This has been hailed as one of the most exciting, most unpredictable first rounds in NBA playoffs history.
A team seeded fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth advanced for the first time in 40 years with 16-team playoffs. When Stephen Curry scored 50 points in a Game 7 at Sacramento on Sunday afternoon, it felt like an exclamation point.
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The NHL said hold my Molson.
In the next few hours after Curry’s virtuoso performance, the best regular-season team in NHL history and the defending Stanley Cup champions were wiped off the board in back-to-back Game 7 stunners.
Boston and Colorado weren’t alone. Tampa Bay’s run of three straight trips to the Stanley Cup Final is over. The guys who are two-time Cup winners in Los Angeles were knocked out. Waning powers in Pittsburgh and Washington didn’t even qualify. The last vestiges of the Chicago Cup runs are gone.
The most recent Stanley Cup champion still alive in the 2023 playoffs? That’s Carolina, which won the first title in the salary-cap era (2006). The only teams left that have won the Cup since 1990? Carolina, Dallas (1999) and New Jersey, which won in 1995, 2000 and 2003.
Here are the best individual performances from the NHL’s opening round of the 2023 playoffs.
Ilya Sorokin, Islanders
Long Island’s club got two goals from Mathew Barzal and two points from Bo Horvat. No one scored more than twice or had more than five points. But Sorokin did his thing, and helped the Islanders go punch-for-punch with the second-best team in the NHL in the regular season.
Sorokin’s .929 save percentage was tied for third going into Game 7 of the Rangers-Devils series behind those two goalies, level with Dallas’ Jake Oettinger. He saved 3.7 goals more than expected in the series. The Hurricanes needed two overtime wins and another one-goal victory to scrape by in a close series.
Nathan MacKinnon/Mikko Rantanen, Avalanche
The champs are gone, but it wasn’t because of these two. My goodness — Rantanen scored seven goals (10 points) in seven games. MacKinnon had three goals (seven points) and 40 (!) shots on goal. That is the fifth most in a playoff series during the salary-cap era. Rantanen scored 62 goals in 89 games (regular and postseason combined) … what a season.
Most shots on goal in a postseason series during the salary cap era:
49 – Alex Ovechkin, 1st round 2009
44 – Alex Semin, 1st round 2010
43 – JVR, 1st round 2011
41 – Alex Ovechkin, 2nd round 2009
40 – Nathan MacKinnon, 1st round 2023
40 – Marian Hossa, 2nd round 2009— Corey Masisak (@cmasisak22) May 1, 2023
Mark Stone, Golden Knights
Welcome back, superstar. Stone didn’t play for three months and six days, and Game 1 was a little rough for him and his teammates. After that? A swift end to a gentleman’s sweep. Stone had eight points in the final four games — three in Game 2 to get his club rolling, and three in Game 5 to shut the door. Vegas outscored Winnipeg 8-1 with him on the ice at five-on-five in the final four games and had more than 61 percent of the expected goals.
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Philipp Grubauer, Kraken
How did the sophomores from Seattle knock out the defending champions? Grubauer and depth. The Avalanche had 10 players appear in four-plus games without scoring a goal. Seattle had four. Seattle’s top four scorers from the regular season combined for three goals and six points in the series, but Grubauer took over. He had one tough night (Game 3) and then went 3-1 with a .934 save percentage in the final four contests.
Miro Heiskanen, Stars
More than 29 minutes per game, tops in the league? Check. Six points in six games? Check. More than 63 minutes on the ice at all strengths with Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov and one goal against? Check.
He’s the best defenseman in the league who is always just on the edge of the best defensemen discussion. The “oh yeah, don’t forget about …” guy. A deep run for Dallas could help with that. He’s the real deal.
Akira Schmid, Devils
Schmid had a 25-save shutout on May 1, 2021. That was in the USHL.
Two years later, he pitched a 31-save shutout against the New York Rangers in Game 7 of the opening round. Schmid’s journey from being drafted by the Devils in 2018 to that game two years ago was remarkable. He spent a month playing video games and working out at a local gym during hockey season because he’d been cut by Lethbridge in the WHL and didn’t have a team to play for.
To go from the uncertainty in Lethbridge to the USHL to beating the Rangers four times in five starts, rescuing the season of an NHL team, is Disney movie material. Schmid went 4-1 in the series with a .951 save percentage. He outdueled arguably the best goalie in the world, Igor Shesterkin. Fairy tale stuff, and New Jersey won a playoff round for the first time since beating the Rangers in the 2012 Eastern Conference final because of him.
Mitch Marner, Maple Leafs
The two lopsided scores at the start aside, how close was the Toronto-Tampa Bay series? The Lightning scored more goals in regulation (13-12) and lost in six games. Allowing three overtime goals will do that.
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Toronto had plenty of heroes in its first series win since 2004, but Marner led the team in points (11), assists (nine), even-strength points (seven) and power-play points (four). Remember how close the series was? Not when Marner was on the ice at five-on-five — the Leafs outscored the Lightning 8-1.
Leon Draisaitl, Oilers
Edmonton finished with the second-best goal differential in the first round, outscoring Los Angeles 25-20 in six games. Connor McDavid was excellent as always, but Draisaitl led the Oilers in goals (seven) and points (11). He scored the most goals at even strength (four) and on the power play (three), which was a preposterous 9-for-16 in the series.
When Draisaitl was on the ice at five-on-five, the Oilers won decisively (10-5). When McDavid was out there, it was 6-6.
Roope Hintz, Stars
How many people outside of Dallas knew that Hintz has scored 37 goals each of the past two seasons? It feels like he’s been a bit overshadowed at times, in part because Miro Heiskanen, Jason Robertson and Jake Oettinger are rightfully spotlighted, not to mention the name-brand recognition for Joe Pavelski, Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn. But he’s a capital-S Star in this league, pun only slightly intended.
Hintz had a dynamite first round against the Wild. Five goals and 12 points — one fewer than his postseason career high set during Dallas’ run to the Bubble Cup Final in 2020 in six games. He was also better than 60 percent in the faceoff circle and the Stars had 61.75 percent of the five-on-five expected goals when he was on the ice.
Minnesota won Game 1 in overtime in dramatic fashion? Cool. Hintz hit ‘em with a hat trick and four points in Game 2. The Wild won Game 3 to take the lead in the series? Cool. Hintz posted back-to-back three-assist games to help Dallas grab control and then added the opening goal in Game 6 to start the rout. The Wild had no answer for him.
Matthew Tkachuk, Panthers
Hintz, Oettinger or Draisaitl are all fine choices if you wanted to select a Conn Smythe Trophy winner for the first round. But Tkachuk is the correct answer.
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He had five goals and 11 points against the mighty Bruins. The Panthers outscored them 7-2 at five-on-five when he was on the ice. They had 63.37 percent of the expected goals. He was in the middle of everything.
How do you topple the best regular season of all time? Having their top two centers get hurt certainly helps, but your best player wins every individual matchup against their best. The Panthers outscored the Bruins 4-0 at five-on-five when Tkachuk was on the ice with Brad Marchand. Boston did not score a goal at five-on-five when Tkachuk was out there against Marchand, David Pastrnak, Tyler Bertuzzi, Patrice Bergeron or David Krejci.
(Top photo of Matthew Tkachuk: Peter Joneleit / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)