Though we have no horse in the race this year, the first round of the NHL playoffs is still one of the most compelling segments of the annual hockey calendar. Friday night was the best action of the year so far, I'd say.
Two former backup goalies stuck it to their old teams. Michal Neuvirth, who was drafted by the Washington Capitals in 2006 and traded for Jaroslav Halak at the 2014 trade deadline, made 44 saves as his Philadelphia Flyers climbed back into their series with a second-straight win, despite managing just 11 shots on goal.
Neuvirth has now beaten the Caps once in the regular season and twice in the playoffs and has never lost to his old team. With Washington's history of awkward playoff collapses, do you think he's in their heads now?
Out here on the West Coast, the Los Angeles Kings' worst nightmare came true as North Vancouver's Martin Jones finished the job in a five-game series win for the San Jose Sharks, just one year after he was traded.
I'm sure this scenario is the last thing Dean Lombardi imagined when he dealt Jones to the Boston Bruins as part of the Milan Lucic trade last June, then watched helplessly as the Bruins flipped Jones back to the Sharks just four days later.
And what did Lombardi get in one year of Lucic? Twenty regular-season goals, three playoff assists and one postseason win.
Is that enough to sign the impending unrestricted free agent to a big-money long-term deal? Lucic hopes so.
Question to Lucic: Is this where you want to be next season? His response: ‘’Yes, 100 percent. I definitely have no plans or even think
As of right now, General Fanager shows the Kings with $66 million in salary commitments for next season, with Lucic, Kris Versteeg, Trevor Lewis, Luke Schenn, Jamie McBain and backup goalie Jhonas Enroth all becoming unrestricted free agents.
After a second-straight disappointing season, we could see a significant re-tool in Los Angeles this summer. I hope they make room to keep Lucic around—and get him re-signed well before Generous Jim can get into the mix with a massive free-agent offer in the days leading up to July 1.
Yes, Lucic would bring some toughness if he signed with the Canucks, but I can't embrace all the boneheaded things that he has done over the years—or his inconsistent play. I was live blogging last night's Kings/Sharks game and I'm not sure I heard Paul Romanuk call his name once all night, even as the Kings dug deep to fight off elimination, and that's not the first time I've seen him turn invisible.
You know who did play hard? Vinnie Lecavalier. I wonder if he's actually going to retire like he's supposed to, with two years left on his contract. His cap hit is only $2.25 million for the Kings, and he put up 10 goals and 17 points in 42 regular-season games after he joined L.A. and chipped in two points in the playoffs. Those numbers aren't too far off Lucic's...hmmm...
Down in the sunbelt, Roberto Luongo is now one game away from elimination after being outduelled by Thomas Greiss in the Florida Panthers' double-overtime loss to the New York Islanders.
Yes, the final score was only 2-1—but the Panthers outshot the Islanders 48-42, Greiss stopped a penalty shot in overtime and the winning goal by Alan Quine, playing just his seventh NHL game, is one that Loo "would like to have back," as they say.
On a cheerier Luongo note, once again I'd like to voice my appreciation for James Duthie's latest book, "The Guy on the Left." The chapter on how his viral videos with Roberto came together over the years is pretty fascinating and makes me want to go back down that road one more time.
Did you know that it was actually Luongo's idea to do the video when he and Cory Schneider were competing for the starting job?
Duthie says Schneider was also an active participant, contributing the crossword-puzzle joke.
Looking back on these features makes me realize that we never see whimsical segments like this in today's Sportsnet broadcasts. Duthie's book is ending with his recap of how TSN lost the NHL rights to its rival—and how Bob McKenzie led the successful charge to keep the TSN gang together anyway.
To wrap up today's Canucks-adjacent blog, Jordan Schroeder played his first playoff game of the year for the Minnesota Wild on Friday, and picked up his first career postseason goal, as the Wild stayed alive with a 5-4 overtime win over the Dallas Stars.
Speaking of TSN, hi Gord Miller!
There's some talk that the Wild are being buoyed by the spirit of their recently-departed Minneapolis hero, Prince. They've turned their Twitter avatar purple in his honour:
The Wild have scraped their way into the second round in each of the last two seasons. With Dallas' goaltending looking suspect as many of us expected—and Tyler Seguin still sidelined—is another higher-seeded team in jeopardy?
Today, the Pittsburgh Penguins are going to try not to suffer the same fate as the Stars—or dredge up memories of that series they lost to the Rangers two years ago after being up 3-1. I'm live blogging that game, starting at noon, then later we'll have the Preds and Ducks before the Blues try to put away the Blackhawks and guarantee us a new Stanley Cup champion this year.
Meanwhile, in the AHL, the Utica Comets were outplayed in Game 1 against Albany but only lost by a single goal. Darren Archibald and Jordan Subban got the goals—and Ronalds Kenins had two assists and was denied on a last-second buzzer-beater at the end of the first period—as the Comets fell 3-2 to the Devils in Game 1 of their best-of-five series.
Utica was outshot 29-14 and didn't get a single shot on goal in the second period, so there's work to be done!
Game 2 goes this afternoon at 2 p.m. PT from Albany.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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