Down Goes Brown's Weekend Review: Goats and Stars of the NHL Playoffs

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.)

The playoffs are all about losing. Every year, 16 teams enter and 15 leave with their heads down, defeated and discarded. It's the cruel reality of the most unforgiving time of year.

But all losses are not created equal—some are far worse than others. And all teams aren't created equal. Some seem to take those bad losses a lot more often than the odds say they should. This year's opening round featured three of those teams in the Sharks, Capitals and Blues. All three have earned reputations for coming up small in big moments. All three saw the first round set them up to do it again, which, of course, also meant they had a chance to strike a blow against their demons.

The first team to stare down its past was San Jose, which finished off the Kings on Friday to become the first Western Conference team to punch a ticket to the second round. That doesn't exactly erase a reputation built over a decade-plus of postseason disappointment—remember, the Sharks had already been past the first round nine times since 2000, and that didn't stop anyone from deciding that they'd never gone far enough. But getting that win against Los Angeles certainly sends a message, and offers at least a small measure of payback for the epic 2014 collapse that saw San Jose blow a 3-0 series lead to the eventual Cup champion Kings. This year has always had a different vibe for the Sharks, with so many having written them off that they felt like plucky underdogs instead of pressure-weary favorites. They've still got a ways to go, but if knocking off the Kings doesn't count as getting it done when it matters, not much can.

Next up were the Capitals, facing down their history of taking big leads in playoff series and then watching them slip away. They'd never blown a 3-0 series lead, which is what they held heading into Game 4 against the Flyers. They lost that game, and then the next, outplaying the Flyers in both but being stoned by a red-hot Michal Neuvirth. That had Washington fans nearing panic mode for Sunday's Game 6, but the Capitals held on for a 1-0 nail-biter. They'll move on to face the Penguins, a team that factors heavily into that history of playoff misery, in a matchup that feels a lot like the unofficial Eastern Conference final.

And then you've got the Blues, a franchise with a nearly 50-year history of playing perfectly solid regular-season hockey, then fading out of the picture as soon as the playoffs get serious. They drew the worst-case scenario for their opening round matchup, facing the defending champion Blackhawks, and then responded with three wins in the opening four games. But everything changed once Game 5 arrived and Chicago's late-series super powers activated, and now we're headed to a Game 7 tonight.

Much like the Sharks and Capitals, the Blues can quiet all the history talk at least temporarily with a win. But heading into the game, they look an awful lot like a team in disarray. Ken Hitchcock is coaching for his job, and he's apparently decided to do it by picking a fight with his best player. Vladimir Tarasenko isn't playing anywhere near the minutes you'd expect, and he doesn't seem happy about it.

This all feels like the last thing the Blues need heading into a make-or-break game. And again, if they manage to earn a win, then we will forget all about the drama and start figuring out how well they match up against the Stars. But if not… well, sorry, Blues fan. The postseason narrative beast needs to be fed. And with only one team left to feed on, it won't be pretty.

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

5. Guys you've never heard of—It happens every year, and it's one of the best parts of the playoffs: The guy who gets to play the hero on the game's biggest stage, forcing the rest of us to pretend we have any clue who he is.

We saw it Friday in Florida, where the double-overtime marathon between the Islanders and Panthers was ended not by John Tavares or Jaromir Jagr or even Aleksander Barkov on the third sudden death penalty shot in playoff history. Instead, it was rookie Alan Quine, a former sixth-round pick who was playing in his seventh career NHL game. At around the same time Quine was playing the hero, it was San Jose rookie Joonas Donskoi who was scoring twice, including the winner, in the deciding game in Los Angeles. Many fans may not have even known Donskoi's name; now they even know his weird nickname.

Donskoi and Quine join other not-so-big names from this year's postseason spotlight like Jeff Zatkoff and Bryan Rust. Here's hoping a few can keep it up, and join the ranks of legendary unlikely playoff heroes like Steve Penney, Chris Kontos and Fernando Pisani.

4. Phil Kessel, Penguins—OK, yes, the Penguins' actual best bets for the Conn Smythe are the two usual suspects: Sidney Crosby (3G, 5A) and Evgeni Malkin (2G, 5A). But Kessel deserves a mention, too, if only for how he got here.

The Phil Kessel Narrative has always been a paradox. He's soft and out of shape, even though he hasn't missed a game in over six years. He's got no character, even though he's won the Masterton. And he doesn't score when it counts, even though he's the NHL's active leader in postseason goals-per-game.

And now, in his first playoff action since being freed from the purgatory of Toronto, he racks up three goals and six points, often looking unstoppable in the process. Granted, most of the Penguins in this series looked unstoppable against the badly overmatched Rangers. But still: Phil Kessel is fitting in with his teammates! Atta boy, Phil!

3. Goalie swaps—Normally, switching goalies in the middle of a playoff series is a sign of trouble. It means that your main guy is struggling, or hurt, or (worst of all) that you never even had a main guy in the first place. But as the opening round winds down, this year has been the year of the goaltending committee.

So far, five teams have used two different starters in the opening round. One of those teams is already out—the Red Wings opened with Jimmy Howard, went back to Petr Mrazek, and were sent home after five games. But the other four switches have found success.

The Penguins didn't have much choice in the matter—they started the series with third-string Zatkoff before turning to second-string goalie Matt Murray once he was available, all while Marc-Andre Fleury's status remains unknown—but they dispatched the Rangers relatively easily all the same. The Ducks, who have a chance to close their series tonight, won three straight after falling behind 0-2 and switching from John Gibson to Frederik Andersen. The Stars went from Kari Lehtonen to Antti Niemi and back again in closing out the Wild in six, and will probably continue to flip back and forth for as long as their run lasts. And the Flyers' switch from Steve Mason to Michal Neuvirth was the main reason they were able to make it as far as Game 6, as Neuvirth stood on his head to steal Game 4 and 5.

Having a surefire stud in the crease is still the clearest path to success in the NHL. But with fewer and fewer teams falling into that category, standing by your man seems to be falling out of fashion. And this year, it's working.

2. Jamie Benn, Stars—Admit it: Last year's Art Ross felt a tiny bit like a fluke, right? Crosby's injury, a generally low-scoring year, that big game that nudged Benn past John Tavares on the final day… it all added up to a perfect storm that opened the door for a very good player to earn an honor that's supposed to be reserved for the greats.

Well, about that. A year later, Benn's coming off an even more productive season. And he's been even better in the playoffs, dominating the Wild to the tune of four goals and ten points in six games, good for the league lead through the opening round. And he did it all with a smile on his face.

It was a key performance for a team that only got one game out of Tyler Seguin. Can he repeat it against whoever emerges from the Blues/Hawks war? Either team will provide a much tougher test than the overwhelmed Wild. Then again, underestimating what Benn can do hasn't been working out too well lately.

1. Nikita Kucherov, Lightning—Last year's big postseason revelation in Tampa was the arrival of The Triplets, the line of Nikita Kucherov, Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat. The latter two had been Calder finalists in 2013-14, and all three had already broken through during the 2014-15 regular season. But the postseason was when they became household names, moving right next to (and occasionally past) guys like Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman in the Lightning spotlight.

Slumps and injuries reduced their effectiveness this season, and the line has been broken up, with Alex Killorn taking Palat's spot on the wing (and Jonathan Drouin dropping in for powerplay duty). But Johnson and Kucherov both lit it up in Tampa's five-game win over the Red Wings, combining for 15 points. That included five goals and three multi-point games for Kucherov, who at times looks like he's on the verge of becoming the latest in a long line of great Russian wingers.

The bad news for Tampa, if you want to be a glass-half-empty type, is that Kucherov needs a new contract this summer, and right now it looks like it's going to be a big one. That would complicate an already tenuous cap situation, and might make it even more likely that Stamkos has played his last game for the franchise. Then again, the way Kucherov is going these days, maybe the Lightning won't miss a beat.

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

5. Home-ice advantage—It's supposed to be important. We're told that teams fight all year to get it. And yet, so far this year, visiting teams are 25-19. Chalk up another one for the NHL's age of parity.

4. Eric Staal, Rangers—We could pick just about any Ranger, including Henrik Lundqvist. But given how good he's been over the last decade, and how bleak New York's championship aspirations look these days, we don't have the heart. So instead, let's go with Staal, the Rangers' annual big midseason rental who ended up being a postseason bust.

After coming over from Carolina the day before the deadline in a deal that cost the Rangers two second-round picks and a prospect, Staal had just three goals and six points in 20 regular-season games. It got worse in the playoffs: no goals, no assists, no points. Even worse, he was on the ice for ten goals against across all situations and not a single one for.

The Rangers felt like Lundqvist and the other veterans had earned the right to load up for another run, and they may have been right. But it didn't work, and now the question is where this team goes from here. Some will say that the window now is closed. It's hard to come up with a good reason why they're wrong.

3. Claude Giroux, Flyers—One assist in six games. Was he hurt? He says no, but he sure looked like it. Jakub Voracek (one goal, no assists) wasn't much better. Then again, when your team's leading scorers for a six-game series come in at two points, it's fair to say that nobody was carrying their offensive weight.

2. Jaromir Jagr, Panthers—Everyone loves Jagr. He's won over even his harshest critics, we all love his personality and work ethic, and he's probably going to win the Masterton. What he's doing at the age of 44 is so ridiculous that it feels somehow wrong to criticize him.

And yet… Jagr finished with just two assists as the top-seeded Panthers lost in six to the wild-card Islanders. That brought his personal playoff goal-scoring drought to an unthinkable 36 games, dating back to the second game of the 2012 postseason.

So what's the problem? You could say that it's just bad luck, although 36 games seems like a pretty long stretch to chalk up to the bounces. You could argue that Jagr just doesn't have the heart and character it takes to get it done in the postseason, as long as you ignored the fact that he's done it plenty of times before. Or you could just point out the obvious: It's a crushingly long season, and maybe guys in their mid-40s just inevitably run out of gas eventually. Either way, the Panthers needed their leading scorer to make a difference against the Islanders. And as hard as it is to say it, he just couldn't get it done.

And, hey, since we're stomping on the regular season's feel-good stories…

1. Drew Doughty, Kings—Welp. At least that Norris voting had to be in before the postseason started.

After months of increasingly frantic lobbying for Doughty to win the Norris (which he likely will), it was hard not to notice that the Kings' superstar had a tough time of things against the Sharks. He recorded just one assist over the five-game series, and was on the ice for ten goals against compared to just five goals for. One of those goals against was the Game 5 winner, in which Doughty was overpowered by Donskoi. It was far from the only time in the series that Doughty didn't look like his typical dominant presence. In this series, if there was one Norris candidate on the ice who looked like he deserved the trophy, it was Brent Burns.

So what does all that tell us? Not much, to be honest. It's five games, so small sample sizes and all that. Doughty still carried the play in terms of possession and was a slight positive in on-ice scoring chances, and the Kings leaned on him to play a ton of minutes. While he looked out of sorts on some plays, on others he simply fell victim to the percentages at both ends.

Still, when you've spent the last two months being hailed as the unquestioned best defenseman in hockey by everyone from fans to the media to your own GM, the spotlight is going to get bright, maybe even unfairly so. Doughty certainly wasn't the only King to have a disappointing series, and if there was a fatal flaw on the blueline, it was the lack of depth that meant that anything short of perfection by Doughty wouldn't be enough. Instead, he was average at best. Drew Doughty's version of average is still pretty good, but it was nowhere near enough to stop the Sharks.