About last night first. The first two periods looked like this:

And this:

Each team also laid down a bad power play, as they both tend to do.

If the Habs game was boring, this was almost too fast, and neither team did anything well enough to overcome the other guy's defence. That said, Dennis Hildeby and Jonas Johansson were both good. I expect ecstatic headlines tomorrow in the Swedish press.

The third period was a defence competition until Benoit hit a guy, another Lightning player, Gage Goncalves, hit Dakota Mermis and got him in the knee, and then Dakota Joshua fought Max Crozier.

The knee-hit ended up as major and misconduct after review. And suddenly Bobby McMann was out with a match penalty that turned out to be for a swipe at Oliver Bjorkstrand's head with his stick. Bjorkstrand had cross-checked McMann in the scrum following the hit on Mermis. A match penalty is a game misconduct for an intent-to-injure play. All match penalties are reported to the league, so there is a possibility of supplementary discipline, but this is not automatic.

There was no power play after all of that. The video:

Toronto had a power play very late, and they played it defensively. And then they just kept up the disruptive defensive game they'd been grinding away at all game.

Troy Stecher had to be aux goalie for the second time when Tampa had their goalie pulled, but other than that, it was never in doubt.

This was the first time and was the reason he was on the ice at the end of the game protecting a 1-o lead:

2-0 the final score as Auston Matthews got the ENG.

This was a very fast, hard-skating version of the defence-first grind because both teams were at it, and also trying to get their top lines into scoring position.

Good game from the Leafs.

The Leafs need to play out the season at .566 to get to 92 points. They are at .536 right now. Okay, so are Florida and Ottawa, but you can only play your own games.

I've grown very tired of this Olympic rink story. There's one of these every Olympics, and it ends up working out. More or less. So I didn't pay much attention to Elliotte Friedman on 32 Thoughts talking about the communication failure. I heard about this the same way most people did when Peter DeBoer said in an interview the ice was going to be the wrong size. And then some reporters without much of an audience spoke up and said Doug Armstrong told them all a month ago this was the case.

If Daly is telling the truth there, that's very odd, but the issue really isn't an issue.

IIHF: Smaller ice surface at Olympics ‘insignificant’
Sportsnet.caAssociated Press

Anyway, this is the best take on this one:

We'll get stories during the Women's event that the place isn't finished and there's workmen still onsite. And the real underlying story here is that the Olympics added short track, curling and women's events in all of the above, so that the need for hockey-sized ice rinks is well more than double what it was before the 90s. Which means very few places will have existing facilities. And here we are.

Wait until everyone gets a look at the second rink – a set of ice pads built in a convention centre.

Report: Senators hire firm to lobby provincial, federal governments for area funds
The Ottawa Senators have hired a firm to lobby the provincial and federal government to help pay for the team’s planned new arena at LeBreton Flats, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports.
TSNTSN.ca Staff

I'm shocked. Now on the other hand, this story is interesting;

‘Golden opportunity’: Brantford city council approves $152M sports and entertainment centre
Go Dogs Go! Brantford city council approves $152 million Sports and Entertainment Centre
Brantford ExpositorVincent Ball

The Bulldogs new owners signed an agreement to stay for 15 years, and then the city agreed to build a new facility. The fix is in! But the story takes a turn that might make you think again.

Once the centre is built the Ward 4 councillor will, for the first time, be able to watch the Brantford Bulldogs in action.
“I’m probably one of the only members of council who has not seen a Bulldog game because I’m in a wheelchair and if I went to a game I’d have to sit at ice level and I’m not tall enough to look over the boards,” Hunt said. “For that reason, I applaud the design team for considering the fact that this needs to be a state-of-the-art facility but also a state-of-the-art accessible facility.

Their existing building, 60 years old, has no elevators of escalators, meaning all users have to be capable of using stairs.

There is a case that these facilities are not just gifts to hockey teams, but are part of a city's infrastructure. And that case pretty much dries up and blows away when someone just spent billions buying an NHL team.

Back to 32 Thoughts, and bit about the expansion price the NHL wants – $2 billion – that comes with the need to build an arena in almost every case. Either before the bid or as part of the successful application. And the costs of doing that get added to the $2 billion, and the number of new owners who can do that isn't massive.

That said, the NHL is projecting revenues this year in excess of the amount needed to meet the already agreed salary cap increase for next year, so is there an desire to raise that cap amount faster? Friedman is saying it's agents behind that talk, and the owners are not onboard. At least not yet.

So NHL owners get to make a lot of money running a hockey team in an arena they might not have to pay for. I wonder what the average Italian thinks about this arena project and who is going to prosper off of it.

That's Tuesday. Next game is Thursday night vs the Sharks.

From The Branches