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What's a Leaf fan supposed to do during the Stanley Cup playoffs? A guide.

source : thestar.com

Everywhere you look, there are ex-Leafs in the playoffs. You can't watch Habs-Sens and feel good about yourself. Here's the Breakaway Guide to the Playoffs for a Leafs fan.

So you're a true blue Leafs fan and you want to watch the playoffs, but you need some guidance on who or what to root for.

Here's the Breakaway guide to the playoffs for a Leafs fan:

EASTERN CONFERENCE

MONTREAL CANADIENS vs OTTAWA SENATORS

Ex-Leafs involved: Clarke MacArthur, Ottawa Senators.

WHAT TO DO: Don't watch. Hopefully the Raptors are on. Or the Blue Jays. (Unlike Ottawa or Montreal, Toronto has more than one major league team. So there.)

NEW YORK RANGERS vs. PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

Ex-Leafs involved: Daniel Winnik, Penguins; Dominic Moore, Rangers.

WHAT TO DO: Cheer for the Penguins, and say things like "that Winnik can sure drive possession."

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING vs DETROIT RED WINGS

Ex-Leafs involved: None

WHAT TO DO: Root for the Lightning. They wear blue and white, so you can just imagine what it feels like. Besides, maybe if the Wings are eliminated, GM Ken Holland will be so mad he'll fire Mike Babcock and then..... and then..... Sigh.

WASHINGTON CAPITALS vs NEW YORK ISLANDERS

Ex-Leafs involved: Tim Gleason, Capitals; Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolay Kulemin, Islanders.

WHAT TO DO: Root for either team. Leafs are still paying Gleason and Grabovski, so it's almost like the Leafs are in the playoffs.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

VANCOUVER CANUCKS vs CALGARY FLAMES

Ex-Leafs involved: Joe Colborne, Matt Stajan, Flames.

WHAT TO DO: I know you hate the Canucks, but do you really want to see Brian Burke's quick rebuild in Calgary work (when the here didn't)?

ANAHEIM DUCKS vs WINNIPEG JETS

Ex-Leafs involved: Korbinian Holzer, Ducks; Lee Stempniak, Jiri Tlusty, Jay Harrison and coach Paul Maurice, Jets.

WHAT TO DO: A cornucopia of under-achieving ex-Leafs. The Jets are the only other team to wear a maple leaf on their jersey, so the answer is obvious: Anaheim. Just kidding: Jets.

NASHVILLE PREDATORS vs. CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS

Ex-Leafs involved: Mike Santorelli, Cody Franson, Victor Stalberg, Predators; Kris Versteeg, Blackhawks.

WHAT TO DO: Root for the Blackhawks. The earlier the Predators are eliminated, the better the first-round pick the Leafs get for sending Franson and Santorelli to Nashville.

ST. LOUIS BLUES vs MINNESOTA WILD

Ex-Leaf involved: Alexander Steen, Olli Jokinen, Carl Gunnarsson, St. Louis.

WHAT TO DO: Grimace every time you see Steen.

Combination of depth and luck helped Kings beat Rangers to win Stanley Cup

 source : faceoff.com

All the New York Rangers kept going back to was how it could've been different. Not necessarily regrets about how they played against the Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup final but because of the 50/50 moments.

"A few bounces either way it could be a different outcome," Rangers defenceman Kevin Klein said earlier this week.

Enough didn't come to reverse the tide, and on Friday night the Kings finished off the Rangers in five games to capture their second Cup in three years. In the after light of this championship, there will be plenty of dynasty talk — and well-deserved — but in the rewind of this final, two major themes emerged as reasons they are again on top of the NHL: Luck and depth.

It's not necessarily better to be lucky than good in hockey, but for the Kings it was a combination of both. But their best pure game of the season was their only loss, thanks to Henrik Lundqvist, Antron Stralman, Derek Stepan and a pile of snow in the crease.

In Games 1 and 2, each one an overtime victory following a two-goal comeback, the Kings got their break before the Rangers could. No goaltender interference being called on Dwight King's Game 2 goal didn't hurt, either.

There were so many funky bounces that "puck luck" became a cliche before the series ended. After the Rangers won Wednesday to avoid the first Cup final sweep since 1998, coach Alain Vigneault wondered if "maybe the luck is changing a little bit."

That was wishful thinking, in part because these Kings turned out to be too deep and too strong to let luck send the series back to New York and make things interesting. The New Jersey Devils followed that pattern two years ago by winning Game 5 and forcing another cross-country flight after Los Angeles took a 3-0 series lead.

These Kings weren't nearly as much of a buzzsaw as the 2012 incarnation. In 2014 they needed seven games in each of the first three series, including a comeback from a 3-0 hole against the San Jose Sharks in the first round.

But depth ultimately defined Los Angeles's second Cup. In the final, 15 goals were scored by 12 different players, including two apiece by Conn Smythe winner Justin Williams, captain Dustin
Brown and deadline acquisition Marian Gaborik.

"Depth has been huge," No. 1 defenceman Drew Doughty said. "That's how you win championships."
Before the Kings took a stranglehold of the series, coach Darryl Sutter opined that "depth only matters when you win." Three straight overtime games from the end of the Western Conference final through the start of the final required it.

"We've moved guys around," Sutter said. "Obviously guys get banged up and things like that. But that is your biggest issue always in a series. It's not just playing guys, it's getting the quality, getting good minutes out of them."

In these playoffs, the Kings had five players — Doughty, defencemen Jake Muzzin, Slava Voynov and Willie Mitchell and centre Anze Kopitar — averaging over 20 minutes of ice time. Eleven different players had at least 10 points over the 26-game run.

"I think just believe that anybody can do it," Kopitar said. "It's not like when we get down, everybody looks at, I don't know, Carts to go do it. It's everybody taking pride, chipping in, helping each other out."

Rangers centre Brad Richards, the closest thing New York had to a captain since Ryan Callahan was dealt to the Tampa Bay Lightning as part of the package for Martin St. Louis, called the Kings a "cool, collected team that doesn't get rattled and it just seems that they're scoring at the right times and getting big saves at the right times."

Unlike in 2012, the Kings couldn't call goaltender Jonathan Quick their best player in the playoffs. On the way to that Conn Smythe, Quick went 16-4 with a 1.41 goals-against average, .946 save percentage and three shutouts.

Quick's numbers were more pedestrian this time around, but his 32-save shutout in Game 3 put Los Angeles on the verge.

Luck certainly helped in the clinching Game 5, when the Rangers hit the post not once but twice in overtime before Alec Martinez scored the winner.

Los Angeles Kings win Stanley Cup in double overtime nail-biter over Rangers

source : faceoff.com

The Los Angeles Kings won the Stanley Cup the hard way, ending their marathon playoff run with a double overtime thriller.

A post-season that started with the Kings having to dig themselves out of a three-game hole against San Jose ended Friday night in a 3-2 double-overtime triumph over the New York Rangers to seal their second Cup in three seasons.

The final lasted five games, with three going to overtime — including two double OT contests. It was the only playoff series that didn't go the distance for the Kings.

Alec Martinez's winner at 14:43 of the second overtime was a fitting conclusion to a post-season slog that saw the Kings run a gauntlet of Western Conference heavyweights before dispatching the speedy Rangers in the final.

It was the 26th game of the Los Angles playoff run, matching the single-year league record set by Philadelphia in 1987 and Calgary in 2004, who both lost seven-game series in the final. L.A. did set a record for most playoff games by a Cup winner.

The Kings had to go through a murderer's row in the West just to get to the final after finishing 10th in the league with a 46-26-8 record and 100 points. Los Angles had to get by San Jose (111 points), Anaheim (116) and defending champion Chicago (107) in one of the most gruelling post-season routes on record.

They overcame a 3-2 series deficit in the second round against Anaheim and rallied from 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3 deficits in Game 7 of the Western Conference final in Chicago.

Their latest campaign lasted 115 games, counting seven pre-season, 82 regular-season and a record 26 post-season contests.

Los Angeles went 7-0 in playoff elimination games along the way. Only the 1975 Islanders won more (eight).

The Kings are only the fourth team in playoff history to overcome a 3-0 series deficit in rallying to beat the Sharks in the first round. And they are the first team to play — and win — three Game 7s on the road in a single post-season.

Throughout it all burned the belief that if the Kings played their game, they knew they were tough to beat.

"We really earned it," said forward Justin Williams, named winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP after opening the scoring with his ninth goal and 25th point of the post-season.

"It's been a wild year," said forward Jeff Carter. "A lot of hockey, a lot of ups and downs ... We had to dig deep. We really had to battle."

Like teammate Drew Doughty, Carter won Olympic gold and hoisted the Cup in 2014.

"A hell of a year," he said. "Couldn't ask for anything more."

Captain Dustin Brown hoisted the Cup first, then handed it off to veteran defenceman Robyn Regehr, a spectator since suffering an injury in Game 1 of the Anaheim series.

Brown sacrificed his body to get to the Cup, delivering 125 hits in the post-season. The native of Ithaca, N.Y., is the first U.S.-born captain to win multiple Stanley Cups.

Family and friends packed the ice as fans pressed their nose to the glass to watch the post-game partying. Coach Darryl Sutter watched with a smile, his son Christopher — who has Down Syndrome — hoisting the Cup in the celebration.

"You got to give these guys full marks," he said simply of his players.

The Kings squandered 3-0 series leads both times en route to hoisting the Cup. But they got the job done in five games — three wins coming via overtime — this time compared to six against New Jersey in 2012.

Los Angeles' remarkable road to this Cup was long and tortuous. It was an edge-of-your-seat record-setting ride though all-comers that will be hard to beat.

Martinez ended the longest game in Kings' history, surpassing Game 5 of the 2013 Western Conference final (91:40), by wristing home a rebound of a Tyler Toffoli shot to seal the Cup.

"I haven't been married and I haven't had kids but as far as I'm concerned so far this is the greatest feeling in the world," Martinez said.

"It came out pretty quick," he said of the rebound. "I just tried to get it on net then I blacked out."
It was the 17th Stanley Cup-clinching overtime goal in NHL history.

Martinez eliminated the Chicago Blackhawks in OT in Game 7 of the Western Conference final at Chicago on June 1. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he joins Martin Gelinas (Calgary, 2004) and Adam Henrique (New Jersey, 2012) as the only players in NHL history to notch two series-clinching overtime goals in one post-season.

Amazingly Los Angeles did not hold a lead in the first three games of the final. The Kings led for just 14.6 per cent of the first four games — a 40:01 stretch that was all in Game 3.

The Kings trailed 2-0 the first two games of the series but rallied both times to win in OT.
The Rangers probably deserved better.

"Obviously everybody's very disappointed in the outcome," said New York coach Alain Vigneault whose team went past Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Montreal en route to the Rangers' first final in 20 years.

"You go into this hoping that you don't regret anything. We put it out there," he added. "We gave our best shot, best effort. Three games here all went to OT. What can I say?"

The never-say-die Kings, who trailed by two goals four times in the first two games of the final, proved once again that the third period is their domain. They have four victories this post-season when trailing after two periods. And in mounting the latest comeback, they put an end to New York's remarkable 5-0 record in elimination games.

The win improved the Kings' playoff overtime record in 2014 to 5-2.

Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist kept the Rangers in the game for the second outing in a row. The elegant Swede stood on his head for much of the evening, especially when push came to shove.

"During the regular time he made some big saves. I thought in the overtime, though, that's when we played our better hockey of the night," said Vigneault. "Had some real good looks. Both goaltenders were outstanding."

Lundqvist ended the evening face down in disbelief. He may still be shaking his head.

The contest started slowly and took its time to boil, but finished in nail-biting, adrenalin-pumping end-to-end fashion.

The third period was all Kings as a goal by Marian Gaborik pulled Los Angeles even at 2-2 some eight minutes in. Gaborik knocking in a rebound of a Doughty wrister from the point at 7:56. It was his 14th of the playoffs — following a season in which he had 11 goals in 41 games.

Los Angeles outshot New York 12-3 in the period and 29-15 in regulation time. The shots were 42-25 for L.A. after four periods of hockey and 51-30 when the dust settled.

Overtime was a thrill ride as both teams hit the post and Los Angeles poured it on. The Kings also had to kill off a minor penalty in each overtime.

New York defenceman Ryan McDonagh hit the post with a blast from the blue-line in the first OT period. Toffoli also rang a shot off the post, some 13 minutes in. Lundqvist stopped Williams twice at point-blank range during one sequence late in overtime as the Kings turned the screws.

Then the Rangers mounted two assaults on the L.A. goal before Chris Kreider fired wide on a semi-breakaway.

In the second overtime, a Dan Girardi shot clipped the outside of the Kings post and L.A. goalie Jonathan Quick make several key saves.

Kreider and Brian Boyle scored for the Rangers in a 3:53 stretch late in the second period — the first on the power-play, the second short-handed — as New York clawed its way back to lead 2-1 after 40 minutes that saw just 12 shots on the L.A. goal.

That New York outburst silenced the sellout crowd of 18,713 at Staples Center.

The Rangers were 11-1 when leading after two periods in the playoffs and had won 39 of 43 games in that scenario including the regular season. But L.A. refused to go quietly.

The Kings have outscored their opponents 30-16 in the third period this post-season, including 3-0 in the Cup final.

Friday's game was the 93rd game of the 2014 playoffs, surpassing the previous single-year record of 92 established in 1991.

It was also the 63rd post-season game for the Kings dating to 2012, tying the NHL record for most games over a three-year span (Dallas, 1998-00; Detroit: 2007-09).

It was the 25th post-season game for the Rangers, who finished 12th in the league at 45-31-6 and 96 points but still made it to their first final in 20 years by eliminating Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Montreal.

Going into Friday, the Rangers were 5-0 when facing elimination. Lundqvist led the way in such games with a 1.00 goals-against average and .971 save percentage.

The Rangers' record in elimination matches is now 11-3 dating back to 2012.

New York hadn't got a shot on target by the time the Kings went ahead at 6:04, with Williams scoring on a deft backhand as linemates Jarret Stoll and Dwight King poked away at Lundqvist after a shot from the point by Willie Mitchell.

It took New York almost eight minutes to record a shot on goal. That followed a third period in Game 4 in which they only managed one shot.

It took the Kings some 27 minutes to crack double digits in shots. New York, frustrated for stretches by the L.A. forecheck, was stuck at seven.

The New York power play, 1-for-19 in the final up until then, finally clicked at 15:37 of the second period as Kreider tipped in a McDonagh feed from the faceoff circle to tie it at 1-1. McDonagh threaded the pass through three Kings to set up the goal, which came on the Rangers' 11th shot of the night.

McDonagh, who turned 25 on Friday, becomes the first player to record a point on his birthday in the Cup final since Jari Kurri did it in 1990 for the Oilers.

Boyle then scored shorthanded to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead at 19:30. The big man deftly roofed the puck after a nice curl-and-drag past Doughty, with New York's Dominic Moore in the penalty box for hooking. The speedy Carl Hagelin triggered the play, beating defenceman Slava Voynov to the puck, as Boyle notched his third of the post-season.

The Rangers' third short-handed goal of the playoffs had Moore celebrating in the box.

The Kings ranked 26th in the league in average goals per game during the regular season, averaging
2.42 a game. It helped that they led the league with just 2.05 goals against per game.

They found their scoring touch in the playoffs, leading all teams with an average of 3.40 goals a game going into Friday.

It was the 26th overtime game of the playoffs, tied for the third-highest total in one year (the record of 28 was set in 1993).

Los Angeles is the 17th team in NHL history to win the Cup in overtime and the first to do so at home since the 1908 Islanders

Henrik Lundqvist brilliant (and lucky) as New York Rangers force Game 5 with 2-1 win over Los Angeles Kings

source : faceoff.com

Hands up, anyone who thought the Los Angeles Kings, after toiling the maximum 21 games getting to the Stanley Cup final, were going to finish it in four.

You, Henrik Lundqvist?

No?

King Henrik of Sweden votes no.

Lundqvist, who faced 41 shots, including a lopsided third period in which the Kings outshot the home side 15-1, was both brilliant and incredibly lucky — yes, there’s that word again — in erecting a wall that just barely held, allowing the New York Rangers a 2-1 victory that let them live to see another day in the Stanley Cup final.

They still trail the series 3-1, with Game 5 in L.A. on Friday, but the journey of a few thousand miles begins with a single step and Lundqvist, so downcast after the Rangers’ 3-0 Game 3 loss, rebounded with a performance for the ages Wednesday before his adoring constituents at Madison Square Garden.

Martin St. Louis’s second-period goal, on a puck that deflected onto his stick between the pads of Jonathan Quick, was the winner in a game that saw two similar deflections elude Lundqvist but sit on or within inches of the goal line before being spirited away by Ranger skaters.

New York managed just 19 shots at Quick.

It was, after three games of ill fortune, probably only fair that Alain Vigneault’s team should profit from a couple of breaks.

“Maybe,” said the former Vancouver Canucks coach, “the luck is changing a little bit.”

The Rangers were outshot 11-8 in the first period, but two events gave them hope that they might finally get their share of bounces.

The first was a point shot by defenceman John Moore that struck two sticks on its way past Quick for the period’s only goal. It hit L.A. defender Jake Muzzin’s stick shaft, then was tipped out of the air by Benoit Pouliot with a borderline high stick that the league evidently never even looked at twice. Not before the puck was dropped again, at least.

The second was an Alec Martinez shot that squeezed between Lundqvist’s pads but lay on the goal line, where the Kings’ Jeff Carter whiffed on it before Anton Stralman swept it out of danger.

Then, 6:27 into the second, St. Louis was at the corner of the crease to shovel in a pass that had gone off both his linemate Chris Kreider and, possibly, Martinez and between Quick’s legs and New York had the dreaded two-goal lead.

Sure enough, two minutes later, New York defenceman Dan Girardi, who’s had one of the all-time hard-luck finals, had the handle of his stick break off in his hands at the L.A. blueline and Dustin Brown blew past him to break in on Lundqvist and beat him with a pretty forehand deke.

From that point on, the Rangers knew they were in for a war. Nor were they mistaken.

The Kings swarmed them in the latter half of the game, rolling in on the New York defence in waves, but time and again Lundqvist — usually in heavy traffic, with bodies strewn around in heaps — held firm against the tide.

“He’s been our best player all year, one of the best goalies in the world. It’s huge to have him be the backbone of this team,” said forward Rick Nash, who played a big, strong game for the Rangers.

“We were that close. If we tap those in, it’s a whole different hockey game,” said Kings rookie Tanner Pearson, who was the most dangerous skater on either team, and had eight shots on goal. “We were trying to close it out, we knew they would come with a pretty big push. We bounced back but we just couldn’t get that second one.”

“We had a lot of good opportunities,” said L.A. coach Darryl Sutter. “But you got to finish. Only going to get a handful most nights against the New York Rangers. You got to finish a couple of them.”

With Quick on the bench for an extra skater, the Kings attacked feverishly trying for the equalizer, and with 1:11 left another deflection trickled between Lundqvist’s pads but, so late in the game, ground to a halt a couple of inches short of the line in the snowy ice and forward Derek Stepan swept it under Lundqvist’s pads with his glove.

“I knew I couldn’t cover the puck with my hand,” said Stepan, who managed to get the job done with Kings’ bodies and sticks all around him.

“I saw it on the Jumbotron,” said Kings defenceman Drew Doughty. “There were two like that tonight. That was the difference in the game.

“Our team game was good. We had a lot of good opportunities. We didn’t really give up too much against. Both (New York) goals were pretty bad bounces. But the bottom line is that we didn’t score goals when we needed to and that’s why we lost the game.”

“Don’t fool yourself. Hank stood on his head,” Stepan said. “He’s a big part of why we’re going back to L.A. He just competes. That’s one thing I’ve learned about Hank, that he never seems to stop competing. He loves to win and he hates to lose.”

“I knew it wasn’t in because the light wasn’t going on,” Vigneault said, of the last of the Rangers’ great escapes. “I didn’t know exactly where it was. I was able to see the replay after.

“Thank God for soft ice.”

Los Angeles vs New York - Kings take stranglehold on Cup final #hockey #playoff #kings #rangers

source : faceoff.com

Preconceptions about the lopsided potential of this Stanley Cup final — hastily revised after the first two games — appear to have been correct after all.

The Los Angeles Kings, arguably lucky to win either, let alone both, of their home games to start the series, dominated every phase of Game 3 Monday night at Madison Square Garden.

It was 3-0 on the scoreboard, it is 3-0 in games, and soon, to use an old newspaper symbol for “end of story” it will be -30- for the New York Rangers.

Jeff Carter supplied the dagger — opening scoring with 0.8 seconds left in the first period — and goalie Jonathan Quick the exclamation point.

Jake Muzzin and Mike Richards added second-period goals, and the Kings shut it down after that.
New York outshot the visitors 32-15 and it couldn’t have mattered less, because the Kings got three exceptional bounces, one on each of their goals, and Quick was there to clean up their rare mistakes with a performance reminiscent of his 2012 Conn Smythe Trophy form.

“That was our hockey, that was our team tonight,” said Kings centre Jarret Stoll. “We wanted to get the lead and stifle them, stay on top of them.

“The games have been so back-and-forth and nail-biting, I’m sure for fans, people watching the games. But we were feeling it, we were rolling our lines, 25-35 seconds (shifts), just keeping the tempo high.”

The coast-to-coast change of venue altered the tone almost immediately, and the teams settled into a tight-checking pattern more familiar to both.

“This is the game that we want to play,” said defenceman Matt Greene. “We don’t want to get into shootouts. Obviously the come-from-behind wins are not going to last.”

The shots were 3-3 through the first period until its very last split-second when Justin Williams — yes, him again — found Carter unchecked in the slot and Carter’s snap shot glanced off the skate of a sliding Dan Girardi and in and out of Henrik Lundqvist’s glove.

The clock showed 0.0 but the red light was on, and the replay revealed the puck crossed the line with 0.8 seconds left. The Garden went quiet as 18,006 jaws dropped simultaneously. Make that 18,007, because New York coach Alain Vigneault’s did, too, and he cast his eyes heavenward as if to say:
“Aren’t you finished yet?”

On Muzzin’s goal, his shot glanced off Rangers’ Marty St. Louis, who was trying to block it, and handcuffed Lundqvist. Richards scored on a 2-on-1 late in the period when his attempted pass to Kyle Clifford was batted right back onto his stick by defenceman Ryan McDonagh and Lundqvist could ony watch helpessly as Richards buried it … and very likely, buried the Rangers along with it.

“Well, you try to stay positive right now, but it’s tough,” said Lundqvist, who simply has not got a break in this series. “We are doing a lot of good things but you look at the goals and we put two in our own net and it was just a tough play on the third one.

“At some point, you are going to need some puck luck and we don’t have any right now. It feels like they have all of it.

“It doesn’t matter what you think you deserve out there, you just have to find a way to win games, and that’s what they have been doing.”

Quick, meanwhile, made two other-worldly stick saves, one on Mats Zuccarello in the first period, another on Derick Brassard in the second, and was all over the puck, tracking it through traffic, gambling and winning when he charged out to cut angles, never giving up on scrambles.

Zuccarello could have changed the feel of the game had he scored 12 minutes in, with Quick down and out. But with an open net at his feet, the diminutive Norwegian was foiled by Quick’s desperate dive, and the puck glanced off the goaltender’s paddle and out the other side.

“I don’t know how … did he save it?” said Stoll. “Empty net, it was 0-0 at the time, those are saves you need, and that’s the type of goalie he is. He’s the best in the world. He’s going to come up with those saves sometimes, it doesn’t surprise us.

“He was great for us tonight, he did everything we needed him to do, when we needed it. The power plays that they had (Rangers were 0-for-6), coming up with pucks, battling like he was, side to side and out, challenging …”

L.A. captain Dustin Brown thinks the size of the stage appeals to Quick.

"I think it definitely plays a part, being on this type of stage, being from this area," said Brown. "I think it's a big deal to anybody who plays here. I think also the guy at the other end of the ice is a very good goaltender as well and I think that motivates Quickie because he's a competitor."

The Kings, looking fresher than in either of the two games in L.A., kept the pedal down in the third period and didn't allow the Rangers even a breath of life.

“Well, we’re used to the travel the day before. Obviously, being in the West, we do it a lot. We moved past all that fatigue part of it a couple of days ago,” said L.A. coach Darryl Sutter.
Now, it’s just about finishing.

The Kings had New Jersey down 3-0 in games two seasons ago, and had to go six games to win it.
“I haven’t even thought about that,” Sutter said. “Has nothing to do with this series. I mean, hell, we
got thrown under the bus by everybody on earth seven weeks ago.”

That’s when they were down 0-3 to San Jose, the first of their seven-game marathons.

They hadn’t done anything the easy way yet … until Monday night.

Vigneault was asked what he would tell his players, considering what they face in Game 4.

"Well," he said, "I'm going to take the night to figure it out."

Rangers boss Glen Sather breaks his silence and entertains #rangers #nhl #hockey #playoffs

Glen Sather, President and General Manager of the New York Rangers, speaks during Media Day for the 2014 NHL Stanley Cup Final at Staples Center on June 3, 2014 in Los Angeles.

source : faceoff.com

Once upon a time, a long time ago, the members of the dynasty-to-be Edmonton Oilers used to say that Glen Sather was as much like a father as a coach.

A good cop/bad cop father, sure, but also a kind of cool father, who didn’t act old and had nice suits and could direct them to a friendly (if pricey) tailor. He knew about restaurants. He could give them advice on how to be a pro. Whether they listened or not, that was up to them.

Tuesday, on the eve of the 2014 Stanley Cup Final, New York Rangers forward Brad Richards was asked what it was like to have Sather as a general manager.

“To be honest, it’s the most different type of GM I’ve had,” said the 34-year-old veteran.
“He’s kind of like the grandfather of the group. Nothing really fazes him. He’s been through so many things and accomplished so much, so if you need anything, or want to talk about anything — hockey or non-hockey, stories he has — it’s kind of like the grandfather at the top who keeps everybody together and happy and going in the right direction.

“And one thing I’ve learned, is he’s got his players’ back, no matter what. He’s always behind us and that’s great to know from the top.”

Grandfather, eh? Well, Glen Cameron Sather of High River, Alta., is 70 years old now, and the Rangers experience has put a lot of white in that hair.

But some things never change.

“I don’t have a lot of meetings with him,” Richards said, “but the thing about Glen, you can talk about shoes, wine, golf, fishing, hunting — you can talk about a lot of things with Glen.”

Just not hockey. Not if you’re in the media, anyway. Rules are rules. Sather was once more or less a free spirit as an interviewee, apt to come out with something outrageous just for effect — or some arrogant dagger, or some dollop of pure applesauce that everyone in the room knew was nonsense.

But Madison Square Garden put an end to that, and these days he is only occasionally off the leash. Tuesday was one of those days, if you count 15 minutes in front of a microphone, alongside his coach, Alain Vigneault, as freedom.

But as the senior manager of a Stanley Cup finalist, it is the custom to entertain questions, and Sather did so … entertainingly.

For this moment in time, anyway, the Sather Era in New York could be called a triumph. Even the harshest of his critics could relax just the tiniest notch and admit, albeit mockingly, that his 14-Year Plan to rebuild the Blueshirts had worked to near perfection.

The seemingly haphazard construction of the roster, the ill-fitting pieces that somehow fit? Today, it all makes sense.

All those rocky times — the Scott Gomez/Wade Redden/Chris Drury disasters, the millions up in smoke as he went from relative penny-pincher in Edmonton to sudden spendthrift in New York — who would be so churlish as to bring those up on a day like this?

“I don’t think it’s been rocky,” Sather said. “Every year there’s only two teams that fight for the Stanley Cup and there’s one that wins. It takes time to get in this position.”

Quite a lot of time, in some cases.

“Anyone that’s been in the hockey business knows what it can be like, and it’s complicated. I don’t see any great personal satisfaction. I’m satisfied that the team is here. I think the job is partly done. We know that we’re up against great forwards, great defence and great goaltending, so it’s going to be tough.”

Some might say the smartest thing he ever did was not interrupt when his scouts suggested spending the 205th overall pick on a Swedish goalie named Henrik Lundqvist in the 2000 entry draft, a month or so after he left the Oilers to join the Rangers as GM.

The second smartest might have been hiring Alain Vigneault after the Vancouver Canucks, ostensibly in need of a fresh voice in the room, fired him a year ago,

Why did it work for A.V., where in the end it had failed with John Tortorella (and then failed abysmally in Vancouver when the two franchises essentially “traded” coaches last summer)?
“I can’t make a comment why it didn’t work. It did work with Torts for a while,” Sather said. “I’m glad the opportunity was there to make a deal. We’ve had nothing but fun with each other. We continue to do it. It’s been a good relationship. Coaches sometimes run out of time wherever they are.”

“I don’t agree with that,” Vigneault interjected, grinning, “but that’s all right.”

“It’s like you start trying to train your kids,” Sather said. “They get tired of listening to you after a while. I went through it myself for 10 years. But it was easy. I could fire myself.”

Maybe the list of smart things Sather has done has to begin with being on the good side of Madison Square Garden’s unpredictable chairman James Dolan, because it’s frankly difficult to imagine someone the big boss didn’t like lasting as long, with as average a set of results, as Sather has.

“Well, I had another complicated owner that I worked for for a long time, as well,” Sather said, a nod to his old Edmonton boss and friend, Peter Pocklington.

“I enjoy (Dolan). I think he’s an interesting, complex, caring human being that is probably a little bit apprehensive at letting himself be known by the media. Most people like that are. You have your own private life, your own world that you live in.

“I get along with him fine. Somebody wrote that I manage him well. Well, I wouldn’t say I’m a particularly good manager. I like to be friends with the people that I work with. I like to be friends with the coaches, the players.

“At the same time you have to be respectful. I do respect him.”

There was a time when Sather didn’t mind being front and centre, even revelled in it. Now he downplays his role, and perhaps that is as it should be. He is so low-profile, some wonder whether he is more GM emeritus than hands-on boss.

A GM’s job at the Stanley Cup Final?

“It’s really complicated,” said Sather. “Today it took us about three hours to figure out which golf course we were going to play this afternoon, then later on this evening we have the question about dinner, and what are you going to watch on TV tonight. Is Game of Thrones on?”

No, that’s on Wednesday. The Kings look to be on it. The Rangers’ task is to figure out how to knock them off.

Sather hasn’t been this close for 24 years.

“I think it’s fun,” he said. “I hope our team thinks it’s fun. I hope the fans like it. It’s a very intense time of the year for everyone.

“If you can get through that intensity and enjoy it, it’s great.”

Hockey memories - Mark Messier game winning goal of Stanley cup 1994 #nhl #hockey #playoffs #memories #stanleycup

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Rangers leaning on Lundqvist in Cup final showdown with Kings #rangers #hockey #kings #playoff

 New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist listens for instructions during a drill at practice Monday in Greenburgh, N.Y. The Rangers will face the Los Angeles Kings in Game 1 of Stanley Cup final at the Staples Center on Wednesday night.

source : faceoff.com

Henrik Lundqvist had his game-day face on at practice.

He still smiled and answered all the questions thrown at him Monday about the Los Angeles Kings — the New York Rangers' long-awaited opponent in the Stanley Cup final.

"Exciting. Long flight," the star goalie said Monday before he and his teammates headed to California for New York's first appearance in the final since winning the title in 1994. "East Coast-West Coast. I'll look forward to this matchup."

If there wasn't already enough pressure on Lundqvist to lead his team to the championship, he is now part of the hype machine heading into Game 1 on Wednesday.
Headlines are screaming: "King Henrik vs. the Kings."

"Clever," he said with a slight laugh.

The Rangers have been waiting since Thursday to find out if they would face the 2012 Stanley Cup-winning Kings or the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks in the final.

They took two days off before returning to practice on Sunday. Most of the players said they watched at least part of Los Angeles' third road Game 7 win of this playoff year that night.

So practice on Monday had a bit more focus for the Rangers as they knew exactly who was standing in their way next.

"Any team you play at this time of year is a good hockey team, especially a team that has kind of been around the playoffs and the Stanley Cup finals a couple of times in the last few years," forward Derek Stepan said. "This is a very good hockey club. We have a tough challenge in front of us."

The Kings returned to Los Angeles after their 5-4 come-from-behind overtime win at Chicago and took Monday off. They have played a record 21 playoff games before the final — one more than the Rangers, who eliminated the Montreal Canadiens in six games during the Eastern Conference final.

Before this year, no team that played seven games in each of the first two rounds had reached the final. Now both clubs have done it. The Kings taking it a step further with a trio of seven-game series.

"When you knew you were playing L.A., the adrenaline started coming a little bit more," Lundqvist said. "You've been thinking about this ever since you beat Montreal, but now knowing we're going to L.A., it was easier to focus on what's coming.

"You just try to now come back to the focus and mindset you had last week. It's been nice to get a little break here and get away from it a little bit because it's been that intense."

Both teams will be back to the grind on Tuesday for media day, leading up to the opener the following night.

The Rangers and Kings split two games during the regular season — with each team winning in the other club's building — but they haven't seen each other since Los Angeles' 1-0 victory at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 17.

New York opened with a five-game Western road trip as final renovations were being made at the Garden. Its only win during that stretch was a 3-1 victory at Los Angeles on Oct. 7 — a 28-save performance by Lundqvist.

"Great goaltending. Great defence. Great forwards. Great special teams," Kings coach Darryl Sutter provided as a quick scouting report on the Rangers. "We're up against it again."

The Rangers know that many, if not most, in the hockey world aren't giving them much of a chance to win the Cup. They neither mind nor embrace the role of underdog.

They have heard it before and have just gone about their business.

"When you get into the NHL, you know how hard it is to win," forward Brad Richards said. "The underdog thing and the favourite thing really doesn't mean anything in the locker room. You have to go out and play."

New York needed seven games to get past division rival Philadelphia in the first round. The Rangers weren't expected to beat Pittsburgh from the start, and certainly not after they fell into a 3-1 series deficit.

Montreal was coming off a stirring seven-game victory over defending Eastern Conference champion Boston, so odds makers favoured the Canadiens in their matchup against New York, too.
But here the Rangers are as the last team standing.

"To put it quite simply, we're up against the team that won the Stanley Cup two years ago that just beat the defending Stanley Cup champions, that without a doubt is battle-tested," Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. "We know exactly what we have to do. If we want to have a chance, we're going to have to bring our best hockey of the year. It's as simple as that.

"We've had a couple of good practices, we're going to have another good one tomorrow and we're going to be ready come Wednesday."

He added one more thing as he left the media interview tent while wearing his sandals to go prepare for a cross-country flight.

"Bring your shorts," he said.

Kings stun Hawks in OT, advance to Stanley Cup final #hawks #kings #hockey #icehockey #playoffs

source : faceoff.com

The Cockroaches live.

They looked dead enough, down 2-0 early to a Chicago team riding a wave of United Center emotion, but the Los Angeles Kings --- the toughest out in hockey --- rallied from behind three times, and became the first team in NHL history to win three Games 7 on the road in the same playoff year Sunday night, beating the Blackhawks 5-4 in overtime.

It was a shocking end to a series that the Kings once controlled then seemed to have lost, giving up all momentum to the Hawks in Games 5 and 6.

But they simply refused to go away.

Someone calculated that the players in L.A.'s lineup entered Sunday's series finale with a combined Game 7 record of 64-2. They needed every ounce of that savvy and grit, and a little bit of luck, to get past the defending champions.

In the end, it was an innocent-looking wrist shot from the point by Alec Martinez that hit two players --- almost certainly teammate Tyler Toffoli, then Chicago defenceman Nick Leddy's --- before eluding goalie Corey Crawford at 5:47 of overtime.

It was the first Game 7 overtime in a conference final since 1994, when Stephane Matteau was the hero for the New York Rangers.

Martinez was still being credited with the goal long after the game, but whoever got it, it was fittingly a pinballing puck that produced the winner, after an evening of wild, weird bounces accounted for almost every one of the goals.

"It's part of the game," said Kings goalie Jonathan Quick. "The puck was bouncing both ways. We got a few, they got a few."

"We had an opportunity in Game 5 in overtime. That would have been a little easier. But we knew they weren't going down easily. We were fortunate to get out of it. Now we have to get our legs under us."

After three seven-game marathons, it might be tough to do.

"We just have to reset again," said Kings coach Darryl Sutter. "We did it during the regular season. We did it before the Olympics. We did it after the Olympics. We did it before the playoffs started. We did it after Game 7 of the first round, second round. We just have to do it again. Certainly it's a challenge. You play a fresh team."

The Kings return home to face the Rangers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final Wednesday at Staples Centre.

"Great goaltender, great defence, great forwards, great special teams," Sutter said, asked what he knew about the Rangers.

"So, basically you have no chance?" said a reporter.

"Yup. We're up against it again," he said, with the smallest of smiles.

The track meet the Kings said they could not afford to get into with Chicago commenced almost as soon as the puck dropped.

It began the way Game 6 ended, with the highly flammable Patrick Kane dangling and the Kings chasing. Kane set up Brandon Saad from behind the net with a pass out the far side that Saad hammered home before Jonathan Quick could get across.

Then, as these things go, Kane was hit in the back of the legs by Brent Seabrook's shot and the puck caromed right to Jonathan Toews for an open-net tap-in and a 2-0 lead on the power play. It was Kane's ninth point in three games.

But these were, after all, the Kings, and they began to get their licks in from about the time Toffoli hit the goalpost in the 16th minute. In a 51-second stretch, Crawford failed to handle a Dustin Brown shot from the wing and Jeff Carter batted the high rebound out of the air to bring L.A. within one, and Justin Williams --- Mr. Game 7 himself --- had a blocked shot land right on his stick in the slot and scored his seventh Game 7 goal to tie it.

A mere 12 seconds later, a wide-angle shot by Chicago's Patrick Sharp hit Drew Doughty's stick and took a bizarre high bounce over Quick's pad to restore the Hawks' lead.

Quick stopped four shots, and three got past him.

And that was just the first period.

The Kings had just about nothing going on in the second - they were outshot 16-4 --- but put away one of their few chances when Michal Handzus's attempted block of Matt Greene's point shot bounced straight onto Toffoli's stick for another tap-in, and another tie.

Sharp again gave Chicago the lead, scoring through a screen from the point after Quick lost his stick with two minutes left.

But if the series was too good not to have a Game 7, then Game 7 was just too wild and unpredictable not to have overtime. So of course, it did.

Crawford couldn't capture another fairly harmless wrist shot by Brown, and all the Hawks ignored the playoffs' leading goal scorer, Marian Gaborik, who cruised through the crease and deposited the puck into the net with 7:17 left to make it 4-4.

And somehow, thanks mostly to a couple of ninja-like saves by Quick, one of them on Andrew Shaw with 5.3 seconds left in regulation, the Kings got it into extra time.

There were 51 goals scored in the series, and the Kings gave up 23. They surrendered only 30 in their entire 20-game Stanley Cup run in 2012.

But they're at 21 games and still kicking.

"This was probably the most emotional seven games I've ever played, because of how games were won and lost and series leads back and forth," said Brown, the Kings' captain .

"I mean you have the last two Stanley cup champions and a great result for the NHL because the hockey was good. I mean it was sloppy but it was exciting.

"I think last year they smacked us around. Five games but it could have been four. I think we are a better team this year and evenly matched. I don't think it was revenge. It's weird in the sense that we played them back to back years but I think the respect on each side is very high."

"I don't know if that game shows that it's tough to repeat as a champion," said Sharp. "I think everybody knows it's tough to win a Stanley Cup, whether you won it the previous year or not. Tonight was two good teams with a lot of guys who've gone the distance and won Stanley Cups before. Both sides had that experience and it was a pretty entertaining game."

"That was an amazing series, it really was," said Doughty, the best player in the series. "It's even better that we won it, obviously, but that was just a hard fought battle out there. Both teams played pretty honest, there wasn't any diving, there wasn't guys cheating. It was just an honest series, battles in the corners, a lot of goals. There was everything in this series. It was a lot of fun. I hope the next series can feel the same way."

Montreal vs Rangers : Rangers oust Habs, advance to Stanley Cup final for first time since 1994 #habs #rangers #hockey #playoffs

source : faceoff.com

Max Pacioretty was sitting with his hands on his thighs in a quiet corner of a quiet dressing room. Discarded balls of hockey tape were on both sides of where he sat, a used white towel was crumpled on a seat nearby, speckled with someone’s blood.

“It’s frustrating,” he said. “You want to do so much, but there’s only so much you can do.”

The Montreal Canadiens had done more than many expected just by making the playoffs — the only Canadian NHL team to do so — then by sweeping through the first round, by emerging from a grudge match with their hated rivals and by threatening to climb from a 3-1 series deficit in the Eastern Conference final. On Thursday night, though, they could do no more.

They seemed disjointed and oddly flat in a 1-0 loss to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden, eliminated from the conference final in six games. The Rangers advanced to their first Stanley Cup final in 20 years on the 20th anniversary of their last NHL title.

Meanwhile, the streets in every Canadian NHL city will endure their 21st consecutive summer without a Stanley Cup parade. Several have come close, tiptoeing to within a few games, but none have won it since the Canadiens won their last, in 1993.

“It hurts,” said Canadiens coach Michel Therrien. “And it hurts more when you’re close.”
Montreal passes were off by feet and not inches in the first period, during the rare trips to the offensive zone. Brendan Gallagher, the 22-year-old winger who helped the team to get to Game 6, was sending passes into empty space. Even by the middle of the second period of a still-scoreless game, it felt like the team was hanging off the edge of a cliff.

The Canadiens opened the playoffs with an unexpectedly easy romp past the Tampa Bay Lightning, aided by the fact the Bolts had lost starting goaltender Ben Bishop to an injury. Montreal then battled the Boston Bruins for seven games, escaping elimination twice and winning Game 7 in enemy territory.

Their fortunes changed in the conference final. Montreal lost starting goaltender Carey Price to injury in the opener. And from his stall late Friday night, Pacioretty suggested beating the Bruins had an effect that lingered: “Maybe you feel a little bit too good about yourself.”

Montreal lost the first two at home to New York. And it never caught up.

The Rangers were in command from the opening shift on Friday. Derek Stepan hit a post behind Dustin Tokarski near the end of a power play. Tokarski was the last fingernail hanging onto the cliff, the last reason the Canadiens still had hope.

They came close with five minutes to play in the second period. Michael Bournival and Thomas Vanek had a two-on-one, with Rangers defenceman Dan Girardi desperately in pursuit. Girardi dove and he appeared to tip the puck toward the net.

Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist had been pulled two nights earlier. He allowed four goals in a 7-4 loss in Game 5 and his mental status was a talking point before the game. With the game still in doubt in Game 6, though, Lundqvist whipped his blocker around like a flyswatter to knock the puck away. It took multiple replay viewings to appreciate what he had just done.

“We played so well the entire game,” Lundqvist said, “for me it was more about just being focused on the few shots they had and in the second period.”

And what he did was allow the Rangers to take a 1-0 lead into the third period. The dam finally broke with two minutes to play before intermission. The Rangers were working on the boards and working quickly. A pass from Ryan McDonagh whipped around the end boards to Brian Boyle, who fired quickly to Dominic Moore, in the slot.

Moore scored.

The Canadiens sputtered in response. They were still being out-shot two-to-one near the end of the third period. Brandon Prust, in his first game back from a two-game suspension for a dangerous hit, took a late slashing minor. The time melted away quickly.
“
We didn’t put forth a great defensive effort the game before,” McDonagh said. “It’s tough to win when you give them a lot of looks like that.”

As the arena emptied into midtown Manhattan, the Canadiens were left in the familiar silence of the losing room.

“I say this every year and it’s becoming too much, but sometimes you’ve got to learn what it’s like to lose and how bad this feels to know how hard you’ve got to push to win,” said Canadiens defenceman Josh Gorges. “When you get older and you’ve been through it enough times, it gets harder and harder because the window gets smaller and smaller.”

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Habs : With the Bruins out of the way, Canadiens fans looking ahead to the Rangers #habs #playoffs #stanleycup

source : faceoff.com

With the Boston Bruins eliminated in a Game 7 nail-biter, Montreal Canadiens fans wasted little time in turning their attention to the team's next opponent: the New York Rangers.

Fans were jubilant Wednesday night, jamming into the downtown core to celebrate their hockey heroes moving a step closer to their first Stanley Cup in 21 years.

Many of the revellers on Ste-Catherine Street looked young enough to have been in daycare when
goaltender Patrick Roy inspired the Canadiens to glory in 1993.

Police appeared ready for trouble on Wednesday, controlling the largely festive crowd and making just five arrests three hours after the game had ended — three for municipal violations and two for alleged assault on officers.

As well as the spillout crowd from jam-packed bars, the fans included many of the 21,000 people who invaded the Bell Centre to watch the Habs' 3-1 victory in Boston on giant screens.

Pardeep Mann watched the celebration from a Ste-Catherine Street sidewalk.

"It unites everyone," he said.

"We're all here for one thing: it's the Canadiens. They're our heroes, they're our players and we're winning. It's just fun being part of winning. It doesn't happen a lot in Montreal, so it's fun."

Mann expects the crowds to get bigger and bigger the deeper the Habs go into the playoffs, beginning with the Canadiens' series against the Rangers. That showdown starts in Montreal on Saturday afternoon.

"If we reach the (Stanley) Cup finals — New York's a very good team — it's going to be huge," he said. "It's going to be very huge."

Pierre-Marc Lambert described the victory against Boston as "the best game ever!"
He predicted the Canadiens will now defeat the Rangers in the Eastern Conference final to reach the
Stanley Cup.

Fahad Syed, 21, a Habs fan since he was seven, described the win as an "amazing experience — especially beating the best team in the NHL."

Even at least one non-Montrealer was thrilled.

"I'm really happy to see Montreal win because I'm a fan of the Original Six," said Gene Krokosz, 62, who was visiting Montreal from Chicago.

"I'm a Blackhawks fan."

Krokosz said he thought Montreal deserved to defeat the Bruins.

"They put on a great performance, they outplayed Boston," he said.
As the game wound down, even Montreal police officers stationed on Ste-Catherine Street pumped their fists in celebratory manner.

Outside the Bell Centre after the game, someone put a Bruins jersey on a hockey stick and set it on fire as people began stomping on it.

Riot police intervened immediately and hauled it away while a raucous crowd continued cheering and screaming, "We Want the Cup."

Some fans set off fireworks, while others stood on people's shoulders and chanted the names of players as police guarded stores on Ste-Catherine.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper hailed Montreal's victory with a tweet: "Great to see a Canadian team finally take out the Bruins in a game 7."

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau tweeted, "Bravo les boys!"

The Bell Centre was a sea of red, white and blue during the decisive match as fans took advantage of $10 tickets to watch the game 500 kilometres away.

Some of the proceeds were destined for a Canadiens charity fund for children.
There were reports of people selling tickets for $50 in the hours leading up to the game.

Mario Trudelle attended the game with his wife, their two children and three other kids.

Everyone in the gang was wearing a Canadiens top except one young Bruins fan.

"We accept everybody," said Trudelle, who predicted a 4-2 Montreal victory.

Team spokesman Donald Beauchamp said the tickets sold out in two hours.

The peaceful denouement was in stark contrast to the scene in 2010 after fans at the Bell Centre watched the Canadiens eliminate the Penguins in a game played in Pittsburgh.

Mayhem ensued in downtown Montreal that night, with store windows smashed and rioters clashing with police.

Police have beefed up their playoff presence in recent years and always have a strong visibility downtown before and after games, particularly for series-deciding matchups.

Montreal vs Boston : Price shutout sends Canadiens to Game 7

source : faceoff.com

The skinny: The Canadiens forced a seventh and deciding game in their Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Boston Bruins when they defeated the Bruins 4-0 Monday night at the Bell Centre. Carey Price made 26 saves for his first shutout of the playoffs. Thomas Vanek scored a power-play goal and added a second goal while Tuukka Rask was leaving the ice for an extra attacker. Lars Eller and Max Pacioretty each scored once.

Out of the shadows: Pacioretty and Vanek have been invisible for large parts of this series but they scored goals in a 2:36 span late in the second period to give the Canadiens a 3-0 lead. Pacioretty scored his first goal of the series and second of the playoffs when he caught Zdeno Chara sleeping and took a stretch pass from Nathan Beaulieu. He beat Tuukka Rask through the five-hole at 15:24. Vanek added a power-play goal at 17:39. Andrei Markov got the puck to the net and Pacioretty had a swipe at it before Vanek scored during a scramble in front.

First strike: In a series where the first goal has been important, the Canadiens took a 1-0 lead when Eller scored an unassisted goal at 2:11 of the opening period. When the Bruins tried to reverse the puck behind their net, rookie Kevin Miller was unable to control the pass and the puck bounced out in front of the net. Rask dove to reach the loose puck but he was unable to control it and Eller scored when he put a backhander under the shaft of Rask’s stick.

Close calls: The Canadiens were hemmed into their own end for nearly five minutes in the second period after P.K. Subban took a penalty for holding the stick. The Canadiens successfully killed the penalty but the Bruins kept the pressure on and squandered their best scoring chance when Milan Lucic missed an open net. The Bruins also missed an opportunity in the first period when Loui Eriksson hit the crossbar on the tail end of an odd-man rush. The Bruins thought they had a goal at 11:05 of the third period when Jarome Iginla deflected a puck in front. The puck went behind Price but David Desharnais batted the puck away as it bounced along the goal line.

Juggling the lineup: Beaulieu was a surprise addition to the Canadiens’ lineup. Beaulieu finished the season with the Hamilton Bulldogs and hadn’t played a game since April 19. He was making his first playoff appearance at the pro level. Coach Michel Therrien also brought Daniel Brière back into the lineup after a one-game absence. He replaced Travis Moen.

What’s next: The series moves to the TD Garden for the deciding Game 7 Wednesday night (7 p.m., CBC, RDS, TSN Radio 690). The winner will advance to the Eastern Conference final against the winner of Tuesday night’s game between the New York Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Hockey memories (vine) - Lanny Mcdonald stanley cup goal

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