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Rumor is Barzal is skating today with the regulars and in a normal jersey.
No word on Romanov, which is not good news. I heard he was skating the other day. That's it.

Canes took the Isles out in 2019. Isles hoping to exact some revenge here.
People are making a big deal about Brind'Amour saying his team looked more desperate last time the 2 played, even though the Isles were fighting for their playoff lives. I think that was more a compliment to his team than an insult to the Isles, and if it was meant as an insult to the Isles, so be it. They didn't exactly wear themselves out in that game.

I see very few people giving the Isles a chance. In January nobody gave them a chance to even make the playoffs. This past Monday night nobody gave them a chance to make the playoffs. Nobody thought they had any chance at WC1. Granted the Panthers shit the bed, so that's partially on them, but it was still a tight race and the Isles came out on top- of the bottom feeders... But they made it and the new, important season starts now. Sounds like the Isles will have their most dynamic forward back, which should help Horvat, the PP, and everyone else.

Monday can't come soon enough!

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Barzal is definitely on line 1 for game 1. Romanov is traveling with the team but out for at least game 1.
Beards have begun growing. Palmieri is probably considered a shrub already. Hairy mofo.

And I'm giving my personal guarantee that Sebastian Aho's team will win this series, without a doubt! I'll bet my life on it.

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Horvat will be a beast! Good luck, I'll be rooting for your boys

Thanks. They'll need the world in their corner.

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Kotkaniemi took a huge step forward down the stretch. Really curious to see if he elevates his game in the playoffs.

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I, obviously, hope not.

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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.

Game 1.
Refs should be wearing red tonight. Put Fasching in the box when he was about 40' away from the "incident". Then they put Pulock in the box for slashing, when it was Pageau who didn't slash, but just put his stick in front of the Canes player who basically dropped his stick, which the Canes have done like 8 times in the game so far. I don't know if they're trying to draw slashing penalties or if they're just trying so hard to not over grip their sticks that they aren't holding on at all. Canes scored on that PP. Pulock had some words for the ref on his way out of the box, then scored 24 seconds later on a flubbed shot. Hockey justice served.
PP looks better so far with Barzal back, but they haven't scored on it. Cleanly won a faceoff on the PP and Nelson was wide fucking open and setting to shoot when the ref blew the whistle and made the faceoff happen again. Even the Canes looked confused as to why it was blown down. Isles won the next faceoff but not as cleanly and the Canes came in to cover them well.

Barzal looks a little rusty but after 2 months out I expected that.
2-1 Canes win.

I should add that Palmieri was called for a high stick. He was trying to dump the puck down the boards and as he followed through, the Cane player hit him and his stick continued up and hit him. Are you not allowed to follow through anymore? You could easily read Palmieri's lips asking that same thing.
Another time the Isles tried to pass back to the point and the linesman not only got in the way (why the fuck is he in the zone???) but kicked the puck right to a streaking Cane player who not only cleared the zone but came flying up, damn near getting a clean breakaway, if not for the far side defender (Mayfield?) reading the play well. I was surprised he didn't get called for holding as he caught up to the Cane player.
The ref didn't want to call a slash to Barzal until Barzal held up half his stick to show him, while not moving and the play had moved away so he wasn't "playing" with a broken stick and didn't get called himself. But the ref waited for that? The Cane player came down like Gimli on the Ring... If it had caught Barzal's hand it would probably be a broken thumb.
There was quite a few blatant trips that Canes weren't called for. Lee was getting tripped all night, as if he's really speedy?

I don't like blaming refs. It makes you sound like a baby. But the officiating in this game was fucking atrocious. Between periods Lane Lambert called the refs over to talk about things. One ref after the first, and the other after the 2nd.

But the Canes made good on 2 PPs while the Isles' PP looked good but couldn't score. If you can't score on a PP vs Raanta, you're not going to win the series.

On to Game 2. Isles really need a split on the road. Game 2 is huge.

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And I forgot to mention the idiot goal judge signaling a goal when the puck hit the side of the net, on the ice, so it hit pipe, not moving the net.
https://twitter.com/IslesMSGN/status/16 ... 652dd14298

That got the whole crowd chanting "refs suck". While I agree with them in this game, my sentiments were for quite the opposite reason.

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Isles, even though they don't have any real gamebreaking talent, should have a really good power play. But they don't. And that'll likely be what kills them in this series.

On an Isles board today I compared the Isles' PP to a romcom: It's highly predictable, I don't want to watch it and I'm usually laughing AT it, not along with it. I've probably beaten this dead horse already but there's no fucking movement! Everyone stands in their one spot and waits for a perfect pass to one time. Guess what- they don't get those passes because the other team breaks up the highly predictable passing "system". I can't for the life of me understand how John MacLean, who was deadly on the PP, can be running this shit show. Or how NHL players can continue to try to do this without a total mutiny. My beer league PP is far more complex and we have guys with hockey IQs of potatoes. It's fucking brutal.



Inhales

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6 Canes PPs to 0 for the Isles. Yeah, okay.
Isles need to learn to control their sticks but zero PPs through regulation? Bullshit.
Hell if a play by Slavin to tie it.
Aho scores on the Isles- yes THEIR OWN Aho.

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Carolina Referees up 2-0 in the series. Congrats.

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At least you'll get Isles refs next 2 games!

Pretty unlucky from what I saw as opposed to the canes who got some very lucky bounces

Yeesh..that's a terrible way to lose the game. Almost worthy of a coloring book.

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Brind'Amour was livid about a Pageau slash on Teravainen that broke his hand, he'll be out for the rest of the series at least. Amazing how quickly people can come back from broken bones with modern-day surgical techniques.

I guess it balances out a bit though because right before the OTGWG an Isles defenseman got hit in the face with a stick (was it Mayfield?). Mike Rupp said it wasn't a penalty, Mike Johnston said it was. Who knows?

I had to drop the remote because I nearly threw it through the TV.



I didn't see the slash by Pageau, but he's a feisty little shit, so I don't doubt it. But he has been slashed a bunch through both games. No calls, imagine that.

And yes it was Mayfield who was high sticked in the face on the OT goal. Did Martinook intentionally hit him in the face? No. Did he hit him in the face? YES. Was he in control of his own stick? Martinook spins around, away from Mayfield and swings his stick behind him, up into Mayfield's face. Either he is not in control of his own stick, or he intentionally windmilled it into Mayfield's face. In Game 1 Palimieri was checked and his stick went up into the face of the Cane (who had left his feet before the hit so you know it was pretty hard), and Palmieri was penalized. Call it consistently. In that case, Isles are on their inept PP instead of going home down 2-0 seconds later.

On an earlier Canes goal, an Islander (Pageau?) was spun around the by the shoulder and was laying on his back behind the Canes' net as they cleared the zone, went down and scored. Again, if the call had been made, no goal. I'm not looking for special treatment, but call the fucking game the way it should be called. Martin hit Staal from behind and sat on him- he was called. As he should be. I still don't get how no Canes were called when there was a ton of punches thrown, but I have no problem with Martin being called for that. It was stupid and illegal. However, Martin was also high sticked in the face in front of a ref, can you guess if there was a call? There wasn't! Holy shit. Amazing that the Islanders might have been pissed off about all these things not being called against the Canes.

Just call the game the same both ways. That's all I want to see.

Bolduc is not an NHL d-man at this point. Maybe he'll grow into one, but he's getting exposed badly in this series. They really need Romanov back. If he's not ready, go with Wotherspoon. Bolduc has shown he can't keep up.

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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 should add- was it a high stick? Several Ranger fan friends texted me after the game to say it was a bullshit goal since the Isles should have been going on their first PP.

And I've read a few places that Teravainen broke his own hand on the shift after Pageau slashed him. Supposedly he skated into the boards trying to hit an Islander and hit the boards. I haven't seen this so I have no idea. Plus he could have had it broken and tried another shift, only to find out it was broken when hitting the boards. Or, he really broke it that way and Brind'Amour is just trying to get even more calls. Like maybe he just wants to play an entire game 5v4.

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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.

Lambert was asked about Brind'Amour going off about Pageau's slash on Teravainen. He said he was surprised he would say that, since that play happens 25-30 times/game and pointed out that Teravainen continued to play on the PP for a few more shifts. Perhaps that was a subtle dig at the refs as well with the PP part.

Romanov not ruled out for tomorrow, but Lambert isn't saying that he's in either. I hate playoff secrecy.

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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.

Romanov skated with the team this morning. He'd better fucking be back. They really need him.

First playoff game at UBS. Isles fans will be ready. The Isles had better give them a huge win.

Miss18.2 invited a friend over for the evening. I warned her...

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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.

Game 3 is 0-0 after 1. Very physical but icings. Holy shit the icings. Must have been like 8 in the period.
Palmieri with his nightly penalty, hooking a Cane right off an offensive zone faceoff. That’s a vet move! Great job Captain Caveman.

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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.