Month: June 2022

Three attempts in the regular season and two in the playoffs before Tampa Bay finally beat the Rangers, but only after taking 52 SOG, scoring twice on the power play, outhitting New York, and fortunately with 41.6 seconds remaining Mr. Palat scoring and saving the day.

The first period was not one to brag about as ESPN commentator Mr. Chelios stated that he did not say Tampa had a good first period, but that they were sloppy and had a better second period.

As Mr. Zibanejad sat in the penalty box, gooney perry hits Mr. Shesterkin in the face to receive a “slashing” penalty, and 59 seconds later the “Z-man” is out of the penalty box and scoring the game’s first score for his 10^th and 6^th power-play goal.

Continuing their broad street bullies/charlestown chiefs style of play less than two minutes after goony perry’s penalty Mr. Nash goons it up by running Mr. Shesterkin to earn an “interference” penalty that afforded New York to go up 2-0 on the power play.

The game was all New York with the Rangers scoring two power play goals 127 seconds apart for the 2-0 lead halfway through the period, but 66 seconds later a shot Mr. Shesterkin should of stopped gave the Lighting their first goal of the game.

Finally one last belligerent takes the ice at the end of the period as pat MaGoon maroon whose stat line highlights six hits and one giveaway while playing almost nine minutes for the whole game goes after Mr. Zibanejad.

The third period looks positive for New York sporting a 7-1 record leading after two periods and not having lost to Tampa Bay even once all season long but in under three minutes to start the period the Lightning ties the game on the power play.

Five minutes later Mr. McDonagh pushes Mr. Vatrano into Mr. Vasilevskiy with no space to skate away and Mr. Vatrano gets penalized unbelievably for goaltender interference but this does not work for the Lightning as the Rangers penalty killers are blocking shots and clearing the zone.

Two times Cup champion with Tampa Bay Mr. Goodrow now with New York had such a severe ankle shot block that it required going to the locker room, but he returned, but who did not return after a cross-check to the lower back was Mr. Strome.

Before the 10-minute mark of the third-period elbows are flying and Tampa high sticking is not being called, then Mr. Kucherov receives his comeuppance with a four-minute double high sticking minor penalty after putting “the lumber” to none other than in the face of Mr. Zibanejad.

Mr. Trouba is called for his third minor penalty of the game, some 4-on-4 hockey, all the goals are a power play, and the announcer referred to goony perry as the most gifted offensive player on the ice during the 4-on-4 which made me spit my beer through my nose.

New York and Tampa Bay are heading into overtime but Mr. Palat scores with only 41.6 seconds remaining to save the Lightning’s bacon with a 3-2 Conference Final home-opening win.

Edmonton hosts Colorado for game four tonight at eight o’clock and with the Oilers’ firepower they should be able to win this last home game to prevent the Avalanche from sweeping them out of the playoffs.

Edmonton scored first on a Mr. McDavid shot just :38 seconds into the game and the Oilers are rolling, or so it seemed but :28 seconds later Mr. Kane takes out Mr. Kadri (who did not return) with a cross-check into the dasher boards earning a five-minute penalty.

Edmonton’s penalty killers and Mr. Smith were up to the task and were tested again as Mr. Nurse earns a delay of game for shooting the puck up and over the glass from his defensive zone a few minutes after Mr. Kane comes out of the box.

In the second period, Mr. Smith and Mr. Francouz made save after saving as both teams combine for 32 SOG and Colorado was able to get an early one past Mr. Smith as the Avalanche collected 19 SOG for the period.

In the third period, the Oilers tied the game when Mr. McLeod surrounded by no less than three Avalanche players skated over the blue line and shot from the directly top center in between the two faceoff circles to whip it past Mr. Francouz.

With 7:45 minutes remaining Edmonton rips a loud shot off the iron behind Mr. Francouz but sees the puck come back as Mr. Compher checks Mr. Bouchard off the puck and into the dasher boards for control of the puck and then fires it past Mr. Smith for the 3-2 lead.

Colorado’s Happy Net goal was particularly disturbing to watch as Mr. Draisaitl carelessly tosses the puck towards center ice that cannot make it past both Colorado players to a teammate then hangs his head and skates slowly towards his net.

Edmonton’s 40-year-old backup goaltender, Mr. Nurse, Mr. Hyman, Mr. Russell, or Mr. Kulak did not lose this game you can however lay the blame on the ice in front of the skates of Mr. McDavid, Mr. Draisaitl, Mr. Kane, and Mr. Nugent-Hopkins for their non-offensive output. 

The Oilers’ four most gifted offensive players were a combined 9 SOG with 1 goal, 7 hits, 5 GVAs, 1 block, and a -10 plus/minus, completely unacceptable for the first home game of the Conference Finals since 2006, a better effort is required or break out the brooms.

This afternoon at three o’clock Tampa Bay hosts New York for game three of the Eastern Conference Finals as the Rangers take their 2-0 games lead to the Sunshine state.

In a seven-game series, the home team is expected to win the first two games and New York did just that and now Tampa Bay will play two incredible games at home to tie the series, in most playoff scenarios that would probably happen.

Tampa Bay could only score on Mr. Shesterkin when gifted a power-play opportunity at the beginning of the game and after pulling their goalie for the extra man with only a few minutes remaining while down by two.

Less than three minutes into the game Mr. Reaves and Mr. Maroon were “jostling” before a center ice faceoff when the Rangers player assessed a minor penalty but not the Lightning player, commentators Mr. Messier and Mr. Chelios explained why the call should have been different.

This power play affords Tampa Bay to score the first goal of the game fortunately for New York they were able to get that one back a few minutes later to tie the game.

With a few minutes remaining in the first period, Mr. LaFreniere rings a shot off the post and the Rangers maintain possession and Mr. Fox makes a pass through two Lightning defenders to Mr. Kaapo Kakko (pronounced…” Cup A Cocoa”) who scores New York’s second goal of the game.

The second period had an entire game’s worth of SOG and ironically no goals were scored in a tight one-goal game.

As the third period begins to wind down Mr. Kucherov takes the puck off the dashboards and blindly throws it out of the zone where it hits a Rangers player in the skate creating an odd-man rush.

The Rangers Mr. Fox passes to Mr. Zibanejad shooting from the top of the faceoff circle absolutely blows it past Mr. Vasilevskiy blocker side for the 3-1 lead.

Just when you thought it was over HC Cooper with a few minutes remaining and down by two goals pulls the goalie and with 2:02 remaining and things became more interesting as Tampa Bay scored with the extra skater.

Shots going wide, blocking Rangers, scrambling in front of the net and final seconds puck possession is all New York for the 3-2 final and the 2-0 games lead in the series and a daunting two games in Tampa Bay next.

Tonight the Edmonton Oilers in Rogers Place should be firing on all cylinders for games three and four if they want to make a series of this Western Conference Final, they have the necessary firepower that can and must score often for the Oilers to come out on top.  

During the first period of game two, Edmonton hung skate to skate with Colorado as each team finished with double-digit SOG and each goaltender prevented any scoring but then the Oilers only take 11 SOG over the next 40 minutes.

In less than three minutes early in the second period Colorado scores three times, the first goal happens because of poor passing by the Oilers which led to a terrific eye-hand tip to the right of Mr. Smith, cannot blame the goaltender for that score.   

The second goal was scored 15 seconds later by Mr. Manson over Mr. Smith’s left pad and the Avalanche were skating hard with a solid forecheck, two smart passes and a 86 mph / 138.404 km shot from the Colorado defenseman for the 2-0 score.

In just over two minutes Mr. Kadri records three assists as Colorado scores for the third time on a three-on-one called a two-on-one by the announcer and another shot goes over Mr. Smith’s pad and under the blocker.

The situation was not dire, with approximately 14 minutes remaining in the period, the third yet to be played, and the Oilers offensive firepower as good as they are could overcome this deficit, but you have to take more than six or five SOG for the period to be successful.  

Having two dozen shots thrown his way, Mr. Francouz (reverently referred to as “Frankie” from the crowd) records his first shutout of the 2022 playoffs and now sits on the bench with Mr. Roy as the only goaltenders to record a shutout for Colorado in the Conference Finals.  

The excitement continues in NYC as the Rangers host the defending two-time Stanley Cup champions for game two of the Eastern Conference Finals, opening faceoff at approximately eight o’clock this evening in Madison Square Garden.

The New York Rangers won their seventh playoff game in a row for a new franchise record at home last night as they won convincingly 6-2 over Tampa Bay.

The announcers were all too ready to provide the “long nine-day lay-off” excuse for Tampa Bay as heard no less than a dozen times during the entire broadcast and with 14 seconds remaining an announcer wondered rhetorically if the long lay-off hurt Mr. Vasilevskiy.

It was also proffered that Tampa Bay lost 5-0 to Toronto in the opening round so this is just another aberration combined with HC Cooper worrying about the players not having their legs because of being off for so long, okay we will go with that.

New York scored on the power play while killing off three penalties, they won 60% of their faceoffs, Mr. Shesterkin was brilliant in net, and New York scored just over a minute into the first period.

The Rangers scored first as Mr. Zibanejad after receiving a stretch pass from Mr. Vatrano skates around and past Mr. Kucherov, fakes a shot from the faceoff dot, and passes to Mr. Kreider who smokes a shot over Mr. Vasilevskiy blocker side to score the first goal of the game.

Madison Square Garden was rocking but Tampa Bay came back six minutes later to tie the score for the only goals in the first period.

Similarly, New York takes the 2-1 lead early in the second period but Tampa Bay responds a half a minute later to tie the game again. Then the Rangers respond almost as quickly 90 seconds after that to take the 3-2 lead from Mr. Chytil who scores his second six minutes later and the period ends with a 4-2 score.

As expected when The Bread Man, Mr. Panarin scored 30 seconds into the third-period things began to turn ugly as New York’s opponent played to their lowest base physically, and New York scored once more which only creates more animosity.  

We have to witness captain goonkos shove his stick shaft into and through the face mask bars of Mr. Shesterkin who laid face down on the ice momentarily creating a gasp from the crowd, no real harm, no foul.

Then, of course, Tampa’s Footegoon has to face wash and punch Rangers faces in close quarters and the scrums towards the end of the game were beginning to become reminiscent of the 1970s when everyone squared off and the officials cannot tend everyone at once.

It could have become a large-scale donnybrook but the officials and cooler heads prevail, with one player in the box and most others to the locker room, game two should be first-rate.

Tonight’s High Octane event between Colorado and Edmonton starts at eight o’clock and can the Oilers come back with a strong effort as they did against their last opponent or will the Avalanche continue their torrid scoring?

For the second consecutive playoff series opener, Edmonton allows nearly 50 SOG against and gets bombarded in the first opener with nine goals against and then eight goals against in this series opener last night.

Mr. Kane opens the scoring with his NHL playoff leading 13^th goal as he accepts a pass just as he skates over the center redline and continues unmolested right down main street to bury the shot past Mr. Kuemper for the one nothing lead five minutes in.

When Colorado scored with approximately 14 seconds left in the first period to take the 3-2 lead, the replay clearly highlights a clean tag-up before the puck is touched in the offensive zone and Edmonton is penalized for the failed challenge.

To begin the second period on their first power-play Colorado scores 32 seconds in but Edmonton comes right back and then before you know it the Avalanche score another one on Mr. Smith who at this point gets a “mercy pulling” according to the announcer.

After the Avalanche builds a 7-3 four-goal lead Mr. McDavid scores the first of the next three Edmonton goals and this barn burner suddenly becomes a tight one-goal game until the very end with just over 20 seconds remaining and a Happy Net goal for the 8-6 Colorado victory.

This game featured the second-highest amount of goals scored in a Conference Final, two backup goaltenders (starters hurt or tired),  broadcasted by TNT utilizing spectacular ice level shots for faceoffs, unfortunately, they also use one of the most loathed referees for an analyst on called penalties.

Disastrously, Colorado’s starting goaltender now has sustained an upper-body injury, and Edmonton’s number one 40-year-old goalie could bounce back strong, game two Thursday night puck drops at eight o’clock in Colorado.

Tonight’s game one of the Eastern Conference finals pitting the Broadway Blueshirts versus the defending two-time Stanley Cup champions in a series where these two teams could not be more evenly matched statistically, so this will come down to heart and determination, Rangers in six.