Stanley Cup Conference Finals Preview

And then there were four. Four teams left standing with a shot to play for hockey's ultimate prize on the line. With the West it the best team in the conference against the best player in the conference. Meanwhile for the third year in a row we have a battle between Tampa Bay and New York, only a different twist this year. Tampa is looking to get to the finals for the third year in a row, while the Rangers are aiming for their first finals appearance since 2014. Time for talk has ended, here's how the Conference Finals go down this season!

Western Conference Finals
#1 Colorado Avalanche vs #2 Edmonton Oilers
Colorado has been like a runaway train most of this season, dominating the Western Conference from start to finish. Nathan MacKinnon has been pacing the Avs not only during the regular season, but in the playoffs as well. Cal Makar and Gabe Landaskog have also been having themselves big playoffs too. But the big offensive surprise for the Avs has been the play of Nazem Kadri. Its been a very well balanced attack for the Avs through their ten games played in this run. Colorado has been getting solid goaltending from Darcy Kuemper, who's already won six of the eight Colorado wins.

But this round hits different as they're facing two of the best offensive stars in Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid. Both guys pace all skaters with 26 points through the first two rounds of the post season. And its not just those two guys doing all the damage. Edmonton has gotten scoring from other guys like Evander Kane and Zach Heyman. Mike Smith has been a nice surprise during this years playoffs. Yes Smith has had a couple of off games during this run by the Oilers, But at the same time, Smith has solidified the Edmonton net, which is something the Oilers have been looking for for some time now.

All that taken into account, the Oilers have been good, but the luck may run out in this round. Colorado is just too deep and has been too good all season long, and that's not going to be slowing down here.

Pick: Colorado in 6!

Eastern Conference Finals
#2 New York Rangers vs #3 Tampa Bay Lightning
For the 3rd year in a row, the Lightning have to go through a team from New York to reach hockey's final round. This time its a hot New York Rangers team standing in their way. The boys from Broadway have been playing great hockey, overcoming series deficits in both series they've played to this point. Mika Zibanejad has had an impressive run with goals in the last four games of the Hurricanes series. And as hot as he's been, Chris Kreider has found his game too at the end of that Carolina Series, making him a tough matchup. Then there's the play of Igor Shesterkin, who in the playoffs has been showing everybody why he's up for league MVP this season.

For as good as the Rangers have been, they're now facing an even tougher test going up against the two time defending champions the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tampa found their groove against the Panthers in the last round and have now had time off to rest up and heal while the Rangers had to go the distance against the Canes. There's still no word yet on whether or not Bryaden Point will be back for the start of this series (at least not at the time of this writing) which could be big again for the Bolts penalty kill. What Tampa has found the last round was they are getting a bit more balanced attack from all four lines. They have the big guns in Stamkos and Kucherov and Hedman going. And with all those guys going well, Andrei Vasilevskiy has been just as good if not better as the playoffs have gone on.

Won't be hiding things here, the Rangers have had a great run and surprised a lot of people with the way they've played in this post season. But they are going up against the defending champions and the level of goaltending they are facing in this round is better then what they've gone up against in the previous two rounds. Tampa is rested and waiting for this round to get going. They wait is over.

Pick: Lightning in 6!

Stanley Cup Second Round Predictions

Round two has arrived in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Three of the four series in the East in the opening round went the full seven games, while the other one went six games. Out in the West, we saw a sweep, a six game series and two seven game series. Now in the second round we have a battle of regions. We got a battle of Florida in the East, and the Battle of Alberta in the West. It's going to be a fun second round.

That being said, here's how we see the second round going down.

Eastern Conference:
1. Florida Panthers vs 3. Tampa Bay Lightning: Lightning in 7
No chance I sugar coat this here. Florida has been very very good this season. The fact that they actually won a round for the first time since 1996 speaks volumes for the direction that this team is going in. They are going in the right direction and are going to be a very good team for a long, long time. The only reason I fell they don't get past here is their experience come this time of the year, an advantage the Bolts have. Sure the Panthers are loaded with star power and Cater Verhage is going to play like a man possessed against his former team. But the Bolts seemed to get it together at the right time at the end of round one, and that's going to propel them to victory here in round two.

1. Carolina Hurricanes vs. 3 New York Rangers: Hurricanes in 6
MSG is jumping for the first time in a long time. The rebuild has come almost complete and the Rangers are a very competative  hockey club. Igor Shesterkin has played out of his mind all season long and is very deserving of his nomination for league MVP this year. But at times, he didn't look that way against Pittsburgh in round onem. The Penguins are a solid team but they aren't on the same level as a Carolina and the Hurricanes will take full advantage of that. Carolina will and should do a much better job of holding onto leads late in games then the Penguins did.

Western Conference
1. Colorado Avalanche vs 3 St Louis Blues: Avalanche in 5
Colorado is the 2nd best team in the NHL this season and the best in the West. They looked every bit of it during their first round sweep of Nashville. The Blues are coming off that hard fought series with the Wild and they playing good hockey right now. Just feel that Colorado is too good and has playing hot at the right time

1. Edmonton Oilers vs 2. Calgary Flames: Flames in 7
The Battle of Alberta and this promises to be good, like really good. This maybe the best battle of the entire second round of the playoffs. Both teams are pretty balance d and playing at the tops of their games right now, and both coming off seven game series. I just have a little more faith going into this series in the Calgary nets then I do whats going on in Edmonton

NFL Schedule Announced

Start marking your calendars. The schedule is out for the 2022 NFL Season. There's going to be plenty to look at with the Jets, Giants and Bucs. before we dive into those three schedules, there are some other really big games we have to look at on the docket this year. Here's some of the games of note from around the league that don't involve the three teams above.

Week One: Broncos @ Seahawks MNF: Russel Wilson first game against former team
Week Seven: Saints @ Cardinals 8:25PM: DeAndre Hopkins first game back from suspension
Week Ten: Cowboys @ Packers 4:25PM: Mike McCarthy returns to Green Bay

More to come.

Now for the teams we cover on the show, here's the schedules for the 2022 season.

9/11 @ Dallas 8:25PM
9/18 @ New Orleans 1PM
9/25 vs Green Bay 4:25PM
10/2 vs Kansas City 8:20PM
10/9 vs Atlanta 1PM
10/16 @ Pittsburgh 1PM
10/23 @ Carolina 1PM
10/27 vs Baltimore 8:25PM
11/6 vs LA Rams 4:25PM
11/13 vs Seattle (London) 9:30AM
Bye
11/27 @ Cleveland 1PM
12/5 vs New Orleans 8:15PM
12/11 @ San Francisco 4:25PM
12/18 vs Cincinnati 4:25PM
12/25 @ Arizona 8:25PM
1/1 vs Carolina 1PM
1/7 @ Atlanta TBD

9/11 @ Tennessee 4:25PM
9/18 vs Carolina 1PM
9/26 vs Dallas 8:15PM
10/2 vs Chicago 1PM
10/9 @ Green Bay (London) 8:30AM
10/16 vs Baltimore 1PM
10/23 @ Jacksonville 1PM
10/30 @ Seattle 4:25PM
Bye
11/13 vs Houston 1PM
11/20 vs Detroit 1PM
11/24 @ Dallas 4:25PM
12/4 vs Washington 1PM
12/11 vs Philadelphia 1PM
12/18 @ Washington 1PM
12/24 @ Minnesota 1PM
1/1 vs Indianapolis 1PM
1/8 @ Philadelphia 1PM

9/11 vs Baltimore 1PM
9/18 @ Cleveland 1PM
9/25 vs Cincinnati 1PM
10/2 @ Pittsburgh 1PM
10/9 vs Miami 1PM
10/16 @ Pittsburgh 1PM
10/23 @ Denver 4:05PM
10/30 vs New England 1PM
11/6 vs Buffalo 1PM
Bye
11/20 @ New England 1PM
11/27 vs Chicago 1PM
12/4 @ Minnesota 1PM
12/11 @ Buffalo 1PM
12/18 vs Detroit 1PM
12/22 vs Jacksonville 8:15PM
1/1 @ Seattle 4:05PM
1/8 @ Miami TBD

Head Scratcher On Long Island

Across all sports, head coaches are usually the ones who take the blame if a team doesn't do well. Hockey is no exception to that. This one leaves a lot of people both fans of the team and fans from other organizations, are scratching their heads over this one. Earlier today, the New York Islanders parted ways with their head coach Barry Trotz.

Trotz had been coaching the Islanders for four seasons now. He made the playoffs in each of the first three seasons, including back to back conference finals appearances. This year was the first time the Islanders missed the playoffs under his leadership as coach. That, among a few other reasons, lead to the Islanders dismissing Trotz as coach. He was let go after winning 152 games as the Islanders bench boss.

There were such high expectations on the Islanders this season, after going to those two straight third round appearances. This year it fell flat. Long road trip to start the year off before opening a new building for home games. Long losing streak early in the year. Lack of scoring and an older lineup. All of those factors played into the Islanders falling flat on their face under Trotz this season, costing him his job.

Was this on Trotz? Or is it on upper management?

As for Trotz, maybe Islanders upper management was right in that it might be time for a new voice in the locker rook. That's a small part of it. Maybe Trotz coaching style had gone a little flat with this group here on Long Island.

That could be, but from where I sit, most of this falls on President and General Manager Lou Lamarillo.

To be fair, its not on either Trotz or Lou for what happens on the ice. Meaning that neither guy can put the puck in the back of the net, or stop the other team from scoring. That's on the players. But since you can't get rid of the players, somebody has to take the fall and in this case it was Barry. But was he really to blame for this season? Not to me he wasn't. This falls right where it should. On Lou.

Lou failed the Islanders this season in my mind. he had a golden opportunity to build off the success of the last two seasons by adding key pieces. A top scoring offensive threat to play with Barzal. Didn't happen. Sign free agents. Did that but older ones. Team was the oldest team in the league in average age this year. It felt like the club was taking a big step backwards. Sure there were flashes at times like this team still had that mojo that we've seen the last two seasons. But the consistency wasn't quite there the same way it had been the two seasons prior.

Somebody had to take the fall, and it was Trotz. Wrong guy to be outted there Lou

Cano Had To Go

For all the money he got paid, you'd like to think he'd be able to play out the length of his contract. Not the case for Robinson Cano. Given everything that's happened during Cano's tenure its no surprise that this move came about. The Mets cut down roster size today, as did the rest of the league, and Cano was designated for assignment. The move ended Cano's time with the team, even though the Mets still owe him close to $40 million.

The Mets told Cano told Cano today that there weren't going to be much in terms of plate appearances. And given his performance so far this season in his twelve starts, it makes sense that he's not gonna get to the plate. Yes I know he's 39 years old but flat out he's not hitting. He's batting .192 on the year with a home run and three RBI, which is nowhere near the level a guy of his talent once had. Plus the Mets it appears wanted to keep a more diverse lineup and Cano wasn't a part of that grand plan.

It has been well documented that Cano has been a great clubhouse guy, imparting his baseball wisdom on his younger teammates and anybody who would listen. That's been an asset for this team, there's no doubt about that. But at the same time, with his salary being as high as it was from the deal he first signed with the Mariners back in 2013, and his lack of offensive production, that locker room presence wasn't enough to justify the money. Cano still wants to play. his agent, and former Mets General Manager, Brodie Van Wagenen told that much to the press earlier today after the announcement was made.

“Robbie absolutely still wants to play. Given the right situation, he can still make a meaningful contribution for a team.”

Yeah I can't really see that happening, unless a team starts getting riddle with injuries and is in desperate need of a bat in the lineup or a glove at 2nd base.

Why do I say this? easy Cano isn't anywhere close the player he was. And given the baggage of his last contract and his coming off missing all of last season due to the steroid suspension, nobody's really going to want to touch him. At least that's how I'm reading this situation from afar.

There's no doubt that Cano was a good hitter and very productive early on in his career. His production has been on the decline since his last all star season in 2017 in Seattle. That was good and all but he hasn't been close to that player since coming back to New York. And again the money is a sticking point for what he was being paid the production wasn't what it should be.

I never liked the move from the second it was made. They gave up a bit of a haul to get Cano and Edwin Diaz, including parting ways with one of the top prospects in Jarred Kelenic. Both Cano and Diaz have cause frustration in their own ways for Mets fans. Diaz has blown so many games I've lost count and Cano has been a total waste of a roster spot since coming here. Two steroid suspensions and not doing jack squat at the plate when he was in the line up will cause that frustration from the fans. He was way past his prime by the time the Mets got him here and it blew up on them.

Stanley Cup Playoffs First Round Predictions

The time has arrived. We started this crazy journey back in October with thirty two teams. All of whom had the same desire. Win hockey's ultimate prize, the Stanley Cup. Now here we sit with sixteen left. The chase for the cup is underway. IT'S CUP TIME!

There's quite a few questions going into this first round here in the playoffs. Biggest one is can the Bolts do something that hasn't been done since the 80s? How well can Toronto defense and goaltending hold up? How Playoff ready actually are the Panthers? Can Colorado continue its momentum? Can the Oilers shake their past playoff failures?

All these questions and more will be answered over the coming weeks and months as the playoffs wind down. For now the first round is here and this is how we see the opening round going down.

Eastern Conference:
Florida Panthers vs Washington Capitals: Panthers in 7
Toronto Maple Leafs vs Tampa Bay Lightning: Lightning in 6
Carolina Hurricanes vs Boston Bruins: Hurricanes in 5
New York Rangers vs Pittsburgh Penguins: Rangers in 6

Western Conference:
Colorado Avalanche vs Nashville Predators: Avalanche in 4
Minnesota Wild vs St Louis Blues: Blues in 7
Calgary Flames vs Dallas Stars: Flames in 5
Edmonton Oilers vs Los Angeles Kings: Oilers in 6

That's how wee see the first round going down. What say you?