NHL Playoffs 2020: Exhibition, Round Robin and Qualifiers

August 1, the start of the playoffs. Except, it wasn’t. The beginning of August 2020 brought with it the chance for 24 teams to compete for the Stanley Cup. The first week or so of action seen 24 teams narrowed down to 16 in the playoff qualifiers. They weren’t technically the playoffs but counted for statistical purposes.

Like many hockey fans, I was delighted to see the return of hockey after around a 4 month pause, and so, I watched A LOT of hockey! First time I’ve got to enjoy it in July too with the exhibition games. I’ve seen August hockey before for the EIHL preseason and the Champions Hockey League, just not in the NHL.

Here a just a few of the games I got to see even a bit of over the last number of days. 

EXHIBITION:

Pittsburgh vs Philadelphia

Since it was the first game back, I just had to tune into a little bit of this one. I was curious to see what the games would look like, having no fans in the arena, and what the standard of hockey would be like after such a long pause. The game proved to be a lot better quality than I expected and went to overtime where the Flyers won 3-2 in the end. The NHL has done a good job with the seat coverings and it is like a Winter Classic set up where there aren’t fans directly beside the ice. 

Carolina vs Washington

I was excited to see one of my favourite players Ovechkin back in action. It was incredible to follow his journey this season as he climbed further up the standings for the most goals all-time. Ovi did not disappoint early in this game and tallied 2 goals in a 3-2 win over the Canes.

St Louis vs Chicago

I was looking forward to seeing the Blues back on the ice after SOO long. Though 4-0, not the best result for the Blues. Chicago had a number of good chances late in the first period but Binnington kept us in it. Then Chicago got 2 in each of the next two periods. I hoped the next game would be better.

QUALIFIERS AND ROUND ROBIN:

After just one game to get teams ready for the more important games, 16 teams began to play in 8 best-of-five series to determine who would advance to the playoffs and the top 4 teams from each conference began a round robin to decide seeding for the playoffs.

Here are a few games which I paid particular attention to:

New York Rangers vs Carolina: Game 1

The first meaningful game certainly did not disappoint. It was entertaining from the start with plenty of hits, and even a goal and fight within the opening minutes. Jacob Slavin opened the scoring only 61 seconds in to give the Canes a 1-0 lead and become the first NHL goalscorer in August. There were plenty of penalties in this game too and so teams didn’t have much of a chance to play 5 on 5. Carolina took the win in the end, despite a late New York shorthanded goal to narrow the gap to 3-2.

Arizona vs Nashville series

This ended up being a series that I followed. Game 1 was a high-shooting affair, with the two teams combining for 80 SOG in a 4-3 Arizona win. Game 2 began with a penalty call against Nashville 5 seconds in. The Coyotes seemed to have much of the pressure in this period, outshooting the Preds 14-5, but the Preds got 2 goals on their first 3 shots and towards the end of the third had a 4-0 lead. Arizona added 2 goals late but Nashville won 4-2. This would be their only win of the series, despite outshooting Arizona 40-28 and 52-34 in the following and final two games, the latter of which had to be decided in overtime after Forsberg tied it up late.

Colorado vs St Louis

Of course I made sure to watch the Blues! This one was an absolute heartbreaker for Blues fans. The Blues somehow had a 1-0 lead after the first period thanks to a David Perron powerplay goal, despite being outshot 16-4. The Blues seemed to improve as the game went along but Colorado tied it up in the third. After the Blues fanned on a shot, the Avs took the puck up the ice and fanned on a shot of their own, which set up the scoring opportunity. But the cruelest part was still to come. The Blues took a late penalty and Avs pressure in the Blues zone was certainly nerve-wrecking. As the seconds ticked down it looked like we would make it to overtime and get a point, but Kadri had other ideas and his shot crossed the goal line with 0.1 seconds to spare. A lengthy goal review followed which gave Blues fans some hope, but in the end it was confirmed a goal. It was close. I just hoped it would be like the missed hand pass in the 2019 playoffs which only seemed to motivate the Blues to win all the more. 

St Louis vs Vegas

Another game, another 1-0 lead at the end of the first thanks to David Perron, but also another loss. Binnington was sharp again and gave the Blues a chance. Perron opened the scoring early in the period on the Blues first shot. The shots in this one were relatively even and low until towards the end of the period and the Blues ended up outshot 13-5 in the period. Vegas had the most chances throughout this game but the second period brought 3 goals apiece.  Colton Parayko made it 2-0 and after Vegas had tallied 3 for a to make it 3-2 in their favour, Parayko was the one who tied it up on a wraparound goal in his first ever multi-goal playoff game. Brouwer gave the Blues a 4-3 lead going into the third but another 3-goal period for Vegas saw them take a 6-4 win. For two teams that combined for a high goal per game average in their meetings this season, this game was another that did not lack goals. Shots finished 38-17 in favour of Vegas. 

St Louis vs Dallas

This was another loss for the Blues in a matchup between the two teams with 0 points in the western conference round robin. The Blues held a 1-0 lead until late in the third when Dallas tied it up. The game went to overtime and then a shootout where Dallas claimed the extra point and third seed thanks to Gurianov who scored the lone shootout goal and Khudobin who stopped all 3 Blues attempts. The Blues were again outshot (38-22). They had 10 SOG in the final 2 periods compared to Dallas’ 28. 

The qualifiers and round robin format meant that some teams were fighting for something more meaningful than just seeding and this could be problematic for round robin teams who may not have such momentum going into the first round.

The qualifiers saw the exits of New York Rangers (3-0 Carolina), Winnipeg (3-1 Calgary), Nashville (3-1 Arizona), Pittsburgh (3-1 Montreal), Edmonton (Chicago 3-1), Minnesota (3-1 Vancouver) and Toronto (3-2 Columbus) who now each have a 12.5% chance of getting the first overall draft pick.

The Leafs might have been knocked out, but they certainly had an amazing comeback that might be one of the highlights of the playoffs. Game 4 turned out to be the opposite of Game 3 where the Leafs were 3-0 up and lost 4-3 in overtime. The Leafs began their comeback with just under four minutes remaining in the third through Nylander who got the Leafs on the board. The next two Leafs goals from Tavares and Hyman tied it up and sent the game to overtime where Matthews got the winner. It came close to not even reaching OT as at 3-2 Columbus narrowly missed the empty net.

Matchups for round one:

Vegas vs Chicago

Colorado vs Arizona

Dallas vs Calgary

St Louis vs Vancouver

Philadelphia vs Montreal

Tampa Bay vs Columbus

Washington vs New York Islanders

Boston vs Carolina

24 teams entered the bubbles. Now 16 remain.