It was a nice weather weekend in Toronto, and if you took some time off of hockey you may be surprised to learn that the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs is already underway.

It wasn’t supposed to start until tonight, but the league was faced with a possible Saturday night without any games on TV because the Habs are terrible and were wiped out by the Flyers, so everything was accelerated and now we already have three games played in the second round. The Stars, the Bruins (UGH!), and the Golden Knights all won their first games. The Islanders and Flyers are the odd teams out as their series won’t start until tonight.

Tonight’s Games

Islanders @ Flyers
7:00 p.m. CBC, Sportsnet, TVAS, NBCSN
You all know who I am cheering for.

Stars @ Avalanche; Stars lead series 1-0
Remember when the Stars owner was publicly calling out Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin for not getting the wins done? How things change.

Other News

The Vegas-Fleury fiasco is unofficially the most pointless and dumb controversy of these playoffs so far. The interesting part is how no one actually has sympathy for Fleury over this debacle, and, if anything he generally looks worse.

Brad Marchand is still Brad Marchand.

The Capitals fired Head Coach Todd Reirden on Sunday after their disappointing quick exit from the playoffs at the hands of the Islanders. Rierden was the 19th head coach of the team, part of a long line of rookie coaches.

There’s a lot of names out there available to fill that vacant Head Coach position, including one we know of here in Toronto.

Is this the Start of a Canucks Golden Era or just a Mirage? - Nucks Misconduct
After the huge upset of the Blues, where will this young core take the Canucks this year and beyond?

Memories of Dundee Rockets who put the city on the ice hockey map - The Courier
Dundee Rockets ruled the ice hockey world in the 1980s and won three Grand Slams and were the first British team to participate in the European Cup.

From The Branches