Down Goes Brown's Weekend Review: Bad Blood and Playoff Hockey Is the NHL at Its Best

This article originally appeared on VICE Sports Canada.

(Editor's note: Sean McIndoe looks back at recent play in the NHL and the league's biggest storylines in his weekend review. You can follow him on Twitter.)

Let's be honest: The NHL has changed over the years. Some might even prefer "evolved." But it's been unmistakable. Fighting has plummeted, reaching levels we haven't seen in five decades. We still argue over suspensions, but the stuff that earns a ban these days is downright mild compared to plays that went completely unpunished years ago. And while some still like to pretend that players had more respect for each other in the old days, truly vicious stuff like this or this or this has all but vanished from the modern game.

And, most fans would tell you, all of that is a good thing. Today's game, while far from perfect, is indisputably cleaner and safer than it's been in generations. The NHL doesn't get enough credit for that.

But here's where the cognitive dissonance kicks in. Because as much as we can all appreciate the strides the game has made over the years, it's hard to deny a simple fact about NHL hockey: Hatred is fun. Bad blood is fun. Playoff hockey is good, but playoff hockey played between two teams that seem to genuinely hold each other in contempt is so much better.

And that's never more obvious than in the opening round, where we're typically treated to eight concurrent hate-based plotlines. That's especially true early on, when there are messages to be delivered and tones to be set. Every hit is finished, every shove is reciprocated, and nobody skates away from a scrum without getting a shot in.

This year has been no different, as even teams that spent the season on their best behavior are suddenly at each other's throats. We expected bad blood in series between established rivals, like the Blues and Blackhawks or Kings and Sharks. And they haven't disappointed, playing some serious big kid hockey over the first few games. But the beauty of the playoffs is that you don't need a history to get to the hatred. The Ducks and Predators series has been full of sneakily dirty plays. The Wild and Stars are going hard. And it only took two games before the Islanders and Panthers were sucker-punching each other below the belt. Literally.

The list goes on. Game 2 between the Rangers and Penguins featured a controversial hit from behind by Ben Lovejoy on Derek Stepan, while the Flyers and Capitals have been dishing out big hits of their own. We've also seen seven fighting majors handed out so far. Three of those came in a wild line brawl between the Lightning and Red Wings in the final minute of Game 2, one that saw Detroit's Justin Abdelkader jump Mike Blunden, bloodying the Tampa winger before he could fight back.

(The two teams very nearly staged a rematch at the final buzzer last night; you know you've got some bad blood when even Henrik Zetterberg is dropping his gloves.)

So is this what NHL hockey should look like? Maybe not. Is it entertaining? Hell yes. If thinking that makes you a hypocrite, then plenty of hockey fans are going to fit the description.

And we should see more of it this week. The rough stuff tends to die down as a series goes on, as the stakes get higher and the cost-benefit of hammering someone at every opportunity starts to drop. By the weekend, as we're getting into games six or seven, things will have calmed down a bit.

But until then, we've got at least a few more games of first-round hockey hatred left to enjoy. Even if we're not supposed to.

So about the power rankings section…

It's early. We can all agree on that. Two or three games is way too soon to be crowning anyone, or to be writing anyone off. Remember, three games into last year's playoffs, it looked like it was finally the Islanders' year to win a series and the Lightning were on the ropes. Two years ago, we'd already finished the obituary for the Kings.

So yes, it's early. A lot can change, and a lot will change.

With those caveats out of the way, who's ready to start drawing some ironclad conclusions? That's what I thought. Onto the postseason power rankings.

Celebrating those who are making the strongest case for postseason MVP honors.

5. Kari Lehtonen—The Stars looked like an easy team to figure out heading into the playoffs. They were the West's top seed, and went into their series with the Wild as heavy favorites and legitimate Cup contenders. But they'd have to get there the same way they'd won during the season: By pumping home enough goals to make up for a leaky blueline and shaky goaltending.

We're only two games in, but so far the Stars aren't following the script. They're up 2-0 on the Wild, and the offense, led by Jamie Benn, has looked fine. But Lehtonen has been the story, allowing just one goal on 48 shots. It's early, sure, but that has to feel like a concern to the rest of the Western Conference. The Stars are already the league's highest-scoring team, one that just got Tyler Seguin back from injury and is already apparently bored enough to start scoring physics-defying goals like this. Watching Dallas learn how to actually stop the puck would feel like the raptor figuring out how to work the doorknob in Jurassic Park.

4. Reilly Smith—The Bruins' castoff has put up four goals and eight points through three games, making him the leading scorer through the postseason's first few nights. This isn't quite John Druce territory—Smith is coming off the second 50-point season of his career—but it's fair to say he probably didn't go in the first round of too many playoff pools.

He'd be higher on this list if the Panthers weren't down 2-1 against the Islanders in a series that's quickly emerging as the most sneakily entertaining of the opening round.

3. The in-house arena music guys—Tampa breaking out "Don't Stop Believin'" to taunt the Red Wings? The Stars going with "I Don't Want to Wait" and "Time in a Bottle" during a lengthy review? The Blues getting the entire crowd to sing along to "Let It Be" during a replay review of their own? These music guys are bringing their A-games in the playoffs.

2. Joe Pavelski—The Sharks' captain has three goals and four points through two games, and is a big part of the reason why San Jose is heading home up 2-0 on the Kings. This one isn't exactly a shocker, since we knew Los Angeles would be in tough here. But given how many experts made the Kings their Cup pick, seeing them on the ropes this early has to qualify as one of the biggest stories of the opening round.

So is it panic time? Well, not yet, and we all know why. The ghosts of 2014, when the Sharks blew a 3-0 series lead against the Kings to lose in seven games, still looms large here. Even a San Jose win Monday night wouldn't be enough to file this series in the "all but over" folder. But it would set a very good Sharks team up for a nice redemption story, with their captain leading the way.

Oh, hey, speaking of postseason demons…

1. Braden Holtby—You'll notice a goaltending theme in this week's rankings. That's to be expected; the guys in the crease are always under the biggest spotlight in the playoffs, especially early on. So it's no surprise that this year's eventual Vezina winner is at the top of the list two games in, after stopping 60 of 61 shots while staking the Capitals to a two-game lead.

Did you feel it? That collective shudder that just went through Washington at the mention of "two-game lead"? We all know the history by this point, with the Capitals having blown a two-game lead ten times in franchise history, the most in the NHL. It's why no Washington fan feels good right now, and it's why the Caps came into the postseason facing more pressure than any other team.

So will we see another collapse? It's possible, of course—the Flyers are a good team, and the old cliché says that you're never really in trouble until you lose a home game. But at the risk of looking really foolish four or five games from now, this year feels different, and Holtby is the reason. It's one thing to collapse when you've got Bob Mason or Don Beaupre or Jim Carey. It's another thing entirely when you've got a guy who could stake a claim as the best goaltender in the league right now.

If the Caps are going to go all the way and finally bury three decades of misery once and for all, Holtby will have to be at his best. Two games in, he has been.

A look at who's taking the most heat for their postseason performance—or lack thereof.

5. Jaromir Jagr—He's pointless through three games, and Thomas Hickey was his man on Sunday's overtime winner. I'm just reporting the facts. Don't worry, we all know this is only setting up the dramatic comeback game for a little bit later in the series. Or the decade.

4. Dan Girardi, Rangers—Girardi has been a key member of the Rangers' blueline for the better part of a decade. But he's had a rough year, to put it mildly, and after looking awful in New York's Game 1 loss, he found himself in the pressbox for their Game 2 win. The team says he's injured; Ranger fans suspect he's simply been scratched. And they seem fine with that, to the point that some are writing stuff like this.

Girardi is 31 and still has four more years left on a contract that carries a $5.5 million cap hit, by the way.

3. Playoff overtime—We're 19 games into the first round, and we've only had two overtime games? And both ended in the first session? Come on, hockey, it's not like any of us wanted to be on time for work tomorrow, anyway.

2. Steve Mason, Flyers—I'm a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. That means I've spent the last few years watching Jonathan Bernier do things like this. I saw Vesa Toskala do this (and this). My team traded Tuukka Rask for Andrew Raycroft. The first playoff game I ever went to was the Allen Bester/Sergio Momesso game.

All of which is to say that I think I qualify as an expert on terrible goaltending. I even wrote the definitive guide to the worst goals of all time. So I don't say this lightly: I think this goal, allowed by Steve Mason during Saturday's Game 2 loss to the Capitals, is the worst in the history of the NHL.

That may be my favorite brutal goal call ever. OH NO!

Look, I can't guarantee that there hasn't been a more embarrassing goal allowed at some point in the league's history. There must have been one somewhere, in some long-forgotten game or scrimmage. But it's hard to imagine. The puck doesn't really flutter or take a weird hop or change direction or hit a stanchion. It just slowly slides down the ice. You could have set a newborn baby down on the ice in the right spot, and it would have made the save. Probably held on for a faceoff, too.

So yeah, just on merit, this was unthinkably bad. To have it happen in a playoff game, one that's still very much up for grabs—and seconds after Mason had made an amazing save—just seals it. Sorry, Steve. That one's going to follow you.

1. Offside replay review—It didn't take long for us to get our first-ever postseason offside review, as Wednesday's Lightning/Red Wings opener featured one during the third period. The goal was waved off, and while not everyone likes the new rule, it has seemed to work more or less as intended.

Then came the weekend, and it all fell apart. First came Friday's controversial call in St. Louis, as Jori Lehtera's floating skate nullified a Vladimir Tarasenko goal that would have given the Blues a third-period lead. (The Hawks later won after surviving a review of their own on the winning goal.) That was followed by a very similar, although admittedly closer, play in Saturday's Rangers/Penguins game, one that was allowed to stand. Then last night's Islanders/Panthers game turned on yet another overturned goal, one that kept the Panthers from going up 3-0 in what turned out to be an eventual Islanders win.

Each individual call made sense on its own, but it all adds to a situation where nobody seems happy. The whole thing feels dangerously reminiscent of last year's spate of MLB calls being overturned on the basepaths, combined with the ongoing NFL mess where nobody knows what a catch is. Part of the problem is that the NHL rule, in which a player's skate must be touching the line and not simply over it, is counter-intuitive and poorly written.

Can the NHL fix this? Not now, no—you can't change the rules midstream. You can expect a push to alter the rule in the offseason, or maybe even do away with it entirely. That's going to sound like a nice option to many these days, right up until an OT winner is scored on a play that was clearly offside. At some point, you either have review or you don't, and you have to accept that not everybody will be happy all the time.

This is what most fans agreed that they wanted last summer. For the most part, it's being called the way the league said it would be. We may not like it now, but we're stuck with it. Here's hoping we come to accept that before a coin-flip review decides a series.