should remember for years to come.
The NHL is a priority in Canada and not for U.S. television.
A team with a racist logo and a terrible history of covering up sexual assault will get the chance to draft Connor Bedard in the 2023 NHL draft. Montréal stays at #5 while Vancouver, Bedard's hometown team, is at #11. The Canucks were the furthest one could be and still move up to the top pick.
John Anderson of ESPN had a stupid, ignorant comment concerning Zach Whitecloud's last name. "It was a joke" is the boilerplate reply. These jokes weren't funny when your humble narrator was growing up and that was a long time ago. Grow up.
For years, we thought Eddie Olczyk would jump from the NBC or TNT to the front office. Turns out Keith Jones is the one, jumping from TNT to the Philadelphia Flyers to be the team's president of hockey operations.
TNT was a lot smarter to put Jones on the telecasts rather than studio work. We liked his work but we know this was a job you couldn't turn down.
Both TNT and the Flyers have analyst openings for the season in the fall.
We are also waiting on who will replace John Garrett on Vancouver Canucks local telecasts on Rogers Sportsnet Pacific. Garrett will still cover national games on Sportsnet and occasionally on CBC.
ESPN is required by contract to carry the NHL playoff games the network is supposed to carry, wherever they are. They aren't required to come to Canada during the regular season. Their credibility is questioned at playoff time since they have been afraid to come to Canada during the regular season. A game in Calgary in January 2023 (Johnny Gaudreau related). An added game in Edmonton, also in January 2023. That is it in 2 years of the contract.
If the ESPN people read these stories, we would love to have a sincere conversation on why ESPN is afraid to come to Canada. ESPN wasn't afraid to come to Canada for MLS in the before time or even a rare Toronto Blue Jays MLB game. You have TSN buddies in Canada. Ray Ferraro, Leah Hextall, and Cassie Campbell-Pascall live in Canada and work for ESPN.
We keep hearing speculation of turnover of rosters in Winnipeg and Toronto and perhaps a few other Canadian cities. Not to say this will work but some steadiness and faith would help Canadian NHL fans not feel as insecure, depending on playoff success. We all want playoff success but this pattern is not helping anyone.
Our notebook coverage hasn't been as extensive this spring. Life and the growing frustration of covering this sport is incredibly exhausting.
photo credit: NHL
Twitter captures: @john_wawrow; @tim_micallef; @LeafsJelly; @Tsanavi
