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Rasmus Sandin has returned to Toronto!

NBC Sports

The Toronto Maple Leafs made the decision last month to trade 22 year old defenseman Rasmus Sandin to the Washington Capitals in exchange for Erik Gustafsson and a 2023 first-round pick. It officially brought an end to his time with the organization who drafted him in the first round, 29th overall in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft.

But now, he’s back in town! Not as a member of the Leafs of course, but simply just visiting and even taking in a recent Leafs practice session. He’s also back in town briefly in order to, as he put it, “pack my s**t.” 

Spotted alongside the former Leafs defenseman were current general manager and former forward turned executive Jason Spezza, both of whom were having a friendly chat. 

Sandin and the rest of his new Capitals teammates failed to qualify for the postseason, the first time that Washington is on the outside looking in since 2014. The Capitals organization has already made some major changes, as several members of the coaching staff will not be back next season. 

“It was very exciting coming to a new team, a new city,” he said Saturday. “I fell in love with it pretty quick. It’s been a hectic year, lot of things have happened, but it’s been a lot of fun too.”

Sandin also said that he could be active in the near future and suit up for his native Sweden in the upcoming 2023 World Championship.

“We’ve had discussions about it, so we’ll see what’s going to happen,” he said. “It would definitely be an honor to go play in the Worlds.”

Sandin played in a total of 71 games split between the Maple Leafs and Capitals this season, scoring seven goals to go with 28 assists and a plus-3 rating.

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David Krejci speaks on Boston’s uncertain lineup

Twitter

The Boston Bruins absolutely cruised through the regular season, re-writing the National Hockey League record book with a historic 65 win campaign and also setting several new marks for their astounding domination of their competition. This came on the heels of just about everyone expecting them to take a considerable step backward.

The real fun begins tonight, as the Bruins will be looking to prove that their regular season record was no fluke when they begin the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Their opening round series sees them matched up against the Florida Panthers, who had to scratch and claw (no pun) their way into the postseason this year after having proceeded the Bruins in winning the President’s Trophy last year. 

However, the Bruins may not have their full lineup available, as captain and reliable center Patrice Bergeron’s status isn’t fully determined, as head coach Jim Montgomery stated that Bergeron and a few other players have been feeling “under the weather”. He was also removed from a late season game after suffering an injury that wasn’t believed to be of the serious variety. 

According to veteran David Krejci, who is making his return to the lineup tonight for the first time in six games, it will simply be the next man up mentality for the rest of his teammates. 

“If you do your job, I think we’ve done a pretty good job in this room of just believing in ourselves,” he said. “If we do our job, the guy next to you is gonna do his job as well.”

Tonight’s game will get underway from TD Garden in downtown Bostons starting at 7:30 PM EST. 

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Doughty looking to take McDavid out tonight, wants revenge

Zuma Press

The Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings will renew acquaintances this evening when they hit the ice for Game 1 of their opening round playoff series.

The two teams have put on some epic battles in recent years, most notably during last year’s 7 game opening round series. It’s clear that these two teams do NOT like each other and judging by the words of Kings defenseman Drew Doughty earlier today, there’s been no love loss.

Doughty explicitly stated today that he’ll be targeting Oilers superstar Connor McDavid for a few good chances “to smack him” this evening in revenge for a questionable hit that McDavid laid on Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson earlier this month.

Here’s the hit in question:

That’s all well and good Drew, but the thing is that you have to actually catch McDavid first if you want to smack him.

In all seriousness though, I do expect Doughty and the likes of Vladislav Gavrikov, Alex Edler and Sean Durzi to play McDavid pretty aggressively tonight and for the duration of the series. As the saying goes, you can never expect to neutralize McDavid completely, but the more you can limit his impact on the game the better chance you have at coming away with a victory. The problem is that even when teams have done an excellent job of shutting down McDavid, all he needs is a single opportunity to blow a game wide open. Again, you can limit those opportunities but you can’t expect to eliminate them entirely.

Having said all of that, there’s obviously more to this series than just “The McDavid Show”. The Kings are a deep team with balanced scoring and some incredible veteran leadership. The two teams are very closely matched and nobody would be surprised if this thing went the distance just like it did a year prior. Personally, I’m maybe more excited for this series than any other. You’ve got high end skill, veteran experience and a genuine hatred for one another. Game on, baby.

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Bruins make decision on Bergeron for tonight’s game

Zuma Press

This just in, Boston Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron will NOT play this evening when his team opens up the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Florida Panthers.

As reported above by NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, goaltender Linus Ullmark will get the start in goal. 

Head coach Jim Montgomery announced earlier today that there’s an “illness going through the team” and that Bergeron and Ullmark were both questionable for this evening’s game. It’s expected that centerman Pavel Zacha will slide into Bergeron’s usual spot as the Bruins’ top line center.

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The Hockey News has terrible prediction for Oilers

CBC

The Edmonton Oilers proved themselves to be perhaps the National Hockey League’s most potent offensive team, becoming the first squad since 1996 to feature not two but three separate players that eclipsed the 100 point mark. 

No surprises whatsoever that the first two players on that list are Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, both of whom continued to assert their dominance over opposing defenses and goaltenders. McDavid had a monster season, scoring 64 goals with 89 assists for a jaw dropping 153 points, a new career high. Draisaitl himself picked up 52 goals with 76 assists for 128 points, while longtime Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins reached the century mark for the 1st time in his career with 37 goals and 67 assists.

For the second straight year, they’ll be taking on the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. As you may remember, it was the Oilers who overcame a 3-2 series deficit to take down the Kings in seven games. But if this prediction from The Hockey News holds true, it will be the exact opposite this year. 

Per Adam Proteau, it will be the Kings prevailing in seven games: 

“The Oilers have an enormous amount of pressure to improve upon last season’s run to the Western Conference final… There’s just something about the Kings that makes us think they can upset Edmonton. It’s one of two hunch picks in this file, but it’s a strong hunch… The Kings are looking for vengeance after the Oilers eliminated them in last season’s first round. L.A. nearly won that series, taking it to seven games before Edmonton won Game 7. The margin for error was razor-thin, and we see the same margin for error in this new matchup. The Kings were 2-2-0 against the Oilers in the regular season, and that’s a harbinger of how close it will be. But this time, we think the Kings will prevail.”

The series gets underway tonight from Rogers Place in downtown Edmonton.

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Michael Rasmussen provides critical health update

MLive

The Detroit Red Wings were riding high in late February, officially occupying a Wild Card postseason spot while threatening to even move up further in the standings thanks to winning four of five on a western road trip while also returning home and taking down the powerful New York Rangers. It almost seemed like the postseason drought was about to be over. 

However, things immediately began to fall off the rails after they were unable to beat Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy on February 25, firing 45 shots on goal but being unable to sneak one past the former Conn Smythe Trophy winner. But that wasn’t the biggest loss of the evening.

Forward Michael Rasmussen was injured when he blocked a shot from Lightning defenseman Zach Bogosian, breaking his kneecap and putting him on the shelf for the remainder of the regular season. His absence in the lineup was immediately felt, especially in Detroit’s next two games against the division rival Ottawa Senators in which they were outscored and outclassed physically. 

“It was obviously frustrating, tough with where things were at with the team, how well everyone was playing,” Rasmussen said today. “It was upsetting to watch and not be out there with the guys.

“Just got to focus on getting myself back to 100 percent and pick up where I left off.”

The good news for Rasmussen is that he’s on track to be 100% healthy for training camp in September, and is only a short time away from being able to resume his normal summer workouts.

He explained that GM Steve Yzerman’s message to him was to “be hungry, get after it this summer and take another step.”

“There’s more improvement that needs to be had and can be had,” he said. “I just got to have a great summer and keep working on my body, keep working on different things on the ice as far as what’ll make my game go to even another level.”

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Wild reveal starting goaltender and lineups for Game 1

Bally Sports North

The quest for the Stanley Cup officially begins tonight for the Minnesota Wild, who will be looking to advance past the first round of the postseason for the first time since 2015 when they took down the St. Louis Blues. 

They’ll be taking on a familiar rival in the Dallas Stars, who happen to feature former Wild mainstay Ryan Suter on the blue line. The series will be getting underway deep in the heart of Texas tonight at American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas. 

And not surprisingly, it will be goaltender Filip Gustavsson who will be getting his first taste of playoff hockey. He was the first goaltender off the ice in this morning’s practice, the sure sign that he’ll be getting the nod in net. Meanwhile, it will be veteran Marc-Andre Fleury serving as backup.

It sounds as though they’ll be taking it game by game for who ultimately gets the start between the pipes, however. 

“I said it was an easy decision last year, because I thought — we thought — both goaltenders can play,” head coach Dean Evason said. “It’s the same situation. Both goaltenders have been absolutely fantastic for us this year. Fantastic. So the decision that we’re going to make is a difficult decision, but it’s an easy decision because they’re both extremely great goaltenders that the team has confidence in.

“We’ve used them both all season. There is no reason why we will not continue to do that. We’ll monitor game by game, as we always have.”

Gustavsson enjoyed a strong season in his first full year with the Wild since being traded for Cam Talbot this offseason, racking up a 22-9-7 record with a 2.10 goals against average, .931 save percentage and three shutouts.

Meanwhile, here are tonight’s projected line combinations: 

Kaprizov-Hartman-Zuccarello 

Johansson-Gaudreau-Boldy

Foligno-Steel-Nyquist

Duhaime-Dewar-Reaves

Middleton-Spurgeon

Brodin-Dumba

Merrill-Faber

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Capitals make more big changes

Washington Capitals

This just in, days after dismissing head coach Peter Laviolette, the Washington Capitals have announced that they’ve dismissed assistant coaches Kevin McCarthy and Blaine Forsythe, as well.

While Laviolette and McCarthy had only been with the team for three years apiece, this firing marks the end of 17 seasons for Forsythe with the Capitals. He joined the team in 2006 as a video coach and has worked his way up the ladder to assistant coach since 2010. Tough news for him.

“We want to sincerely thank Kevin and Blaine for their efforts and contributions to the Capitals during their respective tenures and wish them all the best moving forward,” general manager Brian MacLellan said in a statement. “Blaine has been a dedicated member of our organization for 17 seasons and was instrumental in helping the franchise capture its first Stanley Cup in 2018.

With the Capitals missing the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade, the news of these firings should really come as no surprise. In fact, I’d venture to say that this is just the start of major changes in DC. I expect GM Brian MacLellan to be very busy this offseason in re-shaping his team’s roster. So long as captain Alexander Ovechkin is upright and able to put on a Caps jersey, you just KNOW that this team won’t settle for anything less than Stanley Cup contention. Frankly, I think they’ll be a fascinating team to watch this offseason and then into next season. They could either take a step forward or a step backward based on their offseason moves. Stay tuned.

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Oiers have game winning goal called back in OT!

Sportsnet

Tensions are high at Rogers Place in Edmonton right now after the Edmonton Oilers coughed up a 3-2 lead to the Los Angeles Kings with just 16 seconds remaining left in the 3rd period.

Flash forward to overtime and Oilers forward Derek Ryan appeared to end the game with an OT winner but… well… it wasn’t even close. Ryan’s stick was clearly well over the crossbar and was ruled a high stick.

Check it out:

No goal. Easy call.

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Dumba absolutely CRUSHES Pavelski, fights Domi after

Hockey Daily 365

Scary situation in Dallas this evening in the opening game of the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild opening round playoff series with Wild defenseman Matt Dumba absolutely CRUSHING Stars forward Joe Pavelski.

Pavelski admires his pass and gets crushed hard by Dumba.

Check it out:

A longer look with no audio:

And more angles of the hit:

Dumba was initially assessed a five minute major penalty, but it was reversed to a minor upon review. The real damage for Pavelski seems to come as a result of smacking his head off the ice.