Islanders, NHL Playoff News: Reliving 1975, Gutless Puke lands, Nolan reflects

There is no Islanders news. Sorry.

Islanders Reads

• But here is a reliving of their 3-0 series comeback on the Penguins in 1975, complete with cool jersey and goalie mask photos. [Third String Goalie]
• And here’s some expansion draft musing, on why they should protect Calvin de Haan over Travis Hamonic. [Eyes on Isles]
• And the lottery is Saturday (which technically involves the Isles!) Here is an FAQ. [Sportsnet]

NHL Playoffs

The second round opened last night, with both Western series kicking off. In the “early” game, the Blues erased a 3-1 third-period deficit only to lose on a bouncer with five minutes left. [On the Forecheck | NHL] Officiating was...suspect. P.K. Subban was...awesome — had a key hand in three Predators goals. Marc Bergevin is going to have that trade on his tombstone.

Kevin Fiala was injured in a scary crash into the boards that likely broke his leg. You may not know that there is a rule that the game can’t resume until a new ambulance arrives, thus an even longer delay after Fiala was stretchered off. [Sportsnet]

The Oilers and Ducks also opened their second-round series, with an eerily similar game: The home team had penalty trouble, but erased a 3-1 third-period deficit, only to give up the winner with under five minutes remaining on a tough bounce.

• The gamesmanship in that series started early, as each coach anticipated how the other team would whine about faceoffs and stuff. [TSN]
• Tonight the Capitals and Penguins begin what should be a great series. Here’s a Down Goes Brown look at some of the other classic second-round matchups, at least on paper. [THN]
• How feel-good story Clarke MacArthur is giving the Sens a boost. [Silver Seven]

Elsewhere

• Nikita Kucherov had a great season, went home to Russia and gave an interview where he kind of torched his linemates. [Raw Charge | Sportsnet]
• Coaches, coaches, coaches: Bruce Cassidy gets the interim tag removed in Boston. [SCOC] McLellan, Babcock and Tortorella are finalists for the Adams [SB Nation] And as expected, Travis Green was made coach of the Canucks, in part to develop their youth. [Yahoo]
• Speaking of, in Year X of their rebuild, Canucks head honcho Trevor Linden admits they are in fact in a rebuild. [Sportsnet]
• In the unending stream of “player played through amputated arm” stories, Patrice Bergeron played all season through a sports hernia. [Big Bad Blog]
• Don’t count on the Wild re-signing big deadline acquisition Martin Hanzal. [Star Trib]
• Patrick Marleau would love to stay with the Sharks till the end, but the free agent’s future is up in the air. [CSN]
• Ted Nolan on coaching again, and on encouraging First Nation hockey players to keep on keeping on. [Star Phoenix]
• As part of ESPN’s brilliant layoffs to save on expenses in an era where they pay billions for sports broadcast rights, they fired several hockey writers who I doubt made very much. [Second City Hockey]
• The Avs’ terrible season was sad, but their summer tweets are possibly even sadder? [SB Nation]

Sad but possibly true.