Jordan Staal’s scoring streak through five straight Stanley Cup Finals games has been the story of this series, and last night only made the case louder. Once considered regular season merchants have done a complete 180 on the narrative this season. They also did a 180 on their second period performances throughout this series. Carolina also finally got a big game from 2/3 of their topline that they started this series with as Svechnikov (twice) and Aho both scored goals. Everything went Carolina’s way during this game, they got great goaltending by Bussi, their power-play scored, and the aforementioned players began to fill the net.
Something that has been going their way throughout the entire series thus far is the play of Jordan Staal. We spoke about it after game 4 but this old man decided to just keep chugging along as he scored for his 5th(!) straight game. I have long given more credit to Staal and Fleury for the 2009 cup then I gave to Geno and Sid. For one the two most important positions during a playoff run are the third line center and the play of your goaltender. Whatever Staal did in 2009 is absolutely nothing compared to what he’s doing for Carolina this season, but he is still the third line center.
Your top guys are typically always going to produce but when you get this deep in the playoffs your oppositions other team will also have their top-guys going. This series is somewhat of an anomaly as Carolina hasn’t got the production from their top offensive players, but Staal has been making up for their shortcomings. Brandon Bussi has come in and given them the second most important piece during a cup-run. On the flip side, Carter Hart has completely imploded. Hart has given up at least 4 goals in every single game of these finals. For whatever reason, Torts is completely standing by his goaltender’s side. Now, Adin Hill has terrible this season, but Hart cannot be instilling confidence. Maybe there’s something about Hart that guys just feel compelled to defend him even when he’s definitely in the wrong.
The Golden Knights will get the opportunity to push this series to seven games on Sunday, but they will be forced to do so with William Karlsson. Vegas was a beyond middling team entering these playoffs and turned back into a juggernaut as soon as Karlsson re-entered their lineup after a long injury. Well, they don’t have time to wait for him to return this time around as he is almost certainly out for the series. This will shift Marner back to center where he is certainly not as effective. These are all factors going against Vegas but with the way this series has went I just feel like a game 7 is definitely on the horizon, I just don’t know if Vegas can win back-to-back games. For one, Carolina hasn’t lost twice in a row since January and secondly losing Karlsson (plus Harts play) is going to make that feat significantly more difficult.
it would honestly be a bummer to see one of, if not the best, finals of our lifetimes to end before a do-or-die game 7 so that’s what I’ll be rooting for on Sunday. To get there, Eichel is going to need to score a goal. Jack Eichel is definitely the best player from his draft class, a gold medal and cup ring will earn you such a distinction, but Jack has never scored a goal in the finals. To his credit, he does hold the record for most finals’ points without a goal, but Vegas needs their best player to put the biscuit in the basket. The second-best guy from Jack’s draft class, McDavid, has turned into a ghost in these situations each of the previous two seasons, Jack needs to learn from McDavid’s shortcomings and bring his best on Sunday.
Congrats on a phenomenal performance from Carolina last night, but please lose the next game the world deserves a game 7. The NBA is likely not getting one after a historical comeback by the Knicks (credit to T. Swift for never losing faith). Thus, if the world is to be blessed with the best two words in sports, game 7, it will be up to the Knights to figure out a way to extend this series.
The NHL continues to be a whirlwind off the ice as players everywhere are requesting out of their current situations. First, we had a report that now reigning Norris Trophy winner, Zach Werenski, requested out of Columbus. This report was quickly dismissed but in a very odd way. Pierre Lebrun disputed the claim but said it’s something that could happen in the future. I almost feel like Team USA is attempting to make a super team. We have already had Larkin request a trade. Matthews is evaluating his situation, Brady Tkachuk is likely looking to leave Ottawa, this bizarre Werenski situation, and Hellebuyck wants out of Winnipeg (thank God).
You have the GM of Minnesota reportedly not spending assets at the deadline because he was hopeful one of those players would request out of their situation during the summer. What’s interesting is Guerin was also the GM of Team USA for the Olympics, it’s almost like he would have been able to gather intel, or pitch, his gold medalists on the idea of coming to his team this offseason. I don’t want to accuse a former Penguin champion of tampering, but I will suggest that it is a very interesting situation to monitor.
While Werenski’s trade request is a hoax, for now, there was an actual trade request yesterday at the hands of Darnell Nurse. Nurse has simply not been good for Edmonton since signing a 9.5 AAV contract. Not been good is being kind to be honest. Nevertheless, he has requested out of the Oilers and much to my dismay it was reported that the Penguins (and Kings) were a team where he would accept a trade. My first reaction was to find a happy place and not think about the prospect of him coming to Pittsburgh. Then I remembered that the Penguins employ Kyle Dubas and the Oilers employ Stan Bowman. Not only is Stan terrible at his job, but he lacks any leverage. For one, Nurse has been terrible, but also, he is managing one of the only cap strapped teams in the league. He also needs to improve his team in quite the significant manner, or he risks being the reason that McDavid leaves. This leaves Dubas with the ability to fleece Bowman for the second time in under a year (remember the Jarry trade LOL). Dubas can offload Graves (saving Edmonton 6 million if he’s banished to the minors) and likely acquire picks (or prospects) for taking on Nurse’s contract. The Penguins have plenty of cap space to take on Nurse’s contract without it really hurting them and who knows maybe Muse can turn him around much like he did for Mo Mantha. There could be a reason that Ryan Shea isn’t resigned and while I initially thought it was to give way for Owen Pickering, it might be because Dubas is plotting to once again make out like a bandit in a trade with Edmonton.
