Friday’s Dump & Chase: Taking Off

(WC2) Panthers at (M1) HurricanesEastern Conference Final, Game 18 p.m. ET; TNT, CBC, SN, TVAS

Sleep, apparently, is overrated. Many hockey fans decided to stay up late Thursday night into early Friday morning, at least in the Eastern time zone, to watch the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes play almost seven full periods of hockey.

For days, since the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, I’ve been waking up to my 4-year-old dragging his Boston Bruins-branded hockey net into my bedroom so he can play goalie, which makes sense since we live in Boston. Except, lately, he hasn’t wanted to be the goalie for the Bruins.

The Staal brothers have gone radio silent now that Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final is here.

The Vegas Golden Knights acquired Adin Hill on Aug. 29, after they knew Robin Lehner would miss the season because of hip surgeries and Laurent Brossoit wouldn’t be ready until November at the earliest because he too was recovery from a hip surgery.

The Toronto Maple Leafs will have to make quick decisions on possibly big changes, so how do they get there and what should they do? Former scout Jason Bukala writes about end of season meetings and what the Leafs would be weighing.

As the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes get ready to clash in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final, Ken Wiebe takes a look at the top storylines for the series.

In his final draft rankings of the season, Sam Cosentino shares his top 32 prospects before a more specific mock draft in June.