Head coach Guy Boucher will meet with general manager Pierre Dorion Monday to discuss how the club will rebound from a disappointing regular season.
"It’s a conversation for the next step," Dorion said Saturday afternoon on Sportsnet, per Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia. "We knew we weren’t going to be in the playoffs for a long time, we decided to have an evaluation top-to-bottom of our hockey team."
At the conclusion of the campaign, Dorion did not confirm whether or not Boucher will be back behind the bench come training camp, saying "if" Boucher returns, he'll have to put younger players in the lineup and increase practice time.
Now that the dust has settled, it's time to see where they stand.
"Guy’s a very good coach," Dorion said. "He did a tremendous job last year. Even this year I thought he did a very good job, but at the same time we have to evaluate everyone. We’re going to sit down with Guy. When we had a meeting with the coaches, we probably did a bit more of the talking. This time we’re going to let Guy explain how can we be better moving forward."
One year after advancing to the Eastern Conference finals, the Senators finished 30th in the overall standings.
The Boston Bruins goaltender was scored on by the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday while dealing with a skate blade issue, and was visibly incensed that play was allowed to go on.
The officials assured him they just didn't see the broken blade.
Tuukka Rask on the broken skate blade leading to the 2nd Tampa goal: “The refs told me if they’d seen it they would have blown it dead.”
The NHL confirmed there is no rule for referees to stop play for a broken piece of equipment, regardless of whether the equipment belongs to a goaltender or a skater. The only exception here is goalie helmets.
According to NHL director of officiating supervision Stephen Walkom, there's some wiggle room on the official ruling.
"The refs will use common sense," Walkom told NHL.com's Dan Rosen. "If Boston gets control of the puck, they will probably kill the play, but at no time will they disadvantage the opposing team."
The Bruins didn't touch the puck before Mikhail Sergachev deposited it into the net, but in the end, it didn't matter, as Boston cruised to a 6-2 win.
Pastrnak's four points put him first among all players this postseason, now one ahead of Pittsburgh's Jake Guentzel and two ahead of Sidney Crosby. Marchand's now up to fourth, while Bergeron ranks fifth.
Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask lost his cool during the second period of Game 1 in Tampa Bay immediately after being scored on by the Lightning.
The issue wasn't interference or a high stick, but rather that he had been playing with a broken skate blade for a few moments and was therefore hindered from making the save.
According to NHL rule 14.1, "Play shall not be stopped nor the game delayed by reasons of adjustments to clothing, equipment, skates or sticks. The onus of maintaining clothing and equipment in proper condition shall be upon the player. If adjustments are required, the player shall leave the ice and play shall continue with a substitute."
That's one thing in relation to skaters, but there's no exception for goalies.
"No delay shall be permitted for the repair or adjustment of goalkeeper's equipment. If adjustments are required, the goalkeeper shall leave the ice and his place shall be taken by the substitute goalkeeper immediately."
Following reports that Buffalo Sabres rookie forward Casey Mittelstadt would be part of the American squad at the upcoming World Championship, the Minnesota native was conspicuously absent when Team USA announced its final roster Saturday.
Mittelstadt spent the 2017-18 campaign with the University of Minnesota, where he scored 30 points in 34 games. He was also a key contributor for the Americans at last year's World Junior Championship.
Following the college season, Mittelstadt closed out his campaign in Buffalo, where he notched five points in six games.
The 19-year-old is expected to play a key role with the Sabres next year. Buffalo selected Mittelstadt with the eighth pick in the 2017 draft.
The Russian center took part in practice Saturday, wearing a full-contact jersey and skating with Carter Rowney and Tom Kuhnhackl, while also seeing time on the Penguins' top powerplay unit.
Malkin has recorded five points in five appearances this postseason.
As NHL teams are eliminated from Stanley Cup contention, theScore NHL freelance writer Katie Brown looks back at the highs and lows of their seasons, along with the biggest questions ahead of 2018-19. The 19th edition focuses on the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Good
Freddie Andersen.Andersen was one of a few Leafs players who had a career year. He won a career-high 38 games while facing the most shots of any goalie in the NHL and boasted a .918 save percentage. The team wouldn't have gotten so far without Andersen’s efforts.
A talented core.Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, Nazem Kadri, Zach Hyman, and Connor Brown were Toronto’s best players, and signal an incredibly bright future. Matthews and Kadri became the first center pair in Leafs history to score 30 goals. Matthews also became the third player in Leafs history to score 30 goals in each of his first two seasons.
A franchise record. The team's 46th win, recorded against the Florida Panthers in the last week of the season, secured a place for this year’s Leafs squad in the franchise record books - remarkable for a club that’s been around since 1917. The Leafs finished the season with 49 wins.
The Bad
Too many shots allowed. The Leafs allowed the fourth-most shots per game during the regular season (33.9). Andersen faced the most shots of any goalie in the league (2,211) and made the most saves in the NHL (2,029), a whopping 120 ahead of anyone else. Combined with Andersen playing in 66 regular-season games, this might have contributed to some fatigue in the Leafs’ first-round loss to the Boston Bruins.
Kadri’s suspension. Losing one of their most important centers and their second-highest goal-scorer for three games in a playoff series against the No. 2 team in the Eastern Conference wasn’t ideal. The Leafs still took Boston to seven games despite Kadri being suspended for checking Bruins forward Tommy Wingels in the head, but his absence made a difference.
Another first-round exit. For most of the season, this iteration of the Leafs looked destined for playoff greatness. Instead, they were eliminated by the Bruins in seven games, the second year in a row that their season ended in the first round. In 2017, Toronto was knocked out of the playoffs in six games by the Washington Capitals.
The Questions
What’s in store this summer? It’s a critical offseason for the Leafs; they've done well at drafting and developing talent over the past few years, but they need to address the shortcomings that have prevented them from taking the next step in the playoffs. One of those is a top-pairing defenseman; Jake Gardiner had his best NHL season, but he can’t do it all alone.
Who’s on their way out?Tomas Plekanec, acquired at the trade deadline, is all but guaranteed not to return. There’s been talk that free agents James van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak, and Leo Komarov won't be back either. This will open up more opportunities for players like Brown, Kasperi Kapanen, and Andreas Johnsson next fall. The Leafs could look a lot different, especially if their younger players take the next step.
Where does Lou land? General manager Lou Lamoriello’s three-year contract expires soon, and there's been no word on whether he will return next season. There’s a provision in his contract that would allow him to spend two years beyond his contract in an advisory role with the organization. Lamoriello’s fate might be tied to those of his assistants, Mark Hunter and Kyle Dubas. Either or both could be up for a promotion this summer.
2018 NHL Draft Lottery When: Saturday, April 28th, 7:30 p.m. ET Where: Toronto TV: Sportsnet, NBCSN, CBC, TVA Sports
It's time for the draft lottery, folks, and we have all you need to know.
All the non-playoff teams and their legions of loyal fans will have their eyeballs glued to the television Saturday evening to see which organization wins the right to the No. 1 pick of the 2018 draft.
While the format remains the same, with three lottery spots up for grabs, this year offers one interesting caveat, as picks No. 15 through No. 4 will be announced prior to Game 2 between the Vegas Golden Knights and San Jose Sharks, while the top three picks won't be revealed until the second intermission.
Odds
Once again, the Buffalo Sabres have a chance at the top selection, and they'll be hoping to have some better luck than in years past.
The Flames pick, meanwhile, is owed to the Islanders due to last offseason's Travis Hamonic trade, and the Blues can give the Flyers next year's pick if this year's is in the top 10, a condition manifested in the Brayden Schenn swap.
In the last two years, there has been a significant shakeup in the top three, and the Sabres, Senators, and Coyotes are surely hoping that's not the case this time around.
For just the second time in 10 years, a defenseman is the consensus No. 1 pick. Here's some info on the projected top three prospects.
Rasmus Dahlin
The Swedish defenseman has been atop the draft rankings all year long, drawing comparisons to fellow countrymen Erik Karlsson and Nicklas Lidstrom. Not bad.
Dahlin is a generational talent and is expected to make an immediate impact in any organization lucky enough to land him.
The top forward in the class, Svechnikov is a gifted offensive talent that spent his draft year with the Barrie Colts of the OHL, recording 40 goals and 32 assists in just 44 games in his rookie year.
Zadina, a native of the Czech Republic, comes in as the third-ranked North American skater, and boosted his stock with a strong showing at the world juniors, burying seven goals in seven games.
The 18-year-old found the scoresheet consistently in the QMJHL, notching 82 points in 57 games for the Halifax Mooseheads.
Forward Brady Tkachuk, and blue liners Adam Boqvist, Quinn Hughes, and Evan Bouchard are among the other prospects projected to be drafted in the top 10. The complete list of rankings can be seen here.
Nashville Predators head coach Peter Laviolette turned to Juuse Saros to start the third period of Game 1 versus the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night after Pekka Rinne allowed three goals through the opening 40 minutes.
Despite the Predators controlling the shots clock, the Jets solved Rinne three times on just 16 shots in the highly anticipated series opener.
Rinne entered the contest with a .909 save percentage in six playoff starts this season, and was also pulled in Game 3 versus the Colorado Avalanche.
This year's race was widely considered one of the most open in recent memory, with several candidates worthy of recognition. However, breakout seasons from MacKinnon and Hall, as well as a bounce-back from Kopitar, ultimately won out.
MacKinnon ranked fifth in league scoring with 97 points despite playing in just 74 games, and was the main reason the Avalanche qualified for the playoffs one season after finishing dead last in the standings.
The same can be said about Hall, who led the Devils to the postseason for the first time since 2012 after notching 93 points in 76 games - a run that included a historic 26-game point streak.
Kopitar was the centerpiece of a resurgent Kings team that returned to the playoffs after a one-year absence. The Los Angeles captain finished seventh in league scoring with 92 points and topped all forwards with more than 22 minutes logged per game - a resume that also earned him recognition as a Selke Trophy finalist.
The winner will be revealed at the NHL Awards on June 20 in Las Vegas.
