2021 Stanley Cup playoffs skating thread

C'mon, Elliotte ... bring that beard back. Or will shirts like what we can see above keep up the look?

 

Tampa is just loaded. And when they're not lighting the lamp, no one is getting much by Andrei Vasilevskiy.

A big reason why I just couldn't get POed about a couple of weeks back. Lightning is just too good.

 

This post is not aging well.

 

Don’t jinx it. The only thing I despise more in hockey than Corey Perry is Vegas. And I really don’t like Corey Perry.

 

I'm somewhere in between it was an anomaly (which...it was, 8-0 NHL playoff games just don't happen) and a case of the Lightning deciding to make the Islanders come up to their level. This was the first of the five games where TB decided to push the pace for all 60 minutes, attack the goal from the wings, skate as fast as humanly possible and see if the Islanders could keep up. Tampa had been playing that structured, safe game and they can win that way, hell they won four straight road games playing that style. But their true identity is that of a team that can run you out of the rink.

As impressive as the eight goals were, they didn't give the Islanders anything all night outside of a small stretch early in the second period where Palmieri, I believe, hit a post. Otherwise NYI barely had any real extended zone time.

That being said I wouldn't be shocked if the Isles pulled one out of their ass tomorrow.

 

I've seen Carey Price played about ten times before these playoffs. I've always known he was one of the best goalies in the world; however, didn't know he was that calm. Geez, nothing phases that guy or what?

 

It’s amazing what the hockey gatekeepers will defend. This is the hockey they want.

 

We have a Game 7

 

According to Twitter, Kraken are naming a coach today and it's not Tocchet.

 

Kevin Dineen?