Rick Tocchet of the Vancouver Canucks, Andrew Brunette of the Nashville Predators, and Rick Bowness of the Winnipeg Jets are this season's finalists for the Jack Adams Award, which the NHL hands out annually to its top head coach.

Tocchet, a first-time finalist, led the Canucks to the Pacific Division title in his first full campaign behind their bench after replacing Bruce Boudreau in 2022-23. Vancouver went 50-23-9, earning 12 more wins than it notched one season prior and reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2019-20.

Brunette guided the Predators to a remarkable midseason turnaround in which they went on a 14-0-2 run after the bench boss and Preds general manager Barry Trotz prohibited the players from attending a U2 concert at Las Vegas' Sphere in February.

Bowness helped the Jets finish second in the Central Division at 52-24-6. Under his stewardship, Winnipeg improved by six victories over the previous campaign after buying out ex-captain Blake Wheeler and trading Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Los Angeles Kings for a package including Gabriel Vilardi.

This past campaign was the 69-year-old's 14th as a head coach and 36th as either a head coach or assistant. But this is the first time he's been a Jack Adams finalist.

Brunette was the runner-up in 2021-22 while with the Florida Panthers. However, they fired him upon losing in the second round of the playoffs after winning the Presidents' Trophy thanks to their regular-season dominance.

“It’s a tremendous honor (to be a finalist)," Brunette said Friday, according to NHL.com's Adam Kimelman. "Last time it didn’t go quite as well. I think I lost my job a little while later, so I don't know how to take it anymore.”

Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery took home this award last season. The NHL Broadcasters' Association votes to determine the winner.

Copyright © 2024 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes will begin Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs with Game 1 at Madison Square Garden on Sunday with a time to be determined, the league announced Friday.

The Florida Panthers will start their second round on Monday at a time to be determined. The defending Eastern Conference champions await the winner of Saturday's Game 7 between the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Western Conference playoffs remain behind, so their Round 2 start dates have yet to be decided. The Colorado Avalanche will take on the winner between the Dallas Stars and the Vegas Golden Knights, where the former leads the series 3-2. The Edmonton Oilers are waiting on either the Nashville Predators or the Vancouver Canucks. Vancouver holds a 3-2 lead in that series.

Copyright © 2024 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Find year-round coverage of betting news and insights for all sports by visiting our Betting section and subscribing to push notifications.

We've got one Game 7 on the books for this weekend, as the Maple Leafs found a rare playoff win at Scotiabank Arena to send their series back to Boston. Two more home teams have the chance to do the same on Friday.

Game 6: Canucks (+110) @ Predators (-130)

The Canucks' goaltending expectations have changed since the series began, going from "maybe our star netminder can steal us a game" to "just don't lose it for us."

In Game 2, Predators netminder Juuse Saros' goals saved above expected (GSAx) was an impressive 2.18. Second to that effort is Thatcher Demko's +0.8 GSAx in Game 1. Both of these performances prove that goaltending is not the reason that three of the five games in this series went under the goal total.

A quick glance at the scoresheet may make fans lament Vancouver's lack of shots on goal, but its low totals aren't due to limited attempts. The Preds are blocking shots and forcing the Canucks into various alternative strategies - and slap passes and backdoor attempts are failing. Vancouver has 10.07 expected goals at even strength but has only tallied seven in actuality. Given Saros's series-long 0.37 GSAx, those absent three goals aren't due to goaltending.

Meanwhile, Nashville has been offensively impotent, creating only 31 even-strength high-danger chances (HDC) in five games and two goals on 19 power plays. The Predators' defensive nature and the Canucks' failure to convert their HDC (2-of-46) have kept this series alive, even though Vancouver's replacements for Demko - Casey DeSmith (0.31 GSAx) and Arturs Silovs (-0.26 GSAx) - have merely kept things afloat.

Late three-tally explosions in Games 1 and 4 pushed the contests over their goal totals. This series should remain a low-event one, as the netminders only need to perform satisfactorily for Game 6 to stay under the total.

Pick: Under 5.5 (-115)

Game 6: Stars (-115) @ Golden Knights (-105)

With only 21 power plays through five games, this series is being played at five-on-five by two of the NHL's most disciplined teams.

After a catastrophic opening game (-2.2 GSAx) of the Stars' playoffs, Jake Oettinger battled back to push his GSAx back to average through the series, proving why Dallas was the best road team in the regular season. More importantly, the netminder shut off the Golden Knights' attack with no goals allowed in any third period.

Strangely, Vegas benched Logan Thompson (6.99 GSAx) - so far the top goaltender in the playoffs - in Game 5. Adin Hill was OK, but the Stars continued to outchance the Knights at even strength. The change in the crease screams of desperation from a coach looking to find a spark somewhere - which backfired.

The market opened with the Stars as a plus-money underdog before Game 3 and was bet to -110. Their moneyline opened at -115 before Game 4 and closed at -120. With three straight wins and no further adjustment to the price to back them, the Stars are again the side to back in Game 6.

Pick: Stars moneyline (-115)

Matt Russell is the lead betting analyst for theScore. If there's a bad beat to be had, Matt will find it. Find him on social media @mrussauthentic.

Copyright © 2024 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.