Happy Friday, everyone! Round 2 of the playoffs kicked off with a bang last night, and hopefully this weekend will bring some more quality hockey to help ignore NFL Draft coverage.
There wasn’t much Dallas Stars news released yesterday (Dallas or Texas), but Mike Heika gave Esa Lindell his season grade (which Ann already did masterfully yesterday), so we’ll keep it short and sweet up top. Have a great weekend!
Stars Stuff
Sean Shapiro’s mailbag this week is another classic:
What could the Stars’ lines look like next year? Could Julius Honka and Miro Heiskanen wind up playing in tandem? Who would quarterback an all-Stars football team? @seanshapiro
is here for you with these answers.https://t.co/mNR8Ixdp0d— The Athletic (@TheAthleticDFW) April 26, 2018
Kind of a slow day on the Stars’ news front, so here are some Razor calls to enjoy:
You’re a gem, @Razor5Hole. Follow us on Insta for more of Razor’s best calls and our top plays from this past season. ⬇
📸 https://t.co/YsW6PZYQXD pic.twitter.com/UzYTD8Q1cr
— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) April 26, 2018
In the same vein, this is the most Craig Ludwig tweet possible, I love it so much:
Caught my limit on bottle bass last night… https://t.co/uwXVwkAGfi
— craig ludwig (@taz3311) April 26, 2018
Around the League
Playoff update:
- Oh boy. Alexander Ovechkin score early in the third period to put the Washington Capitals up 2-0, but Patric Hornqvist, Sidney Crosby, and Jake Guentzel took a little less then five minutes to erase the deficit and lead the Penguins to a 3-2 victory in Game 1. Matt Murray made some huge saves, especially late in the game. [NHL]
- Holy mackerel, that was something! The Vegas Golden Knights shellacked the San Jose Sharks 7-0. Several former Stars were involved in this one. James Neal has 27 career playoff goals, which is blowing my mind. He maybe could have had another one in this game, but it was deemed that he punched it in with his glove. [NHL]/
Elliotte Friedman had 31 Thoughts yesterday. I think that a lot of teams would enjoy having the “issues” facing the Toronto Maple Leafs this offseason:
31 Thoughts (thank you @GMCcanada) https://t.co/yUlyyshuTu
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) April 26, 2018
This is my yearly reminder that I strongly dislike the NHL’s playoff seeding structure:
Top-ranked Predators vs. Jets clash could be a Cup finalhttps://t.co/hXWpiTnwt4 pic.twitter.com/Vp5cmyeZ1U
— Hockey Night in Canada (@hockeynight) April 26, 2018
This is also a weird move by the NHL, although I didn’t really think it was that big of a deal. Hockey writers, on the other hand, were enraged by this news:
Just saw the NHL’s format/timing for Saturday’s draft lottery. Picks 15 thru 4 between 7:30 and 8:00 p.m. ET, picks 3 thru 1 in the second intermission of an 8 p.m. ET game. Huh. I suppose we should be happy they aren’t doing one pick a day for two weeks. 🤔
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) April 26, 2018
Down Goes Brown has a very nice breakdown of the second round:
From earlier: My round two preview, in which I was obviously too pessimistic about the Capitals. https://t.co/5fwZ3c8FUv
— Down Goes Brown (@DownGoesBrown) April 26, 2018
Dave Lozo goes full heel on Toronto fans:
.@davelozo breaks down what’s worse – Leafs’ Game 7 loss in Boston last night, the 2013 collapse, or getting hit in the face with a sack of quarters 🤔 https://t.co/wesLJXdwWR pic.twitter.com/cIW61aTlip
— Chris Toman (@Chris_Toman) April 26, 2018
This seems about right:
McDavid, MacKinnon and Hall are Finalists for the Ted Lindsay Award. The players vote on the game’s best player.
— John Shannon (@JSportsnet) April 26, 2018
Hopefully this will be relevant to Stars fans soon:
Wanted to clarify something: I’ve heard people say “Rasmus Dah-LEEN” or “Ramus DAH-lin” all year.
Well I asked Rasmus Dahlin yesterday and I can officially declare it’s “DahLEEN.” Debate over.
(No idea why anyone though it was DAHlin anyways. Henrik SeDEEN, Mats SunDEEN etc.)
— Matt Larkin (@THNMattLarkin) April 26, 2018
As old Bill Shakespeare once said, “Brevity is the soul of wit”:
Subtle. @penguins @Capitals pic.twitter.com/UBYiGreSxP
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) April 26, 2018