IN THE NET..

Game 4 last night between New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

A real game of ping pong this one. First one team scores (the Islanders got the first lead as Brian Strait got his first ever NHL goal), then the other evens up 45 seconds later. 1-1 out of the first period.

2-1 to New York 6 minutes into the second with Pittsburgh making it even again within 60 seconds.

Pittsburgh then took a 3-2 lead at the end of the 2nd period and it all started to look more familiar as the Penguins game tightened up.

It took the Islanders a while to get back the 3rd goal in the second period, but guess what? With 1 minute 25 to go they did it. Then the Penguins stuffed another one in to make it 4-3 in the first minute of the 3rd period . No panic though, 15 minutes 30 on the clock to go and the NYI evened up to 4-4.

5-4 lead for the Islanders after some really close in work by Tavares. First one shot with a rebound and then proof that persistence pays as he got another chance to hook it round Fleury's right hand side.

Then the first two goal lead of the game opened up. 6-4 to the Islanders in the last minute and a half as Cizikis simply walked it into the net past the Penguins Fleury.

This was the first time that the Islanders have won a playoff game at home since 2002.

Two games each in this best of seven.. Pittsburgh host the Islanders on Thursday 7th, then it's back to Long Island on Saturday 11th. I wish I was not so busy with work and there to soak up the atmosphere!

Persistence paid in another game too.

Montreal were leading 2-1 into the final few seconds of their game against Ottawa on Tuesday. But they managed to even up with 22 seconds left. The game went into overtime  and Ottawa managed to get the winning goal in the first three minutes of OT. 3 games to Ottawa, 1 to Montreal and it looks like the Canadiens may bow out in round 1 this year..

STANLEY CUP SO FAR..

Spot that break from tradition up there? Usually my blog titles are three words only. Couldn't quickly make up a 3 worder today. Sorry.

Anyway, the Stanley Cup is well into the first round of the playoffs. 16 teams playing for the ultimate cup. 8 teams from the Western Conference, 8 from the Eastern.Each round is best of 7 games - an exhausting haul to mid-late June with teams playing every other day, home or away. They're earning their dollars right now.

All for this..

My teams, New York Islanders and the Montreal Canadiens are both faring ok - little early to tell but the NYI at the very least are doing incredibly well given they were drawn against the favourites from the East Coast, Pittsburgh Penguins (PIT in chart below). Three games in, won one, lost two - but only just to be honest and the last two games being high scoring - proving the NYI can score against the Penguins. And a lot when they get their act together. 

The first game was a write off as they lost 5-0 but they came back to a 4-3 win and then took the Penguins into overtime in game 3 to win 5-4.

Here's the run down so far (at early evening 7 May). Eastern Conference on the top row, West on the bottom for the uninitiated!

The other team I follow closely, Montreal, are faring a lot worse against Ottawa Senators (OTT in chart above).

The surprise so far has been the New York Rangers, not my team but I like to watch and they are 'mini-me's' favourites. They seem unable to start the playoffs proper against the Washington Capitals (WSH above). 3-1 down in game 1, then a very uneventful game that went all the way into overtime (OT) with a score of 0-0 until the Capitals scored 8 minutes into OT. Then a 4-3 win for them in game 3.

Their school report says "must try harder". Especially when they get Power plays (the other team have a player off ice for a few minutes - again for the uninitiated).

Also watching Detroit Redwings (second on bottom row above) closely as they have failed to ignite their star players so far (lots of late night catching up on my tablet in bed with Gamecenter Live!)

If you want to keep up with progress, the NHL have a great, constantly updated results chart here.

More soon..

BAD START THAT...

Wednesday 1 May 2013

New York Islanders game 1 of the first round of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs.

I'm waiting with anticipation. 

True, the Islanders have drawn the worst possible team to go up against in the first round - Pittsburgh Pengiuns (way ahead on points and games won this year and playing an amazing game). 

True, the Islanders haven't really got a team with any experience of playing in the Stanley Cup - only one team member and their netminder have done so before. 

True, they haven't even made it to the Stanley Cup playoffs since 2007.

But, Sid Crosby - the Penguins all start high scorer - broke his jaw playing against the Islanders in the last regular season game (1 day before on March 30) and is out of play at the moment. That's got to help, right?

Wrong.

News headlines like the NY Daily News site's "NY Islanders get destroyed by Pittsburgh Penguins in first playoff appearance since 2007" don't help!!

Oh well. Onto game 2..

STANLEY CUP 2013...

And so... it is that time of the year again.

The NHL Stanley Cup is about to start - with the last of the regular season games scheduled for Sunday 28 April. The Stanley Cup starts on April 30th - NHL Countdown Clock

This has been a strange and rapid season as the NHL didn't even get started this year until after Christmas (due to player/union/NHL disputes about the split of revenues). But, I am very happy to say that the Stanley Cup is on. We know the 12 teams that are now going through from the East and West coast teams. The top 6 of each are: 

Very happy to see both my teams I follow in the playoffs this year; Montreal Canadiens and New York Islanders (the latter for the first time since 2006/07).

It should be an interesting journey as hardly any of the NYI team have played in the Stanley Cup before as they have been building a strong new, young team for a few years. Nabokov, the netminder is a seasoned playoff guy but hardly any of the forwards have been there before.

I might even jump a plane to NY if they get through the first few rounds.

The atmosphere in some of the sports bars in Manhattan is going to be brilliant, even better still on Long Island (where I've never stayed before). 

More reports coming very soon...