It should be a quiet practice day in St. Louis today, after that triple-overtime marathon in game one. Talk about a series living up to expectation — that was over 100 minutes of high intensity hockey Thursday night, and we’re only one game in.
Blues defenceman Alex Pietrangelo played a game-high 44:08, logging some extra ice time when partner Jay Boumeester left the game in overtime with an injury. St. Louis goalie Ryan Miller let in three goals on seven shots in the first 18:24, then shut the door for the next three-and-a-half hours.
Jonathan Toews took 32 faceoffs. Niklas Hjalmarsson blocked six shots. Blues Chris Porter and Vlad Tarasenko had seven shots on goal apiece.
Game two goes Saturday at 3 ET. Clear you schedule.
Mighty MacKinnon
Colorado’s Calder Trophy lock Nathan MacKinnon showed in his first career playoff game why he might be the best first-overall draft pick since Steve Stamkos in 2008. He looked like a veteran, chartering three assists in his playoff debut.
Smart, way ahead of his years defensively, a work ethic that reminds of his mentor, Sidney Crosby… And his hands? The pucks he put on teammates sticks that didn’t go in Thursday were numerous, and he still ended up with three helpers — including setting up the OT winner.
MacKinnon is a franchise player, on a team that loaded with fine young talent. Colorado is just another Western Conference team that’s going to cause trouble for years to come.
Quick hook
Jonathan Quick? Pulled in game one of the playoffs?
Of all the things you thought might happen in the various series openers across the league, would anyone have predicted this?
Quick’s line: five goals on 28 shots in 29:15, before Martin Jones mopped up. The Sharks were all over Los Angeles in this one, but Quick was over-challenging, too far out of the blue paint on too many occasions. He’s a veteran who has won a Stanley Cup, but Quick looked like he was over-excited and in his first payoff game on Thursday.
The Kings allowed the fewest goals per game this season at 2.05, but they also ranked 26th in scoring with 2.42 goals per game. The bottom line? Get three goals on L.A. and the game’s yours.
Ghosts of Maple Leafs past
Okay, Leafs fans. Yesterday we talked about the Seguin-Kessel dynamic, a conversation that will be pertinent for years to come. But the Tuukka Rask-Alex Steen conversation? The case is closed on those gory tales.
Steen showed again in game one versus Chicago what a fine, two-way player he has become, scoring the OT winner and leading all forwards with 35:33 in ice time. Toronto drafted him 24th overall in 2002, got impatient for some scoring, and traded him and Carlo Colaiacovo to St. Louis for Lee Stempniak six years later. Today, he’s leading the Blues in regular-season scoring with 33 goals and 62 points in just 68 games.
Rask, who will be in goal for the Eastern Conference favorite Bruins on Friday, was impatiently traded by GM John Ferguson Jr. when Toronto had a need for a backup goalie, acquiring Andrew Raycroft from the Bruins.
How good would Toronto look today with Steen and Rask in the lineup? Would they both have developed as well in Toronto’s organization? We’ll never know.
But the common thread that link Seguin, Steen and Rask is impatience. Think about that the next time someone talks about giving up on a young player so that the Leafs can win, “right now.”