Apparently, the remedy for everything wrong in the N.H.L. is a Game 7. It’s as if the league went to a doctor — O.K., a faith healer, because hockey’s gatekeepers are not keen on all that actual medical information — and said: “We had this shameless money grab of a lockout, our players keep trying to take one another’s heads off even though we’ve mildly suggested they stop, our tickets are astronomically expensive and casual sports fans have to keep being reminded we exist. So what do we do?”

The faith healer’s response was apparently to have at least three of the first-round series end in a Game 7. “Have a New York team in one of them,” he must have suggested. “Helps ratings. A nice messy Boston-Toronto one will be good, too. And keep Detroit around, you know, for continuity’s sake.”

Perhaps the N.H.L.'s extended first round has another explanation — the lockout left the players with the energy for more hockey — but the N.H.L. could hardly ask for more drama. The round has already tied a record with 16 overtime games with two Game 7s to go Monday night — Rangers vs. Capitals and Bruins vs. Maple Leafs — which will be played at the same time. Consider that the N.B.A. managed one Game 7 in its first round, and it was in the one series that had people rushing to cover their eyes (Nets-Bulls).

The Red Wings got the Game 7 party started Sunday night, swiping their series from second-seeded Anaheim. That might not seem like an upset until you realize this was the Red Wings’ rebuilding year and they came ludicrously close to not making the playoffs for the first time since the Pleistocene Epoch. But there they were, Bob Wojnowski writes in The Detroit News, calm and composed as always and led by Henrik Zetterberg. The Ducks felt the painful flip side when they had no answers for Detroit’s spunk in Games 6 and 7, Helene Elliott writes in The Los Angeles Times, and now are left with only questions, Craig Custance writes on ESPN.com.