Lightning And Islanders OH My!

By Jack Healey
Who would’ve thought that the Tampa bay Lightning would lose in the first round of the playoffs, let alone being swept? Columbus made short work of the Lightning and the Islanders beat the Penguins in 4 straight. That one isn’t as much of a surprise and the Islanders were the higher seed, but still these are the Penguins we are talking about.
Tampa Bay had the best overall record in the NHL during the regular season and tied for the most wins in NHL history and got bounced in the first round. Tampa Bay’s season is right down the drain. Even if Tampa Bay lost in the Stanley Cup finals their season would be right down the drain. Don’t give me that they had a great season crap. This isn’t high school where those comments are acceptable. When fans say well they had a great season when their team doesn’t live up to expectations, it just makes them feel better and that’s about it.
The Sandy Leon-Blake Swihart move is puzzling to me.
Chris Sale is now 0-4, but the silver lining is at least his velocity seems to be back. At least it was last night.
Chris Davis did some damage to the Red Sox over the weekend, but he isn’t out of his slump. He wasn’t in a slump because that’s what he is.
Same thing I’ve said about Jackie Bradley, Jr. and Christian Vasquez. they aren’t in a slump, it’s what they are. Mookie Betts is in a slump, not those other guys.
Three in the booth is great on TV when you have the right people. I think Dave O’Brien, Jerry Remy and Dennis Eckersley are great together on NESN.
Three in the booth on the radio is another thing all together. It’s too busy. Joe Castiglione, Sean McDonough and Lou Merloni just don’t cut it on the Red Sox radio network. Two is plenty on the radio. Three is a crowd!
By the way I think Sean McDonough is great on TV, but I really don’t think he’s that good on radio. I get the feeling that he came up through the ranks on television, but didn’t do that much radio in his formative years.