Cup Check! 23 April

Friday 24th, April 2015 / 19:15 Written by
Cup Check! 23 April

Welcome to The Other Half’s crowdsourced playoff-recap for April 23rd, 2015.
Doodle as always by @HockeyBabbler.

G’day! Janice Rochford here, TME is trying to keep the site from suffocating to death so I’ll be your host for Cup Check April 23, 2015!

If you really can’t handle Playoff Stress, I’d like to take the opportunity to invite you to the world of happy that is the Australian Hockey League. Season starts today and we’ve got all you need to know here at our AIHL channel.

Thank you to Eliza Eaton-Stern, Sasha Davis, Sheila Lane, Alex Corhan for putting this all together.

At the end of the night it looked like this:

The Tampa Bay Lightning took the Detroit Red Wings, the Nashville Predators took Chicago Blackhawks, The New York Islanders took Washington and Vancouver got up over Calgary.

How about them details:

New York Islanders vs Washington Capitals

Goals:
– (NYI) Bailey at 5:48 into the first period
– (WSH) Kuznetsov at 9:05 into the first period
– (WSH) Alzner at 10:31 into the second period
– (WSH) Laich at 2:42 into the third period (and reader, there was much sadness)
– (WSH) Kuznetsov at 6:19 into the third period
– (WSH) Chimera at 9:00 into the third period

Goalies: Halak stopped 30 of 35, Neuvirth stopped 6 of 6, Holtby stopped 22 of 23

Notables:
The Islanders came into this game motivated by some bulletin board material from Brooks Laich, who referred to Tom Wilson’s Tuesday night hit on Lubomir Visnovsky as “a good penalty to take,” given that it resulted in the Isles being down a defender.

Wilson got “got” about 5 minutes into the first period. Anders Lee did the honors, avenging Visnovsky, who is out indefinitely. No instigating call for Lee, despite him pretty clearly instigating the dust-up. A bit of a reputation no-call for Wilson, there?

And then the Caps went on a scoring spree, and they really seemed to enjoy themselves:

Halak was pulled in favor of Neuvirth at 9:27 in the 3rd after giving up 5.

Best:
Hey Caps, is that your second line showing up to play? Well done!

Worst:
Islanders, I know that you’re missing Visnovsky and Hamonic, but c’mon. You’re better than this. This should have been a “We came here to kick butt and chew gum, and we’re all out of gum” kind of game, but alas.

The Captain, taking responsibility:

Islanders 1, Capitals 5, tying the series at 2-2

This series continues Saturday, April 25, at 3:00pm in Uniondale.

Detroit Red Wings vs Tampa Bay Lightning

Goals:
Nyquist at 5:42 in the 2nd Period (DET)
Andersson at 14:24 in the 2nd Period (DET)
Johnson at 14:34 in the 3rd Period (TBL)
Palat at 15:51 in the 3rd Period (TBL)
Johnson at 2:25 in OT (TBL)

Goalies: Mrazek stopped 26 of 29, Bishop stopped 22 of 24.

Notables: By the end of the 1st, teams were evenly matched in everything except hits. No goals on either side, but both teams were playing a scrappy and high-tempo game.

In the 2nd, the Red Wings turned it on and the Lightning failed to keep up. Nyquist opened the Red Wings’ account, and then a goal credited to Joakim Andersson was actually put in the back of the net by Lightning goalie Ben Bishop.

Despite the Wings looking solid through most of the 3rd, Tampa answered with two goals of their own in quick succession at 14:34 and 15:51, and suddenly it was anyone’s game.

It would take overtime to decide a winner, and Johnson put the game away at 2:25 into bonus hockey. Series goes back to Tampa, tied 2-2.

Best: Tampa Bay comeback – the Palat/Johnson/Kucherov line has awoken, dragonlike, from its slumber. At least for now.

Worst: Detroit’s defense fell apart in the 3rd after holding fast all game and it looked sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.

DET 2, TBL 3, tying the series 2-2.

This series continues Saturday, April 25 in Tampa.

 

Chicago Blackhawks vs Nashville Predators
Goals:
Richards at 13:27 in the 1st Period (CHI)
Forsberg at 14:42 in the 1st Period (NSH)

Goalies: Scott Darling stopped 24 of 28, Pekka Rinne stopped 28 of 30.

Notables: Pregame interview with Brandon Saad was suuuuuuper in depth:

BE QUIET, TALLY:

nottodaydsatan

 


12 straight failed pp? You don’t say.

So few whistles… must be a Hawks game. Trying to make up for the lengthy game last time, perhaps?

14:39 before the first commercial break.

Mike Ribeiro checks Kane in the left side, Chicago forgets how to breathe:

Three goals in under three minutes. Anne Hathaway demonstrates the correct Hawks fan feels.

Meanwhile, Preds fans are all…
no

…and then Hawks fans start making comments on Twitter about Darling (a recovering alcoholic) relapsing, because that’s how adults deal with disappointment, right?

Dangle makes a good point;

Rinne holds off a six-attackers offense with no stick!

And then, a completely unexpected and utterly unpredictable event: Andrew Shaw and Paul Gausted (and others) scrum it up.

An empty-net goal with ten seconds left makes a hat trick for Forsberg

https://twitter.com/NHL/status/591454802845929472

Best: Forsberg not short-listed for Calder, scores playoff hat trick in the same day. Dear NHL: whoops.

Worst: Twitter dirtbags use homophobic slurs, suggest Scott Darling should lose his sobriety for letting goals in. Chicago’s soul dies a little.

Predators 5, Blackhawks 2, cutting the Hawks’ series lead to 3-2.

This series continues at 7pm Central Time in Chicago.

Calgary Flames vs Vancouver Canucks

Goals:
– (CGY) Jones at 2:40 into the first period
– (VAN) Bonino at 13:31 into the second period
– (VAN) D. Sedin at 1:47 into the third period

Goalies: Hiller stopped 41 of 43, Miller stopped 20 of 21.

Notables:

Best:
Vancouver. The team finally showed up, and played its best game of the series while avoiding elimination.

Worst:

Calgary 1, Vancouver 2, giving the Flames a 3-2 series lead

This series continues Saturday, April 25, at 9:00pm EST in Calgary.

Once the points were tallied, the gif’s giffed, and the soundbytes given The Other Half took a vote and we agree:

What impressed us:

What distressed us:

So there it is, Forsberg thumbs his nose at the NHL, Patrick Kane does remember how to be Patrick Kane, the Caps second line does remember how to play hockey, and Detroit vs Tampa is the best series you aren’t watching.

I’m back tomorrow while #TME has a well deserved day off so hooroo until then!

Janice Rochford
Janice has spent most of her life involved in Sports & Marketing. A Basketball junkie in her early years she went on to study Marketing and Sports Management at university. She has been previously a member of the Basketball Australia Statistics Committee and Head of statistics for the Basketball Queensland and the Brisbane Bullets in the Australian National Basketball League. She was also involved in sponsorship and marketing for the Sydney Olympics and the formation of the Football Federation of Australia. Her passion is open wheel racing but she loves anything that goes vroom. She has a new found love of Ice Hockey thanks to the enablers on her twitter feed.

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