Between the action here at the World Championships and the excellent NHL playoffs unfolding at home, it feels like I've got hockey to watch 24/7—which can make it hard to find time to sleep!
I managed to stay up last night to watch Alex Burrows and the Ottawa Senators advance to the Eastern Conference Final with their 3-2 win over the New York Rangers—with a start time of 1:30 a.m. here in Paris.
Honestly, I think it's a win for the Rangers to have made it to the end of the second round this season. After losing veteran defensemen Keith Yandle and Dan Boyle at the end of last season, Alain Vigneault did a good job of integrating Brady Skjei and Nick Holden into his lineup—working within some tight salary-cap restrictions. The Rangers have turned over a huge chunk of their lineup since AV took over at the beginning of the 2013-14 season.
Now with 328 games under his belt with the Rangers, Vigneault is currently the NHL's fourth longest-tenured coach. He's behind Joel Quenneville in Chicago (700 games), Dave Tippett in Arizona (602 games) and Jon Cooper in Tampa Bay (344 games).
If AV makes it all the way through the 2017-18 campaign, he'll move up six places on the Rangers' all-time list, passing Colin Campbell, Roger Neilson, Herb Brooks, Phil Watson, John Tortorella and Tom Renney to become the fourth longest-tenured Rangers coach of all time.
As for Burrows, he has no goals and four assists in Ottawa's 12 playoff games so far, but he's averaging 15:13 per game—pretty solid for a 36-year-old—and leads his team with 18 penalty minutes thanks to a slashing minor and 10-minute misconduct he received near the end of Ottawa's 4-1 loss to New York in Game 4.
The Sens didn't go quietly as the Rangers evened the series at 2-2. Then they came back to win the next two games and advance. Maybe that little bout of "setting the tone" paid off?
Burrows also earned the primary assist on Kyle Turris' overtime game-winner in Game 5 as the middleman that converts the behind-the-net feed from Erik Karlsson. Talk about a great first pass!
The Sens will play the winner of tonight's Game 7 between Pittsburgh and Washington—and I'm gonna try to stay up for this as well. Former Canuck Nick Bonino has been quieter so far in these playoffs than he was last year as part of the fabled HBK line, but he scored the winner in Game 1 against Washington.
Does he have another Bonino-Bonino-Bonino moment in store tonight? Or will Mr. Game 7 do what he was brought in to do and finally get Washington over the hump—past the second round for the first time since 1998?
Justin Williams in Game 7s 7 goals, 7 assists, 7 wins
Over in the West, we've got Ryan Kesler and Kevin Bieksa against Zack Kassian tonight, for a chance to play against Yannick Weber and the Nashville Predators in the Western Conference Final.
Bieksa has been out of the Anaheim lineup since the first game of the series against Edmonton and is not expected to play tonight. Kesler leads the Ducks with 26 minutes in penalties (do I detect a pattern here?) and is 1-5-6 through 10 games. His faceoff percentage is a solid 53.6 percent and he's averaging a steady 20:58 per game, but Ryan Getzlaf is the Ducks centre that has sparked the team's successes in the second round.
As for Yannick Weber—who'd have thought he'd be part of the NHL's stingiest defense corps so far in these playoffs? Weber and Matt Irwin make up Nashville's third pair and they don't play much thanks to the dominance of the Preds' big four of Josi, Ekholm, Subban and Ellis—only about 11 minutes a game. Weber's pointless, but he's a plus-two, helping to eat up minutes when the big guns need a rest.
Nashville goes into the Western Conference Final with a league-best GAA of just 1.40 goals per game. Of the teams that are still alive, they're tied with Washington for the fewest shots allowed, averaging 28.8 shots against per game.
That lengthy preamble sets up this juicy bit of Canucks content. Hi, Jordan Subban!
Subban says he is going to Nashville to watch his brother play in the Western Conference Final.
Being a part of his brother's playoff run could turn out to be an excellent source of inspiration and information for Subban, who will be looking to break through to the NHL level as he plays out the last year of his entry-level contract in 2017-18.
After working together for the last two years in Utica, Subban and new Canucks coach Travis Green know each other well.
Subban on Travis Green getting job in VAN : "I wasn't surprised, he's a great coach and I was excited for him." #Canucks
I know it's early days, but I'm going to predict that Subban has a good summer of training and gets a long look from the Canucks at training camp this year.
Another player who could be in the mix next season is winger Joseph Cramarossa, who was picked up by the Canucks on waivers on March 1.
The 24-year-old only got into 10 games in Vancouver before suffering a hairline fracture in his foot which ended his season.
Cramarossa told Rick Dhaliwal that he's healed now and looking forward to making a bigger contribution next year.
Cramarossa : "I bring a hard nosed working game that every team needs. Guy in the bottom 6 that goes full out every shift." #Canucks
Cramarossa was on a one-year contract that paid him $724,500 last season. As a restricted free agent, it's expected that the Canucks will be giving him a qualifying offer in order to retain his rights.
Another winger who ended the year on the injured list was Anton Rodin, who got into just three regular-season games before it was determined back in January that he needed a second surgery on his injured knee.
Rodin : 'I think I'll be 100 pretty soon, rehab has been going well so I'm very optimistic.". #Canucks
Meanwhile, here in Paris, it has been a busy couple of days.
Nathan MacKinnon continues to shine and the Kid Line of Mitch Marner, Brayden Point and Bo Horvat's cousin Travis Konecny is catching peoples' attention as Team Canada continues to roll. Their latest win was a 6-0 drubbing of Belarus on Monday, which I summed up in this game story:
On Tuesday, IIHF president Rene Fasel joined members of the World Championship organizing committee at a press conference here in Paris, where he continued to keep a tiny flame of hope flickering that we might see NHL players at the Olympics next February.
Fasel refuses to shut the door completely, so I'll keep hoping that some kind of last-minute agreement might still be reached.
The Canadians got back on the ice for practice today ahead of their next game Thursday against surprising France. After their upset win over Finland last Sunday, the French pulled out a 4-3 victory over Switzerland on Tuesday night. They're currently sitting in fourth place in Group B, with a chance to play in the medal round, and they have a reputation for playing spoiler against Canada.
"I feel like every time we play them—my first year, we lost to France at this tournament in Minsk," Nathan MacKinnon reminded me. "Every year it's a one or two-goal game against these guys, so it's gonna be tough."
I'm looking forward to seeing what the French fans bring to the table just as much as watching how the French team competes against a Canadian group that's coming together and growing more confident every day.
The sun has come out for the last two days and there's a positive vibe around the city now that the presidential election has been decided in favour of Emmanuel Macron.
I'm already one week into my trip—getting comfortable finding my way around Paris and trying to make the most of the opportunity to spend so much quality time in such a legendary city!
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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