Sunday notes: Fleury brilliant, Malkin struggles, Quenneville to Kraken?

The Colorado Avalanche are one win away from advancing to the second round of the NHL playoffs, and so too now are the Vegas Golden Knights, who got the 16th career playoff shutout from Marc-Andre Fleury last night in beating the Minnesota Wild 4-0.

One more win by each team, and they meet in Round 2, with the Avs having home-ice advantage. Fleury has seized the No. 1 goalie job for Vegas in these playoffs, with his turn-back-the-clock play. He is a legit future Hall-of-Famer. Why the Pittsburgh Penguins ever let him go in the Expansion Draft is beyond me.

• A good story here about Fleury’s night in Minny, where the Knights took a 3-1 series lead. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
• Pittsburgh Hockey Now: Evgeni Malkin faced the media after a bad game yesterday and took responsibility
• Boston Hockey Now: The Boston Bruins have a chance to finish the Washington Capitals’ season today. “Mindset” is what it takes. 
• Is Joel Quenneville privately planning to leave Florida after the Panthers’ season is over, to become the first coach of the Seattle Kraken? Larry Brooks thinks it’s a possibility (NY Post)
• Craig “It’s so one-sided, it’s not even funny” Berube was an assistant coach on the 2010 Flyers team that came back from 3-0 down to beat Boston in a series. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• Sportsnet: Tampa Bay beat Florida 6-2, so Florida gooned it up midway through the second period, including Patric Hornqvist, who got a good clean-ish hit on Mikhail Sergachev. Other Panthers weren’t so clean. Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper lit into officials for the nonsense.
• Our Sheng Peng got some explosive quotes from the PHPA about the AHL playoff situation, which has been a mess by all accounts this postseason. (San Jose Hockey Now)
• Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas has had it up to here with the Toronto Sun’s front pages (Hockey News)
• Sergei Bobrovsky continues to get ripped by the Florida fans and media (Florida Hockey Now)
• Good behind-the-scenes stuff in the latest “Avalanche 360” (Coloradoavalanche.com)