Hey folks, I am way behind because of work and some other things so it's time to make that right. It will be picture light but content heavy.
To start today we are hosting the Bruins, who are 16th in the East. Should be academic but we all know about our struggles against teams from the East.
The first and second periods pass by in a flash, with the game not stopping to show me anything of note. Both teams took 16 shots and there were 3 power plays but no good opportunities. The third period is much of the same. We create a few goal mouth scrambles in the last minute of regulation but nothing do. Overtime is equally sleepy, so to a shootout we go.
Why am I not surprised? Diqnol and Hats hit their efforts right at the goalie, while PMom just misses the net completely. Bummer. The result drops us to 7th.
Away to Nashville now. The Predators are in 5th so if we want to have a shot at hosting a home playoff series we probably need to win here.
Halfway through the first we find ourselves down 1-0. Some simple passing slices open our defense. With less than a minute to go in the period, though, busb finds Murmur Twin streaking down the flank and she centers it for Kashuno to put in. Straight away from the puck drop, Murmur Twin finds busb who again finds Kashuno, and his quick double puts us up 2-1 going into the second period.
The second is uneventful until the end. With around 2 minutes left, Diqnol takes a shot that their goalie deflects to Fisk. Fisk finds Asiina who unleashes a strong effort, hitting off the skate of a Predator and falling into PMom's path. He blasts it and sends us into the third up 3-1.
Danger comes early in the third. The Predators get a good chance going and center the puck but Poque is able to intervene and knock the puck out of play. From the drop puck restart, though, the Predators score immediately. 3-2. With less than two minutes left they pull their goalie and mount the pressure. Moat takes a shot from a long way attempting to hit the empty net but pushes it just wide. When the Predators recover the puck and start to attack, Hats steps in, steals the puck, finds Moat, and Moat buries it this time. 4-2, and that's how we end.
The win puts us back in 4th place, leaping over the Predators.
The next day we are away to the Wild. The last time we played them was a 4-2 road victory. Fingers crossed we can repeat that today.
I had to step out of the room in the first period and that is when all of the action happened, soooo
PMush hitting one in off the crossbar is very nice. The game gave their goalie gold, Kash silver, and PMush bronze, so the implication to me is that it could have easily been a bigger win. That's good. We're now in 3rd.
Away to the Jets now. They're in 6th, hot on our tails, so it would be good to put a buffer with a few more points.
Welp. That's unfortunate. We stay in 3rd and they stay in 6th, so at least that's the silver lining.
Hosting the Kings now. 1st vs 3rd. I really, really, really want to win this one.
Halfway through the first period and Keane wins the puck for us and we launch a quick counter. Keane finds Diqnol who releases Wren and Wren scores what could be the most important goal for this team yet. 1-0.
Asiina and Murmur Twin stretch to lead to 3-0 before they pull it back to 3-1, which is how it goes into the third. Hats pops up late to put it out of reach though. WOOOO!
Keane is awarded gold on the back of his two assists with Wren taking silver and Hats taking bronze.
And just like that....
With 7 games remaining, we punch our ticket to the playoffs. Woo! We are the third team to clinch a berth.
Next game: Away to the 4th place Sharks. We are only one point ahead of the Sharks and four ahead of Nashville in 5th so we still have work to do to get across the line and secure a home series. A win here would do a lot for our breathing room, though!
A face off in front of the San Jose goal halfway through the first gives us the first goal. The puck finds its way to Asiina who squares to Leatherman. Leatherman takes a shot and it is saved, but busb is there to tap in. 1-0, into the second.
Midway through the second, PMush finds... okay, guys, can we stop scoring so I can finish these updates? Ok, so PMush finds Diqnol finds Wren for #2. Then Keane finds busb finds Twin for #3. Then Keane finds Pmom finds Fisk for #4. Then Asiina finds Stickup finds Retro Futurist for #5. And now I'm caught up and that's the end of the second. Bridstrike is playing lights out, but with a big lead it's time to get Ecco a trip to the ice.
Keane with his third second assist of the game early in the third as he finds Hats who finds Murmur Twin for her second of the day. 6-0. Podima clears up the ice, meets the Sharks player who went to collect it, disposes him, and centers for Moat. 7-0, and we're all done.
So, so beautiful.
Hey, maybe I'm not gonna get fired! Woo!
With our final six, we have two at home, two away, and then two at home again to finish.
Oilers at home. Podima scores within two minutes. Not 100% what happened. Two minutes later, MMM gets the puck off a face off, finds Stickup, and he scores. Then MMM finds Pod who finds Stickup for his second goal of the day, and then Fisk assists PMom and we're up 4-0 within 9 minutes. Fisk hit 40 points, by the way. And then I guess PMush scored too? I missed that one. It's 5-0 at the end of the first and we are looking like a team finding it's form going into the playoffs. Perfect.
PMush chases a puck down, it goes to Wren who drops its to Leatherman who takes a shot from way out there but hey, good enough. PMush scores again and it's 7-0 midway through the second. I'm out for blood and want to see if we can set a record.
Well they scored early in the third, 7-1, so I guess no record for us. Bummer. Well, ok, so now it's 7-2. Hm. I'd be worried if it weren't a literal five goal lead. Fisk scores off an assist from Asiina, though, and 8-2 is the final tally.
Seriously look at Leatherman's goal (#55). I mean, like, good for him, he scored it, but I just don't know what possessed him to take such a shot! Fisk gold, PMush silver, Stickup bronze.
Home to the Stars before our last road trip. The Stars are in 2nd, just ahead of us. The Kings in 1st are getting to play the Oilers who we just beat up. If we can win here, we may have a shot at sneaking into first. So... fingers crossed.
The first period is quiet. Midway through the second, Kashuno wins a face off. He lays the puck off to Keane. Keane puts on the fancy moves and gets around a defender to drop the puck off for Murmur Twin, who makes no mistake. 1-0. A few minutes later and we have another face off. Fisk lays it back to Keane. Keane splits the defense and returns the puck to Fisk. Fisk takes a shot and hits it off the near upright. It falls into his path and Fisk collects the puck, skates behind the net, comes out on the other side, and buries it. 2-0 and we're halfway home.
With four minutes left in the second, Retro Futurist finds Keane with the puck. Keane lays it off to Stickup who fires it right at their goalie. Their goalie spills and RF just skates in to clean up the mess he started. 3-0. Stickup hits the 40 point mark with that assist. Onto the third!
PMom, Moat, and Fisk share the puck between them going up the ice and Fisk calmly slots it away to make it 4-0. With three minutes left in the game, the Stars get on the board and make it 4-1 but that's the end of that.
It's pretty eerie how similar three of those goals were on location and placement. Keane gold, Bird silver, Fisk bronze. It's not enough to get us to second yet but we're on the cusp. With four games left to go, we're chasing it.
Keane getting recognized for some fine, fine performances in the last week.
Start of our final road trip takes us to the Canucks. They're in 10th but if they don't beat us they can't qualify for the playoffs anymore. It's win or go home for them so this could be dangerous.
Sure enough, a defensive lapse puts them up 1-0 after five minutes.
Nothing really happens until the very end of the third period. PMush and Wren go agonizingly close to scoring with under two minutes left, and in fact it looks like Wren has the puck in the net. The game though must have already decided to go back for the delayed offside as we aren't given a point. With 30 seconds left, Kashuno wins a face off and drops it to Hats who unleashes a thunderous shot. Unfortunately it's right at the goalie. It spills, the Canucks clear it, and we get another opportunity. Murmur Twin squares it and Kashuno gets a good shot off but again, right at the goalie with 8 seconds left. The Canucks clear their lines again and our good run comes to an end, 1-0.
Road game against the Oilers now to close the road season. We played them on the road very recently and won by 6 goals. While I don't expect a repeat of that, I do want us to win this comfortably.
Retro Futurist collects the puck behind the Oilers net and passes it away. Four or five passes later it finds it's way back to RF who gives us the lead. 1-0 going into the second.
Early in the second, Hats passes it to MMM Whatchya Say who dances around a couple of defenders and buries it. 2-0. Podima makes it 3-0 with a little over 6 minutes left in the second period and we are well on our way to closing out the road season on a high note.
Halfway through the third, the Oilers find the net and make it 3-1. Nervous times, but that's how it ends.
MMM Whatchya Say gets gold, Hats silver, Bird bronze.
The Flames take the last place in the West, meaning the Canucks beating us was meaningless. Boo. Well, final two games at home. Lets end the season on a high note.
Home versus the Ducks, another playoff team. Good bar to see how we might can do.
Cool. Sorry about lack of updates but it was a good one. Fisk got us going early and we didn't really look back. Fisk gold, Bird silver Hats bronze.
Ok, final game, home against the Jets, another playoff team. We played them away twice this year and lost both of those matchups. Let's win this one and finish strong going into the playoffs!
Fisk scores a power play goal in the first two minutes and we're off to the races. They tie it up midway through the second. So 1-1 going into the final regular season period! Midway through the third and Murmur Twin scores to relieve some pressure. Some nervous moments at the end as the Jets put us under siege but we hold on and Murmur Twin scores into their empty net to finish them off, 3-1.
Busb gold, Murmur Twin silver, Hats bronze.
Before we go into the wrap up, here is another new screen I found.
When your most overrated player is your backup goalie, that's probably a good thing.
Ok, so, here is our playoff opponent.
Calgary Flames, cool. Here's a little more info.
Did you catch it? WE'RE THE FIRST SEED IN THE WEST! We finished on 104 points, just edging out the Stars and Sharks who both finished on 102.
Wrap up, with a few extra screens today.
Ok, so here are those extra screens. First, the standings for the east and west combined so you can see how we matched up.
By points, we ended up as the 5th best team in the NHL. Cuts off at the Canucks since I couldn't fit more on the screen, sorry.
Here is where we finished in the following categories:
Home Games: 8th
Away Games: 5th (...really? Also of note, the Red Wings were 1st here, but didnt make the playoffs)
Leading After 1st: 7th
Leading After 2nd: 6th
Trailing After 1st: 29th (I freaked out at first, but this only happened 18 times. Still, only 9 pts)
Trailing After 2nd: 27th (22 times, only got 2 wins and 5 pts total if we were losing after 2nd)
Tied After 1st: 1st
Tied After 2nd: 2nd
Overtime Games: 17th
Scoring First: 2nd (Happened in 50/82 games, won 38)
Scored on First: 28th (Happened in 31 games, 10 wins, 21 pts)
And finally, here is the road to the Stanley Cup
(And, of course, The End in the title is referencing the regular season)
To start today we are hosting the Bruins, who are 16th in the East. Should be academic but we all know about our struggles against teams from the East.
The first and second periods pass by in a flash, with the game not stopping to show me anything of note. Both teams took 16 shots and there were 3 power plays but no good opportunities. The third period is much of the same. We create a few goal mouth scrambles in the last minute of regulation but nothing do. Overtime is equally sleepy, so to a shootout we go.
Why am I not surprised? Diqnol and Hats hit their efforts right at the goalie, while PMom just misses the net completely. Bummer. The result drops us to 7th.
Away to Nashville now. The Predators are in 5th so if we want to have a shot at hosting a home playoff series we probably need to win here.
Halfway through the first we find ourselves down 1-0. Some simple passing slices open our defense. With less than a minute to go in the period, though, busb finds Murmur Twin streaking down the flank and she centers it for Kashuno to put in. Straight away from the puck drop, Murmur Twin finds busb who again finds Kashuno, and his quick double puts us up 2-1 going into the second period.
The second is uneventful until the end. With around 2 minutes left, Diqnol takes a shot that their goalie deflects to Fisk. Fisk finds Asiina who unleashes a strong effort, hitting off the skate of a Predator and falling into PMom's path. He blasts it and sends us into the third up 3-1.
Danger comes early in the third. The Predators get a good chance going and center the puck but Poque is able to intervene and knock the puck out of play. From the drop puck restart, though, the Predators score immediately. 3-2. With less than two minutes left they pull their goalie and mount the pressure. Moat takes a shot from a long way attempting to hit the empty net but pushes it just wide. When the Predators recover the puck and start to attack, Hats steps in, steals the puck, finds Moat, and Moat buries it this time. 4-2, and that's how we end.
The win puts us back in 4th place, leaping over the Predators.
The next day we are away to the Wild. The last time we played them was a 4-2 road victory. Fingers crossed we can repeat that today.
I had to step out of the room in the first period and that is when all of the action happened, soooo
PMush hitting one in off the crossbar is very nice. The game gave their goalie gold, Kash silver, and PMush bronze, so the implication to me is that it could have easily been a bigger win. That's good. We're now in 3rd.
Away to the Jets now. They're in 6th, hot on our tails, so it would be good to put a buffer with a few more points.
Welp. That's unfortunate. We stay in 3rd and they stay in 6th, so at least that's the silver lining.
Hosting the Kings now. 1st vs 3rd. I really, really, really want to win this one.
Halfway through the first period and Keane wins the puck for us and we launch a quick counter. Keane finds Diqnol who releases Wren and Wren scores what could be the most important goal for this team yet. 1-0.
Asiina and Murmur Twin stretch to lead to 3-0 before they pull it back to 3-1, which is how it goes into the third. Hats pops up late to put it out of reach though. WOOOO!
Keane is awarded gold on the back of his two assists with Wren taking silver and Hats taking bronze.
And just like that....
With 7 games remaining, we punch our ticket to the playoffs. Woo! We are the third team to clinch a berth.
Next game: Away to the 4th place Sharks. We are only one point ahead of the Sharks and four ahead of Nashville in 5th so we still have work to do to get across the line and secure a home series. A win here would do a lot for our breathing room, though!
A face off in front of the San Jose goal halfway through the first gives us the first goal. The puck finds its way to Asiina who squares to Leatherman. Leatherman takes a shot and it is saved, but busb is there to tap in. 1-0, into the second.
Midway through the second, PMush finds... okay, guys, can we stop scoring so I can finish these updates? Ok, so PMush finds Diqnol finds Wren for #2. Then Keane finds busb finds Twin for #3. Then Keane finds Pmom finds Fisk for #4. Then Asiina finds Stickup finds Retro Futurist for #5. And now I'm caught up and that's the end of the second. Bridstrike is playing lights out, but with a big lead it's time to get Ecco a trip to the ice.
Keane with his third second assist of the game early in the third as he finds Hats who finds Murmur Twin for her second of the day. 6-0. Podima clears up the ice, meets the Sharks player who went to collect it, disposes him, and centers for Moat. 7-0, and we're all done.
So, so beautiful.
Hey, maybe I'm not gonna get fired! Woo!
With our final six, we have two at home, two away, and then two at home again to finish.
Oilers at home. Podima scores within two minutes. Not 100% what happened. Two minutes later, MMM gets the puck off a face off, finds Stickup, and he scores. Then MMM finds Pod who finds Stickup for his second goal of the day, and then Fisk assists PMom and we're up 4-0 within 9 minutes. Fisk hit 40 points, by the way. And then I guess PMush scored too? I missed that one. It's 5-0 at the end of the first and we are looking like a team finding it's form going into the playoffs. Perfect.
PMush chases a puck down, it goes to Wren who drops its to Leatherman who takes a shot from way out there but hey, good enough. PMush scores again and it's 7-0 midway through the second. I'm out for blood and want to see if we can set a record.
Well they scored early in the third, 7-1, so I guess no record for us. Bummer. Well, ok, so now it's 7-2. Hm. I'd be worried if it weren't a literal five goal lead. Fisk scores off an assist from Asiina, though, and 8-2 is the final tally.
Seriously look at Leatherman's goal (#55). I mean, like, good for him, he scored it, but I just don't know what possessed him to take such a shot! Fisk gold, PMush silver, Stickup bronze.
Home to the Stars before our last road trip. The Stars are in 2nd, just ahead of us. The Kings in 1st are getting to play the Oilers who we just beat up. If we can win here, we may have a shot at sneaking into first. So... fingers crossed.
The first period is quiet. Midway through the second, Kashuno wins a face off. He lays the puck off to Keane. Keane puts on the fancy moves and gets around a defender to drop the puck off for Murmur Twin, who makes no mistake. 1-0. A few minutes later and we have another face off. Fisk lays it back to Keane. Keane splits the defense and returns the puck to Fisk. Fisk takes a shot and hits it off the near upright. It falls into his path and Fisk collects the puck, skates behind the net, comes out on the other side, and buries it. 2-0 and we're halfway home.
With four minutes left in the second, Retro Futurist finds Keane with the puck. Keane lays it off to Stickup who fires it right at their goalie. Their goalie spills and RF just skates in to clean up the mess he started. 3-0. Stickup hits the 40 point mark with that assist. Onto the third!
PMom, Moat, and Fisk share the puck between them going up the ice and Fisk calmly slots it away to make it 4-0. With three minutes left in the game, the Stars get on the board and make it 4-1 but that's the end of that.
It's pretty eerie how similar three of those goals were on location and placement. Keane gold, Bird silver, Fisk bronze. It's not enough to get us to second yet but we're on the cusp. With four games left to go, we're chasing it.
Keane getting recognized for some fine, fine performances in the last week.
Start of our final road trip takes us to the Canucks. They're in 10th but if they don't beat us they can't qualify for the playoffs anymore. It's win or go home for them so this could be dangerous.
Sure enough, a defensive lapse puts them up 1-0 after five minutes.
Nothing really happens until the very end of the third period. PMush and Wren go agonizingly close to scoring with under two minutes left, and in fact it looks like Wren has the puck in the net. The game though must have already decided to go back for the delayed offside as we aren't given a point. With 30 seconds left, Kashuno wins a face off and drops it to Hats who unleashes a thunderous shot. Unfortunately it's right at the goalie. It spills, the Canucks clear it, and we get another opportunity. Murmur Twin squares it and Kashuno gets a good shot off but again, right at the goalie with 8 seconds left. The Canucks clear their lines again and our good run comes to an end, 1-0.
Road game against the Oilers now to close the road season. We played them on the road very recently and won by 6 goals. While I don't expect a repeat of that, I do want us to win this comfortably.
Retro Futurist collects the puck behind the Oilers net and passes it away. Four or five passes later it finds it's way back to RF who gives us the lead. 1-0 going into the second.
Early in the second, Hats passes it to MMM Whatchya Say who dances around a couple of defenders and buries it. 2-0. Podima makes it 3-0 with a little over 6 minutes left in the second period and we are well on our way to closing out the road season on a high note.
Halfway through the third, the Oilers find the net and make it 3-1. Nervous times, but that's how it ends.
MMM Whatchya Say gets gold, Hats silver, Bird bronze.
The Flames take the last place in the West, meaning the Canucks beating us was meaningless. Boo. Well, final two games at home. Lets end the season on a high note.
Home versus the Ducks, another playoff team. Good bar to see how we might can do.
Cool. Sorry about lack of updates but it was a good one. Fisk got us going early and we didn't really look back. Fisk gold, Bird silver Hats bronze.
Ok, final game, home against the Jets, another playoff team. We played them away twice this year and lost both of those matchups. Let's win this one and finish strong going into the playoffs!
Fisk scores a power play goal in the first two minutes and we're off to the races. They tie it up midway through the second. So 1-1 going into the final regular season period! Midway through the third and Murmur Twin scores to relieve some pressure. Some nervous moments at the end as the Jets put us under siege but we hold on and Murmur Twin scores into their empty net to finish them off, 3-1.
Busb gold, Murmur Twin silver, Hats bronze.
Before we go into the wrap up, here is another new screen I found.
When your most overrated player is your backup goalie, that's probably a good thing.
Ok, so, here is our playoff opponent.
Calgary Flames, cool. Here's a little more info.
Did you catch it? WE'RE THE FIRST SEED IN THE WEST! We finished on 104 points, just edging out the Stars and Sharks who both finished on 102.
Wrap up, with a few extra screens today.
Ok, so here are those extra screens. First, the standings for the east and west combined so you can see how we matched up.
By points, we ended up as the 5th best team in the NHL. Cuts off at the Canucks since I couldn't fit more on the screen, sorry.
Here is where we finished in the following categories:
Home Games: 8th
Away Games: 5th (...really? Also of note, the Red Wings were 1st here, but didnt make the playoffs)
Leading After 1st: 7th
Leading After 2nd: 6th
Trailing After 1st: 29th (I freaked out at first, but this only happened 18 times. Still, only 9 pts)
Trailing After 2nd: 27th (22 times, only got 2 wins and 5 pts total if we were losing after 2nd)
Tied After 1st: 1st
Tied After 2nd: 2nd
Overtime Games: 17th
Scoring First: 2nd (Happened in 50/82 games, won 38)
Scored on First: 28th (Happened in 31 games, 10 wins, 21 pts)
And finally, here is the road to the Stanley Cup
(And, of course, The End in the title is referencing the regular season)
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