Morning Player Notes in the Playoffs (Apr 28)

In a rare occurrence, we knew a result in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs before the first round had even ended, as the New York Islanders and Tampa Bay Lightning got underway, thanks to some fortunate scheduling, especially for the Islanders.

The Islanders, continuing to play every other night, shortly after finishing off the Florida Panthers, didn't show any signs of rust, whereas the Lightning, who finished off the Red Wings fairly early, had five days off in between and it showed in spots, especially in the crease.

Despite a 1-0 Lightning lead early on, the Islanders were not swayed, as they continued to play their game and it paid off, as their scoring depth really came into play, scoring three more goals before the end of the opening frame, none of the goal scorers actually factoring in the hockey pool.  How sad is that?

The 2nd period was a lot of the same, as the Islanders were able to chase Ben Bishop with a fourth goal, thanks to John Tavares.  The 4-1 goal would end up being the winner, as the Lightning were able to mount a short comeback, but an empty-netter sealed the deal and the Islanders came away with a 5-3 win in the end, taking Game 1 away from home.

Tavares finished with a 3-point night, Ryan Strome returned to the lineup and had a couple of assists and Brock Nelson also cashed in with a couple of assists, leading the Islanders contingency on the selection sheet in points.  On the Bolts' side, it was all singles, in terms of points.

Making room for Strome in this one was Josh Bailey, who reportedly suffered an upper-body injury in the Islanders' last game against the Panthers and it turned out to be a fortunate turn of events for Strome, who picked up some points.

The strength of the Nashville Predators is that of their back end, both goaltending and their defense and that's what saw them through to the second round on Wednesday night, as they eliminated the Anaheim Ducks with a 2-1 victory.

Of course, you have to have some timely scoring and it couldn't have happened any better for the Predators, who tallied twice in the opening period, thanks to Colin Wilson and Paul Gaustad, and then their survival mode kicked in and they held on for a huge Game 7 win.

Pekka Rinne really had to stand tall in this one, making 36 saves, including 14 in the 3rd period, to preserve the win for his side, while the rest of the team stood up and made 24 shot blocks in the game as well, Roman Josi accounting for seven of those blocks.

Offensively, it really didn't look good for our little hockey pool, as the bonus point sunk into oblivion with a non-pool player and no one else had a multi-point game, so that was kind of rough for us, no matter how good the game actually was.

So, it's out with the Ducks!  Another Western favourite, now booted from our active teams, 113 picks, right down the tubes.  Hampus Lindholm, the Box 10 defenseman, was the most popular of the Ducks, taken 22 times, followed by Box 2 forward, Corey Perry.  The three most impressive Ducks in the opening series were Ryan Getzlaf, Jakob Silfverberg and Sami Vatanen, as they all finished with 5 points in the round, but after that, it was fairly scarce.

Now, the top teams in the pool, in terms of active players, Stuart, Kristy & Eric, now have 18 players each, while Jeremy's second team has 17 players after the first round.  We might be struggling for points, when this round is over and done with.

Now we can move on to the second round, where the San Jose Sharks now await the Nashville Predators and we'll have a Western preview either today or tomorrow morning.