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Lace 'em up. Time for the Morning Skate.
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ON THE BRINK
Depending on how the NHL playoff games on Monday play out, we might be on the edge of a rather tidy first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Capitals, Sharks and Stars all have a chance to take commanding 3-0 series leads over their playoff dance partners tonight. Now, that's not necessarily a death sentence. Four teams in history have rattled off four straight wins to win a series. The most recent was the Kings in 2012-13, when they overthrew the Sharks.
So let's assume all three of those aforementioned teams wins tonight. Which of their opponents has the best shot at doing what the Kings did? We'll measure their odds using our brand new, nonsensical and totally made up highly scientific and renowned Kingly Quotient.
Philadelphia Flyers
They're missing Sean Couturier, their best penalty killer, and facing the best power play in the playoffs. Philly also has just one goal in two games. It'll be over.
Kingly Quotient: Henry VIII. Seriously. Go Google him. He was the worst.
Minnesota Wild
Devan Dubnyk has been excellent in net, and they were one telekinetic bounce away from probably sending Game 2 into overtime. If they can hang in there and get a few bounces (the right way this time) then maybe they'll steal a game or two. But not four.
Kingly Quotient: Six out of 10 Kings. Kind of like the Bourbon Dynasty in France. And we all know how that ended.
Los Angeles Kings
Boy, you think Sharks fans would get nervous if their team took a 3-0 lead over L.A.? That's tempting history to repeat itself. And the Kings are well-equipped to repeat history again.
Kingly Quotient: The same odds of someone eventually hitting Old King Cole over the head with one of his damn fiddles after the thousandth time he called for them. Likely.
WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT
- St. Louis snapped a 14-game playoff losing streak in Chicago to take the series lead.
- But the Blackhawks were in the same position last year and advanced, so the Blues can't feel too confident yet.
- Detroit turned to Petr Mrazek in Game 3, and he saved their season.
- The Panthers forgot about Thomas Hickey in overtime, and he made them pay for it.
- Florida is doing a poor job of retaining leads in that series.
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- We finally get to see if Wild fans have forgiven Dallas for taking their franchise two decades ago. (Spoiler: they haven't.)
- The Flyers head back home in desperate need of a Game 3 win.
- San Jose can push the Kings to the brink of elimination with a win tonight.
- David Backes is the Blues' unsung hero.
- Lightning winger J.T. Brown will miss the rest of the series with an upper-body injury.
- The Kings might need to consider how they use Rob Scuderi.
- Since rejoining the Sharks, Logan Couture has revived San Jose's possession prowess.
- The NHL's offsides challenge rule is broken.
- And as a result, the road to the Stanley Cup is being paved with goal controversies.
- The Stars had an eventful weekend, scoring the most ridiculous playoff goal ever and posing for photos along the way.
- And Steve Mason will never forget the time he gave up the worst playoff goal in history.