At least the didn't lay down and die after game 4. One bad goal and some bad puck luck didn't help.

Considering they were down 2 games to 0, they did pretty good for a young team. Concerning that Matthews was so average, and Gardner looked awful game 7. Freddie let in a few softies too.
Oh well, it's officially summer for me now.

gotta say, I never expected the Bruins to come back in game 7 down. I had given up especially after that soft short handed goal. Rask sucks so bad, he can't make a game winning save, hope they trade his ass during the off season, but I believe he has a no trade clause.

Have some good young skaters though, DeBrusk looks great

Saves don't win games unless you play not to lose. Cassidy's Bruins play to win. Rask, by his own admission, has let too many in. he knows it. It's mission 16W, not Mission best GAA, and his mind is on winning, not his personal stats.

His personal stats were fair during the season. His stat line has been poor in round 1. It does need to improve.

Hockey is a game of mistakes. The team that makes the least will usually win. Rask is part of the reason they are in the post-season. Is he elite? Is he as good as he was a few seasons back? No, he'll never have a .930 percentage again. But was Cheevers elite? No. He didn't care if he won 2-0 or 7-6, so long as he won.

3:30 left in the third, Boston up 6-2

Wow. I knew they;' be ready to play but 6-2.

Don't show 'em too much Butch.

Sharks beat the Knights in OT. Penalties killed the Knights.

Weird goalie interference call. The overhears shot shows it well. Non intentional, but did deny the goalie the chance to make a save

Good. i'm getting sick of the Knights. Their success just shows how watered down the league has become.

BTW, so happy Montreal didn't win the draft lottery.

The Knights are something different. CBC mentioned last night that the viewer ratings for the Knights / Sharks game one was very high. The NHL has got a little stale, so anything new is fun. Last year it was Nashville and how they turned the games into big parties. I think everyone is tired of the whole Crosby vs Olvechkin routine every year.

The talent in the NHL is watered down. There are too many teams. Too many mediocre players scoring multi-million dollar, multi-year contracts too.

Oh goodness, the talent level is pretty good man. Look at the '80s. A Pat LaFontaine might not crack a top three spot today

I don't know about that. It's kinda hard to compare talent from different era's. Cool hockey site:

https://www.hockey-reference.com/

Look at VGK. Those were players that weren't protected

I think everyone knew that Neal and Fluery were going to be top notch, but the other guys are quite surprising. VGK grabbed Nosek from the Wings and later picked up Tomas Tartar and his big contract. I wish we would have just protected Nosek and let them have Tartar. I see VGK has sat him down after just two playoff games.

As a Sabres fan, I'm ecstatic we finally get to pick first after three out of four seasons as the worst team in the league. Of course, two of those seasons were intentional tanks, the sad thing is they were SUPPOSED to be
good this year!

Hopefully this will spark a turnaround.

But that's what I'm saying. The others guys were surprising. Why? They have talent. The league actually supported that team- which is a damn good team- with what GMs mostly figured they could do without. There has to be a fair depth to the talent pool for that.

I do agree VGK is a very good team, and most of that team suddenly looks very talented. Most of those guys are having career years. I think a lot of GM's and owners are scratching their heads at why they are so good. I think Vegas odds for a VGK Stanley Cup were 500 to 1 at the beginning of the year. Many people didn't think they would have playoff success (especially against a physical, tight checking team like LA ).Is it the coach? Is it the Vegas Strip? Who knows. I look at teams like the Red Wings. They are basically a minor league team, with a few NHL level players on the roster.

When players are traded, released or not protected they usual do better than what they did on their old team. Like they were saying 'you shouldn't have done that'. Now there is whole team of those players.

They had to have the skill to realize that potential.

Yes they needed some skill but...

In high school my school put together a soccer team. There was 3 players that had actually played competitive soccer before. The coach, not that he was actually coaching, was a German. We went to the district championship and played a team composed of Greeks and Italians who also played on other teams. We had the better of the play but lost 1-0 when they scored a goal near the end of second extra time half.