Dallas defeated Calgary 5-4 and Carolina beat Boston 3-2 in late NHL playoff action Thursday, results that evened both series. Here's a major takeaway from each game.

Flames flexed depth, but couldn't touch Miro

Devoid of bona fide superstars up front, the Flames have won more than they've lost in the Edmonton bubble by compensating with balance.

Eleven skaters scored as Calgary bounced the Jets from the qualifying round, and the pattern continued in Game 1 against Dallas. Third-line winger Dillon Dube bagged two lovely goals. Defenseman Rasmus Andersson contributed his second of the playoffs after scoring just five all season. Depth was reigning. That Cam Talbot entered Game 2 with a save percentage of .941 was gravy.

That offensive formula worked to a degree Thursday. Dube's latest goal made him the star of the first 19 seconds, and he, Sam Bennett, and Milan Lucic formed Calgary's most potent line. It was surprising that defenseman Derek Forbort scored his first career playoff goal; striking that Tobias Rieder broke free for his second breakaway shorty in as many series; and fitting that Bennett capped the Flames' late comeback with a tap-in on the power play.

That's about all that clicked for Calgary, given what transpired in the final minute a mere 2:09 after Bennett's equalizer. Corey Perry deserves kudos for setting up Jamie Oleksiak's winner with a wondrous cross-ice pass, as well as for scoring himself earlier. That level of production was somewhat unexpected, too: only in three games this season did Perry register a goal and an assist.

So kudos, Corey, for shoring up the Stars' forward ranks. Now, let's turn this reflection over to the Miro Heiskanen show.

Most every metric and highlight from Game 2 attests that Heiskanen was an utter force. The young defender was on the ice for four Dallas goals and none against, and he created and tallied two of them with some combination of sound positioning, impeccable stickhandling, spatial awareness, and a quick release. The Stars outshot Calgary 19-7 when he was on the ice across all situations, usually against the Flames' top lines, according to Natural Stat Trick. He played a game-high 25:20, and at the tender age of 21, the proceedings flowed through him.

Heiskanen became the fourth-youngest defenseman to score twice in a playoff game, a distinction to which he's beaten Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar. If their status as Calder Trophy co-favorites hints that Norris Trophy races are on the horizon, it's clear Heiskanen has what it takes to hang with them for the better part of the next 15 years.

In the short term, this series segues quickly to Game 3 on Friday night and Game 4 on Sunday afternoon. Significant issues need resolving on either side. The Stars have allowed seven goals against Calgary and 17 across five games, belying their rank as the regular season's second-best defensive team. No member of the Flames' top two lines has an even-strength point in the series; power-play assists from Johnny Gaudreau, Elias Lindholm, and Mikael Backlund are all they have to show for Calgary's hot offensive start.

In other words, the Flames are fortunate to be able to rely on depth. And we're all fortunate to get to watch Heiskanen.

Hurricanes profited from pressure

Coming out of the postseason's first stage, the Hurricanes and Bruins were trending in opposite and oncoming directions, which is how they met smack in the middle of the East bracket.

Carolina's play-in sweep of the Rangers was impressive and taut. Three losses in as many games had Boston looking vulnerable. Dougie Hamilton was back to anchor the Canes' defense. Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak went pointless in the round robin. If the results of this admittedly small sample didn't prophesize an upset, the aura surrounding these clubs sure signaled that one was possible.

Elsewhere in the East, we've seen the Islanders blitz Braden Holtby to go up a win on Washington. The Blue Jackets have stayed in lockstep with mighty Tampa Bay for 11 periods, which in that series has amounted to only two taxing games. The Hurricanes are a stronger team than the Isles and Columbus. They have an extra year of seasoning on the folk hero "Bunch of Jerks" squad that streaked to last season's conference final, where Carolina was swept by these same Bruins.

There'll be no sweep this year. Through two games, the Hurricanes are very much in this series because of their offensive calling card: camping in the opponent's end for long stretches, zipping pinpoint passes about the zone, and exploiting openings whenever one arises. Carolina scored that way in the play-in win that eliminated the Rangers, and sustained pressure produced a couple of goals Thursday, letting the Canes negate the double-OT loss they suffered Wednesday afternoon.

Ever since Game 1 was delayed a day due to the Lightning and Blue Jackets' five-OT epic, the action has come fast and furious, much like the Canes on the sequences that got them going in this contest. Carolina didn't establish much prolonged O-zone pressure until late in the second period, at which point a 30-second cycle orchestrated by the fourth line led to an elbowing penalty, which led to Teuvo Teravainen's power-play goal.

The cycle - pun intended - repeated itself on Hamilton's winner. Thirty seconds of the Bruins scrambling to try to corral Carolina's second line - Andrei Svechnikov, Vincent Trocheck, and Martin Necas - culminated in Necas feeding Hamilton for a vicious slapper that beat Tuukka Rask top-shelf. The Canes were a top-three Corsi team in the regular season, and this was them near their puck-possessing peak.

To be sure, Boston's night was far from a write-off. Pastrnak was unfit to play - possibly because he hurt himself celebrating Patrice Bergeron's Game 1 winner, as the NESN telecast speculated - but Bergeron and Marchand didn't miss a beat with Anders Bjork on their wing, driving 65.38% of shot attempts as a line at five-on-five. Promisingly, Marchand and David Krejci got Boston's power play off the schneid, scoring the talented unit's first goals in the Toronto bubble.

Continuing to click with the man advantage will be vital. James Reimer's 33 saves - he denied all 30 shots he faced at even strength or shorthanded - rewarded Canes coach Rod Brind'Amour's call to bench incumbent starter Petr Mrazek after Game 1. Brind'Amour also decided to shift Svechnikov to Trocheck and Necas' line, and the young Russian responded by scoring - with a wicked release - at evens.

Essentially, Brind'Amour has options before him when the going gets tough, and he didn't wait to mix things up. Consider it another reason that Boston's fall to the No. 4 seed has the Presidents' Trophy winners in a fraught situation.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Vancouver Canucks topped the St. Louis Blues 5-2 and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Montreal Canadiens 2-1 in Wednesday's late NHL playoff games. Below, we break down each team's defining round-of-16 storyline and examine how the events of Game 1 shape their outlooks for the rest of their respective series.

Canucks: How will Hughes, Pettersson fare against top competition?

Engineering offense has never daunted Calder Trophy co-favorite Quinn Hughes or spectacular sophomore center Elias Pettersson. Both of the goals and seven of the 10 points they united to score in their qualifying-round series against the Minnesota Wild came on the power play, but they also rolled at five-on-five, leading Vancouver's regulars with Corsi For marks exceeding 56%.

The Wild were spirited, experienced challengers, but they aren't the Blues, who combine the coveted "been there" factor - having, you know, won the Stanley Cup last year - with scoring depth and firm defensive play. They pose a terrific test for Vancouver's cornerstone youngsters (Hughes is 20, Pettersson 21) who both appeared in their fifth playoff game Wednesday, and for so many essential Canucks players in the midst of their postseason debuts.

It took 4:29 - the moment at which Bo Horvat opened the scoring with a power-play tally - for Hughes and Pettersson to prove the Blues' track record wouldn't cow them, and they reaffirmed that truth periodically. Hughes had the primary assist on Horvat's goal, while his deft puckhandling and precise passing were treats to watch. Pettersson's hustle kept the puck in the offensive zone for that same tally, and he scored and rang a mean half-slapper off the crossbar on later power plays.

The Canucks' youngest, brightest stars are hardly the only sources of skill on the roster - look no further for proof than at Horvat walking Vince Dunn ahead of his second goal of the night - and they aren't the primary reason Vancouver now leads by a game. Neither Hughes nor Pettersson was effective at five-on-five in Game 1; indeed, Pettersson, Brock Boeser, and J.T. Miller's line struggled against David Perron, Ryan O'Reilly, and Zach Sanford, failing to muster a shot in that phase of the game.

But Vancouver's lethality on the power play - the Canucks were 3-for-6 on the night - rendered all of that moot. Against St. Louis' penalty kill, the league's 18th-best this season, that clip might even be sustainable for a few more games. Undoubtedly, so too is the sight of Hughes and Pettersson showing they can hang with the big boys.

Blues: Were round-robin woes a blip or a bad omen?

Days after the Western Conference round-robin phase concluded, observers were left trying to process a damning dichotomy. The Blues were unbeaten in regulation this season (27-0-6) when they led after two periods. Naturally, they led each of their first three contests in Edmonton through 40 minutes - and bungled all three leads in the third.

These collapses followed different scripts. Nazem Kadri of the Colorado Avalanche defied reality by breaking a 1-1 tie at the last possible millisecond. The Vegas Golden Knights netted three goals in the final frame to validate a dominant overall effort. The Dallas Stars wiped out a 1-0 shutout with 32 seconds left and then edged St. Louis in a shootout. The common thread through each of those round-robin games: The Blues didn't score a third-period goal. That trend persisted Wednesday as Vancouver turned a 2-2 deadlock into a rout.

The advanced metrics suggest St. Louis was the slightly better team at five-on-five in Game 1. The Blues' rough treatment of Hughes and Pettersson - Perron, in particular, made a point of targeting them for body shots away from the puck - may well enervate the duo as the series progresses. But St. Louis generally lacked discipline and let the Canucks' top power-play unit run amok, a grim combination.

No doubt Jacob Markstrom was solid in the Vancouver net, as he was for the most part against the Wild. But separate from anything the Canucks did, something ails the defending champions right now. No mitigating factor - not the quality of the teams they've faced in the bubble nor their opportunity to even the series Friday - makes that any less worrisome.

Canadiens: Can Price, other play-in heroes steal another series?

That scoring leaders Phillip Danault, Brendan Gallagher, and Tomas Tatar picked an inopportune time to go goalless didn't hurt the Canadiens in their play-in series against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Carey Price's .947 save percentage over four games was pristine. Several Habs players - the defensive vanguard of Shea Weber, Jeff Petry, and Ben Chiarot, mainly, plus secondary forwards Paul Byron, Artturi Lehkonen, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi - were two-way forces, which helped Montreal clinch the signature upset of the qualifying round.

Some of those play-in stalwarts were among the better players on the ice in Game 1 against the Flyers. Weber's power-play goal was the latest sign of his reliability - rejuvenation, even - as he gets set to turn 35 on Friday. Price now seems to make a pantheon-caliber save every couple of contests; his sprawling stick denial on Scott Laughton was the finest of his 29. Petry, Brett Kulak, and the Lehkonen-Danault-Byron line posted strong possession numbers that powered Montreal's big lead in that category, an advantage the Habs attained by laying siege to Carter Hart's net in the second period.

Despite attempting 56 shots at five-on-five to Philadelphia's 45, Montreal wasn't clinical or especially accurate. The Flyers wound up with a few more shots on target (31-28); the Habs only put five on net in the first period and six when they were down a goal in the third frame.

The Flyers are a complete team, and they looked the part early and late, moving the puck smoothly and with speed as they dictated the run of play. They resiliently nullified Weber's tying goal with their own tally 16 seconds later, and they halted Montreal's second-period charge by locking the door from there.

Basically, they appear less fallible than Pittsburgh, making it clear that Montreal's finishing must improve. For now, Canadiens head coach Claude Julien ought to be encouraged that much of his lineup can take the game to Philly, in spurts if not consistently.

Flyers: Are they really the class of the East?

If a thematic tie binds Montreal and Vancouver in these series, it's their shared status as Canadian underdogs facing favorites with questions to answer or something to prove. St. Louis was the Western Conference's top performer in the regular season but hasn't won a game since March, with the team's round-robin defeats consigning it to the No. 4 seed.

The Flyers authored a climb in the opposite direction, surging from fourth to first in the Eastern Conference at the expense of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals, and Boston Bruins. It's been eight years since Philadelphia won a playoff round, but that history might be all that's feeding doubts about the Flyers' readiness to contend. Everything about their form of late - their 11-3 scoring margin in round-robin play; the 9-1-0 (and 19-6-1) tear on which they closed the now-distant regular season - fits the profile of a bona fide powerhouse.

Comparing positional units head to head, Philadelphia's lone anticipated weakness in this series was in goal: Hart, whose 22nd birthday is Thursday, enjoyed a good but not stellar second NHL season. Through three starts in Toronto, his save percentage stands at .966 on a mere three goals allowed - and none at even strength in Game 1. If he achieves what Matt Murray couldn't and continues to keep the Habs at bay, the Flyers' worst-case scenario will be that much easier to avoid.

The 2018-19 Blues famously rose from last place in the NHL on Jan. 3 to a Stanley Cup title at season's end. The 2020 playoffs remain young, and Montreal might yet make this a grueling series, if not a long one. But little about Game 1 suggested the Flyers aren't capable of riding their own great second half to the vicinity of the promised land.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The Lightning and Blue Jackets played the fourth-longest game in NHL playoff history Tuesday. These five numbers shaped Tampa Bay's 3-2 victory, which ended at 10:27 of the fifth overtime.

2 - Offsides Tampa avoided before the winning goal

So much about this historic Game 1 pops off the stat sheet. The end is as good a place as any to start breaking it down, with a subtle sequence that would have gone unnoticed had Brayden Point not scored later in the play.

Tied 2-2 midway through overtime No. 5 - as the game had been since the first minute of the third period - Point and Blue Jackets defenseman David Savard combined to push the puck to the point off a contested faceoff in Columbus' end. The disc skittered past Tampa's Kevin Shattenkirk, but he reached back to save it on the blue line. Off Shattenkirk's dump-in, Point retrieved possession behind the net, looped back under dogged pressure from Riley Nash, and again kept the puck in the offensive zone by the slimmest of margins.

That Joonas Korpisalo and Andrei Vasilevskiy had held the fort so long seemed to signal that the eventual tiebreaking goal would inevitably be preceded by a mistake. That's often how things work early in overtime, let alone after more than another game's worth of action. Dean Kukan's puck-over-glass penalty was tailor-made for the dishonor, but the Jackets bailed him out without allowing a shot on the ensuing penalty kill.

Precisely 24 seconds after Kukan left the box, and right after Tampa Bay narrowly saved the two offsides, the result was settled, Point's winner having instead been set up by slick stickwork in the face of exhaustion.

146 - Korpisalo and Vasilevskiy's combined saves

For 33 years, retired netminder Kelly Hrudey had held the NHL record for saves in a game. On April 18, 1987, his 73 stops on 75 shots faced propelled the Islanders to a 3-2 win over the Capitals in the Easter Epic - a Game 7 slog decided in the fourth overtime by Pat Lafontaine's spinning slapper.

Hrudey was finally outdone Tuesday evening. The Jackets' Korpisalo made 85 saves, while Vasilevskiy had 61.

Yanni Gourde's goal that tied the game early in the third period was Tampa's 29th shot on target, meaning Korpisalo turned aside a whopping 58 consecutive attempts before Point's screened wrister from the high slot eluded him. His Lightning counterpart responded with 47 straight saves from Oliver Bjorkstrand's second-period goal onward.

Accounting for this clash of attrition and the play-in round, it's safe to say no team's postseason has thus far been wilder than that of the Jackets. After succumbing to a three-goal collapse late in Game 4 against Toronto, they secured redemption in Game 5 thanks to Korpisalo's gutsy 33-save shutout.

Gutsy doesn't begin to describe what he just did in defeat. (Valiant? Herculean? I don't know if any adjective suffices.) The conclusion: Hockey isn't fair, at least not to opposing goalies simultaneously. Now, Columbus has to reset and bounce back from a loss that was somehow less fathomable than their last one.

173-100 - Lightning's shot-attempt edge at even strength

The above figures are courtesy of Natural Stat Trick, and the below chart is from HockeyViz.com.

Even in a game wherein the less dangerous team cracked triple digits in Corsi For, the visual lays bare just how relentless Tampa was offensively. The club, whose 243 goals (3.47 per game) topped the NHL this season, very much looked like a juggernaut. Eighty of those 173 shot attempts rated as legit scoring chances and 22 were considered high danger.

Every Lightning skater posted positive possession metrics in Game 1, but particular praise goes to Victor Hedman, who pelted a game-high nine shots at Korpisalo and helped Tampa generate 73.27% of shot attempts when he was on the ice at even strength (74-27). The perennial Norris Trophy candidate almost didn't play after twisting his ankle in Tampa's round-robin finale. That he shouldered 57:38 in ice time a mere three days later is astonishing even before you account for his dominance.

On the opposite blue line, Savard and defense partner Vladislav Gavrikov struggled in extended duty against Tampa's top line of Point, Nikita Kucherov, and Ondrej Palat. The Jackets controlled no higher than 22% of attempted shots when either member of their No. 2 pair hit the ice at evens. Both were out there for two goals against, and Gavrikov was stung by Kucherov's errant slapper on the bounce that led to Point's winner.

2:39 - Time that Dubois scored the game's 1st goal

A full six hours elapsed in the world between Game 1's opening marker and Point's decider in the fifth OT. Understandably, so many later events overshadowed Pierre-Luc Dubois' handiwork on the Jackets' first power play, but even with his squad down 1-0 in the series, that he got on the board in this game feels significant.

Entering Columbus' play-in encounter with Toronto, four Maple Leafs (Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, and William Nylander) had scored more points than Dubois' team-high 49 during the regular season. Toronto's 237 goals were second only to Tampa, while Columbus tied for 27th in the league with 180. Dubois' hat trick in the Jackets' Game 3 OT victory went a long way toward balancing the distribution of goals in the series. (Columbus scored 12 to Toronto's 10.)

The challenge of curtailing and matching the opponent's firepower is no tougher than against Tampa. Columbus ticked the first box in Game 1 because of Korpisalo. In last year's first round, when Artemi Panarin and Matt Duchene were on the roster, the Jackets erupted to outscore the Lightning 19-8 across four straight wins. With less help around him, Dubois might need to go on a tear to counter Kucherov, Point, Hedman, and - if he returns from injury - Steven Stamkos, even if the Jackets' defense and goaltending remain stout.

65:06 - Seth Jones' ice time

I'd be remiss to overlook the other NHL record that a Jacket just claimed. Jones goes down in the books for eking past Sergei Zubov's single-game high of 63:51, but his partner on the top pair, Zach Werenski, deserves a shoutout, too, for clearing the hour mark at 61:14. Remember, Jones and Werenski played 26:29 and 22:44, respectively, in their club's Game 5 win over Toronto, which wrapped up at 10:27 p.m. local time Sunday night - about 47 hours before this marathon concluded.

What does the grind to which they've been subjected mean for the rest of this series? For one, they'll need to recharge quickly before the puck drops for Game 2 on Thursday afternoon.

Beyond that immediate concern, Jackets head coach John Tortorella might secretly be pining for the arrival of Games 3 and 4, when Columbus' designation as the home team will allow him to control matchups off stoppages. Savard and Gavrikov were in tough against Point, Kucherov, and Palat, but Jones and Werenski had enough in the tank throughout Game 1 to keep that line relatively in check when their paths crossed.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Underdogs prevailed in both of the NHL's 5 vs. 12 qualifying series games Friday. Here are three takeaways from Montreal blanking Pittsburgh 2-0, and Chicago bouncing Edmonton from the playoffs with a 3-2 win.

Montreal's outing went according to plan

There are two ways to frame the Canadiens' mammoth Game 4 shutout victory. One is to say they basically won in five seconds - the elapsed time between Ben Chiarot forcing a turnover in the offensive zone and Artturi Lehkonen cashing Paul Byron's whirled pass to the tip of the crease. The other is all-encompassing - Montreal had a plan on Friday, and it worked to perfection for 60 minutes.

From puck drop, Claude Julien's charges looked entirely content to angle for a 1-0 win. They planned to bottle up Pittsburgh's rushes, prevent the Penguins from gaining any modicum of space or speed, curb the quality of any shots that got through to Carey Price, and seize on the frustration this approach was sure to cause. And, you know, to score eventually.

The Habs' conservative start was striking after they racked up four goals and a whack of scoring chances off the rush in Game 3. Yet it was also logical they'd default to caution, given the skill gap between these rosters. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were never at their best, but their reputations precede them. As it turned out, Montreal's four top scorers - Tomas Tatar, Phillip Danault, Max Domi, and Brendan Gallagher - didn't need to supply a single goal in this textbook underdog series win.

The Canadiens gained more pep as Game 4 wore on, seemingly assured that quickening the tempo wouldn't benefit Pittsburgh. They overran the Pens in shot and scoring attempts from the midway mark on and were sharper down the tense final stretch. Julien rejigged his lines to promote Nick Suzuki to No. 1 center, which galvanized the new second trio of Danault, Byron, and Lehkonen. That line pounded Pittsburgh at five-on-five to the tune of a 70.5 expected-goals percentage, plus the game-deciding goal.

The big picture here: a .500 team, the 24th-best in the NHL, is legitimately in the playoffs, where they'll probably get pantsed in, say, five games by Tampa Bay or Philadelphia. But let's hold that thought for next week. Price's .947 save percentage (.960 at even strength) is the best mark of the qualifying round, and after the Habs lost Game 2 despite his sensational play, other guys - the defensive triad of Chiarot, Shea Weber, and Jeff Petry, primarily - helped lift the club off the mat.

As for that desired 1-0 scoreline? The insurance marker Weber wound up rimming around the boards and into Pittsburgh's empty net came when Chiarot, Danault, Byron, and Lehkonen - plus Price, of course - were also on the ice. For those players specifically, it'd be hard to script a more fitting ending.

Where was Pittsburgh's urgency?

Pardon a quick reference to Friday's Nashville-Arizona game, which the Coyotes won 4-3 in overtime to seal that series. Bowing out at this stage is a profound disappointment for the Predators, the Western Conference's sixth seed, but at least Roman Josi can't be blamed. He didn't score but took a dumbfounding 14 shots on Coyotes goalie Darcy Kuemper, more than a quarter of Nashville's 52 overall.

Suffice to say that Crosby and Malkin didn't rise to Josi's standard in Game 4. The moments that they, or any teammate, played with the needed urgency to snap Pittsburgh's trance were scant. Crosby forced a good save from Price at the end of a rare odd-man rush, and he rang one slapper off iron during a third-period power play. Those were fruitless highlights on an afternoon Pittsburgh generated just 22 shots and three high-danger chances.

If Montreal was the chief beneficiary of this postseason's unique format, the Penguins fell prey to the danger it represents: a hot goalie toppling a high seed in a shorter series than usual. That doesn't fully explain this catastrophic letdown, though, and for as impenetrable as Price looked at times, stars have to be ready to bear the burden of facing him. Malkin helped drive solid possession numbers across the series but wasn't on the ice for a single Pens goal at five-on-five. Pittsburgh only scored four of them, anyway.

By the time Game 4 ended, broadcasters working the series were trendily pointing out how Pittsburgh's lost nine of its 10 most recent playoff games, including last season's first-round sweep at the hands of the Islanders. Their Stanley Cup form of 2016 and 2017 recedes farther in the rearview every year.

By inserting Tristan Jarry in net for Game 4, coach Mike Sullivan was seeking to replicate the boost Matt Murray provided when he displaced Marc-Andre Fleury during the 2017 Eastern Conference Final. Ultimately, the Pens' struggles against Price negated their goaltending question. Jarry and Murray are both about to hit restricted free agency, but the team's more pressing issue is its great disappearing killer instinct.

Chicago won with mettle

The Oilers could have beaten the Blackhawks without necessarily changing too much, as their No. 5 seed foretold. In what's obviously bare consolation, the advanced metrics are on their side as they exit the bubble in their own home city. Their superior shot share and number of quality chances at five-on-five amounted to an expected goals percentage of 58.52. Put into words, they probably should have won three of four games, not the reverse.

In reality, Chicago outscored Edmonton 12-9 at full strength - and 3-0 across the third periods of Games 3 and 4, as the Oilers squandered one lead and then biffed the chance to claim another and avoid premature elimination. A few factors led to Edmonton's undoing, primarily defensive lapses at the wrong time and the general absence of secondary scoring - an impediment in a matchup that featured so many goals both ways.

Crucially, the Oilers lacked tenacity in decisive moments, which is what helped the Blackhawks secure their first series victory since 2015, when Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane last hoisted the Stanley Cup.

In Game 3, Edmonton blinked and lost its one-goal edge in the third period, when Chicago rallied back to score on two netfront tips. The team's cunning and brawn set up all three of their goals in Game 4. Brandon Saad got inside position by the net on Oscar Klefbom ahead of his wraparound tally. At 2-2, Toews outmuscled Ethan Bear in a puck battle and then fed Dominik Kubalik for his one-timed winner.

Small breaks and decisions had an outsize effect in shaping Chicago's victory, which happens in close games. Think of Darnell Nurse's (admittedly dubious) interference penalty that interrupted a five-minute Oilers power play. Think of Kubalik stretching to stay onside during the zone entry that preceded his goal. Think of Edmonton getting booked for too many men with two minutes left, and Chicago adopting a four-corners offense to burn most of that remaining time.

Connor McDavid exits the playoffs as the clubhouse leader in scoring with nine points. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Leon Draisaitl were forces in this series, too. But the dearth of help behind them, and strong showings from Kane and Toews in their own right, along with Corey Crawford finally standing tall in Game 4 all offset the duo's brilliance. Crawford's 43 saves included a few huge stops in the waning minutes that will nag Edmonton's stars all summer.

Like Montreal, the Blackhawks will be severely outmatched next round by Colorado or Vegas, the round-robin heavyweights still in the running for the West's top seed. That said, nothing can detract from the gutsiness they showed in the play-ins, nor from the significance of these legendary franchises' latest milestones. Before Friday, no NHL team had shocked the world in a 5 vs. 12 showdown in decades.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

Calgary beat Winnipeg 4-0 in NHL play-in action Thursday to eliminate the Jets in four games. Below's a breakdown of where these franchises go from here, plus thoughts on the state of the Western round robin after Vegas' 6-4 win over St. Louis.

Why Calgary's moving on

Five seconds remained in the first period, and Noah Hanifin had the puck on his blade in the neutral-zone circle.

Even endowed with a head of steam, there was little reason for this particular Flames breakout to pose the Jets much trouble. Two defensemen stood between Hanifin and Connor Hellebuyck's crease; three backchecking forwards weren't all that far behind. Congesting Hanifin's passing and driving lanes for a mere tick or two would have exhausted the clock, keeping Winnipeg within a goal at the first intermission of a must-win game.

Turns out a lot can happen in five seconds. Calgary threaded a few passes to get the puck deep, Hanifin - who ended up below the goal line - backhanded a spinning dish toward the crease, and Sam Bennett beat the buzzer with a backbreaking tap-in.

Beyond doubling Calgary's early lead, Bennett's goal embodied a lot of what the Flames did right in this series. Their forwards were first to rebounds or stronger on the puck in the corners. Trailing players drove hard to the net and passers picked apart gaps in Winnipeg's defensive coverage. Crucially, the shooters they found were clinical in converting those opportunities. Eleven players scored for the Flames across four games. The pressure came in waves, and Winnipeg had no semblance of an answer.

Yes, it preceded the postseason's traditional opening round of 16, but Calgary's conquest still constitutes the franchise's first series victory since 2015 - and an impressive bounce back from last year's five-game loss in the first round to the underdog Avalanche. After Game 2, it wasn't especially close. The Flames racked up 16 goals in this series to Winnipeg's six. (The margin was 12-6 if you discount empty netters - still a resounding differential.) The teams' amount of even-strength chances were comparable, but only Calgary executed on the power play, clicking at 29.4%.

Characteristic of a balanced effort, new influencers rose to the fore for the Flames in Game 4. It was Cam Talbot's best night in the bubble, and his 31 saves included several gem denials of Kyle Connor, Nikolaj Ehlers, Adam Lowry, and Jack Roslovic at point-blank range. Up front, there was a reversal of course from Game 3, when five top-six Calgary forwards bagged a goal apiece. Those lines were ineffectual Thursday, but the Bennett-centered third trio buzzed, with him, Dillon Dube, and Milan Lucic controlling 71.43% of shot attempts at five-on-five.

If leads in the Western Conference's other play-in series hold - if Vancouver, Arizona, and Chicago all advance in the next few days - the Flames would be the second-highest seed to emerge from the qualifiers, setting up a rendezvous with the No. 3 team from the round robin: the winner of Sunday's St. Louis-Dallas game. Either Edmonton or Nashville would need to rally back to win their series to make possible a Calgary-Colorado rematch.

Run it back, Winnipeg

An overdue admission about the Jets: it's hard to get an accurate read on a squad that had to forge ahead without its No. 1 center, Mark Scheifele, for all but the first six minutes of the playoffs. That Patrik Laine also missed Games 2 through 4 with a hurt wrist undeniably and irrevocably changed the complexion of the series. Winnipeg was among the NHL's most injured teams this season. Hockey's like that sometimes, and if it's not an excuse for losing, it at least ensured the Jets weren't their truest selves.

As has been the case for a few years now, the Jets' five best forwards - Scheifele, Laine, Connor, Ehlers, and Blake Wheeler - bore the offensive load for an otherwise punchless roster in 2019-20: the 142 goals they united to score were precisely two-thirds of the Jets' 213 for the campaign. Ehlers scored twice this series and easily could have potted three or four more across Games 3 and 4. Less favorably, Connor, Roslovic, and Neal Pionk took a combined 34 shots on Talbot without any finding twine. Down two stars, hard of luck and of finishing ability, this lineup didn't have the juice to hang with Calgary's attack.

Little should change next season - except, ideally, veteran forward Bryan Little returning healed from the perforated eardrum that sidelined him way back in November. To state the matter harshly, Winnipeg just wasted a Vezina Trophy-caliber season from Hellebuyck, but he, top-pairing defenseman Josh Morrissey, and most of those ace scorers above are signed through 2023-24 or longer for $6 million annually or more. The lone exception is Laine, an RFA next summer.

Basically, this core isn't going anywhere, and absent the impetus to make radical changes for change's sake, health and internal growth will determine the Jets' ceiling. Everywhere but on the blue line, Winnipeg has the star power to front a second run to the Western Conference Final under Paul Maurice. That a split-second brush with Matthew Tkachuk could help delay those ambitions a year is one of this sport's crushing truths.

Of course, losing now might deliver Alexis Lafreniere to Winnipeg. That wouldn't be so bad.

Taking stock of the round robin

St. Louis-Vegas was an endearingly strange game. The Golden Knights outshot the Blues 38-17 and lapped them 71-28 in shot attempts. They were vastly superior for, oh, the last 50 minutes, but committed four egregious gaffes - from brutal defensive-zone turnovers to Marc-Andre Fleury losing his footing on a wraparound - that led directly to as many Blues goals. St. Louis blew a third-period lead and lost in regulation for the second time in the bubble - after never once stumbling to that outcome in the regular season.

Also, the Fox Sports Midwest telecast referred to Vegas as the "Gloden Knights" in one graphic. Everyone has a lot to clean up, basically.

Maybe chaos was to be expected from some round-robin clashes, as top teams take time to rediscover their sea legs without the imminent threat of elimination necessitating urgency. Maybe it's sound to invoke the shrug emoji and move on. These games do mean something, though, and as upsets brew in the Western Conference's 5-12 and 6-11 play-in matchups - with Chicago and Arizona each a win away from advancing - the top couple of seeds in the bracket are starting to look all the more desirable.

In any event, a few early conclusions can be drawn about the teams that'll occupy those seeds. The Golden Knights are generating heaps of chances, as they did all year. Robin Lehner, demonstrably a better goalie than Fleury this season, is coach Peter DeBoer's best bet in net; surely he'll be the choice to start moving forward. We already knew Mark Stone's hands and eyes operate in perfect sync. Justin Faulk (peep the deflection off his skate below) can be assured nothing changed during the layoff.

Elsewhere, it's clear the Avalanche are in fine form after blitzing Dallas 4-0 on Wednesday. Among other good omens, Colorado amassed 9:31 of offensive-zone possession time to the Stars' 3:55, according to data provided by SPORTLOGIQ. Colorado's six bubble goals have come via six players, including four key offseason or deadline acquisitions in Andre Burakovsky, Joonas Donskoi, Nazem Kadri, and Vladislav Namestnikov. The Avs are deep, no longer wracked by injuries, and face Vegas on Saturday to decide No. 1 positioning.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

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Somehow, the No. 12 seed Canadiens and Blackhawks each moved within a victory of clinching their qualifying series Wednesday night. Four stats help explain how Montreal stunned Pittsburgh 4-3 and Chicago rallied to edge Edmonton by the same score.

6

Weber, Petry, Chiarot's combined points

Generally, a team's most reliable sources of offense are its power-play units and No. 1 line. Even subpar power plays score close to 20% of the time, and it stands to reason that three skilled forwards will click given enough shifts to operate together.

Those wellsprings have so far failed the Canadiens against Pittsburgh. They've struck out on 10 turns with the man advantage, and Phillip Danault, Brendan Gallagher, and Tomas Tatar remain goalless through three games. Context mitigates each of these shortcomings - Montreal scored twice soon after power plays expired Wednesday, and Danault and Gallagher did assist Jeff Petry's Game 1 overtime winner - but it's clear these go-tos haven't supplied the juice needed to spark the play-in round's biggest possible upset.

No matter, as that upset's indeed at hand in Toronto, and Montreal's best defensemen deserve the majority of credit. Petry, Shea Weber, and Ben Chiarot's mitts were all over the effort that pushed the Penguins to the brink of elimination. All four Habs goals started or ended with one of those sturdy rearguards spearheading or joining a rush, shooting for a rebound or tap-in, or, in Petry's case, planting his feet on the goal line in the corner and wiring a nasty wrister off Matt Murray's collarbone and in.

Petry's snipe was the 32-year-old's second winning goal in three games and, remarkably, his ninth in the past two seasons. (He only scored six such goals across his previous eight years in the NHL.) Weber's first-period goal was one of five shots and three high-danger chances he managed, each number a team high in Game 3. Not to be handily outdone, Chiarot supplemented his two assists with a hit that erased Patric Hornqvist behind the net during a monumental late Penguins power play, occasioning a clearance and helping preserve Montreal's slim lead.

At anything less than their joint best, Danault, Gallagher, and Tatar usually can't hope to replicate the impact of, say, Sidney Crosby's line. The Habs have an eye on the round of 16 because this defensive trio stepped up instead.

.951

Price's overall SV% at even strength

About Crosby: Pittsburgh's captain recorded an assist but no goals Wednesday after scoring at even strength in each of Games 1 and 2. Third-line center Teddy Blueger was the only Penguin who solved Carey Price in five-on-five play, while all four of Montreal's goals came in that phase of the game.

Price's 30-save performance wasn't as plainly magnificent as the 37 saves he made in Game 2, when only he kept the Habs' 3-1 loss from devolving into a blowout. But he didn't flinch in the face of tours de force from Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Blueger's forward units. Those lines dominated Montreal at five-on-five, posting respective expected goals percentages of 72.09, 80.68, and 84.58. To put that in words: this game should have been a rout, too.

Price has now rebuffed 77 of the 81 shots he's seen at even strength this series, producing that .951 figure above. It's a crude comparison, but Murray's personal .901 mark is a whole lot worse and evinces the advantage Montreal has fashioned for itself outside of special-teams play. That Pittsburgh's up 3-0 in the series in power-play goals hasn't mattered to date.

2

Edmonton's losses this series when Draisaitl scores

Rare were the nights in 2019-20 when a tally from the NHL's scoring champion didn't guarantee an Oilers victory. Edmonton's record in such games this past regular season was 24-5-2, as Sportsnet's telecast noted not long after Leon Draisaitl got on the board in Game 3. By rallying to tip tying and go-ahead goals past Mikko Koskinen in the waning minutes, the Blackhawks went against the grain yet again.

In isolation, the two goals and an assist Draisaitl bagged in 24:22 of ice time were a terrific sign. His six shots (four from the slot) were six more than he directed at Corey Crawford in Game 2, when Connor McDavid was left to bear Edmonton's scoring load and responded with his first playoff hat trick. When they excel simultaneously - when the two of them and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins each conjure five individual scoring chances, as happened Wednesday - that's supposed to be enough to quash the likes of a No. 12 seed.

The Oilers have scored 13 goals in this series, but only one with McDavid and Draisaitl both on the bench. What a shame it would be if depth woes - that lethal dearth of consistent help - eliminate Edmonton's stars before the playoffs start in earnest. What a challenge, in all likelihood, they'll have to foot alone again in Game 4.

8:17

Chicago's offensive-zone possession time

On the other hand, what a throwback showing Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane have put forth in this series.

If the Blackhawks prevailing on a night when Draisaitl scored was unlikely, the two-goal turnaround that clinched the comeback was the warranted result of posting up in the Oilers' end for almost half a period. Sustaining that pressure afforded Chicago the chance to wreak occasional havoc with Koskinen's sightline. Screens off point shots prevented the netminder from getting a read on Olli Maatta's first-period slapper and Matthew Highmore and Toews' redirected goals late. Keep pucks deep for long enough and something like that's bound to happen.

Toews was superb Wednesday, leading his line to a 75% shot share at five-on-five, while Kane controlled the puck in Chicago's offensive zone for an astonishing 2:12, according to data provided by SPORTLOGIQ. These running mates were 22 and 21 years old when they celebrated their breakthrough Stanley Cup title in 2010. McDavid and Draisaitl are 23 and 24, fifth- and sixth-year players who've gotten as far as the second round. In a couple of ways, Game 3 was another reminder that their situations aren't equivalent.

Bonus stat: 75%

One historical nugget for the road: NHL teams that win Game 3 to go up two games to one in a best-of-five series have finished the job in 21 of 28 cases, or three-quarters of the time, according to the league.

For context, that sample extends as far back as the 1918 Stanley Cup Final between the Toronto Arenas and Vancouver Millionaires. The most recent example is from 1986, right before best-of-sevens became the prevailing format in all rounds. Still, it gives you an idea of what the Penguins and Oilers are up against as they enter Game 4 trying to engineer reversals of fortune.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

NHL play-in action continued to heat up Tuesday with Carolina's 4-1 sweep-clinching win against the Rangers, Calgary's 6-2 blowout of Winnipeg, and Vancouver's 4-3 squeaker over Minnesota. Here's a rundown of three players whose influence was of the essence in these games.

J.T. Miller, Canucks C

Kevin Fiala tried his mightiest to make things interesting late - seriously, the guy can flat out shoot; that's 17 goals in a 20-game stretch for the Wild winger dating back to early February - but Vancouver's all-hands-on-deck performance atoned for a Game 1 no-show and demonstrated that Alex Stalock is indeed beatable.

Brock Boeser and Bo Horvat each scored his first career postseason goal in Game 2, and whiz kids Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson both got on the scoresheet with breakthrough assists. All night, though, the Canucks took their cues from Miller, a 27-year-old sage on the young team he quietly topped in scoring (27 goals, 72 points) this season.

Advanced metrics and a purist's tastes alike confirm that Miller led the charge for Vancouver. He controlled the puck in the offensive zone for 1:31, 21 seconds more than any other skater, according to data provided by SPORTLOGIQ. That he, Pettersson, and Boeser combined to score twice at five-on-five was consistent with the line's hearty 65.2 expected-goals percentage.

On the other hand, Miller's otherworldly toe-drag sidestep of Matt Dumba and the wrister he subsequently slung past Stalock in the second period pretty much spoke for itself. So did the Ryan Donato blast he blocked later in the frame at close range, which the Canadian telecast nonetheless replayed on repeat to laud his guts and leadership by example.

That so many core Canucks had never before suited up in the NHL playoffs - Boeser, Horvat, Hughes, Pettersson, Troy Stecher, Jake Virtanen, even 30-year-old goalie Jacob Markstrom - threatened to be a hiccup even against the 10th-seeded but experienced Wild. Somehow, Miller's Game 2 snipe was only his fourth goal across 63 career playoff appearances. It stabilized Vancouver when needed, the mark of a star who's keen to last in the Edmonton bubble for longer than a week.

Sebastian Aho, Hurricanes C

Twice in Toronto on Tuesday, decisive sequences in the Hurricanes-Rangers game called for Aho to make a play. He delivered both times, first covertly and then overtly.

Viewers could be forgiven for missing the slick Finn's handiwork on the Hurricanes' first goal, the product of a 75-second shift in the Rangers' end. Toying with a tired group that included a stickless Marc Staal, Carolina held onto the puck while swapping out its fourth line for Aho's forward unit. The cycle finally concluded with Andrei Svechnikov feeding Teuvo Terevainen for a sweet backhand in the slot - assisted by Aho's timely stick lift on Phillip DiGiuseppe.

The interminable shift was peak 'Canes, the NHL's third-best Corsi team in the regular season; rarely are the merits of maintaining puck possession exhibited so clearly. Sweeping the Rangers with Dougie Hamilton out of the lineup was a team effort, and at this particular series-shaping juncture, Aho took care of the important little thing.

Carolina's third goal was Aho's entirely. If 'Canes goalie James Reimer could have taken a catnap prior to Terevainen's tally, this one emerged from nowhere when Aho stripped Jacob Trouba at the New York blue line and immediately crossed up Tony DeAngelo. By then, the backhand he flipped from his knees past Igor Shesterkin's shoulder and under the bar seemed inevitable. (Same goes for the empty-netter Aho added in the final minute.)

The effect of Aho's showing was to wrest unofficial player-of-the-game honors from Reimer, the surprise choice to make his first playoff start since 2013 in place of Petr Mrazek. Reimer's point-blank paddle save on Filip Chytil, the most spectacular of his 37 on the night, may remain the denial of the postseason when all is said and done in two months' time.

For now, Carolina advances to the round of 16 with two decent goaltending options - and the center who just outplayed every skater in the qualifiers not named Connor McDavid.

Andrew Mangiapane, Flames LW

Nearing the end of his first full NHL season, Mangiapane doesn't have the profile to match those of his fellow top-six Flames forwards. Johnny Gaudreau's niftier with the puck, while Matthew Tkachuk's way more adept at rankling the opposition. Sean Monahan, Mikael Backlund, and Elias Lindholm all have significantly greater track records of producing at the highest level.

Those five players each found twine in Game 3 against Connor Hellebuyck, as did Milan Lucic, who also had another goal disallowed due to goalie interference. The story of Calgary's authoritative victory was that of its big guns hammering the Jets for three power-play scores and a ton of chances at even strength. It was Mangiapane who played the role of unsung hero, operating doggedly and shrewdly in the margins to make some of those finishes easy.

Will and skill enabled the 24-year-old left winger to set up the Flames' two goals at five-on-five. On both occasions, Mangiapane applied forechecking pressure off dump-ins, repossessed a loose puck in or around the trapezoid, and fired a perceptive pass to the front of the net for Backlund and Tkachuk, in that order, to roof snapshots past Hellebuyck.

Without touching the puck, Mangiapane's positioning subtly keyed Calgary's final power-play goal. His presence in the slot attracted Neal Pionk and Cody Eakin's undivided attention, leaving Lucic open on the weak side to bury a rebound.

Twice a 100-point scorer in junior, Mangiapane's hands have benefited him in the NHL in concert with his energy and edge. By venturing to the grimy areas Tuesday while Backlund and Tkachuk slipped into scoring position, he helped the line carry 75% of scoring chances at five-on-five, proving his two primary assists were well earned.

The Jets still await a vintage Hellebuyck performance, which the Vezina Trophy finalist might yet unleash in Game 4 to push this best-of-five to the brink. Winger Nikolaj Ehlers scored and was generally a force in Game 3 - his five scoring chances tied Backlund for the game high - but without Mark Scheifele and Patrik Laine, Winnipeg's depleted top lines have simply been less effective than Calgary's. Surrounded by bigger names, Mangiapane's contributions to that imbalance have been noticeable.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

After startling Game 1 losses, the NHL's No. 5 seeds evened their play-in series in Game 2 on Monday night. Here are three lessons from Pittsburgh's
3-1 win over Montreal and Edmonton's 6-3 handling of Chicago.

Price really is MTL's sole hope

We'll address Connor McDavid's hat trick in short order. First, it's only fair to lavish a few paragraphs of praise on the hero of the earlier prime-time game: the Canadiens goaltender whose steadiness under siege went unrewarded.

Any misgivings that Pittsburghers harbored about the Habs' chances in this playoff matchup - the creeping fear that even the 24th-ranked team in the restart could win three of five games with Carey Price in the fold - remain well warranted even after Monday's Penguins triumph. Price's 35 saves increased his series total to 74 on 78 shots faced. That gives him a .949 save percentage against heavy fire, relegating the memory of his mediocre .909 figure from the regular season to some remote recess of the mind.

Sophomore center Jesperi Kotkaniemi's scored twice in two games, but Price undoubtedly has been Montreal's MVP so far. He held the fort in Game 1 until Jeff Petry's overtime winner and kept the underdogs within striking distance in Game 2 despite Pittsburgh dominating the first 40 minutes. Per Natural Stat Trick, the Penguins attempted 30 more shots than Montreal (53-23) and created 20 more scoring chances (29-9) through two periods - and had one mere Sidney Crosby goal to show for it.

Price was at his best when he was bailing out Joel Armia, whose buzzkill three-penalty night included a hooking minor he picked up in the second frame 200 feet from the Montreal net. Price's impact crystallized on the ensuing kill, when his wonderful sprawling sequence denied no fewer than three quality Penguins offerings. Later, in the last seconds of the period, he made consecutive huge stops on Jason Zucker and Bryan Rust.

Price couldn't be faulted for the shots that beat him Monday, including the wrister that Crosby uncorked from in close after shaking free of Armia (yikes) on an early rush. His team has asked a lot of him - Pittsburgh took 14 shots on the power play to Montreal's one - but that was expected all along. So long as Price maintains this form, Montreal's upset aspirations will persist.

Strong starts do wonders

About that opening goal where Armia lost Crosby on the backcheck: it came 4:25 into the first period, at the end of a sequence where Penguins coach Mike Sullivan deployed Crosby's line, Evgeni Malkin's unit, and the Crosby trio again on three straight shifts. The maneuvering laid plain Sullivan's intention to take the game to the Habs immediately, and it worked to perfection.

That Crosby's flick eluded Price was a key difference from the run of play in Game 1, when Pittsburgh directed 18 shots on goal but saw them all turned away. The Pens trailed 2-0 before rallying to tie and later falling short in OT. Sullivan's aggressive strategy, Jake Guentzel's tape-to-tape pass, and Crosby's finish put Montreal in an everlasting hole this time around.

Matt Murray's 26-save effort wasn't nearly as strenuous as Price's night, but the Penguins goalie deserves credit for stoning Tomas Tatar on a two-on-one 15 seconds into the third period. Starting strong is paramount out of intermissions, too, and Murray safeguarded Pittsburgh's one-goal lead there rather than allow a dispiriting equalizer.

Over in Edmonton, meanwhile, the Oilers avenged a sloppy 6-4 defeat in Game 1 by, first and foremost, letting McDavid do McDavid things from puck drop. Nineteen seconds was all he needed to discover space by Corey Crawford's crease and cash a one-timer to open the scoring. Within four minutes he potted the goal of these young playoffs, taming a bouncing puck as he jetted past helpless Olli Maatta and roofed a mean backhand over Crawford's shoulder.

It has to be noted that defensive letups contributed to the Oilers relinquishing the lead in the second period. That they were in position to later erase this blemish and win big can be traced back to No. 97's initial outburst.

"Our start last game was horrible. Probably lost us the game," McDavid, speaking the truth, said in an interview during the first intermission Monday. "We wanted to come out and have a good jump."

McDavid, mates thrive when they play with purpose

Among the highlights of this Oilers victory were McDavid's second goal and the in-arena reaction to his third; specifically, the swift thinking of the staffer who hustled to ice level to sidearm a few hats over the glass. Coach Dave Tippett should have gone to sleep satisfied with a broader takeaway: how quick and decisive his squad looked after Chicago outskated and outplayed Edmonton in Game 1.

The purpose with which the Oilers moved Monday was evident on most of their goals. Darnell Nurse created McDavid's first tally by pinching to save an attempted clearance at the Blackhawks blue line. McDavid's second was the product of his wondrous hands and feet; the Canadian telecast clocked McDavid's max speed on his blowby of Maatta at 38.5 kilometers per hour.

Grittier efforts sealed the game in the third period. Jujhar Khaira's strong forecheck pressured Crawford into misplaying a seemingly innocuous dump-in, enabling James Neal to bury the leftovers. Forty seconds later, Neal drove hard to the net against three Blackhawks defenders and Alex Chiasson beat them all to the puck in a scramble.

On the whole, Edmonton attempted 50 shots at five-on-five to Chicago's 36 and generated 17 high-danger attempts to the Blackhawks' eight. The eye test was kind to Andreas Athanasiou, the trade-deadline pickup from Detroit who underwhelmed in Game 1 but created a few nice chances Monday by exerting his power and speed. In that, he had a model tone-setter to follow in McDavid, whose six playoff points now tie him with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for the early league lead.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

So much of what's intriguing about the unique 2020 postseason can be summed up by the Eastern Conference's No. 8 vs. No. 9 qualifying series. Below is a breakdown of three representative storylines that began to take shape during the Columbus Blue Jackets' 2-0 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Defense beats offense

On one side of this series is an offensive powerhouse that ranked third in the league in goals per game this season but hasn't won a playoff round since the arrivals of its headlining stars - or, more specifically, since 2004. On the other stands a lockdown defensive team with a leading scorer who topped out at 49 points in 2019-20.

The Maple Leafs and Blue Jackets ended the regular season with identical .579 points percentages but are otherwise polar opposites, which explains why their encounter in the Eastern Conference qualifiers is so appealing. Coming out of short training camps and straight into meaningful games, this matchup doubles as a case study for a larger question: Which style is more conducive to immediate success in the bubble? Running, gunning, and seeking to score at will, or staying structured and composed for 60 minutes?

Count Game 1 - a quintessential Columbus win - as a point for the latter approach. Employing their signature high forecheck, the Blue Jackets stymied their opponents' breakouts at the source or otherwise choked them in the neutral zone. They mostly kept the Maple Leafs a safe distance from Joonas Korpisalo, whose 28-save shutout made for an admirable NHL playoff debut. Columbus was consistently first to the puck in the offensive end, winning corner battles and using timely pinches to stop counterattacks before they materialized. Scoring a minute into the third period, Cam Atkinson empowered the Blue Jackets to burn the remaining time without allowing any scoring chances of consequence.

A team unlocking and playing to its strengths has a major edge in a short series. The advantage is all the more apparent in matchups that feature clashing styles. Consider Game 1 of the New York Islanders' series against the Florida Panthers, in which defensively adept New York limited Florida's attack to a single Jonathan Huberdeau goal for a 2-1 win. The Blue Jackets' effort was similar. They were stingy, they didn't give Toronto's stars an inch all night, and they only needed to score once.

Blueprints to go deep

Ahead of any other year's 16-team playoff tournament, the Leafs and Jackets would have spent the final month of the season fighting tooth and nail for the final berths in the East. Their respective faults kept them from faring any better in 2019-20. Toronto was prone to breaking down in front of Frederik Andersen and to coming out flat on too many nights. Columbus scored one goal or was blanked in 19 of 70 games, typifying the squad's struggle to put the puck in the net.

Still, both clubs have the potential to make a run in the bubble, the Leafs thanks to their offensive weaponry - this shutout notwithstanding - and the Jackets thanks to the defensive fortitude that keyed their stunning sweep of Tampa Bay in 2018-19. One line of thought holds that the better teams that emerge from the qualifiers will have a leg up on their favored opponents who weren't seriously challenged in the round robin. They had to scrap for postseason survival from the jump and could theoretically generate momentum from there.

The Jackets started that journey auspiciously by following their blueprint to a tee in Game 1. Their first line - Pierre-Luc Dubois between Alexandre Texier and Oliver Bjorkstrand - produced four high-danger scoring chances and 58.62% of shot attempts when they played together at 5-on-5. Dubois was especially noticeable: he drew a penalty and created several chances with his footwork, strength on the puck, and incisive passing. As usual, Zach Werenski and Seth Jones were horses on defense, logging more than 25 minutes apiece and limiting the damage Auston Matthews' line caused.

The Leafs weren't bad, but one goose egg is plenty in a best-of-five series. Considering the dearth of open space Toronto puck carriers had to operate and shoot, it would help to earn more power plays than the one they failed to convert. So would kindling havoc, or even a single rebound opportunity, in front of Korpisalo on those shots that do squeeze through.

The Leafs have to score to expose the limitations of the Jackets' offense. That Atkinson was the player to capitalize on an opening and beat Andersen blocker-side - on what could have been a nothing play - ultimately made all the difference.

Lafreniere lottery looms large

For at least a day following the qualifying round, the eight squads that were bounced posthaste are bound to find comfort in a silver lining. That would be the equal 12.5% chance they'll have to win the draft lottery a week from Monday, which would confer them the privilege of leapfrogging Detroit, Ottawa, and the rest of the league's dregs to bring aboard consensus top prospect Alexis Lafreniere.

No player or coach would say this publicly, but for some teams perceived to have no hope to go deep this year, it might seem preferable to lose immediately and bank on those 1-in-8 odds delivering. Toronto and Columbus don't fit that bill, but it's indisputable that in either franchise's case, Lafreniere would constitute a heck of a consolation prize.

Picture the Jackets blowing this one-game lead, subsequently getting lucky, and adding the sort of thrilling offensive talent they've sorely lacked since Artemi Panarin left to sign with the Rangers last summer. If Dubois is an elite two-way center in the making, imagine how much more clinical his line could look with Lafreniere fashioning oodles of scoring chances from the left wing.

Depending on your allegiance, what a dreamworthy and nightmarish scenario it would be in equal turn if Lafreniere joined Toronto's embarrassment of riches up front. Right now, the Leafs are cap-strapped with Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, and William Nylander signed long-term for big money. Integrating Lafreniere on a three-year entry-level deal would change that calculus, affording GM Kyle Dubas the option to try to flip, say, Nylander for a comparatively good defenseman without sacrificing any scoring punch.

To be sure, Toronto's season is by no means almost over, and it's 87.5% likely that whichever club winds up falling short here won't win the lottery. But the slim flipside possibility is significant for what it signals to teams in similar situations, those that Lafreniere could elevate immediately into contention. Think of him teaming with McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in Edmonton, or of him injecting life into the Predators' or Islanders' pedestrian forward corps. Only in 2020 are these outcomes conceivable.

Likewise, you don't have to strain to envision the transformative impact Lafreniere could have on Columbus or Toronto's fate - one bonus reason this series is so enticing. On to Game 2 on Tuesday afternoon.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

Copyright © 2020 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.

The NHL's bubbled postseason opened Saturday in Toronto and Edmonton, the latter the host city for the Western Conference bracket. Below are five takeaways from the hometown Oilers' 6-4 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks and the Calgary Flames' 4-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets.

Kubalik's five-star debut

One joy of the NHL restart will be getting to watch Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar, the dazzling young defensemen who finished first and second respectively in rookie scoring, build on the season-long showings that guaranteed one of them will win the Calder Trophy. So electrifying were Hughes and Makar in 2019-20 that the inclusion of a third finalist on the ballot last month registered as a formality. He may have had a great season, whoever he was. It's just that he was destined to be overshadowed.

No one should be especially surprised if Hughes or Makar command the spotlight when their postseasons begin Sunday. That said, both will be in tough to top the opening act put forth by Dominik Kubalik, their fellow Calder nominee who required only 13:56 in ice time to single-handedly dampen the favored Oilers' spirits.

The five points Kubalik racked up in Game 1 were the most any player's scored in his NHL playoff debut - and, in starker terms, were entirely unexpected. Before he signed a one-year deal with Chicago last summer, Kubalik, 24, had never reached the 30-goal mark in a season, as play-by-play announcer Chris Cuthbert noted on Saturday's Canadian telecast. Not in junior hockey, nor across six years as a pro in Switzerland and his native Czech Republic.

Riding shotgun on Jonathan Toews' left wing, Kubalik netted 30 goals on the nose in 68 games this season, a commendable figure that didn't quite foreshadow the magnitude of the tear he's been on in the Western hub city. First came his two goals and an assist in an exhibition upset of the defending champion St. Louis Blues on Wednesday. Kubalik was even better in the first playoff game that counted, earning full credit for the two goals and three assists he amassed on plays that included a one-timed blast, a netfront tip, and a pair of skillful passes to Toews.

The outcome of Game 1 is supremely important in a best-of-five series, amplifying the significance of any complementary player rising to the occasion to help out his team's stars. Connor McDavid was far from perfect on Saturday - his lost faceoff and giveaway behind his own net in the first period led to two Blackhawks goals - but he did his part offensively with three points on the power play. Support further down the lineup wasn't there to be found, which could mean a short series if someone on the Oilers doesn't start emulating or corralling Kubalik.

Clean it up, Oilers

On the subject of help for Edmonton's leading lights: we're officially one game closer to the funniest possible resolution to the qualifying round. It remains premature to float this scenario, but imagine coach Dave Tippett's club losing twice more to Chicago, winning Phase 2 of this year's creatively formatted draft lottery, and from here on out icing a forward corps that features McDavid, scoring champ Leon Draisaitl, and soon-to-be No. 1 pick Alexis Lafreniere.

After Saturday, it's evident that even the Rimouski Oceanic wunderkind might not move the dial sufficiently if the Oilers can't rectify the defensive woes - and general lack of fortitude - that perennially ail them. Nearly every Blackhawks goal resulted from shoddy defensive coverage, a crucial lost faceoff, or a glaringly inopportune turnover, including McDavid's aforementioned slipups and goaltender Mike Smith mishandling the puck in the trapezoid when Edmonton was up 1-0 early.

Tippett's decision to start Smith instead of Mikko Koskinen was another miscue. Koskinen was the superior goalie this season, and his .917 save percentage in 38 games - compared to Smith's .902 in 39 games - would seem a more pertinent number than the .938 mark Smith previously authored across 24 previous playoff appearances.

Most of Smith's experience and success in the postseason came in one run to the third round with the Phoenix Coyotes back in 2011-12. By allowing five goals to the Blackhawks on 23 shots, his career mark dropped to .934, demonstrating the drag effect a single stinker can have on a relatively sparse body of work. It also proved the primacy of making the right call when a coach is faced with a goaltending quandary, as Tippett now can only do by sticking with Koskinen in Game 2.

Faced with a similar choice later Saturday, Flames coach Geoff Ward was rewarded for starting Cam Talbot, statistically the better option this season than usual No. 1 David Rittich, in Calgary's opener against the Jets. Even before Talbot turned aside 16 of 17 Winnipeg shots, it constituted a victory for empirical decision-making. That's as good a basis as any to pick a netminder these playoffs, given that Rittich is no proven stud who merely endured a rare down season and that no goalie has preexisting momentum following several months of forced rest.

Can Edmonton's PP save the day?

Back to the Oilers, whose other lifeline in a 1-0 series deficit is their historically potent power play. Not even Wayne Gretzky's finest offensive units ever managed to score on 29.5% of man advantages, as McDavid and his mates did this season. The league's top-ranked unit converted three of four opportunities in Game 1, suggesting the Blackhawks would do well to avoid needless mistakes like the too-many-men penalty they took 87 seconds into the game.

Problematically, the Blackhawks' 28th-ranked power play scored on three of six tries, contradicting the imbalance between these teams that the regular season seemed to lay bare. The Edmonton penalty kill ranked second in the NHL this year (84.4%), but between Toews, Kubalik, Patrick Kane, and Duncan Keith, Chicago has the firepower to buck dire trends in small samples. Continuing to do so would make the Oilers' task that much harder.

Aside from killing penalties, the Oilers' play at even strength left ample room for improvement. Take as an example their top line's Corsi figure: McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Zack Kassian generated a mere 28% of shot attempts when they were on the ice. Toews, Kubalik, and Brandon Saad, meanwhile, were responsible for 11 shot attempts to two against (84.62%) and scored twice at five-on-five. Chicago was the faster and sharper team in a fast-paced affair, and their big guns merit a lot of credit.

Scheifele injury highly worrisome

What a blow it would be for the Jets if Mark Scheifele's out the rest of the qualifying round or longer.

The first commercial break had yet to arrive in Saturday's final game when Winnipeg's top center dumped the puck deep during a line change and tried to dodge the brunt of Matthew Tkachuk's check by the boards. Scheifele's left leg was caught beneath him and he slumped to the ice in serious pain. He'd played a mere 2:59 when he was helped to the dressing room, placing no weight on that leg, and subsequently ruled out.

Scheifele's injury was the low point of a night in which much went wrong: Patrik Laine left the bench clutching his wrist, the Jets' power play was scoreless on seven tries, and Calgary outshot Winnipeg 32-11 over the final 45 minutes. Though captain Blake Wheeler fought Tkachuk later in the first period - seemingly responding to the hit and belatedly, perhaps, to a challenge Tkachuk appeared to issue off the opening faceoff - Scheifele's absence generally seemed to deflate the Jets, who now have to plot how to potentially move forward without him.

"It was intentional. It was a filthy, dirty kick to the back of the leg," coach Paul Maurice said postgame about the Tkachuk incident, arguing that the play could have ended Scheifele's career. Asked for updates about Scheifele and Laine's health, he said both players would see specialists Sunday.

Outside of Vezina Trophy finalist Connor Hellebuyck, Scheifele might be Winnipeg's best and most important player. He's been a point-per-game player for four seasons running and plays more than any Jets forward overall and on the power play, where his team-high 10 goals in that scenario this season were sorely missed Saturday. Winnipeg's other main offensive threats - Laine, Kyle Connor, Wheeler, and Nikolaj Ehlers - are all wingers, and the drop-off from Scheifele to No. 2 pivot Cody Eakin is steep.

Across the hall at Rogers Place, all appears dandy with the Flames, a stunning divergence in fortune after they and the Jets finished the regular season separated in points percentage by one-thousandth of a point. Sixty minutes later, Winnipeg's on the ropes and encouraging signs abounded for Ward's side. The spotless performance from the penalty kill. The stifling of the Jets in the neutral zone for much of the night. Talbot's steadiness. Johnny Gaudreau notching his first playoff goal since 2015 and leaping into Tkachuk's arms, the thought of his going scoreless against Colorado in the first round last year a distant memory.

NHL finally puts focus on combating racism

To conclude, let's salute Matt Dumba for the history he made ahead of Oilers-Blackhawks. The 26-year-old Wild defenseman became the NHL's first player to kneel during the U.S. national anthem, reprising the gesture that Colin Kaepernick made famous in the NFL - and that whole NBA teams are employing during the league's restart in Orlando - to protest racism and police violence toward Black people.

Dumba, a founding member of the Hockey Diversity Alliance who is Filipino Canadian, spoke at center ice on behalf of that nascent organization for a few minutes before the anthem. His entire speech makes for a worthwhile and important listen, especially the ending: "Black lives matter. Breonna Taylor's life matters. Hockey is a great game, but it could be a whole lot greater, and it starts with all of us."

Before the Wild's exhibition game against the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday, Dumba stood shoulder to shoulder during the U.S. anthem with three fellow players of color: Nazem Kadri, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, and his Minnesota teammate Jordan Greenway. Dumba was the lone player to kneel before Saturday's game, though Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse and Blackhawks backup goalie Malcolm Subban stood by and placed a hand on his shoulders.

The messages "END RACISM" and "#WESKATEFOR BLACK LIVES" were displayed in the arena at points throughout the game on large screens that were visible from certain broadcast angles. Prior to Dumba's speech, the NHL committed, via a message from the PA announcer, to tell over the next two months the personal stories of racial justice advocates (and of frontline health care workers) who hail from cities represented in the postseason.

In acknowledging the significance of what Dumba did, it's also essential to recognize that the burden to spotlight the pervasiveness of racism in the U.S. and Canada - and to urge people to be better - shouldn't fall solely on himself, Kadri, HDA co-heads Akim Aliu and Evander Kane, or any other player of color. If this video that aired during the Eastern slate of games in Toronto is a start, white players and the league can continue to do more to demonstrate allyship and be anti-racist. At the least, here's hoping Dumba's courageous stand isn't the extent of the attention paid to the issue these playoffs.

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

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