The teams with the two best records in each conference are facing one another in the second round of the playoffs because, for no good reason, two years ago the NHL abandoned the re-seeding that made its tournament the most equitable in pro sports.
Integrity of the competition was deemed secondary to marketing concerns. The re-seed was dropped so the NHL could promote some silly “bracket” contest on its website and network, as if the Stanley Cup playoffs could somehow piggyback off March Madness.
That is why the Capitals and Penguins are meeting in one Eastern semifinal while the Islanders, fifth-best in the conference, and the Lightning, sixth, face off in the other. That is why the Stars and the Blues are playing in one Western semi while the Sharks, sixth, and Predators, seventh, are meeting in the other.
That is why two of the league’s top four regular-season teams will be eliminated in the second round of the playoffs.
It is such a good idea, Wimbledon is going to seed the tournament so that Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer are lined up to meet in the round of 64 this June.
It is, in fact, as good a concept as the “Let the boys decide it” approach to officiating that apparently is again codified as league policy.
A referee who doesn’t want to decide the game by very definition is, in fact, deciding it. Everyone would agree on that.
Beyond that, why not allow the boys to decide it all the time? Why have referees on the ice at all? Especially if they’re not going to call Matt Martin for tripping the unfortunate Vincent Trochek or Tom Wilson for kneeing Conor Sheary or Kris Letang for going Paul Bunyon on Viktor Stalberg’s mouth?
This just in: Bobby Clarke says they should have let the boys decide it when the Islanders won Game 1 of the 1980 Cup finals in Philadelphia on Denis Potvin’s power-play goal in overtime.
Pavel Buchnevich, his KHL contract having just expired, is now free and clear to sign with the Rangers.
But there is work to be done, namely convincing the 21-year-old winger — who opted to stay in Russia last year at least partially because he wasn’t confident he could make the Rangers and thus avoid an assignment to AHL Hartford — that now is the time for him to come to North America and New York, where there is a top-six spot on the ice and a stall in the locker room waiting for him.
The Blueshirts badly are in need of a talent injection. They must restructure their defense, obviously, but they also require a difference-making forward with top-end skill. Two would be even better going forward.
Though it is to no one’s benefit to put too much pressure and too many expectations too soon on this 2013 third-rounder (75th overall on the selection acquired from Columbus in the Rick Nash deal), the Rangers are counting on Buchnevich to develop into an impact player.
Antti RaantaBill KostrounGump Worsley was 35 when he won his first Cup in Montreal in 1965 before claiming three more in the next four years. Johnny Bower was 37 when he won his first of three straight with Toronto in 1962. Dominik Hasek was 37 when he won his first with Detroit in 2002.
Chris Osgood was 35 when he won his first (as a No. 1) in Detroit in 2008. Terry Sawchuk was 37 when he won his fourth and last with Toronto in 1967. Patrick Roy was 35 when he won his fourth and last with Colorado in 2001. Turk Broda was 36 when he won his fifth and last with Toronto in 1951.
And Tim Thomas was 37 when he won his only Cup with the Bruins in 2011, which makes him the oldest goaltender ever to win his first with his original team and to cap a year in which he also won the Vezina and Conn Smythe — which made him two years older than Henrik Lundqvist will be next spring.
The window may have closed on the group of Rangers, but it is not closed on Lundqvist, who carried his team nearly all year but finally broke and did not play up to his standards against Pittsburgh.
Lundqvist started 64 games, including 20-of-21 from mid-December into the second week of February, with Antti Raanta sidelined with a concussion for the first four of those contests. For whatever reason, perhaps with Lundqvist’s input, coach Alain Vigneault went with the King back-to-back in the final week of the season even after the team had clinched a playoff spot.
But starting next year, the Rangers will be obligated to reduce Lundqvist’s workload from this season’s 64 starts to the 55-58 start neighborhood. They only can expect so much for so long from the team’s franchise player. And as such, it is imperative the Blueshirts have an understudy they can trust with upward of 25 starts.
Raanta clearly played well enough to be entrusted with that assignment. It is going to take a meaningful upgrade on Raanta’s cap charge of $750,000, but it is on general manager Jeff Gorton to sign the pending unrestricted free agent before he gets to the July 1 open market.
Or else it will cost just as much to get a back-up perhaps as dependable and as good a fit as the one they already have.
Alexander Radulov coming back to the NHL next year to possibly reunite with Barry Trotz? Now I’ve heard everything.
What’s next? Sean Avery coming out of retirement to sign with Columbus?
