Playoff Game Day #1: Hope and Fear Start Here

ROUND ONE OF THE 2022 NHL PLAYOFFS
TORONTO MAPLE LEAVES VS TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
7:30 p.m. – SCOTIABANK ARENA
CBC, ESPN2, NHL LIVE, SPORTSNET, TVA SPORTS
OPPONENTS: GROSS CARGO

Hundreds of days, dozens of weeks of waiting and now the Toronto Maple Leafs are once again in the playoffs. and for the first time in a long, long, long time they open their first-round series at home.

The opponent is the consecutive Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning. This fact worries some people, but not me. We have some of the best offensive players on our side. We have good guys in defense and goal. Tampa has some good players, but they tend to do things like kick puppies, slash fans’ tires and write passive aggressive Nextdoor posts about their neighbors instead of just talking to them about the size of hedges. Steven

I was going to write a lot of things in this preview, like who the Black Aces are this year, or what Ondřej Kaše wore tonight, but everyone else wrote about those things already, so I’ll just link to them and post some later. lines.

That’s some good information there, and then Hardev interviewed himself about this series:

Looking at the website of our rivals, who also stole our blue and white colors, Raw Charge gets excited that Lightning is the first consecutive champion since the Gretzky Oilers.

This Lightning team is a dynasty. These back-to-back Stanley Cup Championships have cemented their legacy from “a great team that couldn’t win it all” to “Dynasty.” Plain and simple.

I’m excited to crush some dreams in the next couple of weeks.

Let’s take a look at some lines, shall we?

lightning lines

Ondrej Palat – Steven Stamkos – Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel – Point Brayden – Anthony Cirelli
Alex Killorn-Ross Colton-Nick Paul
Patrick MaroonPierre-Edouard BellemareCorey Perry

Victor Hedman – Jan Rutta
Ryan McDonagh as Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev – Cal Foote

Andrey Vasilyevsky
Brian Elliott

No former Leafs there, but our old friend from last year’s playoffs, Corey Perry, is back to haunt us. Just keep him away from John Tavares.

leaf lines

Alexander Kerfoot – Auston Matthews – Mitch Marner
Ilya Mikheyev – John Tavares – Ondřej Kaše
William Nylander – David Kämpf – Pierre Engvall
Kyle Clifford – Colin Blackwell – Wayne Simmonds

Morgan Rielly – Ilya Liubushkin
Jake Muzzin – TJ Brodie
Mark Giordano – Timothy Liljegren

jack campbell
Erik Kalgren

Injuries: Petr Mrazek, Rasmus Sandin, Michael Bunting

So the first question is how far will Jake Muzzin go in this series?

That’s bad, but you need to know these things.

Jason Spezza sits out in the first game. How often will he get in line? Is it all up to Colin Blackwells play or are we shifting the middle of the fourth row?

We know Keefe likes to mix up lines in the game, so if Ondřej Kaše isn’t in second-row status on his return, who gets promoted? I guess it depends on how the game goes. If the Leafs are winning, Nyander. If they’re losing, Engvall.

Finally, before we continue with the game, here’s how they stacked up during the regular season.

There are also three other games tonight, and all the games are staggered and starting to stop complaining about it.

Playoff schedule for May 2, 2022

7:00 PM
Boston Bruins @ Carolina Hurricanes
NESN ESPN SN360 TVAS2 BSSO

7:30 PM
Tampa Bay Lighting @ Toronto Maple Leafs
CBC, SN, TVAS, ESPN2, BSSUN

9:30 PM
St. Louis Blues at the Minnesota Wild
SN360, TVAS2, ESPN, BSN, BSWI, BSMW

10:00 PM
Los Angeles Kings @ Edmonton Oilers
CBC, SN, TVAS, ESPN2, BSW

It is the chaos of the first round.

THE LEAVES FALL!