Today’s games were part of a back-to-back for both the Islanders-Flyers series and the Canucks-Golden Knights series. This led to a common theme throughout Sunday’s games, backup goaltenders. The backup play showed as the Stars-Avalanche game combined for 9 goals while the Golden Knights-Canucks game combined for 8 goals. The hub cities have brought us a different game and with that different game, we see some teams starting to emerge from the pack and look ready to hoist the Stanley Cup.
Avalanche–Stars
I honestly thought the Aves flipped the momentum in the series after game three. Colorado stumbled in their first two games but found themselves in game three and looked to turn a corner. That all changed in the first period, as they fell into a 3-0 deficit. Credit to the Avalanche, they crawled back into the game with two goals in the second period and came as close to a one-goal deficit twice in the game but it was too little too late.
Dallas is now one win away from the conference final. The offense has been rolling since the first round and doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon. The Stars might put away the Avalanche in the next game and end what was a very promising season for Colorado.
Flyers–Islanders
As the second game of the double-header, both backup goalies were in. The advantage was clearly in the Islanders’ favor, the drop-off from Semyon Varlamov to Thomas Griess was not nearly as drastic as the drop-off from Carter Hart (one of the best young goalies in the NHL) to Brian Elliott. The Islanders allowed a late goal but were in control throughout the game with the help of two Brock Nelson goals. The Islanders have shown great depth since the Barry Trotz era started, the unique quality of this Islanders squad is that anyone could be the star of the night and we have seen this throughout the playoffs (it can be Mat Barzal one night and Brock Nelson another night). I’m starting to think that John Tavares was ultimately holding the Islanders back, almost in an uncannily similar way to Bryce Harper with the Nationals in baseball.
Golden Knights–Canucks
This game comes with some surprise but ultimately an expected outcome. For most of the game, it looked like the Canucks were going to tie this series as they boasted a 3-2 lead entering the final period of play. The game completely unraveled from there for Vancouver, as Las Vegas scored three unanswered goals to win 5-3. Once again this game was a reminder that the Golden Knights are the better team, even as everything was going right for Vancouver, they still couldn’t hold on to win. Vegas also reminded us how vital a backup goalie is in the hub city style of hockey, Marc Andre Fleury didn’t have a great night but again is not a far drop-off from Robin Lehner (Fleury also has the playoff experience that few backups possess). The Golden Knights are ready to move on to the conference final and look like the best team in the field at the moment.
