2026 NHL Playoffs Thread

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Vegas scores 30 seconds into the second period. Tied at 2

 






Ogie Ogilthorpe said:
13 down. 3 to go

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Scary part is torts will course correct them. Both teams were incredibly sloppy, which is notorious for game 1s and seemingly every one ended up in the back of the net. XG tonight was about 2.5-2 Carolina.

Guessing we see far more 3-2 and such games going forward and both teams play a more risk averse game. Neither coach had to have liked what they saw at times tonight
 

upnorthkid said:
Scary part is torts will course correct them. Both teams were incredibly sloppy, which is notorious for game 1s and seemingly every one ended up in the back of the net. XG tonight was about 2.5-2 Carolina.

Guessing we see far more 3-2 and such games going forward and both teams play a more risk averse game. Neither coach had to have liked what they saw at times tonight
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Lots to clean up, definitely for Vegas and I'm sure some for Carolina. I figured they would take Carolina's best shot in the 1st period and they did. Tentative, nervous (was very surprised to hear some VGK players "nervous" considering how much experience they have), and just some bad giveaways.

I think the more Vegas gets used to Carolina's man-to-man defense, the more chances they'll open up as the series goes along.

I made one longshot bet for the series that I'm not feeling all that confident about right now, despite making it through tonight (BARELY); I took both goalies to have at least 18 saves in every game of the series. Andersen barely got to 18 tonight.
 



upnorthkid said:
Scary part is torts will course correct them. Both teams were incredibly sloppy, which is notorious for game 1s and seemingly every one ended up in the back of the net. XG tonight was about 2.5-2 Carolina.

Guessing we see far more 3-2 and such games going forward and both teams play a more risk averse game. Neither coach had to have liked what they saw at times tonight
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The amount of turnovers for the 2 best teams standing was astounding. And like you said both teams took advantage of many of them
 

TRF Guy said:
The amount of turnovers for the 2 best teams standing was astounding. And like you said both teams took advantage of many of them
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The first thing Torts talked about after closing out Colorado was being worried about the length of time off they would have waiting for the ECF winner. When Carolina had the 10+ days off before the ECF, they came out and dumped that opening game. You can prepare for it all you want but it's never ideal

We'll see a desperate CAR team tomorrow night, that's for sure. Vegas is 7-2 on the road in the SC playoffs so far
 

TRF Guy said:
The amount of turnovers for the 2 best teams standing was astounding. And like you said both teams took advantage of many of them
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yeah both coaches did not mince words about it in the postgame. Brindamour was especially pointed about it.

We saw Carolina do this in G1 vs Montreal and then just clamp them the entire rest of the series. Vegas is a way better counter punching team than Montreal and forechecks way more physically. We'll see if they can do the same, but that's why I say I expect you're going to see more "boring" hockey going forward. Game 1s seem to come out like this quite a bit because of the stage/jitters and that bit of feeling out, coupled with both goalies being real meh last night.

I'm just happy both teams are fully healthy. Hopefully it stays that way.
 







TRF Guy said:
Almost every playoffs a somewhat unknown comes out of nowhere. Vegas playing with so much confidence right now. Next goal has to be Canes or this one is OVAH
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If Carolina gives up the next one, I think you’re going to have a large goalie question as well
 














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