The Washington Capitals made headlines Sunday morning when they relieved coach Todd Reirden after he lost his second consecutive first-round playoff series. Reirden was hired after Washington won the Stanley Cup when then head coach Barry Trotz and the team could not agree on a new contract and he bolted to Long Island to coach the Islanders.
Marc-Andre Fleury was in some hot water on Saturday night as his agent Allan Walsh tweeted out a picture of Fleury being pierced in the back with a Sabre with the name DeBoer written on the blade. This was in obvious reference to Vegas coach Peter DeBoer deciding to go with Robin Lehner in the net with Fleury, who has been the starter in Vegas for the only three years of the franchise, being relegated to the bench. Fleury asked his agent to delete the tweet, which did occur on Sunday morning.
Fleury spoke to his teammates Sunday and all is well with the Golden Knights and their popular netminder.
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BOSTON 3 TAMPA BAY 2 (Bruins lead the series 1-0)
Well, the Boston Bruins certainly seem to have gotten past the opting out of goaltender Tuukka Rask. Jaroslav Halak has now won four straight games in the Stanley Cup playoffs as he kicked out 35 shots to backstop Boston to a 3-2 victory over rival Tampa Bay in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series.
Boston was much the better team in the regular season but had trouble in the round-robin portion of the bubble, finishing with nary a win and went into the playoffs as the fourth seed rather than the first.
Rask was obviously having difficulty being away from his family and once he opted out, the Bruins seemed to rally around Halak as they quickly dispatched Carolina in three-straight after splitting the first two games.
Charlie Coyle got the Bruins on the scoresheet with 1:08 left in the opening stanza as he deflected a Brandon Carlo shot from the point past Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The Bruins doubled their lead to two when David Pastrnak scored on the power play, taking a nice cross-ice pass from David Krejci and one-timed it into the net.
The Bruins made it 3-0 early in the third when Patrice Bergeron stole the puck by lifting the stick of Ryan McDonagh, getting the puck to Pastrnak who set up Brad Marchand for the eventual game winner.
Victor Hedman broke up the shutout bid of Halak with his first of two as he flipped a wrist shot at the net and it beat the screened netminder.
The Lightning narrowed the lead to one with 1:14 left in the third and the Tampa Bay net empty as Hedman’s shot from the point beat Halak.
The Lightning pulled Vasilevskiy once again but could not garner a good scoring opportunity and lost Game 1.
Vasilevskiy made 28 saves and is 6-3 with a 2.08 GAA and a .925 save percentage in the post-season while Halak is 4-1 with a 2.23 GAA and a .921 save percentage.
Nikita Kucherov led both sides with eight shots on goal while Hedman had seven.
Joakim Nordstrom and Cedric Paquette each had seven hits.
Erik Cernak blocked five shots.
McDonagh left the ice at the 9:04 mark of the third with an undisclosed injury and did not return.
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VEGAS 5 VANCOUVER 0 (Vegas leads the best-of-seven series 1-0)
Reilly Smith, Mark Stone and Alex Tuch each scored once and added an assist to lead the Vegas Golden Knights to a 5-0 win over Vancouver in Game 1 of their best-of-seven series.
Jonathan Marchessault scored the lone goal of the opening period, as he tucked in the puck from behind the goal line and past Jacob Markstrom. Smith did yeoman’s work on the goal as he had the puck behind the net for a good 10 seconds, before finding Shea Theodore who tipped the puck over to Marchessault.
The Golden Knights exploded for three goals in the second period as Smith scored on the power play and then Stone and Tuch extended the lead to give the Golden Knights a 4-0 lead after two periods.
Max Pacioretty made it 5-0 in the third period with his second of the playoffs as he was set up by Stone.
Robin Lehner picked up the controversial start (read about Fleury above) and stopped all 26 shots to go to 6-1 in the post-season, giving up only 15 goals on 182shots.
Markstrom is 7-4 with the loss, having given up 30 goals on 384 shots. He was pulled after the Pacioretty goal, giving up five goals on 34 shots. Thatcher Demko finished up and stopped all five shots directed his way.
Theodore picked up a couple of assists.
Antoine Roussel took a 10-minute misconduct early in the third period.
Pacioretty had eight shots on goal.
Ryan Reaves had 11 hits while teammate William Carrier had nine. Vegas outhit Vancouver 54-45.
NIGHTLY LEADERS
Goals
Victor Hedman - 2
Assists
Shea Theodore - 2
Shots on Goal
Max Pacioretty - 8
Victor Hedman – 7
Hits
Ryan Reaves – 11
William Carrier – 9
Joakim Nordstrom – 7
Cedric Paquette – 7
Oscar Fantenberg - 7
Antoine Roussel – 7
Penalty Minutes
Antoine Roussel – 10
Alexander Edler - 4
