NHL
Day 2 of the NHL playoffs took place Sunday with three more Game 1s.
In the day’s opening action, the Carolina Hurricanes beat the New Jersey Devils 4-1 to take a 1-0 series lead. Carolina was propelled by Logan Stankoven, who scored two goals. Game 2 is at 6 p.m. ET Tuesday in Raleigh, N.C.
Later, the Toronto Maple Leafs took down the Ottawa Senators 6-2. Mitch Marner led the way for the Leafs with a goal and two assists, while John Tavares and William Nylander each had a goal and an assist. Goalie Anthony Stolarz had 31 saves as the Maple Leafs took a 1-0 series lead. Game 2 is at 7:30 p.m. ET Tuesday in Toronto.
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In the Sunday nightcap, the Vegas Golden Knights — the pick favored to win Game 1 by all of The Athletic’s experts — toppled the Minnesota Wild. Brett Howen scored twice, while Tomas Hertl scored once and had an assist. Vegas will look to extend its series lead when it hosts Game 2 at 11 p.m. ET Tuesday.
Carolina’s depth edge
The Jack Hughes injury has a trickle-down effect. The Devils’ top forward being out forces depth players to take on bigger roles. Pair that with the offseason addition Tomáš Tatar not even making the Game 1 lineup, and New Jersey’s bottom six is vulnerable against a team such as Carolina. The first period showed as much.
Jack Roslovic, centering Carolina’s fourth line, won an offensive-zone draw to start the first scoring sequence. Eric Robinson moved the puck to Jalen Chatfield, who beat Jacob Markström with a snap shot through traffic. The goal came against the Devils’ third line of Paul Cotter, Cody Glass and Daniel Sprong. That trio got trounced when on the ice together, finishing with 3.91 percent of the five-on-five expected goal share in just under five minutes, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The Hurricanes’ Robinson-Roslovic-William Carrier line created another chance early in the second period, with Robinson nearly scoring on a breakaway. That line had 67.48 percent of the expected goal share in the game, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Rod Brind’Amour doesn’t like to number his lines, but Stankoven — a key return in the Mikko Rantanen trade — has essentially played a third-line role. He’s with Jordan Martinook and captain Jordan Staal, who make up a potent defensive group that can also be opportunistic offensively. Martinook grabbed a puck from Nico Hischier behind the net in the second period and fed Stankoven in the slot for his first goal. Stankoven scored again on the power play. — Peter Baugh
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New Jersey pushes late but fails to finish
In the third period, Devils coach Sheldon Keefe split up star forwards Hischier and Jesper Bratt, who combined for a four-on-four goal late in the second period. The results were much better, as New Jersey was more dangerous. Hischier and Timo Meier both had good chances to pull the Devils within two goals but couldn’t beat Frederik Andersen.
The Devils finished the game with Ondrej Palat and Meier flanking Hischier, and Bratt with Dawson Mercer and Erik Haula. Keefe could consider going back to those lines in Game 2. — Baugh
Leafs special teams doom Senators
Total Maple Leafs power-play goals through seven playoff games last year: one. Total Leafs power-play goals through two periods against the Senators in Game 1: two.
For all the concern about how the Senators might draw plenty of penalties, they ended up spending an unnecessarily large amount of time in the box. And the Leafs made them pay. Their puck movement with the man advantage was especially creative and swift. When they needed to be, the Leafs looked patient with the puck on the power play. Tavares and Nylander each converted with their first goals of the series.
The Senators ended the regular season with the 19th-best penalty kill and needed to be disciplined entering the series against a potent power play. A Tim Stützle second-period infraction kick-started a flurry of minor penalties, including a Ridly Greig cross-check that was downgraded from five minutes to two.
Fans can debate the validity of those penalties all day, and they may have a point. But the Sens weren’t prepared for the Leafs’ quick strikes. A third-period power-play goal by Matthew Knies was the final nail in the coffin.
Since Jan. 1, only the Golden Knights have had a better power play than the Leafs. Game 1 was a continuation of that effectiveness, highlighted by the aforementioned Knies goal and how quickly it came.
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Remember, this is a Leafs team that has struggled on the power play in the playoffs. It’s been the difference between a series win and a loss for this core at times. But against the Senators, the Leafs’ punchy power play could be a sign of good things to come. — Joshua Kloke
Sens fail to impose in high-danger areas
The Senators were rendered mostly ineffective in high-danger areas. The Sens outshot the Leafs 13-5 in the first period, but only mustered one high-danger chance, according to Natural Stat Trick. Ottawa ended the game with 11, but it still wasn’t a strong suit for the visitors.
The Leafs’ defense kept them along the perimeter and wouldn’t let them trouble Anthony Stolarz until Drake Batherson scored his team’s first goal of the game with just under four minutes remaining in the first. After that, the Sens continued to struggle with penetrating the middle of the ice.
Brady Tkachuk is considered an X-factor in this series because of his ability to create havoc in the corners and in front of the net. Through the opening 20 minutes, Tkachuk had three shots on net — two from the blue line and one from the face-off circle. That’s not sufficient for a Senators team that has struggled with generating goals from up close. They ended the regular season with the 25th-best high-danger goals rate. — Julian McKenzie
Vegas’ power play proves a major advantage
In a game with only three total penalties called, the Golden Knights’ second-ranked power play still found a way to be the difference.
Joel Eriksson Ek was called for a high stick against Alex Pietrangelo midway through the second period, and it took Vegas only five seconds to cash in with a power-play goal by Pavel Dorofeyev. It was the first career power-play goal for Dorofeyev, who led the Golden Knights with 35 goals this season (13 on the power play).
The goal was the result of a sensational play by Shea Theodore, who collected a puck at the blue line, danced into open ice, froze Filip Gustavsson with a slap shot fake, and fed Dorofeyev for a one-timer into a wide-open net.
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The Golden Knights drew the fewest penalties in the NHL this season, so they will need to be hyper-efficient on the power play against Minnesota’s 30th-ranked penalty kill. Sunday night, they were exactly that. — Jesse Granger
Lost draws cost Wild
The Wild are perennially one of the worst faceoff teams in the NHL and were again this season, finishing 29th at 46.7 percent. As coach John Hynes said Friday, faceoffs were going to be critical in this series.
Eriksson Ek had a monster game in the circle, winning 20 of 30. Unfortunately for him and the Wild, it was Eriksson Ek’s high-sticking minor at 13:27 of the second period — the first penalty of the game — that landed him in the box and kept him from taking the draw on the penalty kill.
Well, for the second time in the game, Freddy Gaudreau was smoked in the circle, leading to a goal against. The first was from Hertl, the second from Dorofeyev, five seconds into the power play when he one-timed Theodore’s pass into a wide-open cage because Gustavsson didn’t move a muscle. It looked like Gustavsson was frozen by Theodore’s fake shot, or a screen in front, because he wasn’t able to adjust and get over for the one-timer. — Michael Russo
(Photo: Mark Blinch / Getty Images)
