The NHL playoffs have gone off the deep end | CBC Sports

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The Stanley Cup champions are gone. The best* regular-season team in history is gone. The Leafs won a series for the first time in a generation. And the odds of a Canadian team hoisting the Cup for the first time in three decades suddenly look quite a bit better.

Let’s untangle it all after a completely bonkers weekend in the NHL playoffs:

The Kraken slayed the Stanley Cup champs.

With the dynamite young trio of Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen leading the way, the Avalanche looked like a dynasty in the making as they buried everyone in their path to the Cup last year. The Avs lost some key supporting players in free agency and battled injuries throughout an unimpressive regular season, by their standards. But they still won the Central Division, and most expected them to flip the switch for the playoffs.

Instead, Colorado suffered a shocking first-round defeat to the Seattle Kraken as the second-year expansion franchise scored a 2-1 upset in Game 7 last night in Denver. After winning the first playoff series in its brief history, Seattle will face the Dallas Stars in the second round, starting Tuesday night.

The big, bad Bruins are out.

Whether they’re really the greatest regular-season team ever is up for debate, but Boston did set the all-time NHL records for wins and points. If anyone could break the Presidents’ Trophy curse (none of the past seven regular-season champs got past the second round), it was surely this playoff-tailored Bruins team that allowed the fewest goals in the league (by a mile) and finished second in goals scored. At the very least, they’d certainly have no trouble with a wild-card Florida team that scraped into the playoffs with the worst record of the 16 qualifiers.

Instead, Boston blew a 3-1 series lead and lost Game 7 on home ice last night when Florida’s Brandon Montour tied it with one minute left in regulation and Carter Verhaeghe scored the OT winner. After building what looked like an insurmountable series lead without injured captain Patrice Bergeron, who missed the first four games with what was revealed to be a herniated disc, the Bruins went 0-3 with him in the lineup.

As the 37-year-old Bergeron contemplates his future, Brad Marchand will rue his missed opportunity late in Game 5. The Boston star somehow got a clear breakaway off a faceoff in his own end with eight seconds left in a tie game, but Sergei Bobrovsky made a series-saving stop as time expired.

It’s all falling into place for the Leafs.

Toronto’s playoff curse finally ended on Saturday night in Tampa when captain John Tavares scored in overtime of Game 6 to give his boyhood favourite team its first series victory in 19 years. The Leafs won all three of their road games in OT to end a remarkable Lightning run that included two Stanley Cups and three straight trips to the Cup final.

After two decades of frustration, optimism suddenly abounds in Toronto. Rather than the dreaded second-round matchup with the Bruins, who eliminated the Leafs in 2013, ’18 and ’19, Toronto draws an easier opponent in Florida and will have home ice for a potential Game 7. The Leafs could also enjoy a friendly crowd down in Sunrise — something the Panthers are apparently trying to avoid by restricting Canadian fans’ access to tickets.

But — just ask the Bruins — you underestimate the Panthers at your own peril. The 2021-22 Presidents’ Trophy winners have scored more goals than any other team over the last two seasons and are now coming off one of the most stunning upsets in playoff history. Game 1 goes Tuesday night in Toronto.

Is an all-Canadian final in the cards?

OK, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Toronto and Edmonton still need to win two more rounds each to set up what would be a thrilling Stanley Cup final matchup for most people not named Gary Bettman. But both teams’ paths through their respective conferences are looking clearer now that Boston and Colorado are out.

The Oilers passed their first test by eliminating Los Angeles in six on Saturday night. Now comes a tougher one in the Vegas Golden Knights, who clipped Edmonton for the Pacific Division title and the top seed in the Western Conference by just two points before dispatching Winnipeg in five on Thursday. 

This looks like the best matchup of the second round. The Oilers are the highest-scoring team in the league and feature the top two regular-season point-getters in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, who’s tied for the playoff lead with seven goals. But Vegas is capable of shut-down defensive play and has some star forwards of its own in Jack Eichel and Mark Stone, who had eight points against Winnipeg after returning from back surgery. Game 1 goes Wednesday in Vegas.

Oh, and the first round is not even done yet.

It concludes tonight with Game 7 of the roller-coaster Rangers-Devils series. New York appeared fully in control of its cross-river rival after back-to-back 5-1 road wins to open the series. But Jersey stormed back with three straight victories before the Rangers blew them out 5-2 at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night. The winner of tonight’s game will face Carolina, which finished off the Islanders in six on Friday.