Islanders’ playoff hopes officially dead with crucial offseason decisions ahead
NY Post
PHILADELPHIA —The Islanders didn’t have to wait on the Canadiens.
They got the suspense out of the way early on Saturday, losing to the Flyers, 4-3, on Bobby Brink’s shootout winner to write in ink what’s been clear for a couple of weeks now: The Islanders won’t be going to the playoffs.
Having lost eight of their last 10 entering Saturday, the season flying off the rails after a controversial goaltender interference call reversed Kyle Palmieri’s apparent game-winner against the Blue Jackets back on March 24, the question of whether the Islanders would be eliminated on Saturday or Sunday, via a loss or a Canadiens victory, was merely academic.
“This isn’t where we want to be,” captain Anders Lee said. “It was, and has been, a year where we left games on the table.”
If you’ve spent any time watching the Islanders over the last week, they’ve checked every box of a team playing out the string. Defense has become optional, physicality even more so, the games taking on a decidedly preseason feel.
For two periods and change on Saturday, it looked like the Islanders would at least get the consolation prize of forcing the Canadiens to eliminate them later in the day.
PORT ST. LUCIE — From the moment he was told he needed surgery on his left hamate bone, Francisco Lindor fixated on the recovery time. Trainers provided the Mets shortstop a six-week pathway to return to play, and Lindor was determined to hit every marker.
Dylan Garand knew the number off the top of his head. He knew that, between the regular season and playoffs, he’d logged over 160 games with AHL Hartford, and he was right. Before the Rangers recalled him Friday, Garand had served as the Wolf Pack’s goaltender 165 times.
SAN DIEGO — As you may have seen elsewhere in this newspaper (and also if you haven’t deleted me yet from your social media), I have a book coming out Tuesday called “The Bosses of The Bronx.” Much of it details the 37 years’ worth of antics, winning, losing, winning again and overall mania of George Steinbrenner’s time with the Yankees.
Don’t close the curtain on “Mean” Joe Greene.
The Knicks are on a five-game winning streak and flooded with concerns.
Dylan Garand knew the number off the top of his head. He knew that, between the regular season and playoffs, he’d logged over 160 games with AHL Hartford, and he was right. Before the Rangers recalled him Friday, Garand had served as the Wolf Pack’s goaltender 165 times.
SAN DIEGO — As you may have seen elsewhere in this newspaper (and also if you haven’t deleted me yet from your social media), I have a book coming out Tuesday called “The Bosses of The Bronx.” Much of it details the 37 years’ worth of antics, winning, losing, winning again and overall mania of George Steinbrenner’s time with the Yankees.
The Knicks are on a five-game winning streak and flooded with concerns.
Don’t close the curtain on “Mean” Joe Greene.
The hockey world is getting a new TV adaptation of another romance series that helped define the genre.
What is there about Giants edger ushers and their fixation with single-digit jersey numbers?
Cade Cunningham, almost inarguably the best player in the East this season, is likely out for the remainder of the regular season. That’s the word out of Detroit following the depressing news that Cunningham punctured a lung when he took a knee to his side Tuesday from Washington’s Tre Johnson while chasing a loose ball.
Legal problems continue to follow ex-NHLer Billy Tibbetts.