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Way to go Paddy Roy! Willed this team into the postseason.

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Congrats Chris. Still not sure how they did it, wasn't their playoff chances down to like 9% a month ago?

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Shoresy, "It's called a sweater"

He and Barzal. Barzal has been incredible this year. I'm hoping Roy has some of the answers that Lambert didn't vs a stacked & reloaded Canes team. Hoping like hell that Dobson is okay. Without him the Isles are fucked.

19-12-5 under Roy. That's a 98 point pace for a full season, if you believe in such projections. Far better than Lambert had them playing, which was at an 89 point pace.




Yeah I believe 9.1%. But they've gone 7-0-1 in their last 8 games. They've only lost 10 in regulation in their last 30 games. Went from 56 points in 52 games (on pace for 88.31 points for the season), to 92 in 81 (92.13 point pace). If they'd stayed on that 88.31 pace, they'd be in the Pens' shoes, needing a win but also hoping other teams lose in regulation. A few big winning streaks have helped their cause big time.

I was hoping the Pens would be out Wednesday and take it easy. They'll be fighting for their season. Isles can't move up or down, so this game means nothing to them at all. Playing the Canes no matter what. So Roy may want to rest guys or look at it as a tune up game.

In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy seeing that little x next to their name. It may be a short postseason for the Isles. Last year was a closer 6 game series than most realize, but the Canes are healthy & reloaded this year. Going to be tough to beat them.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Ha, for all my daily updating, I failed to realize that there's a good chance the Penguins won't be playing for anything tomorrow night. Any combo of wins by the Red Wings and or Capitals tonight eliminates the Pens. One of those teams has to win, right? Go Red Wings! I'm with you!
I'd love for the Pens to not be playing for their season tomorrow night. Much rather they just be going through the motions of pointless game...

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Welp, that does it. The Caps are in as WC2 and will play the Rangers.

Pens eliminated and the Isles can't move up or down, so tonight's game means nothing. If someone had told me a few weeks ago that the Isles' last game would be meaningless, I'd have 100% believed them, but in a very different way.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Isles resting some guys. Barzal, Engvall, Fasching all resting. Dobson has been skating on his own, which makes it sound like he will be ready for Game 1. I hope so. Without him the Isles don't have much of a chance. They probably don't have much of a chance anyway, but without him, they have even less of not much of a chance. You still following?

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Isles hang on to win Game 82, 5-4 vs the Penguins. Certainly let it be interesting, with the first penalty shot against in the final 30 seconds. Goal mouth scramble and an Islander skater covered the puck in the crease, so the Pens got to choose their shooter. Sorokin, who has been pretty bad an shootouts all year, stopped Crosby on the PS.

It was pretty obvious that it was Jeff Carter's last game. He was shaking hands with tons of people before the game, etc. He scored and a Pen grabbed the puck for him. That's pretty cool, knowing it's your last goal, etc. Few players get to keep their last goal puck. After the game Crosby wouldn't let him leave the ice, and finally pointed over to Carter's kids on the bench. Really cool way to go out. And the classless Islanders fans gave him an ovation. Carter was named as one of the stars of the game and the Isles players shook his hand. I think the Isles staff brought the kids down to the bench and I heard they put a congratulatory notice on the scoreboard after the game.

Maybe of importance, Pageau went down in a weird way late in the first and didn't return. Kind of spun around and fell slowly, got up saying something to the Pens' goalie, looked pretty much okay and skated off. But he didn't return. They'd only dressed 11 Fs, so Aho moved from 7th D to 11th F. Almost scored. Thomas Hickey, doing the between the benches announcing, talked about when he used to get moved up to F. Said it's mentally exhausting as a defender to play F because you're always unsure if you're in the right position for the play, wondering if the other team is going to purposely take advantage of you backing in too much, etc. Burke asked Butch Goring if he'd ever played D. Butch just laughed.

Palmieri got his 30th goal. They were passing to him every time they had the puck in the O-zone. Simon Holmstrom got his 15th, which surprised me. I didn't think he had that many. But he's got 7 SH on the year, so it makes sense. I think his last SH goal was in early January. It would be nice if he could re-find that magic vs Carolina.

Wahlstrom played and looked okay. He was probably trying too hard, having been a healthy scratch for 28 straight games (I think they said 28).

Ruslan Iskhakov made his NHL debut and had an assist. He's good but really small. Got thrown around a bit, but never showed any emotion about it. Just got up and kept playing. Saying his last name tripped up the announcers. In an intermission interview Brock Nelson referred to him as "Rusty". Butch Goring, known for botching names, said that's all he's calling the kid from now on. Since the game didn't mean anything, I was kind of hoping they'd go to a shootout so I could see if this kid can score on NHL goalies the way he does AHL goalies. He's done the between the legs shot 3 times this year to score in AHL shootouts.

Kyle MacLean with another assist and some great plays. He's fit right in and allowed Cizikas to move to the 1st line, where he hits and digs pucks out of corners for Barzal and Horvat. Cizikas got his 10th of the year last night.

Sam Bolduc got back into the lineup with Dobson out. Had a goal and assist. Bortuzzo looked slow as hell. Dobson had better be ready for Game 1.

Isles finish a roller coaster season on a 8-0-1 run. Really hoping they can bring that kind of magic into the playoffs!

Roy with a record of 20-12-5 after taking over, or a 99.7 point pace. Pretty, pretty good.

Time to start a new thread!

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Just realized that Kyle Palmieri, Cal Clutterbuck, Brock Nelson, and JG Pageau dressed for all 82 games. Ironically, Pageau left game 82 injured. Astounding that Clutterbuck played all 82. He's had several injured stretches every year recently.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.

Roy announced Sorokin will start Game 3. I assume he'd planned to rotate or go with the hot hand, but after Game 2, you do whatever you can to make some changes.

Pesce is supposedly out for the series at least, which sounds good for the Isles, until you think about the idea that he missed almost all of Game 2 and they outskated the Isles big time and came back to win with only 5 D. The only way this will be good is if the Canes are dumb enough to put in Tony Q'Angelo.

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Posting your political views on social media is like sticking your head up your ass & whispering: You're just as likely to change someone's mind, and you'll always come out looking like a shithead.