Islanders Miss Playoffs? (hartley)

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Islanders Miss Playoffs?

By GARTH'S CORNER

Apr 8, 2015 • 8:48 am

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Don't look now, but the NY Islanders haven't clinched a playoff spot yet.

If the Isles slip, fall and miss the playoffs, Tim Murray and the Buffalo Sabres will own their NHL Lottery pick. Remember when Isles GM Garth Snow traded Matt Moulson to Buffalo for Thomas Vanek and a conditional first round draft choice? Snow held on to his 2014 first rounder and deferred it until the Connor McDavid draft this June. Snow invested the 5th overall pick in the '14 NHL Draft into Oshawa Generals power forward Michael Dal Colle..

If the Islanders miss the playoffs, their deferred 2015 first round pick will improve dramatically for the Sabres as it will become a lottery pick. Did you say Lottery pick?!!

The Sabres would love selecting twice in the top 12-14 picks of the draft. They are in great shape to finish the season 30th overall which will guarantee them Jack Eichel with the second overall pick, provided they lose Connor McDavid in the April 18 NHL Draft Lottery.

* Rut Roh !!*

The Islanders have 98 points and will travel to Pittsburgh on Friday night and will finish the regular season on home ice against Columbus on Saturday night.

Here are the up to date Eastern playoff standings:

5th: Islanders 98 points after 80 games played 6th: Red Wings 97 points after 80 games played 7th: Penguins 96 points after 80 games played 8th: Bruins 95 points after 79 games played 9th: Senators 95 points after 80 games played

If the Islanders lose their two remaining games and the Red Wings, Penguins, Bruins and Senators win their remaining games, the Islanders will find themselves on the outside looking in.

On the ice Tuesday night, Flyers center Brayden Schenn closed the wild show with his goal with exactly 2.1 seconds remaining in the third period to give the home team the 5-4 win on Tuesday night. THe Islanders were missing three key players from their starting lineup in Philly. Frans Neilsen, Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin all missed the game due to undisclosed injuries.

The Islanders trailed 4-2, however, they scored two goals in a 1:16 span with 1:44 remaining in regulation to tie the game with 28.0 seconds remaining.

This loss had huge playoff ramifications for the Islanders, who needed just one point against the Flyers to punch their ticket to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, OR, an Ottawa Senators loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Penguins jumped out to a 3-0 lead, however, Ottawa's Mike Hoffman scored the game tying goal in the dying moments of regulation play with The Hamburglar on the bench for the extra attacker. Ottawa rookie Mark Stone closed the show with the OT GWG.

Make the final score 4-3 Pesky Sens in OT.

***

Buffalo Sabres fans are hoping and praying to the hockey gods that the Calgary Flames are going to mail it in against the lowly Regierizona Coyotes on home ice tonight.

The Coyotes spanked the San Jose 5-3 on Saturday.

However, they are 0-4-0 versus the Flames this season.

Flames head coach Bob Hartley:

“It’s all about us, it’s all about us,… Hartley told Flames TV..

“Whether we play the Stanley Cup champions or we play any of the other teams, it’s the way we prepare. … We understand what these two home games mean to us. But we’re going to play them one at a time.…

Flames D-man David Schlemko, a former Desert Dog, said that Thursday's game vs. LA won't mean a damn thing unless the Flames snag both points from the Dogs tonight.

“I think it’s kind of a dangerous game,… he said. “Everyone’s already talking about L.A. on Thursday. It’s not going to matter if we don’t pick up two points tonight.…

Calgary and LA each have 93 points heading into tonight’s action.

The Flames hold the Regulation OT Win tie-breaker by a 39 to 37 count.

An Arizona win would guarantee their 29th place finish in the TankDavid standings. Buffalo would take sole possession of 30th place in the standings which will insure that they will select Jack Eichel second overall in the June Draft if they don't win the NHL Lottery.

Let's go Dogs!

*****

With all the talk of Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel in Buffalo, you hardly hear a peep about Samson Reinhart.

The second overall pick in the 2014 NHL draft is now available to make his transition to pro hockey. Reinhart and his Kootenay Ice lost Game 7 to the Calgary Hitmen on Monday night.

Calgary scored three first-period goals to power their 6-2 victory over the Kootenay.

Reinhart and Jaedon Descheneau scored for Kootenay, but saw their season come to a close in Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Quarter-Final.

The Hitmen will move on to face the Medicine Hat Tigers in the Eastern Conference Semi-Final.

Reinhart is now eligible to join the Rochester Amerks for their six remaining games of the 2014-15 season.

There is nothing left for Reinhart to prove in junior hockey. He is a bona fide star and did a tremendous job branding himself as one of the best junior players in the world after Tim Murray and the Buffalo Sabres demoted him from the NHL after his nine game pro tryout in early November.

It seems like a million years go, doesn't it?

While you and I have been focused on the #TankDavid saga, Reinhart has been transforming his game. The boy has become a man in the past six months. The Sabres should be commended for not rushing his development. They gave him a taste of the NHL then wisely sent him back to juniors so that he could further develop his body and his footwork so that they would be NHL compliant.

By all accounts, Reinhart has done the work, studied for his NHL learner's permit and is now ready to show the Sabres that he is confident to take his pro hockey road test in rush hour traffic.

Reinhart struggled to adapt to the the speed, size, and strength of his NHL counterparts earlier this season. Murray and the Sabres felt it was in Reinhart's best interests to go back to Kootenay to work on building his core strength and while honing the skills that he was blessed with from birth. Samson never sulked or pouted. He never slumped. He accepted his demotion to Kootenay like a man and he turned those lemons into lemonade.

He was a wide-eyed 18 year old kid when he was demoted. He became a man in the past six months. His size, skill and smarts scream "NHL ready". His fire, desire, dedication, competitive spirit, coach-ability and stick-to-it-iveness make him a can't-miss NHL prospect.

Reinhart scored 6 goals and added 3 assists in Kootenay's first round battle with the Calgary Hitmen.

That, on top of scoring 19 goals and adding 46 assists in just 47 regular season games in Kootenay this season. The Ice were a last place team when he re-joined them for their season. He put them into the playoffs with his stellar, trademark two-way brand of hockey.

His best work came while the world was watching his every move.

In my humble opinion, Reinhart was Team Canada's MVP at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships in Montreal and Toronto.

Sure, he scored 5 goalss and added 6 assists, some of highlight reel variety, in his 7 games played at the WJCs. However, his defensive zone faceoff and back checking prowess was exemplary. Samson executes the fundamentals better than any junior player that I have seen in a long time.

His hockey IQ is off the charts. He thinks, anticipates, sees, and visualizes the game better than most. He is truly an exceptional talent and Sabres fans should be frothing at the mouth to see him play the final six games of this season with the Amerks.

If you take Reinhart off the the top line center position with Max Domi and Anthony Duclair, Canada doesn't win the WJC gold medal. Reinhart was that great for his country in that tournament. He distinguished himself as one of, if not the best junior players in the world with huis superlative performances.

Bear in mind that Canada was hosting the WJCs on home soil and that it had suffered from disappointing ends to five consecutive WJC tournaments before Reinhart pulled them up by their skate laces and led them to the gold medal.

Connor McDavid played exceptionally well for Canada in their gold medal triumph. Samson Reinhart played even better. That's saying something, folks.

To think that Reinhart and McDavid may be the #1 and #2 centers of attention in Buffalo for the next 10-12 years is intoxicating!

The Rochester Amerks have a six-pack of games remaining in their season.

They play at Lake Erie on Thursday night. They then have a home and home with the Toronto Marlies on Friday 4/10 and Saturday 4/11. Next week, its home for Utica and away at Bingo and Adirondack.

I think Tim Murray will throw the kid a bone and call him up to play the final six games of the season with the Amerks. If my plan goes off without a hitch, these will be the only 6 games that Reinhart will play in the AHL in his soon to be illustrious NHL career.

_______________________________________________________________________

The Buffalo Sabres are 3-6-1 in their last 10 games.

However, they are 3-3-1 in the past seven games.

Can you guess who their three wins have come against during their recent renaissance period?

Arizona. Toronto. Carolina. Their one OT loss in that time frame is against Arizona.

Since March 26, the Sabres have taken 7 of a possible 14 points from their fellow tank peer group.

On Monday night, a Sabres loss to the Hurricanes would have given them the #1 seed in the McEichel Sweepstakes, however, Ted Nolan sent Anders Lindback to the four by six and the Sabres beat Cam Ward and the Hurricanes. I thought for sure that Nolan would give the bet to rookie Andrey Makarov who was very impressive in his NHL debut, a 3-0 loss to teh NY Islanders on Saturday night.

An unconscious Lindback made 49 saves on 52 shots in Buffalo’s 4-3 win. At one point in the game, the Sabres scored 4 fast goals on just 19 shots on Cam Ward.

One would have thought that the Canes were the team that was wanting to lose in order to claim last place in the NHL standings and first place in the McEichel hit parade.

The Canes were rubbish for the first 54 minutes of the game, then they shifted to glide in the final four minutes of the third period. With 5:29 remaining in regulation and Ward on the bench for the extra attacker, Eric Staal made it a one goal game with his shot from the slot that evaded Lindback. That’s as the Canes came to tying the game.

The Hurricanes proved to Buffalo that tankabout is fair play.

The Sabres now have 54 points with two games to play in their season from hell. The Coyotes have 56 points with three games to play.

The Coyotes are at Calgary on Tuesday night, at Vancouver Thursday and home for Anaheim on Saturday night.

Sabres fans will have to sit and agonize all week until the Sabres travel to Columbus on Friday night. They will dump this season in the recycling bin when they host Pittsburgh on Saturday night.

A Coyotes regulation win or two OT losses will give them 58 points which will seal their 29th place finish.

Nobody said it was easy.

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