Killorn, Alexander

The AHL has announced the schedule for the opening round, best-of-five series in the AHL playoffs. Syracuse, as the 3 seed, will be squaring off with the Portland Pirates, which are the 6 seed. The series will begin Saturday night in Syracuse and proceed under a 2-2-1 format as follows:

Eastern Conference Quarterfinals – Series “C” (best-of-5)
3-Syracuse Crunch vs. 6-Portland Pirates
Game 1 – Sat., Apr. 27 – Portland at Syracuse, 7:30
Game 2 – Sun., Apr. 28 – Portland at Syracuse, 7:30
Game 3 – Thurs., May 2 – Syracuse at Portland, 7:00
*Game 4 – Fri., May 3 – Syracuse at Portland, 7:00
*Game 5 – Sun., May 5 – Portland at Syracuse, 7:30

Syracuse will be required to submit their playoff roster to the AHL by 3 pm on Monday. Several players currently with the Tampa Bay Lightning may be on that roster including Alex Killorn, Richard Panik, Radko Gudas, Dana Tyrell, Keith Aulie, and/or Pierre-Cedric Labrie. The Lightning's final regular season game is on Saturday night against the Florida Panthers.

Competitive? Check. Strategic? Check.

CAR-3
TB-2

Anders Lindback allowed 3 goals on 28 shots for the loss in his return from a high ankle sprain. I'm going to chalk up his first period performance to rust and compliment him on shutting the door the rest of the way. That's what good goaltenders do after they stub their toes in the opening frame.

First Period
00:16 CAR Semin (12), (E. Staal)
10:45 CAR Tlusty (20), (Semin, Corvo)
18:46 CAR Tlusty (21), (E. Staal, Semin)

Second Period
10:07 TB Stamkos (28), (Salo, St. Louis)(PP)

Third Period
02:16 TB St. Louis (13), (Lecavalier)

Martin St. Louis was the game's second star.

Again, the big thing for me in garbage time of the season is seeing effort and competitiveness. This string of 1-goal losses may not be the greatest for morale, but they show a team that is still trying and, whether we like to admit it or not, they're helping the Lightning strategically by improving potential draft position. Carolina leapfrogging Tampa Bay now puts the Lightning with the third most ping pong balls, 3 points ahead of Colorado in the standings. And, after 40 minutes, Colorado currently leads in their game 4-2. If they hold on, the Lightning move closer to having the second most ping pong balls.

Why is that important? This is a 3+1 draft, which is to say there are 3 really coveted franchise caliber prospects and 1 wild card (Nichushkin). If the Lightning are in position in the top-3, they might be able to land top defenseman Seth Jones. But, even if they can't, having the opportunity to draft one of the two coveted forwards out of the QMJHL gives the Lightning a lot of flexibility. They could trade the pick for an NHL defenseman. They could hold onto the pick, use it, and trade one of the valuable young forwards they already have for an NHL defenseman. Or, they could trade down and try to extract a king's ransom and take multiple defensemen later in the top-60 in a very deep draft. The world definitely opens up if the Lightning pick in the top-3.

Alex Killorn was -1 with 1 shot in 15:27.

Richard Panik was -1 with 2 penalty minutes and 2 shots in 13:03.

Radko Gudas was +1 with 2 penalty minutes, 1 shot, and 5 hits in 14:10.

Pierre-Cedric Labrie had 2 penalty minutes, 4 hits, and 1 blocked shot in 12:11.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.

Another respectable, competitive effort in garbage time of the season.

TB-2
MTL-3

Ben Bishop allowed 3 goals on 35 shots for the loss.

First Period
NO SCORING

Second Period
04:04 MTL Galchenyuk (9), (Gallagher, Drewiske)
15:05 MTL Gionta (13), (Plekanec, Pacioretty)
17:36 TB Panik (5), (Hedman, Killorn)(PP)

Third Period
05:07 TB Lecavalier (10), (Pouliot, Hedman)
19:13 MTL Gionta (14), (Weber, Ryder)

At this stage of the season, I'm looking for effort and competitiveness more so than wins. Baby steps.

With 4 goals and 19 points now in 40 games, we can start to take a peek at what Victor Hedman might be at in an 82 game season. It comes out to a very respectable 8 goal, 39 point season. Bear in mind Hedman's gotten a greener light since Cooper took over behind the bench, which is why I'd expect his scoring pace to pick up.

Alex Killorn had a helper and was +1 with 2 shots, 2 hits, and 2 blocked shots in 13:08. It's been interesting to see his ice time slowly turned down. Projected over 82 games, Killorn's 7 goals and 19 points in 34 games pro-rates to 17 goals and 46 points. Pretty good rookie numbers.

Richard Panik had a goal and was -1 with 3 shots, 4 hits, and 2 blocked shots in 10:59. That scoring line on his power play goal, being assisted by Killorn and Hedman, was like a telegram from the future. It's a much smaller sample set of 22 games, but his 5 goals and 9 points projects to about 19 goals and 34 points in an 82 game season, which is pretty good given how small his average ice time numbers are. It might be hard to consider holding him off the team next season.

Radko Gudas was -1 with 1 shot, 3 hits, and 1 blocked shot in 20:35.

Pierre-Cedric Labrie played 10:19.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.

Semi-respectable result in garbage time of the season.

TB-3
WPG-4 (SO)

Ben Bishop allowed 3 goals on 36 shots but then allowed 2 of 3 to score in the penalty shot for the old SOL.

First Period
01:23 WPG Ladd (17), (Wheeler, Little)
10:27 TB St. Louis (12), (unassisted)

Second Period
08:37 WPG Wheeler (16), (Ladd, Bogosian)
17:54 WPG Ladd (18), (Wheeler, Bogosian)(PP)

Third Period
05:19 TB Labrie (2), (Thompson, Gudas)
11:17 TB Stamkos (27), (Carle)

Overtime
NO SCORING

Shootout
TB- NONE
WPG- Santorelli, Ladd

Winnipeg should consider themselves extremely fotunate to have survived Tampa Bay's deployment of the secret weapon, P.C. Labrie.

Alex Killorn had 1 shot, 1 hit, and 1 blocked shot in 17:39.

Richard Panik was +1 with 1 shot, 4 hits, and 1 blocked shot in 15:56. Interesting to see his ice time nudging up toward Killorn's.

Radko Gudas had a helper, 1 shot, 3 hits, and 2 blocked shots in 16:11.

Pierre-Cedric Labrie laid waste to a Pavelec rebound and all in his path for a goal, a +1 rating, 2 shots, and 3 hits in 10:49. If he gave Labrie anymore ice time, Cooper would have to turn himself in for war crimes.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.

Feel the Nichushkin-mentum.

TB-1
BUF-3

Mathieu Garon allowed 3 goals on 22 shots for the loss including his obligatory 1 that he'd want back.

First Period
04:09 BUF Ennis (10), (Vanek, Ehrhoff)(PP)

Second Period
08:00 BUF Hecht (4), (Gerbe)
12:37 BUF Porter (4), (Flynn, Ott)
13:30 TB Pouliot (8), (Brewer, Lecavalier)

Third Period
NO SCORING

The Lightning outshot Buffalo 33-22 with most of that coming once they spotted the Sabres the 3 goal lead. I have no idea what sort of weird sports psychology issue makes a team only start playing harder once they fall behind big. It's bizarre. That's something for Jon Cooper to sort out in the offseason. In the meantime, the Lightning will be looking at one of the big three draft prospects or possibly Traktor Chelyabinsk power forward Valery Nichushkin in their future.

Alex Killorn had 3 shots in 20:26.

Richard Panik was -2 with 2 shots and 1 hit. The biggest challenge for a young player isn't proving you can be brilliant as Panik was last night. The biggest challenge is proving you can do it consistently, and Panik was a non-factor tonight.

Radko Gudas was -1 with 5 hits and 2 blocked shots in 17:40.

Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.