2019-nhl-playoffs Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The Sharks Had Faith In Martin Jones, And Boy Did It Pay Off
I guess it’s hard to say whether Pete DeBoer actually believed that Sharks goaltender Martin Jones could win them back-to-back elimination games, or if he just had even less faith that shaky back-up Aaron Dell could pull it off. But regardless of if the Sharks did it because they had to, or because ...

Tomas Hertl Has Another "Guarantee" For Game 7
It was, the Sharks to a man insisted, not a guarantee. Just an excited kid with less than a mastery of English. Don’t believe them. If Tomas Hertl didn’t expect everyone to latch on to his comments ahead of a win-or-go-home Game 6 against the Golden Knights, he still knew what he was saying. And he ...

The Jets Can't Win At Home And Can't Protect Leads, But Other Than That, Everything's Fine
It all started so well for the Jets, and ended so poorly, which is how an alarmingly large number of games have gone for Winnipeg this year, and is why there are potentially an alarmingly small number of games left for them. For the 11th time this season, the Jets lost a game they had led entering t...

Warren Foegele Injured TJ Oshie With A Hard Shove In The Back And Was Only Given A Two-Minute Minor Penalty
With just over five minutes left in the third period, Carolina’s Warren Foegele gave a shove to TJ Oshie right on the numbers and sent the Washington player into the boards while he was chasing after the puck. Oshie remained down on the ice for an extended period of time in pain, but was able to lea...

Is This The End For Joe Thornton And The Sharks As We Know Them?
The San Jose Sharks have been reduced in their time to being the NHL’s glorified version of the Portland Trail Blazers—almost always in the playoffs, always ultimately being on the business end of a handshake line. It’s almost a zen koan at this point; when unrequited love turns to “Call us when you...

Philipp Grubauer Saved A Game And The Flames Are On The Brink
It’s less sexy than the Blue Jackets clobbering Tampa, but out west the Avalanche are on the verge of upsetting the other top seed, taking a 3-1 series lead over the Flames after a comeback 3-2 overtime win. Colorado’s doing a lot right, but a large share of their success belongs to goalie Philipp G...

What The Hell Happened To The Lightning?
Six days in April can change a lot....

The Lightning Should Spend The Entire Summer With Paper Bags On Their Heads
Never has an NHL team had more reason to be embarrassed. First period of Game 1 aside, the Tampa Bay Lightning who won 62 games in the regular season failed to show up in their first-round series against the tremendously underestimated Columbus Blue Jackets, and they paid the price. As the Lightning...

Cale Makar Has Arrived And His Parents Are Just Barely Holding It Together
It’s been a busy few days for Cale Makar. On Friday, he was named the Hobey Baker Award winner for top college player. On Saturday, he and UMass played in and lost the NCAA Championship game. On Sunday, he signed an entry-level contract with the Avalanche, who had drafted him fourth overall in 2017....

Nathan MacKinnon's Wrist Is Trying To Kill The Flames All By Itself
The Flames had one of those nights on Monday, going down 4-0 in 28 minutes before an eventual 6-2 Avalanche win to give Colorado a 2-1 series lead. They picked up two simultaneous penalties—including too many men on the ice—to give up the Avs’ first goal on a 5-on-3. They got outshot 56-29. They eve...

Mitch Marner Is Everything For The Leafs
Probably the biggest story out of Monday night’s 3-2 Leafs win over the Bruins is the resurrection of Auston Matthews, who in the second period scored his first goal in the month of April to put Toronto in the lead for good. But if there’s an enduring image of this game for Leafs’ fans—particularly ...

Alex Ovechkin Just Dropped Andrei Svechnikov
The Carolina Hurricanes scored the first blow of their Game 3 matchup with the Capitals, getting a goal from Warren Foegele to go up 1-0. But Alex Ovechkin responded with a literal counterpunch—a whole bunch of them, in fact—to knock down Andrei Svechnikov....

Nazem Kadri Is Done For The Rest Of The First Round
As expected, the NHL hit Toronto Maple Leafs forward Nazem Kadri with a multi-game suspension on Monday evening for his high crosscheck on Boston Bruin Jake DeBrusk from Game 2 of their first-round series on Saturday:...

Ryan Reaves Wasn't Going To Let Joe Thornton Face A Suspension Without Getting In A Burn
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety has been busy in this young postseason. Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov was handed a one-game suspension for boarding, Toronto’s Nazem Kadri is probably going to get something like five games for this, and now it’s Joe Thornton’s turn for a hearing....

Vegas's Second Line Is Unstoppable Right Now
For all the things that went right for Vegas in its inaugural season last year, its second line occasionally proved a headache. The combo of James Neal, Erik Haula, and David Perron put in some goals, but was a defensive disaster—George McPhee claimed it was dead last in the league among second line...

The Lightning Look Like Toast
“We’re still playing Tuesday. We’re still alive.” That’s Lightning head coach Jon Cooper giving an exhaustive list of everything positive about this opening-round series for Tampa, which could indeed end on Tuesday, just not in a way he or anyone else could have ever predicted....

The Refs Lost Control As The Bruins And Maple Leafs Tried To Kill Each Other
The Bruins took Game 2 against the Maple Leafs on Saturday with a 4-1 win in Boston. Though they won with a large margin of victory on the scoreboard, the game was much closer in terms of physicality. ...

Sharks' Logan Couture Is Thankful He Didn't Lose A Testicle When A Hockey Puck Hit Him In The Dick And Balls
Down 4-3 in the second period, the San Jose Sharks had an opportunity to tie up the game when they were awarded a power play. But as the countdown clock for the penalty reached its final 30 seconds, it was Vegas that would end up with the goal-scoring opportunity. Reilly Smith passed the puck from t...
![The Lightning Dug Themselves Into A 2-0 Hole, Then Nikita Kucherov Made Things Worse [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/ealuylr8ju7f7dxze85z.jpg)
The Lightning Dug Themselves Into A 2-0 Hole, Then Nikita Kucherov Made Things Worse [Update]
Now that the Columbus Blue Jackets and Tampa Bay Lightning have played two playoff games against each other, let’s check in on the team that Vegas all but guaranteed would have a spot in the Stanley Cup final:...

The Penguins Appear To Be A Little Upset
It’s safe to say that the Pittsburgh Penguins are not happy about being down 2-0 to the New York Islanders. This became evident in the waning seconds of their 3-1 loss that took place in front of a raucous crowd at Nassau Coliseum on Friday. Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin started to goon things up a bit...