Barry Trotz has a pretty morbid metaphor for the situation his Washington Capitals will be in on Sunday night.
"If you have the opportunity to push someone off the cliff, you want to push them off," the head coach told reporters Saturday, according to Stephen Whyno of The Associated Press.
The Capitals have the Leafs on the edge of the proverbial precipice, holding a 3-2 series lead thanks to Justin Williams' overtime winner in Game 5 on Friday night.
If Washington fails to send Toronto plummeting into the offseason abyss on Sunday, the Capitals will host Game 7 on Tuesday.
Andrew Shaw will miss his first game of the playoffs on Saturday night.
The Montreal Canadiens pest is dealing with an injury and won't be in the lineup for Game 6 against the New York Rangers, Canadiens head coach Claude Julien confirmed after the morning skate.
Brian Flynn will appear in his first 2016-17 playoff game in Shaw's absence.
The Canadiens trail the Rangers 3-2 in the series, and they'll be looking to avoid elimination in hostile territory at Madison Square Garden.
"I was watching TV," Ovechkin said postgame, via Sportsnet. "Just (having) a Coke and watch(ing) the match."
Kadri was handed a two-minute tripping minor for the hip check that forced Ovechkin to take the brief trip to the locker room, and while the Capitals captain was in there, T.J. Oshie opened the scoring on the ensuing power play.
Ovechkin often appears superhuman, but sometimes he shows he's just like us.
The Chicago Blackhawks general manager put any chatter about Joel Quenneville's future to rest as the club met with media for the last time this season Saturday morning.
"Joel is our head coach. He will continue to be our head coach," Bowman told reporters, according to the Chicago Sun-Times' Mark Lazerus. And Joel and I will work together to make sure this (sweep) never happens again."
The GM said other moves will be made, but didn't go into detail.
Stan Bowman angry, repeatedly saying the sweep was "unacceptable." Said changes are on the way, but offered no specifics at all.
Bowman was predictably perturbed when addressing the Blackhawks' first-round elimination at the hands of the Nashville Predators, who swept Chicago and didn't allow a goal in either of the first two games.
"I'm completely disappointed," he said. "It's unacceptable to be where we are today. I'm frustrated, I'm angry. ... Complete failure."
Bowman acknowledged the Blackhawks fell way short of expectations.
"We did not come even close to reaching the standard we've set for ourselves over the years here," he said.
He took responsibility for that, adding: "That starts with me. I need to be better. There's no doubt about it. I can promise you I will be better."
The Blackhawks entered the postseason as the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, but they sputtered down the stretch, losing their final four regular-season games, before dropping all four to the Predators.
Quenneville has guided Chicago to three Stanley Cup championships in nine years, so Bowman's confirmation of his coach's job security isn't a major shock, despite the club's first-round exits in each of the last two seasons.
His first NHL goal tied Game 5 of the Bruins' first-round series against the Ottawa Senators on Friday night, and his second career marker ended the double-overtime affair while helping Boston stave off elimination.
Unless you're a hardcore Bruins fan or a college hockey aficionado, you might not be too familiar with the 24-year-old center. So just how did he go from relative obscurity to scoring an overtime winner in the Stanley Cup Playoffs?
Until Friday night's heroics, Kuraly was essentially the answer to a trivia question.
He wasn't a highly touted prospect, falling to the fifth round in the 2011 draft before the San Jose Sharks chose him 133rd overall. Before his Game 5 double dip, Kuraly was primarily known for being part of the package that netted the Sharks their No. 1 goaltender, Martin Jones.
In late June 2015, the Sharks shipped Kuraly to Boston along with a 2016 first-round pick that became prospect Trent Frederic in exchange for Jones. While the netminder was obviously the centerpiece of the deal, Kuraly was more than just a throw-in.
He was specifically targeted by John Ferguson Jr., Bruins executive director of player personnel, who served as the Sharks' director of pro scouting from 2008-14.
Ferguson knew Kuraly from San Jose's development camps. He tracked Kuraly’s progress at Miami. In December of 2012, before the 2013 World Junior Championship, Ferguson watched Kuraly in pre-tournament practices in Tarrytown, N.Y. It was then, because of Kuraly’s skating and size as a center, that Ferguson was confident he would become an NHL player.
At the time of the deal, Kuraly had finished his junior season at Miami of Ohio, where he was a teammate of Bruins prospect Austin Czarnik. Kuraly scored 19 goals in 40 games for the RedHawks that season, the most he'd tally in any of his collegiate campaigns.
After serving as Miami's captain for his senior season, he joined the Bruins' AHL club in Providence in 2016-17, posting 14 goals and 26 points in 54 games. He was summoned for eight NHL games in the regular season, but failed to make much of an impact, collecting a single assist.
Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy has given Kuraly several chances to prove himself in the playoffs, inserting him into the lineup for Games 1 and 2 against the Senators, and Kuraly's most recent opportunity came at the expense of Ryan Spooner.
Kuraly proved much more than a footnote to Spooner's Game 5 benching with a two-goal performance that helped Boston force Game 6.
He didn't come out of nowhere, but he wasn't exactly on the hockey world's collective radar until Friday's heroics. Still, whether he sticks in the lineup for good or ultimately needs more time to develop consistency, Kuraly has already proven he's more than an afterthought.
The rookie forward scored his second goal of Game 5 in double overtime, helping his team avoid elimination and take the opening-round series back to Boston.
Kuraly, 24, entered the postseason with one assist in eight appearances with the Bruins, meaning his offensive outburst in Game 5 marked his first two goals at the NHL level.
Kuraly, by the way, was inserted into the lineup as a replacement for Ryan Spooner - a decision that certainly paid off for interim head coach Bruce Cassidy.
Boston Bruins forward Noal Acciari appeared to score a season-saving overtime goal Friday in Game 5, but it was disallowed after video review due to goaltender interference on the part of Sean Kuraly.
The Toronto Maple Leafs had the NHL's second-best power play throughout the regular season, but it was their inability to generate any sort of offense with the man advantage that cost them a crucial Game 5 tilt with the Washington Capitals on Friday night.
The Leafs went 0-for-4 on the power play, failing to take advantage of the Capitals' undisciplined penalties. They didn't just fail to score while up a man, they weren't able to generate much pressure, either.
Power play
Shots attempted
Shots on goal
1st
0
0
2nd
1
0
3rd
5
2
4th
5
2
Toronto only managed to throw four pucks on goal during four power plays, and at least two of them were weak shots from the outside.
Their one glorious opportunity with the man advantage came when Washington turned the puck over off a Toronto dump-in, leaving James van Riemsdyk all alone in front. He attempted to slide the puck through Braden Holtby's five hole, rather than waiting out the netminder and lifting it over his right pad.
The most glaring issue was that Toronto's zone entries on the power play were stymied by Washington's penalty killers.
Gardiner appears to be channeling his inner Captain Obvious.
(Courtesy: Action Images)
Maybe it's Toronto's zone entries that need an adjustment.
"Well, not winning any faceoffs and our entries haven't been very good," head coach Mike Babcock told reporters when asked why the power play struggled. "We'll have to go back to the drawing board.
"They've done a good job on that and then obviously they've got in our head a little bit there because we're not coming with the same kind of pace we normally do on entries," said Babcock.
Like many teams, the Leafs opt to skate the puck up to the neutral zone and drop it back to a deep player with a full head of steam. Whether that puck-carrier was Matthews, Nylander, or Mitch Marner, nobody was very successful.
This tactic was awfully successful throughout the regular season, but in a seven-game series, opponents begin to catch on.
Even in the few occasions where they were able to get the puck into Washington's zone, their setup was short-lived. The Capitals did a great job taking away time and space from Toronto's skilled players on the half wall, and of blocking shots when Toronto was able to find some space.
Whatever adjustments need to be made with their power play, the Leafs have arguably the best coach in the business in Babcock to find and fix the issues.
If the Maple Leafs can't get their power play going in Game 6, there likely won't be a Game 7.
