Since Game 5 against the Boston Bruins started with back-to-back Maple Leafs stick infractions - first, a questionable tripping call on winger Zach Hyman, then a borderline hooking call on forward Patrick Marleau - the bench boss did what we all do when we feel wronged but can't change the outcome of the matter at hand.
The opening-round series' on-and-off officiating controversy - which peaked during a whistles-away Game 2 - reappeared Friday. The Leafs powered through the noise, though, bagging two even-strength goals over a two-minute span in the third period before holding off a late Bruins surge.
Toronto won 2-1 and now leads the series 3-2. With a victory Sunday at home, the high-profile club can advance to the second round for the first time since 2004.
"Obviously, the hardest game to win is the fourth game to put the other team out, especially a proud group of guys," Babcock told reporters postgame, tipping his cap to the Bruins. "It is something that we haven't been able to do in the last three years."
This version of Boston-Toronto has been very tight. Both clubs have scored 14 goals and have mostly received quality goaltending. Truthfully, nobody's running away with the series.
TEAM
ESG
PPG
OTHER
TOTAL
TORONTO
9
3
2
14
BOSTON
7
5
2
14
[Other = penalty-shot, empty-net, or pulled-goalie goals]
The Leafs have been the better team at five-on-five, limiting the formidable trio of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and David Pastrnak to three even-strength goals. The Bruins, meanwhile, have dined on special teams, collecting five power-play markers in Games 1 through 4 while holding Toronto to just three on the PP. (Neither team scored on the PP in Game 5.)
Since the Leafs' two goals on Friday were so clean and well-executed, and occurred in what could be the series' turning-point contest, let's take a closer look at both sequences:
1-0 (Auston Matthews)
This goal was a complete group effort.
Defenseman Nikita Zaitsev made a terrific pass to Hyman, sending the puck from the Leafs' hash marks all the way to the far blue line. Toronto loves its stretch passes, and this particular attempt led to a clean zone entry.
Boston defenseman Charlie McAvoy then ran into Hyman, forcing him to find a streaking Kasperi Kapanen, who immediately handed off to Auston Matthews. Without puck support from Kapanen and Matthews, this play dies.
THIS PASS. Muzzin finds Matthews to give the Leafs the lead in the 3rd. 👀😤
Matthews quickly deferred to Jake Muzzin hanging out at the point. Muzzin - who's having a tremendous series and became a father Thursday - wound up for a slap shot, faked it, then fed Matthews with an accurate pass. The big center had found a nice, open spot on his off wing and nailed the one-timer.
Boston goalie Tuukka Rask had no chance on Matthews' series-leading fourth goal. "He's a big guy so when he opens up you see him out of the corner of your eye," Muzzin said. "And great finish by him."
Leafs take a 1-0 lead from Auston Matthews’ goal. Was review for goalie interference pic.twitter.com/mGHAfAjJLI
Hyman's role in the goal triggered a challenge from the Bruins, however. Coach Bruce Cassidy claimed the workhorse winger interfered with Rask.
The Situation Room - the league's centralized video room - took over for the on-ice officials and determined, yes, Hyman did interfere with Rask but the act wasn't egregious enough to overturn what had originally been ruled a good goal.
The bar is high for the Situation Room to overturn good-goal and no-goal calls made at ice level, and Hyman's interference didn't pass its threshold. There was contact, but the contact was 1) outside the blue paint, and 2) not compelling enough to justify a change.
2-0 (Kasperi Kapanen)
In a Game 5 defined by a dearth of scoring opportunities from either team in the first 50 minutes, the Leafs managed to once again create offense by committee.
Two minutes after opening the scoring, Matthews swooped deep into Toronto's zone to receive a short breakout pass from defenseman Ron Hainsey. Matthews then found Hainsey's partner, Morgan Rielly, cruising through the middle of the ice.
Untouched, Rielly exited the Leafs' zone and entered the Bruins' zone in style before passing to winger Andreas Johnsson. When the Leafs are rolling as a cohesive unit, they're a runaway train. You could sense what was coming.
Johnsson went cross-ice to Kapanen and the 22-year-old Finn fired the puck into the open net. After accumulating 11 shots but zero goals in the first four games, Kapanen had his first of the playoffs. Babcock labeled it "huge" for the speedster's confidence.
"It doesn't matter who you are, at times when it isn't going good for you, you question yourself a little bit," the coach said. "That is what the National Hockey League is about. It takes your confidence away at times. You just keep grinding. I thought he was great tonight."
Icon Sportswire / Getty Images
The game itself wasn't great Friday. It was slow and devoid of action until midway through the third. But it picked up, and following the Leafs' goals, Boston's David Krejci scored with Rask pulled to launch a short-lived comeback.
Combined with a shutdown performance from John Tavares, Matthews has been a gigantic difference-maker this series, especially since third-line center Nazem Kadri's been sidelined due to a suspension.
If Kapanen, Matthews, and the rest of the Leafs can replicate that Game 5 performance on Sunday, there's a strong chance the Leafs will be seeing the Columbus Blue Jackets in the next round.
Wouldn't that bring a smile - of a different variety - to Babcock's face.
John Matisz is theScore's National Hockey Writer. You can find him on Twitter @matiszjohn.
The Colorado Avalanche eliminated the Calgary Flames from the postseason in five games Friday night with a one-sided 5-1 victory. Along with the Tampa Bay Lightning's sweep at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets, it marked the first time both No. 1 seeds lost in the first round in the expansion era.
The NHL expanded from six teams to 12 teams for the 1967-68 season, marking the beginning of the expansion era. With only six teams in the league before 1968, there was only one division, and thus only one top seed.
Calgary and Tampa didn't just lose, the two teams were completely outmatched, combining to win just one playoff game.
The Avalanche will now play the winner of the San Jose Sharks and the Vegas Golden Knights in Round 2. Vegas currently leads the series 3-2.
It was only a matter of time before goalie interference reviews left their mark on the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
After a goal stood earlier in the evening during Game 5 between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins, the Calgary Flames were unable to overturn an on-ice goalie interference call in their win-or-go-home tilt with the Colorado Avalanche. Goalie interference giveth, and goalie interference taketh away.
The #Flames think they've pulled within one, but the refs call it off based on incidental contact with the #GoAvsGo goalie. After a coach's challenge, call on the ice is confirmed. No goal for Johnny Gaudreau and the Flames. pic.twitter.com/3QKo1lppY1
Flames winger Sam Bennett was called for interference while wrestling with Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson in front of the net. Calgary forward Johnny Gaudreau was able to slip home the wraparound while Colorado goaltender Philipp Grubauer was down and out of position. Here's another look:
The Flames score, but it's immediately waived off. Bill Peters and the #Flames challenge for goaltender interference. Peters challenged five goals for interference, but only won once. The original call of no goal stands after review. pic.twitter.com/ad5DBWnC89
In its explanation upholding the call, the league stated that Bennett's actions caused Johnson to make contact with Grubauer before the puck crossed the line.
The goal would've brought the Flames within one, but instead, the Avs rode the momentum to an even larger lead.
It was only a matter of time before goalie interference reviews left their mark on the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
After a goal stood earlier in the evening during Game 5 between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins, the Calgary Flames were unable to overturn an on-ice goalie interference call in their win-or-go-home tilt with the Colorado Avalanche. Goalie interference giveth, and goalie interference taketh away.
The #Flames think they've pulled within one, but the refs call it off based on incidental contact with the #GoAvsGo goalie. After a coach's challenge, call on the ice is confirmed. No goal for Johnny Gaudreau and the Flames. pic.twitter.com/3QKo1lppY1
Flames winger Sam Bennett was called for interference while wrestling with Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson in front of the net. Calgary forward Johnny Gaudreau was able to slip home the wraparound while Colorado goaltender Philipp Grubauer was down and out of position. Here's another look:
The Flames score, but it's immediately waived off. Bill Peters and the #Flames challenge for goaltender interference. Peters challenged five goals for interference, but only won once. The original call of no goal stands after review. pic.twitter.com/ad5DBWnC89
In its explanation upholding the call, the league stated that Bennett's actions caused Johnson to make contact with Grubauer before the puck crossed the line.
The goal would've brought the Flames within one, but instead, the Avs rode the momentum to an even larger lead.
The Toronto Maple Leafs earned a critical road victory over the Boston Bruins on Friday night, winning 2-1 while taking Game 5 in somewhat controversial fashion.
The Bruins challenged Auston Matthews' go-ahead goal with just over eight minutes left in the game for goaltender interference after Leafs forward Zach Hyman appeared to make contact with Tuukka Rask. The goal was upheld, and Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy disagrees with the decision.
"From my viewpoint it clearly looked like goaltender interference," Cassidy said postgame, according to The Athletic's Joe McDonald. "The call didn't go our way and it's 1-0 with eight minutes to go. We have time to get ourselves back in the game and regroup, unfortunately we weren't able to do that."
Bruins challenge for goaltender interference. No dice.
Hyman, who was jockeying for position with Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy and backed into Rask accidentally, holds a different opinion.
"I was battling in front and I might've got bumped into him, but I don't think it caused much of anything ... I thought it was a good goal," Hyman said, according to TSN's Mark Masters.
In its explanation, the league said the review was inconclusive and the call on the ice was confirmed.
Maple Leafs speedster Kasperi Kapanen added another goal just over two minutes later that stood as the game-winner.
Toronto can eliminate the Bruins at home in Game 6 on Sunday, and also secure the franchise's first playoff series victory since 2004.
Steve Yzerman is widely considered the best architect in hockey after building the Tampa Bay Lightning into a juggernaut during his eight-year run in south Florida. But now the brilliant executive faces a difficult task as the newly-minted general manager of the Detroit Red Wings.
Yzerman has to clean up the mess his predecessor and new boss, Ken Holland, left behind. While there are some encouraging young building blocks in place, the organization's on-ice product is poor, and numerous bad contracts and a weak farm system are dragging Detroit down.
It'll be a rude awakening for anyone expecting the NHL's genius GM to turn the Red Wings into a contender overnight.
The contractual nightmare
Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire / Getty
Holland has put Detroit back on the correct rebuilding track recently, but from 2015 to 2017 he neglected the future, insisting on doing whatever it took to keep the Red Wings' playoff streak alive (25 straight seasons). That organizational direction may have come from ownership, but regardless, Detroit's youth movement started two or three years late.
Some of the contracts given to veterans during Holland's tenure were intended to help the Red Wings remain short-term contenders. Now, those deals are creating long-term issues.
Player
Pos.
Age
Cap hit
UFA year
*Frans Nielsen
F
34
$5.25M
2022
*Justin Abdelkader
F
32
$4.25M
2023
*Darren Helm
F
32
$3.85M
2021
Luke Glendening
F
29
$1.8M
2021
*Mike Green
D
33
$5.375M
2020
*Danny DeKeyser
D
29
$5M
2022
*Jonathan Ericsson
D
35
$4.25M
2020
*Trevor Daley
D
35
$3.16M
2020
Jonathan Bernier
G
30
$3M
2021
*Indicates player has a no-trade clause.
While a few of those deals will be off the books soon, others will be tough to shed, limiting Detroit's spending and lineup flexibility moving forward.
The pieces in place
Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire / Getty
The Red Wings finished with the league's fourth-worst record this past season, but the 2018-19 campaign was still an encouraging one for player development.
Dylan Larkin, 22, evolved into a legitimate No. 1 center while scoring a career-high 32 goals, and he could become the club's next captain. It all came together for speedy 24-year-old Andreas Athanasiou, too, who potted 30 goals. Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi, both 24, also enjoyed their most productive seasons. Even defenseman Filip Hronek, 21, performed well as a rookie and midseason call-up.
However, the core Yzerman inherits drastically pales in comparison to the one he began with in Tampa Bay. Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman - a pair of former top two picks - formed the foundation, but even with those tent poles in place, the Lightning needed time to become annual contenders under Yzerman. They made one surprising trip to the conference finals in 2010-11, then missed the playoffs two straight years.
Last year's No. 6 pick Filip Zadina possesses star potential for Detroit, but the rest of the team's prospects aren't overly impressive. Joe Veleno, the 30th pick in 2018, was the only other Red Wing to crack Corey Pronman's midseason prospect rankings list that features over 75 names. And only Zadina made TSN's top 50 list in January.
An eye for talent
Scott Audette / National Hockey League / Getty
Yzerman will likely receive more chances to draft near the top of the board in Detroit than he did in Tampa Bay. But what sets him apart from other GMs - and turned the Lightning into a powerhouse - is finding high-end talent beyond the first round.
That group shows Yzerman's eye for talent. But there's also a sliver of luck involved to land an MVP-caliber player outside the first round, and ink top-six forwards as undrafted free agents.
Yzerman is more than an astute talent evaluator, as his asset management is exceptional and he's a natural-born leader. If one GM can bring the Red Wings back to glory, it's him.
But with several roadblocks ahead while competing in a stacked division, the turnaround may take longer than some expect, despite Stevie Wonder's impressive resume.
The incident happened with just over five minutes remaining in Game 4 on Thursday night. Oshie left the game immediately and Capitals head coach Todd Reirden announced after the contest that the 32-year-old "won't be playing anytime soon." Foegele was assessed a two-minute minor for boarding on the play.
Oshie has been an essential piece of the Capitals' offensive core. The skilled winger contributed eight goals and 21 points in 24 contests en route to the franchise's first Stanley Cup victory last spring.
Coming off his first full regular-season campaign, Foegele has never been suspended at the NHL level. The 6-foot-2 grinder has been a catalyst for the Hurricanes' offense this postseason, posting three goals and five points over four games.
The Carolina Hurricanes evened their series, the St. Louis Blues mounted a frantic comeback, and the San Jose Sharks warded off elimination on a busy Thursday in the NHL playoffs. Here are some key takeaways from each game.
Wild night for Foegele, spunky Hurricanes
From the first rush of the game to the third-period shove from behind that caused Alex Ovechkin to fume, Carolina's fourth matchup with Washington became the Warren Foegele show.
An unlikely headline-grabber, even on a Hurricanes team that lacks star power, Foegele opened the game flying and scored just 17 seconds into the contest after Washington's Matt Niskanen was caught up ice.
But the 23-year-old rookie winger could face suspension for the check he delivered to T.J. Oshie late in the third period. Capitals coach Todd Reirden said postgame that Oshie will be out for the foreseeable future.
Carolina has been one of the NHL's healthiest teams this season, but they've already proven capable of compensating for the absence of some key contributors. The Hurricanes were down Micheal Ferland and Andrei Svechnikov in Game 4, while fellow middle-six winger Jordan Martinook played only 4:39 after twisting his right leg in the first period.
Losing Foegele would be another blow as the series shifts to D.C. on Saturday, but the Capitals will face an even greater test with Oshie out. Reirden elevated him to Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom's line in Game 4, hoping to spark Washington's sputtering attack. But the trio struggled at even strength against Carolina's top defensive pairing of Jaccob Slavin and Dougie Hamilton, and second line of Foegele, Jordan Staal, and Justin Williams.
No matter who does or doesn't play on Saturday, one of the Capitals' chief objectives should be to reverse their newfound offensive malaise. Washington scored eight goals at home in Games 1 and 2 - five of which came at even strength - but they only mustered one goal in Carolina, and that was on the power play.
Jets stars no-show, Blues big guns do their part
As TSN and NBC commentator Gord Miller noted in the wake of Winnipeg's latest third-period meltdown, this series has followed anything but a logical progression.
Three things about the Blues/Jets series: -for the 4th time in NHL history and the first time since 2004 the road team has won the first five games of a series -in every game the winning team has trailed at some point -St Louis won only once when trailing by two goals this season
In the spirit of this topsy-turviness, consider this stat from the Blues' madcap 3-2 comeback win in Game 5: Of the 10 high-quality scoring chances the Jets generated on the night, eight came courtesy of their bottom two lines. Not coincidentally, those are the units that out-muscled the Blues for two goals in the first period.
But for all the praise heaped on goalscorers Adam Lowry and Kevin Hayes along with their respective linemates, St. Louis was in position to steal a victory with 15 seconds left because Winnipeg's best players weren't nearly good enough. Mark Scheifele, Blake Wheeler, and Kyle Connor, the Jets' No. 1 line, were severely outgunned at 5-on-5 by Oskar Sundqvist, Brayden Schenn, and Jaden Schwartz, whose efforts to drive possession paid off when each of them featured prominently in the final two goals.
Ahead of puck drop, it seemed like the Blues' best chance to buck their two-game losing skid would be to hope for a David Pastrnak-like breakout performance from their stars. Schenn, Ryan O'Reilly, and Vladimir Tarasenko, St. Louis' usual first line, combined for just one goal at even strength (plus two on the power play) through four games. Jordan Binnington, a revelation in net since he wrested the starting role from Jake Allen in January, came into Thursday with a decidedly average .902 playoff save percentage.
Jonathan Kozub / National Hockey League / Getty Images
Pastrnak's two-goal performance against Toronto on Wednesday might have been louder on its own, but Schenn's two points, O'Reilly's power-play goal to get his team on the board, Tarasenko's multiple scoring chances on the power play, and Binnington's 29 saves constituted an admirable response under pressure.
In a close game, the late results they got made the Blues deserving winners, controversy surrounding Sundqvist's drive to the net on the tying goal be damned. All they have to do now is remember how to win at home.
Vegas' top line finally falters
Early in Game 5 between Vegas and San Jose, NBC producers cued up a graphic to detail the exploits of Max Pacioretty, Paul Stastny, and Mark Stone, who form what is ostensibly the Golden Knights' second line. Those players scored a combined 28 points through the first four games of the playoffs, more than any forward trio since Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, and Esa Tikkanen tallied 30 points in the same number of games for the 1987 Edmonton Oilers.
But Thursday was an entirely different story. In their strongest defensive showing since the postseason's opening slate of games, the Sharks finally kept Vegas' leading bigwigs in check, holding them scoreless in a 5-2 win that prolonged Joe Thornton's career for at least one more monumental road trip.
Brandon Magnus / National Hockey League / Getty Images
Stone, Pacioretty, and Stastny still top the individual playoff scoring leaderboard in that order, so San Jose shouldn't derive too much hope from their off night. After all, it was their impression of prime Gretzky and Co. that led Vegas to outscore the Sharks 13-3 over the eight periods of action directly preceding Game 5.
Still, the Sharks have reason for cautious optimism as they set their sights on staving off elimination again on Sunday. Unceremoniously yanked from the net in Games 2 and 4, Martin Jones rebounded with a 30-save effort and only allowed two power-play goals. His pad save on Reilly Smith, Vegas' best forward on the night, with fewer than eight minutes left in the third period forestalled a possible catastrophe with his club clinging to a one-goal lead.
Equally encouraging were the contributions the Sharks got from their stars. Tomas Hertl, who emerged as a point-a-game scorer this season, came within a pinged crossbar of a hat trick. San Jose's top line of Logan Couture, Joe Pavelski, and Timo Meier potted two goals and teamed with Brent Burns and Marc-Andre Vlasic, who returned from a two-game absence, to hound the Stastny line at 5v5 for much of the night.
Smith and Jonathan Marchessault's power-play markers kept the score close until the waning minutes. Vegas now has a playoff-high eight goals with the man advantage (on a playoff-high 24 opportunities), which, along with the Stastny line's overall prowess, emphasizes that the series is still the Golden Knights' to lose. The onus is on Jones and the defensemen in front of him to come out with the same steeliness on the road in Game 6.
