Month: May 2022

After winning three at home and dropping three on the road entering Game Seven the New York Rangers came into Carolina and took a quick two-goal lead in the first period, but the game was not out of reach with Carolina getting plenty of offensive zone time.

The Rangers goaltender Mr. Shesterkin at times seemed unbeatable and when the Hurricanes were down to their third-string goalie the floodgates opened and with a Happy Net goal New York wins convincingly 6-2.

Game One of the Conference Semi-Finals begins tonight with Colorado hosting Edmonton as two of the NHL’s high octane offenses clash with each team averaging over four goals a game.

Colorado is the number one power play but Edmonton is a much better penalty-killing team, faceoffs are about even, the Oilers average slightly more goals against, and boast a goaltender that just turned 40 years old two months ago, and they have Mr. McDavid.  

This series will come down to the leaders of each team and what they can accomplish Mr. McDavid and Mr. MacKinnon are both capable of carrying their teams and each has quality players on their rosters, so tighten your skate laces this is going to be exciting.

The Colorado Avalanche win the game, the series during the waning moments of the third period versus a determined St. Louis Blues team, and as well as Mr. Husso played Mr. Binnington realistically might not have made much of a difference in this series.

Colorado once again peppered Mr. Husso with an avalanche of SOG while barely surrendering a half a dozen SOG each period to St. Louis, scored on the power play, killed off two penalties, and won most of the faceoffs during a closely fought game.

Colorado has not won a playoff series since 2008 and has not won the Stanley Cup Conference Finals since 2001 so now the Avalanche goes up against the offensive power of the Oilers for the right to appear in the Stanley Cup Finals.

They had their chances they had leads, had the established goaltender, earning a +85 goal differential in the regular season as the sixth-best team in the league, yet all for naught as Mr. McDavid, Mr. Draisaitl, and Mr. Kane were backed up by Mr. Smith to douse the Flames.

Calgary’s fifth goal was good the puck was rolling/bouncing into the net when a non-kicking motion skate blade assisted the puck’s velocity, upon review the replay clearly shows this.

Interestingly the Oilers Mr. McDavid is only the second Edmonton player besides Mr. Tikkanen to score a series-clinching overtime goal in the Battle of Alberta.

Carolina and New York win at home in this series and the Rangers are going to have to score three or four goals while onsides to win and the Hurricanes can close out the series by allowing one or no goals.

Even in victory, Carolina could only win in OT or a shutout whereas New York’s victories were by two and three-goal margins, both these teams are playing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde style of Hockey as the visitors can barely manage to score once during the game.

Colorado can close out their series versus the Blues in St. Louis tonight beginning at eight o’clock.

Game Five of the Stanley Cup Quarter Finals if you were born last Century or for the younger Hockey fans this is the second round or the Conference Semi-Finals and either way we have drama.

Since New York took revenge on Mr. Domi for his cheap slash/check after the whistle ending game three it would appear Carolina is now crying foul when Mr. Trouba laid out Mr. Domi with a “legal” open-ice hit.

I am willing to make the supposition if Mr. Domi could have kept his emotions in check and did not act out physically after the whistle ending game three that Mr. Trouba possibly might have pulled up a bit or not gone “through” Mr. Domi in game four.

They say the best form of revenge is to be successful and that is exactly what Mr. Kane has been for Edmonton since the Oilers acquired him, two hat tricks one natural, leads all scorers with 12, and no sign of being a “locker room cancer” during these playoffs.

The addition of a 30-year-old “journeyman” to play alongside Mr. McDavid was nothing short of a coup for Edmonton, no amount of slanted bad press will deter this Edmonton team and Calgary needs Mr. Markstrom to stay in the net to avoid elimination.   

Colorado wins in St Louis 5-2

Much ado will be made about Mr. Binnington getting hurt early in this game and losing your number one goaltender can be devastating if you are a defensive team and St Louis is anything but, they scored over 300 goals in the regular season.

An entire game’s worth of SOG was taken in the first period and all three goaltenders played well as the period ended tied at one, the second period had almost as many SOG with three goals being scored.

When Colorado took the two-goal lead in less than four minutes with the second period winding down it began to look dire for St Louis but Captain O’Reilly scored to pull the Blues within one with only 30 seconds remaining in the period.

The third period was played tighter with less shooting but no less action as Mr. Husso hesitates on a “pulling the goalie call” and subsequently gets stranded in no man’s land and the Avalanche easily scored the Happy Net goal to regain a two-goal lead.

Then as some Head Coaches are prone to do when down by two or more goals with no realistic chance for a comeback and win will still pull the goalie and as was the case last night affording Colorado two Happy Net goals to win the game 5-3. 

The St Louis narrative at the moment is that Mr. Binnington is still being evaluated and we should know something today, but Colorado did lose one of their defenseman who logs 20-minute games to a break in his breastbone.

The NHL has scheduled the playoffs this Sunday with a couple of afternoon games and one night game beginning at 1:30, 3:30, and then eight o’clock this evening.