Analysis, highlights, results and news from NHL playoffs opening games (2024)

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One notable former referee believes the Jordan Martinook high-stick on Scott Mayfield isn’t quite a cut-and-dry missed call. Kerry Fraser, who called 261 Stanley Cup playoff games, said via text that this would fall under the umbrella of referee discretion, and letting it go isn’t necessarily an egregious error.

“By the black and white letter of the rule, Jordan Martinook is responsible for his his stick that ultimately clips Mayfield in the face and subject to a penalty for high-sticking,” Fraser said.

“In my common sense judgment of the play, Martinook’s stick was elevated above the shoulder solely through the deliberate action of a stick-lift executed by Mayfield. This stick-lift by the defending player resulted in his being struck in the face.

“The fact that Martinook was skating away from Mayfield (and not looking at his opponent) lends additional credence that Martinook had no intent to raise his stick to strike his opponent. His body position and focus also demonstrates that his objective was to exit his attacking zone, get back to support the puck battle up the wall and avoid a potential offside at the blue line.

“So we know that it was Martinook’s stick that contacted Mayfield above the shoulders, but I submit that it was purely as a result of Mayfield lifting his opponents stick up and into his own face.”

Artturi Lehkonen is up on the top power-play unit with Valeri Nichushkin down on the second.

Makar-MacKinnon-Compher-Rantanen-Lehkonen is the top unit.

BOSTON — This year’s Bruins postseason has started the way last year’s ended: with questions about when and if Patrice Bergeron will return.

In the here and now, Bergeron remains injured and out of action as the Bruins battle the Florida Panthers in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. It was one thing when he missed Game 1, a 3-1 Boston victory. But with the lethargic Bruins getting blown out of TD Garden on Wednesday night, the Panthers skating to a 6-3 victory to deadlock the series, the controversy over Bergeron’s absence is about to heat up.

Read more here.

(Photo: Mike Ehrmann / Getty Images)

DALLAS — When Marc-Andre Fleury led the Wild out for warmups before Game 2, I know what most of you were thinking: “What the heck?”

Now Fleury is a future Hall of Famer, a three-time Stanley Cup winner, and one of the greatest people in the sport.

But he shouldn’t have started this game.

Two days after Filip Gustavsson delivered a brilliant, 51-save performance in a double-overtime victory in Game 1 — setting a franchise record in his playoff debut — “Gus the Bus” was parked Wednesday night. The Wild had a chance to take command of this series against the Stars. Instead, coach Dean Evason stuck with his season-long trend of a goalie rotation, inserting Fleury for his first start in eight days instead of riding the hot hand.

Read more here.

DALLAS — Coming into Wednesday night’s game, the Stars were in a delicate spot. In Monday’s Game 1 loss, Stars head coach Pete DeBoer expressed dissatisfaction with the start to the game. The Stars were tasked with correcting that in Game 2 but also had to do it without third-leading scorer and first power-play staple Joe Pavelski. To make matters worse, they found themselves playing short-handed less than five minutes into Game 2.

It wasn’t the ideal start.

In the first minute of the Wild’s power play, Kirill Kaprizov had the puck along the benches. Jani Hakanpää did enough to disrupt the Russian superstar, who shuffled the puck inside, where the puck was introduced to Joel Kiviranta’s stick. Roope Hintz was behind Kiviranta when the puck touched his stick, but by the time Kiviranta had lobbed the puck up the ice, Hintz was flying up the ice.

Five seconds later, the Stars had a 1-0 lead and the American Airlines Center barely had a roof.

“Huge,” Jamie Benn said. “We want to come out and play with the lead, and Roope made a good shot there.”

It was the beginning of a signature odyssey for Hintz.

Read more here.

(Photo: Tom Pennington / Getty Images)

Järnkrok— Matthews — Marner

Kerfoot — Tavares — Nylander

Knies — O’Reilly — Acciari

Aston-Reese — Kämpf — Lafferty

McCabe — Brodie

Giordano — Holl

Rielly — Schenn

Samsonov

It is impossible to say how Jeremy Swayman would have performed in Game 2. Instead of continuing the goaltending rotation, the Bruins went with Linus Ullmark for a second straight start.

It is fair to say, though, that Ullmark has played better than he did on Wednesday. According to MoneyPuck, Ullmark was at -1.63 goals saved above expected in all situations. Ullmark allowed five goals on two occasions during the regular season: once in a 6-5 overtime win against the Penguins and a second time in a 6-3 loss to the Blackhawks.

On Florida’s first goal, Ullmark might have been able to reach the puck first had he left his crease. Instead, Sam Bennett found the puck and slipped it through Ullmark’s pads.

Twenty-two seconds into the third, Brandon Montour broke a 2-2 tie by sending in a long-distance shot. Ullmark could not locate Montour’s shot through Aleksander Barkov and Charlie McAvoy, who were fighting for position in front.

Montour scored his second goal of the night with another long-range shot. Again, Ullmark couldn’t find the puck through Taylor Hall and Charlie Coyle, who were challenging the shot.

Now Montgomery and goaltending coach Bob Essensa have to determine whether Ullmark should get a third straight start. Last season, Swayman took over the net in Game 3 against the Hurricanes. However, the Bruins lost the first two games.

Read more here.

So was it a penalty, or was it the right decision to let play continue in overtime of the Islanders’ 4-3 loss in Carolina in Game 2?

NHL analyst Mike Rupp caused a stir on Twitter on Wednesday night when he suggested that because Mayfield lifted Jordan Martinook’s stick before it whacked the Islanders defenseman in the face, and considering that the game was in overtime, that it was a correct non-call.

Others disagree.

According to one league rules expert not permitted to speak publicly about such matters, Rupp’s breakdown was “nonsense. It’s 100 percent a penalty.”

A former league referee who preferred not to be quoted was a little more forgiving, saying that Rupp “isn’t totally wrong, but twisting and contorting oneself in order to justify a non-call is more work than just taking the position that’s easier to defend (that is was a penalty).”

Still, it was a penalty according to the league rules, even if the former ref can understand why play continued. Jesper Fast’s game-winning goal came moments later.

“I totally understand how it gets missed,” he said. “I don’t think it was ignored. Mayfield’s back is to the ref, (the) puck is going away from him and the ref is looking through/past Mayfield to see the play. I don’t think he’s focusing on Mayfield, and then it catches him by surprise, and he’s probably like, ‘WTF just happened?’ (Mayfield is) not cut, so (the) linesman can’t help him.”

He continued: “I firmly believe the referees didn’t see it, and had he been across the ice he would have called it.”

Read more here.

(Photo: Jaylynn Nash / Getty Images)

The Bruins missed Patrice Bergeron’s calming presence as well as his play. The captain was unavailable for the second straight game because of an upper-body injury. The Bruins paid the price on Wednesday for his appearance in the regular-season finale against the Canadiens when he got hurt.

Not only was he missed on the ice, but the Bruins could have used his command on the bench in the third period.

“When we fell down 4-2, I didn’t think we regrouped and reset,” Montgomery said. “Most of the year, we’ve been able to take a breath, reset and go back to our game. We didn’t go back to our game when it was 4-2. I thought we got back to our game in the first two periods. Every time we fell behind, we got back to our game.”

Read more here.

Carolina’s Teuvo Teravainen suffered a broken hand during Wednesday’s Game 2 versus the Islanders and will require surgery, according to coach Rod Brind’Amour. Here’s what you need to know:

• Teravainen exited the 4-3 overtime win with 4:25 left in the third period after taking a slash on his left hand from New York’s Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who was not penalized on the play.
• The Hurricanes forward was able to finish his shift but did not return for the remainder of regulation or overtime.
• Carolina took a 2-0 series lead with Wednesday’s victory. Game 3 is set for Friday at 7 p.m. ET in New York.

Read more here.

Two games in and Los Angeles has had to come back from two-goal deficits in both. Having the ability and fortitude to rally is a great trait to possess but also something you don’t want to constantly rely on. The Kings were pushed around physically in the first period of Game 1 but ultimately erased an early 2-0 hole. It was more than being sluggish and being unable to generate anything in the first period as Edmonton grabbed another 2-0 lead.

Kings coach Todd McLellan scoffed at the notion that they needed to start fast in Game 2, instead suggesting that his team just needed to play a better overall game. But they might want to come out of the gate humming in Game 3 as the series shifts to L.A. to get the home crowd into it early.

(Photo: Lawrence Scott / Getty Images)

Special teams ruled the day for the Stars. They had three power-play goals and one short-handed to account for more than half of their scoring production. It was particularly important without Joe Pavelski, who was injured in Game 1 and did not play in Game 2. Tyler Seguin slid into his spot at even strength and on the power play. He scored a power play goal in Pavelski-esque fashion, tipping home a Jason Robertson shot.

(Photo: Tom Pennington / Getty Images)

The Bruins were the NHL’s top third-period team during the regular season. They scored a league-high 113 goals while allowing only 59, the stingiest mark of 32 teams.

They did not look like a third-period beast in Game 2. Brandon Montour sailed a shot through a screen just 22 seconds into the third. Carter Verhaeghe finished off a two-on-one rush at 7:00 after a heavy forecheck on a Charlie McAvoy caused a turnover. Montour finished the damage with a point slapper at 12:30, before Eetu Luostarinen added an empty-netter.