NHL Atlantic

Colorado Avalanche star Cale Makar has won the 2021-22 Norris Trophy as the NHL's best defenseman, beating out Nashville Predators veteran Roman Josi and Tampa Bay Lightning big man Victor Hedman for the honor.

Makar, who was also nominated for the award last season, is Colorado's first-ever Norris Trophy winner.

The 23-year-old led all defensemen with 28 goals and ranked second among defensemen with 86 points in 77 regular-season games. He also averaged 25:40 of ice time and a plus-48 plus/minus.

The Avalanche selected Makar fourth overall in the 2017 draft. After playing four seasons of college hockey at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he made his NHL debut during the 2019-20 season.

The Canadian tallied 12 goals and 38 assists for 50 points in 57 games during his first season and won the Calder Trophy as the NHL's most outstanding rookie. He also finished ninth in Norris Trophy voting that year.

Makar was a finalist for the Norris award during the 2020-21 pandemic-shortened season after recording eight goals and 36 assists for 44 points in 44 games, but he finished second to New York Rangers star Adam Fox.

Considering he had a breakout 2021-22 campaign, it's no surprise he was the winner of this year's Norris Trophy.

Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews has won the 2021-22 Ted Lindsay Award as the NHL's most outstanding player, beating out Edmonton Oilers forward Connor McDavid and Nashville Predators defenseman Roman Josi for the honor.

Matthews is the first Maple Leaf and only the second United States-born player to win the award after Patrick Kane.

The 24-year-old also won the Rocket Richard Trophy as the NHL's leading goal scorer for the second straight season and won the Hart Trophy as the player viewed to be the most valuable to his team.

Matthews tallied a career-high 60 goals and 46 assists for 106 points in 73 games. He also recorded 19.2 percent of Toronto's goals, which helped the team finish second in the Atlantic Division with a 54-21-7 record and reach the playoffs for the sixth straight season.

The San Ramon, California native finished first in the NHL averaging 0.82 goals per game. It was the highest per-game rate for any player since Mario Lemieux averaged 0.99 goals per game in 1995-96. In addition, he finished first in the league with 44 even-strength goals.

The Maple Leafs selected Matthews first overall in the 2016 NHL draft, and he has been a staple in their lineup ever since. He won the Calder Trophy as the league's best rookie in 2016-17 after finishing with 40 goals and 29 assists for 69 points in 82 games and has also earned one All-Star selection.

In 407 career games, Matthews has had 259 goals and 198 assists for 457 points. He is under contract with Toronto through the 2023-24 season at $11.6 million per year.

Saturday night was one to forget for the Tampa Bay Lightning, who were embarrassed by the Colorado Avalanche 7-0 in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final at Ball Arena in Denver.

It was an all-around disappointing effort from the Bolts, who were widely expected to bounce back from an underwhelming 4-3 overtime loss in Game 1 on Wednesday. Instead, they'll head back to Amalie Arena in an attempt to climb out of an 0-2 hole in the series.

Bolts netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy received the brunt of the criticism on Saturday night for allowing seven goals on 31 shots. However, the team in front of him played just as poorly, if not worse.

The team finished with just 17 shots on goal through three periods as the offense was near invisible. The defense, meanwhile, had an extremely difficult time containing the speedy, highly-skilled offense of the Avalanche, frequently allowing breakaways and scoring chances.

Valeri Nichushkin (two), Josh Manson, Andre Burakovsky, Darren Helm and Cale Makar (two) all finished with goals for the Avalanche.

Tampa Bay's performance on Saturday earned it some heavy criticism on social media, and rightfully so. Even legendary basketball sportscaster Dick Vitale weighed in on the game, asking if there was a mercy rule in hockey.

It was a brutal showing from the Lightning, but it's hard to already rule out the back-to-back defending champions, especially with the series set to shift to Tampa Bay.

The Bolts went down 0-2 to the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Final and went on to defeat the Blueshirts in six games. The team's resiliency and veteran leadership will surely be a factor in Game 3, and Saturday night's shellacking should be all the fuel the team needs to reset.

Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final is set for 8 p.m. ET on Monday at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.

Top prospect Shane Wright knows his fate in the 2022 NHL draft is out of his hands.

Wright told reporters Saturday he wants to be selected first overall by the Montreal Canadiens but that they hold all of the cards:

"I have my own opinion on where I believe I should go, but at the end of the day, it's out of my control now. What my opinion is, what I say, what I think, it doesn't matter now. It's in the hands of Montreal and their management. Obviously, I'd like to be the first overall pick. But at the end of the day, it's not my decision."

The 18-year-old posted 32 goals and 62 assists in 63 OHL games with the Kingston Frontenacs in 2021-22. He tallied another 14 points (three goals, 11 assists) in 11 playoff appearances.

Not surprisingly, NHL Central Scouting listed Wright as the No. 1 North American skater heading into the draft.

When it comes to the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, Wright has some competition from Slovakian forward Juraj Slafkovsky. Slafkovsky helped his national team collect bronze at the 2022 Winter Olympics and finished as the leading goalscorer (seven).

Tabbing Wright as the top selection isn't an open-and-shut case for The Athletic's Corey Pronman.

Pronman wrote that Wright's "hockey sense is among the best in the draft" and called his shot "elite asset and something that can break games open." However, the Canadian "doesn’t have truly elite speed or skill, and isn’t the most physically imposing player either."

Bleacher Report's Lyle Richardson still projected Wright to land in Montreal, writing the Canadiens "will pounce" on a player who addresses their "ongoing need for skilled depth at center."

It appears the Boston Bruins have two front-runners for their vacant head coaching position.

Former New York Rangers head coach David Quinn and Seattle Kraken assistant Jay Leach are the two leading candidates to replace Bruce Cassidy as head coach of the Black and Gold, according to The Athletic's Fluto Shinzawa.

Quinn is set to interview with the Bruins next week, and Leach is expected to interview with the franchise "at some time," Shinzawa added.

"Quinn has the personality that general manager Don Sweeney would prefer in his next coach: positive, engaging and uplifting," Shinzawa wrote. "Cassidy’s demanding style with his players, especially his younger ones, prompted Sweeney to fire him at his house on June 6."

Quinn was hired as head coach of the Rangers in 2018, leading the team to a 96-87-25 mark in three seasons and only one playoff appearance in 2020. The Blueshirts fired him in May 2021, replacing him with Gerard Gallant.

Before coaching the Rangers, the 55-year-old served as head coach of the Boston University men's hockey team, his alma mater where he coached current Bruins defensemen Charlie McAvoy and Matt Grzelcyk. The Rhode Island native also recently served as head coach of Team USA at the 2022 Olympics, coaching another current Bruin in Marc McLaughlin.

Leach had served as an assistant to Mike Sullivan for the AHL's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in 2015 before being promoted to interim head coach after Sullivan was promoted as the next head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The 42-year-old left the Penguins organization after just one season and joined the Providence Bruins, Boston's AHL affiliate, as an assistant in July 2016. The Providence College product was eventually promoted to head coach of the P-Bruins before the 2017-18 season.

With their experience coaching younger players, it's no surprise general manager Don Sweeney prefers a coach like Quinn or Leach.

Boston shockingly fired Cassidy on June 6 after a first-round playoff loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. The 57-year-old served as head coach of the Bruins for six seasons, compiling a 245-108-46 record.

Cassidy led the Bruins to the playoffs in each of his six seasons behind the bench, including a Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 2019.

"After taking some time to fully digest everything, I felt that the direction of our team for both this season and beyond would benefit from a new voice," Sweeney said in a statement at the time.

Cassidy, who made his NHL head coaching debut with the Washington Capitals in 2002, was hired Tuesday as head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights.

The Montreal Canadiens have traded defenseman Shea Weber to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for forward Evgenii Dadonov, the team announced Thursday.

General manager Kent Hughes said in a statement:

First of all, I would like to thank Shea for all that he has done for and represented to the Montreal Canadiens. Not only was Shea an exceptional hockey player who played through significant injuries in an attempt to bring the Stanley Cup back to Montreal, he was also a great leader whose leadership will have a positive impact on our team well beyond his time with us. I also want to welcome Evgenii Dadonov to our organization. He is a talented forward who has produced at all levels since the start of his career.

Weber has four years remaining on the 14-year, $110 million deal he signed with the Nashville Predators in July 2012. The Predators traded him to the Canadiens in June 2016 in exchange for P.K. Subban, who now plays for the New Jersey Devils.

Weber had spent the last five seasons of his career in Montreal, tallying 58 goals and 88 assists for 146 points in 275 games. He was named the team's captain in 2018.

Seeing as how Weber has a cap hit of nearly $7.9 million per year over the remaining years of his contract, it's not hard to see why the Canadiens traded him. Montreal finished the 2021-22 season with the worst record in the NHL at 22-49-11, and the Weber trade means that the team is committed to a rebuild.

That said, Dadonov is 33 years old and isn't going to help speed up Montreal's rebuild. However, he provides the Canadiens with more financial flexibility and he has just one year remaining on his contract at $5 million before entering free agency.

The Golden Knights initially tried to trade Dadonov to the Anaheim Ducks in March, but the trade was invalidated by the NHL because of a discrepancy in the status of his no-trade clause that prohibited him from being sent to the Ducks.

In 78 games with the Golden Knights during the 2021-22 season, Dadonov tallied 20 goals and 23 assists for 43 points.

While the Canadiens cleared freed up some money by trading Weber, they still have just $1,923,334 in cap space, per CapFriendly. That's not going to be enough to make any significant additions in free agency.

That said, the Canadiens own the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NHL draft and will be able to select a player to build around for the future. Selecting someone like Shane Wright, Juraj Slafkovsky or Logan Cooley will help put Montreal back on the right path.

Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper told reporters that "the right team won tonight" after the host Colorado Avalanche earned a 4-3 overtime win over the Bolts in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday.

Colorado outshot Tampa Bay 38-23 and held a 3-1 first-period lead after Artturi Lehkonen's power-play goal at the 17:31 mark. However, Tampa Bay struck back with two second-period goals to tie the game at three.

Neither team scored in the third, but overtime lasted just 1:23 after Andre Burakovsky put home the game-winner.

Despite the tough loss, the head coach of the back-to-back defending Stanley Cup champions took away some positives.

To their credit, the Lightning got up from the mat after a rough opening 20 minutes and looked far better from that point forward. That's something Tampa Bay can take away as it looks to bounce back in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday in Colorado.

The New York Rangers' dream season is quickly shifting into a nightmare.

After a surprisingly strong regular season, New York put together a magical postseason run to find itself in the Eastern Conference Final against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning. The Rangers then took a 2-0 lead and it looked like the magic would continue, but it looks like they've ran out of luck.

New York is on the brink of elimination after losing to Tampa Bay 3-1 in Thursday's Game 5 at Madison Square Garden to fall behind 3-2 in the series.

The Rangers held a 1-0 lead in the second period before the Lightning tied it in the same frame. Tampa Bay winger Ondrej Palat scored with 1:50 remaining in the third period to give his team the lead for good. Brandon Hagel capped the scoring less than a minute later with an empty-netter.

New York was never expected to reach this point in the playoffs in the first place, and the team's inexperience has become glaring. After the game, fans online couldn't help but point out the predictability of the Rangers' collapse, with some believing it always was just a matter of time.

The Rangers are a young team that is ahead of schedule. New York is built to be a title contender for years to come, but this year it is just overmatched against Tampa Bay.

It's hard to imagine that the Rangers will score the upset as the series moves back to Tampa Bay for Saturday's Game 6. The way both teams are playing, the Lightning have the clear edge. All signs point to New York waking up from its dream and facing the reality of preparing for next season.

Boston Bruins star Patrice Bergeron underwent elbow surgery Tuesday.

Bergeron, fresh off winning the Selke Trophy for the fifth time, acknowledged the procedure will force him to think long and hard about his status for the 2022-23 NHL season.

"What [the surgery] did only is it just delayed my decision-making process," he told reporters. "I had some MRIs and meetings with them and talks with them about what I should do and whatnot. That's the only thing I can say about that."

The 36-year-old is due to hit free agency after his eight-year, $55 million contract expired with the end of this season.

Bergeron's Selke win is an illustration of how he continues to play at a reasonably high level given his age. He finished with 25 goals and 40 assists in the regular season and recorded seven points in Boston's first-round exit at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes.

Bergeron explained how his contract status is a driving force behind his general uncertainty, per the Associated Press' Stephen Whyno:

"My whole career I’ve had contract extensions or I’ve had long-term contracts. I would head into the summers I guess with that in the back of my mind, meaning that I know what I’m doing next year and all that stuff. And now I’m 36 and I don’t have a contract and I can actually take a step back for the first time in my career, the first time in my life that I can just reflect on what I do want looking forward for the future."

Should he signal a desire to continue skating next year, Bergeron should have little trouble either re-signing with the Bruins or finding a new home. A player with his experience and resume would be an obvious target for a contending team that wants a short-term solution for its forward line.