The Hip and the Lip transition from a light week of Islanders news to the state of New York baseball.  The Mets offense is anemic but the Hip points out their starting pitching is most worrisome.  The Mets need to add a starting pitcher before the trade deadline, and the Hip suggests a candidate.  The Lip opines the Yankees are a mediocre team and must trade Carlos Beltran and Aroldis Chapman to better position the team for the future.  The Hip’s Hipster Beer of the Week (Monkey Chased the Weasel by Carton Brewing) is one of his favorites.

The Hip and the Lip walk through the minuses and pluses of the New York Islanders’ offseason to date.  Of course notable names include Kyle Okposo, Frans Nielsen, Matt Martin, Andrew Ladd, P.A. Parenteau, and Jason Chimera.  The Lip sets forth his expectations of Garth Snow for the offseason remainder.  Finally, the Hip introduces his first Hipster Beer of the Week (Belly Flop by Manayunk).

The Hip and the Lip suffer through breaking down the conclusion of the 2015-16 NY Islanders season; the Islanders lost four straight games against the Tampa Bay Lightning and scored only a single goal in the last two games.  They try to locate the overall positives from the team’s performance in the regular season as well as the playoffs.  Despite the team’s relative postseason breakthrough, the Lip is troubled with the team’s future.

The Hip and the Lip highlight the peaking tension facing the NY Islanders after the team sustained a tough emotional loss in game 3 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.  The Hip tries to stay positive and remind the Lip of the bigger picture, and the Lip admits Josh Bailey had a resurgent game.  The Lip is not short of criticisms, however, including the Boychuk-deHaan pairing and the non-call of Brian Boyle’s hit on Thomas Hickey that led to Boyle’s OT goal.  The Lip offers several choice words for some members of mainstream hockey media regarding their lack of discussion on the Boyle hit.

Hip and the Lip savor the dramatics surrounding the New York Islanders’ first playoff series victory in twenty-three years, and then recap the first game of round two against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Listen to a snippet from Hip and the Lip’s pregame pep rally for the NY Islanders’ series clinching game 6 against the Florida Panthers at The KBH Beer Hall in Brooklyn, NY on Sunday, April 24, 2016.

 

Join Hip and the Lip for a live Game 6 pregame show on location at The KBH Beer Hall in Brooklyn, NY on Sunday, April 24, 2016 at 5PM.  Hip and the Lip will have trivia, giveaways, and energy to get the fan base pumped up for a potentially historic moment for the NY Islanders as they look to clinch the playoff series against the Florida Panthers.

See you then!

The Islanders are up two games to one over the Florida Panthers in the first round of the 2015-16 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Hip and the Lip recap the highlights and lowlights from the first three games.  The Lip is impressed with the play of rookies Alan Quine and Ryan Pulock, and equally unimpressed with the play of Josh Bailey.  Surprise surprise on the latter.

Let’s go Islanders!!

Eric “The Skinny” Hornick, the official NY Islanders statistician on MSG Network, joins the show and regales with tales of when he first joined the Islanders organization in the early 1980s.  Hornick maintains a blog The Skinny which includes an array of detailed statistics from Islanders games.

Oh yeah, and playoff hockey is here!  The Hip and the Lip discuss with Hornick some statistical insights to preview the Islanders versus Panthers first round playoff series.  They also contemplate the playoff atmosphere at the Barclays center.

Let’s go Islanders! Yes yes yes yes yes!

The Lip credits coach Jack Capuano for calling out the lackluster play of Bailey, Nelson, and Strome following the Islanders’ loss to the Penguins, the Hip and the Lip celebrate the Islanders clinching a playoff berth, the Hip acknowledges a hugely favorable momentum shift in the team’s confidence following wins against the playoff-bound Lightning, Capitals, and Rangers, and the Hip and the Lip evaluate the point of view of whether the Islanders hurt themselves for playoff positioning by defeating the Rangers (NO!).