It’s elimination day for the Toronto Maple Leafs, or if it’s not, one of the next three games will be. Coming back from a 3-0 deficit almost* never happens.

Sadly, I will miss tonight’s games to attend the Mastodon/Gojira concert in Baltimore. I hope the Leafs survive the night. Really, I hope they win the next three in a row and then lose Game Seven in like a 5-0 blowout. That’s the kind of sicko I am.

TORONTO AT FLORIDA

7:00 PM
Florida leads 3-0

*In NHL history, four teams have come back from being down 3-0 in a series. In 1942, Toronto did it against Detroit around when the Battle of Midway was happening. In 1975, the Islanders did it to Pittsburgh as neoliberalism reached tentacularly across the nation. In 2010, Philadelphia did it to Boston right as the Deepwater Horizon disaster happened. And in 2014, LA did it to San Jose on their way to win the Cup just weeks after Russia took over Crimea. Will it happen again? Probably not!

VEGAS AT EDMONTON

10:00 PM
Vegas leads 2-1

The Knights were the better team in Game Three. They had 12 high-danger chances to Edmonton’s four in the first period, and outscored the Oilers 2-0 in the second. Without indulging the knight metaphor too much, there are gaps in Edmonton’s armor: especially the RNH – Bjugstad – Hyman line and, um, any time Cody Ceci is on the ice. The Oilers control 41.5 percent of the expected goals when he’s on the ice this postseason, just above my “oh this isn’t really competitive hockey anymore” line of 40 percent.

Let’s do that comments.