Within that Predators dressing room on Wednesday night after a 2-1 Game 7 win in Anaheim, there was a true sense of accomplishment, but also a realization they had very little time to refocus.
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With The Happiest Place On Earth just 10 minutes down the road from the Honda Center, it would have been a good time to look at the TV cameras and shout “I’m goin’ to Disneyland!” “No guy wanted to be done playing hockey”. The Islanders won their first series since 1993.
Kesler ended Rinne’s hopes of a clean sheet after scoring on a power play in the third period.
The Sharks defeated the Los Angeles Kings in five games in their best-of-7 first-round series. Other candidates in the conversation as the National Hockey League s best defensemen this season include Los Angeles Drew Doughty, Ottawa s Erik Karlsson, Nashville s Roman Josi and Pittsburgh s Kris Letang. “I don’t know what’s better, whether it’s better to rest or better to keep playing”.
Because they only played with the lead in their first round series win over the Florida Panthers for 45 minutes in the entire six-game series. “Moving forward, I think we’re a better team already”. For as much as he struggled, especially on the shot from Tavares above, the Lightning’s defensive zone coverage in this game left an terrible lot to be desired, especially when it came to Shane Prince’s goal late in the first period to give the Islanders the lead.
“We could have used him, but I know one thing – he left it all out there today”, said coach Bruce Boudreau of his star forward. Please see our terms of service for more information. So this attractive toe drag, top shelf snipe by Joonas Donskoi to put the Sharks up 1-0 early in Game 5 was a huge table setter.
The Predators handled the pressure splendidly. “That allowed them to slot their centermen – now Ribeiro is a second line center, Fisher is a third line center, and all of a suddenly you’re a deep team up the middle of the ice which I think is key for anybody this time of year”.
Wilson, who had a point in five of the seven games, scored on a backhand at the 6:19 mark after Ducks defenceman Simon Despres failed to cleanly handle an airborne puck and let the winger get behind him. The 30-year-old pivot managed just five points in seven games against Nashville and was held off the score sheet entirely in games six and seven. Jakob Silfverberg broke his stick on a three-on-two chance. Hampus Lindholm fired a shot from the blue line that deflected off the back of Rinne’s glove and slowly trickled off the left post before Rinne covered it with his glove.
Nashville were 3-2 behind in the first-round series before clinching back-to-back wins to advance at the Ducks’ expense. The Sharks present their own challenges with Joe Pavelski, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau, but the Predators will be rolling up the California coast with confidence.
Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said the New Jersey Devils team he coached to a spot in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2012 was in a similar position as the Predators are now.
Mind you, it was the play of goaltender Pekka Rinne who played the biggest role in this one with 36 saves, many of them of the spectacular fashion. Now that San Jose has home ice advantage, they will need to take at least one of the first two games of the series.
Taking up where he left off in helping the Islanders advance beyond the first round for the first time in 23 years, Tavares assisted on Travis Hamonic’s goal that erased an early deficit and scored his sixth postseason goal on a blistering shot from the left circle to give NY a 4-1 lead in the second.
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They’ll have to get used to it because it won’t be much different this time.
