Plus, the Islanders only registered 21 shots on goal.

Ryan Strome is going to be a beast. In points-only drafts next season, he is someone to reach for a round early. After the top 15-40 players you’re taking calculated risks in the upside hunt. He has been an excellent puck distributor all season, but the shooting arsenal has been on display during this series.

Additionally, with Josh Bailey, Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo playing well, perhaps Strome’s ice time will continue to align with John Tavares’. Playing pitch and catch with Tavares is fantasy gold.

Game 3 will be interesting, and expect it to be closest contest to date in the series.

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Calgary was lucky to win Game 1, so their 23-shot showing Friday certainly wasn’t going to cut it. They battled, but Vancouver received the most significant chalk of the night and proved why they deserved it.

The Jonas Hiller yanking late was interesting. Anyone have insight on what the exact thought process there was? Albeit, Hiller was far from exceptional. Still, you have to win games for your goalie occasionally. And all relationships require a little give and take, right?

Bob Hartley has been fairly erratic with his netminders for most of the season, though. It’ll be interesting to see who suits up for Game 3.
It is nice to see a little animosity in this series.

Admittedly, I don’t know a lot about Michael Ferland. Still, a 22-year-old rookie with 26 games in the league would not be prancing around taking liberties and chirping off to the opposing bench a few years ago. At least, he wouldn’t be doing it for long. While I suspect Ferland is fully capable, it is a shame a player who has 145 goals and 316 points over 299 games on his Western Hockey League resume is receiving the tap from Hartley.

It’s no wonder Ferland was trying to slow down Alexandre Burrows, though, as Burrows’ two helpers moved him into a tie for 10th place in all-time playoff points for Vancouver.

The whole situation leads to the question of whether the heavyweights were replaced with flyweights? At least Ferland has a skill element to his game and can play responsible minutes, if the answer to the question is yes. His antics, which I don’t have issue with, have him on my watch list, too. I am still going out of my way to praise and recommend Steve Downie, after all.

As long as penalty minutes and hits are fantasy categories, players who can chip in offense too warrant attention in fake leagues.

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It is too early to fully unleash my thoughts about the games Saturday. It would be shocking to see St. Louis fail to follow-up their strong third period from Game 1, though. I doubt the Blueshirts sweep, too, so figuring out when they land in the win column could be huge in the daily racket.

I might need a nap to take in the Winnipeg-Anaheim action late, but I doubt Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf run wild again. I am a huge Ducks homer, too. As long as Ben Bishop doesn’t give another game away, and Petr Mrazek doesn’t steal another game, expect the Detroit-Tampa series to head to Hockeytown, USA deadlocked.

Thanks for tuning in.