As basketball aficionados in Toronto look forward to the Raptors and Brooklyn Nets tussle in the deciding game of their first round series, hockey fans have to be content with watching four entertaining series in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Nothing can make the sting of last season’s Game 7 loss to Boston go away for Leafs fans, but the Montreal Canadiens 5-3 defeat at TD Gardens on Saturday provided a bit of schadenfreude.
The Habs won Game 1 on Thursday in double overtime on PK Subban’s goal and led 3-1 halfway through the third period on the strength of a pair of Thomas Vanek power play tallies, but the Bruins rallied with four goals in the final nine minutes on Olympic gold medalist Carey Price to even the series at 1.
While the prospect of rooting for the team that eliminated Toronto almost one year ago may be unpalatable, it is more acceptable than watching the Canadiens continue on the road to possibly adding their 25th Championship.
The thought that all hockey fans in Canada would unite behind one team once all the others have been eliminated is a complete fallacy. If Montreal advances to the Stanley Cup Final, there will not be cheering in the bars of Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg from patrons wearing Bleu, Blanc Et Rouge, just as hardly anyone got behind the Vancouver Carburners in 2011.
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The trade of Jaroslav Halak from Washington to the NY Islanders is odd, because it occurred in the midst of the playoffs and involved a team that did not have a general manager. The Islanders were never able to recover from an early season injury to goalie Evgeni Nabokov.
The 38-year-old Nabobov is an unrestricted free agent and may return for another year on Long Island, but Snow may have interest in bringing another experienced goalie to pair with Halak, which could be one potential landing spot for Leafs goalie James Reimer.
Rumors this past week have pointed towards coach Randy Carlyle returning next season and if that is the case, one of the easiest moves to predict is the trading of Reimer, who lost his job to Jonathan Bernier in mid-December and struggled down the stretch when Bernier suffered a sports hernia injury.
Other possibilities for Reimer are Calgary, Winnipeg and Vancouver. The Flames goaltending situation is light on experience with Finns Karri Ramo and Joni Ortio and Team President Brian Burke knows Reimer well from his stint in Toronto. The Jets might use one of their compliance buyouts on the struggling Ondrej Pavelec, who has three more years at nearly $4 Million and backup Al Montoya is a UFA, while the Canucks need to recover from the netminding exodus of Cory Schnieder and Roberto Luongo and have just young Eddie Lack to rely on.
The Halak deal also establishes the price point that the Leafs will get for their former starter. The positives are that Morweena, MB native is only 26, does not qualify for unrestricted free agency for three seasons and could be a potential bargain, but that interested club would have to be confident that they could fix the holes in Reimer’s game.
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