So long, farewell, the Islanders and Predators are gooonne!

So long! Farewell! Auf wierdesehen, goodbye!

From the classic "Sound of Music"

And that little line perfectly tells us fans what happened to two teams yesterday night, as the battle for Lord Stanley's Cup is getting narrowed down.

First off, those New York Islanders...tss, tss...the Islanders drop Game 5 last night in Buffalo, 4-3 and they have been eliminated from the playoffs.
It wasn't too unexpected, although, many thought this would be a sure sweep.

The Islanders played a good series and you can see the potential that this team has, the potential to be an even better team.
What I'm wondering is...how come they haven't become a better team?

I'd like to the Islanders become kind of like the Rangers, in terms of progress, and make a run for the division next year.
The Rangers have been improving ever since their pre-lockout (sad...) laughstock and the Islanders should do the same.
Well, not this year, since New York didn't even finish 10 points above the Isles, but I'm also thinking about last season, when the Rangers were making a serious run to win the Atlantic.

Not saying the Isles are a laughstock, but, they're just...the same, the same as they were before the lockout.
Make the playoffs, as the 8th seed, lose to the Lightning or the Sabres in 5 games.
And it could be even tougher to win the Atlantic Division, with teams like New Jersey, Pittsburgh, their cross-town foes and possibly the reinstatement of the Flyers, might make the Atlantic Division the best in all of hockey.

It didn't help the Islanders that Sean Hill wasn't in the lineup, after he was awarded a 20-game suspension for taking "performance-enhancing drugs", or as the NHL likes to call it, "substance-abuse".

I'd also to commend Ted Nolan's fantastic work behind the bench, he has been by far better than his predecessors and he probably deserves the Jack Adams award, he's been that great...
His team played, in the final month of the season, as if all their games were Game 7, as if they all counted (they did) should they make the playoffs or not.

I also congratulate Rick DiPietro for doing his best in goal, even after his return from injury, and his backup Wade Dubielewicz, who has earned himself a roster spot next year and potentially 10-15 starts behind DiPietro.
Dubie also got them there down the stretch, but it was DiPietro who carried the team on his back for the most of the season before getting injured.

Garth Snow surprised everyone in his rookie year, and made some good moves, most notably getting Ryan Smyth.
Who says a backup goalie can't be a GM? He knows the players better than a GM, he's PLAYED against them!

The Sabres were just overmatching them in every category.

Even in goal, when Ryan Miller made a spectacular save in the dying seconds of Game 5 with his hand, and blindly!

"I panicked,"said Miller,"and luckily I got a hold of it!"

The Islanders haven't gotten past this round since 1993.
That's about 14 years!

And the Preds go down...again.

I know the Preds are still a "young" team in terms of longetivity in the NHL, but, I am beginning to wonder if the label "choke" should be associated with them?

03/04: Lost to Red Wings in quarter finals 2-4
05/06: Lost to Sharks in quarter finals 1-4
06/07: Lost to Sharks in quarter finals 1-4

It's also funny that it's been San Jose knocking them off, and the way things looked between the teams in this series, it could be the start of a nice new rivalry.

I just don't understand...yes, San Jose is a very good team, but the Predators are supposed to be better!

When, when will Nashville finally show they can play in the regular season, and advance in the playoffs?

They have the team, they got Forsberg for chrisssakes! They got Arnott, Kariya, Vokoun, quality d-men, a scary offense!
Their team has been constantly progressing, from 91 points, to 106 points, to 110 points, what's next? 120 points and getting swept from the first round?

The Sharks will most probably face the Red Wings in round 2, should the latter drop the series to Calgary.

Patrick Marleau scored with under 5 minutes remaining to put away a vastly improved Predators team.

"We kept putting our fingers on the stove, and we got burnt by it," said Nashville coach Barry Trotz."

And NHL.com says his job may be in jeopardy, since the team's dropped 3 straight quarterfinal series.

I say no, Trotz is a great coach and there's no way they can get rid of him, not after the way he's made his team better, but they haven't made themselves any better by losing again last night, 3-2 against San Jose.
Then again, if Julien gets fired on the verge of a hundred point season, so can Trotz.

sigh, this is really an enigma.

Or maybe it was that Tomas Vokoun wasn't as good as he should've been, or simply Evgeni Nabokov was better.

Or maybe it was just meant to be.

Happy golfing Preds!

-The Devils shut out Tampa 3-0 on home ice and take a 3-2 lead in the series. Martin Brodeur finally played a good game after allowing a few weaks goals in the previous games.

Goalies Johan and Johan stand tall...

Johan Hedberg, Thrashers.
Johan Holmqvist, Lightning.

in case you hadn't guessed that by now...

Rangers/Thrashers
Johan Hedberg actually played very well for Atlanta, he made 37 saves, and despite the 2-1 loss, he was not to blame.

The first goal was an unlucky bounce after an Avert dump-in along left-wing boards, he went out to play the puck but it ended up taking a funny bounce and going in to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead.
Ilya Kovalchuk scored a great goal early in the 3rd period, he snapped the puck past a screened Lundqvist top-shelf.

It was all for none as Sean Avery buried his second of the game with 4 minutes remaining on a lunging Hedberg in the slot to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead heading back to MSG.

Lightning/Devils
After a paltry performance in Game 1, Johan Holmqvist stepped his game up, and led the Lightning to a surprising 3-2 victory over Brodeur's Devils.

What surprised me more, is that Johan was able to outplay the Devils' netminder, after a really crappy show in Game 1.

The big guys, Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis carried Tampa to victory with a little help from Filip Kuba, who scored a short-handed marker in the first and Martin Brodeur, who clearly wasn't on his game especially after allowing St. Louis' goal from a seemingly impossible angle.

"I was just trying to put it on net and get some air underneath it," St. Louis said. "I don't know where it went but it found its way in."

Brodeur's reply.

"I was there, it just went through me," Brodeur said. "I would love to have it back, but it doesn't work like that in hockey. He had nothing to lose and he hammered it as hard as he could and it went through me."

Zach Parise continued his fine play and scored for the Devils, on the powerplay late in the first, and Jamie Langenbrunner had the other New Jersey goal.

Pens/Sens
Very good game by both teams, especially Ottawa for the most part.
Pittsburgh really woke up in the third period.

The Sens kept their play cool and organised all game long, you can tell there was nothing to complain except the powerplay if Bryan Murray wasn't over his head after the game.
But, the powerplay is not very cool at all. (1 for 9 in this game)

"They got a goal on their first shot and our power play wasn't very good - understatement - but I thought that we really didn't give up any chances for two periods," Senators coach Bryan Murray said. "We couldn't score enough to do any damage and at least get the game in a position where you could just play a checking game. And then they played a great third period."

Sidney Crosby scored on a mirror-play of Alfredsson's setup by Spezza and Heatley ON THE POWERPLAY in the second, that proved to be the game-winner.

Crosby scored just two minutes after another youngstar, Jordan Staal sniped it passed Ray Emery to tie the game at 3.

Jason Spezza scored for Ottawa, and so did Chris Kelly.

Ryan Whitney and Gary Roberts scored powerplay goals for Pittsburgh, respectively in the first and third period and Marc-Andre Fleury rebounded after a terrible playoff debut, and made 34 saves.

He also stoned Mike Fischer with a little over 10 second remaining to steal the win for his team.

Ray Emery was not-so-hot, and he needs to step up his play a notch.
He allowed 4 goals on 21 shots, hardly the .918 SPCT% he put up in the regular season.

Isles/Sabres
Wow, just a good all-around game, thanks for giving us a nice performance!

The Islanders were a completely different team in Game 2, they scored the first goal and even went ahead 2-0 before the Sabres crawled back to tie it.
They had 1 shot in the first period in Game 1, well, in Game 2 they had 12.

Trent Hunter and Bruno Gervais put the Isles up 2-0, and in response, defencemen Tony Lydman and Dmitri Kalinin (who played an awesome game) tied the game at 2.

Rick DiPietro was MARVELOUS in his first game back in nearly a month, and made so many spectacular saves to lead New York to an upset 3-2 win over Buffalo.
The game-winner came from Marc-Andre Begeron on the powerplay, with 10 minutes left to play.

The Sabres, played a good game, but not good enough in Lindy Ruff's eyes.

"We weren't moving our feet," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "Obviously, we want to clean up the first 10 minutes of the game (when the Islanders went up 2-0)."

"It was nice," DiPietro said of the win. "We did a lot of the things we talked about."

It looks like they actually listened to Ted Nolan for a change, anyhow, the series is tied at 1 heading in New York...

-Ottawa will be looking for revenge in PIT, as they face Crosby and the Penguins today at 6:00 PM...Read More

-Calgary tries to even things up today at 1:00 against Detroit while they get Robyn Regehr back while the Wings don't get Bertuzzi back... Read More

-Two "late" games includes Minnesota, at home, trying to come back from a 2-0 deficit to the Anaheim Ducks...Read More...and the 'Nucks trying to take the lead against the Stars in Dallas...Read More

Until later...

Four teams vying for final playoff spot in East...

Here's a table showing you the teams in the race for the final playoff spot of the Eastern Conference with the games remaining and their last game result. Below, you can see abbreviated summaries of the games mentioned above.

• The Canadiens beat the Bruins 1-0 yesterday with the help of rookies: getting 30 saves from rookie Jaroslav Halak and a goal from rookie Guillaume Latendresse, his 16th of the campaign to help top the Bruins, who now seem like they've completely given up on making the playoffs, having not scored a goal in a little more than 138 minutes...Tim Thomas was sensational, making 31 saves in another losing Bruins cause, but not a losing cause for him as he kept the Bruins in the game till the very end, but, when a team doesn't score a goal, it's kinda hard to win a game...


• The Leafs held off the Devils 2-1, the Devils attempted to pry their way back with a goal from rookie sensation Travis Zajac late in the 3rd period, but it was in vain as the Leafs win a crucial matchup against a powerhouse with help from Kyle Wellwood, and his 11th goal of the season, and Nik Antropov with his 16th to seal the deal. Andrew Raycroft was just a little better than the Devils' star netminder Martin Brodeur, making 24 saves with his counterpart making one less for 23...The Leafs are tied with the Canadiens and Hurricanes for the final playoff spot and the Eastern Conference, and along with Carolina, -have 1 game in hand over Montreal...

• The Islanders lost again, this time to the Lightining, in overtime 4-3. The loss puts the Islanders at a mediocre 3-4-3 record in their past ten games. Just as you thought they were a lock, they started losing. Tampa Bay came back in fine fashion after an embarrassing loss to Washington on Sunday (a 7-1 crumbling) despite blowing the lead and going down before tying the game and winning it in overtime. Eric Perrin notched his 12th goal of the season, Vincent Lecavalier scored his league-leading 49th, Jason Ward tied the game with his 5th and Filip Kuba won it in overtime for the Lightning...The Isles got goals from Richard Zednik, his 7th, Richard Park with his 6th and Miro Satan tallied his 25th in a losing cause. With this loss the Islanders fall out of the 8th spot and into the 11 spot in the Eastern Conference, they do hold however, games in hand over the other competing teams...

• The Hurricanes were idle but are coming off a 7-2 thrashing over the New Jersey Devils on Saturday and prepare to play Thursday against the Washington Capitals.

Lightning Gamenight

The Tampa Bay Lightning will look to rebound this evening when they take on the Edmonton Oilers at 10PM eastern. They are in the mist of a season long six game road trip and have fallen two points behind the idle Atlanta Thrashers in the highly contested Southeast division race.

The Lightning have put together back to back sloppy efforts in losses to the Florida Panthers and Vancouver Canucks. They had a season low 16 shots on Roberto Luongo in their previous loss, and did very little to get any kind of pressure on him. The Lightning need to get back to playing Lightning hockey, where they dictate the pace to the opponent, and forcheck and skate hard for 60 minutes. That is where this team is built for success.

Expect for Marc Denis to get the start in net over Johan Holmqvist, who appears to be in a bit of a slump. His last 2 games have not been anything to write home about. He has had some very stoppable shots get by him, and that has appeared to deflate the team and get them off their game in the past 2.

To say this is an important game for the Lightning is an understatement. After tonight, they are off until Saturday, when they go into Calgary. That, in my opinion, is not a great situation for this team to be going into. That team, and their fans, have waited 3 years for a shot at the Lightning. This team can not afford to let Atlanta get too far ahead of them with so few games left this year.

8 scouts last night at Kings-Avs game...

Over at the Denver Post, Terry Frei just reported 8 teams (rumoured to be Chicago, Vancouver, St. Louis, NY Rangers, Dallas, Boston, Columbus and Tampa Bay) were in attendance for last night's Kings-Avalanche game).

The possible shoppings from both teams are believed to be:

Brent Sopel: Los Angeles is rumoured not to want a mountain of players for him, most likely a mid-round draft pick. Sopel can be an affordable option for teams wanting to bolster their blue line. He is also more affordable than Sheldon Souray.

Aaron Miller: Might attract some attention for teams in need of depth...

Ossi Vaananen: With the injury to defenceman Jordan Leopold, Vaananen's chances of being dealt have likely diminished, unless the Avs make a same position swap and trade Vaananen for another defenceman.

Ken Klee: Klee is aging quickly and he has not been as effective this season as he was with Toronto and New Jersey last season. If he is dealt, he will be for at best a mid-late round pick for teams seeking depth.
Don't look for teams to sacrifice much or trade any young players such as New Jersey did (Aleksander Suglobov)last season.

Ian Laperriere: Slight drop-off from last season, Laperriere is a checking centre with a light offensive side.