Habs   2

Isles   4

The first game 7 in the east featured the Isles hosting Montreal and despite the Isles having home ice it was Montreal that was battling most of the season for the Presidents trophy before tailing off late and had to be considered the favorite going into this series. After 2 competetive periods that saw this game tied at 1 it appeared this one would come down to the wire but a couple of early third period tallies by the Isles opened a gap and when Antoine Roussel got his first of the playoffs shorthanded making it a 3 goal game it was over. The Habs managed to score on the PP shortly after giving up the shorthanded effort but that was a s close as it would get as the premiere goalie match-up favored Andrei Vasilevskiy and the Isles defeating goalie Bob and the Habs. Isles move to round 2.

Tampa   5

Sens     4

Another top team exits these playoffs as the Sens fall to visiting Tampa. In a series that looked early on that Ottawa was clearly the better team and it was only a matter of time before they would get some puck luck and dominate the rest of the way....right??? Guess not ! In what has to be an immense disappointment to the "meme master", this perrenial powerhouse was completely rebuilt in the offseason and up to the trade deadline but perhaps the biggest mis-step for the new Sens GM was acquiring goalie Martin Jones. Despite having the ability to be a #1 goalie he has struggled on and off and on this night when his team needed him most he allowed 5 goals and posted a .868 save %....clearly not good enough! Tampa on the other hand didn't fare much better with J.Quick in this tilt with his .892% but he started at less than 100%  and battled throughout to get the narrow victory! As GM Steph has shown in his brief time here, he is not overly patient and expects results so I am looking for yet another complete overhaul of this team in his now very long offseason! With the likes of Crosby, Giroux, Parise, Johnson, etc. all having poor playoffs and the value they have to other GM's will we perhaps see some of those guys move? Tampa moves on to round 2