Jeff Golembiewski
Utter chaos is upon us people; it’s NBA and NHL playoff season. First, I would like to focus on the NHL… there’s really nothing to say except “Wow!” Both first-seeded teams in each division were knocked out in the first round. This is the first time all four wild card teams have advanced to the second round. In the East, the President’s Trophy-winning Tampa Bay Lightning were swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Carolina Hurricanes upset the defending Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals. In the West, the Calgary Flames were extinguished by the Colorado Avalanche, who have been led by a very hot Nathan Mackinnon. The other wild card team in the West that surprised a lot of people was the Dallas Stars. Their big, physical defense out-muscled the Nashville Predators offense and eventually shut them down completely.
The craziness doesn’t stop with these upsets but only gets more complicated. In the East, there were two series that were predicted to be very tight, gritty series’. The New York Islanders and the Pittsburgh Penguins series was a really low and inside curveball thrown to the high rollers in Las Vegas. The Islanders would go on to sweep the Penguins in four games and dominate them using a trap forecheck that the Penguins offense could not generate anything. Now, I might be a little biased considering I am a die-hard Penguins fan, but the series was very boring to watch. The Islanders scheme kept the game in the neutral zone and the outsides of their own defensive end, which made the games slow. But, I give a lot of props to NY’s coach Barry Trotz who was the mastermind behind the trap defense.
The other big series in the East that shook things up was not too much out of the realm of expectations. The Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins faced off in a very high tempo, high scoring seven games. The Boston Bruins really got under the skin of a young, skilled Toronto team led by a hot scorer Auston Matthews who made some noise against the “Big Bad Bears.” In game 7, Boston really performed when it mattered the most and they delivered for sure. The second round is under way and should be just as exciting as a historic first round.