Get your dancing shoes, Blues fans.
St. Louis is off to the playoffs for a fifth straight season, and for the 40th time in franchise history, clinching a berth in the best tournament in sports Friday night with a 4-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks.
Brian Elliott wasn't busy in net for the Blues, making only 15 saves and two in the third period, but a shutout's a shutout, and it's his third straight since returning from injury. He's clearly in postseason form.
.@StLouisBlues' @KidElls1 has posted three straight shutouts for the third time in his career (also March 22-27, 2012 and April 7-11, 2013).
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) March 26, 2016
It's Ken Hitchcock's fourth straight playoff appearance as St. Louis' head coach, but this year's Stanley Cup playoffs take on extra significance for the 64-year-old. The Blues have been knocked out in the first round the past two seasons, and should that happen again, Hitchcock will likely be looking for work in the summer.
While the Chicago Blackhawks, Dallas Stars, and Los Angeles Kings get much of the press in the Western Conference, the Blues have quietly had a superb season. Friday night's win gives them 97 points, which equals the No. 1 Stars' total. And they've had to overcome significant injuries to core players Alex Steen, Paul Stastny, Kevin Shattenkirk, Alex Pietrangelo, and Elliott.
Hitchcock: “I’m proud of the players, but I’m proud of the coaches. We managed a very difficult time with a lot of players missing.”
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) March 26, 2016
Most importantly, St. Louis is peaking at the right time. The Blues are 8-2 in March, and will face the Washington Capitals in D.C. on Saturday. That's a measuring-stick game if there ever was one. Jake Allen will start in goal. Let's face it: Elliott's earned some rest.
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While the playoffs may be just weeks away, San Jose Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer is still not ready to name his starting goaltender.
Martin Jones and the newly-acquired James Reimer have shared netminding duties over the past few weeks and Deboer expects to stay the course as the team heads down the stretch.
"All kinds of things can happen here over the next two weeks. We're just going to worry about tomorrow," DeBoer said, according to Kevin Kurz of CSN Bay Area. "We think we've got two guys that we're very comfortable with, and we'll see where we are when we have to make those decisions."
The two have split the team's last 12 games going 7-5-0 and have both fared admirably with Jones posting a .932 save percentage and Reimer riding a .920 in that span.
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It was never in doubt.
Okay, fine, it was in doubt for the first half of the season, and much of Thursday night, but the Anaheim Ducks clinched a postseason berth despite losing to the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-5 in overtime.
It's Anaheim's fourth straight postseason berth and the 12th in club history.
Anaheim has rode a resurgent second half to the playoffs, winning 12 in a row from Feb. 13 through March 5. The team isn't playing its best hockey right now, though, having lost six of nine.
On Thursday, the Maple Leafs were up 4-1 with three minutes to play in the second period. That's when the Ducks began to fly: Anaheim scored twice in nine seconds to cut the lead to 4-3, and took a 5-4 lead in the third period before Maple Leafs forward Connor Brown tied it up with his first NHL goal. Nazem Kadri scored the overtime winner, tying a career-high with four points.
The Ducks' top-ranked penalty-killing unit had a night to forget, allowing three power-play goals to Toronto's 30th-ranked man advantage unit.
The Ducks have 90 points, good for second in the Pacific Division. They're within striking distance of the Los Angeles Kings, who lost to the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday. The Kings have 93 points, and the Ducks have a game in hand.
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The Dallas Stars are in.
Texas' team clinched a Western Conference playoff berth with a rather convincing win over the division-rival Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday.
The Stars, who were playing without top center Tyler Seguin, earned the convincing victory thanks to a host of depth players, namely Colton Sceviour, Vernon Fiddler, and Patrick Eaves, who all scored in the first period en route to an early 4-0 lead that would not be relinquished.
Strange but true: This is the fourth game this season in which the Stars have held a 4-0 lead over the Blackhawks
— Pat Pickens (@Pat_Pickens) March 23, 2016
The postseason-clinching win marked the fourth time the Stars have beaten the Blackhawks in five meetings this season, with Dallas outscoring Chicago 20-11 in those contests.
It also strengthened the Stars' hold on both the Central Division and Western Conference leads.
Not bad for a team that was on the outside looking in this time last year.
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Sorry, Sweden.
The Swedish national team's brain trust was in Toronto to scout William Nylander on Monday, and the young man put on an offensive display. He had a career-high three-point night, scoring once and adding two assists, pacing the Maple Leafs to their fifth win in eight games.
And after the game, head coach Mike Babcock made sure there were no doubts: Nylander won't be going to Russia to represent Sweden at the upcoming world championships.
Babcock says Nylander will be playing in AHL playoffs not the worlds. In case there was any doubt.
— James Mirtle (@mirtle) March 22, 2016
The Toronto Marlies are the class of the AHL, leading the league with 46 wins and 97 points. A playoff spot is locked up, and once the Maple Leafs' season is over, Nylander will head back to the Ricoh Coliseum from the Air Canada Centre and suit up in the postseason.
Nylander's first taste of NHL hockey has been fruitful. He has four goals and three assists in 12 games.
Babcock says Nylander "wants to be great."
— James Mirtle (@mirtle) March 22, 2016
"It takes time in this league to become a man and a player."
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Stop us if you've heard this before: The San Jose Sharks have the look of a team capable of going on a long playoff run.
This has not been an uncommon sentiment over, oh, the past decade or so, as the Bay Area squad has been one of the most successful regular season teams since the lost 2004-05 season, with a pair of Western Conference finals appearances to their credit.
However, the Sharks entered into a state of complete disarray following a calamitous first-round collapse in a 2014 series against Los Angeles, and failed to even qualify for the playoffs last season, with cornerstone centers Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau seemingly destined to be jettisoned in favor of building around a younger core.
But lo and behold, the Sharks have just kept swimming, and appear well poised to take a serious bite out of the competition this spring.
Here's why.
The Sharks demonstrated great faith in Martin Jones by coughing up a 2016 first-round pick and prospect Sean Kuraly to the Boston Bruins to secure the services of the up-and-coming netminder.
That appears to have been well placed, as the 26-year-old has risen to the occasion in his first season as a starter at the NHL level.
In a savvy pre-deadline move, general manager Doug Wilson looked Toronto's way and reeled James Reimer into the fold. While his role is expected to be supportive, he's played well enough early on in his tenure with the Sharks to warrant starts down the stretch and possibly in the playoffs.
| Player | GP | Record | Sv% | GAA | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Martin Jones | 59 | 35-19-4 | .919 | 2.26 | 5 |
| James Reimer | 4 | 3-1-0 | .952 | 1.27 | 2 |
Don't forget Reimer is set to become an unrestricted free agent at season's end, giving him all the motivation in the world to make good on this opportunity with the Sharks, especially as the member of this tandem who brings playoff experience to the mix.
At age 36, Joe Thornton remains a force to be reckoned with.
Sitting second in assists (52) and eighth in total points (70) through 72 games, Thornton performing basically on par with his career average of 0.98 points per game. Throw in his 50 penalty minutes and a wicked beard, and he's showing off the kind of bite that has made him one of the game's premiere centers.
One could argue that Thornton already boasts a Hall of Fame worthy resume, with a Stanley Cup being the major team award still missing. With one year remaining on his contract, this could be Thornton's last best chance to with in San Jose, and we have to think he'll do everything he can to make good on it.
Don't believe the "too laid back to win" knock on his playoff performance; his 82 points in 97 postseason games as a Shark belie that myth.
The Sharks' roster features only seven players over the age of 30, all of whom have experienced their fair share of playoff battles and, let's face it, failure.
Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Joe Pavelski, and Brent Burns have been around for the bulk of San Jose's disappointments, while Joel Ward got a taste of it in recent years in Washington and Paul Martin joined Pittsburgh after the 2009 run to the Cup.
The last of the over-30 crowd, Dainius Zubrus, went to the final with New Jersey in 2012, a team coached by Sharks' current bench boss, Pete DeBoer.
These veterans, motivated as they may be to shake off the past, have the benefit of playing with some fresh young talent in San Jose this season, a healthy Logan Couture - still only 26 - certainly not least among them.
Make no mistake, this team is led by Thornton, Pavelski, and Burns, a trio that ranks 8-9-10 in league scoring. But it's the likes of Tomas Hertl, Joonas Donskoi, Chris Tierney, Matt Nieto, and Melker Karlsson that are infusing the forward ranks with an extra boost, giving San Jose a fourth-ranked 211 goals to date.
It's not rocket science, at the end of the day. Heading into Monday's action, the Sharks had the NHL's third-best goal differential (plus-29), behind only Washington and Los Angeles. If Jones and/or Reimer can keep the puck out of the net enough to allow the revamped offense to do its thing, the Sharks could be a surprise team to come out of the West.
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