Is it too late to trade the outcomes of the Caps and Lightning?

After a LOOOOONG day in the yard trimming trees and sundry other things, and two trips to the dump to get rid of the branches, I'm hoping this Leafs/Bruins game is a good one..

Is it too late to put "Islanders in 4"?

Avs take it in OT! If it weren't for Mike Smith, it would have been like 5-2, but I'll take it. Coming home with home ice advantage? I'll take that.

I almost would have felt bad for hockey had the Preds lost to the Avalanche last year, as far as watching the best teams deep in the playoffs (granted, the Preds' next series wasn't all that great)..... not so much this year, beating the douches Smith and Tkachuck would be fun, and the Flames haven't wowed me.

Not that I expect that, at all, of course.... last night it was the MacKinnon and Barrie show. Landeskog and Johnson had their moments, and that was pretty much it. They'll need a little bit of help.

**** da Pens and Lanche

LET'S GO BLUES!!!

Normally don't watch hockey but playoff hockey has been pretty fun.

It appears that Duchene has decided he's tired of not winning playoff games.

Playoff hockey is on a whole different level. It's practically a different game.

At the beginning of the day, I still would have bet on the Lightning and Pens... or at least one of them to win their series.

Glad I don't bet on things.

A very Blues-like game in a very Blues-like series.

Blues getting throttled tonight. Wow!

Glad I watched Game of Thrones instead of the Blues tonight.

Flyers hire Alain Vigneault as new head coach.

Cale Makar will play for the Avs tonight. Sam Girard is out.

What a crazy week it must be for Makar. (Gets his team to the NCAA national championship, wins the Hobey Baker award, and starts his first NHL game...in the playoffs against his childhood team.)

I'll be interested to see how Makar performs tonight- he is extremely talented no doubt but this is one hell of a situation to ask him to step into. 2nd unit powerplay responsibilities as well- I hope Makar shines.

My expectations for him are pretty low, and I hope everyone else's are as well. I just hope he doesn't make a huge mistake. Aside from that, anything he can contribute is better than what we'd be getting out of a guy like Ryan Graves.

Just grabbed two last-minute tickets for the game. This'll be fun :)

Sweet!


I just read an article about Makar last night, Jan or Feb issue of The Hockey News.... at that point, it mentioned "could get some NHL time at the end of the season, but that won't happen if UMass makes a run to the Frozen Four"... heh. There were comparisons to Karlsson overall and to McDavid's skating.

No pressure, kid. LMAO

Ready to rock. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...912a8b1461.jpg

Have a good time! Hot start for the good guys, 1-0 with MacKinnon on the PP.

Makar with his first!

So much for protecting him. He's been fantastic at both ends. What a start!

My 2 finals teams are going to be exiting in the first round.. yikes.

Well, that was fun. It's gonna be REALLY hard for them to match that intensity next game, so hopefully they can dig deep and keep showing Calgary what they're made of.

:thumb:

I'm kinda surprised they are played him. Now they have to protect him in the expansion draft.

Good win last night, BTW.

The expansion draft to my understanding for Seattle is in the year 2021-2022. All first and second year players are exempt, but Makar would have undoubtedly played next season and the year after (2019-20, 2020-2021) making 2021-2022 his third year.

I don't think he would be exempt either way.

On Makar though- what a debut. His skating is just at another level, I don't think you can take him out of the lineup now. What a weapon to have on your third pairing.

*shrug*

Just going off of something I read on Sportsnet Twitter a few days ago.

I'm certainly no expert, but from what I understand they DID burn a year of his ELC and a year that he would have been protected from the expansion draft by activating him now.

That said, I think it's a bit overblown in terms of how much it matters. He's clearly a guy they're hoping will be a key cog in the future, so they'll ideally get him locked up early. (In fact, I've read some analysis that suggests that burning a year of his ELC will help the team get a better long-term deal since there will be less of a track record for his agent to use in bargaining.)

As for exposing him to the expansion draft, the key thing to keep in mind is that it's less about exposing HIM as it is exposing an extra PLAYER. There's no way they'd actually expose Makar himself, but protecting him might force them to expose another player like Girard or Barrie. Even so, if Makar is as good as we hope he is, we won't care about them near as much.

Anyway, I'm not an expert, but that's the gist of what the talking heads are saying around here about it. And regardless, if he hopes us win a playoff series or two this year, it'll be well worth it.

Bingo.

You guys are correct- I misinterpreted the rule. In 2021-22 Makar would be off his entry level contract and therefore be eligible for the expansion draft. My bad.

CBJ's up 3-1 on the Lightning in the 2nd. What an epic collapse by the Lightning.

Yeah, it's not looking good for Tampa Bay. I'm not sure if the Blue Jackets are hungrier or TB is collapsing but it's about 9 minutes left in the 3rd as of this post. </br></br> Not looking promising. Wow, this game is fantastic!

I think you're a period off - still 3 left in the 3rd.

TB got a goal, so it's 3-2, and they're on the PP. Not over yet...

Heh...and now it's 3-3.

https://media.giphy.com/media/cqsCSWtljevpm/giphy.gif

ROFL

And now it's 4-3 CBJ's on a delayed penalty. Crazy game.

Bolts 20 minutes away from the biggest choke in North American sports history

If this is timed right, I can take solace in knowing that at least the Penguins won't be the first team eliminated.

Yep, was off by a period. My internal clock is off from having to work late nights last week. This is playoff hockey!!! :rockon:

And there it is. History is made.

Not a single one of us predicted the CBJs would win, let alone win it in a sweep. ROFL

And that's all she wrote and why I don't bring more than $60 dollars with me when I walk into a casino.</br></br>So much for about 75% of our brackets. Whole Lee Shit!

That's that for the Lightning... holy christ.

After the opening period of the first game, the Jackets shoved it up the Bolts’ ass. Out-scouted, outcoached and outplayed in every phase of the game.

And the Penguins are toast as well. Fun year in the East so far. :)

SAY IT WITH ME OTTER...****...DA....PENS!!! (and the bandwagon fans)

That's basically like a team going 15-1 in the NFL then getting blown out 42-7 by an 8-8 team in the playoffs. Never would have thought Tampa would get rolled like that.

While it's disappointing about Crosby not getting eaten by fire ants I'll settle for a **** da pens!!!!

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Shocking actually...

Nah, just **** you.

Islanders were the better team and it showed throughout the series. 4 games with 0 adjustments made to the Isles' defensive gameplan. The Pens' offense consisted of a quick dump and then right back out OR a weak wrister on net and then right back out. The Pens' porous defense was atrocious and were even worse in trying to get the puck out of their own end against a relentless Isles' forecheck.

If the Pens showed the type of energy they did in the middle of Game 4, this might have been a series but it was much too late. Its hard to be too upset when your team doesn't even show up.

This color commentator calling the Blues game sounds like Mayock.

The Blues sure have had their chances and finally got one... The Jets net-minder is having quite the game though. In fact both of these goalies have been freaking awesome... Great game!

It's been a fun hockey night with the son. I ordered 25 yards of shock cord for reworking some of our Scuba stuff, but we've been sitting here using it to rework his leg pads by replacing his toe straps and wing straps.

Good stuff man, good stuff...

Winnipeg turning it on

What a game

No shit, it's been like a Jets PP for the last 5 minutes...

That dude is mad.

What a game. Wow!! But from the time the Jets scored the first goal, the Blues really were out-classed line for line...

Blues choking is a normal thing. It doesn’t even phase me.

**** this shit

There's the Blues I know and love....

**** off.

And...that’s the series. Blues with their annual April choke job.

Out of 30,809 brackets submitted to the site in the OP, only one remains that could possibly be perfect. After two series.

https://i.imgur.com/fTGbWMS.jpg

LMAO holy ****

And through the game played thus far, it's pretty reasonable.

That's insane.
I don't even think he'll mind the 1 goal tiebreaker in the Cup Final LMAO

...other than the abomination finals Lanche pick

Go Avs!

Trying to root for Denver and St Louis but I just can't do it...

You guys doubted my bracket. I believe!

(Plus, the Avs look like they did in the beginning of the season when they were the best team in the league. They've got a shot...)

If the Flames lose this series they need to be blown up and start a complete reboot.

Good to see that the Preds are gonna Preds no matter what.

Yeah, they looked hopeless the first couple games... even in winning game 2, I thought that might be all they would get.

Overtime was nuts.

Hard to believe the Flames were top 10 in GA and allowed the fewest shots on goal in the regular season, with how they're playing right now.

The Blues better make some quick right-now changes, this shit isn't working.

Welp, the Blues are toast..

Lol so Blues

Lots of chances but can’t find the back of the net. Blues playoff hockey is back.

Just fluke ass ****ing goals. Such trash...yet grade A chances bring nothing. What a joke.

Those weren’t fluke goals by the Jets. They just aren’t choking their chances away.

You mean like a breakaway shot that missed everything?

They were flukes poked in by complete jobbers