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Patrick Roy set to interview for Senators’ coaching vacancy: report

By Scott BilleckMay 18, 2019, 1:21 PM EDT
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Interested in seeing more of this?

Or maybe some of this?

Well, you just might be in luck.

Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that Patrick Roy is set be the last interview done by Ottawa Senators general manager Pierre Dorion as the search for the next bench boss in Canada’s capital continues.

Roy has most recently been coaching the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. He last coached in the NHL in 2016 with the Colorado Avalanche, a job he resigned from following that season. Two years earlier, he won the Jack Adams Award for the NHL’s best coach after the Avalanche went from last to first in the Western Conference.

Roy is 130-92-24 during his 246-game coaching career in the NHL.

“Those close to Roy believe he’d like to return to the NHL in the right situation and initially the only pressure in Ottawa will be to develop the young players,” Garrioch wrote. “The Senators have the potential to have 17 picks in the first three rounds of the next three drafts and finding the right fit is paramount.”

The Senators, according to Garrioch, have already interviewed several candidates, including fellow former Avalanche coach Mark Crawford, along with former Senators coach Jacques Martin and Dallas Stars assistance Rick Bowness.

Roy’s experience coaching young players, as Garrioch points out, would be appealing for a team as young as the Senators, who also have a litany of draft picks coming their way over the next three years.

Can Roy work under Senators owner Eugene Melnyk? Can he work with Dorion? Roy didn’t exactly have the best professional relationship with Joe Sakic and Roy would likely want some level of control of the direction of the team.

It remains to be seen, but Roy has a decent track record that is appealing, certainly.

Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck

Has Erik Karlsson’s lingering groin injury resurfaced?

By Scott BilleckMay 18, 2019, 12:20 PM EDT
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It plagued him for most of the second half of the season.

A good chunk of January, a good chunk of February, and the entirety of March, to be exact.

And now Erik Karlsson‘s Game 5 status is up in the air after he appeared to aggravate a lingering groin injury, one Karlsson said had only progressed in the right direction throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs after Game 1 of the Western Conference Final.

“I don’t have anything for you there,” said Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer when quizzed on Karlsson’s health following a 2-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues that evened the best-of-seven series 2-2 on Friday.

DeBoer quickly swept that question under the rug.

As did Brent Burns, who just said, “He’s doing good” followed by a “How’re you doing?” when a reporter probed Burns about his teammate.

You may not have noticed it, initially at least.

Normally guys who play 24:33 in a game don’t miss significant stretches. But from the 10:36 mark to 18:05 of the third period, Karlsson didn’t see the ice. With the Sharks trailing 2-1 at the time, you’d expect one of the game’s best offensive defensemen to be on the ice. Instead, Karlsson was grimacing in pain, coming out during commercial breaks to test whatever was ailing him.

[NBC 2019 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFF HUB]

Somehow, he played the final 1:55 of the game — nearly two minutes of madness where the Sharks tried, ultimately in vain, to find an equalizer. Karlsson bit down hard on his mouthpiece and bore the pain, but you could see its effects.

PHT’s James O’Brien wrote on Karlsson’s playoffs prior to Friday’s game.

Karlsson limped into the playoffs and said himself that he could barely move in Round 1 against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Still, and as James pointed out in his story, it’s been hard to notice with two goals and 14 assists in 18 postseason games. Karlsson has played big minutes and produced at nearly a point-per-game pace in the playoffs, essentially everything the Sharks envisioned he would do when they brought him in last summer.

What they didn’t want was a nagging injury that force Karlsson to missed 29 games during the regular season and now, perhaps, some at a critical juncture for a team that’s hoping they’ve finally put it all together this year.

Maybe it’s nothing. But those painful faces that Karlsson wore in Game 4 weren’t exactly inspiring confidence in the “maybe it’s nothing” part.

If Karlsson can’t play, it’s only going to mean more minutes for guys like Burns, who is already averaging nearly 29 minutes a night. Karlsson has played an instrumental role in these playoffs for the Sharks.

A loss, even for a game, would be a massive blow in what’s now a best-of-three series.

[MORE: Blues handling adversity like champions]

Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck

Blues handling adversity like champions

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By Scott BilleckMay 18, 2019, 11:40 AM EDT
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How many times have we thought the St. Louis Blues were dead in the water?

Was it in Round 1 when, after jetting out to a 2-0 lead against the Winnipeg Jets, they lost two straight as it appeared the Jets finally got their act together?

Was it after Games 4 and 5 in Round 2 where the Dallas Stars took a 3-2 series lead and we figured that was the end of their miraculous run?

Was it after the San Jose Sharks benefitted from a hand pass by Timo Meier that found the stick of Erik Karlsson to end Game 3 in overtime to give the Sharks a 2-1 series lead in the Western Conference Final?

For a team that sat plumb last in the NHL on the morning of Jan. 3, are we really all that surprised that they’re still alive and kicking?

Perhaps we shouldn’t be.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that a rookie goaltender is now 11-2 following a loss in the regular and postseason combined, throwing up an incredible .936 save percentage when his team needs a win.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be miffed when a team as resilient as the Blues, given all they’ve been through, have outscored opponents 14-9 after a loss in these playoffs.

Embrace the grind, as they say.

[NBC 2019 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFF HUB]

And the Blues have, particularly in Game 4 where they could have imploded after losing in such terrible fashion one-game earlier.

“We just talked about… you’ve got to just move on,” said Blues head coach Craig Berube, saying he went into the room after Game 3 to talk that loss over with the team. “The call, you can’t change it now. It is what it is. I think we talked in terms like that game we had a one-goal lead, we could have closed it out then and we didn’t. We let it go to overtime, and the only difference tonight, we closed it out with a one-goal lead.”

Indeed, the whole overtime crisis of Game 3 could have been averted if the Blues could have held onto a 4-3 third-period lead. They trailed 2-0 and 3-1 in that game but led after a four-goal second period. Only Logan Couture‘s magic 6-on-5 prevented the win in regulation and we all know what happened from there.

Resilience will only take a team so far. It’s an intangible. At the end of the day, that resilience needs to bend but not break and the players have to ultimately get the job done. It broke in Game 3. In Game 4, however, the Blues adjusted.

They didn’t have to play from behind — an Ivan Barbashev goal 35 seconds in solved that issue in short order. Tyler Bozak‘s game-winner was scored later on in the same frame.

The Sharks certainly attacked, finishing the game with 73 shot attempts — more than double that of St. Louis.

But St. Louis held the line.

The final 1:55 of the third period was frantic — madness, as Jordan Binnington put it following the game. A big save from Binnington was followed up by a big block of Alex Steen. Brayden Schenn then did the only thing he could do amidst the onslaught as he iced the puck. With no times outs, the Blues couldn’t get a breather until Joel Edmundson‘s desperate attempt to clear was just short of being an icing call.

The Sharks came back, only to have a shot blocked by Bozak and eventually cleared. Ryan O'Reilly then won a key draw in the neutral zone and Oskar Sundqvist thwarted the final attempt by the Sharks.

“We’ve fought through adversity all year,” Bozak said. “We usually play our best when we have to respond to something.”

Full buy-in from a team that’s done nothing but since Jan. 3. And a 2-2 series stalemate after four games with a chance to compete for the Stanley Cup on the line.

This is simply expected from the Blues at this point.

MORE:
• Conference Finals schedule, TV info
• PHT Conference Finals predictions

Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck

The Playoff Buzzer: Bergeron, Rask help Bruins advance to Stanley Cup Final

By Scott BilleckMay 16, 2019, 11:52 PM EDT
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  • Tuukka Rask stopped all the pucks and Boston’s top line contributed all the goals as the Boston Bruins became the first to book their ticket into the Stanley Cup Final. Boston won 4-0, knocking out the Carolina Hurricanes in four straight. 

Bruins 4, Hurricanes 0 (Bruins win series 4-0)

They had to go at it without their captain, but the Bruins rallied around the absence of Zdeno Chara and put in one of their most complete performances of the Stanley Cup Playoffs to advance to their 20th Stanley Cup Final. The Bruins will contest for their seventh mug after sweeping the Hurricanes following a 4-0 win in Thursday’s Game 4 in Raleigh.

Tuukka Rask, who’s got one hand on the Conn Smythe Trophy, stopped all 24 shots he faced. The Bruins ‘Big Three’ did the rest. Patrice Bergeron scored twice and added an assist, David Pastrnak tallied once and added two helpers and Brad Marchand split it down the middle with a goal and an assist. A combined eight points from those three in Game 4, and a total of 14 between them in the series.

The Bruins now have some time to recover and get set for a meeting with either the San Jose Sharks or the St. Louis Blues. The Sharks currently lead the Western Conference Final 2-1, with Game 4 set for Friday night in St. Louis.

[NBC 2019 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFF HUB]

Three stars

1. Tuukka Rask, Boston Bruins

The superlatives for Rask are running thin and there’s still a round to go in these playoffs. Rask has been on a mission in these playoffs, an unbeatable presence who is already in an opponent’s head before the puck drops.

Rask stopped 24 shots for the shutout on Thursday and stopped 109 of 114 in the series, good for a .956 save percentage. He’s one seven straight and 10 of Boston’s past 12 in the postseason.

He’ll win the Conn Smythe by a country mile if the Bruins are successful in the final round.

2. Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins

Bergeron scored twice and helped another get past Curtis McElhinney, giving the perennial Selke contender three goals and five points in the series.

Bergeron is one of the few players remaining on the Bruins that lifted Lord Stanley in 2011 and he appears dead-set on doing it once more.

He’s got eight goals and 13 points in 17 games and his line with Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak is too hot to handle at the moment.

3. David Pastrnak, Boston Bruins

Pastrnak was the quieter of the Big Three heading into Game 4. He had just one assist through the first three games but exploded for a goal and two helpers.

He redirected a stiff pass from Marchand in the second period, a goal that would eventually be marked as the game-winner. Pastrnak finished the series with four points.

Highlight of the night

A lesson regarding turnovers:

You never touch the trophy:

Factoids

The ‘NFL players doing things at hockey rinks’ moment of the night

Friday’s schedule

Game 4: San Jose Sharks vs. St. Louis Blues, 8 p.m. ET (NBCSN; Live Stream). Sharks lead series 2-1

Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck

Bruins head to Stanley Cup Final after sweeping Hurricanes

By Scott BilleckMay 16, 2019, 10:49 PM EDT
11 Comments

The Boston Bruins will head back to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2013 and for the third time in the past eight years after sweeping the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final.

The Bruins once again rode impregnable goaltending, an unstoppable power play and the best trio in the NHL in Game 4 on Thursday night in Raleigh, ending the storm surge for good in a 4-0 win.

And so the Bruins, who struggled through the first few gears in the first half of the regular season before slamming it into sixth in the second half, will contend for their seventh Stanley Cup in their 95-year history.

Brad Marchand knew the stakes long before the puck was dropped in Thursday’s Game 4.

Despite being up 3-0 in the series, allowing the Hurricanes to pick up some windspeed could have made things a little bit more interesting. Few teams ever recover from such a deficit, but Marchand and the Bruins weren’t about to tempt fate.

[NBC 2019 STANLEY CUP PLAYOFF HUB]

Both teams battled to a nil-nil draw after 20 minutes — this, despite putting up a combined 24 shots. The Hurricanes even killed off a Bruins power play, if you can believe it.

That sight for sore eyes didn’t age well, however.

The Hurricanes took two penalties that could have been avoided — a too many men call and a goaltender interference infraction.

What happened in the resulting power plays for Boston sealed Carolina’s fate.

In the first instance in the second, Marchand provided an authoritative pass to David Pastrnak, who needed only to get his stick on the ice as the Bruins went up 1-0.

Their second session of the period had a similar yield. This time, Pastrnak was the set-up man and Patrice Bergeron was the beneficiary. Boston led 2-0.

The top trio came as advertised in this series, combining for 14 points:

  • Pastrnak: 1G, 3A
  • Bergeron: 3G, 2A
  • Marchand: 2G, 3A

Those three have combined for 22 of the Bruins 57 goals in some fashion in the playoffs now, better than one-third of their total offense.

A big reason for that, of course, has been Boston’s power-play prowess.

Boston went a stellar 7-for-15 in the series with the man-advantage. Carolina? Well, they were just 1-for-14 over the four games and were a paltry 5-for-52 in the playoffs. A power play operating at under 10 percent in the playoffs will only get you so far.

And then there’s Tuukka Rask.

A shutout in Game 4 put the icing on the cake for Boston’s No. 1.

It was Tuukka Time all of the time. Rask faced 114 shots in the series and stop 109 of them. Five goals allowed in four games, a .956 save percentage.

Unbeatable.

The obituary for the Hurricanes will hold a story of not being able to find their stride in the series.

They were thrown a lifeline prior to the game as Zdeno Chara was ruled out with an undisclosed injury, but it amounted to nothing tangible on the ice.

Still, these ‘Bunch of Jerks’ deserve a whole heck of a lot of credit for what they’ve accomplished.

Sure, they couldn’t beat a playoff-hardened team like the Bruins, but for a young squad whose window is only opening, to knock out the defending Stanley Cup champs and to sweep the New York Islanders is a massive step in the right direction.

Carolina is a good team that is only going to get better from this experience. They’ve found a coach that resonates in the room. They inspired their fanbase and, above all, have some solid talent on the ice.

MORE:
• Conference Finals schedule, TV info
• PHT Conference Finals predictions

Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck