The Stanley Cup playoffs constitute the greatest postseason tournament in sports. Not just for the action, the drama, the brutality, the endurance, the pain, the glory and the legends that are made. But because in every single postseason, there are lessons to be learned.
Here are 10 things we’ve taken away from the 2023 NHL postseason, from stars being born to road teams being unstoppable to the wit and wisdom of Jack Hughes. Enjoy!
Earlier this season on The Drop, when discussing Boston Bruins star David Pastrnak getting a massive new contract, I suggested that not only was Florida Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk a better winger, but that he should be in the conversation for best all-around player in the NHL. For this suggestion, I was dragged by a bunch of fans who found it ridiculous.
A few months later?
I’m just trying not to turn an ankle on my victory lap.
Tkachuk is a star, a force, an MVP contender. He scores big goals and sets them up. He had an assist on Carter Verhaeghe‘s Game 7 series clincher and set the critical screen in front of the Boston Bruins‘ Jeremy Swayman.
Off the ice, Tkachuk has been the voice of the underdog, proclaiming that it would be miraculous if the Panthers were to take a game from the mighty Bruins. Then after Game 5 — which he won with an overtime goal — he mockingly recalled how everyone else thought Florida would get swept.
He and Sam Bennett have been the most potent duo in the Eastern Conference. Tkachuk is the current leader for the Conn Smythe Trophy, and for good reason.
Full marks to Panthers general manager Bill Zito, who boldly traded star winger Jonathan Huberdeau (and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar) to the Calgary Flames because he believed Tkachuk played the kind of game that would better lead to playoff success. Zito was right.
Home-ice advantage is a myth
I watched the Washington Capitals get eliminated on home ice in a Game 7 five different times during the Alex Ovechkin era, before they final tore off that label of playoff underachiever with their 2018 Stanley Cup Final win.
What I’ll always remember about those games was the absolute tension that hung in the air during. The vibe was ominous, sometimes fatalistic. Everyone, from the players to the fans, could feel it.
“It’s not always a blessing to be at home,” Bruins winger Brad Marchand said. “Sometimes, it’s nice to start on the road, focus on playing, focus on being with the guys.”
So far, hangin’ with the boys on the road has been the formula for success in these playoffs. Through Wednesday, road teams were 33-20 in the playoffs. In the first round, road teams established a new Stanley Cup playoffs record for away wins in any round (31). It was only the second time since the start of the NHL’s expansion era (1967-68) that all 16 playoff teams won at least once on the road. There were only 35 road wins in the entire postseason last season!
Most people I spoke with about these road warriors didn’t really have a reason for their dominance. A few others had their own theories.
“Being away, you’re in your little bubble,” Vegas Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Maybe [home teams] are caught up in that stuff from the outside getting read.”
Colorado Avalanche coach Jared Bednar offered his take.
“Maybe nerves, underdog teams, something to prove has a little bit to do with it,” Bednar said, via the Associated Press. “A little chip on their shoulder.”
But Marchand thinks, ultimately, it comes back to one thing: parity.
“Around the league, what you see now is that every team is so close,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where you’re seeded in the playoffs. Every team has a chance to win.”
Yeah, about that …
Melt down the Presidents’ Trophy for scrap
I covered the Bruins’ collapse against the Panthers. From the start, I knew something was off.
The first inkling that something could be amiss was in the first two games, when the Bruins were … just not very Bruins-like. Coach Jim Montgomery eventually acknowledged that his team — which set new NHL records for points and wins in the regular season — wasn’t prepared for the intensity of the playoffs after coasting for the last several weeks. Marchand had been candid about how nothing the team accomplished in the regular season would matter if they didn’t go wire to wire for the Stanley Cup.
When we talk about the Presidents’ Trophy curse, we’re talking about these kinds of “heavy is the head that wears the crown” anxieties. That’s one reason we’ve had nearly as many Presidents’ Trophy-winning teams that were eliminated in the first round (7) as have eventually won the Stanley Cup (8).
I’ll never forget how the Bruins reacted to the Panthers’ Game 7 overtime win. The way they stood around their bench, paralyzed, staring off into the distance as their fans were stunned into the eeriest silence I’ve ever experienced. If Patrice Bergeron hadn’t waved his teammates to center ice to salute the fans, they might still be standing there.
Instead of a Stanley Cup champion, the Bruins become another footnote, another cautionary tale. The Panthers became one of those last season, winning the Presidents’ Trophy before becoming the seventh regular-season champ to be eliminated in the second round in the wild-card era.
But Florida learned a valuable lesson in last postseason’s disappointment: The Presidents’ Trophy is meaningless. Regular-season dominance has no value in the postseason.
“They had a crazy regular season. But the playoffs are completely different,” the Panthers’ Verhaeghe said of the Bruins. “I mean, we had a crazy regular season last year, and it really didn’t amount to anything.”
In the end, this was a key to the Panthers’ victory: They weren’t in awe of Boston’s records or its shiny Presidents’ Trophy. They never genuflected before the team that would be king. Because the Panthers were that team previously, until they weren’t.
Jack Hughes is quite the quote generator
Jack Hughes: brutally honest as always 😂 pic.twitter.com/AFiCspK1Y8
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 23, 2023
New Jersey Devils star Jack Hughes has always been a bit unfiltered. That’s come to the surface in the postseason, as he has been the go-to postgame quote for the good and the bad of the Devils’ run. Among his greatest hits:
“Of course there’s frustration. We just got whacked for the second straight game, you know? We’re not playing to our standard, and it’s biting us in the ass right now.” — After Game 2
“At the end of the day, he’s a good goalie, and I’m a good player. So he’s either going to make the save or I’m going to score.” — On Igor Shesterkin during Game 3
“Some people would be like, oh, they’re inexperienced, but really, we’re just like … we don’t know better. We just play, and we do the best we can.” — After Game 7
It was the last line that inspired coach Lindy Ruff to comment on his young star.
“There are lot of things that Jack says that amazes me,” Ruff said. “I think some of it he’s speaking for himself.”
Hey, as long as he keeps speaking.
Teams are young; their players aren’t
When the Seattle Kraken made the playoffs in their second season of existence, many people believed the Avalanche would turn them into calamari in the first round. For the Avs were the defending Stanley Cup champions, and these Kraken were precious playoff newbies.
Except … they weren’t. At all.
Seattle’s Yanni Gourde has played 77 playoff games and won two Stanley Cups. Jaden Schwartz has played 96 playoff games, with a Cup win. Justin Schultz has played 75 playoff games, with two Cup wins. Jamie Oleksiak (51), Jordan Eberle (70) and even Philipp Grubauer (41) have ample playoff experience.
As playoff surprises go, Grubauer’s performance is at the top of my list as a middling regular-season goalie who really found his game in the playoffs. I thought maybe it was just a revenge tour against the Avalanche, but he also played well in Game 1 against the Dallas Stars.
It took a year, but the Kraken are playing with identity and winning with tenacity, and they might end up doing in their Year 2 what the Golden Knights did in their Year 1.
The Stanley Cup playoffs are not canon
This is so messed up.
A.J. Soprano was canonically a @NJDevils fan. Had the memorabilia in his room and everything. pic.twitter.com/WJPkB3ceGW
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) April 30, 2023
When it comes to hockey fandom, New Jersey is like Neapolitan ice cream. There are Rangers fans in North Jersey. There are Devils fans in Central Jersey, which is a thing that exists. There are Flyers fans in South Jersey.
Based on this geography, A.J. Soprano probably would have been a Rangers fan. But on “The Sopranos,” he was most definitely a Devils fan. He wore a Devils hat. There were a slew of other Devils reference. And yet, at Madison Square Garden in this series, there was Robert Iler, rocking Rangers gear. Forget the Bing; this was disrespecting the Garden State. Fuhgedaboutit!
Gerard Gallant doesn’t like speculation
Rangers breakdown day was a show.
Patrick Kane talked about his injury and how “disappointing and depressing” it was not to be at 100 percent after his trade. Vladimir Tarasenko spoke about hopefully returning to the team as a free agent. Jacob Trouba said the Rangers’ playoff loss wasn’t “all on us” because the Devils were that good. Which didn’t really go over well with the fans on social media.
But the biggest news was made by coach Gerard Gallant in a combative news conference, blaming the media for creating speculation about his job status after two seasons.
“If I can’t stand by my record and what I’ve done — and not just the record here — I think there’s something wrong. I think it’s pretty good,” he said. “But we’re in New York, and people put stuff out there — and that’s fine.”
Expect it wasn’t really fine.
“I can’t believe I have to answer some of these questions about me getting let go or getting fired, brought up by the media. Disappointing,” he said.
When Gallant was fired 49 games into the Golden Knights’ third season, he admitted that sometimes he could have been a little too “stubborn” in his ways. Later, there was talk about how Gallant’s in-game coaching was an issue, specifically his lack of making adjustments after his opponent would make them.
In the New York Post, Larry Brooks wrote that as Rangers coach, Gallant “has his faults. He is probably too stubborn, he is probably too loyal to veterans and he may not make in-game adjustments as quickly as needed.”
Gallant was outcoached by Lindy Ruff. Gallant didn’t have a tactical answer for the speed and puck-hounding defense of the Devils. He deserves credit for throwing his lines in a blender before Game 6, which juiced New York’s offense in a must-win game. But for the most part, he didn’t do enough systematically or otherwise to energize the Rangers.
Even so, Brooks isn’t in favor of Gallant taking the fall for this first-round demise. “Constant flux is not what this organization needs. It would be folly to dismiss Gallant in order to hire a recyclable, just because,” he wrote.
What if that recyclable is the second-winningest coach of all time?
In covering the Rangers-Devils series, the Joel Quenneville speculation was buzzing everywhere inside these arenas. Please recall that Quenneville resigned as Florida’s coach in October 2021 when a report detailed how the Chicago Blackhawks mishandled allegations that a player was sexually abused by an assistant coach during the team’s 2010 Stanley Cup run. Quenneville was Chicago’s coach at the time.
He resigned after a meeting with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who has said Quenneville must gain his approval before taking another NHL job.
“I assume it’d be initiated by Joel, if and when he thinks it’s the appropriate time and he feels that he’s ready to come back and there’s an opportunity,” Bettman said last May. “But again, I’ll have to make an evaluation at that time.”
Quenneville would be the kind of huge name that the Rangers would theoretically chase — and could afford. He coached Artemi Panarin in Chicago and would be counted on to get their star winger back on track. Quenneville would be an upgrade over Gallant, no doubt.
It also would be a tough sell for the Rangers from a public relations standpoint. Bringing in Quenneville to coach your team is a story that will be covered outside the hockey bubble. Fans will be upset. It’s a risk.
But the Rangers haven’t been a franchise that has necessarily cared about public perception in the past. They do what they do. And they might not even end up catching the heat for the hiring: If the NHL reinstates Quenneville, the Rangers can just point to that green light as the reason for their decision.
Adding “My Heart Will Go On” to sports highlights remains undefeated
Tavares OT GWG with the Celine Dion music is so good 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 pic.twitter.com/vlcuqkptEc
— 🍁Niко$@m🍁 (@OMN1SAM) April 30, 2023
There are certain Internet memes that are sturdier than others. Putting Celine Dion’s iconic song from “Titanic” over dramatic moments in NHL games has gone on and on, because it fits so perfectly with John Tavares sending the Toronto Maple Leafs into the second round for the first time since 2004.
Kind of weird to have the Leafs positively associated with the Titanic, though.
The sons of Chris Osgood
Goalie Chris Osgood played 17 seasons in the NHL. He had 55 or more starts in only four of those seasons. His reputation was forged in the playoffs, where he won the Stanley Cup three times, twice as the Detroit Red Wings‘ primary starter.
Osgood’s postseason numbers are pretty spectacular: .916 save percentage, 2.09 goals-against average and 74 wins in 129 career games. Of course, he played behind some incredible talent in Detroit, namely Nicklas Lidstrom, who was the best defenseman in the NHL for about a decade. But what Osgood did best was to never be the worst. He was the epitome of “we don’t need you to win this series … we just need you not to lose it.”
Surveying the landscape of the NHL right now, there’s a whole bunch of Chris Osgoods out there.
There’s only one goalie still playing in the postseason who had over 55 starts in the regular season: Jake Oettinger of the Stars (62 games). Otherwise, it’s a whole bunch of tandem goalies and netminders who aren’t being counted on to be anything but solid, not spectacular.
We haven’t quite hit that moment where teams are liberally using goalies in a tandem in the postseason, unless they’re forced to by their fortunes in the series or a game. The Minnesota Wild tried it by giving Marc-Andre Fleury a start in Game 2 against Dallas and effectively handed the momentum back to the Stars in the process. But all it takes is for one team to do it well, and everyone will follow suit.
This isn’t to say every team wouldn’t like to have an Igor Shesterkin or an Ilya Sorokin between the pipes. Of course they would. This is just to say that to win the playoffs, sometimes you just need someone who can make the saves you need when you need them. That’s what Osgood did.
Finally, can we fix the playoff format?
Look, I realize this isn’t necessarily the best time for me to jump back on my soapbox and lobby for changes to the Stanley Cup playoffs format. The first round was wild. The hockey has been great. Every series has pretty much delivered the goods. Heck, even the Winnipeg Jets made things interesting — before making their coach “disgusted” by their efforts.
But I’m going to climb back on anyway to say that we have to find a way to better protect top seeds and make the regular-season more meaningful.
Here’s what the second round would have looked like if seeded by regular-season points totals:
Hurricanes (113) vs. Panthers (92)
Devils (112) vs. Maple Leafs (111)
Golden Knights (111) vs. Kraken (100)
Oilers (109) vs. Stars (108)
The current playoff format took home ice away from a pair of teams that earned it in the regular season. It made the path more difficult for the Oilers, who play the highest remaining seed in the West. All for the sake of bracket challenges.
Putting aside my desire to expand the playoffs to 10 teams in each conference with play-in series, how about we just find ways to reward the efforts of teams over the previous 82 games? Keep the wild-card format and the forced rivalry series of the first round then shuffle the deck based on regular-season points percentage.
Again, the Stanley Cup playoffs constitute the greatest postseason tournament in sports. But we can improve on perfection.