North Division Second Round
4:30 p.m. PT/7:30 p.m. ET — Montreal Canadiens at Winnipeg Jets
Game 1, Series tied 0-0
NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS
The Montreal Canadiens pulled off a huge first round upset, but will it be enough to carry them through to the Cup Final? Just two days after their Game 7 win, they’ll have to get past the Winnipeg Jets, who haven’t played in over a week after sweeping the Edmonton Oilers. Rest has been essential in this compressed season, not to mention the series opening at Bell MTS Place.
Due to the re-alignment for this season, this is the first-ever meeting of these two clubs in the postseason. The winner of this series will become Canada’s Team in the Conference Final, and these are exactly the teams we all expected to be duking it out for that title.
West Division Second Round
7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. ET — Vegas Golden Knights at Colorado Avalanche
Game 2, Avalanche lead 1-0
NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS
As much as it hurts to say, but if Game 1 was any indication, this is likely to be the best series of the second round, rivaled only by the Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning in the East. The Colorado Avalanche put up five unanswered goals on the Vegas Golden Knights en route to a 7-1 win, littered with fights and cheap shots that resulted in 79 total penalty minutes and four ten-minute misconducts.
Knights forward Ryan Reaves earned one of those misconducts in the third period, roughing Avs defender Ryan Graves and ripping out his hair, for which he earned a two-game suspension. He won’t be back until Game 4, but Vegas always finds a way.