Stano’s Daily: A Long Night in Carolina & Dubas Out in Toronto

It was nice to be on the West Coast Thursday night.

With the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes playing nearly seven full periods of hockey, we were up until just 11:00 instead of 2:00 AM to watch Matthew Tkachuk’s game-winner.

That’s shaping up to be one of the best series of this playoffs. With two teams who play a similar style and goalies who are hot, I expect a lot of tight games and a few more overtimes.

It was a bold move from Bill Zito to trade Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar for Tkachuk and a first-round pick, and to move on from Andrew Brunette after he was up for the Jack Adams.

But it’s paying off for him now. Tkachuk struggled in Round Two, but finished the year as a Hart Trophy finalist and is showing up when it matters for Florida,

If they can continue to get stellar goaltending from Sergei Bobrovsky in net, they have a good chance of hoisting the Cup.

Dubas out in Toronto

On Friday morning it was made official, Kyle Dubas is no longer the General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Seeing the Leafs make a drastic change like this isn’t too surprising and at this point, you have to wonder if more are on the way. Some from the “core four” could be moved and with $8 million in cap space before moving one of those players, they can make a lot of changes.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Sheldon Keefe is the next domino to fall there. He’s hinted at not returning already and if the Leafs’ front office is looking for wholesale changes then moving on from Keefe makes sense.

We might be looking at a new era in Toronto soon, and let’s just get in front of it now, no I don’t see a world where Auston Matthews becomes a Los Angeles King.

National Hockey Now:

FloridaHockeyNow: Bobrovsky the hero for Florida in their four-overtime thriller.

WashingtonHockeyNow: Could T.J. Oshie be on the move?

MontrealHockeyNow: What’s going on with first-overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky, how’s his development going?