Most productive player
The man who took Toronto's failures in the summer is enjoying his new role in Vegas. In the series against Anaheim, Mitch Marner had five goals and six assists in six games, scored the winning goal once, and added six positive points.
In the sixth game against the Ducks, he scored what was probably the best goal of the playoffs in the second minute.
Marner has now scored seven goals in this playoff run and has 18 points, none of which he has ever managed in nine playoff games with Toronto.
Best goaltender
Just like in the first round, you have to pick Carolina's Frederik Andersen in the second. The Dane only allowed five goals and stopped 86 shots from Philadelphia players. He had a 94.5% save percentage and was the only goalie in the second round to keep a clean sheet.
"He's incredibly calm in goal," forward Taylor Hall praised him.
In addition, Andersen became only the second goalie in history and the first since Jacques Plante in 1969 to score two or fewer goals in his first eight games in the knockout stages.
Moment of the round
Carolina made it through the second round of the playoffs just like they did the first - after Ottawa, even Philadelphia couldn't put up any resistance as they found themselves swept.
The team, led by the experienced Rod Brind'Amour for the eighth year as head coach (he was also an assistant for seven years before that), recorded some interesting firsts during the four games, primarily that they were the first ever to start 8-0.
"It's everybody's job, everybody contributed," Brind'Amour praised to NHL.com, noting that only four players out of the 19 that hit the series did not score.
Unexpected faces shone against the Flyers. Twenty-two-year-old Jackson Blake, playing only his second season in the NHL, scored three goals and assisted on four others and contributed to more than half of the Hurricanes' goals (13) against Philadelphia. Meanwhile, Taylor Hall scored one goal and assisted on four. In addition, both of them decided one of the games in overtime.
"Hallsy already told me that this is not quite normal," Blake expounded, recalling that he was playing in the second round for the second straight year. "It's something special, plus our whole team has stepped up from last year."
His father, Jason, who played thirteen seasons in the NHL and scored nearly five hundred points, yet never even made it past the first round... Carolina was among the top eight for the sixth time in a row and is currently well rested, with 12 days off between series, an NHL record.
And one more story. For the Hurricanes, it wasn't all about hockey; defenseman Sean Walker became a father between games without missing a beat. At one o'clock in the morning, he learned that his wife's water had broken. At 6 a.m., he flew from Philadelphia to Carolina, attended the birth of his first child, and arrived back in time on club owner Tom Dundon's private jet.
All within 36 hours.
Insane stat of the round
Jaromir Jagr's legacy in the NHL is still huge. It'll be the 46th straight season in which a player who shared the ice with the Czech legend at some point in his career will play in the Stanley Cup Finals. Jagr met defensemen Brett Kulak (Colorado) and Rasmus Andersson (Vegas) in the Calgary locker room a few years ago, and they will soon face off against each other.
Social media highlight
Before the series between Montreal and Buffalo got underway, a special phenomenon occurred. The American side of Niagara Falls lit up in Sabres colours, and the Canadian side lit up in Canadiens colours.
Image of the round
Jakub Dobes has become the darling of Montreal's Bell Centre. The Czech goaltender has grown accustomed to having his name called out by the raucous fans, and the Havirov native has fallen in love with the red rock behind his back.
