"It looked like one of them went for 'leave it' and one went for an outlet pass," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. "There was just a little bit of a miscommunication, so it was a tough break the way the game ended. I thought Sammy played a hell of a game for us."

This obviously follows the Capitals already being on their fourth-string goalie in Craig Anderson as a result of Vitek Vanacek’s Game 1 injury. St. Louis Blues Knit Hat

That obviously wasn’t the plan when Krug left for St. Louis and Chara signed with Washington when the Bruins brass told him he wasn’t guaranteed a regular role. Defenseman Steven Kampfer won’t be available, either, because of an arm injury, so Cassidy and his staff could have to get creative.

Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy lost control of the puck and his balance on a second-period penalty kill and the Capitals were able to find Ovechkin for a Grade A scoring chance that he buried.Edmonton Oilers Knit Hat

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Tough playoff out. The Flyers are hoping 2021 is just an anomaly, though they surely will make some improvements this summer. GM Chuck Fletcher and coach Alain Vigneault hinted that the offseason rink shutdowns in Canada plus the isolation and anxiety of the pandemic adversely impacted their younger players. Hopefully 2021-22 will bring more normalcy.Toronto Maple Leafs Knit Hat

That's the most important takeaway from all of this, actually. This was an anomaly. If it wasn't a 56-game season, the Lightning likely couldn't have had Kucherov on the shelf for the entirety of the campaign.Minnesota Wild Knit Hat

After 12,000 fans packed the arena in Raleigh for each of the first two games in this series ... 12,000 fans are expected in Nashville. The Predators have had more than nine minutes per game with an extra man advantage, and can't get anything going, sitting at 0-for-10. As captain Roman Josi noted: "It hasn't been good the last couple years." On the other end, Carolina has been pretty happy with its penalty killing. "You can't say enough about those guys," coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "All the penalty killers, the goaltending, [Brett] Pesce and [Brady] Skjei in particular. They obviously had to step up today and they did in a huge way. Just incredible performances really by those guys."