2020 ECF: Tampa Bay Lightning vs. New York Islanders | TBL leads 3-2 (Pt.2)

[These Are The Days]

This series has boiled down to 2 misplays on game winning goals (1 in game 2, 1 in game 3). Without one or both of those, this could be a 2-2 series or 3-1 Isles.

Blame the Islanders for having a 5 minute major, a 30 second 5 on 3 late in the game, not having to play Stamkos, not having to play Point, not having to play Killorn all in the same game and STILL finding a way to lose. And the Islanders won 3 so I'm not sure where you're going with that.

It's just as easy to say if Tampa doesn't pooch a late goal in game 3 it could've been a sweep given how well the Lightning play in OT

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

I find it interesting how many excuses are made for Barzal.

I certainly don't see those same excuses for players playing for less liked franchises.

Barzal is a perimeter guy by nature, it's a flaw, but if you build a line around him and that flaw, you can nullify it for the most part. That's why I see Barzal as being a good winger away from a 90pt perennial threat.

My very first sentence says it's fair to criticize Barzal's needing to create more offense from closer in. I literally lead off the entire post by agreeing with the premise that he needs to do more. I was just pointing out what having his two current wingers can add to the problem, and how different wingers (not necessarily "better", but just different style) could alleviate some of it.

 

[Merrrlin]

My very first sentence says it's fair to criticize Barzal's needing to create more offense from closer in. I literally lead off the entire post by agreeing with the premise that he needs to do more. I was just pointing out what having his two current wingers can add to the problem, and how different wingers (not necessarily "better", but just different style) could alleviate some of it.

I know, I read it. I have just found whenever anyone criticizes him, they include a caveat. I think we have a certain group of players or teams that we all are less critical of around here. Barzal and McAvoy are two that stand out, no one dares call them out with you a "but he's still great" type of add on.

Someone like Patrik Laine or Torey Krug wouldn't get that same treatment.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

I know, I read it. I have just found whenever anyone criticizes him, they include a caveat. I think we have a certain group of players or teams that we all are less critical of around here. Barzal and McAvoy are two that stand out, no one dares call them out with you a "but he's still great" type of add on.

Someone like Patrik Laine or Torey Krug wouldn't get that same treatment.

Sounds like selective reading to me on your part. There might be exceptions, but I doubt very much that the majority of people talking about Laine's deficiencies, that statements like "but he's still a deadly shooter" or "but he could still be a perennial Rocket threat if he fixed this area of his game" don't get mentioned. Similarly, I'm pretty sure that any threads discussing Krug also would include mention of the things he does well or the things that could alleviate some of his weaknesses.

 

[More 2004]

This series has boiled down to 2 misplays on game winning goals (1 in game 2, 1 in game 3). Without one or both of those, this could be a 2-2 series or 3-1 Isles.

Same can be said about game 3. One misplay put you ahead with 4 minutes left.

 

[T REX]

And the Point vs Barzal isn't limited to here...go onto Twitter or other social media.

NBC created it and it is everywhere or was...NYI have a great team. They earned their spot.

They belong. And it's not over yet. Need another win so let's stop planning the parade.

LONG WAYS TO GO. Chill out.

 

[God King Fudge]

Not much of a series, in my opinion. NYI did not belong.

I don't know that I'd go that far.

Tampa is an elite team. They're stacked. They're doing this without Stamkos and most people think Stamkos would actually hinder the team if he came back. That's how deep Tampa is.

Boston didn't really look like they belonged with Tampa, either.

NYI just ran into a buzzsaw that has shown absolutely no signs of stopping.

Having said that, they still have one more to win in this series. Nothing is decided yet.

 

[Merrrlin]

I don't know that I'd go that far.

Tampa is an elite team. They're stacked. They're doing this without Stamkos and most people think Stamkos would actually hinder the team if he came back. That's how deep Tampa is.

Boston didn't really look like they belonged with Tampa, either.

NYI just ran into a buzzsaw that has shown absolutely no signs of stopping.

Having said that, they still have one more to win in this series. Nothing is decided yet.

I thought Columbus and Boston played Tampa quite a bit closer.

If you consider that Boston was missing their starting goaltender, and you consider how dangerous they looked in that series....then you add in the fact that NYI has really only been in one game where Tampa was missing Point and Killorn...

Turns out we have overrated the Metro division once again.

 

[Volodya Krutov]

Yeah, the 4th series win can mentally be the hardest to get. Tampa blew up two 3-2 series lead against Pittsburgh and Washington. NYI hasn't proposed such adversity so far, they did rather well in games 2 and 3 though, this series one hot Varlamov away from becoming a nail biter.

For those making a comparison with Columbus, New York can score and they will, despite the appearances CBJ belonged only because of Korpisalo, their offense was absolutely inept.

 

[Rich Nixon]

Read the bold again. And then a few more times. Take a step back, let it sink in. Head on over to dictionary.com if you need to.

Nowhere do I say the following:

"Barzal is better than Point in almost every aspect of the game"

Not just in that post, but in any of my posts.

You keep trying to put words in my mouth and thoughts in my mind. You're wrong, plain and simple.

Don't ya just hate when people do that.

 

[Satan'sIsland81]

I find it interesting how all around the league so many people seem to be harping on how the Islanders are in so much trouble with the cap (The Hockey News even had a full story posted yesterday on the topic), yet nothing is mentioned about the Lightning, who are in FAR more trouble than the Isles are. I had to look up Tampa on CapFriendly, because after reading the Hockey News article, I was thinking how could Tampa with all that elite talent not be having cap trouble and the Islanders are facing this many problems. Well, as it turns out, Tampa has...ready for this...10 players signed for next year at a total of 68 million. That means they have 12 million under the cap to sign 10-12 players. You ready for who their free agents list includes? Here goes: Coleman, Paquette, Goodrow, Maroon, Cirelli, Verhaeghe, Sergachev, Cernak, Bogosian, Shattenkirk, Schenn, Rutta and Cernak. That is literally 2/3 of their starting lineup against the Isles in this series. No wonder they are playing like their lives depend on winning the cup this year...because they are f***ed.

 

[Tahoeblue]

My 2 cents as a hockey fan first and Isle fan second. Point is the better player at this time. He is effective east-west and is able and willing to go into the dirty areas. I appreciate the TBL fans who have been classy and have taken nothing for granted. We know there are always d-bag fans from every team. Tampa has been impressive and able to respond and dictate the play for the most part.
I have been enjoying the national attention the Isles have been able to get and hope it doesn't end tomorrow night. It has been a great ride for us Isle fans as a small market: however, passionate fan base. It has been quite obvious the areas and strategy that Lou and BT must address if this team is going to climb to the next level.

 

[Konk]

Don't ya just hate when people do that.

 

[Five Alarm Fire]

I find it interesting how all around the league so many people seem to be harping on how the Islanders are in so much trouble with the cap (The Hockey News even had a full story posted yesterday on the topic), yet nothing is mentioned about the Lightning, who are in FAR more trouble than the Isles are. I had to look up Tampa on CapFriendly, because after reading the Hockey News article, I was thinking how could Tampa with all that elite talent not be having cap trouble and the Islanders are facing this many problems. Well, as it turns out, Tampa has...ready for this...10 players signed for next year at a total of 68 million. That means they have 12 million under the cap to sign 10-12 players. You ready for who their free agents list includes? Here goes: Coleman, Paquette, Goodrow, Maroon, Cirelli, Verhaeghe, Sergachev, Cernak, Bogosian, Shattenkirk, Schenn, Rutta and Cernak. That is literally 2/3 of their starting lineup against us in this series. No wonder they are playing like their lives depend on winning the cup this year...because they are f***ed.

Coleman and Goodrow are actually signed for another year, not sure where you got that from.

Cirelli/Sergachev/Cernak are the only players we're worried about, all should get bridge contracts but it will be tight. We'll likely lose Killorn, which hurts, but is manageable, and we should get good assets in return.

Point/Hedman/Kucherov/Vasilevskiy are all locked up, that's all that really matters in the grand scheme of things. There are many ways to recoup depth.

 

[Danrs112]

I find it interesting how all around the league so many people seem to be harping on how the Islanders are in so much trouble with the cap (The Hockey News even had a full story posted yesterday on the topic), yet nothing is mentioned about the Lightning, who are in FAR more trouble than the Isles are. I had to look up Tampa on CapFriendly, because after reading the Hockey News article, I was thinking how could Tampa with all that elite talent not be having cap trouble and the Islanders are facing this many problems. Well, as it turns out, Tampa has...ready for this...10 players signed for next year at a total of 68 million. That means they have 12 million under the cap to sign 10-12 players. You ready for who their free agents list includes? Here goes: Coleman, Paquette, Goodrow, Maroon, Cirelli, Verhaeghe, Sergachev, Cernak, Bogosian, Shattenkirk, Schenn, Rutta and Cernak. That is literally 2/3 of their starting lineup against the Isles in this series. No wonder they are playing like their lives depend on winning the cup this year...because they are f***ed.

Lol literally only a couple of those names matter at all.

 

[The Macho King]

Coleman and Goodrow are actually signed for another year, not sure where you got that from.

Cirelli/Sergachev/Cernak are the only players we're worried about, all should get bridge contracts but it will be tight. We'll likely lose Killorn, which hurts, but is manageable, and we should get good assets in return.

Point/Hedman/Kucherov/Vasilevskiy are all locked up, that's all that really matters in the grand scheme of things. There are many ways to recoup depth.

Paquette is signed too I think. I guess we probably trade him to let Stephen's take over 4C and save ~ 800k on cap though.

 

[Volodya Krutov]

Cernak, Cirelli and Sergachev are RFA also.

 

[Satan'sIsland81]

Coleman and Goodrow are actually signed for another year, not sure where you got that from.

Cirelli/Sergachev/Cernak are the only players we're worried about, all should get bridge contracts but it will be tight. We'll likely lose Killorn, which hurts, but is manageable, and we should get good assets in return.

Point/Hedman/Kucherov/Vasilevskiy are all locked up, that's all that really matters in the grand scheme of things. There are many ways to recoup depth.

You are correct on the first part. I apologize, I was looking at the wrong year. Still that is a lot of players to replace and not much money to do it. You make it sound like it is easy to recoup depth, but the reason Tampa is probably winning the cup this year as opposed to past years is because of how good their depth is.

 

[Satan'sIsland81]

Lol literally only a couple of those names matter at all.

Well I was wrong about the first three, Paquette, Goodrow and Coleman, but to say only a couple of those names matter beyond that is absurd. It is still almost half of your nightly starting lineup in the conference finals, how could they not matter?

 

[Satan'sIsland81]

It is the following season 21-22, that was the one I was looking at where Tampa is really f***ed. They are still in trouble for next season too, but the following year they will have huge problems if the salary cap does not go up.

 

[lorwood]

And the Point vs Barzal isn't limited to here...go onto Twitter or other social media.

NBC created it and it is everywhere or was...NYI have a great team. They earned their spot.

They belong. And it's not over yet. Need another win so let's stop planning the parade.

LONG WAYS TO GO. Chill out.

Tampa is clearly a more talented squad. A good system and grit can take you far but when you get to the place where the competition has both plus more talent the road comes to an end.

 

[Konk]

I think the biggest difference between Tampa and the NYI besides talent and depth is that Tampa clearly plays like they want it more. NYI have played complacent at times they should've been more deliberate with the puck and on their toes (i.e. game 2) and Tampa has the experience of failure in the past and they've learned what it takes to win. Never let up, put in full effort for the entire game. They're doing that in a way they've never done before, coupled with their talent, depth, and system and it's easy to see they've finally become the team they were supposed to be for the past few seasons.

Sure, the series isn't officially over yet, but they're clearly the better team and should wrap this series up in the next game. No shame in that, the Islanders made it further than 27 other teams and were never expected to make it to the conference finals. They can build on this moving forward and players like Barzal can learn from it.

 

[Danrs112]

Well I was wrong about the first three, Paquette, Goodrow and Coleman, but to say only a couple of those names matter beyond that is absurd. It is still almost half of your nightly starting lineup in the conference finals, how could they not matter?

It's not like it's an all or nothing ordeal. That either we can afford to sign all the rest or we can't sign any. We lock up the ones that matter. Serg, Cirelli and I suppose Cernak. Rest will either be signed within what works for cap or are replaced. It's not like we are up against losing any real star power.

 

[Satan'sIsland81]

It's not like it's an all or nothing ordeal. That either we can afford to sign all the rest or we can't sign any. We lock up the ones that matter. Serg, Cirelli and I suppose Cernak. Rest will either be signed within what works for cap or are replaced. It's not like we are up against losing any real star power.

Sergachev and Cirelli alone will get minimum combined 5-6 million which already puts you over the cap with only 3 of your 6 starting dmen signed for next season. Where are you getting 3 starting dmen to play for 300,000 each?

 

[NatoGhost]

Well I was wrong about the first three, Paquette, Goodrow and Coleman, but to say only a couple of those names matter beyond that is absurd. It is still almost half of your nightly starting lineup in the conference finals, how could they not matter?

The 3 young RFAs are known of course. Cernak, Serg, Cirelli.

The vets signed to cheap deals. Paquette (1 year left). Marroon added on the cheap plays 4th line but good glue player.

Verhaeghe? On the bench. Hopefully back on minimum deal to fill a spot.

It's not that they don't matter at all, but most of those were 1 year deals we added late going into the season and we knew we didn't have the money for them long term. So these were low risk high reward moves that our GM should get some love for making, but we knew were not long term solutions.

Shattenkirk - Signed late going into the season he was late we couldnt say no.

Schenn - Same pretty much.

Bogosian - signed mid year late, took a flyer on him.

As said above, Goodrow & Coleman were added at TDL and we gave up a lot but part of why we got them was 1 yr left on their deals after this year, and on the cheap, which we needed.