Playoff game recaps, Leafs win 2016 draft lottery, Lady Byng Trophy nominees revealed & more in today’s collection of notable NHL morning headlines.
NHL Playoff Recap.
Lightning winger Jonathan Drouin celebrates his goal against the Islanders.
TRIBLIVE.COM/THE WASHINGTON POST: Eric Fehr scored the game winner and Matt Murray made 23 saves as the Pittsburgh Penguins edged the Washington Capitals 2-1 to even their best-of-seven second-round series at a game apiece. Carl Hagelin also scored for the Penguins while Marcus Johansson had the Capitals only goal. Capitals defenseman Brooks Orpik could face supplemental discipline for his hit to the head of Penguins blueliner Olli Maatta, who left the game and didn’t return.
THE TAMPA TRIBUNE/NEWSDAY: Tyler Johnston scored twice and set up another, Victor Hedman had a goal and an assist and Jonathan Drouin scored his first career NHL playoff goal as the Tampa Bay Lightning downed the New York Islanders 4-1. The victory evens their best-of-seven series at a game apiece. The Islanders were dominated in the final two periods, managing only a total of eight shots on goal.
Notable NHL Headlines.
NHL.COM: The Toronto Maple Leafs are the winners of the 2016 NHL Draft Lottery, securing the right for the first-overall selection in this year’s draft.
NHL.COM: Boston Bruins winger Loui Eriksson, Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov and Los Angeles Kings center Anze Kopitar are the nominees for the Lady Byng Trophy. On Friday, the league announced Brent Burns of the San Jose Sharks, Drew Doughty of the Kings and Erik Karlsson of the Ottawa Senators are the finalist for the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman.
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS: With Stars forward Patrick Eaves nursing a foot injury, winger Valeri Nichushkin could return to the lineup for Game 2 of their second-round series against the St. Louis Blues. The Stars lead the series one game to nothing.
NHL.COM: The Nashville Predators recalled goaltender Marek Mazanec.
THE MERCURY NEWS: NHL playoff scheduling is among the factors being blamed for hundreds of empty seats at the SAP Center as the San Jose Sharks hosted the Nashville Predators on Friday for Game 1 of their second-round series.
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Anaheim Ducks veterans Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Ryan Kesler and Andrew Cogliano are among those shouldering the blame for their club’s disappointing opening-round performance against the Predators. They said recently fired head coach Bruce Boudreau was not at fault for the club’s playoff elimination.
THE DETROIT NEWS: Red Wings forward Joakim Andersson has signed a two-year contract with Orebro of the Swedish Elite League.
OTTAWA SUN: A year after battling for his life awaiting a liver transplant, Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk is thriving and looking forward to constructing a new arena for his club.
Congrats Maple Leafs on winning the Draft Lottery. Now lets hope with that pick, you do indeed decide to choose Austin Matthews first overall
and thus destroy his career even before it begins.
Yeah it was hilarious when they went to Auston right after the Leafs won and all he could say is that he had mixed emotions but thought the process was cool. That media and that fan base will chew that poor kid up and spit him out. They really are not very patient or respectful to star players, especially American ones. He better win the scoring title and the cup in his first season or they will be relentless.
Deeeeeeee, if you bothered to listen to his second interview about 15 min later, you would have gotten a different view. In the first he just gotten out of bed, the second one Matthews sure seemed to sure on what was happening. Being drafted no.1 was the most important thing to him and it didn`t seem to matter that Toronto was picking first. As a matter of fact, it seems Matthews is more sure that he`s going to Toronto, than Toronto is on whether they`re gonna pick Matthews. As far as respecting the star players go, you don`t know squat, and Kessel got treated far better than he deserved. Remember he did everything he could to make it hard to trade him. Kessel even public with I don`t want to leave Toronto. Just because you hate Toronto you don`t have to spreading the bull
I was so sick of the Brooks Orpik sideshow by time he left the Penguins I was very happy to see him go. Now after this latest garbage bag dbag play I hope he’s done for the season, you know Olli is. This is a young kid who was his teammate only 2 years ago. That hit was as predatory as they come. I just can’t get over what a dispicable play that was. You know the NHL player safety will blow it though after the laughable 2 grand they fined that idiot Wilson for trying to take Shearys knee off in game one. The Caps are quite the crew of dirtbags and don’t deserve to win another game.
Agreed, Matt Cooke type hit, though still love Brooksie! GOPENSGO