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NHL Eastern Conference Final Preview: Lightning vs. Rangers – Sportsnet.ca

Published

2 years ago

June 1, 2022

In the spring of 2015, the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers went head-to-head in the Eastern Conference Final. The two teams, at the time, were in very different places – the Lightning were just emerging as Cup hopefuls with Jon Cooper at the helm, while the Rangers were desperate to keep their window open.

Seven years later, these clubs meet on the same stage once again. And, fittingly, they’ve taken two very different paths here. The Lightning arrive as back-to-back Stanley Cup champs, while the Rangers are emerging from a complete roster and front office overhaul since their last trip to this stage.

This year, the Rangers have bested Tampa in all three regular-season meetings, and are playing a particularly thrilling brand of hockey – their best games come when their backs are against the wall. The Lightning, meanwhile, coasted through Round 2 and have had plenty of time to rest… and we’re about to find out whether or not that’s a good thing.

As different as their paths to get here have been, these teams show plenty of similarities: We’re about to see a clash of two high-scoring offences whose arsenal of weapons is deep and includes some impressive special teams performances. But perhaps most importantly, we’re about to find out what happens when the Lightning match up against a goalie that could, potentially, be as good as their own.

Seven years ago, it was the Lightning who came out on top, sending the Rangers packing at Madison Square Garden in Game 7 and effectively shutting down that core’s last best chance of winning. What story will this series tell?

Here’s what you need to know about this Eastern Conference Final between Tampa Bay and New York.

HEAD TO HEAD RECORD

Lightning: 0-2-1

Rangers: 3-0-0

What we’ve learned about the Lightning

The back-to-back Stanley Cup champions are still hungry, and they’re proving once again they can defeat clubs in any fashion.

Against the Maple Leafs, offence was on full display before Andrei Vasilevskiy (almost completely) shut the door in Game 7. Against Florida, Vasilevskiy resembled a brick wall, the Lightning suffocating the Panthers’ once-potent offence.

Against the Rangers, who boast offence in spades and a goalie also capable of stealing games, they might need to implement both.

The team’s success through two rounds of play follows a similar template to that of the past two years, leaning on the elite offence led by Nikita Kucherov, a smart blue line with Victor Hedman at the helm, a hard-nosed group of depth scorers that can bring the skill when the top lines are tied up, and otherworldly goaltending from 2021 Conn Smythe winner Vasilevskiy. There are even parallels to be made in the obstacles they face — two years ago, the team had to play nearly the entire playoff run without captain Steven Stamkos. This year, it’s Brayden Point that’s missing time. Point missed the entire second round after suffering an injury in Game 7 against Toronto. It’s not yet clear whether Point will be made available at any time in this conference final, but it doesn’t feel optimistic.

Head coach Jon Cooper has said that overall, they’re a lot more banged up this year than in previous playoffs at this point in time. Easing the burden brought on by the bumps and bruises is the depth the team once again possesses. The presence of middle-six acquisitions like Brandon Hagel and Nick Paul, who have already dressed up and down the lineup alongside the likes of Ondrej Palat, Corey Perry, and Ross Colton has already proven to be worth the trade costs, and as the team’s depth continues to be tested they’re likely to continue coming up big just as the club’s previous third-line trio of Yanni Groude, Barclay Goodrow, and Blake Coleman did before.

The biggest question here isn’t really about the lineup or style of play – it’s the age-old debate of rest versus rust – something which, in the team’s first two Cup runs, they haven’t dealt with.

So swift was their defeat of the Panthers, they’ve found themselves with more than a week off between series considering the Rangers needed a full seven games to best the Hurricanes.

“It’s a little different, actually. We’ve had a pretty good run here over the past almost decade and unfortunately I’ve been on the side of the sweep — the bad end — a couple of times, but never on the good end. So, this has been a little different for us,” Cooper said during an appearance on The Jeff Marek Show last week.

“I don’t know if I love having this huge break, just because yes, you get the kind of physical aspect of it to kind of try to heal up as much as you can, but as much as that there’s this mental aspect that you worry about and the edge and being in the fight and all those things that, naturally, you just lose when you have this much time off,” he continued.

We’re about to get our answers.

What we’ve learned about the Rangers

Forward Chris Kreider is better known for his goal-scoring than his post-game soundbites, but he summed up the Rangers’ post-season efforts perfectly following New York’s Game 7 victory against the Carolina Hurricanes Monday night:

“We don’t go away.”

It’s true, they don’t. They didn’t go away against the Pittsburgh Penguins, who had them on the brink of elimination for three straight games in Round 1; and they didn’t against the Hurricanes, who had them right where they wanted them – at home! – in Round 2’s Game 7, delivering Carolina their first home loss of the playoffs. In two rounds, New York played five elimination games, including two Games 7, and pulled out the victory each time thanks to clutch performances throughout the lineup.

Leading the way on offence in these must-win games is Mika Zibanejad, who’s scored four goals and tallied 11 points in five elimination and series-clinching contests, and Kreider, who has twice put up multi-goal games in these matchups, including two to seal the deal Monday night against the Hurricanes. On defence, it’s Adam Fox leading the way – he’s been sensational all post-season, but is at his best in the toughest situations, tallying 10 points in five brink games. Fox leads all defencemen in goals (five) and points (13) through two rounds and is also leading all NHL peers (with eight or more NHL games to their names) in average ice time, with 26:48 a night.

Of course, we can’t talk about clutch without singing the praises of Igor Shesterkin. Shesterkin was shaky at times in Round 1 against Pittsburgh – and boy, did the fans there let him know it – but it’s become very clear since that he’s back in his comfort zone. That his comfort zone seems to be high-danger situations, with 30-plus pucks flying at him each night, is music to the Rangers’ ears. Shesterkin, who is far and away the favourite to claim the Vezina Trophy this year thanks to his regular-season heroics, has stepped up for New York in the biggest situations. The young netminder has faced 100 more shots than the next busiest netminder (Mike Smith, with 411 this post-season so far) and yet has posted the second-best save percentage among goalies that have seen action in two rounds (.928).

The goalie currently setting the pace just so happens to be the man he’s about to face across the ice, in Vasilevskiy. (More on this goalie matchup later.)

ADVANCED STATS

Playoff 5-on-5 numbers via Natural Stat Trick

PLAYOFF TEAM STATS

Lightning X-Factor: Andrei Vasilevskiy

Vasilevskiy, once again, is in playoff mode. After struggling at times in Round 1 against the Maple Leafs, the Lightning netminder has returned to his Vezina-worthy, Conn Smythe-calibre self, letting in just four goals in his past five games starting with Game 7 against the Maple Leafs. He held the Panthers to just three goals, total – one per game in the first three matchups of Round 2 – before completely shutting them out in the fourth.

The Rangers have had to conquer some impressive goaltending performances, but have yet to fix their efforts on a de facto No. 1 – injuries urged the Penguins to rotate their crease and turn to third-stringer Louis Domingue, while similar concerns saw Carolina bring in rookie Pyotr Kochetkov at times, with Antti Raanta taking over the crease without regular-season starter Frederik Andersen.

New York rose to each challenge, solving every netminder eventually, but none have the proven playoff track record of Vasilevskiy.

Rangers X-Factor: Igor Shesterkin

So, how do you solve Vasilevskiy? It’s possible that you can’t – maybe the only way to defeat him is to match him save-for-save, and the only goalie potentially capable of that is Shesterkin.

Perhaps it’s a bit too obvious to point to goaltending as the top storyline in this series, but it’s not often we get a matchup as elite as this one. If you were to hand-pick a goaltending matchup for a high-stakes playoff series, it would be this, featuring last year’s Conn Smythe winner in Tampa Bay and this year’s favourite for the Vezina – and a Conn Smythe contender himself – in New York.

Igor Shesterkin becomes the 3rd goalie in #NYR history with multiple Game 7 wins:

Henrik Lundqvist – 6-2
Mike Richter – 2-0
Igor Shesterkin – 2-0 pic.twitter.com/5mY45KdRZY

— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) May 31, 2022

Shesterkin was incredible over the course of the regular season, and the biggest reason the club made it into the post-season. Though he struggled in the first round, he’s found his stride and is playing with the kind of swagger that’s made for Broadway. The busier he is, and the higher the stakes, the better he plays – he stood on his head in five elimination games already this season, and against Carolina in Round 2 he really found his stride. He posted a combined .949 save percentage on 78 shots in Games 6 and 7 to propel New York into the ECF.

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NHL roundup: Hurricanes beat Flyers 6-4 for seventh straight win

Published

3 hours ago

November 6, 2024

Anne Joseph

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Martin Necas scored a go-ahead goal with 29 seconds left and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-4 on Tuesday night.

It was the seventh straight win for the Hurricanes, who also got goals from Jack Roslovic, Jordan Martinook, Eric Robinson and Jackson Blake. Seth Jarvis added an empty-net goal in the final seconds.

Necas typically saves his game-winners for overtime, with nine in his career, but he was able to take care of business in regulation with his team-best seventh goal of the season.

Travis Konecny scored two goals and had two assists for the Flyers. Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett also scored for Philadelphia.

Aleksei Kolosov made 28 saves for the Flyers, who trailed 2-1, 3-1 and 4-3 but kept coming back. Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetkov struggled in net allowing four goals on just 16 shots.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Tuesday:

—

SABRES 5 SENATORS 1

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Bowen Byram and Tage Thompson scored 16 seconds apart to open the third period, and Buffalo snapped a three-game skid with a win over Ottawa.

Byram scored twice, JJ Peterka had two goals and an assist and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 37 saves.

Ridly Greig converted his own rebound in cutting Buffalo’s lead to 2-1 with 7:31 left in the second period. Linus Ullmark made 29 saves in dropping to 1-4 in his past five starts.

Buffalo went up 3-1 on Byram’s second goal 21 seconds into the third period. The defenceman’s shot from inside the blue line sneaked through Ullmark, with the puck rolling down the goalie’s pad, dropping into the crease and trickling across the line. Thompson scored when he crashed the net, was knocked over by defender Jake Sanderson and was lying in the crease when Alex Tuch’s shot went in off his shoulder.

—

MAPLE LEAFS 4 BRUINS 0

TORONTO (AP) — Anthony Stolarz made 29 saves for his first shutout of the season in Toronto’s 4-0 victory over Boston.

Morgan Rielly had a goal and two assists as Toronto connected three times on the power play. William Nylander and Matthew Knies added a goal and an assist each. Mitch Marner had two assists of his own. Steven Lorentz rounded out the scoring into the empty net.

The Leafs played without captain Auston Matthews, who is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Jeremy Swayman made 23 stops for Boston, which was coming off consecutive weekend shutouts of the Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken.

Toronto’s porous 31st-ranked power play scored for the second time in as many games at 8:44 of the second period when Rielly fired through a screen. Nylander banked in his team-leading 10th goal of the season on another man advantage 1:14 later for a 2-0 lead.

The Bruins entered the game 8-0-0 in the regular season against their Atlantic Division rival dating back to Jan. 14, 2023.

—

FLAMES 3 CANADIENS 2 (OT)

MONTREAL (AP) — Matt Coronato scored twice as Calgary came back to defeat Montreal in overtime.

Coronato tied the game with 2:46 remaining in regulation when he cruised into the slot and went off the post and in. He then buried the winning goal seven seconds into the extra period.

Connor Zary also scored for Calgary, which won its second game in seven outings. Dustin Wolf stopped 21 shots.

Joel Armia — with a short-handed goal — and Brendan Gallagher scored for Montreal (4-7-2). Armia also provided an assist, while Sam Montembeault made 32 saves as the Canadiens’ losing streak extended to four games.

Zary opened the scoring with his third 4:20 into the second period when he pounced on a loose puck in the slot and fired a shot past Montembeault.

Gallagher then slipped the puck between Wolf’s pads at 16:23 to level the score with his fifth of the season.

—

BLUES 3 LIGHTNING 2

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jordan Kyrou, Alexey Toropchenko and Oskar Sundqvist scored to help St. Louis beat Tampa Bay 3-2.

Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington made 21 saves for his 149th career win moving him past Jake Allen for second place in franchise history, just two wins behind Mike Liut’s 151.

Nick Perbix and Victor Hedman scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for the Lightning who have lost three straight games.

Kyrou scored his fourth goal of the season 8:51 into the third period to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead.

Toropchenko scored his first goal of the season with 1:35 remaining in the second period to put St. Louis ahead 2-1 after Sundqvist tied the game with his first of the season 7:47 into the period.

—

ISLANDERS 4 PENGUINS 3 (SO)

NEW YORK (AP) — Bo Horvat scored the only goal in a shootout and New York rallied past Pittsburgh 4-3.

New York goalie Ilya Sorokin denied Rickard Rakell, Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang in the shootout and finished with 32 saves. Kyle Palmieri had a goal and an assist for the Islanders, who trailed 3-1 midway through the third period.

Simon Holmstrom and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored in the third for New York. Horvat had two assists.

Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist to lead Pittsburgh. Crosby got his 598th career goal, and Michael Bunting also scored. Rakell added two assists.

Alex Nedeljkovich stopped 23 shots for the Penguins, who have lost seven of nine. They won their previous two following a six-game skid.

—

KINGS 5 WILD 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Trevor Lewis scored twice, Kevin Fiala added another on the power play and Los Angeles beat Minnesota 5-1.

Warren Foegele and Quinton Byfield also scored for Los Angeles, which was playing the second night of a back-to-back after a 3-0 win in Nashville a night earlier. David Rittich made 23 saves for the Kings.

Fiala, who was traded to Los Angeles in 2022 by Minnesota for a first-round pick draft pick and defenceman Brock Faber, scored his seventh goal of the season. He now has three goals and six assists in his last seven games against the Wild.

Minnesota, which had won three in a row, opened the scoring in the second period on Zach Bogosian’s first goal of the season. Goaltender Filip Gustavsson stopped 23 shots for the Wild.

—

JETS 3 UTAH 0

WINNIPEG, Man. (AP) — Nino Niederreiter scored twice in his 900th NHL career game and Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves to help Winnipeg defeat Utah 3-0.

It was Hellebuyck’s second shutout of the season and 39th of this career.

Gabriel Vilardi also scored for the Jets. Adam Lowry assisted on both goals by Niederreiter.

Utah ended a run of picking up points in three consecutive games (1-0-2).

Karel Vejmelka stopped 25 shots for Utah in its second stop on a four-game road trip.

Jets winger Kyle Connor had his franchise-record, season-opening points streak end at 12 games.

—

AVALANCHE 6 KRAKEN 3

DENVER (AP) — Arturri Lehkonen scored the go-ahead goal on a power play in his season debut and Nathan MacKinnon had five assists as Colorado beat Seattle 6-3.

Mikko Rantanen added two goals for the Avalanche, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Ivan Ivan, Nikolai Kovalenko and Chris Wagner also scored for Colorado.

Cale Makar had two assists but the star defenceman barely played in the second half of the game and appeared to be slowed by an apparent injury during a brief shift.

MacKinnon and Makar extended their season-opening point streaks to 13 games.

Lehkonen played for the first time since off-season shoulder surgery.

Jared McCann, Jaden Schwartz and Brandon Montour scored for the Kraken.

—

CANUCKS 5 DUCKS 1

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Brock Boeser, Danton Heinen and Kiefer Sherwood had a goal and an assist apiece, and Quinn Hughes recorded his 300th career assist in Vancouver’s victory over Anaheim.

Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson also scored and Hughes had three assists for the Canucks, who have won six of eight. Kevin Lankinen made 21 saves in Vancouver’s sixth consecutive win over the Ducks.

Olen Zellweger scored a power-play goal early in the first period for Anaheim, which has lost seven of nine. Lukas Dostal stopped 31 shots.

Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko took shots from teammates again after the morning skate, and he could return to practice this week. The Southern California native and 2023-24 Vezina Trophy finalist hasn’t played this season due to a knee injury incurred late last season.

—

SHARKS 2 BLUE JACKETS 1 (OT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Alex Wennberg scored 3:11 into overtime and San Jose celebrated the return of No. 1 overall draft pick Macklin Celebrini with a win over Columbus.

Defenceman Jack Thompson scored his first career goal for the Sharks (4-8-2), who entered the night with the worst record in the NHL. San Jose has won four of five.

Celebrini, the top pick in the 2024 NHL draft, missed 12 games with a hip injury he sustained in the season opener Oct. 10 — an injury first incurred during the pre-season. Celebrini didn’t score and missed a shot early in overtime.

San Jose goalie Vitek Vanacek was fantastic in net, making 49 saves.

Blue Jackets right wing Kirill Marchenko scored for the second consecutive game. Columbus (5-6-1) has lost three straight.

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Canada’s Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Routliffe pick up second win at WTA Finals

Published

1 day ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.

The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.

The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.

Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.

Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.

The final is scheduled for Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.

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Allen nets shutout as Devils burn Oilers 3-0

Published

2 days ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.

Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.

The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.

Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.

TAKEAWAYS

Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.

Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.

KEY MOMENT

New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.

KEY RETURN?

Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.

OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN

The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.

The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.

UP NEXT

Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

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