Category Archives: Hockey News

Playoff percentages: Everything falls into place for the Leafs

Through the remainder of the regular season, we'll take a look at how the night's action impacts the playoff race, highlighting which teams' postseason odds went up or down significantly.

Another dramatic swing for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Two days after relative catastrophe - with every result from Tuesday night's schedule hurting their playoff chances - the Maple Leafs bounced back to smash the Lightning in their latest most important game of the season. In doing so, Toronto saw every other competitor in the race for the final few seeds in the Eastern Conference postseason come up empty.

The Islanders, Panthers, Senators, Bruins, Flyers, and Lightning, of course, all suffered regulation losses, allowing the Maple Leafs to sneak back into the eighth seed.

Over in the West, the Kings collected two points in their win over the Sabres. But their postseason chances took a hit, as the Oilers, Predators, and Blues were all winners as well.

Eastern Conference

Team Result Playoff Chances Change
Bruins L 7-4 vs. Oilers 87.8% -2.0%
Maple Leafs W 5-0 vs. Lightning 61.6% +24.9%
Lightning L 5-0 vs. Maple Leafs 27.2% -12.8%
Islanders L 4-2 vs. Jets 23.7% -10.3%

Western Conference

Team Result Playoff Chances Change
Oilers W 7-4 vs. Bruins 98.9% 0.3%
Blues W 4-1 vs. SJ 95.5% 2.1%
Predators W 2-1 (OT) vs. Capitals 94.2% 2.4%
Kings W 2-0 vs. Sabres 19.3% -2.0%

To see percentages for the entire NHL, visit Sports Club Stats.

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Watch: Brown collects point No. 500 on Iginla tally

With a secondary assist on Jarome Iginla's third-period goal, Dustin Brown picked up the 500th point of his career on Thursday night.

Brown is just the eighth player in Los Angeles Kings history to reach the mark.

The 32-year-old collected another assist on Adrian Kempe's late tally and now has 31 points on the season, his most since the 2011-12 campaign.

(Video courtesy: NHL.com)

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McDavid, Marchand reclaim scoring lead as Oilers trounce Bruins

EDMONTON, Alberta - Patrick Maroon scored twice, Leon Draisaitl had a goal and two assists, and Connor McDavid added three assists as the Edmonton Oilers beat up on the Boston Bruins 7-4 on Thursday night.

Benoit Pouliot, Anton Slepyshev, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Milan Lucic also scored for the Oilers, who moved one point ahead of Calgary for third place in the Pacific Division.

David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, Dominic Moore, and David Krejci had a goal each for the Bruins, who had a four-game winning streak snapped.

The Oilers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on a pair of goals 59 seconds apart by Maroon, who upped his career-high goal total on the season to 24.

Edmonton got another goal three minutes later as David Desharnais hooked around the net and sent the puck in front to Pouliot, who poked it past goalie Tuukka Rask. It was Pouliot's second goal in two games after breaking a 28-game scoreless drought against Dallas on Tuesday.

Boston got one back on a power play with 7 1/2 minutes remaining in the opening frame when Marchand made a perfect pass to set up Pastrnak at the side of the net for his 31st goal of the season, and fifth in his last five games.

The Bruins made it 3-2 with two minutes to go in the first, as Marchand was left alone at the side of the net to score his 37th goal of the season and 12th in his last 11 games.

The Oilers scored again with 51 seconds remaining when Slepyshev batted the rebound of McDavid's shot out of the air and past Rask.

Edmonton made it 5-2 two minutes into the second on the power play as Drake Caggiula's pass went off Bruin forward Riley Nash's skate and into the net. Rask was replaced in the Boston net by Anton Khudobin.

Boston fought back a couple minutes later, getting a short-handed goal from Moore.

Draisaitl made it 6-3 Edmonton seven minutes into the second, picking off a pass at mid-ice and going the distance to score his 60th point, the most ever in an NHL season by a German-born player.

Edmonton added another power-play goal with five minutes left as a puck hit Lucic and got past Khudobin. It was the second game in a row that the Oilers have scored seven goals, and the first time they had done that at home since 1988.

Krejci scored on a Boston man advantage with 32 seconds left in the middle period.

NOTES: There was no scoring in the third, but a brief scare when Boston forward Matt Beleskey was hit in the right side of the head with a shot from Patrice Bergeron in the game's final minute. He was slow to get up, but skated off with the assistance of Bergeron.

UP NEXT

Bruins: Travel to play at Toronto on Sunday.

Oilers: Host Vancouver on Saturday.

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Maple Leafs are 1st team with 3 rookies to hit 50 points in decades

With an assist on Connor Brown's second-period goal Thursday night, William Nylander picked up his 50th point of the season.

In doing so, Nylander became the third Toronto Maple Leafs rookie to hit the 50-point plateau, joining Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. The achievement makes the Maple Leafs the first team to have three first-year players reach the milestone since the 1992-93 Winnipeg Jets.

Matthews and Marner - who picked up an assist Thursday - have 55 points, while Nylander has 50. They sit second, third, and fourth in rookie scoring, respectively, all trailing Jets forward Patrik Laine.

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Boudreau: Wild can handle adversity

No problem for the Minnesota Wild.

Despite losing their third straight game, there is no reason to believe the Wild can't get their season back on track, coach Bruce Boudreau told reporters following Thursday's 3-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.

"I've seen them play great, so why wouldn't I think that they're going to fight their way out of it?" Boudreau said. "It doesn't make any sense to think that they wouldn't."

It's been a rough March for the Wild, who own a 2-6-0 showing so far. The team has also won just four of 10 contests since trading three draft choices - including this year's first-round pick - to the Arizona Coyotes for center Martin Hanzal.

The recent performances have been in stark contrast to the 41-14-6 record that Minnesota owned at the end of February, after running a 12-game win streak earlier this season. The Wild now sit three points back of the Chicago Blackhawks for top spot in the Central.

Minnesota's inability to score has been evident in its recent slump. The team has been limited to two or fewer goals in six of eight games in March.

If anything, Boudreau isn't casting blame on goaltender Devan Dubnyk, who took the loss to the Hurricanes. Afterward, Boudreau said: "He allowed two. We should be able to score three in a game."

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Bozak credits off-ice bonding for strong effort vs. Lightning

Maybe a few extracurriculars aren't such a bad idea, after all.

Following one of the club's most dismal displays of the season on Tuesday night against Florida, the Toronto Maple Leafs rebounded in a big way on Thursday, cruising to a 5-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The team received a lot of backlash after Tuesday's 7-2 shelling by the Panthers, as photos posted on Instagram showed that players - including Morgan Rielly, Tyler Bozak, Mitch Marner, Leo Komarov, and Josh Leivo - had spent Sunday fishing.

What a day of fishing 🐠🐟

A post shared by Mitch Marner (@marner_93) on

Following Thursday's game, Bozak took joy in hinting that time spent away from the rink was to thank for Toronto's effort vs. the Lightning.

"We had a lot of energy," Bozak said with a smile, according to TSN's Mark Masters. "Whenever you have a few days to bond, do some stuff outside the rink it helps. It helped us tonight."

Never a dull moment with the Maple Leafs.

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Watch: Craig Cunningham walks without assistance in latest update

What a difference a week makes.

Seven days after TSN's Ray Ferraro tweeted an inspiring video of Craig Cunningham using a walker to make his way down a hall, the analyst shared a new one showing the former Arizona Coyotes farmhand walking purely under his own power.

Cunningham collapsed in an AHL game back in November and required emergency surgery. During the surgery, he went into cardiac arrest and had to have his left foot and part of his leg amputated.

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Arvidsson snipes 1st career OT winner past Holtby

The Nashville Predators bested the league-leading Washington Capitals on Thursday, thanks to Viktor Arvidsson's first career overtime goal.

The 23-year-old beat Braden Holtby on a two-on-one break to seal the win and hit the 25-goal plateau in the process.

The victory was the Predators' third straight and pushed their point streak to five; the Capitals have now dropped six of their last 10.

(Video Courtesy: NHL.com)

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