"The Stack" 5-18-18
Justify is a heavy favorite to win the Preakness. Can he do it and be one step away from the triple crown? We'll find out on Saturday.
The Stack is back on this Friday and we don’t have too much to talk about today, not that Capitals fans want to talk about anything with the Capitals pissing this series down their legs. Reaction to that game plus a Preakness pick in “the stack” for today, Friday, May 18th:
Lightning even series up with Capitals
Washington Capitals fans have seen this story before. The Capitals build a 2-0 series lead only to come crashing back down to Earth. It’s taking place again right before our very eyes. Andrei Vasilevskiy was huge in net stopping the Capitals on multiple point blank opportunities and the Lightning capitalized (again, see what I did there?) on their few opportunities to get by the Capitals 3-2 to tie the series up 2-2. The Capitals were up 1-0 when Capitals defenseman Michal Kempny turned the puck over in his zone on a horrible pass. Tape-to-tape the Lighting went with their passing and tied the game up 1-1. That was a momentum shifter for sure in the first period. Terrible idea by Kempny. He’ll relive that one for a while. The Lightning got on a power play a few minutes and for the ninth straight game they scored a power play with Steven Stamkos hammering in his fourth power play goal of the series. Unbelievable! The Capitals would strike back in the second period when Evgeny Kuznetsov scored to tie the game 2-2. That would be the way it would go until midway through the third period and the reason was because of Vasilevskiy. He was brilliant in net all game long. At one point the Lightning went over 20 minutes of game time between shots and Vasilevskiy stood tall. The Lightning would reward him when Alex Killorn made a shifty little move and backhanded the puck through Capitals goalie Braden Holtby’s legs. Beautiful five hole. The Capitals tried at the end and pulled Holtby, but it wasn’t enough and the Lightning would go on to win 4-2. Game five is Saturday night in Tampa Bay. It’s essentially a must-win for Washington. The momentum is all on Tampa’s side. This is the Lightning team most expected to see.
Game four between Winnipeg and Vegas is tonight at 8 PM ET on NBCSN. Can Vegas go up 3-1 or will Winnipeg even the series? Should be a good one.
Preakness pick
The Preakness will take place on Saturday in Baltimore on NBC and I’ve said it before and I’ll use the same bad joke again…it’s hard not to justify picking Justify to win the second jewel of the triple crown. Speaking of crowns, is everyone ready for the royal wedding on Saturday between Megan Markle and Prince Harry. It’s Prince Harry right? Anyway, Justify is an incredibly good horse. We’ll see if the conditions will be wet as they have been for much of the week, but he seemed in the Kentucky Derby. Give me Justify to win the Preakness. It should be exciting!
Coming up Monday: NBA and NHL Playoff reaction plus other top stories in sports
