Slap Shots: NHL going crazy inside bubble

Let me be the first to observe that there has never been a week like this in NHL history. The teams that finished 22nd, 23rd and 24th in the overall standings are in the Stanley Cup playoffs ,and a team that finished in the top 10 is alive in the lottery for the first-overall draft …

Let me be the first to observe that there has never been a week like this in NHL history.

The teams that finished 22nd, 23rd and 24th in the overall standings are in the Stanley Cup playoffs ,and a team that finished in the top 10 is alive in the lottery for the first-overall draft pick. The stuff about the bubble, COVID-19 testing and protocols, and no fans in the building(s)? Old news.

At approximately 10:15 Friday night, it was common wisdom that the Maple Leafs were a structural disaster and would obviously have to re-examine the wisdom of devoting $40.5 million of cap space — essentially half of the club’s allotment — to four forwards.

Fifteen minutes later, those four forwards — Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner and William Nylander — had been on for the three Toronto goals within the final 3:57 of the third period that erased a 3-0 Columbus lead and created the overtime in which the Leafs completed the most stunning comeback in playoff history to stave off elimination.

Which means we won’t know until late Sunday night, following the decisive Game 5, whether everyone was right about the Maple Leafs in the first place.

It is not Davey Kerr, .567 at 17-13 (and two ties).

Not John Davidson, either, at .552 with his 16-13 record.

It is … Eddie Mio, clocking in at .600 by going 9-6 in 1982 and 1983.

The Puddy Tats of Florida, now coached by the estimable Joel Quenneville, have not won a playoff round since 1996 and are looking at six more years of Sergei Bobrovsky at $10 million apiece.

Are you really so sure that Aleksander Barkov, 25 in September, is sticking around when his contract expires in two more years?

I’ve heard it too from a number of sources the last couple of months. The folks at Sixth Avenue are lobbying for Peter Chiarelli to snag another shot as an NHL team’s general manager, and I guess I’d have to ask why?

Finally, ratings for last weekend were lukewarm in the heat, with the audience for Pittsburgh-Montreal on NBC down about 9 percent from 2019’s first-round Boston-Toronto telecast over the network.

Which serves as a welcome reminder for those who think this new crazy calendar might suit the NHL: It is the summer and it does not.