I really hope Alberta politicians don't publicly take sides in this series, and I swear to god if Kenney wears one of those half and half jerseys I will be very disappointed

The fact DAL with the mega mid roster they have put Flames this tight can only mean Flames are far from contenders.

They're leading the pretender race though.

Unfortunately Oilers belong to the same pile, so it can be a tight matchup.

Whoever of them is walking as the winner to the conference final is going to get violated by Blues or Avs. You know, actually good teams.

Otter was about as good as any goalie could ever hope to be, Dallas was pure sh*t. Shot totals kinda prove that. And still Flames had this much difficulties.

As far as I'm concerned, No. 29 should be lifted up the rafters league wide after this playoff series as the greatest goalie performance ever on one round.

@BeterChiarelli @oilersguy

I’m one of you now.

Whichever team from the Blues/Avs series that wins, beats the other division winner 4-1 or 4-0.

Someone hacked your account? (the profpic/flair)

Give Oettinger the Conn Smythe now

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) May 16, 2022

Friedman already said who it belongs to

yes, welcome

hating the fLames

Stars fans 🤝Oilers Fans

Nah, F the Flames (I don’t hate them that much, just don’t think they deserve to win after that farce).

Otter realistically can’t win (even though he’s going to be the best player of the playoffs when they finish).

Hopefully with this lost Dallas fires Bones, and then we can become cup contenders.

Agreed

2nd round prediction then

TB 4-1 FLA - if FLA can't get that PP to produce from the get go they have no chances in this match up. I reckon they will, but then it'll be too late.

NYR 2-4 CAR - Carolina's speed and exuberance is going to be too much for Rangers to take.

STL 4-3 COL - This is going to be my hot take, but I think Avs are going to choke on the second round once again. The week off they got after sweeping Preds leads them to lose touch, and they will struggle in first 2-3 games. They will probably destroy Blues on singular occasion, but overall I think Blues depth has got this in them. They proved it against Wild.

EDM 4-2 CGY - Both Canadian teams ended up playing against weaker opponents and struggled immensely. I'm betting on EDM to win the series because CGY was one goal away from dropping out, and EDM is bound to score a lot more than Stars were able to in the end.

From an unbiased fan's perspective, the battle of Alberta is must-see tv. Battle of Florida, while sure to be entertaining, probably won't come close.

Best "breakout performance" by a goalie in the playoffs since Jaroslav Halak 12 years ago.

Series Recap: #NoQuitinNY defeats #LetsGoPens Anyone who watched this series won't be surprised by this: the Penguins ran roughshod over the Rangers at 5v5 in almost every game. Goaltending and blown leads cost them a series they should have wrapped up well before game seven. pic.twitter.com/MnN9nlzyMY

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) May 16, 2022

Domingue killed the Pens ( and me having an 8/8 bracket for round 1 )

8/8 on my first round predictions

Bobcat’s Post Game Notes, Leafs Edition

Round 1, Game 7

Leafs lose, 2-1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

-This is what we’ve all been fearing. Game 7. All i hope is that the referees are consistent. We don’t want the Bolts to show off their acting prowess and get away with it again like they did earlier in the series.

-This is one of those games where I wish Watch A Leafs Game with Steve Dangle was available outside Canada. I’ve never understood why it’s blocked in every other country.

-This crowd in the Scotiabank Arena is absolutely RAUCOUS tonight. Everything is being celebrated louder than a goal in the NWA could ever be celebrated.

-Mitch Marner had a great chance, and rang it off the post and out. The iron giveth, and the iron taketh away. That was rough.

-Very obvious trip by Brandon Hagel on Alex Kerfoot. The nearest ref to the penalty didn’t raise his arm, but THE LORD AND SAVIOR Wes McCauley did. It would have been perfect if he did one of his trademark flashy penalty PA calls for it. Unfortunately, he didn’t.

-The Leafs didn’t do anything on that power play, and then a couple minutes later, Giordano goes off for DoG. And we on the radio missed it because commercials were playing. Thanks for making us miss it, Subway. I’ve never liked your sh*tty sandwiches anyway.

-Joe Bowen has officially given up the rights to call big Jack Campbell saves. He’s just gonna let the crowd do it with one word: “SOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP.”

-Uh oh. Brayden Point just got hurt. Seems to be around the groin area. Giordano got under his right skate, so maybe that’s a tripping penalty? I don’t know, but I hope Pointer’s okay.

-Ross Colton takes a harmless… something, I don’t know, but whatever it is, it bounces off of Morgan Reilly and perfectly onto Nick Paul’s stick. 1-0 Bolts. UGH.

-The second period started with some good defensive play. I like it.

-AYE-AYE, CAPTAIN! John Tavares ties the ga-wait. WAIT. Justin Holl got called for… interference? Justin just set a pick and the Lightning player just ran into him, and Holl was the one that actually fell. HOLL GOT PENALIZED FOR THAT? AND IT NULLIFIED THE GOAL? WHAT THE F*CK!?

-Now the Hangar is chanting “REFS YOU SUCK.” If I was there, I’d be chanting too. At least this wasn’t within the last 5 minutes in a tie game like the whole thing with Foote and Hedman in Game 6.

-CAPTAIN MORGAN TIES THE GAME, AND THIS TIME THEY GET TO KEEP IT! BRING ON THE SPICE!

-William Nylander just cannot catch a break with breakaways. He finds himself all alone, and missed the net. Heartbreakingly this is not the first time that has happened in this series. I hope he finds closure soon.

-Nicholas Paul strikes again off of a bad bounce off of a Leafs defender. This time, TJ Brodie gets the dishonor of being the primary assist on an opposing team’s goal. No luck.

-Third period begins, and they cannot get it out of their own zone to save their lives. It’s like I’m watching the Blue Jackets here.

-I hate to be that guy, but SHOOT THE GODDAMN PUCK. I’m seeing way too much hesitation and too much passing.

-Oh god. Oh f*ck. Nick Paul just ran over Jack Campbell. This might be over, since the guy behind him backing hip up is the still-very-raw Erik Kallgren. Thankfully, he’s staying in, but if he gets injured again, it might be completely over.

-Marner got hooked by Palat, a god-sent opportunity to tie this game, and all but like 2 shots missed the net entirely. AND, I shall not forget, a Leaf got tripped with no call. I guess Wes didn’t catch it.

-It’s now desperation time: The Leafs have brought out the big superstar line: Mitch, Auston, and Willy. Get it done and tie this godforsaken game, guys, the world is counting on you.

-Andrei Vasilevskiy almost had a dang-it but somehow he pulls a save out of his *ss. This guy is absolutely flawless. ANNOYINGLY FLAWLESS.

-The net is empty. One f*ckup and the series is over.

-Keefe called his timeout to give his boys some rest. My heart is pounding out of my chest, but at least I get to rock out to Enter Sandman.

-Why are we not shooting? THROW EVERYTHING YOU HAVE AT THEM, MAN!

-…it’s happened again. IT’S F*CKING. HAPPENED. AGAIN. When i see this team and it’s history, I see many similarities to the old Greek tale of Sisyphus. The Leafs roll that rock up that hill, and get ever so close to clearing the peak. But, for one reason or another, they just end up rolling down to the bottom again.

They had a GOLDEN, GOD-SENT opportunity to move on in the playoffs for the first time since BEFORE I WAS BORN, and it was wrenched from their hands. Some may blame the referees for their inconsistent-at-best, malignant-at-worst officiating job in the latter part of this series, others may blame the players for making boneheaded passes to nobody and hesitating so much on offense to the point where the crowd was chanting “SHOOT THE PUCK” ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS. Honestly, I believe it’s a mixture of both. The refs did the Leafs no favors at all (Multiple uncalled trips, hooks, and other things, Brayden Point’s chin-strap, Alex Killorn’s wakeboarding exhibition, etc.), but at the same time, they let those get them down.

It’s hard to take, even as a fan of another team, and I really want to see Toronto exorcize that demon, slay that dragon, whatever metaphor you want to make, and go into that elusive round 2.

This isn’t even my team, and I’m sad. That was a hard fought series, very entertaining. Go out there and dominate, Tampa.

I’m not sure why you’re calling it a “farce” or “struggled and only won by one goal.” Oettinger had over ELEVEN goals saved above expected (literally more than 1.5 goals PER GAME). If you had average goaltending instead of literally one of the greatest single series goaltending performances of all time that series would not have been close. The Flames outshot the Stars by 6+ SOG in 6/7 games, including 4 times by double digits, and had the much better chances, at least by the highlight packs I’ve watched (on vaca so missed the games, but like the Stars highlights included blocked point shots lmao, the Flames were all extremely dangerous scoring chances), which is backed up by the xG% (Flames had the better 5v5 xG% in every game except for game 1, and according to money puck, game 6 was the only game Dallas “deserved to win”). Oettinger was the ONLY reason that series was close, and he deserves all the props in the world for that. If there was a round 1 Conn Smythe he’d win it unanimously. But the rest of the series wasn’t particularly close, the Flames were consistently outplaying the Stars. Now I just have to hope that Smith doesn’t keep up being #2 in the playoffs in GSAX lmaooooo, so much for the Flames having the easiest path, they’re having to play the two hottest goalies, which is probably worse than playing a good team in the playoffs.

Also I saw that Hintz wasn’t playing, but neither was Tanev and he’s our most important D (best defensive D) so both teams were missing a key player to injury.

And the Flames/Oilers struggles were different. The Flames dominated, and struggled to beat the best goalie in the playoffs so far. The Oilers got the 2nd best goaltending in the playoffs and still struggled to beat the worst team in the playoffs, who were missing their #1 D and 3rd best goal scorer.

florida 4-2. Points injury depending on severity plays a huge factor. Florida has been a solid 5v5 team all year, tampa has struggled as of late in that department.

Canes 4-2. Dont think this will be an especially close series. Carolina dominated play at home vs bruins and will continue to do so. Rangers defense much worse than bruins overall. Will come down to shesty who will steal a game or two and ultimately thats it.

flames 4-2. Edm could barely get past quick. Markstrom is playing real well, flames are deep. gimme the flames in this matchup.

Blues 4-3. Aves start rusty and fall to a 3-1 hole. come back to force game 7 only to lose at home because keumper gets hurt.

I have rebranded for these playoffs. Go Flames go!!!

@Alfie11 and @Gmonwy and @TheFlamingC I have joined you guys on the flames bandwagon.

Not a chance lol. Should be a great series. Go Flames

Go Oilers.

Wow a lot of people on the oilers bandwagon.

I'll join you all if they beat the flames, but they won't

Flames will win this one. They are the deeper team and they have better goaltending, which are both key to winning in the playoffs.

Same was said about Tampa in 2018

I know upsets can happen but the flames are the favourites and they should be. I'd be suprised (not angry though) if the oilers beat them.

I'm gonna go Tampa in 7, Rangers in 6, Flames in 6, and Colorado in 5.