It was the first Stanley Cup playoff victory at home for the Islanders since April 28, 2002, when they beat Toronto in a first-round game.
"I was pretty mediocre for the first month and a half of the season, " Okposo said Tuesday, before the Islanders resumed their Stanley Cup playoff series in the evening against the Penguins at Nassau Coliseum.
But the reality is that the preference was to build for a Stanley Cup versus a playoff run.
The Blackhawks didn't win the Stanley Cup during their 28-year playoff run.
The team began a five-year sellout streak in February 2007 that coincided with a five-year playoff run including a Stanley Cup win in 2009.
But fans of the Islanders, the four-time Stanley Cup champions who have not won a playoff series in 20 years, finally have something to look forward to.
Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma grew so frustrated watching eighth-seeded New York overwhelm goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury that Bylsma benched the Stanley Cup winner who had made 79 consecutive playoff starts in favor of Vokoun, a 36-year-old journeyman who has never made it out of the first round of the postseason in his career.
Thomas won the Vezina and Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP when the Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 2011.
The Capitals have been perennial playoff busts, but they were once again Stanley Cup favorites until it became apparent that star Alex Ovechkin was having a down year.
We scored each city on the number of times one of its teams has lost in the postseason, adjusting the misery points to give the most weight to losing in the final round (World Series, Super Bowl, NBA Final, Stanley Cup Final) and doling out progressively fewer points for losing earlier playoff rounds.
The Pittsburgh Penguins crushed the New York Islanders 5-0 in their playoff opener on Wednesday night, looking very much like a Stanley Cup contender even with captain Sidney Crosby relegated to well-dressed cheerleader due to a broken jaw that isn't quite healed.
For the uninitiated, playoff beards refer to the tradition of a hockey player not shaving during the Stanley Cup playoffs.
There is nothing like playoff hockey, as teams battle for up to 7 games each round to try to win the Stanley Cup, the best trophy in all of sports.
The Flyers, back in 2010, knocked out the Rangers for a playoff spot on the last day of the 2010 season, then went all the way to the Stanley Cup finals as a No. 7 seed.
应用推荐