By Matt Loughlin
Home ice advantage? What home ice advantage?
Visiting teams picked up victories in four of the five series-opening games played last night as the 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs got underway with two of those games decided in overtime.
The Montreal-New York series will come down to which team’s goalie outperforms the other. Last night it was the Rangers Henrik Lundqvist stopped 31 shots in shutting out the Canadiens, 2-0. Among Lundqvist’s saves was this beauty against Montreal’s Shea Weber.
https://twitter.com/NHLonNBCSports/status/852319873870905345
Even more ridiculous–as in more impressive–was Tanner Glass’ game-winning goal.
Would you expect anything less than a @TGlass15 snipe to open the playoffs? #NYRonMSG
More from the #Blueshirts win: https://t.co/RZtb63muBR pic.twitter.com/NSJ5I3ZOd0— MSG Networks (@MSGNetworks) April 13, 2017
Meanwhile, Boston had no shots–none, zero, nada–in the second period against Ottawa and trailed, 1-0, entering the final period in the Canadian capital. But, after Frank Vatrano tied it up, bad boy Brad Marchand potted the GWG with just 2:33 remaining as the Bruins pulled out a 2-1 victory.
The winner.
Courtesy: @Bmarch63 pic.twitter.com/ObC8udVsAH
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) April 13, 2017
Edmonton is led by 20-year-old Conner McDavid, the NHL’s leading scorer this season, and the citizens of northern Alberta city were pumped for the team’s first playoff appearance since 2006. But the San Jose Sharks, who lost in the Stanley Cup final to Pittsburgh last year, showed the Oilers that they will not be an easy out as Melker Karlsson scored early in the first overtime last night to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead in the series.
No one came off looking better last night than Pittsburgh GM Jimmy Rutherford who refused to trade goalie Marc-Andre Fleury at the deadline despite the fact that Fleury is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and that he had been relegated to a back up role after Matt Murray backstopped the Pens to last year’s Stanley Cup championship. But when Murray left warm ups last night with an injury, Fleury came on, stopped all 16 Columbus shots he faced in the first period, and led Pittsburgh to a 3-1 victory over the Blue Jackets, the only home team with a win last night.
Finally, St. Louis coach Mike Yeo was fired last year as HC by the Minnesota Wild. Yeo got the last laugh last night when the Blues scored a 2-1 overtime win over the Wild. Jake Allen made 41 saves and Joel Edmundson scored the game-winner at 17:48 of the extra session. Think Yeo enjoyed it?
https://twitter.com/Sportsnet/status/852530232686804992
The three remaining series open tonight with Toronto at Washington, Nashville at Chicago and Calgary at Anaheim.
