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The St. Louis Blues have lost goaltender Jordan Binnington for at least the remainder of the series as he collided with Nazem Kadri and teammate Calle Rosen on Saturday, injuring his knee.
The Blues were not at all happy with Kadri but the NHL determined that Kadri and Rosen were racing for the puck and it was a hockey play. There was no discipline handed out by the NHL and the blow will really hurt the Blues chances of advancing.
It is sad to know that Kadri received threats and racist attacks. The police were brought in and let’s hope that whoever is responsible for the slurs can be brought to justice as there is no place for this in hockey or for that matter, in life.
Samuel Girard suffered a broken sternum (wow!) and while he will not need surgery, his season is over.
The Toronto Maple Leafs signed hometown veteran Mark Giordano to a two-year/$1.6 million deal. Players love returning to their hometown Leafs to finish their career (Jason Spezza) and this move seems like a no-brainer for Toronto who get another established defenseman.
Don’t forget, for everything NHL, check out NBCSportsEdge Player News, and follow @NBCSEdge HK and @mfinewaxhockey on Twitter.
TAMPA BAY 5 FLORIDA 1 (Tampa Bay lead the best-of-seven series 3-0)
The Lightning took a commanding 3-0 lead in their best of seven series with a 5-1 win over Florida.
The Panthers, the best team in the NHL during the regular season, cannot seem to get things going against their cross-state rivals as they managed to beat Andrei Vasilevskiy in the Tampa Bay cage only once on 35 shots.
The Lightning got off to a 1-0 lead just 15 seconds after Sam Bennett’s penalty expired as Ryan McDonagh’s point shot was deflected into the net by Corey Perry. Perry has been gold for the Lightning, especially with his play in the playoffs as his off-season signing as a UFA was a stroke of genius by Lightning GM Julien BriseBois. Perry’s goal was his 13th game opening goal in the playoffs and he trails only Sidney Crosby (16) among active players.
The Panthers evened the score with a rare power play goal. While Florida scored 64 power play goals in the regular season which was third-best in the NHL, they were 0-25 heading into Sunday’s tilt in the playoffs. Sam Reinhart finally scored with the man-advantage to give Florida its only goal of the contest.
The Lightning scored the only two goals of the second period as Erik Cernak ripped a shot from the top of the circle and beat Sergei Bobrovsky into the top corner of the net. It was the defenseman’s first of the playoffs.
Steven Stamkos made it 3-1 Tampa Bay just past the halfway mark of the second period but it was the play of Nikita Kucherov who made it all possible. Kucherov made a gorgeous pass to find a wide open Stamkos at the face off dot and his one-timer easily beat Bobrovsky.
The Panthers were all-out the rest of the second and into the third but were unable to beat Vasilevskiy, who has starred since Game 6 against Toronto.
The Lightning scored a pair of empty net goals to clinch the game as Kucherov scored his fourth and Stamkos scored his second of the game and fourth of the playoffs.
Vasilevskiy turned aside 34 shots for the win. The Russian netminder is 7-3 in the post-season with a 2.44 GAA and a .922 save percentage.
Bobrovsky turned aside 31-of-34 shots in taking the loss. He is 4-5 with a 2.88 GAA and a .906 save percentage in the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Kucherov had three assists in addition to his goal. It was his 19th playoff contest with at least three points. He trails only Wayne Gretzky (59), Mark Messier (30), Jari Kurri (28), Denis Savard (21) and Jaromir Jagr (20) in most three-plus point games.
Kucherov, Aleksander Barkov and Maxim Mamin all had six shots on goal.
Barkov was a minus-four.
Kucherov, Stamkos and Ryan McDonagh were all plus-four.
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NEW YORK RANGERS 3 CAROLINA 1 (Carolina leads the best-of-seven series 2-1)
The Rangers are back in the series.
After dropping a pair of close games in Carolina, the Rangers returned to their friendly home confines of Madison Square Garden and in front of a raucous crowd, defeated the Hurricanes by a 3-1 score to cut Carolina’s lead in half as they are up 2-1 in the series.
Igor Shesterkin made 43 saves to lead the New York Rangers to their win. The netminder played like he did the first five months of the season when most considered him the easy Hart Trophy winner as the NHL’s MVP.
Shesterkin stymied the Hurricanes time after time and is 5-4 with a 2.94 GAA as his GAA is finally below 3.00. He has given up only seven goals in his last four games on 133 shots. He has a .921 save percentage.
The Rangers opened the scoring on Mika Zibanejad’s fourth goal of the playoffs. His shot off a beautiful cross-ice pass from the great Artemi Panarin, beat Antti Raanta on a one-timer, shortside.
It was the only goal of the first period and the Rangers doubled the lead 5:55 into the second when Chris Kreider skated backward from behind the Carolina net and wristed a laser past Raanta who was down on his knees, and into the top corner.
The Hurricanes made it a one goal game when Nino Niederreiter scored a rather weak goal as his backhander from the faceoff dot fooled Shesterkin and trickled into the net. It was his fourth of the playoffs.
There was no more scoring until Tyler Motte scored his first of the playoffs into the empty net with 1:23 remaining in the third.
Raanta stopped 30-of-32 shots in taking the loss. Raanta is 5-3 with a sizzling 1.86 GAA and a .939 save percentage.
Zibanejad set up Kreider’s goal in addition to his marker.
Adam Fox blocked five shots.
EDMONTON 4 CALGARY 1 (Edmonton leads the best-of-seven series 2-1)
If the battle of Florida has been a disappointment, the battle of Alberta has been great.
There have been plenty of goals with 15 in the first game (Calgary 9 Edmonton 6) and another eight in Game 2 (Edmonton 5 Calgary 3) and as the series moved north to Edmonton, there were no shortage of goals on Sunday.
After a scoreless opening period in which Jacob Markstrom was sensational as the Oilers outshot Calgary 21-6, Zach Hyman opened the scoring 52 seconds into the second on a feed from Connor McDavid as his pass to Leon Draisaitl quickly left his stick on its way to Hyman who sniped it past Markstrom.
Markstrom stopped 27-of-28 shots before Evander Kane scored a natural hat trick in six minutes. The three goals, all dekes on the Calgary goalie, were taken on the next three Edmonton shots and that was all she wrote in the Game although over 27 minutes still remained.
Kane has 10 goals to lead all players in the playoffs and his play (he had six shots on goal as well as a game-leading 10 hits) has been a huge boon to the Oilers.
Markstrom was pulled after two periods, after stopping 30-of-34 shots. He is 5-5 this season with a 2.65 GAA and a .912 save percentage. Dan Vladar mopped up in the third and turned aside all seven Edmonton shots.
The third period was marked by a bad hit behind the net, courtesy of Milan Lucic who smacked Mike Smith into the boards head-first. Lucic picked up five for charging and a game misconduct. The hit forced Smith to leave the game but he did return 4:15 later and gave up the lone Calgary goal.
That was scored by Oliver Kylington as the defenseman scored his first career NHL playoff goal.
Smith made 31 saves and is 6-3 with a 2.55 GAA and a .933 save percentage. Do not be surprised if NHL Player Safety want to talk to Lucic on Monday for his misdeed.
Hyman had seven shots on goal.
Trevor Lewis had six penalty minutes as well as six hits.
NIGHTLY LEADERS
Goals
Evander Kane – 3
Steven Stamkos – 2
Assists
Leon Draisaitl – 4
Connor McDavid – 3
Nikita Kucherov – 3
Shots on Goal
Zach Hyman – 7
Evander Kane – 6
Maxim Mamin – 6
Aleksander Barkov – 6
Nikita Kucherov – 6
Matthew Tkachuk – 6
Hits
Evander Kane – 10
Trevor Lewis – 6
Daniel Dube – 6
Anthony Cirelli – 5
Radko Gudas – 5
Penalty Minutes
Milan Lucic – 15
Trevor Lewis – 6
Brett Kulak – 4
