NFL Notes:

• A positive sign for the upcoming season is that half of all NFL teams have 51 or more players vaccinated for COVID-19.

  

  • Which sounds good, given that regular-season rosters are 53-man, but teams are carrying 90 on their rosters ahead of training camp.
  • Coaching staffs and team personnel are much closer to full vaccination.
    • Thirty of the league’s teams have Tier 1 and 2 personnel at vaccination rates of 95% or higher, while the other remaining two teams are between 90 and 95 percent vaccinated.

• Jamal Adams is missing Seahawks mandatory minicamp due to a personal matter.
  • Conveniently, in personnel matters, he also wants a contract extension, so he didn’t want to attend regardless.
    • And as it’s due to “family matters”, he won’t be subject to fines.
  • He will make $9.86 million in 2021, the fifth year of the contract he signed with the Jets, before the trade sent him to Seattle.
    • Justin Simmons of the Broncos is currently the NFL’s highest-paid safety, with a contract that averages $15.25 million.

NHL Semi-Finals Preview #2: – NY Islanders vs Tampa Bay Lightning

FINALLY, a team I predicted to be here is actually in the conversation. Tampa Bay had been my divisional favourite from the start of the Central Division playoffs. They faced mild challenges from both Florida & Carolina to get to this point, but the stability of their lineup was able to work them through to this point. Nikita Kucherov has been a fucking beast, leading the playoffs with 19 points & validating the strategy of benching him for the last two weeks of the season just to keep him fresh. Behind him with 13 points each are Brayden Point, Alex Killorn & Steven Stamkos, so they’ve got enough firepower to blast their way into the Finals. And Andrei Vasilevskiy is running at a 2.25 GAA for the 12 games played so far, which is most respectable.

But against a defensive-mined team like the Islanders, that may not be good enough.

As we saw in Game 1, the Islanders play a counter-punching type of game, looking to limit your offensive chances while trying to catch you off-handed when they break out the other way. Their leading scorer is Jean-Gabriel Pageau with 13, with a steady dropoff going down the roster. They aren’t going to blow teams out of the rink. But what they do do is frustrate teams trying to get traditional goals by breaking up the middle & putting lots of shots at the net. As the Bruins found out, the Islanders are designed for a 21st Century trap – they force you to the outside & plug up the middle so that nothing gets through. The net result is a lot of low-scoring games, and the Islanders padding the end result with some empty netters. Ilya Sorokin & Semyon Varlamov have worse GAA in the playoffs than Vasilevskiy, but they’ve had more protection, and teammates willing to dive in front of everything. That’s how they won Game 1, and that’s how they likely win the series.

And doom hockey to another decade of the 1990s Devils.

Prediction: Islanders in six.

Tonight’s sports:

• NHL:
  • Islanders at Lightning – 8:00pm | NBCSN / Sportsnet / CBC
• NBA:
  • Bucks at Nets – 8:30pm | TNT / TSN3
    • Game 5 – series tied 2-2
• WNBA:
  • Chicago vs Minnesota – 9:00pm | ESPN2
•  MLB:
  • Yankees at Blue Jays – 7:00pm | Sportsnet1
  • Cubs at NY Mets – 7:00pm | ESPN / TSN2
  • Twins at Mariners – 10:00pm | TSN2 / MLBN
• US Olympic Trials:
  • Swimming – 8:00pm | NBC
• Wrestling:
  • WWE NXT – 8:00pm | USA / Sportsnet360
    • The possible re-debut of Samoa Joe. The good one, not the Samoan Joe called “Roman Reigns”.

Speaking of wrasslin’, Joliet Jake has got you tomorrow night, provided he hasn’t been taken to a local medical facility. So, I’ll see you on Thursday.