Tag: washington capitals
Record-breaking vies against playoff contention in the Lightning’s remaining schedule
Author’s Note: I go the wins-in-an-NHL-season record wrong in this piece. The record is 62 wins by the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wins. Research quick results were not clear on the record. The Lightning could tie that mark. To break it would be on grand sports record fe.
16 games remain in the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning regular season and hoo-boy, have those first 66 delivered. 50 wins in 66 games tie the NHL record for the feat.
While a contingent of fans might lock this performance into what the club will do in the playoffs, I warn you not to. That’s the Second Season. Everything starts over for every club involved in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and there have been incidents in the history of the NHL and professional sports in general where a paramount club is taken down with shocking ease by a lower ranking challenger.
Getting ahead of ourselves is not the point of this write-up, the point is actually the Bolts potentially threatening, reaching, and breaking said league record.
60 wins isn’t impossible, but it’s tough… or should be.
To take 50 wins from 66 games played gives the Bolts a mite over a .750 winning percentage. If you apply that simply to the number of games ahead, that’s 12 potential wins. A 62 win season shatters the NHL record and is… just math done by me. You have to play the games and that’s what causes a win or a loss. Not ratio logic and blah-blah-blah by analysts, columnists or bloggers.
Read MoreRight-vs-wrong; Brett Connolly will not attend Washington Capitals White House visit
Brett Connolly was Steve Yzerman’s first draft choice as general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2010. Connolly started a tend, though, that too many of the 1st round picks by the Lightning have followed in recent years: He moved on. Connolly was traded to the Boston Bruins at the 2015 NHL trade deadline.
This story isn’t about first-round phase-outs or failings, though, this is to share news about, ahem, Stanley Cup Champion Brett Connolly and a decision worth noting in the sports world. Read More
Boycotting the White House and Donald Trump isn’t part of the 2018 Stanley Cup Finals discussion
The Philadelphia Eagles boycotted the White House by-and-large to the point President Donald J. Trump “revoked” the team’s White House visit on June 5th. He had a needless, empty event in its place where he made an ass out of himself. It’s no surprise that participants in the NBA Championship have stood up and said “no way” to a visit at the White House. It doesn’t matter who wins, they’re staying away.
There are too many reasons, both personal and standing up as public figures, for pro athletes to make this boycott move. Some sports fans may sour in reaction because they expect players to just submit and play the game, be the sport-figure and take what normally is the high-honor bestowed upon a champion by the Commander in Chief… But where is the honor coming from Donald Trump and his administration? There are too many acts of disrespect the population – be they minorities or immigrated citizens, the poor and working class, and so many others – that have created issues in society and have led to the protests of the administration and specifically The Donald.
So where do the Stanley Cup Finals teams, the Washington Capitals and Vegas Golden Knights, stand in all this?
Silent.
The pressure of novelty and the 2018 Stanley Cup Finals
With game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals tonight at Capital One Arena, there are two words on my mind, linked together but entirely unlinked. They have nothing to do with each other and yet one causes another.
The first word is pressure.
Not in the way you think it’s applicable. This is coming from a Tampa Bay Lightning fan, with Tampa Bay Lightning readers (…sometimes; it’s not like this site gets a shitload of traffic). The team’s on the verge and… No, I’m not thinking of game day pressure. That goes for the Washington Capitals as well (hello, Caps faithful) who truly do have game-night pressure simply to have a tomorrow and bring forth a game 7 at Amalie Arena. That’s not the kind of pressure that’s on my mind either.
A snap reaction to snap reactions aimed at the Tampa Bay Lightning and the 2018 NHL Eastern Conference Finals
I don’t know if it’s a casual fan base element, bandwagon fans or actually faithful of the Tampa Bsy Lightning who put on the panic hats if and when the Lightning struggle or fail to win… I know there’s an element of the die-hard fans who are like this – one of them is a good friend of mine – but I do know they have come out of the woodwork during the Lightning’s Eastern Conference Final series with the Washington Capitals after the disappointing opening games of the series.
To those who are crying that the Lightning are missing a piece of the puzzle in the roster, I’d like to welcome you to hockey or to the Tampa Bay Lightning from your original team. What’s worth citing as missing is your experience as a Bolts fan and your knowledge of the Tampa Bay Lightning roster and what it’s capable of.
A hockey blogger Q and A with J.P. of Japers Rink
While I pour over headlines of the hockey blog universe on a daily basis, I’ve been noticing something missing in the summer of 2017 that usually runs as an ongoing series in the hockey blogosphere: question-and-answer sessions that don’t just run the course of talking about other teams, but illustrate networking in blogdom.
Today I’m (hopefully) starting a series of Q & A interviews with some of the hockey blogosphere’s top members. The questions aren’t locked-on-the-franchise talk but touches on blogging as well as the wider NHL with some points that often play out in regular discussions that have been prominent this summer among idle fans.
This introduction interview is with Jon “J.P” Press, founder of Washington Capitals blog Japers RInk. Jon has been at his game as a hockey blogger since the 2004-05 NHL lockout. That idle time was pretty tough for fans to live through, and yet it gave birth to known members of the blogging universe as well as the mainstream media.
