So, it's the Tampa Bay Lightning waiting. Ovie and Sid battlin' and going the distance in the West. The 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs have had it all. As always.
The initial concern was that, with no Canadian teams involved, there would not be much going on in the playoffs that could arouse the interest of followers of the nation's sports. That, of course, proved to be incorrect.
For starters, in the Western Conference, which has continued to prove it's superiority over over their Eastern counterparts in recent seasons, there some surprises. One of the first teams to lose was the very team that didn't lose in 2015, the Chicago Blackhawks. It was the St. Louis Blues pulling off the upset. And it took them seven games to do that, so it was one of the best series of the first round. The Anaheim Ducks were also upset in seven by the Nashville Predators. But the first team to go was the Los Angeles Kings. They were beaten in the first round of the Pacific semis by the San Jose Sharks. You may recall the Sharks' goalie, Martin Jones: Didn't this guy play for the Kings a few seasons back?
Another example of a former player coming back to haunt his old team.
Dallas, making sure not to waste their 50-win regular season, got by Minnesota in the first round, setting up a second round matchup with St. Louis. That series is awaiting the seventh game. As, too, is the San Jose / Nashville matchup.
Game four of that splendid Western Semis Finals between the Sharks and Predators had it all. Amazing goaltending. Scoring. A disallowed OT goal. Powerplays in overtime (You don't see much of that). It finally came to an end when Carrie Underwood's husband Mike Fisher scored the dramatic winner in the third overtime session. Another overtime win by the Preds in game six has sent the series to a winner-take-all game seven.
How about the Eastern Conference.
Well, for starters, it was Washington beating Philadelphia. But the Flyers, who barely made the playoffs, pushed back from 3-0 down when Michal Neuvirth took over in Philadelphia's crease. He even stole game five right there in Washington with a 44-save shutout performance. But it was Brandon Holtby, who has played amazing all playoff long, who ended the Flyers season in game six.
The Capitals now trail the Penguins 3-2 in their second round matchup. Pittsburgh got some revenge against the very team that ousted them the last two playoffs, the New York Rangers. The big story out of Pittsburgh has been their goaltedning. Marc-Andre Fleury, having played splendidly in the regular season (Finishing tenth in S%, .921), was looking forward, no doubt, to a playoff series against the New York Rangers and goalie Henrik Lundqvist. But Fleury was out with his second concussion of the 2015/16 season in March.
Pittsburgh was forced to use Jeff Zatkoff and Matt Murray in the series. While Zatkoff showed plenty of potential with a pretty good performance in game one, a loss in game two made the Pens make a move. A move to the less experienced Matt Murray. Murray had only 13 games of NHL experience (All this season) prior to stepping into the spotlight in game three on Broadway. All Matt did was take the ball and run with it. The Rangers were beaten in the next three games, and then the Capitals were pushed to the brink via some outstanding netminding from the kid. Can he continue? We will have to wait and see.
One person who had to wait and see for a long time was John Taveres. Having been in the league for seven years now (It seems like only yesterday that it was his rookie year), he watched as his New York Islanders lacked playoff success. Now in Brooklyn, the Islanders entered this playoffs as the underdogs against the first place (In the Atlantic Division) Florida Panthers. But all John did was go out and get nine points in the six-game battle. It looked like the Islanders were going to have to win it in Florida in game seven, but then Tavares became clutch. He tied game six with just 54 seconds to go, as the home crowd roared their approval. John wasn't through playing heroics. His goal at 10:41 of the second overtime sent the Islanders into the second round of the postseason for the first time in 23 years.
Once their, John and his teammates continued to battle. But they came up against a great Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning were thought to be beatable in the playoffs. They weren't going to be as good as they'd been last year. In the 2015 postseason, they needed seven game to beat the Detroit Red Wings, six to beat the Montreal Canadians, and another seven to beat the New York Rangers. They gave Chicago all they could handle in the Stanley Cup Finals before finally yielding in six games. But so far this postseason, sans Steven Stamkos (Rumours continue to swirl that he will land in Toronto or Montreal next season), the Lightning don't know what game six is. They have yet to play in one.
It was close in the first round against Detroit. But Tampa had no intentions of going seven like in '15. Or even six. However, the games themselves were close, as the biggest margin of victory was Tampa's 5-2 win in the second contest. The Red Wings then got a shutout at home in game three to keep the Lightning honest. Petr Mrazek, the Detroit goalie, continued to make life difficult for the opposition in games four and five, as the Wings threatened to extend this to six or maybe even seven. But Ben Bishop, his counterpart on Tampa, kept calm and cool in the Lightning net. Bishop and his team took game four, 3-2, then pitched a shutout of his own in game five.
The Lightning didn't stop their. But if they had any thoughts that the Islanders would be a pushover, it all evaporated in the first game in Tampa. New York won, 5-3, Tavares getting a goal and an assist. But here's where Bishop, who really made a name for himself in the 2015 playoffs, took over. He stopped all but one shot in game two, winning a narrow 2-1 decision. The series shifted to Brooklyn's Barclay's Center for game three and four. And let me assure you, the home team played great.
However, it was not enough for a win in either contest. The Islander scored the first goal of the third game, but it was the Lightning that refused to get behind the eight ball. The game see-sawed back and fourth, and reached it's peak of competitiveness when Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov tied it with only 39 seconds to go. Ovetime lasted less than four minutes, as the galvanized Lightning won it on Brian Boyle's dramatic goal.
New York again got off on the right foot in the next game. They tallied the game's first goal as Kyle Okposo got one less than five minutes in. The lead lasted until the third period, as Tampa's Nikita Kucherov again tied it. There was still over twelve minutes of play to go in the third, but Bishop and New York's Thomas Greiss held the fort for both squads, ensuring another overtime. Greiss hadn't had smooth sailing despite only allowing one goal, however. Although he stopped 20 of the first 21 shots to face him, he developed a skate problem in the second period. Jean-Francois Berube (Not related to ex-tough guy Craig Berube) took over for 4:47, making his NHL playoff debut under the most unusual of circumstances. He stopped the only two shots he'd face. During the regular season, Berube had played in just seven games. Berube had no previous NHL experience before 2015/16.
But overtime was again very short. At 1:48, it was Tampa defencemen Jason Garrison picking a fine time to score his first playoff goal. The Lightning had weathered a storm thrown at them on the road.
Finally, the Islanders were demoralized, and it was the Lighting riding a 4-0 shutout from Bishop in game five to send stubborn New York to the golf course. But we have not heard the last from Tavares and company, believe me.
References
"Official Site of the National Hockey League." NHL.com. National Hockey League. Web. 10 May 2016. <https://www.nhl.com/>
"Penguins Goaltender Fleury Still Dealing With Concussion." The Big Story. Associated Press, 25 Apr. 2016. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://bigstory.ap.org/article/5a94c51526f64f279d410bf8cb16996a/ penguins-goaltender-fleury-still-dealing-concussion>.
The initial concern was that, with no Canadian teams involved, there would not be much going on in the playoffs that could arouse the interest of followers of the nation's sports. That, of course, proved to be incorrect.
For starters, in the Western Conference, which has continued to prove it's superiority over over their Eastern counterparts in recent seasons, there some surprises. One of the first teams to lose was the very team that didn't lose in 2015, the Chicago Blackhawks. It was the St. Louis Blues pulling off the upset. And it took them seven games to do that, so it was one of the best series of the first round. The Anaheim Ducks were also upset in seven by the Nashville Predators. But the first team to go was the Los Angeles Kings. They were beaten in the first round of the Pacific semis by the San Jose Sharks. You may recall the Sharks' goalie, Martin Jones: Didn't this guy play for the Kings a few seasons back?
Another example of a former player coming back to haunt his old team.
Dallas, making sure not to waste their 50-win regular season, got by Minnesota in the first round, setting up a second round matchup with St. Louis. That series is awaiting the seventh game. As, too, is the San Jose / Nashville matchup.
Game four of that splendid Western Semis Finals between the Sharks and Predators had it all. Amazing goaltending. Scoring. A disallowed OT goal. Powerplays in overtime (You don't see much of that). It finally came to an end when Carrie Underwood's husband Mike Fisher scored the dramatic winner in the third overtime session. Another overtime win by the Preds in game six has sent the series to a winner-take-all game seven.
How about the Eastern Conference.
Well, for starters, it was Washington beating Philadelphia. But the Flyers, who barely made the playoffs, pushed back from 3-0 down when Michal Neuvirth took over in Philadelphia's crease. He even stole game five right there in Washington with a 44-save shutout performance. But it was Brandon Holtby, who has played amazing all playoff long, who ended the Flyers season in game six.
The Capitals now trail the Penguins 3-2 in their second round matchup. Pittsburgh got some revenge against the very team that ousted them the last two playoffs, the New York Rangers. The big story out of Pittsburgh has been their goaltedning. Marc-Andre Fleury, having played splendidly in the regular season (Finishing tenth in S%, .921), was looking forward, no doubt, to a playoff series against the New York Rangers and goalie Henrik Lundqvist. But Fleury was out with his second concussion of the 2015/16 season in March.
Pittsburgh was forced to use Jeff Zatkoff and Matt Murray in the series. While Zatkoff showed plenty of potential with a pretty good performance in game one, a loss in game two made the Pens make a move. A move to the less experienced Matt Murray. Murray had only 13 games of NHL experience (All this season) prior to stepping into the spotlight in game three on Broadway. All Matt did was take the ball and run with it. The Rangers were beaten in the next three games, and then the Capitals were pushed to the brink via some outstanding netminding from the kid. Can he continue? We will have to wait and see.
One person who had to wait and see for a long time was John Taveres. Having been in the league for seven years now (It seems like only yesterday that it was his rookie year), he watched as his New York Islanders lacked playoff success. Now in Brooklyn, the Islanders entered this playoffs as the underdogs against the first place (In the Atlantic Division) Florida Panthers. But all John did was go out and get nine points in the six-game battle. It looked like the Islanders were going to have to win it in Florida in game seven, but then Tavares became clutch. He tied game six with just 54 seconds to go, as the home crowd roared their approval. John wasn't through playing heroics. His goal at 10:41 of the second overtime sent the Islanders into the second round of the postseason for the first time in 23 years.
Once their, John and his teammates continued to battle. But they came up against a great Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning were thought to be beatable in the playoffs. They weren't going to be as good as they'd been last year. In the 2015 postseason, they needed seven game to beat the Detroit Red Wings, six to beat the Montreal Canadians, and another seven to beat the New York Rangers. They gave Chicago all they could handle in the Stanley Cup Finals before finally yielding in six games. But so far this postseason, sans Steven Stamkos (Rumours continue to swirl that he will land in Toronto or Montreal next season), the Lightning don't know what game six is. They have yet to play in one.
It was close in the first round against Detroit. But Tampa had no intentions of going seven like in '15. Or even six. However, the games themselves were close, as the biggest margin of victory was Tampa's 5-2 win in the second contest. The Red Wings then got a shutout at home in game three to keep the Lightning honest. Petr Mrazek, the Detroit goalie, continued to make life difficult for the opposition in games four and five, as the Wings threatened to extend this to six or maybe even seven. But Ben Bishop, his counterpart on Tampa, kept calm and cool in the Lightning net. Bishop and his team took game four, 3-2, then pitched a shutout of his own in game five.
The Lightning didn't stop their. But if they had any thoughts that the Islanders would be a pushover, it all evaporated in the first game in Tampa. New York won, 5-3, Tavares getting a goal and an assist. But here's where Bishop, who really made a name for himself in the 2015 playoffs, took over. He stopped all but one shot in game two, winning a narrow 2-1 decision. The series shifted to Brooklyn's Barclay's Center for game three and four. And let me assure you, the home team played great.
However, it was not enough for a win in either contest. The Islander scored the first goal of the third game, but it was the Lightning that refused to get behind the eight ball. The game see-sawed back and fourth, and reached it's peak of competitiveness when Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov tied it with only 39 seconds to go. Ovetime lasted less than four minutes, as the galvanized Lightning won it on Brian Boyle's dramatic goal.
New York again got off on the right foot in the next game. They tallied the game's first goal as Kyle Okposo got one less than five minutes in. The lead lasted until the third period, as Tampa's Nikita Kucherov again tied it. There was still over twelve minutes of play to go in the third, but Bishop and New York's Thomas Greiss held the fort for both squads, ensuring another overtime. Greiss hadn't had smooth sailing despite only allowing one goal, however. Although he stopped 20 of the first 21 shots to face him, he developed a skate problem in the second period. Jean-Francois Berube (Not related to ex-tough guy Craig Berube) took over for 4:47, making his NHL playoff debut under the most unusual of circumstances. He stopped the only two shots he'd face. During the regular season, Berube had played in just seven games. Berube had no previous NHL experience before 2015/16.
But overtime was again very short. At 1:48, it was Tampa defencemen Jason Garrison picking a fine time to score his first playoff goal. The Lightning had weathered a storm thrown at them on the road.
Finally, the Islanders were demoralized, and it was the Lighting riding a 4-0 shutout from Bishop in game five to send stubborn New York to the golf course. But we have not heard the last from Tavares and company, believe me.
References
"Official Site of the National Hockey League." NHL.com. National Hockey League. Web. 10 May 2016. <https://www.nhl.com/>
"Penguins Goaltender Fleury Still Dealing With Concussion." The Big Story. Associated Press, 25 Apr. 2016. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://bigstory.ap.org/article/5a94c51526f64f279d410bf8cb16996a/ penguins-goaltender-fleury-still-dealing-concussion>.
Sports Reference LLC. Hockey-Reference.com - Hockey Statistics and History. http://www.hockey-reference.com/. Web. 10 May, 2016.
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