The Night Before: Nazem Kadri Arrives, and Vasilevskiy Stands Tall Once Again.

NHL

Despite a second period comeback from the Blues, the Colorado Avalanche take a commanding 3-1 lead as they beat Saint Louis 6-3.

Nazem Kadri after facing abuse from fans and certain Saint Louis players scored a hat trick. As well as notching an assist, in what has been a career year for Kadri he made his true playoff arrival last evening.

Backup Ville Husso saw 36 shots and allowed five goals giving him a save percentage of just 86 percent. With those types of numbers in game five Thursday, the series might be over. The Blues can’t go back to Binnington as he will miss the rest of the series after a play involving Kadri took him out of the series. A controversial moment that caused death threats against Kadri.

There is really no way to describe Andrei Vasilevskiy’s level of play over the past few days other than stunning. The best goalie in the league showed it, stopping 49 shots to get to series sweep and a shutout. The goalie has been the number one reason for the Lightning success this post season, making key plays in each game of the post season.

What makes Vasilevskiy so special is his tremendous size paired with freak athleticism. There just isn’t much to shoot at when you’re facing Vassy as he’s sometimes called. The guy is just arguably the best goalie in the past five years of NHL play.

My question remains unanswered, who exactly is stopping the Lightning?

NBA

This Celtics Heat series is weird, and not in a good way. Nearly every game in the series has been decided by a blowout. Jason Tatum has led the way for the Celtics, while the Heat have had a few different contributors including Victor Oladipo. This series might go seven, but the games need to get more competitive.

Really not much else to say in that regard. The NBA playoffs have always been the selling point of the product and it feels like these playoffs have provided very few moments throughout.