Biggest Takeaways from the 2015 NHL Playoffs as Round 2 Gets Underway

With the first round of the 2015 NHL postseason in the books and the opening games of the second round underway, it seems like a good time to look at some of the emerging trends in the playoffs.

It's always dangerous to read too much into a single round. When a seven-game series indicates one thing and an 82-game season indicates something else, it's generally an overreaction to correct based on the shorter sample rather than considering the larger picture.

With that said, the playoffs do provide helpful bits of information on the way the league is going, as well as the abilities of coaches, players and teams.

What did we learn from Round 1? Read on for some key takeaways. 

It's All About 'What Have You Done for Me Lately' When It Comes to Goalies

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There hasn't been much loyalty to struggling No. 1 goaltenders early in the playoffs.

Corey Crawford toiled and found himself promptly yanked from the Chicago net and replaced by backup Scott Darling, who had been playing ECHL hockey as recently as last season. Jimmy Howard never even got the courtesy of playing badly in the postseason; he struggled down the stretch and found himself on the bench for Game 1 in favour of young backup Petr Mrazek.

Craig Anderson and Andrew Hammond both played for Ottawa, while Eddie Lack and Ryan Miller both got time with Vancouver. 

Coaches don't have much tolerance for letting starters play through their problems, and there's minimal hesitation when it comes to riding the hot hand.

Tyler Johnson Is the Real Thing

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Lightning seems to have struck twice in Tampa Bay.

With that obligatory pun out of the way, it's time to marvel at the fact the Bolts seem to have once again defied the odds and found a legitimate offensive difference-maker in a pint-sized forward who was repeatedly passed over in the NHL Draft.

Tyler Johnson enjoyed a brilliant regular season, putting up 72 points, a figure which tied him for 14th overall in NHL scoring. He hasn't gone away in the playoffs, either, scoring six goals in his team's first-round win over Detroit and even overshadowing Steven Stamkos.

The successor to Martin St. Louis appears to have arrived.

Mike Babcock Seems to Have Lost Faith in His Team's Ability to Rejuvenate

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Hockey fans are familiar with hearing about the imminent demise of the Red Wings. For most of the last decade, the team has been described as too old and in real trouble when [insert star player here] decides to hang up his skates.

But the doubts don't usually come from the team's head coach, via Ansar Khan of MLive.com:

"

We've got lots of good, young players, no question about it. Ideally, we've got some good ones coming, but who's going to replace [Pavel Datsyuk]?

I don't think Pav is going anywhere right away, but that's what you've got to do. You've got to have big-time players up the middle and on the back to be successful. Those are questions that in our organization we work towards.

We've been drafting good, we've been developing good, but we've been winning too much [and getting lower pick]. That's the facts.

"

Detroit is facing a bit of a crisis. The team has been eliminated in the first round of the postseason three times in the last four years, and just making the playoffs isn't enough for a team that used to reliably contend.

Based on Babcock's comments, it's possible that we're going to see the team embrace the cyclical nature of the game and succumb to going through a rebuild cycle.

Vladimir Tarasenko Is the One-Shot Scorer St. Louis Has Been Waiting for

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It's been quite the year for Vladimir Tarasenko, who seems to have established himself as the high-level offensive weapon the Blues have lacked in recent years.

Tarasenko scored 37 goals in a breakout regular-season campaign, but for the second year in a row, he also showed that he's capable of lighting it up in the playoffs too. He scored six times against the Minnesota Wild, and in the last two playoff series the Blues have played, he has tallied a total of 10 goals.

Shockingly, it wasn't enough, as Tarasenko didn't get much in the way of support from his teammates. Clearly, he's not the only missing piece in Missouri.

Prison Rules in the Postseason

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Penalty calls are down in the playoffs. Way down.

As The Globe and Mail's James Mirtle noted in a recent piece, penalties per game have been steadily dropping, down by more than 40 percent from 2006 and more than 20 percent from 2009. Suspensions have also been few and far between, with Niklas Kronwall of Detroit somehow getting one game while others get away with nothing.

The bottom line here is that playoff hockey is a disadvantage for clubs that rely on special teams brilliance to generate wins because those teams are eventually going to run into a pair of "let them play" referees, which is going to make it difficult for them to advance.

The Anaheim Ducks Are Never out of a Hockey Game

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Anaheim’s four-game sweep of the Winnipeg Jets was a little misleading in that the series was much closer than it appeared. The Jets held a lead going into the third period on three occasions, and each time, the Ducks overcame that lead to record a win.

This is a tendency that goes back to the regular season, in which Anaheim won a lot of close games. The Ducks had a 0.429 winning percentage when trailing early in the game, which was one of the best records in the league. They're simply never out of a contest.

Jack Capuano May Not Be the Coach to Lead the Islanders to Playoff Glory

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There are many members of the New York Islanders organization who deserve a share of the blame for an impotent Game 7 performance, one in which the club was dominated from start to finish by a Washington Capitals team that managed to completely neutralize their offence.

Few, though, made as high profile a gaffe as head coach Jack Capuano.

With his team trailing by a single goal and just three minutes left on the clock, Capuano was gifted with the only power play of the contest. Instead of pulling goaltender Jaroslav Halak to create a six-on-four situation that would give his team its best chance of knotting the score, he waited until the man advantage had run its course before sending out an extra attacker. 

His team didn't manage a single shot, and the Isles were eliminated from the postseason. 

Capuano is now five years into his time with New York, and the team has yet to win a playoff series under his watch. Add in tactical mistakes such as the one he committed in Game 7 and one has to wonder if he's the guy who will get the Islanders over the hump.