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Good morning to everybody besides linesmen who gained’t simply drop the puck already. James Mirtle normally handles Thursday morning publication duties, however he was busy protecting final evening’s Leafs recreation. So that you’ve bought Sean McIndoe once more, which implies the publication will likely be just about the identical, simply shorter and extra good-looking.
Whereas You Had been Sleeping
Mikko Rantanen wasn’t sleeping. Mikko Rantanen by no means sleeps.
(Cameron Bartlett / Getty Photos)
Stars take the opener
In fight sports activities, it’s conventional {that a} combat card will begin with the much less spectacular matchups and construct towards the large one — the principle occasion. Spherical 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs apparently borrowed that idea, permitting all of the collection to get a recreation or two in earlier than lastly unveiling the one all of us wish to see.
And for essentially the most half, the Stars and Jets lived as much as their billing. It was yet one more Mikko Rantanen present, featuring another hat trick from the league’s hottest participant. The ultimate was 3-2, though that rating most likely flattered a Jets workforce that was chasing the sport for many of the evening. The excellent news for Winnipeg is that Connor Hellebuyck was high quality — not nice, essentially, however ok that we are able to put the narrative about him collapsing in the postseason on maintain for another recreation.
(Mark Blinch / NHLI through Getty Photos)
Leafs up 2-0 … once more?
For the second straight collection, the Maple Leafs have gained the primary two at residence to take a 2-0 collection lead, this time over defending champ Florida. As CJ points out, it’s the primary time they’ve achieved that twice in the identical postseason since 1963. They gained the Cup that yr, however let’s not get forward of ourselves, particularly since the Panthers aren’t worried. For now, we’ll merely point out that six wins in the identical postseason means that is already essentially the most profitable postseason Toronto has had within the Auston Matthews period. Can a stat be spectacular and unhappy on the similar time? Apparently so.
The story of this one was the goaltending battle. The Leafs’ younger backup Joseph Woll, pressed into motion after Anthony Stolarz was sidelined by The Incident, wasn’t incredible however was ok. In the meantime, Sergei Bobrovsky hasn’t appeared sharp in any respect, which both means the Panthers are screwed or he’s getting a 43-save shutout tomorrow that you’ll blame on me.
Additionally, whereas it actually didn’t determine the sport: Good lord, this name final evening needed to be one of many worst calls in current reminiscence.
Evan Rodrigues heads to the dressing room following a success from Scott Laughton
Rodrigues acquired a two-minute for embellishment whereas Laughton acquired a four-minute for roughing pic.twitter.com/dwUajG7dkG
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 8, 2025
That was a penalty … on Evan Rodrigues, the man getting drilled into the boards. He bought two minutes for embellishment. Yeah, I hate it when guys embellish having their spines telescoped on hits from behind.
- 💡Trivia time 💡 On final evening’s broadcast, Sportsnet talked about that Brad Marchand’s two assists in Recreation 1 gave him 10 multipoint playoff video games towards the Leafs. I puzzled if that was the document, so I appeared it up — it’s really second all time, trailing solely Gordie Howe’s 15. However are you able to identify the one participant in NHL historical past to have 5 multipoint video games towards the Leafs in the identical playoff collection? Trace: You completely can’t.Scroll to the top for the reply. (Significantly, it’s considered one of my favourite gamers ever, however I by no means would have guessed this one.)
Coast to Coast
🚨 Oh proper, the non-playoff groups. In Pierre LeBrun’s newest Rumblings column, he has updates on the various coach and GM vacancies around the league. A lot of Isles discuss.
🏒 Ever wished to alter the NHL rulebook? Head over to Guidelines Courtroom, the function the place you ship in your strategies and we vote on them. This time round, readers wished our tackle one-way offsides, free-range faceoffs, a first-round do-over for the highest seed and much extra. Discover out which new guidelines got the stamp of approval.
🥅 Did you just like the draft lottery’s new stay format? I assumed it labored effectively. Now that we all know the official order, Scott Wheeler has an updated mock draft. And I’m simply making an attempt to make you sad.
🔥 Dom has a 16 Stats column that covers all the postseason’s biggest stars, like Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog, Aleksander Barkov and … Cam Fowler?
Mammoth Information 🦣
Lastly, the NHL’s latest workforce has an actual identify, and the Utah Hockey Membership is again to simply being the Utah hockey membership. Yesterday, they made it official: Going ahead, the membership is the Utah Mammoth. We additionally bought a have a look at the brand new brand and uniforms. Chris Johnston has all the details here.
The fellas are loving the brand new threads 🪡🦣 pic.twitter.com/stKW1UJ5nM
— Utah Mammoth (@utahhockeyclub) May 7, 2025
My on the spot analysis:
Professional: Wooly mammoths are cool and at all times have been.
Con: Singular names for sports activities groups have been cool, like, 20 years in the past.
Professional: Brand is fairly neat with some enjoyable particulars, just like the define of Utah on the again of the mammoth’s head.
Con: Brand is approach too difficult to move the Pencil Case Test.
Professional: They’re protecting final yr’s colours, that means followers who purchased an authentic jersey can nonetheless put on it with out trying misplaced.
Con: Away jerseys that simply say “Utah” on the entrance are form of plain.
Professional: “Tusks Up”? Actually, it form of works.
Con: They apparently anticipate us to say “rock black” and “salt white” as a substitute of simply black and white, which we is not going to.
Professional: This.
Con: I believe we are able to all agree that Utah Yeti would have been cooler.
Professional: Nonetheless roughly 1,000 p.c higher than Utah Wasatch.
However that’s simply my opinion. Now we wish to hear from you. Use this link to fill out our quick survey in regards to the new identify, and we’ll publish the leads to the following publication.
What to Watch
📺 Hurricanes @ Capitals
7 p.m. ET on ESPN / Sportsnet
Can a 2-1 time beyond regulation recreation be thought of a blowout? No, however it may be a supply of great concern for the shedding workforce. On this case, the Capitals almost stole Recreation 1 regardless of the Hurricanes’ domination. Key phrase: Almost. Now Washington trails the collection 1-0 and wishes a win tonight — or a minimum of to point out it could actually deal with being in the identical rink as the suddenly terrifying Hurricanes.
📺 Oilers @ Golden Knights
9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN / Sportsnet
The Oilers are up 1-0 and have a possibility to take a commanding lead again to Edmonton. We all know that they will rating, and we all know that depth manufacturing comes and goes. The most important query continues to be whether or not the Oilers’ goaltending is nice sufficient — Mark Lazerus thinks it might be. In the meantime, the Knights solely misplaced consecutive video games at residence twice all yr, in order that they gained’t make this straightforward on Connor McDavid and mates.
Full NHL schedule here. Attempt streaming video games like these without spending a dime on Fubo.
Your Trivia Reply
(Bruce Bennett / Getty Photos)
Oh, have been you going to attempt to cease him?
Six gamers have had 4 multipoint video games towards the Leafs in the identical playoff collection, together with Corridor of Famers Adam Oates and Doug Gilmour, plus Bruins star David Pastrnak. However just one participant has achieved it 5 occasions: legendary Purple Wings robust man Bob Probert, who had two factors in five straight games against Toronto in 1988.
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(High picture of Mikko Rantanen: Terrence Lee / Imagn Photos)
