Very few people picked the New York Islanders to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in their third-round series, but the Islanders went out and won Game 1 yesterday anyway. The suffocating Islanders have played Goliath to various Davids in the past few years, and knocking off the defending champs would be their biggest upset yet. Will the Isles and the Montreal Canadiens meet in the finals to form a Hell Bowl that Leafs fans will hate? Yes! God is out to get us and arranges the universe specifically to cause us pain.

Anyway, if you’re interested, the Canadiens start Round 3 against the Vegas Golden Knights tonight at 9:00 PM EST. Remember what I said about God being out to get us, though.

ICYMI

Back To Excited Episode 147: Sabres Trade Targets Arvind and I had good Sabres Twitter person @ntrider825 on the podcast to discuss Jack Eichel trades, the Sabres’ eternal rebuild, and the essential pointlessness of all human activity. It was fun even though we all hate our hockey teams.

Sports Stuff

Lighthouse Hockey: Barzal and Pulock score in near-clinical Islanders win by Jenny Berman. Victor Hedman isn’t 100%, and Tampa has made it this far anyway because they’re a near All Star team. But as the recap points out, he didn’t have his best stuff on Sunday, and the Isles took advantage.

Raw Charge: Lightning come close at the end, but lose 2-1 by Hardev Lad. Little known up-and-coming blogger recaps the game for RC.

Defector: Machine Flips Switch by Patrick Redford. Novak Djokovic won the French Open yesterday. With 19 major championships, is he destined to go down at the greatest male tennis player ever? Or will it be—as I think it is to all traditionalist tennis fans—Waluigi from Mario Tennis?

NetsDaily: Kyrie Irving suffers right ankle sprain as Bucks knot up series at 2-2, 107-96 by Chris Milholen and Matthew Brooks. The Brooklyn Nets built their team on superstar offensive players, but now face injuries in a close series. What must that feel like?

Bluebird Banter: Jays hit 8 home runs, win big by Tom Dakers. I’ll say one thing for baseball: it can be fun when one team just absolutely explodes like this. I went to a Jays game where they lost by like 14 runs and had a great time. Dingers!

Here’s a song, because why not. The first Django Django record was lots of fun if you like jangly guitar music.

Have a nice Monday, folks.

From The Branches