The Tampa Bay Lightning will sit and wait for their second-round opponent after dismissing the New Jersey Devils in the first round. The Lightning advance to the second round for the third time in the past four seasons and will face either the Bruins or the Maple Leafs.
The Bolts’ Nikita Kucherov is tied for second in the NHL with five goals and five assists for 10 points. The high-flying forward has also established a franchise record for most points in a postseason series and now has 27 goals and 25 assists for 52 career points in the playoffs.
If Tampa faces Boston in the next round, the Bruins won the only postseason meeting between the clubs in the 2011 Eastern Conference finals en route to the Stanley Cup. The Lightning and Maple Leafs have never met in the playoffs.
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy will occasionally point out to the Bruins what else is going around the league, but there was no mention prior to Saturday’s Game 5 against the Maple Leafs that the Lightning are waiting.
“No, we don’t talk about Tampa Bay,” he said. “We talked about, the other night, this morning, we talked about how the two Stanley Cup finalists from last year couldn’t close out. It’s not easy. So, let’s just stay in the moment and stay focused, not think about tomorrow or what we’re going to do if we win or don’t win. Just go out and play. Whether that has any effect or not, I doubt it. I think the players, generally, our guys are a very professional group. They go show up and play. We saw that with our pushback. We just dug ourselves a hole we couldn’t quite dig out of, and nothing to do with Tampa Bay or what was ahead. We’ll talk about what’s ahead when we get our fourth win.”
The Bruins are 7-2-0 against the Lightning in the last nine games between the teams.
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Boston University coach, and Cranston, R.I., native, David Quinn has been named coach of the 2019 U.S. National Junior team. Next year's WJC will be held from Dec. 26, 2018 to Jan. 5 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Durham, N.H., native and Dartmouth College coach David Lassonde will serve as one of the assistants for Team USA.
"We're thrilled to have David (Quinn) leading our national junior team," said USA Hockey executive director Pat Kelleher. "He knows the international stage and our player pool extremely well and has been a big part four program for a long time. We know that David and our outstanding group of assistant coaches will do a tremendous job with our team."
Quinn has served on seven previous coaching staffs for Team USA in world championship competition.
"It's always an honor to represent our county and I'm particularly excited to be asked to serve as head coach in what is considered one of the greatest hockey tournaments," Quinn said. "The United States has medaled in this tournament three straight years, which is a real testament to the growth and depth of talent across the country. We have a great coaching staff put together and we have one goal, and that is to win the gold medal."
Quinn has been the coach of the Terriers, his alma mater, since the 2014-15 season. He's guided BU to four straight appearances in the NCAA tournament, has won two Hockey East titles, a Beanpot championship and reached the finals of the 2015 national championship before losing to Providence College.
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