East
_ _ _ _ _

PHI v PIT
NJD v TB
CBJ v WAS
TOR v BOS



West
_ _ _ _ _

MIN v the 'Peg
Kings v Knights
SJ v ANA
COL v NSH

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Caps enter with their weakest team in years (that's bad)
But they're playing well (that's good)
But Brooks Orpik is still a regular starter (that's bad)
But they're starting a hot goalie (that's good)
But the team is cursed (that's bad)
But they have The Three Russian Machines (that's good)

I'll go with the easy pick: Nashville takes the cup. Tampa's been playing like ass for months now. And I still can't accept that Boston is actually good.

Here's hoping that PIT/PHI is a flaming pile of a circus freak show just like it was a few years back.

I'm very interested to see how the 'Peg and Vegas do out west.

Personally I am already mentally prepared for the Caps to lose to Pit in the 2nd round.

Cavs, Cubs, Eagles all recently won. This year the cup needs to go to Canada again finally.

Caps gonna win it all on a 16-0 run.

They are probably closer to Eagles/Cavs in this situation

Cubs are more tied to Toronto in the history and importance to the sport and history of it.

Also I'd just rather see Toronto win.

Caps have never won a cup, have only been to the finals *once* and that was in the previous century.

Shit they've only been to the *conference* finals twice in 40+ seasons

I believe they've choked more 3-1 leads than any team in NHL history.

They're 1-7 (!) all time in the playoffs vs their current arch rival, including losing to them in the playoffs of *every* season Pittsburgh won a cup.

The history of Caps misery is long and nearly unparalleled in modern professional sports.

An entire city with 0 championships is big, even if the Cavs are the least interesting/cursed of the 3, it felt like it counted more because of that.

You're right though, I think Hockey's distant 4th place among the 4 sports makes the Caps struggles feel less than a team like the Eagles.

Either way I'll still never root for them.

in this manner.

I know we're not winning it all and am 100% ok with that.

I just don't want to go down round 1 to the Flyers and have to hear their fans act like beating us is as good as winning back to back cups.

Of course I also don't want to lose to the Capitals and hear all the monkey off their back stories.

Eh fuck it, let's just win it all again and save all these issues.

yikes

(besides from Crosby being magic again knocking yet another puck into the net from mid air)

https://twitter.com/mattlightcomedy/status/984227232397840384

hits too close home, but still: lol

we playing with house money.

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

joint look like it was directed by Hype Williams.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

>

Blow a 2 goal lead. Blow another lead by taking an offensive zone tripping penalty with under 5 minutes left. Lose in OT.

Sun rises. Sun sets.

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

Fucking unforced offensive zone penalties. One with less than 5 min left.

Without exaggerating, I think it was one of the most Caps playoff games I've seen.

i was just talking to some friends in our groupchat about the Caps always blowing it. then i flipped to Atlanta and forgot to check the score after it

<--- Big Baller World Order

Between his legs, between the defender’s legs, beats Bernier. Playoff Forsberg in full effect

https://streamable.com/48zrc

but I got a bunch of family in Nashville who are huge sports fans so I'm happy for them at least.

They're an extremely likeable team and going to a game there was great.

http://i.imgur.com/vPqCzVU.jpg

I saw all I needed to see in Game 1, and so last night I chose to do something else with my night rather than suffer through another game of blown leads, awful mistakes, and an OT loss.

I feel like my life decisions are finally getting better.

Agree.

https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/wj7bbn/the-washington-capitals-have-to-be-doing-this-on-purpose

Coming in I thought there could be a lot of long series but only like one road team winning. Looks like we will have two.

Caps-Jackets, I mean it is seriously harder to LOSE the way the Caps are losing than it is to WIN. This is a real achievement in failure. Blown leads, missed chances, heartbreaking losses, this series has it all. The calloused hearts of Caps fans can take it, a less jaded fan base surely would be on suicide watch after losing two home games to a wild card in that fashion. I think Columbus can beat the Penguins in the next round, too. They have a good team and came on strong late in the year after a saggy ass midseason. They are still a heavy team with a good goalie and now they have a lot of skill. The Hawks are dumb for trading Panarin, which was apparent as soon as they did it. Really the Hawks had a horrible offseason, maybe worse than Montreal, the Rangers, the Caps and the Kings, though they were all rotten.

Flyers-Penguins, eh, the Flyers are so bipolar that it might go 7 but they won't win. Future is bright for Philly though, guys like Provorov and Konecny are just scratching the surface of what they can do, the stars are back in form, Coots is now a bonafide star and they have guys like Hart and Frost in the system. Nice job by Hextall but it won't pay off this year. The Pens are a tough out but they don't have it all firing either. We'll see what they can do against more consistent teams that have goaltending, in fact we will see in the next round.

Bs-Leafs, I mean I don't get why people picked Toronto. They won the season series, which means fuck all, the Devils also won the season series against Tampa and only contrarian morons who hadn't seen either team were taking the Devils. The Leafs have a shitty defense and their best defensive forward got shitcanned in Game 1. The only thing holding Boston back from the Cup is being banged up, at 100% they are the best team in the league IMHO.

Bolts-Devils, I mean what can be said about the Devils' depth scoring that hasn't already been said about Afghanistan? They are a one-man team with a decent defense and maybe-maybe-not goaltending. I don't wanna say this was like getting a bye for Tampa but it was close.

Preds-Avs, hey the Avs are full of piss and vinegar but they only have three players you can really hang your hat on and the Preds have played half assed and still won. Mismatch here, the Preds have way more depth, defense and goaltending, which is pretty much the checklist of what matters in a playoff series. Nice to see McKinnon back in the playoffs though. This Avs team got a nice reset and will be good in the future; they are back on track.

WPG-Minnie, no Suter hurts Minnie or this could have been a great series. Nice pushback yesterday but I expect the Jets to be much better in Game 4. The Jets are so slept on, maybe a function of their location. Show me a team with this much skill up front and size on the back end that wasn't picked widely to win the Cup. I had them against Boston in the Final. If you haven't watched them, do yourself a favor and tune in. Wheeler had an incredible season, Scheifele is a stud, Laine is Ovechkin 2.0 and guys like Ehlers and Connor are really solid as well. Byfuglien is entertaining as hell and one of several big boys (BIG BOYEEEEEES!) they have on D.

Vegas-LAK frankly I was expecting a long series and gave the Kings as good of a chance as Columbus for an upset. The Doughty suspension hurt. The series is very close yet it could be over in four games. You wonder where the Kings go from here. Not much flexibility and not much in the system, but they need to get better. They are also facing Doughty's UFA status a year from now. Tough decisions ahead but in some ways they went in the right direction. Vegas I think has a sound shot in the next round (likely vs SJ) and their future is bright. If they return this same roster next year, they won't get the same results, but they have good prospects and lots of flexibility. They caked like Betty Crocker off that expansion draft setup, great management.

Ducks-Sharks is a boring series and it shouldn't have been. The Ducks started the season injured and never recovered. At 100% they were contenders but they haven't been anywhere near 100% all year. Sharks are just a sound team, nothing fancy, but effective. Kane was a nice addition, glad to see him in the playoffs finally. Maybe Jumbo returns later, that'll help their PP and let them slot guys in where they belong up front. DeBoer is a very good coach, it'll be interesting to see how he attacks the Vegas system, which is pretty tough. That will be a good series but I am hoping Anaheim can redeem this one a little. They have been pretty flat in the first two games, neutral zone play really sucks.

And you will know MY JACKET IS GOLD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

but jesus fucking christ is this a poorly coached team, with a head coach who's still picking starters based on offensive strategies from 1995.

This man actually actively sat Jakub Vrana, virtually the only forward on the team with elite speed.

Oh, Vrana also single handedly created the only ES goal in Game 1.

Trotz: BENCH HIM FOR GAME 2!

And the next time Trotz doesn't get out-coached in a series will be the first time.

Probably would have happened with anything short of a Stanley Cup but he just made their decision a lot easier.

Trotz does not get along with the FO for openers and I think that situation has been tense for a couple years. Even last season when they went all in, you got the sense he didn't care for the guys they got.

Then you have the fact that teams have requested permission to talk to Reirden and they have denied it.

The other neat and tidy thing, and I might be wrong on this, and that Trotz's contract is coming up, his assistants have a year left on their deals.

And you will know MY JACKET IS GOLD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

and I'm certain Reirdan is promised the job.

but why in the blue fuck did they keep Trotz after last year?

He was brought in for one reason: win a 2nd round series.

He loses in the second round in each of his first three years and they keep him on for a 4th season? what the fuck

And you will know MY JACKET IS GOLD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

No clue why Trotz was hired to take a team past the second round, absolutely zero track record of being able to do so. I guess you could make the argument that he got mos for his teams to overachieve but the few years we came in with really solid teams it was dump and chase and the same old same old. I love the guy but not sure why anyone thought he’d have a clue how to drive the Ovi sportscar w his style

was a major question we were all asking when he was hired.

Answer: not really. Ovi is gonna Ovi. But the bottom 6 production is a joke. And young players regularly get benched for inferior veterans.

He benched our fastest, youngest player after Game 1 in this damn series, even though he set up the only ES goal in Game 1.

I thought Trotz was a fine hire. I was fine giving him two seasons, MAYBE three.

Not firing him after three straight 2nd round losses, including two straight to an arch rival you should have been able to beat, is one of the great mysteries of human history.

Rest In Peace, Bad News Brown

even if the bullshit expansion rules robbed the Caps of one of their best young players.

But that would have hurt Orpik's deployments lol

And you will know MY JACKET IS GOLD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

my guess is that McPhee was asking a mighty high price to lay off 88.

but who knows what it was.

Caps youth isn't deep right now, so giving up a prospect would have been tough.

Asshole still should have taken Grubauer though.

Generally speaking he wanted a first or a solid player to stay away from guys like that, more than that if you wanted him to take a shitty contract instead.

There were some teams in a bad spot like Washington and Anaheim. I think the Ducks gave up the right guy because the alternatives were Vatanen (more trade value) and Montour (who is going to be VERY good). The Caps were pretty much down to those two guys, they would have preferred to lose Grubauer but weren't willing to give enough to make him the guy.

Then other teams just bungled the whole process, but they were the ones you'd expect like Florida and I guess the Islanders. Columbus, eh, I dunno, I won't fault them.

And you will know MY JACKET IS GOLD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

You're saying he's better than your 1st round pick.

That's a tough call. Schmidt looks like he'll be a good player, top pair player. But I don't think he'll ever be "great". So do you take the known quantity, or keep your late first round pick?

Tough call.

There was a glut of goalies, otherwise I feel like Grubauer would have had more value. If Fleury wasn't available, Grubauer becomes much more attractive.

Though I would have considered trading a first and a player if McPhee would have taken Orpik's contract and laid off Schmidt.

Anyway, this VGK expansion situation was wild and I don't expect Seattle to have it nearly as good.

For them to take a shitty contract, too, it would have been more expensive. Look at what Columbus had to give to get them to take the Clarkson contract. A first, a third and Karlsson. Let's say Karlsson was just a very good third-liner instead of a top 10 MVP candidate, that's still a lot.

I also think Orpik would have been a tough sell to Vegas. A lot of these shit contracts they were able to bury on LTIR but they would actually have had to play Orpik so he'd count against their cap and completely disrupt what they want to do defensively. He is not their style of DMan at all.

And you will know MY JACKET IS GOLD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

https://streamable.com/o8nj9

He promised they’d come back to DC tied at 2.

What a performance! 20 saves in the third period! Dude was in rare form, I was excited when he got the start but DAMN. Bernier ain't seeing the ice in this series, healthy or not.

The big guns got that first goal back for him.

What a game by Josi. PK wasn't really cookin' tonight but congrats on the Norris nomination.

I hope this goes 7, fuck it, why not?

And you will know MY JACKET IS GOLD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

All credit to the Avs, glad we didn't go 7.

That was the first game we played all 60 minutes, felt good.

let that shit sink in.

And you will know MY JACKET IS GOLD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

Rest In Peace, Bad News Brown

since then, and every team has one in their history.

Go back to 00-01, since then every single franchise has won at least one playoff series except the Florida Panthers. The Knights are an expansion team and they have one! The Wild came into the league the same year in their third season they were in the conference finals (as were the Panthers, actually the Stanley Cup Final, but it was before the Jackets were in the league).

They are a genuinely pathetic organization, they just don't have the long track record of it that some others do. It's a shame because they have some players I really like watching.

And you will know MY JACKET IS GOLD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

BOS vs. TOR. 2013 all over again.

Rest In Peace, Bad News Brown

-Ovi

And you will know MY JACKET IS GOLD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

>Personally I am already mentally prepared for the Caps to lose
>to Pit in the 2nd round.

The Pens offense was on fire in round 1 but not much else. Offense slows down.

This team can't keep going, they just can't.

Caps in 6 followed by Washington fans acting like this cements them as the winners of the rivalry for good.

>Caps in 6 followed by Washington fans acting like this cements
>them as the winners of the rivalry for good.

Idiots on the internet probably.

But the best (only) Caps blog I read (the one at sb nation) knows damn well what's what.