Sweep and then Swept, Boston on the Brink, The Heartbreaker, and Other Blackhawks Bullets

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Sweep and then Swept, Boston on the Brink, The Heartbreaker, and Other Blackhawks Bullets

Chicago Blackhawks

The Winnipeg Jets swept the Edmonton Oilers, then were swept by the Montreal Canadiens, who beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round after the Leafs were crowned North Division Champions in the regular season. So that means that the Canadiens are the true Canadian Champions, right?

•   Montreal finished the season with 59 points in the regular season standings, one point behind the New York Rangers and Dallas Stars who were left out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and just four points ahead of the Chicago Blackhawks. Now they are the first team to advance to the third round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Which I am still confused as to what we are calling it officially? The Conference Finals? Final Four? Whatever it is, they are the first in.

•   Listen, you can’t have a night in the Stanley Cup Playoffs without a reminder of Blackhawks of the past.

•   How do you say Gus Bus in French? *google translate* …Gus Bus, but with an accent.

•   Montreal got out to a 2-0 lead over the Jets, but Winnipeg crawled back to tie the game 2-2 with both goals coming from Logan Stanley. The game would head to overtime and we would find a very quick winner for the Habs…

https://twitter.com/TheReplayGuy/status/1402096412595265537?s=20

•   Cole Caufield sets up Tyler Toffoli and the Canadiens complete the sweep of the Jets.

•   Toffoli leads the Canadiens in scoring with 10 points in 11 Playoff games and is tied with Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Joel Armia, and Nick Suzuki for the team-lead in goals with four.

•   Needless to say, after topping one of the top favorites for the Stanley Cup in the first round and then dispatching the Jets in four games, the Canadiens are for real.

•   They face the winner of the Vegas Golden Knights-Colorado Avalanche series in the next round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. If Montreal has a solid Game One and gets the win, they will break a 51-year-old record held by the 1960 Canadiens for the longest stretch in the postseason without trailing in a game. Since Montreal was down 3-1 to the Leafs and facing predictable elimination, they have not trailed in a game. That’s insane.

•   A good sign for the Canadiens and Ducharme, since the last time a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup was Montreal in 1993.

•   Also going on last night, the Boston Bruins and New York Islanders battled in Game Five with the Islanders looking to continue their current hot-streak and the Bruins looking to break out of a two-game losing streak.

•   After Boston took the early 1-0 lead, the Islanders scored on two power plays to take the lead 2-1 in the second period. Then, your least-favorite player scored an awesome goal…

•   He’s so unlikeable and yet can do sick things like this. Take away all the cheap shots and the…licking…and Marchand might be one of my favorite players I the league. But alas, he’s very much not.

•   The Islanders would follow-up the 2-2 goal from Marchand with three un-answered goals, including a third powerplay goal on the night.

•   New York used those three powerplay goals to give them enough cushion to survive a late comeback from the Bruins to secure a 5-4 win in Game Five and have a shot at closing the series back at Nassau Coliseum in Game Six. Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy had plenty to say after the game about the officiating…

•   And now Bruce Cassidy is $25,000 lighter.

•   Tonight, we’ll see if another team will join the Canadiens in the third round as the Tampa Bay Lightning hold a 3-1 series lead heading to Carolina to take on the Hurricanes in Game Five. In the other Game Five tonight, the Golden Knights look to continue their back-to-back wins momentum back to Denver against the Avalanche. No heavily overlapping games tonight, pending overtime, as the Lightning and Hurricanes start at 5:30 p.m. CT and the Avalanche and Golden Knights start at 8:00 p.m. CT.

•   In Blackhawks Stanley Cup Playoff history, eight years ago today, it was a good night to stay up late.

•   Patrick Kane scored a hat-trick against the Los Angeles Kings to win Game Five of the Western Conference Finals to send the Blackhawks to the Stanley Cup Final for the second time in the last four years. I remember watching this game at a now closed bar called Jaks Tap. My girlfriend (now my wife) was babysitting for a family in the area and I was her ride. Waiting out the night, I watched the game with a full bar and restaurant. Then, as the game reached the mid-way point of the third period, the parents of the kids she was babysitting came into the bar! They found me and sat with me through the rest of the period, and as the game went to overtime the Mom went home to relive my girlfriend of her babysitting duties for the night. She joined me and the Dad at the bar and we watched the two overtime periods and erupted at Kane’s overtime winner. Something I will always remember about those three Stanley Cup runs by the Blackhawks in 2010, 2013, and 2015.

•   Also from that night, we got Patrick Kane’s ‘Heartbreaker’ celebration that will live on in highlight packages forever.

•   In AHL news, yesterday it was announced that schedule changes and divisional realignment would be coming in 2021-22 and that all teams will play a 72-game schedule starting in the 2022-23 season. The Rockford IceHogs will be playing a 72-game schedule in 2021-22, by choice.

•   In the USHL with the Chicago Steel, two star forwards earned high honors as 2021 NHL Draft eligible forward Matthew Coronato was named the USHL’s Forward of the Year.

•   Not to be out-done, Montreal Canadiens prospect Sean Farrell was named the USHL’s Player of the Year after tallying 101 points in 53 games this season.

•   Both players are set to head to Harvard University next season.

•   Coronato is an intriguing prospect that the Blackhawks could make a play for at 11th overall in this summer’s NHL Draft. Possessing a high-speed game and an affinity for scoring, Coronato could be a sneaky good pick in the middle of the first round.

•   That will do it for today, hope you all have a good Tuesday ahead of you!

Filed to: Chicago Blackhawks
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Author: Mario Tirabassi

Mario Tirabassi is a writer for Bleacher Nation. You can follow him on Twitter @Mario_Tirabassi.