Well, that was a fun weekend. It’s that time of the year when hockey fans can spend their mornings taking in the warm outdoor weather, followed by some afternoon grilling, and then cap off the night watching playoff hockey. Unfortunately, from an entertainment standpoint, the second round wrapped up with an anticlimactic 6-1 win for the Florida Panthers over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
In this column, we’ll explore the following five observations:1
- The Maple Leafs fail again, starting with the core struggles.
- The Dallas Stars prove how much depth matters.
- The Edmonton Oilers and Stars meet again but things are different this time around.
- Five coaches hired, four spots are still open.
- Quick Hits: AHL Updates
Let’s start with the most important team in the NHL, the (self-proclaimed) center of the hockey universe. The Maple Leafs.
Maple Leafs Come Up Short: It Starts With The Core
Taking a step back and looking at Auston Matthews, he’s always a great scorer in the season. Then in the playoffs, he disappears. The theme this season was that he, along with the rest of the team, would pivot. The Maple Leafs would win by playing two-way hockey, and it started with the core.
Matthews wanted to be Aleksander Barkov for this playoff run, a Selke Trophy caliber center who could take over games on both ends of the ice. It worked against the Ottawa Senators in the First Round and for the first two games against the Panthers. The problem is the Maple Leafs didn’t need him to be Barkov to beat the Panthers. They needed him to be McDavid.
The Maple Leafs needed that star who could take over games on the offensive end. A player who could allow them to beat the Panthers at their own game. It’s possible that Matthews was battling an injury that limited his skill offensively. However, aside from the goal in Game 6, he was a non-factor on offense. It allowed the Panthers to steamroll the Maple Leafs without much of a response.
Specific to the Maple Leafs and their core, consider the case of Mitch Marner. For all his talent, he’s saddled with the underachiever label. He is a great regular-season player. He’s not a playoff player. He gets pushed around and taken out of games against physical teams, and that’s what happened against the Panthers.
Marner heads to free agency, and someone will pay him a ton of money. However, teams hoping to win the Cup must keep his style of play in mind. He’s good but won’t lead a team to the Cup.
The Maple Leafs head into the offseason with a lot of uncertainty. For the first time in the Core Four era, this team might pivot away from the Core Four. They will lose either Marner or John Tavares (or both) in free agency. A team that’s built on four forwards will be built on something else.
Yet, the Maple Leafs, for as bleak as things seem now, have some things to build on. Matthews and William Nylander are the two forwards who will lead the offense. Additionally, Matthew Knies is starting to look like a regular in the top six. Then there’s the defense looking great with Chris Tanev, Jake McCabe, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson leading the way.
The big picture question the Maple Leafs must answer is how they will have a roster that can beat the Panthers. Right now, they have a good team but not a great one that can go on a run. They’ll inevitably face the Panthers, and it’s why they must find a way to construct a team that can beat them.
Stars Prove How Much Depth Matters
The Stars against the Winnipeg Jets series began with Mikko Rantanen picking up where he left off. He was the one carrying the Stars as he scored a hat trick to lead them to a 4-2 Game 7 win over the Colorado Avalanche, and he scored a hat trick in the 3-2 Game 1 win over the Jets. With nine goals and 10 assists, Rantanen is the best player in this playoff run.
By the time the series ended, Rantanen wasn’t a contributor. He had only one assist in the final three games and never found the back of the net. Instead, the depth skaters carried the Stars.
Mikael Granlund had a hat trick in Game 4. Sam Steel had a goal and three assists in the series while scoring a game-tying goal in Game 6. Thomas Harley, who is one of the elite talents on the defense, stepped up on the offensive end of the ice with two goals, four assists, and the game-winner in overtime of Game 6 to clinch the series.
It says a lot about how the Stars are built, with general manager (GM) Jim Nill doing another masterclass job of constructing a super team. The Stars don’t rely on one elite talent and have a few skaters capable of taking over games. Harley is one of those players, and so are Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston, two forwards who didn’t do much in the series but didn’t need to with the rest of the team stepping up. Along with the top-end talent is the depth, which delivers when needed as well.
The Stars are a team built to get over the hump. This is their third trip to the Western Conference Final in a row, and the last two times, they came up short. Maybe this season is the one they do it and make it to the Final.
Oilers-Stars: The Same Yet Different
This is a rematch of last year’s Western Conference Final matchup, and diving deeper, the two teams have made it to this round in three of the last four seasons. They are both model franchises for the conference. The Stars hope a third time’s a charm, as this is the third year in a row, yet they finally hope to get to the Cup Final. The Oilers, meanwhile, are hoping to go back-to-back and not only appear in the Final but win it this time.
This matchup is similar to last season’s, or at least it seems that way, but it’s different. The Stars and Oilers will give us a unique series.
The notable change is Rantanen. The Stars have a skater who can take over games and a series. Rantanen is the type of skater who will not only score but beat teams in multiple ways. The Oilers must stop him, and it makes this series a big one for Leon Draisaitl, who can step up on the defensive end of the ice.
The Oilers are different in their own right as they have different depth skaters leading the way. Mattias Ekholm is out on the defense, so Brett Kulak, John Klingberg, and Jake Walman have stepped up in his absence. Trent Frederic and Evander Kane are healthy and contributing to the forward unit. In the net, Stuart Skinner is the starter, yet Kris Knoblauch has no issues pulling him and going to Calvin Pickard, as the First Round showed.
All in all, expect a great series. It’s one that can easily go the distance and provide a memorable finish, with so many elite players, it’s hard to keep track of.
4 Up, 4 Down: Head Coaching Carousel Still in Motion
This week saw a few teams make coaching hires to pick up the pace on the offseason merry-go-round. The four hires from the previous week can be put into three categories. The best possible hire, the mixed bag, and the red flag.
The New York Rangers’ hiring Mike Sullivan made too much sense. He was the best coach available and a proven winner at the NHL level (he has two Cups to his name). The Rangers weren’t letting anyone else hire him. This team is in a tough spot but Sullivan will be there for a while, and it will pay off in the long run.
The Philadelphia Flyers’ bringing in Rick Tocchet offers some hope to a fanbase that can use some. He makes teams competitive and will take the rebuilding Flyers up a notch. However, the concerns are how things end in every stop, and that he was hired in the first place because he played for the team back in the day.
The Joel Quenneville hire can be seen as a red flag, and that’s the initial thought. Here’s the thing. He’s a great coach, and players love playing for him. Even with a rebuilding team like the Anaheim Ducks, he’ll move the needle to make them a playoff team. The problem is he must earn the trust of his players, and considering the scandal with the Chicago Blackhawks, it’s not a given.
The Vancouver Canucks hiring Adam Foote is a red flag. Not because Foote isn’t going to be a great coach (he probably will be). It’s a concern about the process this team took. They did a quick coaching search and hired from within. It’s a sign that they weren’t going to hire the desired coach on the market and established coaches are starting to avoid the Canucks and the toxic environment attached to the team.
So, now there are only four availabilities: the Pittsburgh Penguins, Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, and Seattle Kraken.
All four teams are in different spots, and at the same time, they’ll all look for the same type of coach. They’ll want someone who can make a young team competitive. Washington Capitals assistant Mitch Love, former Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft, and Hershey Bears coach Todd Nelson make sense with this in mind.
Meanwhile, Mike Sullivan is now in New York after Peter Laviolette and the Rangers crashed and burned this season.
None of these teams are in good spots right now. As Lou Holtz once told a colleague asked to coach a terrible team, “Of course they’re not very good, if they were, they wouldn’t be hiring you!”
Quick Hits: Calder Cup Check-In
- The Charlotte Checkers took a 2-0 series lead against the Hershey Bears with back-to-back wins on their home ice. Both wins came by one goal but they don’t ask how this time of year. All that matters is that the defending Calder Cup champs are on the brink.
- The Texas Stars split their first two games, and it keeps a rare double title in play. They can win the Calder Cup, and the NHL Stars can win the Stanley Cup. The last time the same franchise won both Cups in the same year was 1995. The New Jersey Devils won the Stanley Cup and the Albany River Rats won the AHL championship. Oddly enough, Lou Lamoriello always had a reputation for running AHL teams into the ground.
- YouTube presented a free broadcast of Game One of the Rochester Americans series against the Laval Rocket series. For many fans, it was the first time they could experience the Don Stevens and Andrew Mossbrooks broadcast duo. The dynamic is like listening to your grandpa talk hockey with your older brother. It’s a great connection: a venerable legend and a young rising star in the industry. The series itself shaping up to be iconic, too. The teams split the first two games.
- Arturs Silovs had a 22-save shutout in Game 1, showing the Vancouver Canucks that they have a great goaltender in Abbotsford, their AHL team. Then he allowed four goals on 20 shots in Game 2. So, you win some and you lose some. As for Colorado, Game Two reminded us that the Eagles have one of the best offenses in the game. Colorado put up five goals.
