NHL Rink Wrap: Lightning sweep Panthers; Kadri pushes Blues to brink

• The Presidents’ Trophy-winning Panthers have been eliminated from the playoffs, as the Lightning completed a sweep in Game 4. Andrei Vasilevskiy had, uh, a lot to do with it.

• Via the Associated Press: the NHL and St. Louis police were looking into threats made toward Nazem Kadri following the Jordan Binnington collision heading into Game 4. To put things mildly, Kadri was a huge factor in Game 4, even beyond a spiteful hat trick.

• Speaking of goalie collisions, Milan Lucic didn’t face supplemental discipline for hitting Oilers goalie Mike Smith.

• Adam Gretz looks over the biggest surprises of 2021-22 in the latest PHT Power Rankings.

There are a lot of ways to summarize how explosive the Florida Panthers’ offense was in 2021-22. One way: no one shut them out … until the Lightning did so to sweep the Panthers in Game 4 on Monday.

While there were stretches of these playoffs (against both the Capitals and Lightning) where the Panthers didn’t look like that locomotive team, the effort was mostly there in Game 4. Tampa Bay slowed Florida, sure, but this feels like one might have expected the Cats to look against postseason competition.

For all the volume the Panthers sent Andrei Vasilevskiy’s way, none of it mattered. Scroll for more on Vasilevskiy in the 3 Stars section. The short version, though: he made a 49-save shutout.

All series long, the Panthers only managed three goals through four games. Chances are, Sergei Bobrovsky allowed a tough goal or two. But how much can you blame Bob when he’s receiving zero goal support?

Ultimately, the Panthers remain the team with the least power-play goals of any team during this postseason: one, on 31 attempts. The Stars fell in the First Round, and they scored more (2-for-24).