Good morning Toronto Maple Leafs fans and others!

We now know one half of the 2022 Stanley Cup Finals after the Colorado Avalanche swept the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Confetence Finals, capping things off with a 6-5 win last night.

Game 4 Recap: Colorado 6, Edmonton 5 (OT)
Recap: Avalanche sweep to Stanley Cup Final

The Colorado Avalanche are now heading to the Stanley Cup Finals for the third time in franchise history, and are 2-0 when making it all the way to the fourth round.

The Oilers have had their best finish since going to the Stanley Cup in 2006 (and losing). We'll probably hear from some Oilers fans about "neener neener we made the third round" but losing in the third round and losing in the first round gets you the same result: You lost.

Good luck to the Avalanche, take advantage of the rest you'll be getting as the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning fight it out tonight in their game four. The Rangers lead the Eastern Conference Final series 2-1.

Continuing along the line of enjoyable news about hateable teams, the Boston Bruins fired head coach Bruce Cassiday after six seasons of making the playoffs but not winning a cup.

Cassidy Firing Reaction: The Bruins are at the crossroads

Cassiday coached 399 games for the Bruins, and has been with the organization since 2008. He won the Jack Adams award in 2020.

Almost half of the NHL changed coaches this year, which has to be nearing a record. The teams are: Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Philadelphia, Vegas, Winnipeg, Long Island, Chicago, Edmonton, Montréal, and Florida.

As the NHL continues to roll out the NHL Awards winners, we found out that yesterday Winnipegs Kyle Connor won the Lady Byng Award for the "Most Gentlemanly Player". Congrats Connor, unless you're like Alex Mogilny and could not care any less about the award.

The Maple Leafs have expiring contracts and Katya wants to know how high would you go?

Re-signing the Leafs’ Expired Forwards: How High Would You Go?

The Marlies also signed a goaltender, because they do not have enough already...

Toronto Marlies sign goalie Luke Cavallin

He gets an endorsement from one former Marlie:

Enjoy your day out there folks.

From The Branches