CarterHud

On Tuesday, May 3rd, 2016, the New York Islanders faced the Tampa Bay Lightning in game 3 of a 1-1 series. With Josh Bailey back from injury, coach Jack Capuano decides to play Bailey who had a bad round 1 for Ryan Strome, who is having a good postseason. The Lightning continue to do their regular thing: play 7 defenseman and 11 fowards. When the Islanders won a faceoff just outside their offensive zone, a dumped in puck by Travis Hamonic hits off the stick of Nikolay Kulemin and goes right in front of the net where Bailey

comes from behind the net and buries the puck. It\’s Bailey\’s first goal of the playoffs and first in his past 22 games, from Kulemin and Hamonic. Late in the period, with Tampa Bay on the powerplay, a point shot from Alex Killorn is deflected in by Ryan Callahan with only 13 seconds to go. It\’s Callahan\’s first from Killorn and Valtteri Filppula. In the second period, when Jonathan Drouin skates up the ice with the puck, Thomas Hickey gives him a crushing hit. Drouin went straight to the locker room. He would later return. Later in the period, a offensive faceoff win for Tyler Johnson goes to Victor Hedman and a slapshot by Hedman finds the back of the net. 2-1 Tampa. That wasn\’t all as Nick Leddy\’s shot gets passed Ben Bishop and the game is tied. Early in the third period, Bailey scores again and the Islanders lead 3-2. Not much later, Vladislav Namestnikov ties up the game at 3. Later in the game, Cal Clutterbuck scores using his outstanding shot to give the Islanders a 4-3 lead. The game\’s next shot was from Bailey looking for the Hatrick but Ben Bishop makes the save of the night, robbing Bailey. With the goalie pulled, Nikita Kucherov ties it up. The game then went to overtime and a dirty hit by Brian Boyle on Thomas Hickey turns the puck over and then after Hedman\’s shot goes wide, Boyle gets the carom and ends the game 5-4 Lightning. Capuano\’s move to play Bailey over Strome worked but the Isles fall to the Lightning and are trailing the series 2-1.             

The Calder trophy finalists for the rookie of the year has been announced. The finalists are the Philadelphia Flyers\’ Shayne Gostisbehere, the Blackhawks\’ Artemi Panarin and the the Oilers\’ Connor McDavid. The biggest question is: who\’s going to win it?
      Gostisbehere, 23, had played only two games last year and was a -2. In his real rookie season, Gostisbehere 17 goals, 29 assists for 46 points in only 64 games. He also had 2 points in the Flyers brief 6 game playoff run where they barely scored as a team. Also, if Gostisbehere, who is also a defenseman, wasn\’t called up from the AHL, the Flyers most likely would not have made it to the playoffs.
        Panarin, 24, had 30 goals, 47 assists for 77 points this year in his first NHL season after many in the KHL. He had 7 points in the Blackhawks\’ 7 playoff games. Panarin might not have earned 100% of his points though. His linemate, Patrick Kane, had 106 points in the regular season. Also lots of Kane\’s goals that Panarin had assists on were  efforts all made by Kane.
          McDavid, 19, had 16 goals and 32 assists for 48 points. McDavid sustained a broken collarbone early this season which kept him out for months. McDavid returned after the all-star break an earned himself a chance to win the an award on a struggling Oilers team.
           Personally, I would say the winner is Gostisbehere. To be on a team that without him wouldn\’t have made the playoffs, Gostisbehere makes sense for a winner. He also was a defenseman who scored 17 goals and had a 15 game point streak. Panarin was playing with a star and McDavid missed half the season. That\’s why I don\’t think they\’ll win.         

The finalists for the Bill Masterton trophy in the 2015- 2016 NHL season were recently announced. The finalists were the Florida Panthers\’ Jaromir Jagr, the New York Rangers\’ Mats Zuccarello and Pascal Dupuis, who announced his retirement on December 8.
     Jagr, who had 27 goals and 39 assists in 79 games to help the Panthers win the Atlantic Division for the first time ever at the age of 44. He was first on the Panthers in points, and second in goals and plus / minus rating with a +23 season. He also was the oldest player in NHL history to have 60+ points.
     Zuccarello sustained a fractured skull and brain contusion during the 2015 Stanley cup playoffs and lost the ability to speak for 4 days. He rehabbed during the offseason and had a career high in games [ 81], points[ 61], and goals[ 26].
     Dupuis was diagnosed with a blood clot in his lung in November 2014 and didn\’t play for the remainder of the 2014-2015 season. He played 18 games at the start of this season for the Pittsburgh Penguins and had 2 goals and 2 assists before his retirement due to health concerns; he left two games after falling ill because of the blood clots. Dupuis does attend all Penguins games and provides feedback to the coaching staff and players.
      I think that Zuccarello will win the Bill Masterton memorial trophy. The decision was tough being an Islander fan but Zuccarello most likely will win the trophy because of his ability to set career highs coming off a major injury

On Saturday, April 30, 2016, the New York Islanders faced off against the Tampa Bay Lightning in game 2 of round 2 in the Stanley Cup playoffs. In game 1, the Islanders won 5-3 and Tampa Bay goalie Ben Bishop was pulled from the game in the second period. Tampa Bay has won all game 2s under coach Jon Cooper after losing game 1. Lately, for the Islanders the opposite has happened with New York losing game 2 after a game 1 victory. Early in the game, Islanders Cal Clutterbuck and Nick Leddy collide and Tampa Bay goes down the other way and sloppy back checking by Matt Martin leads Tyler Johnson wide open as his backhander beats Thomas Greiss for the first goal. Ondrej Palat, who scored the first goal in game 1, gets an assist. Victor Hedman gets a helper too. Later in the period Greiss allows a weak five-hole goal against Jonathan Drouin to make it 2-0. The goal was Drouin\’s first career playoff marker. Valtteri Filppula gets the only assist. But that was not all in the 1st as a power-play shot by the Islanders\’ Thomas Hickey deflects off Nikolay Kuleman and the Islanders make it 2-1. Hickey and round 1 game 5 hero Alan Quine get helpers. In the second period, with Tampa Bay on the powerplay, a shot by Hedman goes off the Islanders\’ Calvin de Haan\’s skate and caroms in 3-1 Tampa Bay. The other two goal scores, Johnson and Drouin, got assists on the play. The Islanders were terrible offensively the entire game going from outshooting Tampa Bay 14-5 to being outshot 28-18. Hedman\’s goal was the only in the period as the Lightning went into the locker room up 3-1. With just over 2 minutes left Johnson shot from his own zone goes in an empty net and Tampa Bay ices it 4-1. That was the final score of the game as the Lightning tie up the series at 1. The refs were not afraid of calling penalties as there was 18 minor penalties in the game. Game 3 will be in Barclays Center, Brooklyn on Tuesday, May 3.

On Friday, April 29,2016, the New York Yankees played their archenemy, the Boston Red sox in Boston. The pitching matchup was Masahiro Tanaka against Henry Owens. The first run was in the top of the first when Alex Rodriguez homered. 1-0 Yankees. Later in the game, Didi Gregorius gets plunked in the bat with two outs and no one on. A single by former Red Sock Jacoby Ellsbury got Gregorius to second and he then scored on a hit by Brett Gardner. 2-0. Later in the game a 2- run double by Jackie Bradley Jr. in the 7th ties up the game 2-2. That ended Tanaka\’s night. Then in the eighth, Pitcher Dellin Betances allows a two-run homer to David Ortiz. 4-2 Boston. That was the final score. Pitcher Koji Uehara gets the win, Betances gets the loss and Craig Krimbel gets the save.