NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – May 27, 2021
The Lightning and Islanders advance to the second round, the Wild force Game 7 with the Golden Knights, and more in today’s NHL morning coffee headlines
NHL.COM: The Tampa Bay Lightning have advanced to the second round of the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs with a 4-0 victory over the Florida Panthers, winning their best-of-seven series in six games. Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves for the shutout, team captain Steven Stamkos had a goal and an assist while Pat Maroon tallied what proved to be the game-winning goal. Lightning forward Barclay Goodrow returned to action after missing six games with an upper-body injury.
Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This ends the most entertaining series of the opening round. The Panthers were a worthy opponent but were overwhelmed by the depth and experience of the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Three-point performances by Brock Nelson and Anthony Beauvillier carried the New York Islanders to a 5-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins to eliminate the latter in six games. Ilya Sorokin kicked out 34 shots for the Isles, who go on to face the Boston Bruins in the second round.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Islanders earned this victory with their hard work, smothering defense and timely scoring. Pittsburgh goalie Tristan Jarry’s shaky performance in this game and throughout that series raises questions about the depth in the Penguins crease. I’ll have more in today’s NHL Rumor Mill.
A 23-save shutout by Cam Talbot gave the Minnesota Wild a 3-0 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 6 of their first-round series. Ryan Hartman, Kevin Fiala and Nick Bjugstad scored in the third period to force a seventh and deciding game back in Las Vegas on Friday.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Wild have seized the momentum from the Golden Knights by overcoming a 3-1 series deficit to force a winner-take-all Game 7.
TSN: Maple Leafs captain John Tavares joined his teammates at their practice facility yesterday to get “re-acclimated” with his teammates, said Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe. Tavares suffered a concussion and knee injury in Game 1 of their current series with the Montreal Canadiens. He’s expected to be sidelined for at least two weeks.
Leafs center Nick Foligno remains day-to-day with a lower-body injury and is questionable for Game 5 tonight. Canadiens forwards Artturi Lehkonen (upper-body) and Jake Evans (undisclosed) did not travel with their teammates to Toronto for Game 5.
THE DENVER POST: Colorado Avalanche defenseman Bo Byram has returned to the lineup after being sidelined by a concussion since March 25.
EDMONTON JOURNAL: Defenseman Ethan Bear and the Oilers spoke out yesterday after the 23-year-old was the target of racist attacks on social media following the club’s first-round elimination earlier this week.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Bear was singled out after a Game 4 turnover resulted in a goal by the Winnipeg Jets. It’s one thing to criticize his play but attacking his Cree heritage was a despicable move by racist cowards.
NBC SPORTS BAY AREA: The San Jose Sharks have agreed not to sue Google or the City of San Jose after the franchise and the tech company reached a settlement over the latter’s plans to expand into downtown San Jose. The Sharks were concerned over the potential effect the expansion would have on parking at SAP Center.
Social media has caused more problems than anything I’ve seen in my 68 years. Making racist statements about folks, as in the case with Ethan Bear, only separates us when we should be focused on working together. While racism exists independent of social media, having a megaphone for idiots is not a good thing.
Glad to see the Islanders doing well. A testament to good teamwork.
funny that nobody said anything about the Scottish after the McDavid turnover in OT.
Florida had a good season and who knows how things would’ve been if they had Ekblad. Saw Barkov’s post game comments and I truly don’t see him getting traded. Seems pretty happy and optimistic about future of Panthers. If I’m them, they should extend him this summer. Worth every penny he’ll get and insures that team should be in playoffs every year.
Nazem Kadri is going to appeal his 8 game suspension. It’s a shame suspensions can only uphold or reduce the original decision. The options should be to reduce, uphold or INCREASE the penalty upon appeal. This would reduce the number of senseless appeals. Kadri should be facing a 20+ game suspension instead of 8 games. He may be headed for making history? The first player to be banned for life from the NHL?
He may win that appeal too.
A player’s previous disciplinary record can only be taken into account if the last suspension came in the last 18 months. DOPS however decided to put out a statement which ended with ‘a player with a substantial disciplinary record’
That right there can be used to show that the length of suspension took prior record into consideration.
He’s still got quite a ways to go to match Wayne Maki’s half season for clubbing Ted Greene over the head with his stick. But he’s young yet, so give it time.
Penguins need an enema …
Now THAT is funny 🙂 (And true)
Maybe Dorion can hold a clinic for GMs on how to go about shoving the catheter
😢
The Ethan Bear situation is sad but unfortunately not surprising.
The question now is, what does he do about it? nothing or ask for a trade?
What does Holland do if a request comes forward?
Caper, Bear handled it well.
I grew up in rural Sask and have even been to Ochap a couple times in my younger days, and I can say with certainty that Mr Bear has dealt with this before, and would bet a pay cheque he will deal with it again.
I would think he understands that the Oilers are not responsible for twits on Twitter.
The weird part is the strength of his game is his ability to make the quick, accurate and correct passes in his own end. This was the type of mistake he usually makes very few of.
I’d love to have him in Boston.
Unfortunately, a player can’t be traded from social media. It’ll follow him wherever he goes.
True that Howard. There is always going to be trolls.
Ray, that statement is true for all natives. Doesn’t make it right, better over the years but lots of room for grow.
Absolutely Caper.
Boston vs New York Islanders; personally i was hoping for the Penguins.
Islander bring a solid fore-check and strong defensive game.
This will be a tough series. Boston in 6
I agree Cappy I would have preferred the Pens and was rooting for them. The islanders are one of the top hitting teams in the nhl. Pens are more finesse. But the bruins should be able to take em. Some how I don’t know why, I get the feeling Swayman will be in eventually And will be the number one goalie next season. Even with the score 3-2 I thought the isles were gonna win. Time to take it to another level excited to see what Chuck and the boys bring to this one. Hopefully they can get underway this weekend.
C’mon, man, what does Rask need to do? He could take Boston to the Cup this year. Couldn’t you wait till he has a bad game?
This isn’t the match up I was hoping for. The Isles are a good club.
the Bruins wasted a lot of good years of Krejci by not getting wingers who can produce to play with….
Bruins a – $215 to win this series against the Islanders………..I got this $200 on the NYI, dont stop whats been working
Keep that losing streak alive Joe!
👍🏻
Social Media & MSM are taking the USA down …. Shame