ICYMI: The most important regular season goal:

Also, last night Brady Tkachuk missed part of the game, but:

First question: will the Leafs recall anyone from the Marlies? The Marlies play their two final games this weekend, today and Saturday, and they need to get a point to make the playoffs.

But will Ryan Reaves bounce right back to the Leafs? I think so. I expect we'll see everyone on LTIR or just not playing back at practice and ready to go with the possible exception of Jani Hakanpää, although he's been at some practices lately.

You should expect Max Pacioretty to be ready to play along with David Kämpf, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Jake McCabe. Decisions about lineups will have to made. We might see a practice either today or Saturday that telegraphs the opening day lineup.

I don't expect Marlies to be called up since the NHL games are all at home in the first round.

The schedule:

  1. Sunday at 7 pm
  2. Tuesday, April 22 at 7:30 pm
  3. Thursday, April 24 at 7 pm
  4. Saturday, April 26 at 7 pm
  5. Tuesday, April 29 at a time TBD
  6. Thursday, May 1 at a time TBD
  7. Saturday, May 3 at a time TBD

Note that election day is not a game night. The NHL is not doing Canada a favour here, they want a two-day break in every series.

Playoffs Rd 1 Preview: STL Blues @ WPG Jets
The National Hockey League’s schedule provided some entertainment on Tuesday evening, as late game heroics by the Minnesota Wild ended up solidifying the Western Conference playoff match ups.
Arctic Ice HockeyBigOlJetAirliner

Everyone won their quarterfinals at women's worlds who was expected to. The semis are tomorrow.

That is 9 am at 1 pm in Toronto.

Prospect news!

Easton Cowan scored first for the London Knights, who ended up 3-3 in overtime with the Erie Otters. The series was on the line for Erie as the Knights were up 3 games to none.

London scored in OT, but the goal was called back.

They scored again, this time assisted by Easton Cowan:

Ben Danford and the Oshawa Generals were tied with Brantford late in the third when they got the go-ahead goal. They won 4-2. I'm told Danford was excellent defending the lead. This series is now tied at two-all.

That's it, have a good Friday everyone, and remember, it's firing season for 16 teams.

From The Branches