The sluggish first and the fighting after the game was over pissed me off, but otherwise a solid start to the playoffs. Avs look decent and will probably take at least one game from us--they're a very different team than they were a few months ago.
My favorite Leafs reporter Kristen says she anticipates at least two games. What a way to start a series. Good lord. ETA that I was pretty furious last night but feel better about it in the morning. Naz says he was going after a hit because Wingels elbowed Mitchy in the face, but Wingels was sliding down and he didn't mean to get him like that. I don't know - Naz has an issue with emotion sometimes, and it's kind of irrelevant at this point - it's up to Player Safety now. I thought Babs was going to light them up for this but his post-game seemed very reasonable. He did talk about discipline but his takeaway was basically get better on the PK, take fewer penalties, and figure out that top line.
Yeah the fact that he'd been a dirtbag already that night, that he'd already hit Wingels pretty damn hard just a few minutes earlier, and that the hit occurred immediately after the Bruins went up 4-1 all pretty much invalidate Kadri's argument
Interested to see if Ryan Johansen's hit on Tyson Barrie last night gets a look from the DoPS. I'm going to guess not, but you never know with this league.
It was, but I think Barrie also sold it a tad. He went full helicopter legs on it. I could see that one going either way, but I think given the high stakes of the playoffs, they won't look at it.
Another dumb scheduling note. Two games at 3:00 tomorrow, then a game at 8:00 and 10:30. Why wouldn't you push one of those 3:00 games to 5:30 and have hockey all day.
I'm 100% convinced that nbc is just making this season a living hell for nhl for not going to the Olympics.
He's never been the same after having the hip surgery. Guy has played the game very hard for many years.