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Islanders News: Bridgeport prepares for final weekend; sad Frans; NHL playoff bits

Last night's playoffs were more high-scoring madness. Alas, no Islanders.

By Dominik
You're good enough, and doggone it people like you.
You're good enough, and doggone it people like you.
Bruce Bennett

Not much new about the Isles -- here are some practice updates as Bridgeport enters its final weekend with a new Swede line, and here is an official site bit about John Tavares' career year -- so maybe enjoy a video of a very sad Frans Nielsen (despite a career year of his own) in his season-ending scrum:


Meanwhile, the playoffs last night were mostly excellent, continuing the high-scoring madness from the opening night. But the Rangers-Flyers ended up being a bit of a dud, as the redshorts controlled play.

  • Andrew MacDonald opened scoring early -- which Keith Jones hilariously said justified signing him between the regular and postseason -- but the Rangers soon tied. It was 1-1 until well into the third when a Flyers rookie took a bad penalty and things fell apart.
  • Broad Street Hockey: "They didn't get a shot for the first seven minutes in the first period, for the first six minutes of the second, and then again for the first seven minutes of the third."
  • The next game was Blues-Blackhawks, which opened with five goals in the first period, then nothing until the final minutes when the Blues forced overtime. Three overtimes, that is. It was sloppy in parts, but also every bit you'd expect from two powerful teams. Vladimir Tarasenko returned and flying, and his hand did not appear to suffer -- amazing, since he was originally expected to miss at least another month.
  • After getting the benefit of an awful call in his favor in OT (ONLY BROOKS ORPIK IS ALLOWED TO CHECK TOEWS), Joel Quenneville really, really wanted a 5-on-3 on a potential (but ultimately inconclusive) over-the-glass play.
  • Alexander Steen scored the winner after Corey Crawford let a soft rebound continue play. Safe to say it could have ended differently.
  • This is what sports does to people. Then they yell about their [coach or GM or goalie or other], then they yell at bloggers for not yelling enough, then they yell about things they can't control, then they kick their dog. I assume.
  • In San Jose, things began with a power outage, which forced modern humans to re-experience the awful, savage, torturous era when arenas did not have giant jumbotrons pumping useless graphics at them throughout warmups.
  • The power came back on though, and the Sharks trounced the Kings and chased Jonathan Quick from the game. Quick is Matt Moulson's brother-in-law.
  • In Colorado, the Avs were down 4-2 in the third but forced overtime, the last bit after Patrick Roy pulled his goalie with three minutes left. He was widely reported to be "the first coach to do this" in the NHL by people who have never watched the Islanders.
  • Semyon Varlamov went a bit reverse Avery. (In this instance, and this instance only, "Avery" is used at this site not as an expletive.)
  • Paul Stastny scored the tying goal and OT winner. Nathan MacKinnon did okay too:

As for non-playoff teams: Mikhail Grabovski likes Washington but won't re-sign until they know who their GM and coach are. And -- perhaps you've heard -- many signs point to the Leafs getting worse under Randy Carlyle.

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