Day 22 of the Stanley Cup playoffs may not have been filled with goals, but we sure got to see some fantastic goaltending on display.
Here’s how it all worked out:
photo via Target Photograph
Heading into last season, the Crusaders had the issue of having not one defenceman returning.
Cam Reagan and Brett Roberts opted to take their talents to the USHL and KIJHL respectively, Koletrane Wilson was called up to the WHL by the Lethbridge Hurricanes, Chase Torontow and Ben Sowa moved onto the college level, and, Austin Shmoorkoff, Jacob Thomas, and Ben McLeod decided to step away from hockey. Of course, McLeod did decide to return to the Cru few games into the regular season.
It eventually panned out for the organization due to their phenomenal scouting staff, and acquisitions made by General Manager Kyle Chase.
The Leafs and Blue Jackets were both on the brink of elimination tonight.
Toronto was coming off a big 4-3 win on Friday night which they almost squander. And the Blue Jackets were looking to get back on track after losing their last three.
Here’s how it went:
There were just two games on the card tonight in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Game one had the Toronto Maple Leafs looking to tie up their series against arch rivals the Bostons Bruins.
Then 30 minutes later, Washington were hoping to do what Columbus did to them in their home barn and defeat them twice on home ice.
Here’s how your Thursday night hockey went:
We had a little bit of everything today.
Some great goaltending, plenty of goals, and even said goodbye to another Stanley Cup hopefully.
Better luck next year Anaheim.
Here’s how today went:
It was a thrilling Sunday of hockey in the NHL with four games on the card.
The offence was still their for majority of teams, but we still had a few goaltending performances from Matt Murray, Devan Dubynk, and Sergei Bobrovsky.
Washington, however, may now have a decision to make between the pipes heading into the game three down 2-0.
Here’s how the games went:
The offence was on full display on day two of the Stanley Cup playoffs with a total of 30 goals being scored.
A number of star NHLers made their playoff debuts, with a couple lighting up the lamp.
Let’s take a quick look at what went on around the league tonight:
Photos via Target Photography
It was a successful year for the Sherwood Park Crusaders. With them being one of the most inexperienced teams in the AJHL, the expectations for this team were unclear.
They wrapped up their 60 game regular season with a 27-31-2 record and finished fifth in the North Division. They battled it out with the Grande Prairie Storm for first-round home ice advantage right until the last game of the season.
Their season was over after were eliminated by the Storm in the first round of the playoffs. It was a highly competitive series which really could’ve fallen either way. Unfortunately for Sherwood Park, a poor Game Five showing resulted in the Storm eliminating them in after a 6-1 spanking.
There were plenty of positives from the year, but also many negatives. Let’s a take a look at a few of those from both sides.
photo via Target Photograph
Sherwood Park Crusaders forward Garrett Clegg was named to the AJHL’s Viterra North All-Rookie team, on Monday afternoon, becoming the fifth Crusader in the last eight years to receive this honour; joining Matt Tomkins, Tommy Nixon, Sean MacTavish, and Ty Readman.
This past couple month, we’ve seen Connor McDavid play some of the best hockey of his young career which seems bizarre to say considering how dominant he has been since coming into the league.
Since January 11th, the Edmonton Oilers captain has been racking up the points jumping from 10th in league with scoring with 48 points to number 1 with 99 on March 25th. During that spell, fans have been watching him not only distribute the puck in classic McDavid style but also light up the lamp multi times a night. Right now, McDavid sits on 39 goals, a career high, with six games remaining this campaign.
He’s obviously going to his 100 points that’s not even a question. The real question is, could Connor McDavid score 50 goals this season?
At this point last season, the Hart trophy winner was sitting at 225 shots with 27 goals. Right now, McDavid has 251 shots with 39 goals with nine of those coming in his last ten games. In those ten games, he’s been scoring on every fourth shot on goal.
In the Oilers final six games they’ll take on the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Vancouver Canucks twice, Calgary Flames, Minnesota Wild, and Las Vegas Golden Knights. In the past, we’ve seen McDavid score memorable goals against these teams from his dangling threw the Blue Jackets defence in his rookie season to put his elite speed display against the Flames in the season opener. This season, in 12 games against the final five opponents Captain Connor has eight goals. As for his career, McDavid has faced those teams 37 times combined scoring 22 goals. The ratios may not be the greatest, but we’ve also never seen him shoot as well and as much as he is right now.
He scored one against the Blue Jackets on Tuesday and now sits at an even 40 goals. He needs to average two goals a game from now until the end of the season.
As for his opponents, McDavid has only not scored against the Vancouver Canucks this year in two attempts and only has a single assist. He’s scored well against the other three, though, with three in four against the Flames, two in two versus the Wild, and two in three when matched up against the Golden Knights. The goaltending in both Vegas and Minnesota could prove to be a roadblock, but even with that being said it hasn’t effected McDavid much in the past.
Is it a stretch for this to happen? Maybe, but we are also talking about the best player in the world right now.