Stanley Cup Playoffs Buzz: Offense expected between Flames, Stars

Welcome to the Stanley Cup Playoffs Buzz, a daily in-depth look at the 2022 NHL postseason. There are four playoff games scheduled for Tuesday, the second day of the postseason.

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On Tap

There are four games on the Stanley Cup Playoffs schedule for Tuesday:
Pittsburgh Penguins at New York Rangers (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, CBC, SN, MSG, ATTSN-PT
Pittsburgh goalie Tristan Jarry is likely out at least the first two games of the Eastern Conference First Round against New York and is day to day with a lower-body injury. Casey DeSmith will likely make his NHL postseason debut. This will be the eighth time that New York and Pittsburgh will play in a playoff series and the first since 2016, when the Penguins eliminated the Rangers in five games in the first round on their way to their first of two straight Stanley Cup championships. The Rangers finished second in the Metropolitan Division and will play their first best-of-7 NHL postseason series since 2017, a six-game loss to the Ottawa Senators in the Eastern Conference Second Round. They won 52 games helped by Chris Kreider's 52 goals, Artemi Panarin's 96 points and goalie Igor Shesterkin's 36 wins.
Washington Capitals at Florida Panthers (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN2, TVAS2, BSFL, NBCSWA)
The Panthers and Capitals face each other in the postseason for the first time, both teams with plenty to prove. Florida is looking for its first playoff series win since 1996 when it reached the Stanley Cup Final and was swept by the Colorado Avalanche. Washington will try to get beyond the first round for the first time since winning the Cup in 2018. The Capitals are led by Alex Ovechkin, who will play after missing the final three regular-season games with an upper-body injury. Washington's captain was fourth in the NHL with 50 goals in 77 regular season games and tied the NHL record shared by Wayne Gretzky and Mike Bossy with his ninth 50-goal season. Defenseman Aaron Ekblad will return to Florida's lineup after missing the final 20 games of the regular season with a lower-body injury. Panthers forward Jonathan Huberdeau was tied with Johnny Gaudreau of the Calgary Flames for second in the NHL with an NHL career-high 115 points (30 goals, 85 assists) in 80 games. Goalie Vitek Vanecek will start for the Capitals and Sergei Bobrovsky for the Panthers.
Nashville Predators at Colorado Avalanche (9:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN360 (JIP), SNE, TVAS, ALT, BSSO)
Goalie David Rittich will likely start for the Predators with Juuse Saros out at least the first two games with a lower-body injury. Nashville's No. 1 goalie was injured in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Flames on April 26. The Avalanche were second in the NHL with 119 points and hope to take the next step after losing in the second round in three consecutive postseasons. The series will showcase two of the top candidates for the Norris Trophy given to the best defenseman in the NHL. Roman Josi led all defensemen with 96 points (23 goals, 73 assists). Cale Makar was second in points with 86 and led the position with 28 goals.
Dallas Stars at Calgary Flames (10 p.m. ET: ESPN2, CBC, TVAS2, BSSW)
One of the top scorers will face one of the top-scoring lines this season. Gaudreau scored an NHL high 115 points (40 goals, 75 assists). The line of Joe Pavelski, Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz combined to score 105 of the Stars' 238 regular-season goals. Calgary and Dallas will play for the third time in the postseason. The Stars won the 2020 first round in six games and the Minnesota North Stars won the 1981 NHL Semifinals in six, the Flames' first season in Calgary after relocating from Atlanta.

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What we learned

Maple Leafs overcame early obstacles
Could the Maple Leafs finally have discovered the mental strength to overcome adversity in the Stanley Cup Playoffs? It's only one game but so far so good. Burdened with the history of not winning a playoff series since 2004, Toronto could have withered when the Tampa Bay Lightning spent seven of the first 12 minutes of Game 1 on the power play. Instead, led by a hungry penalty kill that produced as many scoring chances as it gave up, the Maple Leafs kept the Lightning off the scoreboard and gained momentum from it. Lightning coach Jon Cooper called it the turning point of Game 1, a 5-0 win for the Maple Leafs. Skill has never been an issue for the Maple Leafs in recent years, but they haven't been able to right the ship when things don't go their way. On Monday, they found a way to do it.-- Mike Zeisberger, staff writer
Lightning flustered by failure of power play
The Lightning power play ranked eighth (23.9 percent) in the regular season but their inability to score early set the tone for the game. They looked flustered and confused at times and even allowed a shorthanded goal to David Kampf in the second period. In other words, the Maple Leafs outscored the Lightning 1-0 while Tampa Bay had the man-advantage. In a series where special teams already are having a say in the outcome, it was far from an ideal start for the Lightning. Captain Steven Stamkos said they can rebound from the loss and feels the power play can get going again. After losing Game 1, Tampa Bay will have to. -- Zeisberger
Raving about Raanta
Antti Raanta proved to be just what Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour needed in the absence of injured goalie Frederik Andersen when he made 35 saves in his first Stanley Cup Playoffs start, a 5-1 win against the Boston Bruins in Game 1. "'Rants' played really well, made some big save," Brind'Amour said. "Then we got our game going a little bit in the second." Andersen missed the final six games of the regular season with a lower-body injury and night be out for significant time in the postseason, so Raanta's performance could go a long way in building confidence for what the Hurricanes hope will be a long playoff run. The 32-year-old made 14 saves in the first period, 11 in the second and allowed one goal on 11 shots in the third. "I was just trying to focus on the things that have (allowed me) to be successful," Raanta said. "It was working nicely. But it's only one game, one win, and now it's just regrouping and getting ready for Wednesday." -- Mike G. Morreale, staff writer
Bruins must find ways to finish
The Bruins had everything going their way against the Hurricanes in the first period of Game 1, outshooting them 14-10. The failure to take advantage of that puck possession proved vital when the Hurricanes scored two goals in a span of 2:10 late in the second. "I thought we controlled play the first period, really the first 35 minutes of the game, but weren't able to jump out to a lead and you see their crowd gets into it," Bruins forward Taylor Hall said. "They get playing and they get feeling good about it." Boston goalie Linus Ullmark made 20 saves in his playoff debut and coach Bruce Cassidy refused to commit to a starter for Game 2 on Wednesday. "I am not faulting our goaltender for this," Cassidy said. "We had some opportunities we needed to finish as well like they did." -- Morreale
Where's the discipline?
The Minnesota Wild know they can't win a battle of special teams with the St. Louis Blues. Yet there they were in Game 1, taking unnecessary penalties and flushing away whatever momentum they could generate during 5-on-5 play. The Blues are elite on both the power play (27.0 percent during the regular season, second in the NHL) and the penalty kill (84.1 percent, fifth). Minnesota was 25th on the kill (76.1 percent) and looked lost trying to stop a St. Louis power play that likes to move the puck and create seams for its attacks. The Blues scored on two of their six chances with the man-advantage and another goal two seconds after a power play expired. "We've got to play between the whistles and forget about the [other stuff]," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "We don't need to do that. I'd like to say they're not undisciplined penalties, they're just penalties that are avoidable. They're avoidable penalties." -- Shawn P. Roarke, senior director of editorial
Hooray for Husso
Ville Husso has a lot of support in the Blues dressing room, even after supplanting Jordan Binnington, one of the heroes from the 2019 Stanley Cup champions, as the No. 1 goalie. The 27-year-old repaid the faith that coach Craig Berube had in him, making 37 saves for a 4-0 victory. Husso was brilliant at times. He made five saves on Kirill Kaprizov, who scored 47 goals this season. He also had huge stops on Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Foligno. "I don't like to pump his tires when he's here," said Blues forward David Perron, who had a hat trick and figured in all four goals. "I'm a big fan of 'Huus.' Even from four years ago when he was a Black Ace, I just saw how hard he worked, how passionate he is for the game. You're happy for guys that earn everything they have, and he's certainly done that."-- Roarke
Oilers must reduce mistakes
As impressive as the Edmonton Oilers have been under coach Jay Woodcroft, winning 14 of their final 15 home games (14-0-1) in the regular season and going 26-9-3 once he took over Feb. 10, their margin for error in the playoffs is going to be small. Edmonton was outscored 4-1 at 5-on-5 in Game 1 against the Los Angeles Kings and goalie Mike Smith allowed two goals he would probably want to have back. Brenden Lemieux scored at 3:50 of the second period put Los Angeles ahead 3-2 and Phillip Danault's game-winning goal at 14:46 of the third was caused by an unnecessary turnover by Smith. -- Tim Campbell, staff writer
Kings aren't likely to change
Game 1 revealed that the Kings are likely to continue doing what they've done all season, play a persistent, structured game and even though they don't often match up well in terms of high-output offensive stars, they will keep coming and coming. Being able to carry that kind of game into the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a lineup that featured eight players who had never played an NHL postseason game (forwards Quinton Byfield, Blake Lizotte, Carl Grundstrom and Arthur Kaliyev, defensemen Sean Durzi, Jordan Spence, Matt Roy and Mikey Anderson, and goalie Cal Petersen) will only build confidence and make defending the Oilers firepower, namely Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, seem a little more manageable. -- Campbell

About Last Night

Carolina Hurricanes 5, Boston Bruins 1
Carolina scored three goals in the third period and Raanta made 35 saves to guide the No. 1 seed in the Metropolitan Division to the Game 1 win at PNC Arena. Vincent Trocheck and Seth Jarvis each had a goal and an assist. Nino Niederreiter, Teuvo Teravainen and Andrei Svechnikov also scored for the Hurricanes. Hall scored for Boston, the first wild card from the Eastern Conference, and Ullmark made 20 saves.
Toronto Maple Leafs 5, Tampa Bay Lightning 0
Auston Matthews had two goals and an assist and Jack Campbell made 24 saves to lead the Maple Leafs to their first Game 1 home win since 2002, when they defeated the New York Islanders 3-1. Mitchell Marner had a goal and two assists, and Morgan Rielly and Ondrej Kase each had two assists for the Maple Leafs, the No. 2 seed in the Atlantic Division. Toronto went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill. Matthews became the first reigning winner of the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy in 15 years to score multiple goals in his team's playoff opener. Vincent Lecavalier did it for the Lightning in Game 1 of the 2007 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals against the New Jersey Devils.
St. Louis Blues 4, Minnesota Wild 0
Husso became the first St. Louis goalie to get a shutout in his Stanley Cup Playoff debut and Perron became the first Blues player to score a hat trick in the first game of the postseason. Ryan O'Reilly had a goal and an assist for St. Louis, the No. 3 seed in the Central Division. Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves for Minnesota, the No. 2 seed in the Central.
Los Angeles Kings 4, Edmonton Oilers 3
Danault scored the go-ahead goal after Smith turned the puck over attempting to clear it up the middle. Trevor Moore had a goal and two assists, Alex Iafallo had a goal and an assist and Jonathan Quick made 36 saves for the Kings, the No. 3 seed in the Pacific Division. Kailer Yamamoto and McDavid each had a goal and assist, and Draisaitl scored for the Oilers, the No. 2 seed in the Pacific. Smith made 31 saves.