Let’s watch some playoff hockey!
Scroll down to the comments to discuss Thursday night’s game.
Western Conference
Vegas Golden Knights at Dallas Stars – 7 p.m. CT (ESPN)
Vegas leads the series 3-0
Uh, Jake Oettinger, what happened man?
I have a feelinger Oettinger is dealing with something, and what exactly that something is will most likely come out as soon as Dallas is officially eliminated. The Stars in general have also been hurt (master of the segue) by Jamie Benn’s catastrophically stupid cross check penalty during the early stages of Game Three. Benn was officially suspended for two games, so Dallas will be without their second leading scorer (and second highest power play point producer) for tonight – and if the Stars get bounced, he’ll also miss the first game of next season.
As for the Golden Knights, pretty insane that in their entire five year history, this could already be the second time they win the West and head to the Stanley Cup Final. And even more insane is that there’s basically just six players still left from their original roster, so kudos to GM Kelly McCrimmon for thumbing his nose at every other GM in the league by continuing to simply just go for it and trade for really, really good players when they become available.
Whereas it’s obvious who’s driving the Panthers success right now (Tkachuk and Officer Bob), Vegas is more of a concerted, team attack with multiple players leading the way. Adin Hill has been rock solid since taking over in the Edmonton series and is currently second the playoffs in GAA (1.96) and first in save percentage (.940).