Sabres and Sharks Surge Ahead
Buffalo Sabres Beat the New York Islanders 4-1
From April 16th: Alot of people were expecting Buffalo to sweep the Islanders, but the latter has been able to maintain some of their season ending momentum. Game 1 went to the Sabres though it was closer than the 4-1 score would indicate. The game didn't get away from the Isles until the third period. Game 2 saw the return of DiPietro in net and made fans think "what concussion?" He had 32 saves in a 3-2 win.
From April 19th: The Sabres took both games at Nassau Coliseum from the Islanders to go up 3-1 in the series. Rick DiPietro has been asked to carry the team, but goalies don't score goals. Yashin, Kozlov, and Satan have 0 goals, 3 assists and 20 shots between them over 4 games.
From April 21st: There weren't too many people willing to give the New York Islanders much of a chance against the President's Trophy winning Buffalo Sabres. But the Islanders did pull off a win in game 2 and, except for game 1, kept each game close. Even in game 5, the clincher for Buffalo, the Sabres nearly blew two, three goal leads in the 3rd period. The Islanders, sensing that the end was near, finally came to life with the energy that they used at the end of the season to make their playoff appearance. They peppered Sabre goalie Ryan Miller with 18 shots in the 3rd period. Miller was on his game and made some great saves to give the Sabres the win.
Buffalo was 16.7% on the power play while the Islanders went 10.5%. Fairly even there. Buffalo averaged 32.4 shots/game to the Islanders' 26.8.
Rick DiPietro was finally cleared to play for game 2 and got the win. He seemed to play fine to me. Islander fans can let me know if my perception is accurate or not. Defense didn't seem great, but it didn't seem that bad either. The loss of Sean Hill for performance enhancement drugs in game 5 didn't seem like an overriding factor either. They weren't able to contain Drury (4 goals 1 assist), Briere (1 goal 4 assists), and Zubrus (5 assists), but they could've overcome them. The fault with the Islanders was their offense.
Trent Hunter led the team with 3 goals. He had 20 during the regular season so that isn't too shabby for him. Trade deadline acquisition Ryan Smyth had 4 points. He was mic'd up for one game and I heard him ask a teammate, "Where's my support out there?" Good question. Jason Blake had 40 goals this season but only had 1 in the playoffs. Miroslav Satan had 27 goals during the season but didn't get his playoff goal until game 5. Sillinger had 26 goals during the season but just 1 in the playoffs. Kozlov had 25 goals during the regular season but no goals in the playoffs. Yashin? Not a single point in the playoffs.
The Islanders will likely look to build their team around DiPietro, who really shined this year. Smyth is a free agent. Will he stay? I wouldn't count on it. The front office will have to clean out the dead wood to give him a reason to stay.
San Jose Sharks Beat the Nashville Predators 4-1
From April 12th: Down in Nashville, it was a rematch from last year's round 1 battle between the Predators and the Sharks. And the body count has begun. Cheechoo, the league's leading scorer last year and no slouch this year with 37, had a knee on knee collision with Scott Hartnell. Hartnell drew a major penalty and a game misconduct, his second over the last three games. Seems fishy to me, though I haven't seen the video nor was the game on in my area. Cheechoo will likely miss the rest of the playoffs. The Sharks prevailed in the end, 5-4, after a double OT.
From April 16th: ...And speaking of hitting, apparently that's all the Predators - Sharks series is about. San Jose's Cheechoo's knee on knee hit by Nashville's Hartnell turned out not to be the season ender it was thought to be. He played in game 2. Hartnell had his suspension lifted and got into more fights. Instead, another Nashville player, Radulov, got suspended for game 3, tonight, for boarding Steve Bernier so bad he had to be carried off the ice. It was all fights at the end of the game (6 guys tossed) but Nashville won in the end 5-2 to even up the series. Peter "I'm not dead!" Forsberg scored two goals, though one was an empty netter.
From April 21st: The 1st round re-match between the Nashville Predators and the San Jose Sharks promised to be an exciting series. It certainly was an intensely physical series, but the Sharks won it in only 5 games. My Dad watched the series and told me that he felt that Nashville played alot harder during the regular season, particularly against division rivals Detroit. The other three teams in their division (Columbus, Chicago, and St. Louis) have been softies these last two seasons. Granted, the Blues actually improved this season, but they were still a long way off from the playoffs. When 24 of your 82 games come against soft teams, does that mean your record is a little inflated? I suppose one could take the time to compare their record to non-divisional foes to find out.
What went wrong for Nashville? They were definitely better on the power play: 13.6% vs. San Jose's 6.7%. Goal scoring? In game 1 and 2 they put up 4 and 5 goals, respectively. After that they squeaked out 5 goals for the rest of the series. 14 goals total. The Sharks only had 16. It seems like it was just a case of the Sharks being able to go that extra mile to win.
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DED
From April 16th: Alot of people were expecting Buffalo to sweep the Islanders, but the latter has been able to maintain some of their season ending momentum. Game 1 went to the Sabres though it was closer than the 4-1 score would indicate. The game didn't get away from the Isles until the third period. Game 2 saw the return of DiPietro in net and made fans think "what concussion?" He had 32 saves in a 3-2 win.
From April 19th: The Sabres took both games at Nassau Coliseum from the Islanders to go up 3-1 in the series. Rick DiPietro has been asked to carry the team, but goalies don't score goals. Yashin, Kozlov, and Satan have 0 goals, 3 assists and 20 shots between them over 4 games.
From April 21st: There weren't too many people willing to give the New York Islanders much of a chance against the President's Trophy winning Buffalo Sabres. But the Islanders did pull off a win in game 2 and, except for game 1, kept each game close. Even in game 5, the clincher for Buffalo, the Sabres nearly blew two, three goal leads in the 3rd period. The Islanders, sensing that the end was near, finally came to life with the energy that they used at the end of the season to make their playoff appearance. They peppered Sabre goalie Ryan Miller with 18 shots in the 3rd period. Miller was on his game and made some great saves to give the Sabres the win.
Buffalo was 16.7% on the power play while the Islanders went 10.5%. Fairly even there. Buffalo averaged 32.4 shots/game to the Islanders' 26.8.
Rick DiPietro was finally cleared to play for game 2 and got the win. He seemed to play fine to me. Islander fans can let me know if my perception is accurate or not. Defense didn't seem great, but it didn't seem that bad either. The loss of Sean Hill for performance enhancement drugs in game 5 didn't seem like an overriding factor either. They weren't able to contain Drury (4 goals 1 assist), Briere (1 goal 4 assists), and Zubrus (5 assists), but they could've overcome them. The fault with the Islanders was their offense.
Trent Hunter led the team with 3 goals. He had 20 during the regular season so that isn't too shabby for him. Trade deadline acquisition Ryan Smyth had 4 points. He was mic'd up for one game and I heard him ask a teammate, "Where's my support out there?" Good question. Jason Blake had 40 goals this season but only had 1 in the playoffs. Miroslav Satan had 27 goals during the season but didn't get his playoff goal until game 5. Sillinger had 26 goals during the season but just 1 in the playoffs. Kozlov had 25 goals during the regular season but no goals in the playoffs. Yashin? Not a single point in the playoffs.
The Islanders will likely look to build their team around DiPietro, who really shined this year. Smyth is a free agent. Will he stay? I wouldn't count on it. The front office will have to clean out the dead wood to give him a reason to stay.
San Jose Sharks Beat the Nashville Predators 4-1
From April 12th: Down in Nashville, it was a rematch from last year's round 1 battle between the Predators and the Sharks. And the body count has begun. Cheechoo, the league's leading scorer last year and no slouch this year with 37, had a knee on knee collision with Scott Hartnell. Hartnell drew a major penalty and a game misconduct, his second over the last three games. Seems fishy to me, though I haven't seen the video nor was the game on in my area. Cheechoo will likely miss the rest of the playoffs. The Sharks prevailed in the end, 5-4, after a double OT.
From April 16th: ...And speaking of hitting, apparently that's all the Predators - Sharks series is about. San Jose's Cheechoo's knee on knee hit by Nashville's Hartnell turned out not to be the season ender it was thought to be. He played in game 2. Hartnell had his suspension lifted and got into more fights. Instead, another Nashville player, Radulov, got suspended for game 3, tonight, for boarding Steve Bernier so bad he had to be carried off the ice. It was all fights at the end of the game (6 guys tossed) but Nashville won in the end 5-2 to even up the series. Peter "I'm not dead!" Forsberg scored two goals, though one was an empty netter.
From April 21st: The 1st round re-match between the Nashville Predators and the San Jose Sharks promised to be an exciting series. It certainly was an intensely physical series, but the Sharks won it in only 5 games. My Dad watched the series and told me that he felt that Nashville played alot harder during the regular season, particularly against division rivals Detroit. The other three teams in their division (Columbus, Chicago, and St. Louis) have been softies these last two seasons. Granted, the Blues actually improved this season, but they were still a long way off from the playoffs. When 24 of your 82 games come against soft teams, does that mean your record is a little inflated? I suppose one could take the time to compare their record to non-divisional foes to find out.
What went wrong for Nashville? They were definitely better on the power play: 13.6% vs. San Jose's 6.7%. Goal scoring? In game 1 and 2 they put up 4 and 5 goals, respectively. After that they squeaked out 5 goals for the rest of the series. 14 goals total. The Sharks only had 16. It seems like it was just a case of the Sharks being able to go that extra mile to win.
\_/
DED
Labels: hockey
posted by DED at 1:38 PM
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