The Conference Finals got off to a start last night with the Stars defeating the Golden Knights. Vegas had Marc-Andre Fleury in net and he went all in on what Maple Leafs fans call the Gustavsson Shutout; letting in a sloppy goal on the first shot against of the game, and then shutting the door so his team could lose 1-0.

Poor Vegas.

Let’s hope this series gets a little more exciting as time goes on.

The Islanders and Lightning play tonight. As of the time I am writing this, the NHL has all the games officially scheduled out through Thursday, all starting at 8:00 p.m. ET and broadcast on CBC and NBCSN. I suppose none will be on the prime NBC stations until there’s elimination games possible.

Islanders - Lightning Playoff History - Lighthouse Hockey
It’s short, brief and unsuccessful for the Islanders.

Eastern Conference Final Preview - Raw Charge
Can the Lightning find the key to unlock the Islanders defense?

A little birdie told me that the next episode of Back to Excited is being recorded later today, and they will be answering a question submitted from someone about Trevor van Riemsdyk! Stay tuned, and have a Happy Labour Day.

Other News

Matt Dumba was awarded the King Clancy Memorial Trophy.

But will he stay with the Wild?

I guess the Lightning saw all of the goalie injuries that were going on through the quarterfinal games in Edmonton and decided to be extra cautious with Andrei Vasilevskiy.

I like to cook my own meals, all different types of cuisine, but I avoid baking. Two or three times a year I make some biscuits or bake a loaf of bread, the simple kind that doesn’t require yeast. It’s good and fast and cheap, but is it ever messy. Baking uses up every inch of available counter and table space in my small apartment kitchen, plus every bowl, spoon, knife, and measuring cup in the process. It’s not something I choose to do on a whim because the cleanup takes forever. So watching this video is amazing because I would so love access to that hotel kitchen with essentially everything you need at your fingertips, easy clean gigantic stainless steel counter-tops (granite is for amateurs,) and those professional quality ovens that can bake many things at once. Also, who knew Louis Domingue was such a good baker? Maybe I should invite him to the Species Test Kitchen some day and we could bake something together...

(Bonus points if you catch the weed joke he makes in there.)

Who wins Game #1 tonight, or does it matter?

The Bolts have Kucherov back. It’s a piece of cake for them.34
The Islanders will stop the Bolts offence and somehow Matt Martin will score to win it 1-0.23
Who cares? Both will lose to the Golden Knights who are obviously going to win the Western Conference.9
I can’t believe people are still writing-off the Stars, even now after they won last night.22
From The Branches