It’s a new month, new week, and time for a fresh off-season thread! There was some fascinating conversations in the last thread, which I’ve come to expect from this community. Let’s keep it going! We also have a lot of new things to cover:
Draft Lottery
This kind of snuck up on me, but the draft lottery is tonight, Monday May 5, at 7:00 PM ET on ESPN. Unlike in previous years, this year the actual lottery itself will be held live. Read more about the process here. No worries about Kevin Weekes spoiling the fact that the Blue Jackets did NOT win. Each team has a certain number of four-number combinations, with the amount correlating to their place in the standings. On page 13 of this document, you can see the 20 combinations that apply to the Columbus Blue Jackets. In short, if the first ball is anything other than 1, 2, 3, 5, or 6, then it’s not ours.
Draft rules say a team can’t move up more than 10 spots, so as the 13th worst team, the Jackets can only move up as high as #3. Per Tankathon, these are the odds that the Blue Jackets’ pick will fall at the following positions:
#3 – 4.2%
#4 – less than 0.1%
#5 – less than 0.1%
#13 – 90.7%
#14 – 5.1%
#15 – less than 0.1%
Second Round
Following the thrilling Game 7 2OT win by Winnipeg, the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs are set.
Starting tonight at 8 PM ET on ESPN: Florida at Toronto
Starting Tuesday at 7 PM ET on ESPN: Carolina at Washington
Starting Tuesday at 9:30 PM ET on ESPN: Edmonton at Vegas
We will find out today when the series between Dallas (also a Game 7 winner, on Saturday night) and Winnipeg will begin.
Has your pick for Cup champion changed? I had picked Carolina so I’m sticking with them, but Florida did not seem as fatigued as I expected. They’re a legitimate threat for a third straight Eastern Conference championship. In the West, the Dallas Stars could be the team to watch, especially if Miro Heiskanen and/or Jason Robertson can get healthy.
NHL Awards
The NHL has been announcing the awards finalists over the last week. To no one’s surprise, Zach Werenski is a finalist for the Norris Trophy (along with Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes) and Sean Monahan for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy (along with Gabriel Landeskog and Marc-Andre Fleury). Werenski will likely lose to Makar, but Monahan should be a favorite for the Masterton given the exceptional performance he delivered this season in addition to the personal tragedy AND injuries he had to overcome.
A major surprise, for me, was head coach Dean Evason NOT being included as one of the three finalists for the Jack Adams Award. I still expect Washington coach Spencer Carberry to win, and I’m fine with Scott Arniel of Winnipeg being a finalist. Yes, I’m still bitter about how bad of a coach he was here over a decade ago, but he has owned up to what a disaster it was, learned from it, and led his team to the best record in the league in his first season (sure, having the best goalie helps). The third finalist was Martin St. Louis of Montreal. I understand that the Habs got into the playoffs ahead of the Jackets, but Columbus had a +5 goal differential to Montreal’s -20, and the turnaround in the face of tragedy seems worth crediting Evason, even if he ultimately fell two points short of the postseason.
World Championship
As a consolation prize for Evason, he has been named as head coach of Team Canada for the IIHF World Championship, which starts this Friday in Stockholm, Sweden and Herning, Denmark (hometown of Oliver BJORKSTRAND!). Evason was an assistant coach for Canada in this event last May. Joining him on the bench is CBJ assistant coach Steve McCarthy (HOW DOES HE KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH IT) and Jackets forwards Adam Fantilli and Kent Johnson. I’m excited that Mo and KJ were honored like this for breakout seasons. I hope they continue to play well on this stage, before getting a much-deserved break this summer.
Stay tuned this week to see if any other Jackets make their national teams. Werenski (USA) and Elvis Merzlikins (Latvia) already announced they would not be competing. Aaron Portzline reported yesterday that Mathieu Olivier received an invite to join Team USA, but had to decline due to a minor surgery to his punching hand. Despite being raised in Quebec, Olivier was born in Mississippi when his father played minor league hockey there, so he was eligible to play for either nation. Obviously that had not come up until his breakout offensive season.
Monsters stay alive
Finally, after a 2-0 sweep of the Toronto Marlies in the first round of the Calder Cup Playoffs, the Cleveland Monsters found themselves in a 2-0 deficit to the Laval Rocket in the North Division semis. A 3-1 victory on Sunday afternoon in Laval kept the series alive. On the opposite bench: former Blue Jackets head coach Pascal Vincent. Could this be the second year in a row that he’s responsible for top Blue Jackets prospects playing fewer games than they should?