Barry Trotz knows better than most the razor-thin difference between agony and jubilation.
A year ago, his Washington Capitals were down 2-0 in their first-round series against Columbus and tied late in the third period of Game 3 when Blue Jackets winger Artemi Panarin's shot clanked off the post.
Had it gone in, the Blue Jackets might have swept, but instead the Capitals won in double overtime and went on to capture the Stanley Cup.
So when Trotz in this first round sees the major penalty that cost Vegas Game 7 against San Jose or the mistake that helped Carolina eliminate his old team in D.C., the New York Islanders coach figures, well, that's playoff hockey.
"It's like coming around a corner and there's a semi right there and you're going to get hit or you just get out of the way in time," Trotz said Thursday. "Nothing has really surprised me, but everything's surprised me."
Surprise, surprise, all four division champions lost in the first round for the first time in major four North American pro sports history, the teams that played in last year's Cup Final are out and the team that finished 21 points ahead of the rest of the NHL got swept.
It has been an astonishing April just a quarter of the way on the journey to hockey's holy grail with the Boston Bruins, Blue Jackets, Hurricanes, Islanders, San Jose Sharks, Colorado Avalanche, St. Louis Blues and Dallas Stars left standing.
"It'd be like two NFL conference championships games with only wild-card teams or the NCAA Final Four with a 9, an 11, a 12 and a 14 seed," University of Guelph sports business scholar Norm O'Reilly said.
