The second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs starts tonight... but the first round isn't even over. It's one of those weird scheduling oddities that crops up from time to time and this time it's because the Lightning beat the Habs last night to force a game #7 in their first round series.

Also, Vegas knocked out those plucky Uath Mammoth from the playoffs too. Who showed up with two goals in the game?

In addition to that, on Sunday we get game #3 of the Marlies-Rocket series. The Marlies left Laval with a loss and a win, so it's now a best-of-three series. Clearly, a lot of lessons were learned about the Rocket from the game #1 loss and it lead to their blowout win in the second game Friday night. There's lots to unpack about the game, but I can't stop coming back to this Easton Cowan goal in the third period that sealed the win.

Game #3 will be interesting. Florian Xhekaj had a meltdown near the end of the third period and was ejected from the game, and it very much look like he hit Ryan Tverberg who was on the bench, which if my understanding is correct should be an automatic suspension, but we shall see. If he's playing there could be a lot of post-whistle action in that game.

So, on to round #2, it starts Saturday with the Flyers @ Hurricanes game at 8:00 p.m. ET. The game is only on Sportsnet and TVA in Canada, CBC is not carrying it. If you go to the game be careful of Cam York throwing his stick into the crowd.

Flyers fan returns stick York tossed into crowd after OT series-winning goal | NHL.com
Defenseman appreciative of Philadelphia fan who ‘are as tough as they get’
NHL logoAdam Kimelman

CBC will have the Habs @ Lightning deciding game on Sunday at 6:00 p.m. ET and then the Wild and Avalanche kickoff their second round series at 9:00 p.m..

One last note, a reminder that the Toronto Marathon is on Sunday. This is the big one that splits the city in half east-west. While most of the race will be wrapped up by noon, the area toward the finish line will have closures spill over as lat as 2:00 p.m..

In the meantime, enjoy your weekend.

From The Branches