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McDavid, Draisaitl give Oilers edge in rivalry once dominated by Sedins

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EDMONTON — It’s like déjà vu for anyone who has watched this Edmonton-Vancouver rivalry over the past 15 years or so.

Remember Rexall Place, circa 2006 to about 2014?

The Vancouver Canucks would roll into Edmonton and throw their ‘B’ game out on the best ice in the league. Daniel and Henrik Sedin would score a couple on the powerplay, Roberto Luongo would hold on to the game until his team arrived — often about 40 minutes late — and Vancouver would leave Edmonton with two points on the strength of a 20-minute effort.

Well, the Oilers have the Sedins now, and their names are Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

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Edmonton fell behind 2-0 in the opening 2:40 of the game, and 3-0 after 21 minutes. Then, they proceeded to score five unanswered goals in a 5-3, season-opening win over the poor Canucks, a team that deserved better than it got Wednesday night in Northern Alberta.

“It wasn’t according to anyone’s script, for sure,” said Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft. “I don’t think we were sharp. I don’t think we were in sync early. We found a way to win the game, that’s a really good sign, but we can be better.”

McDavid (a hat trick and four points) and Draisaitl (1-2-3) torched the Canucks for seven points, and just like the old days when the Sedins’ powerplay was always a goal or two better than Edmonton’s, the Oilers won this on the strength of their special teams with a three-for-four powerplay, and a penalty kill unit that went seven for eight and potted a key shorthanded goal.

“It is not going to be perfect every night,” reasoned McDavid. “You are not going to have the game you want every night, and sometimes you get a win with your ‘B’ or ‘C’ game. It was certainly not our ‘A’ game to start, but we found a way to get our legs going and get ourselves back in it.”

We get it: It’s the first game of the season and there are some kinks to be worked out. But man, were the Oilers awful at five-on-five for the opening 40 minutes.

Honestly, the defence corps broke the puck out of their zone like a guy handing out candy on Halloween, with more pucks landing in Vancouver’s treat bags than on an Oilers teammate’s blade. The mistakes were so egregious, and came so often, that the Canucks were rewarded both on the scoreboard and by the referees, with Edmonton in desperation to defend their mistakes.

After 40 minutes, Vancouver led 28-15, and had seven powerplays to Edmonton’s two.

But the score? It was somehow 3-3, after a late-period sequence that saw J.T. Miller whiff on a one-time chance on the powerplay, before Darnell Nurse wired home a very similar puck at the other end to tie the game with 41 seconds remaining in the period.

It was goalie Jack Campbell who stopped two breakaways with the score at 3-1, worth remarking on in a game where Edmonton scored five straight from the 24-minute mark on. The Canucks had plenty of Grade A chances in the final 36 minutes and did not dent the twine.

“I was pretty fired up and they got two quick ones — two goals I’d like to have back,” Campbell said. “It just shows the resiliency in our team. They’re a good team over there. It’s not an easy league to come back when you’re down that early.”

Out in British Columbia, you could hear the gnashing of teeth as the best player in the world ran roughshod over a Canucks team that was the better club, five-on-five. It’s like the Gretzky years again — Edmonton has a cheat code, and with Draisaitl playing the part of Mark Messier, it’s once again Edmonton’s turn to dominate this rivalry after the Sedin-led Canucks had their time in the early 2000’s.

Edmonton went 4-0 versus the Canucks last season, and beat Vancouver on Opening Night of the 2021-22 season as well.

It was McDavid’s 11th career hat trick, while the four-point night gave him 701 points in just his 488th game. It’s a milestone that will slip past with little attention, despite the company such a career-scoring pace keeps.

McDavid is only the seventh player in NHL history — and the sixth fastest — to achieve the feat in less than 500 games, joining a who’s who list that includes Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Peter Stastny, Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy and Sidney Crosby.

Just another milestone chalked up against a game but understaffed Canucks team, a group that should have been able to put this one away, leading 3-0 early in Period 2.

“It was just not a good start for our group, but I don’t think there was anything to that,” reasoned the Oilers captain. “It was the first game and maybe there was a little bit of jitters. Sometimes you have got to get in a real (game) to get your legs back under you.

“It maybe took us a little bit of time but we found a way to get it done.”

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Utah NHL owner Smith says season ticket deposits now top 20,000 – TSN

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Owner Ryan Smith told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun Friday that Utah’s NHL team has received just over 20,000 season-ticket deposits.

The news comes less than 24 hours after the NHL’s Board of Governors unanimously approved sale of the Arizona Coyotes from Alex Meruelo to Smith and subsequent relocation to Salt Lake City for the 2024-25 season.

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Just got off the phone after doing an interview with Utah NHL owner Ryan Smith and he said the updated total is now at just over 20,000 season-ticket deposits.

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun)
April 19, 2024“>

The team is expected play out of the Delta Center in the city’s downtown core, the home of the Utah Jazz, which currently has about 12,000 unobstructed seats for hockey. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said Thursday Smith and his ownership group will raise the seating capacity to about 17,000 after renovations. 

“As everyone knows, Utah is a vibrant and thriving state, and we are thrilled to be a part of it,” Bettman said in a statement. “We are also delighted to welcome Ashley and Ryan Smith to the NHL family and know they will be great stewards of the game in Utah. We thank them for working so collaboratively with the League to resolve a complex situation in this unprecedented and beneficial way.

“The NHL’s belief in Arizona has never wavered. We thank Alex Meruelo for his commitment to the franchise and Arizona, and we fully support his ongoing efforts to secure a new home in the desert for the Coyotes. We also want to acknowledge the loyal hockey fans of Arizona, who have supported their team with dedication for nearly three decades while growing the game.”

The move ends years of uncertainty surrounding the Coyotes franchise and wraps up a nearly three-decade existence of mostly poor on-ice results and chronic mismanagement over the course of multiple owners.

Utah’s team will not carry over the Coyotes moniker and will instead develop a new brand identity. LeBrun reported on Thursday’s edition of Insider Trading the franchise may take until beyond the start of next season to pick a team name and Smith has hired a firm to look into branding for the NHL’s newest franchise.

The Coyotes finished the 2023-24 campaign 36-41-5, missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the fourth time in a row and 11th time in the past 12 seasons. 

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Marchand says Maple Leafs are Bruins’ ‘biggest rival’ ahead of 1st-round series – NHL.com

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BOSTON – Forget Boston Bruins-Montreal Canadiens. 

For Brad Marchand, right now, it’s all about Bruins-Toronto Maple Leafs. 

“You see the excitement they have all throughout Canada when they’re in playoffs,” Marchand said Thursday. “Makes it a lot of fun to play them. And I think, just with the history we’ve had with them recently, they’re probably our biggest rival right now over the last decade. 

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“They’ve probably surpassed Montreal and any other team with kind of where our rivalry’s gone, just because we’ve both been so competitive with each other, and we’ve had a few playoff series. It definitely brings the emotion, the intensity, up in the games and the excitement for the fans. 

“It’s a lot of fun to play them.”

The Bruins and Maple Leafs will renew their rivalry in their first round series, which starts Saturday at TD Garden (8 p.m. ET; TBS, truTV, MAX, SN, CBC, TVAS). They’ll be familiar opponents. 

Over the past 11 seasons, the Bruins have faced the Maple Leafs four times in the postseason, starting with the epic 2013 matchup in the first round. That resulted in an all-time instant classic, the Game 7 in which the Bruins were down 4-1 in the third period and came roaring back for an overtime win that helped propel them to the Stanely Cup Final. 

That would prove to be the model and, in the intervening years, the Bruins have beaten them in each of the three subsequent series, including going to a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference First Round in 2018 and 2019. 

Which could easily be where this series is going. 

“Offensively they’re a gifted hockey club,” Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said Thursday. “They present a lot of challenges down around the netfront area. We’re going to have to be really sharp there. We’re a pretty good team defensively when we stick to what our principles are. So I expect it to be a tight series overall.”

But if anyone knows the Maple Leafs — and what to expect — it’s Marchand. In his career, he’s played 146 games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, 11th most of any active player. Twenty-one of those games have come against the Maple Leafs, games in which Marchand has 21 points (seven goals, 14 assists).

“They’re always extremely competitive,” Marchand said. “You never know which way the series is going to go. But that’s what you want. That’s what you love about hockey is the competition aspect. They’re real competitors over there, especially the way they’re built right now. So it’s going to be a lot of fun, and that’s what playoffs is about. It’s about the best teams going head-to-head.”

But even though the history favors the Bruins — including having won each of the past six playoff matchups, dating back to the NHL’s expansion era in 1967-68 and each of the four regular-season games in 2023-24 — Marchand is throwing that out the window.

“That means nothing,” he said. 

The Maple Leafs bring the No. 2 offense in the NHL into their series, having scored 3.63 goals per game. They were led by Auston Matthews and his 69 goals this season, a new record for him and for the franchise. 

“You have to be hard on a guy like that and limit his time and space with the puck,” forward Charlie Coyle said. “He’s really good at getting in position to receive the puck and he’s got linemates who can put it right on his tape for him. You’ve just got to know where he is, especially in our D zone. He likes to loop away after cycling it and kind of find that sweet spot coming down Broadway there in the middle. It’s not just a one-person job.”

Nor is Matthews their only threat. 

“They have a lot of great players, skill players, who play hard and can be very dangerous around the net and create scoring opportunities,” forward Charlie Coyle said. “You’ve just got to be aware of who’s out there and who you’re against, who you’re matched up against, and play hard. Also, too, we’ve got to focus on our game and what we do well and when we do that, we trust each other and have that belief in each other, we’re a pretty good hockey team.”

Especially against the Maple Leafs. 

Marchand, who grew up in Halifax loving the Maple Leafs, still gets a thrill to see their alumni walking around Scotiabank Arena in the playoffs. And it’s even more special to be on the ice with them, to be competing against them — even more so when the Bruins keep winning. 

But that certainly doesn’t mean this series will be easy. 

“They’ll be a [heck] of a challenge,” Marchand said.

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NHL sets Round 1 schedule for 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Daily Faceoff

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The chase for Lord Stanley’s silver chalice will begin on Saturday.

After what could be described as the most exciting season in NHL history that saw heartbreaks and last-ditch efforts to clinch playoff spots, players and staff now get ready as 16 teams go to battle.

We saw the Vancouver Canucks have a massive year and finish first in the Pacific Division with captain Quinn Hughes leading all defensemen in points. The Winnipeg Jets set a franchise record for most points. The Nashville Predators went on a franchise-record winning streak in order to lock themselves into a Wild Card spot, and the Washington Capitals clinched the last Wild Card spot in the East after a wild finish that saw the Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers see their playoff hopes crumble in front of them.

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While Auston Matthews missed out on scoring 70 goals, Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid and Tampa Bay Lightning standout Nikita Kucherov became the first players since 1990-91 to record 100 assists in a single season. They joined Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Bobby Orr as the only players to do so.

With the bracket set, it’s time to expect the unexpected. 

Here is the schedule for Round 1 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs:

Eastern Conference

#A1 Florida Panthers vs. #WC1 Tampa Bay Lightning

Date Game Time
Sunday, April 21 1. Tampa at Florida 12:30 p.m. ET
Tuesday, April 23 2. Tampa at Florida 7:30 p.m. ET
Thursday, April 25 3. Florida at Tampa 7 p.m. ET
Saturday, April 27 4. Florida at Tampa 5 p.m. ET
Monday, April 29 5. Tampa at Florida TBD
Wednesday, May 1 6. Florida at Tampa TBD
Saturday, May 4 7. Tampa at Florida TBD

#A2 Boston Bruins vs. #A3 Toronto Maple Leafs

Date Game Time
Saturday, April 20 1. Toronto at Boston 8 p.m. ET
Monday, April 22 2. Toronto at Boston 7 p.m. ET
Wednesday, April 24 3. Boston at Toronto 7 p.m. ET
Saturday, April 27 4. Boston at Toronto 8 p.m. ET
Tuesday, April 30 5. Toronto at Boston TBD
Thursday, May 2 6. Boston at Toronto TBD
Saturday, May 4 7. Toronto at Boston TBD

#M1 New York Rangers vs. #WC2 Washington Capitals

Date Game Time
Sunday, April 21 1. Washington at New York 3 p.m. ET
Tuesday, April 23 2. Washington at New York 7 p.m. ET
Friday, April 26 2. New York at Washington 7 p.m. ET
Sunday, April 28 2. New York at Washington 8 p.m. ET
Wednesday, May 1 2. Washington at New York TBD
Friday, May 3 2. New York at Washington TBD
Sunday, May 5 2. Washington at New York TBD

#M2 Carolina Hurricanes vs. #M3 New York Islanders

Date Game Time
Saturday, April 20 1. New York at Carolina 5 p.m. ET
Monday, April 22 2. New York at Carolina 7:30 p.m. ET
Thursday, April 25 3. Carolina at New York 7:30 p.m. ET
Saturday, April 27 4. Carolina at New York 2 p.m. ET
Tuesday, April 30 5. New York at Carolina TBD
Thursday, May 2 6. Carolina at New York TBD
Saturday, May 4 7. New York at Carolina TBD

Western Conference

#C1 Dallas Stars  vs. #WC2 Vegas Golden Knights

Date Game Time
Monday, April 22 1. Vegas at Dallas 9:30 p.m. ET
Wednesday, April 24 2. Vegas at Dallas 9:30 p.m. ET
Saturday, April 27 3. Dallas at Vegas 10:30 p.m. ET
Monday, April 29 4. Dallas at Vegas TBD
Wednesday, May 1 5. Vegas at Dallas TBD
Friday, May 3 6. Dallas at Vegas TBD
Sunday, May 5 7. Vegas at Dallas TBD

#C2 Winnipeg Jets vs. #C3 Colorado Avalanche

Date Game Time
Sunday, April 21 1. Colorado at Winnipeg 7 p.m. ET
Tuesday, April 23 2. Colorado at Winnipeg 9:30 p.m. ET
Friday, April 26 3. Winnipeg at Colorado 10 p.m. ET
Sunday, April 28 4. Winnipeg at Colorado 2:30 p.m. ET
Tuesday, April 30 5. Colorado at Winnipeg TBD
Thursday, May 2 6. Winnipeg at Colorado TBD
Saturday, May 4 7. Colorado at Winnipeg TBD

#P1 Vancouver Canucks vs. #WC1 Nashville Predators

Date Game Time
Sunday, April 21 1. Nashville at Vancouver 10 p.m. ET
Tuesday, April 23 2. Nashville at Vancouver 10 p.m. ET
Friday, April 26 3. Vancouver at Nashville 7:30 p.m. ET
Sunday, April 28 4. Vancouver at Nashville 5 p.m. ET
Tuesday, April 30 5. Nashville at Vancouver TBD
Friday, May 3 6. Vancouver at Nashville TBD
Sunday, May 5 7. Nashville at Vancouver TBD

#P2 Edmonton Oilers vs. #P3 Los Angeles Kings

Date Game Time
Monday, April 22 1. Los Angeles at Edmonton 10 p.m. ET
Wednesday, April 24 2. Los Angeles at Edmonton 10 p.m. ET
Friday, April 26 3. Edmonton at Los Angeles 10:30 p.m. ET
Sunday, April 28 4. Edmonton at Los Angeles 10:30 p.m. ET
Wednesday, May 1 5. Los Angeles at Edmonton TBD
Friday, May 3 6. Edmonton at Los Angeles TBD
Sunday, May 5 7. Los Angeles at Edmonton TBD

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