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00:00We get you set around the Stanley Cup postseason with one of the best to do it with the ice advice.
00:06That would be NHL's Pete Jensen joining us here on this Tuesday morning on the early line on SportsGrid.
00:13Pete, what a quadruple header of playoff games around the Stanley Cup postseason.
00:17Last night on a Monday evening, we will recap all four of them for you.
00:22What it means for these opening round playoff series.
00:25Pete stopped going away after just one segment.
00:28He will be here to round out this second hour to look at our action on the ice tonight.
00:32Pete, as always, thanks so much for being here.
00:36Yeah, of course.
00:37We never know what to expect in these games, right?
00:39You try not to get too high with the highs or low with the lows.
00:42Everybody was low on the Dallas Stars after the game one lopsided loss.
00:47But if you watch that team all year, you knew that there was some bounce back appeal.
00:51And certainly it came in game two with the overtime victory.
00:54So, yeah, it's just a lesson to, you know, keep on your toes with all these different swings of momentum in the series.
01:03That is Stanley Cup playoff hockey to a couple of game ones last night on the ice, a couple of game twos and a couple of overtime thrillers.
01:12Let's start with the opening game in the series between the Capitals and the Canadiens.
01:17Tightly contested Pete throughout.
01:19And in overtime, the record setter, Alexander Ovechkin, adds another notch of history in his legendary NHL career.
01:28His first ever playoff overtime winner to deliver the Caps a victory to start off their series against the Habs 3-2 in the extra session.
01:38And Washington takes a 1-0 series lead led by Alexander Ovechkin.
01:43Pete, how does this guy keep delivering where he is in his NFL career?
01:48Or NHL career, excuse me.
01:50Yeah, he looks like an NFL player, right?
01:52Parked in front of the net and knocking that home for sure.
01:56I mean, we know his physicality complements his high shot volume and his finishing ability, especially from that left side.
02:03But I think at different points in this series against the Canadians, you're going to see Washington's size, physicality, overwhelm the young, surprising Canadians a little bit when push comes to shove.
02:16That said, the speed of Montreal got them back into that game last night.
02:20I actually picked Montreal for the upset because I didn't like how Washington was, you know, kind of limping into the playoffs performance-wise.
02:27Logan Thompson came back from injury yesterday, looked pretty good, so that's a good sign.
02:32Still playing without Alexi Protis, who's another one of those guys.
02:35If Protis comes back, he's another sizable guy, plays a lot on Ovechkin's opposite wing,
02:41and another one of those powerhouse guys that has gotten Washington to this point in the season.
02:46Games were phenomenal last night.
02:48All four games decided by one goal, which included multiple games heading to overtime.
02:53But the game I want to talk about with you, Pete, if you were able to stay up late last night and catch that Oilers-Kings game,
02:57what a fantastic finish.
02:59A four-goal lead for the Kings.
03:01Watching that disappear late in the final two minutes, only to have it stolen back by the Kings to take that game before they even got to overtime.
03:10Unbelievable action.
03:1111 total goals scored in that game, Pete.
03:13Yes, that's a series and obviously the game where you're going to want to keep an eye on the live line because there's going to be a lot of swings.
03:22Even if the Kings win this series, you know that McDavid and Drysaddle are not going to go down without a fight by any stretch of the imagination.
03:31So, yeah, nice recovery by the Kings.
03:33I wanted to give a shout-out to Andre Kuzmenko, one of the hidden gems of the trade deadline.
03:38Had a goal, two assists, five shots on goal, and per edge stats, which is the NHL's advanced stats.
03:46People should go on NHL.com slash edge and click around and see some of these things.
03:50And Kuzmenko actually through the first few days of the playoffs has the highest offensive zone time percentage of any player in the league.
03:57So that gives people a chance to maybe get an edge in the props market and stuff like that.
04:02But, yeah, what a furious comeback.
04:04That's got to be deflating for Edmonton to make a comeback like that and still lose the game with how they've been playing in recent months.
04:10The Kings jumped out to a 4-0 start.
04:13They had a three-goal lead in that third period before Edmonton, courtesy of Connor McDavid, equalized at five.
04:20All the Kings victorious.
04:22And, Pete, as you well know, Los Angeles trying to get some revenge on the Oilers,
04:26who have ousted the Kings from the playoffs in the opening round each of the last three Stanley Cup postseasons.
04:32A couple of Game 2s last night.
04:34Pete, it's the game you discussed as we welcomed you on.
04:38Count out Dallas.
04:39The Stars equalized their series against the Avs at a game apiece with the overtime thriller yesterday, 4-3.
04:47What did the Stars figure out last night in Game 2 against the Avs?
04:51I mean, they cashed in on more of their high-danger chances than they did in the first game
04:56when Mackenzie Blackwood, the avalanche goalie, stopped all 11 high-danger shots faced in a single game.
05:04He faced 10 last night.
05:06Not so pretty, of course, including the overtime winner by Colin Blackwell,
05:11which was a great individual effort and follow-through and a second-chance opportunity late in the game.
05:18I mean, Dallas has the deepest offense in the league, even with how they kind of limped into the postseason with a losing streak.
05:25And, of course, we all know what a shame that was.
05:29Jason Robertson, last regular season game of the season, didn't mean anything.
05:33He got injured.
05:34Now he's injured.
05:35He's been their top forward.
05:37But luckily, Dallas is so deep.
05:39Wyatt Johnston is a great playoff performer.
05:42Mikko Rantanen, of course, facing his former team.
05:45And all of a sudden, Dallas claws back here to even the series.
05:50Let's take a look at the awards market, too.
05:52It's never too early to take a look at these because I do think it's interesting and certainly a correlation.
05:55You take a look at the series between the Jets and the Blues.
05:58The Jets are up 2-0, which means Winnipeg's goalie, Connor Hellebuck, has two victories there.
06:03He sits at a 12-1 price right now to win the Consmite Trophy.
06:06Ajo, McKinnon, Eichel, Jarvis, and McCarr behind him.
06:09Without asking you, can Hellebuck win it?
06:11Is there somebody at a price point that, even after a game or two in some of these series, that you still have your eye on here, Pete?
06:18I mean, look at the 10th guy on that board, Nikita Kucherov.
06:21Nobody has more points than this guy since 2015-16.
06:26And that, of course, overlaps with McDavid's career and stuff like that.
06:29Two-time Stanley Cup champ.
06:31And always an interesting wrinkle for those multi-cup champions.
06:35Hedman won it one year, the Consmite for Tampa Bay, and Vasilevsky won it the other year.
06:41So maybe this year, if Tampa Bay makes another deep run with their core, you know, five players or so of elite players,
06:49of course, Victor Hedman's still on the team.
06:52Braden Point's still on the team.
06:53Brandon Hagel's a beast.
06:55I feel like Tampa Bay, nobody's really talking about them making a deep run.
06:58But if they do and if they win the thing, Kucherov has led the league in scoring two straight years.
07:04So there's a lot of writing on the wall there, guys.
07:07Yeah.
07:07Let's talk about those bolts in their opening game of the Sunshine State Showdown against the Panthers tonight
07:14and three other Game 2s to break down with Pete Jensen.
07:17That's up next.
07:18Back for a second consecutive segment.
07:21That's what he deserves during the Stanley Cup postseason.
07:24Pete Jensen with us here on this Tuesday morning on the early line on Sports Grid.
07:29Pete, we recap the four games we saw last night in the Stanley Cup playoffs on a Monday.
07:34Another quadruple header on this Tuesday.
07:37Three Game 2s.
07:39We'll get to those in a second in a rare opening game as well of a playoff set between a couple of Florida rivals.
07:47It's the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers.
07:50Minus 126 in favor of the Bolts tonight as they welcome in the reigning Stanley Cup champs.
07:57Pete, as you look at this Sunshine State rivalry and what we will see here in this opening round series,
08:04what will we see tonight in this opening game that could dictate what we see the rest of the set?
08:10Yeah, it's interesting that there's a plus number on the defending champs,
08:14especially when you could very well get news after this segment is over that Matthew Kachuk would be returning.
08:21It sounds like he's like a game day decision.
08:24But again, he's been out ever since the Four Nations tournament.
08:28You know he's been circling this date on his calendar or this is the long weekend, whatever you want to call it.
08:33So I think like Matthew Kachuk is very live to appear in this series and make an impact.
08:40And if you look at the fact that he would be joining in terms of the projected lines,
08:45a line with Sam Bennett, his trusted centerman, and then also Brad Marchand,
08:49the grizzled veteran playoff performer from the Boston Bruins all those years.
08:54Remember they added him at the deadline.
08:56That's a ridiculous second line.
08:58And that's why like that number was so big on Kucherov because as much as we love Kucherov
09:03and what he's done regular season and postseason in his career,
09:07like the bolts are no luck to get out of this first round with Florida standing in their way.
09:13That's for sure.
09:14Yeah, really good lineup there to start.
09:16No doubt about it.
09:16Now we have four games tonight and Ben's heard me ran on this quite some time.
09:20And I know you might have an open line to Gary Bettman here,
09:23which you can help me out, Pete, because six o'clock game tonight, Devils Hurricanes.
09:27Fantastic genius.
09:28Whoever's in the marketing room, I love that.
09:30730 game, Senators Maple Leafs.
09:33Fantastic.
09:34830 game, Panthers Lightning, which we just talked about.
09:36Great.
09:3711 o'clock game tonight with the Wild and the Goal.
09:3911 o'clock game.
09:41Move that.
09:41Pete, please, can you make a phone call to move that bad boy up?
09:44Is there any help you can give us here?
09:46I mean, it's going to be a late night out in Vegas for sure.
09:50Vegas is a strong home team.
09:52Don't count out those Minnesota Wild, though.
09:55Like, they did get Kaprizov back late in the regular season.
09:58They got Joel Eriksson back late in the regular season.
10:01And remember, he had a four-goal game in his return to the lineup a couple weeks ago.
10:06So maybe that's a guy to keep an eye on in an against-the-grain spot in the props market.
10:12But I think that Vegas and Carolina in this round, I'm not saying that they're going to cruise here,
10:20but there are good chances that those series end in, you know, four or five, maybe six games.
10:26Those are probably the only two series in the entire league this postseason
10:30where you can really pinpoint a clear advantage with those two teams.
10:35So that's what I'm looking at.
10:36Definitely worth staying up, though, to see if the Wild pull the upset and tie the series.
10:40Yeah, I don't know why this Donnie guy is complaining, Pete.
10:44He's going to be asleep by 8 p.m. anyway.
10:47It's tougher for you who has to wake up in the morning and enlighten us here on the early line.
10:53So thank you, Pete, for doing that, DRS.
10:56Maybe see if there's another open line of communication.
10:58Pete, you mentioned it.
10:59The Golden Knights and the Hurricanes victorious in game number one.
11:03Both very hefty favorites nearing two and a half bucks on the money line tonight
11:07to take a 2-0 series advantage.
11:09And when we look at Carolina, a short favorite relative to the rest of the field
11:14to hoist Lord Stanley's Cup at a plus 470 price, more than $2 in front of everybody else
11:21still playing here in the Stanley Cup postseason.
11:24Pete, what is it about the Canes that makes them such a legitimate Stanley Cup contender?
11:28Yeah, I mean, I think one thing about them that's different from previous years,
11:34we always view them as a possession juggernaut and a team that's going to make a deep run.
11:38I think they're the only team in the past four or five years that has won at least one round
11:43every single year.
11:44And they usually get a, you know, they usually have the coaching style to complement
11:49regardless of the first round opponent.
11:51It's just eventually when push comes to shove, they usually outshoot their opponents
11:56and they can't finish this year.
11:58They have a couple of different wrinkles, even though they had to trade away Miko Rantanen.
12:02I'm looking at the rookies on this team, guys.
12:05Logan Stankoven, multi-point game in his first game.
12:09He has untapped potential, was underutilized with the Dallas Stars before that trade.
12:13And also Jackson Blake among the rookie leaders in goals, in shots on goal, even strength goals.
12:20And like these are new, it's new blood in the equation for Carolina
12:24and maybe could change the narrative for them.
12:26Remember that Metro Bracket is the clearest path to the conference finals
12:30of all four NHL divisions this postseason.
12:34Pete Jensen, as always, the inside is greatly appreciated.
12:38Hour number three of this.
12:39Thanks.
12:41Very well.
12:47Cool.
12:47How was it?
12:49Have a good day ever.
12:49Good day.
12:50How was it?
12:50Question 5 about and 7?
12:51Well, you're glad.
12:52We're glad that thisrik, thisadiens are a little bit different.
12:57Yeah, good day.
12:58Oh.
12:59Hey.
13:00Good day.
13:01Cool.
13:02Hi.
13:02Good day.
13:02Good day.
13:03Good day.
13:04Good day.
13:04Good day.
13:05Good day.
13:05Good day.
13:06Good day.
13:07Good day.