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You can say it's early to start this thread, but after damn near 24 years without a 2nd round to speak of for the Isles, I'd say it's too late. But it's happening.

The Lightning took care of the Red Wings in 5 (sorry RW & Bosc), and the Isles took out the Panthers in 6, even if they needed 3 OT games and 5 OT periods to do it. Greiss has been amazing, so there's no need to rush Halak back early. I wish Lee and Grabovski could return, but both are ruled out for a looooooooong time. Pulock was listed as 1-2 weeks 4 days ago. We still don't know when this will start, but it should be good.

Isles were 2-1 vs Tampa in the regular season, scoring 12 goals and allowing 11. PP was 3-8, Bolts PP was 0-11. Tampa won the shots 107-89 and faceoffs 96-78. Isles won 5-2 & & 3-2, and lost 7-4 (empty netter). Greiss won both games for the Isles.

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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.

I'm going to be in Brooklyn the weekend of May 20th, so if they make the conference finals I might be able to catch them. Reason enough to join the Isles bandwagon.

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Welcome aboard! The pizza is good. Or, pizzer, if yer tryin' ta be all geographically correct and shit.

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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.

For me that Florida series was my favorite of the 1st round.

No offense but this series is clearly the lesser of the 2.....and unfortunately will be overshadowed by the other one. The Islanders are playing great hockey right now and so were the lightning....so do yourself a favor and take this one in.

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Game 1 to be Wednesday at 7 PM eastern. Various Isles blogs have tried to figure out how the schedule will play out with all the various arena conflicts. It sounds like there will be at least 1 back-to-back. That sucks dog balls. Isles already had a back-to-back in Round 1, and no other remaining team did. They also had 1 more game than the Lightning, 3 of which went to OT.

This will apparently be the first time since 1983 when there will be games for 2 different rounds played on the same day. Ducks & Preds have Game 7 at 10 PM eastern, so Round 1 will possibly have a completed game before Round 1 is over. Weird. You'd think arenas would leave a little more leeway for playoff games, but I guess there's too much money in concerts and such to not book the places as much as possible. But shouldn't the NHL set stricter rules about not causing back-to-back playoff games?

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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.

I'm aboard for now.

Grease is a slick little goalie.

Stamkos is practicing. Rat shit.

He's got a non-contact jersey on, and is supposedly not close to playing yet, but I was hoping he'd be out indefinitely. Or maybe he won't play and they're just trying to throw the Isles off. Hopefully.

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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.

Full schedule:


Game 1: Wednesday, April 27, 7 p.m. - NBCSN, CBC, TVA Sports
Game 2: Saturday, April 30, 3 p.m. - NBC, TVA Sports...
Game 3: Tuesday, May 3, 7 p.m. - NBCSN, TVA Sports
Game 4: Friday, May 6, 7 p.m. - NBCSN, TVA Sports
Game 5: Sunday, May 8, TBD
Game 6: Tuesday, May 10, TBD
Game 7: Thursday, May 12, TBD

What the fuck??? Over 2 weeks if it goes 7 games? That's not normal, is it???

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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.

Let's go Isles! It's been more than 25 years for me to hitch onto the Isle's wagon. I remember cheering for them in the early 80's when I was an 8 year old fanatic (save 1982 of course)....

Agreed that's bad, but at least no back to back as you had first thought.

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Isles/Bolts play game 1 on the same night the Preds/Ducks play their game 7. Has that ever happened, where the first and second rounds overlapped?

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Apparently first time since '83. Someone isn't paying attention to Chris!



3 3-day breaks, including one during each of the 2-game stands. That's fucking crazy. As compared to the '09 Finals where they scheduled the Finals early and started it with back-to-backs for the first time since like the 50's.




Barclay's is run by AEG, who also manage a number of other NHL barns. Anschutz is a top Bettman guy who Bettman also allowed to own another team by proxy (he loaned Bootsie the money to buy into the Preds and the NHL claims not to have known this from their "due diligence"). So yeah, there you go.

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

Yeah, arena scheduling is a shit show. Who is causing the 3 day gap at Barclays? Bieber. Isles fans are flipping out, saying if he wears an Isles jersey the team is fucked.

More on Stamkos- he's skating, but has said the blood thinners he's on will keep him from playing no matter how he feels. If he got cut he'd bleed out. If he got bruised he'd have horrible internal bleeding... So he's skating just to be with the team.

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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.

From someone with lots of previous playoff series experience. Yes, this is a completely normal schedule. I'll be joining everyone on the Isles bandwagon.

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Bíonn macalla ag an bheatha sa tsíoraíocht. Liverpool FC: 2019 and 6-time Champions of Europe. 2020 and 19 time English Premier League Champions YNWA. JFT 97

Well the Isles found a way to make a 4-1 lead into an interesting 5-3 finish, with an empty netter. Condra left the game early in the first after a Cizikas check. He looked concussed. Eyes were like soup plates. Only Isles injury was Capuano taking a puck to the nose off of Strome's leg (how perfectly fitting after he was benched for 2 games!). Capuano left the game for like 10 minutes, and the Lightning scored their 2nd & 3rd goals with him in the locker room. He returned just after the 3rd goal.

Greiss was very good again. Bishop was chased after allowing 4 goals on 13 shots. Hamonic's goal to tie it at 1 was a softy. Shane Prince with 2, both assisted by the struggling Nelson & Strome. I had to wonder- if Prince scored a Hat Trick, should you throw a raspberry beret on the ice? He didn't get it, so the world may never know. Tavares with the eventual game winner on the PP. Clutterbuck with the empty netter. Isles have had Bishop's number this year, and I really think the Lightning would be better off playing Vasilievsky. Once again, he shut the Isles down, although it looked to me like they were playing it safe, rather than trying to ensure a win.

Isles up 1-0. I'm trying to keep myself grounded, and look at that as "at least they can't get swept". The Round 1 win was the first in so damn long, it felt like a championship. That's pathetic. But it's true too.

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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 called up a platoon of Black Aces: Cliche, Florek, Dal Colle, Kearns, Mayfield, Wotherspoon, Gibson. First 4 are F, next 2 are D, last is a G.

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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.

Same lineup as Game 1, very different result. The Isles got caught trying to play Tampa's game instead of their own. It didn't work, to say the least.

I don't like blaming refs, but the goalie interference call on Clutterbuck was total bullshit. He was pushed in. Bolts scored their 3rd goal on that PP. Empty netter with like 2:30 to go, as Capuano pulled Greiss with 4:00 to go.

Hickey looked like an asshole interfering with one of the Bolts at the end of the game, knocking him down, then slashing the Bolt who came over and crosschecked him while he was still down. That's baby shit and I hate it. You lost. Suck it up and hit cleanly with all that anger in Game 3.

Isles need Pulock back. Zidlicky is back to looking his age, and Pulock changes the way the PK play, with someone always covering Pulock, leaving Tavares & others way more room to operate.

Greiss looked very good for most of the game, but the 2nd goal was shitty. Oh well.

The announcers keep talking about the poor Lightning and all their injuries. Um. Isles STARTING GOALIE is out. I know Stamkos is great, and it would be like the Isles losing Tavares. But the Isles certainly have their own injury issues. Grabovski was on the 1st line most of the year, Lee and Bailey both spent quite a bit of time there as well. Pulock has become incredibly important in a very short time. HALAK. Sure, Greiss has been very good if not great, but Halak is still missed. No idea if he's going to play or not. He's been taking shots for like 2 weeks, but as with all playoff injury statuses, it's totally hushed. Pulock is rumored to be playing Game 3, but who knows?

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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.

What does it mean if the Lightning can win without Stamkos? A fair bit of deadweight on that roster (Voltron, Carle, Callahan) and they're still solid.

Johnson looks healthy again for them. Had a poor season.

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It means they're the team that were in the Finals last year? We know they're a very good team. I never doubted that for a second.

Isles played like shit on Saturday though. No urgency at all. It was like they were totally satisfied to leave Tampa with a 1-1 split. If you lose game 1, that's a fine attitude to have. But when you win Game 1, you've got to go into Game 2 like you want to sweep the series.

Pulock and Bailey likely back for Game 3, replacing Zidlicky and Bernier. Both looked good in their first 2 games, but have lost that "I'll show you to not scratch me!" attitude, and look like the players who were scratched for good reason again.

1st Isles Round 2 home game in 23 years. And I'll be coaching a frigging kids' spring league game! And guess when their next game is? If you said 7:10 Friday evening (Game 4), you'd be dead fucking on! We have 2 brothers who are Isles fans on the team, who have already told me they feel a 4 day flu coming on... Have to respect them for that.

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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.

Stamkos in the past was a surprisingly fast healer, wonder if he has a shot to make it back. Searched twitter for updates but overwhelmed by countless mentions of him as a future Maple Leaf.

In the meantime his absence is cushioned by Kucherov hitting another level (tough start to season then from December on was a star), Drouin stepping up as a great 'replacement' (can't replace Stamkos obviously and different player but if looked at as similar to a deadline acquisition he is pretty great) in the top 6, and Johnson rebounding to last year's form.

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