You love hockey. You love SB Nation. You love reading hockey at SB Nation. Search your feelings. You know these things are true. But life’s too busy to browse the whole network for news. So, we’ll send hockey news to your inbox every morning. All you need to do is subscribe.
Morning Skate: Sometimes the playoff bully gets punched back
The NBA and NHL playoffs offered one city the same lesson on Monday.
Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
Lace ‘em up. Time for the Morning Skate.
* * *
DESPAIR AND DELIGHT IN DALLAS
Dallas pulled off a wholly unexpected win last night.
No, not the Stars. The Mavericks. Fresh off one of the worst defeats in NBA playoff history, the Mavericks somehow eked out a win against a vastly superior Oklahoma City Thunder squad. It was improbable, rousing to watch and changed the momentum of the series.
I bring this up because it’s the same thing that happened to the Dallas Stars on Monday. But in this case, they were the victims. They went into Minnesota with the Wild on the ropes after two mostly lifeless losses. Once Dallas took an early 2-0 lead, I’m sure more than a few Stars fans started mentally preparing for the second round.
But the Wild punched right back, scoring four unanswered goals in the final two frames. Remarkably, the team down 2-0 in the series, with the worst odds to win the Stanley Cup, made the best team in the Western Conference look utterly harmless for about 40 minutes.
Fans of both Dallas teams got a stark reminder of how nothing can be taken for granted in the playoffs. As soon as you start expecting a cakewalk of a series, the tide can turn and put your team back on their heels. Any weaker, massively outgunned team can daze the bully with a solid punch of their own.
WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT
- The Capitals took a 3-0 series lead over the Flyers, but the story was not about them.
- Instead, it was about Philly’s fans. They were rousing and fun to begin with, honoring late owner Ed Snider and making obscene gestures at Pierre McGuire.
- But once the Flyers started to get routed, they became a major part of the most embarrassing playoff loss in franchise history.
- It didn’t help when a Flyers forward was ejected for the worst hit of the playoffs.
- Dallas couldn’t overcome their mistakes.
- The Kings avoided a 3-0 series hole with a win in overtime.
TONIGHT’S PLAYOFF FUN:
- The Red Wings face another must-win.
- Pittsburgh needs to rebound from its worst loss since December.
- And their opponents still have plenty of questions on defense.
NEWS AND NOTES:
- Home ice is now coming into play.
- A Sharks fan drew a butt farting behind the Kings bench. Did not expect to ever write that sentence.
- Ovechkin doesn’t care about playoff records.
- We broke down the Islanders’ game-winning Game 3 goal for you.
See More:
