Happy Holidays HockeyWorld!
Welcome to the best two weeks in all of sports…The first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. There is just nothing like it. Teams finding another level leaving everything on the line…playing each game like its their last…. Playing as long as it takes until we have a winner each and every game. A tournament is always the best part of sports. Imagine playing one for the Stanley Cup.
Predictions are always a losing game, so instead I thought it would be better to simply travel two weeks into the future and look through the crystal puck…So if you don’t want to know what will happen, you might want to skip my time travelled recaps…
Friday, May 13th, 2022. A look back at the opening round series of Tampa vs. Toronto.
Game 1. We knew this series would have its share of goals. Vasy is a big game goalie but showed, like he had in the past, that he could give up goals to high powered offense. Stamkos started off the series in his hometown of Toronto continuing to play Gretzky-like hockey with a hat trick in game 1, scoring 3 goals in a 5-4 Tampa win.
Game 2. The Leafs game two explosion was probably to be expected, as Matthews countered, and even one upped Stammer adding his 4th into an empty not as the Leafs evened up the series with a wild 6-4 win.
Game 3. Back in Tampa, the Bolts played a very uneven game as McDonough’s health was brought into question as Tavares and Marner each jumped on rare mistakes. And the Leafs jumped out to a 3-0 first period lead…eventually winning 5-1
Game 4. Probably the game of the series…Tampa showed why they are the Champs, rebounding with their own 3-0 first period, but a series of bad penalties allowed Toronto to crawl within 1 as the teams went into the third with Tampa up 3-2. Another quick penalty by Tampa put the Leafs back on the PP, however Kucherov would intercept a cross-ice pass and score a shorty which put Tampa back up by 2. However, with three minutes to go Nylander would score a pair of goals 48 seconds apart and the teams would head to OT. It didn’t take long however, as two Lightning players collided in the neutral zone leading to a Matthews/Marner two on one…Matthews was thinking shot all the way, eventually going bar down and giving the Leafs the OT win ….and a 3-1 series strangle hold.
Game 5. Back in Toronto with a chance to put the Champs away the teams played a low scoring game with the Lightning taking it 2-0….It was really a 1-0 game with an empty netter. Both goalies played strong games and Tampa showed that they can win this kind of game as they have in the past.
Game 6. Back in Tampa, Leafs fans nerves all but frayed, we saw a very similar game to game 5. The Leafs took a 1-0 lead on an Auston Matthews goal midway through the third period. Campbell was fantastic, until Tampa scored a goal with less than a minute to go that appeared to tie it. The Leafs claim it went off of a Stamkos high stick. After review, the Toronto based war room ruled the goal was good. And we appeared to be headed to Overtime with 53 seconds left. That was until Matthews throws a big hit on Hedman, the puck squirts free and Mitch Marner buries it with 8.8 seconds to go.
The Maple Leafs are on to the second round of the playoffs, but may stay in Florida to start the next series on Monday…
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— Michael Augello (@MikeInBuffalo) January 5, 2021
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Let me know if you like this time travel review or not when it comes to moving forward with my predictions...If you'd rather not know the results, let me know..