Morning Player Notes in the Playoffs (May 9)

The Tampa Bay Lightning are officially back in the Eastern Conference Finals, after dispatching the New York Islanders in five games, thanks to a convincing 4-0 win on Sunday afternoon.

The Lightning had an answer for just about everything the Islanders threw at them, as Ben Bishop made 28 stops for the shutout win and the offense was led from the blueline, as Victor Hedman scored a pair of goals, including the opening goal, which stood up as the winner.

Hedman was the only one of the two notable players in the game that has any sort of selections, taken nine times among the 50 teams in the pool.

The Lightning will now await the series winner between the Capitals and Penguins and that series will resume on Tuesday, with Pittsburgh up 3-2 in that one.

As for the eliminated Islanders, the 29 selections of theirs are now stricken from the record, as Johnny Boychuk, taken six times, was the most popular of the bunch and now taken from active duty.  Marek Zidlicky, who only appeared in five games in these playoffs, was also taken five times.  Boychuk was held pointless and Zidlicky had 1 assist in these playoffs.

As for leading scorers, John Tavares, taken three times, led the way in Box 13, picking up 6 goals, including 2 winners, and 5 assists for 13 points in 11 games.  He definitely took a step forward in his career trajectory in these playoffs.  Kyle Okposo also had a decent playoffs, picking up 8 points in 11 games.

Well, Stuart is running away with this portion of the season, as his team has a 15-point advantage over Kristy's team this season and his team lost Zidlicky in the loss of the Islanders.  His team still has Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat and Victor Hedman, which is a pretty good combination.  Kristy's team didn't have any Islanders, as she opted for Panthers in the opening round, but her team has Valtteri Filppula, Braydon Coburn and Hedman going forward.