Updated
John Tavares is one special hockey player.
I admire him for his internal combustion blast furnace that produces late game fuel to power him to perform impressive feats of strength.
On Sunday night, Tavares singlehandedly sent the Florida Panthers home for the summer by scoring two of the biggest goals in Islanders history.
Tavares scored his second goal of the game midway through the second overtime period to give the Islanders a series-clinching 2-1 victory against the Florida Panthers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference First Round.
The last time the Islanders won a playoff series was 23 years ago when Tavares was knee high to a grass hopper.
The Islanders had lost their previous eight playoff series before Sunday's dramatic win over the Panthers.
I marvel at Tavares' tenacity and compete on his 2 OT GWG.
He never quits on a loose puck. His compete level is off the charts.
"You can't even really process it," Tavares told the team's website.
"I'm glad it went in because my leg starting cramping in that pile. I'm glad I didn't have to skate back down. It was obviously just amazing to look around and just see all the orange and blue. Just incredible."
The Islanders will play the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round.
The last time the Islanders and Lightning faced each other in the playoffs was in the 2004 Eastern Conference First Round. The Lightning won the series in five games on the way to winning their only Stanley Cup.
Bask in the after glow, JT. You are going to have your hands full versus Nikita Kucherov, Tyler Johnson, Alex Killorn and the Tampa Lightning in the next round battle.
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The Dallas Stars are moving on to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2008 after they hung on by the skin of the teeth to win a thrilling 5-4 verdict in Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon.
The Stars once held a 4-0 lead in the knockout game, however, the Wild kept their heads down, kept working and they never quit.
The Stars will play the winnner of the Chicago-St. Louis Game 7 that will be played on Monday night.
The Minnesota Wild were a serious underdog, and they played like it, heading into it's series with the Dallas Stars playing without captain Zach Parise and sniper Thomas Vanek.
In the end, the Wild never rolled over and played dead against Dallas' best veteran players in Jamie Benn (4G,6A), Jason Spezza (4G,5A), Patrick Sharp (3G,1A), and Patrick Eaves (2G,3A) who combined for 28 points in the six game series.
Benn, one of the most under rated players In the NHL, scored a goal and added two assists in the knockout game.
Benn is one of my favorite players in the NHL right now and I consider him to be one of the top 5 or 6 players in today's game. There is nothing that Benn cannot do at a high level on a consistent basis. He's a rock star. He scores at will. He skates with the intensity of a Texas twister. He has a marksman's dead eye shot. He hits, fights and can sauce like an Italian chef.
I feel like he should be admired by millions of more casual hockey fans than he is. Benn is so well respected and regarded by hockey insiders, media, and fans in his own state of Texas, however, he flies under the radar in most other non-traditional NHL markets.
Benn tied a Stars team record when by accumulating 10 points against the Wild in round one. Benn scored 4 goals and added 6 assists and he tied Sergei Zubov and Mike Modano for franchise high point total in a single playoff round.
What makes Benn's 10 point series against the Wild so incredible is that he accomplished the feat without his fell All Star line mate Tyler Seguin who returned from an Achilles tendon injury only to leave the series with another set back likely associated with his Achilles injury.
Benn was fabulous versus Minnesota. Having Seguin at his side will only make him more dangerous in the o-zone.
In Game 6, Spezza scored his fourth goal of the series and added three assists.
Kari Lehtonen made one more save than Devan Dubnyk, and that's all you can ask of your starting goalie. The oft criticized Lehtonen went 3-1 with 2.27 GAA and .911 save % with one shutout versus Minnesota.
Veteran Antii Niemi, a former Stanley Cup winner in Chicago, didn't fare as well as Lehtonen going 1-1 with a 3.36 GAA and .870 save % against the Wild.
I fully and completely expect Lindy Ruff to give Lehtonen the crease in Game 1 of the second round. That doesn't necessarily mean that Lehtonen will retain the job. Ruff is channeling the ghost of Mike Kenan by playing starting goalie on-shuffle in the playoffs. Ruff and his Stars will face dramatically more dangerous offensive team in Chicago and St. Louis in round two. Lehtonen was good against the Wild. He will have to be great against either the Hawks or Blues, or else it will be a lose and go home outcome in round two.
On Sunday, Jared Spuregon scored two of Minnesota's four third-period goals and the Wild came within a fraction of an inch of tying it with 34 seconds remaining when Nino Niederreiter played Whack-A-Mole with a loose puck in Lehtonen's crease.
Freeze-frame replays indicates that the puck crossed the goal line, however, not fully and completely across the goal line.
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The Minnesota Wild backed into the Western Conference playoff with only 87 points. That's the lowest point total to qualify for a playoff berth in the West in the past 10 seasons. The Wild lost five straight games and began the playoffs on a melancholy note.
Hardly the head space you want your team to be in to begin a war against the swashbuckling, high-scoring and high flying Dallas Stars.
That the Wild hugged, tugged, and held on for dear life to get the series to Game 6 is very impressive. The series could have been over in four or five games were it not for the gumption shown by the Wild.
Having said that, I fully expect Wild GM Chuck Fletcher to be fired after his team's most recent first round playoff failure. Fletcher's fingerprints are all over the wild. He has spent to the salary cap. He built this team. He handed out the monster contracts. One wonders: where is the return on investment? Zach Parise and Ryan Suter are on the books for $7.53M until 2025. Mikko captain is on the books for $6.75M for the next two seasons, Thomas Vanek is a $6.5M cap hit for one more season; Jason Pominville is a $5.6M AAV for the next three seasons; D-man Jonas Brodin is a $4.166M AAV until 2012 and Marco Scandella is a $4M AAV until 2020; Jared Spurgeon's new deal kicks in next season and he will earn $5,187,500 until 2020.
Fletcher hasn't been able to find the right chemistry of players that can slay Western dragons Chicago, LA, St. Louis, and Dallas. He's fooling himself if he thinks that his 2015-16 roster was good enough to win a round or two in the playoffs.
Fletcher has been living dangerously close to the edge of mediocrity for years as he continues to mortgage his future in an attempt win NOW. He has only 4 picks in the 2016 NHL Draft: 1st, 4th, 2-7ths.
Fletcher would be wise to have a heart to heart with his buddy and former co-worker Tim Murray, who is looking for a scoring winger to play alongside Jack Eichel and Samson Reinhart. Murray has the murrency to make a mutually beneficial trade to secure his top six sniper. Murray has 21 picks in the 2016 and 2017 NHL Drafts.
Charlie Coyle, a BU Terrier alum, could fetch Fletcher a fistful of assets from Buffalo in the form of a roster player (D, Mark Pysyk or F, Tyler Ennis), a second and a third rounder.
Why trade away a young star in the making in Coyle? To shake things up for the now and to secure building blocks for the future. Tim Murray has 12 picks in the 2016 NHL Draft and 9 nine the 2017 entry draft. Fletcher has 4 picks this season and 6 next season. Fletcher needs premium picks. He doesn't own a 2017 or 2017 second rounder. He doesn't have a third, fifth or sixth rounder this season.
Fletcher can take possession of premium picks now, however, that means trading a 21 goal scorer in Coyle to get the picks plus other valuable assets.
Coyle has scored 52 goals in the past 3.5 seasons. He is 6'3" and 225 lbs. He's only 24 years old. He checks every single box on Tim Murray's check list: Big, strong, fast, skilled, heavy, tough, and can vibe/create with Eichel.
Tim Murray is also working the corners hard in an attempt to land NCAA free agent Drake Caggiula. He will also be actively pursuing Harvard U. free agent Jimmy Vesey on August 15 when he becomes UFA.
Murray will also be big game hunting for Steven Stamkos on July 1.
Fletcher has depth in the AHL having drafted well in the past, however, those kids won't be in the Twin Cities for a couple of seasons.
The Wild are an aging, veteran team of multi-millionaires.
Fletcher is already at $64 million in cap expenditures for 2016-17 and he still has to do business with his RFAs Jason Zucker, Matt Dumba, and Jordan Schroeder. He has a few UFAs to make decisions on in David Jones, Chris Porter, Jared Stoll, Ryan Carter and Justin Fontaine.
Wild fans are going to get much of the same in 2016-17 as they got for their entertainment dollar in 2015-16. The Wild will win games, struggle to make the playoffs, make a trade at the deadline to get them over them get punted in round one.
Fletcher has to go now because he can't fire the head coach.
He already did that in February when he turfed his long time bench boss Mike Yeo. Interim man John Torchetti deserves to be named the permanent head coach for the magic that he performed for the Wild. He was tough but fair on his vets and youngsters. He demanded accountability and got it. He joke around and kept things light when he had to dissipate the pressure. He screamed and gave death stares very seldom.
Torchetti is too good a leader and communicator to be considered just an "interim" head coach. He's paid his dues and deserves a full time NHL job. I don't think the Wild will hire "Torch" because Fletcher will son be gone. The new GM will reserve the right to hire his own head coach. Perhaps the Ottawa Senators will give Torchetti an interview as they continue their search for Dave Cameron's replacement.
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If it hasn't been done so already, the name "Braden Holtby" should already be engraved in the 2015-16 Vezina Trophy.
Holtby went 48-9-7-3 with a .918 save % and 2.32 GAA this season, with 3 shutouts.
Holtby delivered a virtuoso body of work in six games in round one going 4-2 with a .084 GAA and .968 save %, with two shut outs.
WOW!
Holtby is the reason why the Washington Capitals disposed of the Philadelphia Flyers in their first round playoff series.
In Game 6 on Sunday, Holtby stood on his head again and earned his second shutout of the series.
Nik Backstrom scored the GWG.
The Caps won the best-of-7 series four games to two and will play the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round.
The Penguins trashed the NY Rangers in five games in their first-round series which concluded on Saturday afternoon.
Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin and Penguins captain Sidney Crosby will be the obvious, gratuitous headliners for round two, however, don't sleep on Holtby.
The Penguins beat the Capitals in seven games in the 2009 Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Washington and Pittsburgh will also meet in the playoffs for the ninth time since 1991. The Penguins have won seven of the prior eight series.
Holtby made 26 saves for his 20th career win in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, tying Olie Kolzig for most in Capitals history.
Props to Michal Neuvirth for without the Czech tender, the Flyers would have been knocked out in four straight games at the hands of Holtby and the Caps.
Neuvirth allowed only one goal imin 76 shots faced in Games 4 and 5, including a 44 save gem of a shutout.
Neuvirth had a .067 GAA and .981 save % in the brief me that he played in the playoffs.
Neuvirth went 18-8-2 in the regular season.
Neuvirth made 28 excellent saves in Game 6. Blame for the series loss cannot be foisted on Neuvirth. I'm pointing the finger at Flyers rookie head coach Dave Hakstol for remaining blindly loyal to Steve Mason after three straight losses Games 1-3. Hakstol should have pulled Mason in Game 2 and given the crease to Neuvirth sooner. Maybe next season, eh?
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