Eastern Conference

1) Pittsburgh vs. 8) NY Islanders
2) Montreal vs. 7) Ottawa
3) Washington vs. 6) NY Rangers
4) Boston vs. 5) Toronto




Western Conference

(1)Blackhawks vs (8)Wild
(2)District 5 vs (7)Red Wings
(3)Canucks vs (6)Sharks
(4)Blues vs (5)Kings

Wild had a shot at the division crown a couple weeks ago and needed a W over the Avs last night just to even be in. Could've wrapped it up on Friday, but of course you're not going to beat Edmonton at home in an important game.

I'll take a team no-names playing well over a team of big names playing shittily.

Not the way the Wild played at the end of the season.

the bruins and canadiens could swap spots--got the rescheduled game from the marathon tomorrow.

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It's only funny till someone gets mad. Then it's hilarious.

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I am going to say we get this in 6.

Two of them went 7 games.

Recently Caps own the series 2-1, all time 4-2.

We meet again....

Totally different from last season maybe but the teams are just as close.

And how much work it takes to break him down.

The bad news is Rick Nash has been kind of out of this world recently.

The good news is that this is not the same Ovechkin that Girardi & Co are used to shutting down.

The bad news is that Brooks Laich and Joel Ward remain banged up. Those are two of the most 'playoff' style players the Caps have.

Ottawa deserves better than that. They juggled so much misfortune this season that they deserved a little softer opponent and a chance to get stronger going forward. I'm not saying there is no way they beat Pittsburgh, but it's certainly tougher than say Montreal or Washington.

that's a potentially awesome series, too, skill of montreal versus grit of ottawa

Now that Boston lost which gives Montreal the NE divison,

1) Pittsburgh vs. 8) NY Islanders
2) Montreal vs. 7) Ottawa
3) Washington vs. 6) NY Rangers
4) Boston vs. 5) Toronto

father inlaw works for Staples and he got the call today he can have a pair of tickets for Game 3 vs Blues on the glass. Only problem is my niece, his granddaughters first bday is Saturday. He is going to try and trade them with someone who has tickets to game 4. If he just out right says he cant use them he might not get tickets again for a while. So either we trade or just give them to someone else in the company.

Whats really funny is we went last year game 3 vs Blues and sat on the glass. Amazing seats. This was the view from my seat http://instagram.com/p/KL8eUFGozQ/

Hopefully we can get a trade going.

tonight will be NBC Sports in HD on the flat screen. #gonote

last year was my first playoff hockey game and it was amazing. So much more energy than a regular season game.

father inlaw was able to trade 2 glass seats on Saturdays game for 4 seats in Premier for Mondays game.

>1) Pittsburgh vs. 8) NY Islanders

Pittsburgh wins but not as easily as some think, 5 or 6 game series. The Islanders are kind of a plucky team and will play like they don't gaf for at least the first three games.

>2) Montreal vs. 7) Ottawa

After being the first on the Montreal bandwagon this year, I think I might be the first off. Their goaltending is a mess essentially and here they face a team that won't beat itself. I like the discipline and heavy play of a Sens team that's on the mend. Sens in 7.

>3) Washington vs. 6) NY Rangers

This is basically a coin flip series, but I'll go with the Rags in 7 here. Zoned in goaltending and a couple hot skaters is pretty much what they need to beat anyone.

>4) Boston vs. 5) Toronto

I like Boston here, six game, just more reliable components to their team. The coaching change has been great for the Leafs but they are still mostly the same group that has played forgettable hockey for a few years now.


>Western Conference
>
>(1)Blackhawks vs (8)Wild

Blackhawks in a borderline romp, I guess five games. They are pretty built up depth wise, Wild are kind of thin and playing poorly, obviously.

>(2)District 5 vs (7)Red Wings

I'm liking the Wings to pull this off quite possibly. They are a tough matchup for Anaheim. My basic feeling on the Ducks all year is that they matched up well with Chicago but would have a hard time making it through to them. They will step on a landmine with a tough matchup early and Detroit might be it. Detroit is going to need a great series from Howard, if they get it I think they win in 7.

>(3)Canucks vs (6)Sharks

A matchup of two pernnial flakes that are both playing well but not lights out. On instinct I maybe like San Jose, team left for dead with a deep run left in them, but I'll stick with Vancouver in let's say six games. The Canucks have a ton of balance and playoff experience. I also like Schneider's ability to battle through a game where he doesn't have his best stuff in net a little better than Niemi's.

>(4)Blues vs (5)Kings

I'll take the Kings reluctantly here, St Louis is playing well and has some really significant additions from last year's roster. Kings in seven games.

wafting around the goddamn nylon.

is nerf making pucks for the nhl now? some of these goals have been pretty soft. that one to palmieri, lmao, horrible. he was pretty saucy last night, too. their defense is not exactly dominating the netfront either.

>is nerf making pucks for the nhl now? some of these goals have
>been pretty soft. that one to palmieri, lmao, horrible. he was
>pretty saucy last night, too.

almost all of them have been soft, but i have to admit he made some really big saves last night

>their defense is not exactly
>dominating the netfront either.

this is definitely making everything worse

I look at guys like Kindl and Coliacavo getting important ice time and have to think that the Wings were not too invested in this season at the deadline. I guess DeKeyser going down hurt them, I really liked what he was developing in those ten or so games he was in.

The biggest thing in the Anaheim series that I thought they had going for them was their ability to get traffic. They did it better than just about any team in the first round and certainly they did it more effectively. Franzen, Cleary and Abdelkader were all getting good position and not budging.

and you can tell the effect it has on the team

they are just more aggressive and more likely to make a grit play

but howard again gave up a softie last night

wont blame him for the own goal tho

They're bigger and faster than us, but we're a diferent team than the one they saw last time. The additions Prof Bouw and Leopold have been priceless. Also Elliott literally came back from the dead after being sent down to Peoria. Having two guys on the fourth line in Cracknell and Porter is huge. Plus, our most skilled player, TJ Oshie, is back tonight. We absolutely have to protect home ice. A split in these first two games is just not going to cut it. GO BLUE!

that 4th line kickin up dust. Gettin some really good chances and puttin pressure on Quick. He's making some solid stops, though.

.

its mind boggling how bad he is. Whats also mind boggling is how the coaches still allow him to leave the crease so much. Its not that he just makes bad passes and coughs up the puck for a goal on occasion. His decision making on when to play the puck is piss poor. Some one needs to tell him just because the puck is entering the trapezoid you do not have to play it.

But then the only reason the game went to OT was because of him. Hopefully we play better Thursday.

Last year in NJ I said it pregame (I guess Game 5?) and of course they started dumping in pucks right away and he fucked one up. Last night I thought STL didn't do a great job of getting pucks behind the D, probably the one thing they could have done better.

But man, to fuck one up with three thirty plus of power play time up? That is a new low, I remember a regular season game they lost 3-2 to Minnesota off some two shitty puckhandling plays, but this was worse.

Still, I thought overall Quick played an outstanding game. He made a lot of tough saves and tracked the puck really well. You can see the intensity back in his game now.

The Blues went hard pressuring breakouts, how were the Kings supposed to get any flow down the ice when they were dropping two forwards into the D zone to support every "rush?"

It was a good game plan by STL and the Kings still almost did their usual by stealing an up-for-grabs game in which they were outplayed. This will be a long series.

slide in on a tiebreaker after an embarrassing final month of the season. Playoff hockey! BACK!

Harding is ON tonight.

Also, I just noticed the District 5 reference in the original post. I approve.

Wild were just getting outworked throughout OT, but Harding held up well and we actually got a couple of chances to end it on offense. Overall, this team showed more heart tonight than they did in the last three weeks combined, and I'm proud to know they just got dumb and lazy at the end of the regular season than an actual choke job.

holy shit.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nhl--wild-goalie-josh-harding-refuses-to-use-ms--last-minute-start-as-excuses-055213504.html

Last night showed it

Yeah, major props to him.

That's all I got...

Pretty much gave up on hockey around the time they last made the playoffs. I wasn't in NY at the time, and I just couldn't make the time to be a devoted fan of 6 different sports. But I've been keeping an eye on JT since we got him, and I would love to see them put a scare in Pittsburgh.

Anyone on this board giving them a shot? Isn't 8-over-1 somewhat doable in hockey? I know I've seen that shit recently.

granted they underperformed to fall to 8th, then turned it on in the playoffs, but it happens all the time.

The Islanders are a hot team with a good mix of youth and experience.

I'd put a fair amount of money on the Penguins, but that doesn't mean I'd be shocked if the Isles upset.

Nothing is ever a given, but this Pens team is too good to let an 8 team beat them.

than recent ones that have lost.

The Islanders had a good season and unlike 2007 I feel like this time they could repeat their success in the near future. I think the first half of the series will be competitive but then Pittsburgh's depth will win out. They are a well coached team with a lot of firepower.

Losing game 1 is one thing, but a beat down is not going to help confidence.

Game 1 baby, Islanders are back!

Some of these guys have been there but most of them are pretty slack jawed. Boston's guys are all battle tested and they're also a significantly better team.

and now they taunt him?

which is it?

Not so much pissed because he got traded. Once he got traded, we just rooted for the Leafs to tank like they did, so we'd end up with Seguin or Hall.

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BOSTON BRUINS, 2011 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS

2010 OKAY COLLEGE FANTASY CHAMPION

we got seguin and dougie sooo

Well...as I said Tuesday night...a split at home is not cool. It wouldn't be the end of the world, but we need to protect home ice. It was kind of glossed over with all the Alex Steen love, but Jaden Schwartz was nearly the best player in a Blue uniform the other night. The kid was everywhere. We need some guys to do more. We played a good team game, but some individuals didn't play very well. At some point, it would be nice for a D-man to put one in from the blue line. Hey, Backes...Kopitar is on the 1 line tonight. How you love that? Our 4th line is completely shining on the "kid" line of Perron, Berglund and Oshie. Step it up, guys. We need to do a much better job of getting some pucks behind L.A.'s D-men. With the exception of the brain fart in overtime, Quick was amazing, but pressure bust pipes so we need to keep traffic in his area and shots coming from all angles. GO BLUE!

I want to be mad at Quick. Both games soft goals were game winners. But we are not putting any kind of offense together. We went almost the whole 3rd period with zero offense. Refs sucked tonight. But they sucked for both teams. We need to take the next 3 to have a chance. FUCK!

especially losing 2-1.

first game the breakouts were horrible, they generated zero speed and gave themselves few real opportunities. they had to start pushing to get anything and barely got that play to williams off kind of an unconventional read (normally i think the D would have chipped ahead there). basically, if doughty wasnt out there, they couldn't seem to get out of their own end.

i couldnt really watch much of last night's game but still the same shitty scoring output. i guess they got one early on the power play. their five on five game sucks right now.

still, i mean all the blues did was hold serve, the kings could easily make this a three game series.

And it's Jack!!! Such a good dude. He's SO St. Louis...literally. He and his wife do a lot in the community. I remember back in in 04 during the lockout, he stayed here and played for the Missouri River Otters, lol. I still have a hat and shirt from one of those games. Everyone was delighted when they re-signed him this off-season. I can't even described what went on in that building when that shot went in. Everybody hugging and giving dap...just crazy. Mad fun. Off to LA. GO BLUE!

This kid gets better every game. He's like a Datsyuk Jr.

We got the split we needed.

Z and Dats cant do it all by themselves (even though they may have seemed like it over the last 2 weeks) so we need Flip making plays

man i have had a string of boring games to work lately and this one was no exception.

i have to say though that the second goal kind of got me interested and off the palmieri one, yeah, that was game on for sure. very soft goal by howard there, didn't even get his glove up. he was just kind of playing the angle and hoping, good shot but just a terrible effort. he looked fatigued down the stretch and their young guys kind of stopped moving. babcock said he thought a timeout would just make matters worse between the bench anxiety and the crowd (although it was like 35% Wings fans or more lol).

going into the OT i talked to one of the wings' execs and he told me "we better score on this power play." well, he was right.

weird game, goofy really. i think the games in detroit will be hot and i'm expecting another split.

.

you could see he caught him on the chin with the shoulder. Plus the fact that he wasnt even looking. Plus he had to stay over night at the hospital. Not looking good for him.

Not that the NHL policy is consistent or logical, but yes.

he will be out for the series IMO, six game suspension.

consistently different standards of justice depending who you are and how bad the injury was.

Not sure which is more illogical.

If he does not decapitate him there, that's not even a penalty, I mean the puck was there.

This is a situation where they will punish a big hit that caused an injury. The rules are not super clear on this, if you look at it the pass does hang him out to dry and the puck is there. Only by the exceptions they have put in for head shots is this actionable. So they are basically punishing him because Eller got injured.

I wish there were not ambiguity here. They are going toward a no headshot policy and should just take the plunge already.

Truly was a bad result results in punishment kind of play, because Gryba really did keep his arm down and the principle point of contact was the chest. He caught a little head and it ended up badly for Eller. The two games that ESPN says he got seems almost fair, based on the result. In all reality, it was not one of the dirtier hits we will see in this postseason.

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BOSTON BRUINS, 2011 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS

2010 OKAY COLLEGE FANTASY CHAMPION

He didn't come in very tight, had his elbows up a little I guess, but he wasn't cherry picking to light him up, I think he was reacting to the pass from Diaz coming in without much purpose.

In the end, it's two games to a peripheral player. Regardless of whether the suspension was justified, it's a trade Ottawa will take easily.

It sucks to see Eller out, he was such a big part of the Habs' success this season. They were probably going to sink because of goaltending anyway though.

This Ottawa team is dangerous IMO, Karlsson looks to be more or less in form, Michalek and Anderson, too. If they were getting Spezza back for sure, I would pick them to go all the way.

It didn't look very dirty to me...

Interference major, concussion, stretcher, etc. Similar elements in place. I guess Rome's hit was slightly worse if I had to choose, but they were both barely even interference minors if not for the guys on the receiving end getting injured.

And that included Lundqvist personally keeping the score 0-0 through most of the 1st.

I'm NOT making predictions or anything, but a few days ago it occurred to me that this is probably the best Caps team, from bench to blueline, in the Ovechkin era.

That's a good feeling, regardless of what happens this spring.

shoulder to shoulder and unintentional.

it should give Dougie a chance to play though.

if by "shoulder" you mean "elbow"

For once they looked at the intent over the effect. Just because Grabo was lucky enough not to get hurt and he didn't feign injury to exaggerate doesn't mean that wasn't dangerous as shit.

It's the playoffs so anything beyond a game would be big but I think one game is warranted. The fines don't mean shit this time of year, I'm still laughing at the one they gave Weber last season.

He good.

Caps take the first two.

If they lose this series in embarrassing fashion, it should get the murmurs started.

He had been on for 90s when Hank froze the puck. Torts pulled Girardi but left McDonough out there.

Caps first line proceeded to hold possession for the next minute straight, DoG penalty, game over.

Not that Torts has great defensive options, but he got outcoached. At the timeout just eariler used Oates didn't put out the first line, so Girardi/McD were left defending someone else. Then after a couple shifts, Oates put the first line out and that's when Girardi/McD were dead tired.

It feels good to see your head coach out coach someone in the playoffs.

double shifting one partner and not the other? weird. i've seen coaches call time to get their guys a blow (usually during 5on3) to keep the trustworthiest two Dmen on the ice, but never a one on, one off like that.

Gone for all that time, just comes back and nets 2 in the first period.

The loss should hopefully do the Pens well, way too much overreaction after that 5-0 win about how good the team was and sweeping through the Isles etc...

A good early reminder that every game is a battle in the playoffs. Sometimes a huge favorite needs that.

he's been skating and stuff, doesnt take much for him to get his timing.

pretty lucky win for the isles, that second goal off the end boards (the winner) couldn't be duplicated in a hundred tries. i could see them stealing another game at home, i guess.

Just steps on the ice and is instantly the best player in the world again.

they have maybe the best chance of being the team that gets better as the playoffs go on.

..I wondered if him getting his jaw busted would make him play a little more inhibited but that was deaded quick

.

I fully expect the Kings to come out on some Rudy T. "never underestimate the heart of a champion" shit. In their building, with their crowd...we have GOT to steal one. Got to. Elliot has to stay strong...they're gonna come for him, no doubt. We gotta keep the pressure on Quick and keep our cool...no dumb trips to the box. Jackman almost let himself get caught up the other night. The CPR line (4th line of Cracknell, Porter and Reaves) is gonna be even more important on the Road. Porter is winning over 60% of his faceoffs. Time to rock...in the city of angels. GO BLUE!

we have 3 goals in 3 game and you guys have 4. Quick has been standing on his head. Elliot has been playing great, but I dont think the Kings have had as many good chances as the Blues have. Hopefully our offense can get going and put some pressure on him.

and Quick was just brilliant. You just can't ask for better shots on goal than we got. Dude just wasn't having it. Looks like this could be a long one, man.

puck on a fucking purple velvet pillow.

once they missed that, i knew the game was over.

they got some good flow later heading into that kings timeout, good timeout.

a trend i see in the officiating is that they are letting a lot go but having to the obvious stick infractions and puck over glass calls. that is disrupting flow and consistency and also leading to weird makeup calls. they kind of screwed the blues with some ticky tack but obvious calls and then made up for it giving doughty the extra two in that scrum over by quick. it was kind of a well timed and half fair makeup call, but definitely a makeup call. i see one obvious makeup call a game it seems.

they are not real crisp right now but that is to be expected. it was big that they wound up with this isles team and not the sens, that would have been a more intense series. this one they can win more easily and take a look at some things for the later rounds.

One thing with these pens teams has been despite all the talent in the world they have been soft when the going gets tough.

If they got down 2-1 to a speedy 8 seed who all the sudden has confidence it would have been a big concern. We really got gifted that power play in OT even a Pens fan will admit that, we were on the ropes before that.

I agree with you for the most part, but we got dangerously close to this becoming a series instead of a tune up.

win when they have mediocre days.

http://press.take88.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Screen-shot-2010-11-19-at-11.25.55-AM.png

We didn't get swept!

very close to being cooked.

Like I said, give the Sens Spezza and they are a contender for the whole damn thing. Very underrated team.

This dude was worrying about being sent to the ECHL earlier this year.

Montreal is just dying for this game to end.

That is all.

so many bitchmade things going on there and all in the course of a blowout.

just checking.

his rep is undeserved

I am not sure if I should give credit to Wilson or say he was lucky. You look at their team now, it's much faster than it was before the deadline. But the main reason he traded Murray, Clowe and Handzus (arguably their three slowest players) was that they were all expiring contracts. He had to get something rather than nothing for them because he had drained their talent pool in trades trying to win now.

But I guess it works out just the same. Like I said, if they can get out of this round--which looks almost certain--I think San Jose could go real deep.

As far as the Canucks, geez, Kesler served that game up for them, awesome effort, no one had his back. Luongo has been fine, too. Lots of guys on milk cartons. What is up with Bieksa? I think he has been messed up physically all year, lots of nagging injuries and probably back problems they didn't bother discussing. He's not that effective and he kind of blew that play on the Game 2 winner. How do you let that pass across? He couldn't even really get down or extend his stick.

That goalie change really worked wonders, huh, Alain?

This is unbelievable, I had a pretty strong feeling on SJ but Vancouver is the better team on paper and I never expected them to bitch up like this. I mean the first two games were tight but this is a debacle.

I think they have to go back to Luongo for Game 4. He's been better and deserves a chance for the fans to send him off. I'm expecting a big shakeup in Vancouver this offseason. AV fired, goalie situation resolved, changes on D, changes in second/third lines as well.

you see him wack Couture in the back of the head with his stick?

Only thing keeping them from a sweep would be some superhuman performance from Luongo.

bitch made team. I just hate that San Jose is going to be the one doing it. In a perfect world they both would make early exits.

but nothing even gets reviewed from Montreal? NOTHING? Four separate incidents should have resulted in suspensions.

they are getting mopped up

They came hard, tremendous shot to tie by DAT 'SYUK! and they had a hundred chances to score before they did in OT.

This is a hot series, I'm eager to go down to practice and stuff tomorrow.

wouldn't even make the playoffs? : )

Now they're going toe-to-toe with 2nd best team in the West.

Performing even better than I expected - but it takes time to build chemistry with youth.

The best part of this game? The OT game winner came with 4 rookies and a 3rd year D-man.

FOUR ROOKIES!

we'll see what happens, it's a tough matchup for anaheim but now in a three games series, i think they will pull it out.

like i said, it's going to take howard having a very good series and one outright great game. i don't think he has it, he has been kind of shitty at times.

Z particularly raises his game to an awesome level come April

edit, octopi?

they had the puck FOREVER six on four, how did they not score? they had ribeiro triggering the play from the wall like six times in succession there.

I'm sure they have a reason for not shooting more, but I would just think that with a 2 man advantage and more shots on net you're bound to fare better than they did.

Give the Rags credit, they adjusted their PK and had both covered on that final PP.

Ribeiro kept looking for Ovie or Green (understandably) but they kept being covered.

Would've been nice if he adjusted on the fly and took some of those shots, but I understand his mentality.

Blown opportunity, but I'm certain the PP team will have a strategy going forward for when both 52 and 8 are covered. The backdoor pass to a wide open player was a great look that a Rags defender deflected at the last second.

Rags got 6 penalties last night (some deserved, some terrible) and Holtby and the defense had a weak game. And the Caps still almost took it to OT or could've won it outright.

The Caps are clearly the better, more talented team. We'll see if they can prove it and take the series.

would have been a tough play for ribeiro to hit him directly but if they could have reversed the puck from the middle of the wall on one side to low on the other side, they would have scored.

ah well, it's an even series and that's how it's playing out

Couldn't get anything going despite tons of PP possession.

This was the first game this series where the Rangers were the better team.

And still, an effective Caps PP could've stolen the game.

Oh well, back to DC.

Hopefully the good Ovie returns.

It was so fucking loud in Staples tonight. I had to tell to have a conversation with my father inlaw sitting next to me. Those are Kings I remember from last season. If you take away the opening 5 minutes the Kings dominated. Those top 2 lines finally got going. Definitely want to win the next 2 and avoid a game 7.

It was so fucking loud in Staples tonight. I had to tell to have a conversation with my father inlaw sitting next to me. Those are Kings I remember from last season. If you take away the opening 5 minutes the Kings dominated. Those top 2 lines finally got going. Definitely want to win the next 2 and avoid a game 7.

after taking the crowd out in the first 5 minutes...our defense gave away a road win. Could never get the puck out of the zone, stupid turnovers, guys losing their men (how the fuck do you lose track of Kopitar, Patrick?), getting caught on line changes...just overall shitty play. I lost count of how many odd man rushes they had. What's so frustrating is that we should, at least, be coming home up 3-1. Saturday night's game should have been a win. This shit is going to 7. I think the home team will win every game.

the amount of odd man rushes were ridiculous. So many turnovers in the neutral zone. Lucky for Elliot most of the time it was either King or Penner leading the charge. Neither has a great set of hands. Still think both goalies played great.

even though I was hoping there would be some way for both of you to eliminate each other at the same time. I figured the Sharks sweeping the Canucks would be 2nd on my list of awesome things happening. Great job. If the Ducks end up winning I will be rooting for you again. If the Red Wings win I will be in their corner. Need you guys to not win the cup for like 10 more years so we can rub it in your faces a little longer. Today we are united in our hate of Vancouver.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=teBODmn2kIw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox1FH6FVFr8

I really believed going into this series the Sharks would steal one in Van and win this series in 6... First ever sweep feels pretty awesome... Being downtown for it was even better... Patrick Marleau scoring the OT GWG was the best!

Fuck you Roenick!

Kinda hoping the Sharks get Chicago and keep the revenge tour going... Hopefully the Wild can make it a series with them so they don't get extended rest...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-UaKHg2AwY

GO SHARKS GO!

Right move for the series as he has been awful, just have to hope his confidence isn't wrecked because we will need him back in further rounds.

He is far from the only issue, but he is letting up at least 2 soft goals a game that would change the whole series if he stopped them.

Now I wonder if they bring him back next year. They have OK organizational depth in goal with Thiessen (whom we saw a little of last year) and Zatkoff (who I think was their main in WSB this year), but I think if I had to peg a guy to actually reach the big club and stay as a backup at least, it would be Hartzell. He didn't have quite as lean a numbers as Hellebuyck (sp?) but they were close and he shouldered more of a load in the games I saw.

OT

and we are headed back to Staples Friday! Gotta give it up to the Blues. I thought we were going to break this game wide open. Last season when we went up 2-0 the Blues were defeated. Right now they have a lot of fight in them still. What a series.

but that was because I thought the home team would win every game. Shit just got real. So confounding to me how we outplay the Kings for long stretches, then our D regresses to pre-Bouwmeester/Leopold status and we fail to clear the puck and let a bunch of shit get right in Elliot's face. I do think we CAN win in Staples...we should have won game 3 for sure, IMO. Will we win at Staples remains to be seen.

running on 4 hours of sleep and an early morning flight..

cmon Wings. put this away quick.

gnite.

I got optimistic.

My bad.

http://rangersmultimedia.com/gifs/hagelin_stepan_tictac_goal.gif

so fucking lazy.

I wouldn't have believed them.

i doubt he would have gotten there anyway but cmon, what if the guy shoots wide or the goalie gets a tiny piece of it? he would have been right there to clear a rebound.

http://imgius.com/photos/20130509136808541567205.gif

Hockey playoff gifs beat every other sport, IMO

It wasn't quite as bad as it looked, but yeah, it wasn't great.

just too evenly matched

Split in NY, then win in 5 or 6.

Silly me.

Results are results, and while there isn't a HUGE difference between the teams, I think the Caps are pretty clearly the better team, in talent and execution.

Richards/Nash have been invisible. Like complete wastes of many millions of dollars.
Lundqvuist has been giving up goals.
Rangers top D pair is great, but without Staal the rest is 'eh'
Rangers PP is bad, their PK has been decent.

Game 3: Rangers got 6 PPs and won by 1 goal.
In the last two games they've gotten PPs at a 2:1 ratio and each was only a 1 goal win with constant back and forth.

Caps have been the better team in 3 of 4 games.

I still have faith.

That's my problem.

not clearly, anyway. There's no evidence that they are. I think the two are actually very even-matched, which is why the NYR was the team I most wanted to avoid.

Felt always that it would be a long series.

But as I said, I think the Caps have been the clearly better team in 3 of 4 games.

We'll see if the rest of the series bears that out or if Games 1-3 weren't representative.

But what I can say is that next year they are going to be getting a helluva player in Kuznetsov.

But

Ovechkin > Nash
Backstrom > Richards
Laich/Ribeiro/Brouwer/Erat is a pretty damn good 2nd line (tho not in this playoffs)
Green & Alzner > Girardi/McDonough (in terms of overall talent)
Carlson/Orlov = Staal/Del Zotto/Stralman (I guess)
Caps have better defensive depth, IMO
I like the Caps third line more of Chimera/Perrault/Ward/Fehr
And obviously Lundqvuist >>>>>>> Holtby

But I'm biased, obviously.

at least not player to player matchups in the sense that I would pit two wingers against one another.

the components are similar, the depth is similar and a substantial edge in goal can wipe away several smaller advantages. that's how i see it, that and looking more broadly at things like collective speed and toughness.

even looking at it spot by spot the way you did there, i look at it less as a strict comparison and more as seeing who has created more opportunities. instead of a series of evaluations on a 1-10 scale (like Ovechkin is a 9 and Nash is a 7, Holtby is a 7 and Hank is a 9, etc), it's more a 1 or a 0 type of thing. Like does that guy in his role have an opportunity to make a big contribution or not? More of a go/no-go way of looking at it and, in the process, identifying potential weaknesses to be exploited.

lol

i thought it could happen and now i feel like it will happen. first of all, pittsburgh's team speed is not very good. ottawa is just as heavy and a little faster. second of all, you can't come with any weak stuff in net against ottawa, they are going to get pucks there and have decent traffic. they have some guys with legit touch all throughout their top nine, even if some of them are not very consistent in terms of actual production.

i just don't see pittsburgh being able to let up for even one period against this team. spezza is skating, this is EXACTLY what i envisioned when karlsson went down. if they could make it through to where they got their core guys back, they would be a better team for having lost them. look at the experience that guys like silferberg, zibanejad, et al have gotten. turris and cowen were already promising and got to do even more than they would have. neil has taken on a larger leadership role.

they are about to get healthy at JUST the right time and i think the sky is the limit for this team. i think they could win the cup, i certainly don't see an exceedingly tough draw for them in the east.

.

no nba games+three non competitive games.

blackhawks spent most of the game jamming up the neutral zone. they are very good with a lead. they are probably the best team in the league with a two or more goal edge, though i think l.a. is the best team with a narrow margin.

the pens did their thing for sure, ottawa put montreal out of its misery. it's pretty obvious the the two best series going are the blues and ducks series, for totally different reasons, too.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ByZGtTFHj3c/UYxBFDSINcI/AAAAAAACL6w/cbWTJ-dQuyo/s512/crosbyisles.gif

good play on his part horrible play on 14. That was the lamest attempt to take the body I have seen in a minute.

it's hard to believe i called this guy a bust and had to defend it hundreds of times for whatever dumb reason.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-pfPVgLpcMAQ/UY0aGjdu-rI/AAAAAAAAGqc/bZ0ERXoaWfY/w640-h720-no/goal_comparison_mario_sid_3.gif

So, it's come to this. Let's see if the Note has some heart left. We need Elliot to be spectacular tonight. Surrendering five-hole goals won't cut it. Defense, can you give a full game? The odd man rushes and turnovers in the zone have to stop. Patrick Berglund has had a nightmare series defensively. McDonald, I love you, but you gotta sit tonight...in place of Tarasenko. Hitch got cute the other night and broke up the CPR line...we NEED them tonight. We're also gonna need a surprise goal...a Jackmann type goal like game 2. I would actually be just as concerned if this game was here in St. Louis as I am with it being in LA. We've shown that we can play well enough to win in their building. Win or go home. Nuff said. GO BLUE!

i think that was polak's goal and it went in off doughty's stick but who cares? i smell another overtime game here.

but dammit if once again he isnt tearing up the playoffs and earning another 1 year contract.

get the feeling sutter is growing tired of his robert horry-esque loafing and it will take nothing short of a robert horry-esque playoff to get him another look.

if they do let him walk they need a guy who can get in front of the net consistently. when they lost smyth and zus they were from surplus to deficiency in terms of guys who can chew up space, take punishment and deflect pucks.

especially with his price tag. We already have Regehr and Scuderi as UFA's and they have pretty sizeable contracts. Not to mention still having Willie Mitchell on the books and we still dont know if he can play or not. I think we need to lock down our dmen. We will have to lose Penner and let one of the younger guys take his spot. We have Toffoli and Richardson who didnt play regularly but can fill a role if we need to. Plus they are cheaper and will give us a more consistent game through out the season.

they have big decisions to make on defense. i think they cant afford to lose scuds with the way things are now. i am also pretty underwhelmed now looking back on dean's stockpiling of defense prospects. the guys he sent away have done nothing really and the guys he drafted have been kinda meh outside of Voynov. He got some NHL caliber guys in Martinez and Muzzin but they are marginal players. Campbell has about the same ceiling. The only guy they can really hang their hat on is Forbort and he is still a ways away. Huge mistake not moving up for Etem there and that's not hindsight, shit I thought more of Forbort then and still thought it. He's got potential to be a good second pairing guy and penalty killer. Some people think he has untapped offense, well, it must be REALLY untapped. I can't see him as a scorer in the NHL at all.

we'll see what the numbers look like but i could see them parting ways with penner and maybe trading a veteran forward as well. they are going to need a backup goalie but that will likely represent some minor savings over bernier's deal.

>they have big decisions to make on defense. i think they cant
>afford to lose scuds with the way things are now. i am also
>pretty underwhelmed now looking back on dean's stockpiling of
>defense prospects. the guys he sent away have done nothing
>really and the guys he drafted have been kinda meh outside of
>Voynov. He got some NHL caliber guys in Martinez and Muzzin
>but they are marginal players.

I have noticed we have no young traditional defenseman. Those guys always seem to be the old veterans. I am new to the game so I dont know but is the way of the stay at home defenseman gone just like the good defensive catcher that will only bat .240? I agree on Scuderi. He will be hitting 35 next year though. Dont know how much longer we can expect him to lock things down. Greene is signed through next year. So we have 4 solid dman for the next couple of years at least and 3 should be locked down even longer. That of course doesnt include us resigning Regehr. Enough for have 1 solid player on each pairing.

>we'll see what the numbers look like but i could see them
>parting ways with penner and maybe trading a veteran forward
>as well. they are going to need a backup goalie but that will
>likely represent some minor savings over bernier's deal.

The only veteran forward I would want to move is Stoll. I wouldnt mind trying to move one of younger big boys(King or Nolan). Nolan had a damn good start to the season. If he can be more consistent other teams would definitely want him.

>I have noticed we have no young traditional defenseman. Those
>guys always seem to be the old veterans. I am new to the game
>so I dont know but is the way of the stay at home defenseman
>gone just like the good defensive catcher that will only bat
>.240? I agree on Scuderi. He will be hitting 35 next year
>though. Dont know how much longer we can expect him to lock
>things down. Greene is signed through next year. So we have 4
>solid dman for the next couple of years at least and 3 should
>be locked down even longer. That of course doesnt include us
>resigning Regehr. Enough for have 1 solid player on each
>pairing.

I think right now they would be looking to re-sign Regehr. He has been rejuvenated about playing on some bad teams and I bet he'd sign at a fair rate. Even if Mitchell comes back, you can't have too many guys that eat minutes, kill penalties and make good decisions. They will save money by swapping Penner out for one of their depth forwards, probably Pearson with Toffoli also making the team. Then again who knows what type of coin squeezing will be related to the new CBA at this point?


>The only veteran forward I would want to move is Stoll. I
>wouldnt mind trying to move one of younger big boys(King or
>Nolan). Nolan had a damn good start to the season. If he can
>be more consistent other teams would definitely want him.

I like Nolan's attitude but he's got journeyman written all over him. He runs around and hits guys, but he doesn't do much consistently. King, I have a hard time identifying what his strength is. He is big and he's good with his hips, boxes out and works the boards well. But he isn't a great puck recovery guy and beyond that, eh, he doesn't have much speed so his power is a less than his size suggests and if he were good in front of the net then he'd get himself a lot more power play time. I think both those guys will move on sooner than later.

Stoll on the other hand is a more valuable player than he gets credit for sometimes. The main problem with his reputation here is that he was being played as a second line center as recently as two seasons ago and that just is not his role. He's very good though, he just is not a big scorer. He is one of the faster skaters on the team and has very good closing speed, mainly because he's smart taking angles. He's super competitive, definitely likes big games and will bring a little subtle sandpaper to things. Guys hate playing against him. He's also good on faceoffs plus he is versatile. Good penalty killer, good third liner at even strength, he can play wing if necessary and he's got a hard shot to use up top on the power play. He just doesn't have great accuracy on his slapper or hands that are remarkable in any way. He'll never score a ton of points.

great series St Louis

I knew that was it. I accepted it and was ok with it. As much as I appreciate what Elliot did for us this season, we're just not gonna get over the hump with dude. The five-hole goal in game 5, the goal last night where he took his eye off it and Penner kept playing...he's not a bad goalie, but you don't win Stanley Cups letting in those kinds of goals. We've got other shit to do as well. They need to blow some people up out of here. Perron? McDonald? We need a super-skilled scorer. We'll see what the off-season brings.

he did a damn good job and kept the games competitive. You won 2 games 2-1. The first was a gimme by Quick. You lost a game 1-0 and you lost another game 2-1. Only 2 games where you scored goals and luckily for us we did too. Definitely not his fault.

"we need a super skilled scorer". Definitely not blaming him for our lack of goal scoring. I will stand behind my point, though. We cannot be a Stanley Cup team when our goalie gives up those kinds of goals...just can't. He's become my hockey Tony Romo. Really, really like the guy...but you just start to wonder if we'll ever get over the top with him.

I dont see him sticking around for much longer.I doubt we let him go for nothing.

Like I said earlier in the year I think Elliott had a career year last year. I wouldn't worry about the Blues' goaltending, Allen is a very good goalie, Halak and Elliott have obviously performed well at various times. They need more consistent scoring, I guess expanding Tarasenko's role will be of some help there. I was always a fan of Grachev but I am not sure what his ceiling is at this point, he's spent a lot of time toiling in the A now. I know they have high hopes for like Schwarz and Rattie, I imagine there is one scorer among their bunch for sure.

Polak was in all the action yesterday lol, he got beat on the doughty goal, pick pocketed for the brown breakaway and then he deflected that prayer into the net. He also gave them their lone goal basically, of course.

4 detroit pps to 0 for anaheim (i think) but then they robbed detroit of an odd man rush with an uncalled trip and another uncalled trip led to the tying goal.

ah well, fuck it, this series deserved to go 7.

i got that they wanted to let them play but some of those calls were just blatantly obvious.

>


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<---- 5....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlgiritpmfo

=======================================
Occupy Big Government..

Fannie, Freddie dole out big bonuses
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/67292.html

Game 7. Then again we can get another San Jose/Los Angeles series.

would love to see that plus it would make my life a lot easier.

shit would be dope... and the Sharks knock off the Duck in the WCF... at least thats how it would go in a perfect world...

I dont want the ducks to win a series. But I would rather face them and let you guys log all them miles to Chicago. Then hopefully you guys beat up on each other while we have 7 possible home games.

But at the same time we were the best team for most of the season for a reason, I have to believe we will turn it on at some point

I imagine Vokoun will continue to play but honestly either way I'd take Anderson as having a sizable advantage.

I'm pretty surprised Fleury has played poorly, he was real consistent late in the year. He's a weird player, he and Price are both guys I don't really get. They have too much talent to be inconsistent.

Certainly Pittsburgh has more top-end talent, particularly if Spezza is unavailable or ineffective, but I like Ottawa as a top to bottom team more. I don't think there's any doubt that they are the more cohesive unit right now.

I think a Rangers-Ottawa series this year would be such a fucking bloodbath.

The Rangers are still alive.

The only lineup change is Emmerton out and Eaves in, Babcock of course said after the last game that Eaves was likely going in. He likes his speed, puck security and ability to get around the puck to hit people.

Really this game will probably come down to who makes the last mistake. Detroit appeared to have Game 6 in hand but they had two Etem takeaways lead to goals. Just little sloppy stuff almost ruined their game.

This series has happened fast and there are a lot of kids out there. Surely someone will fuck up and serve the other team the series tonight.

Hope I make it

We didn't die after Yzerman.

We didn't die after Lidstrom.

Haters cry.

The kids are alright.

THEY DONT LIKE US, WE EATING ROASTED DUCKS!

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg158/MDA2008/MDA2010/RoastedDuck1.jpg

im really just being hopefully here.

Slayed the Anaheim demon.

Next, we'll strike down the Chicago one.

And in a perfect world - we get SJ in the WCF.

Only to sweep Pittsburgh in the finals.

It would be like our own Kill Bill movie.

that could possibly be the most amazing cup run in history. god i hope we do it.

especially with all these young guys in their first playoffs... right?

In all seriousness I do believe we'll give Chicago some fits, but ultimately come up short due to many stupid mistakes.

the ducks have a little less structure in their game than the wings do, there were a couple times where we saw a two-line pass straight down the center of the ice, for example.

what i will say is that anaheim's young guys did NOT hurt them in the series at all. etem was perhaps their best all-around player in the series, palmieri was also very good throughout on the offensive end.

it was their big guys who kind of screwed them plus a sort of overall lethargy (except etem, cogliano and a couple other guys at times). perry could not bury anything, he got some prime chances in the series, too. nobody took the loss harder than him, he was sitting in his stall staring into space with all his gear on and shit. hiller was also pretty bummed, he played a decent series, kind of an iffy game 2 but overall he was decent, stopped the puck when he saw it generally.

chicago is a different animal, i think detroit can play them tight but they won't make cheesy mistakes or stop skating. they also play very well with a lead, i think even better than los angeles does in this type of playoff setting. if they get a two-goal lead, there's pretty much no coming back.

if detroit is going to steal the series i think they need to win the first two games.

I cant say this series doesnt scare the shit out of me though. Sharks always play us tough and Niemi has been killing us this year. But Quick is in beast mode right now, home ice advantage, and Ryan Clowe is playing pucks from the bench in New York now.

1) Chicago vs. 7) Detroit
5) Los Angeles vs. 6) San Jose

Kinda irritated right now... I wanted Chicago, and then Anaheim...

I really fuckin hate the Kings, though... Should be a great series!

I guess playing in LA/Stl gets things overlooked but Quick returned to form in a major way, I thought he had a couple of great games in 3 and 6 and great stretches in the other games as well. Obviously Niemi has been stir frying fools for a couple months already.


I want to take the Sharks as I've just got a good feeling about them this year (for once!) but I know this Kings group so well. I like what LA has done rolling 7 D, minimizes their weaknesses on two fronts, very smart. But with the Kings you just never know when that power outage is coming, when the goals just don't happen. With San Jose, I do feel like they are a little thinner than the Kings, they need production from their top guys or they just won't get it.

The Caps would average like 3.5 goals per game if not for him.

http://www.gq.com/style/blogs/the-gq-eye/henrik-lundqvist-wwd.jpg

he could confuse henrik lundqvist and his 28-31 playoff record with the *best playoff performer in the league*

use a real stat.

dude has 3 really good playoffs

1 eh

and 3 bad

and there is no stat to sum up soft goals, but guys that give them up at bad times tend to lose more games than they win

that being said, he's been really good his last 25 games and managed to steal 1 last time

and that includes his early years before he became one of the best goalies in the NHL every year.

I'm not sure what we're arguing about, other than the pointlessness of a goalie's W/L record and your completely subjective opinion that he 'gives up soft goals at bad times'.

His W/L record in no way is a reflection of his talent, it is a complete reflection of how average his teammates are every year.

>and that includes his early years before he became one of the
>best goalies in the NHL every year.

^^right here^^. if someone saw that they would think he is a consistently excellent playoff performer and he hasnt been. he's been really good for the last 25 games and its offset what has come before it when, im sorry, but he wasnt very good.

>I'm not sure what we're arguing about, other than the
>pointlessness of a goalie's W/L record and your completely
>subjective opinion that he 'gives up soft goals at bad
>times'.

except its not pointless, its an aggregate that gives a better record of his career performance than GAA which can be altered by outliers.

>His W/L record in no way is a reflection of his talent, it is
>a complete reflection of how average his teammates are every
>year.

who said anything about his talent? im talking about his performance

because they averaged 3 flat and that was with a pretty soft schedule.

Feels like we're getting really great shots and they ALL get blocked.

He almost gets beaten but then recovers with super-human quickness and speed.

Such as the block on Ovechkin's open backhand in Game 6.

He also anticipates shots that nobody has any business anticipating.

It's nice to know the Rangers are wasting an all-world talent like that by not building a contender.

it's that whole "their goalie played unbelievable" crap.

ive seen the Red Wings lose or almost lose to a 1 man team before...it happens

the biggest example was Giguere's run in 2003

not coincidetally, 3 of 4 to come before him were goalies also

i watched the whole run, even went to a couple games, and i still thought NJ would beat them in five games. i was just stunned to see Game 7 and of course disappointed they lost. so fucking close. they didn't leave it up to chance in 2007 though.

i know i am being annoying! i hope it works!

but ok.

If then B's lose the Claude is gone.

so.

so, stay tuned.

it would have to be some 1997 terry murray-esque performance to even throw shade. he might win the jack adams and he's certainly got a ton of credibility in t bubble right now

bergeron is such a beast, fuck

So,

But not only am I feeling the underdog steez, I also like that they are playing a pretty tight game and roughly to their potential while Boston pulls their usual bullshit of turning out substandard stretches and doing absolutely nothing consistently.

LOL

it's just sudden death ot in a game 7.

Bruins fans who have been turning their nose up over the Kessel trade forever or Leafs fans who have been Leafs fans for more than five seconds.

Can't even explain what this is like for Leaf fans. People are breaking windows and fights breaking out on the streets.

gatdamn man, take a lesson from we flyers fans and expect to be let down. we lost to fucking ottawa in an 8-1 matchup without anything like this happening.

Ovechkin as good in the postseason as ever.

but um, yeah.

If so than that's cool, but eventually when you wanna be considered the best you have to win something important.

21 points in his last 30 playoff games to go with 22 PIM

2 G and 2 A in 6 career game sevens, and half of that came in the game 7 they lost 5 years ago. hasnt had a game 7 point since 2010 and it was an assist. scoreless and -1 in the 3 since then.

dude is not a clutch playoff performer

it's clear where you stand.

'fraid we don't have much to talk about.

but not one you feel comfortable acknowledging i see

The Rangers are sure laying the smack down in DC.

1) Pittsburgh vs. 7) Ottawa
4) Boston vs. 6) NY Rangers

Bruins are such a frustrating team to me and I have no rooting interest in their success or failure. They can crank it up to a high level or play down to something well below their competition. They are harder to call than the Kings, who even acknowledge their weird way of falling behind to push ahead.

Quit if Oates can't cut it.

But right now they look like an improving team that's well-coached and growing.

Improve the 2nd line (like get Laich and Erat in there) and get Erskine off the 2nd D pair and this team is considerably better.

This roster, a hot Ovechkin, marginally better defenders and a decent 2nd line could contend, IMO.

At least the Rangers aren't going to do shit.

if boston plays down to them or gets involved with BS after whistles, i could see the series going to 7 and somehow torts is like unbeatable in game 7s.

as i type that out, i sort of thing the rangers ARE going to win the series now.

whoever wins that series will do it in 6 or 7 games with a bunch of one goal wins (Just like Caps/Rangers series every year )

But the Rags aren't good enough to beath Ottawa or Pit, let alone Chicago, LA or whoever comes out of the West.

The Rags are a good 2nd tier team with one of the best goalies in the NHL but there's a reason they lost to NJ last year.

Unless Nash stops sucking and Brad Richards manages to get off the 4th line, they're still the same mediocre Rangers.

i think this series took a lot out of mcdonagh and girardi for openers. the columbus guys came through, i thought brassard and dorsett were both strong. still needed a lot from lundqvist to win narrowly.

...and that was without the Lumbus guys. This team can go far.

so i dunno if they are any better on paper now than they were then.

on the ice, predictions or hype aside, eh, i've never thought this group was good enough to win. even when they were performing better last season, they had the exact same problems. inconsistent scoring, best players are not their best players (2004 was a long time ago for brad richards, no?), they lean way too heavily on their top pairing (have same problem SJ did in 2011) and they get worn down. the shorter season might help there, but i'm looking around the league and seeing plenty of guys banged up and tired as if it were a full season.

how awesome Rick Nash is in the playoffs (1 goal) and Brad Richards ended up as a 4th liner.

The Rangers have established definitively that they are not contenders in any way.

.

>


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"It is better to be silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/9273428/alex-ovechkin-critical-refs-washington-capitals-ouster


Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin took exception with the way the officials handled his team's seven-game playoff series with New York -- a series that ended Monday with the Rangers capturing Game 7.

"The refereeing ... you understand it yourself. How can there be no penalties at all (on one team) during the playoffs?" Ovechkin said in Russian (the interview was translated by Slava Malamud, a longtime writer who has covered Ovechkin). "I am not saying there was a phone call from (the league), but someone just wanted Game 7. For the ratings. You know, the lockout, escrow, the league needs to make profit.

"I don't know whether the refs were predisposed against us or the league," he said. "But to not give obvious penalties (against the Rangers), while for us any little thing was immediately penalized."

In Game 7, the Capitals had 14 penalty minutes to four for the Rangers. Both teams had two power-play opportunities but didn't score. For the series, Washington had 74 penalty minutes and the Rangers had 40 -- though in the last three games, Washington registered 36 penalty minutes compared to just 12 for the Rangers.

The penalty disparity didn't translate directly to goals, however, as Washington scored three power-play goals in the series and New York scored two.

In the playoffs, Ovechkin scored just one goal (in Game 1) and had one assist (in Game 2). He was blanked in the last five games despite having 18 shots on goal. Ovechkin led the NHL with 32 goals during the regular season.

Ovechkin and the Capitals are now 2-5 in seventh games since 2008. They have lost in the conference semifinals three times and the conference quarterfinals twice in the past five years -- four of those five losing in the seventh game.

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The refs aren't why they lost, but ref incompetence sure as shit made it a lot harder. ~2:1 penalty ratio is a joke.

Between this quote and Backstrom admitting how shitty he's been in the playoffs, I like the fire I see.

going to be in the suite for this one. I can't wait.

Nah...have fun, man. You were right...playoff hockey is incredible. I've been to tons of Cardinal's games...including NLCS games and a bunch of Ram's games during the "Greatest Show..." days, but nothing compared to the electricity when Jackmann put that slap-shot in at the end of Game 2.

I went to game of Blues/Kings series last year and even though it was insane this years game was even crazier. Last year we were up 2-0 and dominated game 3. This time it was a very nervous energy. Kind of like we need to pump this team up. After that first period I called my wife at home and she answers the phone to say holy shit its loud there. I fully expect this game to be louder.

man he stole the show. Our 2nd line dominated the whole game. Our 1st line played well too. But I dont think they generated enough scoring chances. They did shut down the Sharks top line though. Our bottom lines did not play well. That was when the Sharks got all of their scoring chances. Slava is all that needs to be said. Great game for us. Looking forward to watching us go up 2 games on Thursday.

PAST TWO CHAMPS BATTLE FOR SUPREMACY

that would be fun.

i still think this series is going 7. they can't keep all these guys off the board. i like this to be 2-2 at the end of four, kind of immaterial who wins where. i do think the sharks will get some good matchups at home, they get someone dangerous out against that third pairing and score off that mismatch.

injury report for game 2, i'd say stoll out, clifford out, havlat out. mclellan hinted, nothing definitive, on havlat but he sounds like a no-go. i think that was the expectation anyway.

any word on Clifford or Stoll? If I remembering right I didnt see him take another shift after that hit from Torres. Clifford was scratched again. Do not want to lose them both.

i saw clifford last night, just said whatup, he was milling about with the black aces. i dont think his return is imminent, i doubt he plays in this series.

stoll, well, obviously we know what he's dealing with but how severe is it? no idea. i talked to sutter last night. i saw dean and one of the more established national guys ran him down and i dont think he got an answer. i mean, what kind of answer could there be at this point? sometimes you dont know how severe a concussion is for several days if not longer.

i think stoll is a big loss, especially in this matchup. obviously they are rolling three strong centers and you need three strong centers to matchup. obviously they've got another very good natural centerman playing wing in carter, but i dont think they will break up that line. it was good last night, even king was doing his job pretty effectively.

& i hate deep dish pizza.


and fuk their raggedy ass train system too.

In the NHL I am not even worried about 0-2 holes, if the team holds serve, OK, you have to do the same. We have seen that plenty, look at the Kings first round series.

It doesn't matter the margin for Ottawa, they lost, period. Time to turn the page. I feel like they had some stuff they could have exploited better on offense. Obviously their defense needs to tighten up in all three zones, play in the neutral zone seemed weak in the parts I was able to catch.

The Sharks played their game pretty well. You look at their start and also a good stretch of the third before they started taking chances, that was the best hockey played in the game.

The Kings got great games from Quick and Richards, Richards did it on D, too. The Kings D performed pretty well all things considered, I guess, but definitely have room for improvement. They did a good job for long stretches keeping guys away from the front of the net, and it was huge. More than once they had rebounds laying out there. Their fore check was pretty so-so, it didn't get set up sometimes, etc. I just liked SJ's possession game and speed more, but I think both teams have plenty of areas to address going forward as well as some things they did very well.

FUCK YO COUCH, STOLI!

but it seems like it only serves as an occasional reference for the most diehard chappelle fans.

carter is a beast...

this was the craziest game I have ever been to live. This was also the loudest I have ever heard Staples Center. The minute the 5 on 4 started the crowd started. Then the 5 on 3 and we all knew we were going to score at least 1. My voice is gone and I think my blood pressure is still coming down from that one. We just need to steal 1 in San Jose and we should wrap it up at home.

they're not a well oiled machine yet but they are getting timely play and very good goaltending while keeping decent pace with a faster team.

stoll called lewis as the role guy who would break out, fitting he scores on a night where they miss jarret.

you look at it and they were pretty thin at center for much of the night against a team that's loaded at the position and had guys playing well. big game from gomez, he did the key work on their third goal.

i think doughty is doing a nice job in the series offensively, taking what's there and pushing the puck where he can despite a real emphasis from san jose on taking his space away. on defense he is doing what he can, their play in the d zone has been average-ish overall though.

did you see sutter's presser last night? if you can find the full thing, watch it, it was hilarious. total contrarian, he basically refused to answer any questions but did spend some time talking about his reading glasses and the hockey literacy of the journalists on hand.

it was hilarious

he just said "i thought he was nervous."

it's kind of funny, at this point i attend the pressers for entertainment value. if i am tight with time, i just skip them. i haven't used a sutter quote in a story in a long time.

I think he is hilarious and I love how he could give two fucks about reporters. He gives nothing but non answers and they still keep asking him questions. Its hilarious.

most people who work with him fucking love him, his players (from all over), lombardi, guys who played with him, etc.

and he's actually pretty good if you get a chance to talk to him one on one. he's not as hard to understand, he doesn't constantly say "to be quite honest with you," "if you really look at it," and "right?" in every fucking sentence and he typically addresses a question directly with a real answer.

there are certain things he is "quite honest about" and he will just tell you what he thinks in terse terms that don't say much and certainly don't generate a quote. I think he doesn't like the stilted Q&A, but hey, what the fuck? Reporters work all day playing this "hurry up and wait" game to get five or ten minutes with the guy and ask questions quickly enough to get them answered. The whole process is stilted, sorry, we're not chit chatting over a beer and then driving home here.

Some guys understand that and really go big on it. Murray understood the press's goals and he also used it to send messages to guys sometimes. He was so much easier to work with. Hitchcock, Trotz, Boudreau, those guys are all refreshing to work with among others.

That is the thing with Darryl, you want to yuck it up but if the story really calls for a quote or they make very few players available, it makes it really hard to do your job. I'm not worried about it at the moment because that's not really the type of reporting I am doing (working on feature stories) but last year it certainly was. Like I said, I just figured he was giving me absolutely nothing, I'd stay until they kicked me out of the two locker rooms if I had time or just leave and start writing if I didn't.

By that I mean everyone and their mom calling a Senators win

series.

Tonight Ottawa had horrific penalty trouble and goaltending, they were still in a position to send that bitch to overtime. They are hanging in there even though Pitt is getting great play from their top guys (mainly Sid), as much as they could expect from Vokoun, generally controlling pace and so forth.

I feel the same way about the San Jose-LA matchup, that series is even closer actually. I could definitely see SJ taking both games there and shortening the series.

It's just beautiful to watch

They still exist obviously, but people have stopped pretending player X is better than Bron/Crosby when they are clearly the best 2 players in the game by far.

There are no more X or Crosby arguments, no more he gets lucky arguments, just appreciation for how great he is.

He worked himself off the hate list with his Cup in my mind

Dude is an offensive prodigy and I really want to see him and Zetterberg go at it for one more 7 game series before the Wings move east

let me take out the goalie while we are already on a power play. Fucking stupid. Easily our best game of the series and Sharks take it from us. Great game by both goalies. All those damn penalties killed us. Give the Sharks enough chances and they will cash in.

neither team has really looked awesome 5on5, i suspect the whole series will come down to who gets opportunities on the power play like this. i like san jose to shorten this series in the next game, but i also feel like doughty is due to break a game open soon. he's good for at least 3-4 point night per postseason.

Toews has been taken out of the series and Z continues to create offensively

He reminds me so much of Fedorov...do all the little things during the season, get his 1ppg, and then in the playoffs let that 2 way game shine

Dude is so nasty and im praying for the Pav-Z vs Sid-Geno rubber match

I think he is the only Sharks fan on the boards and he isnt here reppin. Either he is nervous as fuck or busy as fuck.

talked to him maybe a week ago

Miserable bastard.

His schtick/gimmick deflect from his not that goodness

t'genius!

he's a decent coach, but he thinks pretty highly of himself. it's also not an act, he's genuinely a prick by most accounts.

how about by your account?

the couple times that i did.

he refuses steadfastly to make any comment about the other team. that is really annoying. i get that guys might not want to do that at what they consider an inappropriate time, but it's kind of part of the business to get opinions of opposing coaches on all sorts of shit.

here is a fun torts asshole story. a beat guy in the ny/nj market has a wife who is a veterinarian. torts' dog had some sort of serious illness, and so for two months he would pass questions along to the reporter for his wife to answer, basically getting free veterinary advice at a time when his dog really needed it.

fast forward to a couple weeks after the dog recovers, the guy's wife is at MSG for a game. after all the press stuff breaks up, torts is standing in the hallway and the guy comes up to him and says "oh, my wife is here, if you've got a second she's coming down to meet you."

his response? "i dont have time for that shit." and he just stood there.

Did he really said his own player stinks? You went 0-5 today - it's not him - it's you.

once youre losing in new york, you could be a saint and everyone would still be all over your ass. so, in the end, it probably doesn't matter for him.

that is a huge asshole story

U kinda made my point for me, thanks bro

i figure one day he will stumble onto this.

How do you let a team score on you short handed with 28 seconds left in the game?

There was no pressure on that pass. Perfectly timed run by Alfredsson but that passing lane doesn't exist if you are pressure the passer near the blue line. What a turnaround

just so unexpected after that penalty to be heading to OT.

I took another look at it, I think it was just a lack of adjustment by the Penguins. If you look at the previous two rushes (both by Turris), they were dealing with a four man unit pushing the puck. They sat back inside the blue line and swarmed the puck. They did the same thing here but with the numbers even, they had no advantage. Alfie is moving toward the center as they move the puck to the left wing. You see him cut toward the front of the net UNTOUCHED as everyone is caught moving toward the puck.

It first happens because Martin moves over and they have both defenseman on one side, it gets worse as Kunitz missed a check earlier on Alfredsson and Malkin finishes off the ineptitude by kind of spacing on the play and covering no one.

Hard to believe this is the same guy from Game 2.

to decide one here.

i mean turris's various opportunities, neil muffing a bunny, etc. then on the pens' side, they got favorable matchups on the road and sutter was non stop winning draws to start the overtime. if they got even one second chance in OT, it would have been over.

this could go pretty long here. i am really hoping a cheeseball goal doesn't decide this or, worse yet, a bad call.

I want Malkin to win this game, he deserves a goal for his efforts tonight.

at a penalty call in double OT

this sumbitch going back to the 'burgh tied. i also like SJ to knot their series up. i think the rangers are in trouble though.

Them Hawks are frustrated. as. fuck.

Can't wait to hear their Captain whine tonight after the boarding/goal/no goal series.

http://i.imgur.com/o9dgvOo.gif

he good!

All we hear is Saad, Saad, Saad...

If anyone is watching the Griffins this year, you'll see some of the talent we have coming up.

i've never had a problem with their organizational depth but i'm still confused by the lack of bridge guys this year. two more veterans would have made a big difference, i think.

i thought he was really good last year and hes been collecting scratches all season

Helm hurt too

Brunner kind of reminds me of a young Mikael Samuelsson...also see a little Dave Andreychuk with his knack for cashing in around the net

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<---- 5....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlgiritpmfo

=======================================
Occupy Big Government..

Fannie, Freddie dole out big bonuses
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/67292.html

IF they dont show a little discipline

in these scrums, Chicago players have been mysteriously losing their gloves and it feels like just a matter of time before one of them takes a swing. shaw in particular seems like he's on the edge of a meltdown.

the boarding that led to the goal was dirty as shit, and seemingly should have been subject to the same review process that cost Abdelkader a few games

oddly enough, the wings are taking fewer penalties while out-hitting CHI.

oh yeah and Henrik Zetterberg has just about erased Jonathan Toews from this series.

Toews looks like he might cry any minute now.

Kane is invisible unless he is gifted a breakaway or open net.

Oh yeah, and Coach Q laying into Crawford at the end like he was sending him to his room without dinner was fucking hilarious.

If Howard can keep playing like this and we don't gift them any chances, we look pretty good. But, like you said... if they can regain composure, they could take control.

if any of the cabbies happen to be female college students they need to call in sick the minute the Blackhawks are eliminated and not return until the season starts next year.

>
>oh yeah and Henrik Zetterberg has just about erased Jonathan
>Toews from this series.

I've never seen something so unprofessional.

He is painful to listen to.

NBC seems upset that their new Comcast overlords love hockey. Seems like the portrayal on 30Rock of Jack Donaghy and Hank Hooper's rivalry was sort of accurate haha. Though in real life, Ed Snider is nothing at all like Hank Hooper.

nice whistle there ref.

http://youtu.be/rH-Dpynls9g

that said, eh, they got the result they deserved last night and in the series overall. honestly i think san jose could be up 3-1 right now without much difficulty. the kings are living on quick's sharpness and timely play from some of their forwards. they seem to be having trouble with san jose's speed on both the forecheck and the rush. you don't really see san jose experiencing much discomfort moving through the neutral zone. they are getting their forecheck set up and making the kings chase them.

the guys who have stabilized things for the kings have been their bottom six. they make the "easy" plays. i dont know what's going on with their top six, these guys aren't getting any pucks deep and not much pressure. kopitar woke up in the last 25-ish minutes of last night's game, had some good jump. richards has maybe been their best forward but no real good opportunities have come in the last couple off that two-man game with carter.

overall i think the kings are kind of limiting their chances for success by not getting enough pucks in deep and, in turn, their breakouts seem even more labored than they already were. personally, i am starting to worry a little.

Rangersrangersrangers

When was the last time they were relevant?

Anyway, Tortarella will be unemployed in 3 days.

The Rangers are a mediocre squad who can barely qualify for the playoffs and their strategy is built entirely around relying on one of the 3 best goalies in the game???

I am shocked.

SHOCKED.

This is why I hate that the Caps have lost Game 7's to this shot-blocking mediocrity two years running.

The Caps *could* be a better team than they show.

On the flip, this is pretty much the maximum this Rangers roster is capable of.

Though I suppose maybe Brad Richards is capable of playing better than the EIGHT MINUTES he got in Game 3.

Anyway. Fuck the Rangers. Ovechkin for life.

that the Rangers can't score for ish...and that the Bruins are that good.

But they're significantly better than the NY Lundqvists.

*compared to how they were 2 years ago. I have to favor the Pens or Senators over Bos.

and if they click at the right time, they are plenty talented. i think their problem has been offensive consistency and defensive depth. there at least an outside chance that those things are coming together for them right now.

But I enjoy Lucic's inconsistency over the past few years.

He's a douchebag pretending to be a tough guy.

he kind of seems to check out at times. kind of a rich man's dustin penner.

one of the biggest douchebags on the plant.

He and Bergeron have quietly developed into a helluva one-two punch. Those guys were great with Recchi in their Cup run, too.

Plus you have to admire a man who gets asked "Why did you hit (Daniel Sedin) there?" and responds "I felt like it. I just felt like punching him in the face."

He's a more fun interview than Chara, that's for sure! Tim Thomas was good, too, if only I would have known he'd deliver Bachmanesque answers, I'd have been asking him political questions, too.

>He and Bergeron have quietly developed into a helluva one-two
>punch. Those guys were great with Recchi in their Cup run,
>too.

Bergeron is great.

I refuse to acknowledge Marchand.

>
>Plus you have to admire a man who gets asked "Why did you hit
>(Daniel Sedin) there?" and responds "I felt like it. I just
>felt like punching him in the face."
>
>He's a more fun interview than Chara, that's for sure! Tim
>Thomas was good, too, if only I would have known he'd deliver
>Bachmanesque answers, I'd have been asking him political
>questions, too.

lol. please do that one day.

i can remember when no ranger fan would give up marc staal for any reason. like the question was posed if he was worth trading for pronger and the answer seemed to be a resounding "NO!"

lol.

i can remember when the kings were after brad richards, who is basically a B- grade kopitar for A grade kopitar money. fortunately for the kings and flames, richards was just using them to suck more money out of the rangers. 2004 was a long time ago! that said, i dont get how their power play is so dead, he's always been pretty good running those. it has been WRETCHED, wow, totally bereft of structure and purpose.

and he's nothing special on the PP

Also they seem to have no effective PP strategy.

there is no way what they were doing in games 2 and 3 were a planned attack. sometimes they just carried the puck in and played one on four, not on one entry, but on three or four in a row.

they have needed a point presence for a while. i guess they expected that from richards and i have to admit he did a good job of it in dallas and tampa at times, too.

overall, i think the idea that you can win a stanley cup through attrition is just not working right now. what team has won that way? sure, you've got to be physical and you want to wear the other team down, but you can't be so narrowly focused. i think that's limited them and limited st louis also. the blues have made some adjustments but the bottom line is that they are still too young overall. the rangers are a veteran group, they aren't getting any better.

that second goal was potentially a two-goal swing, CLEARLY a high stick that left karlsson down in his own zone. that should have been a minor and maybe even a double minor, instead it's a full-on breakaway. then they get the iggy goal and ottawa responds by dinging two posts.

pittsburgh was all over them at times and certainly when they were vulnerable.

i feel like we've been cheated out of a good matchup by circumstance here. that's not taking anything away from the penguins. still, looking at the sens, spezza's timing is a little better than expected but he's still not all that effective and karlsson has been relatively terrible in both series.

shit was a lazer

he took a team with a hot but inexperienced goalie, a decent stay at home dman and a bunch of completely forgettable role players to the final. i think he can do plenty with this group lol.

"2004 was a long time ago" (c) Concrete Charles

He's still in phenomenal shape, he's always been a fitness freak.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/brad-richards-60m-contract-healthy-scratch-rangers-elimination-162707783.html

Let's have a brief, recent history. They sign Drury and Gomez, both of their careers die slow deaths as they cash almost $15M annually in checks from the Rangers. They sign Wade Redden for $6M or whatever and he was in the AHL quicker than a prostitute polishes off a gram of blow. They sign the oft injured Gaborik for $7.5M, proceed to complain about his inability to stay healthy and explore trading him constantly before ultimately doing it. They "win" the Brad Richards sweepstakes and now are wondering why they bothered.

Richards is a good No. 2 center who can play in all situations. At a 20% (or more) discount and in a bit of a diminished role, he still has plenty to offer a team.

It's kind of a weird impasse for the Rangers. They have some flexibility, I guess, but they are one of these win-now teams that has to start thinking about retooling on the fly around Lundqvist. I guess the Columbus guys will stick, I think Clowe is gone though.

and I'm a R*dskins fan.

telling me i was crazy lol (was living in the east village at the time). drury caught some bad breaks with his health but they were paying those two #2 guys elite #1 money any way you cut it.

The Habs taking Gomez was perhaps the only move dumber than the Rags signing Gomez in the first place.

I swear the Rangers paid the Habs millions under the table to take Gomez.

Although Gomez had a few good games for them this year. But not millions of dollars worth of good games.

holy crap, i understood acquiring gomez as a "what'll ya give me to take the contract?" type of deal, but to give them a very valuable player? granted mcdonagh would have been considered a second tier prospect at the time, but i would be thinking more like a fucking fourth round pick for that onerous deal and an OK prospect or something.

i am glad montreal has competent management now for the first time in a while, their scouting has been good for some time but the decisions have been iffy.

that said, gomez is one of my favorite guys to talk to and he certainly accomplished plenty before going to montreal. plus i think he might be the only halfway spanish speaking NHL'er. when he retires i think we should do a weekly show on telemundo together, hilarity would certainly ensue.

>when he retires i think we should do a weekly show on telemundo together,
>hilarity would certainly ensue.

CBC woud give you guys a show. They're all about appealing to other language speakers besides french and english.

¡¡¡¡¡¡QUE GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLAZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO KO-PI-TARRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

We saw it some in Game 4 and certainly yesterday. At the skate today it certainly looked firm that they would go with

Clifford-Kopitar-Williams
Penner-Richards-Carter
King-Lewis-Brown
Richardson-Fraser-Toffoli

D pairs are unchanged, Greene is ready to go again, Muzzin is his partner, top four same as always.

The Kings were definitely more businesslike in their skate, Sharks were pretty loose. Had a nice chat with Todd McLellan, he's always refreshing to talk to.

They played so well during the regular season. Gives them nice size. Hopefully Penner can help contain big Joe.

you see them pressuring more with speed and in turn they are getting up ice with speed, too. where is the neutral zone speed for the kings?

breakouts are still pretty trashy, either they have to bring the whole team back and slow the game down to break it out in a controlled way or they have one or two guys fighting like hell just to avoid a turnover and/or icing.

I take back all my Ken Holland bashing this year. I don't care if we lose 3 straight or get swept next round. This team is fucking awesome.

The future is awesome. We still have Tatar coming in next year. Him and Nyquist will be Pavs and Hank Jr.

Champions play at Staples Center....

that needs to become his legal name. That boy good.

niemi had more difficult saves to make. i think quick's best work came in sort of garbage time, the one on pavelski at the end and some others after they had a 2-0 lead. but of course staying up two was key.

more so i liked their aggressiveness and speed last night. they were around the puck all night, they took the body effectively at key times, forecheck was tighter and by getting it set up more often they were able to take a lot of speed away from san jose.

maybe the biggest difference in the game was san jose's lack of execution on the power play. i think part of that was their own fault but the kings had a good effort on the PK, mixed in some guys like Richardson up front and had Greene and them playing strong on the back end.

this is our first good game from beginning to end. I am hoping we can take this momentum to SJ and at the least start the game off competitively. It will be hard to repeat this performance in the Shark Tank with the team facing elimination. But not letting them control the first like they have been doing would be nice.

They had timely hits and big hits, too, and from guys that havent been dishing them out like they were. Brown had his agitation game going for the first time in a while, I thought his line was very good defensively and sometimes on the cycle, too. Greene had those hits on Sheppard and Galiardi that were right the fuck on time and BIG.

The thing is that this is a 360-degree game. If you're not getting pucks deep, you're not going to create pressure. If you're not checking effectively, you're never going to have the puck. So when one element is off, it affects multiple others, when one is on, same thing. The big adjustments were tightening up everything, faster passes on breakouts and tighter pressure on the forecheck. One enabled them to do the other. They sucked all the speed out of San Jose's game yesterday. San Jose's execution on the power play I can't really explain though. The Kings did a pretty good job mixing personnel on the PK but no other major adjustments. The Sharks were just flat, I guess, passing was bad and positions were stagnant.

Yes, the Blackhawks swept the season series 4-0, but only 1 of those games was a clear, decisive victory (7-1 win on Easter). The other 3 games all went to OT and 2 of those 3 went to a Shootout. That is more of a lucky bounce or getting a break to go in their favor. What is most surprising in this series is the disappearance of production from the stars of the Blackhawks. They haven't gotten the luck or breaks in this series that they got in the regular season. In game 3 alone they hit the post 4 times, so that means they were getting the puck past Howard, just not into the back of the net. The Blackhawks terrible PP isn't helping either (19th overall during regular season, currently 3/25 in the playoffs).

I thought it would be a seven-game series so it's not like I thought Detroit was really overmatched but for fuck's sakes, how can you not score AT ALL? I mean in the first round Detroit was good for half a dozen breakdowns a game minimum and there were stretches where the games looked like Mavs-Nugs matchups of the 80s. Now here's a team with all that firepower and maybe more and they are getting NOTHING. I am pretty shocked, personally.

That's my point above, I guess I wasn't clear on that. In game 1 of the regular season series the Blackhawks scored 1 goal in regulation and 1 in OT. In game 2 they scored 1 goal in regulation and won in a Shootout. In game 3 they won 7-1. In game 4 they scored 2 regulation goals and won in a Shootout. Outside of game 3 they didn't have much offense going against Detroit. So a nonexistent offense against the Detroit D should not be a surprise. Also, Jimmy Howard is not some no name goalie.

i put zero stock in those matchups, what i am looking at is a lineup loaded with capable secondary scorers and probably the strongest group of primary scorers in the league (one could argue in favor of pittsburgh or san jose, i suppose). i dont get how these guys are going cold all at once.

detroit did a good job limiting perry and a decent one on getzlaf, but other guys had big series. they won the 1st and 3rd line matchups, Anaheim won the second and fourth.

i am not seeing chicago with much of a matchup advantage anywhere in this series. confusing, to me at least.

All fucking year we hear how UNBEATABLE Chicago is. The streak. The President's Trophy. How Chicago swept us in the regular season. Articles like this in Chicago...

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-05-16/sports/ct-spt-0517-dan-mcneil-blackhawks-chicago-20130517_1_detroit-goaltender-jimmy-howard-justin-abdelkader-red-wings

How Chicago has surpassed Detroit. No Lidstrom or Stuart = demise. The almighty intangibles himself, Toews is greater than Datsyuk. Chicago has incredible depth.

Now that it is 3-1. We get..


"This isn't surprising really."

"Chicago is just unlucky."

"It's all Jimmy Howard."

"Detroit is getting away with obstruction - they're not that good."

I will not allow revisionist history on this series. I would hate for it to happen, but I would LOVE the double backtrack if Chicago won in 7 now.

"See, Chicago is the best team ever. Told you."

God fuck them so much.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<---- 5....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlgiritpmfo

=======================================
Occupy Big Government..

Fannie, Freddie dole out big bonuses
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/67292.html

I know out of all the playoff teams I was worried about a series against the Sharks and Red Wings most. Chicago had goaltenders and a 4th line playing above their heads. Even though we might possibly have to face you next round I am loving the collapse of Blackhawks.

yes, it's very surprising, and equally surprising that the wings are playing this well defensively.

they are not getting blown up on the scoreboard and in the first round sharp and hossa were going fine but it was like bickell and stalberg that were consistently good for them.

i hope they hang on here, this series deserves better games than we have seen so far.

I have no problem with saying a team that I root for is bad, playing horrible, or makes dumb decisions. Even though the Blackhawks compiled a 36-7-5 regular season record they were beatable (hence the 7-5 part of that record. They didn't go undefeated. Last season the Blackhawks fired an assistant coach for a horrible PP. This seasons PP is no better and that is unexceptable.


>All fucking year we hear how UNBEATABLE Chicago is. The
>streak. The President's Trophy. How Chicago swept us in the
>regular season. Articles like this in Chicago...
>
>http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-05-16/sports/ct-spt-0517-dan-mcneil-blackhawks-chicago-20130517_1_detroit-goaltender-jimmy-howard-justin-abdelkader-red-wings

I did not write that article so please don't lump me in with that. Not all Blackhawk fans agree on everything. I don't consider my fandom to be completely monolithic with every other person who happens to be a fan of the same team.

>How Chicago has surpassed Detroit. No Lidstrom or Stuart =
>demise. The almighty intangibles himself, Toews is greater
>than Datsyuk. Chicago has incredible depth.

Chicago does have great depth. It came as a bit of a shock, because many people didn't expect the group of young guys (especially on the 3rd line) to play as well as they have this early in their careers. They just are not playing well in this series right now. I feel the same thing is happening for Detroit. They are doing some rebuilding and I think that their organization didn't expect their young players to be doing this well as early in their careers.

>Now that it is 3-1. We get..
>
>
>"This isn't surprising really."

#435. The Blackhawks showed not much of an offense in 3 out 4 games so why now going up the same team should they be any better. Detroit got better as the season went along. They are in the playoffs this year and now what is it 20 straight years because they are good and have been able to stay consistently good despite injuries or players coming and going.

>"Chicago is just unlucky."

Luck in context of hitting the post 4 times in a game. Yes, I do realize ever team hits the post. Some go in and some don't and when they don't the players have to find a better way to make them go in.

>"It's all Jimmy Howard."

It is not all Howard but he is a very important piece to Detroit's success. In Detroit's 3 wins he has only given up 2 goals. Detroit's D is also creating a wall on the blue line taking the Blackhawks off their natural puck possession game and making them play dump and chase.

>"Detroit is getting away with obstruction - they're not that
>good."

I don't think that is the case, so I'm not making that comment.

>I will not allow revisionist history on this series. I would
>hate for it to happen, but I would LOVE the double backtrack
>if Chicago won in 7 now.

For the way the Blackhawks have played they should lose, and they should be ashamed of how they are playing. Funny runaround game: The Blackhawks win all 4 regular season games against Detroit, but lose all 3 games against the Ducks. The Ducks lose to Detroit in the first round and now Detroit is giving Chicago fits, weird no?

>"See, Chicago is the best team ever. Told you."

Why would anyone think they are the best team ever? That is stupid and I don't play with that kind of foolishness. I don't post here that often so my opinions aren't always made known, but I thought prior to this series the Blackhawks would have had an easier time against the Sharks, because of their history of Detroit playing a great game. I honestly think that if the Blackhawks played Pitt in the SC Finals, they would get swept.

did they look at the kings' power play, which was basically old time british warfare on ice (stand in a line and fire) and think HERE IS THE GUY WITH THE ANSWERS!!!

look at the kings under kompon and now look at them under davis payne. night and fucking day.

that might be the dumbest move ever. Maybe they only saw the Kings power play in game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals. It looked great that night. Not so much the rest of the playoffs or season.

they should have him do the pressers and let sutter go ice down his knees, shop for farm equipment or whatever. pretty weird that the kings whole staff is former head coaches, not sure of another club that can say that but i havent really looked. ranford is also a really sharp guy. i saw him out with bernier early yesterday, he was showing off his stickhandling. i was like oh shit, bill's a dangler! he got a kick out of that.

I mean, was anyone around here trying to say they weren't one of the best teams in the league?

I didn't see it.

the whole world is shitting on them right now, too, melrose is the only guy who has pointed out that if you win a couple dozen games in a row, that means you had like eight three-game streaks in sequence.

i know it's harder against the same team and that they look befuddled, but i think they get a win in game 5 and then it's practically a whole new series.

averaging over 4 goals a game for the playoffs, a brain fart away from a sweep this series. Looking very dangerous right now.

but defense and goal is still a weakness for them. A team like Boston might be a bad match up for them.

But if PIT offense plays like it has then it won't really matter.

I don't hate the Pens like I used to. Now I just respect them.

There were no shootouts like with the Islanders, they let up 1,3,2,3,2 in the series

And of those several were garbage time goals like in the 7-3 game or even the last power play goal they gave up in game 5 when they were already up 5-1 with 4 minutes left.


If they play like that and the offense keeps going as is I can't see anyone stopping them, but of course it's the playoffs so who knows.

They owned Boston this season, but Chicago owned Detroit so that doesn't mean much.

and counting.

-----------------------------------------------------------
BOSTON BRUINS, 2011 STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS

2010 OKAY COLLEGE FANTASY CHAMPION

eventually there will be a third ontario team, quebec city and then a wild card down the line. there arent a lot of major cities left though. i dont see them putting a franchise anywhere in saskatchewan, the western cities with any people already have teams, etc. i think vancouver could support a second team but that's always messy with the incumbent franchise. i am sure the NHL would much sooner put something in seattle.

eventually there will be a third ontario team, quebec city and then a wild card down the line. there arent a lot of major cities left though. i dont see them putting a franchise anywhere in saskatchewan, the western cities with any people already have teams, etc. i think vancouver could support a second team but that's always messy with the incumbent franchise. i am sure the NHL would much sooner put something in seattle.

I guess they have some dickcheese out here doing stuff all postseason, weird!

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/sports/hockey/joe-thornton-doesnt-let-sharks-lose-their-bite.html?ref=hockey

Joe Thornton Doesn’t Let Sharks Lose Their Bite

LOS ANGELES — The jovial San Jose Sharks captain, Joe Thornton, has managed to laugh off plenty of criticism in his career, once joking that he would much sooner spend his time perusing Playboy than reading anything in the hockey press.

Yet as his team faces elimination in Sunday’s Game 6 against the Los Angeles Kings, Thornton, known affectionately as Jumbo, is less the aim of blame and more the focus of both his teammates’ trust and his opponents’ efforts.

“Jumbo’s play has been essential moving forward,” Sharks Coach Todd McLellan said. “We’re focused on playoffs right now, but our playoffs started a month and a half ago, just to get in and compete, and he led that resurgence as well.”

The Sharks have plenty of escapes from peril and savvy adjustments to draw upon from earlier in the season. They surmounted a 2-0 deficit to tie this series, demonstrating the kind of determination that carried them to the playoffs after a prolonged slump.

In March, the Sharks appeared to be circling the drain as they slipped out of the playoff picture with a punchless offense. They had won just two games in February, the same number of times they had managed to score more than two goals.

Thornton’s leadership and three-zone play powered a late-season surge, which included a seven-game winning streak. San Jose was able to secure the sixth seed in the West before sweeping the Northwest Division champion Vancouver Canucks in the first round.

Thornton’s eventual running mates originated from unusual spots in the lineup. Brent Burns was an All-Star defenseman who converted to right wing in March, scoring 20 points in 24 games skating primarily with Thornton. Previously a depth forward, left wing T. J. Galiardi added speed to the attack and notched 11 of his 14 points this season after moving up to Thornton’s line.

“I don’t know whose idea it was, but whoever it was is brilliant,” Thornton said of the unconventional combination. “We were in kind of a downward spiral. We weren’t scoring much up front. Burnsy came up front and added another weapon for us. It really did save our season.”

Despite trailing by 3-2 in the series, the Sharks have reason to remain hopeful heading to San Jose. They are 4-0 at HP Pavilion this postseason, and the home team has won every game of this series.

They also possess a power play that has been irrepressible at home, scoring 9 of their 13 home playoff goals and converting at a league-best 37.5 percent on home ice. Of the four goals they have scored at home in this series, three have come on the power play.

Thornton has played a critical role in San Jose’s success with the man advantage and in seemingly every other aspect of the Sharks’ game.

Although he finished with a minus-2 rating in Game 5, Thornton had been on the ice for 17 San Jose goals and only one opposing score in eight previous playoff games.

In San Jose’s two victories against the Kings, he was a key part of every one of its four goals. He assisted on two goals, while helping to set up two more, one with a formidable screen of goalie Jonathan Quick and the other with a deft, decisive cross-ice pass to initiate a scoring sequence.

“Jumbo’s very accepting of what we want to accomplish as a team,” McLellan said. “He puts himself second and the team first.”

Yet the Kings were able to keep Thornton off the board offensively and even attack him a bit defensively in Game 5. Defenseman Slava Voynov’s goal zipped past Thornton before beating goaltender Antti Niemi. The Kings matched all three of their top centers against Thornton at various times.

“Everybody played against Thornton tonight,” Kings Coach Darryl Sutter said. “He’s a handful; everybody has to.”

The Kings may have done even more than quell the momentum of Thornton, his line and his power-play unit.

For the first time in the series, the Kings played with considerable speed and consistent aggression, dishing out 51 hits to San Jose’s 24. Quick recorded his second shutout of the series. Reshuffled forward lines gave the Kings a fierce straight-ahead attack. The Kings also gained their first advantage of the series in the face-off circle, cleaned up their breakouts and tightened their forechecking.

“That’s the way we have to play to be successful, be physical, be first to pucks and get on the body,” said Kings defenseman Matt Greene, who delivered two timely checks on Sharks forwards Galiardi and James Sheppard in Game 5.

The Kings won their 13th consecutive game at home but have struggled on the road, dropping 10 of their last 11, a stark contrast to last season, when they won an N.H.L.-record 10 straight road games en route to the Stanley Cup.

Both coaches said the distinct home-ice advantage and a lack of even-strength scoring were strong indicators of how even the matchup had been.

“Home teams winning, low scoring, 5 on 5 is at a premium, both teams are keeping shot totals down,” McLellan said. “It’s stuck to the script so far; it’s our job to change it a little bit.”

1) Pittsburgh vs. 4) Boston

I have a hard time picking against them.

This Krug kid is out of his mind lol. Boston is a formidable team, but I don't think they have quite enough to contain Pittsburgh's offensive stars.

Just want to get that in one more time.

Mediocre ass team. Glad Rangers fans got a dose of reality.

serves me right..smh

go to the link to see some pictures.

http://www.wingingitinmotown.com/2013/5/21/4353314/forget-pierre-between-the-glass-behind-the-glass-is-where-its-at

Alternate title: Wherein I Learn Just How Small a Man Patrick Kane Can Be, Much to My Delight!

Read on for the full explanation - and visuals. This is a follow-up to my previous post here.

Not to be too self-indulgent about my experience last night on the glass at The Joe, but I wanted to create this follow-up post to share a few anecdotes, show a bit of what you couldn't (but Patrick Kane definitely DID) see, and thank you folks for the ideas that made an already extraordinary affair for me that much cooler. What I conceived as a short post became my personal memoir of the night. This all get less wordy and more picture booky as we go, so bear with me, or just skip the verbosity and see the fun stuff further down.

Preface: The Prep

After a night and morning well-spent, ready for the raising were Giant Jimmy Face on foamboard, Enlarged-and-in-Charged Mrs. Donna Kane on foamboard, unmounted backups of each (in the event the big boards were no-no'd at security) and the following five of "her" choicest quotations, along with five blank speech bubbles - just in case. Unfortunately, these weren't visible to the TV audience, but Patrick saw them...Oh did he see them.

In the order in which they were shown

"PATRICK THOMAS KANE! You missed your haircut AGAIN, young man!". Click to see

"Why can't you be more like that Zetterberg?" Click to see

"Dinner plans with Pavs. Don't wait up, Patrick. I hear he's MAGIC" Click to see

"Patrick, honey.... YOU'RE ADOPTED" Click to see

"Damn but Zetterberg's Royal Swedish balls are TASTY!".... RIP :n(

Chapter I: Gaining Entry

After several deep breaths and the chirp of the barcode scanner, I did my best to fly casual, but briskly, past the kindly folks who screen for killers, and profane signs apparently, among the visitors to The Joe. I was not successful. Something about the 4 ft poster of Jimmy tucked under my arm made me a bit conspicuous SOMEHOW.

The first usher, name erased from memory by the beer consumed later, asked politely to preview "what I had there". Me: "Oh, sure. Well, that's Jimmy." Usher: "Yea, and who's this one?" Me - choosing the foolish valor of honesty: "Donna Kane". Usher:<raised eyebrow> Me:"Patrick Kane's Mom". What followed, three seconds of stunned silence and a bewildered expression from this Usher felt like a minor eternity, then Usher:"You're serious?" Me: "Yup" Usher: <siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh> "I don't... Jim, look at this." Jim, his supervisor, is a credit to Olympia Entertainment, Hockeytown, and humanity. He took a look at the sign, repeated the question about the mystery woman's identity, then tried VERY hard to stifle a chuckle, but failed, and gave me the OK - on condition that I not disrupt anyone's view of the play with Donna's proud smile and thoughtful contributions to her son's big night.

Then it was time for the individual caption boards to pass review. Each got a pleasant little snorted laugh and the thumbs-up from Jim, except the 5th and final sign - the Zetterballs homage. In retrospect, that may owe to my highlighting the words "Zetterberg's, Royal, Swedish, Balls, and Tasty", but I was willing to concede that one for the greater trolling good. It would not be the only casualty on the night.

Chapter II: Patrick the Lesser or What Happened to the Mounted Mrs. Kane?

Before the game even started and long before friends would text me shots of Jimmy-sign on NBCSN, it was all worthwhile. With half a troll-boner (full disclosure: a full one), we charged our way over opposite our seats to the Blackhawks's end for warm-ups. And arrived way too early. So we waited. And waited....

And suddenly there they were. Bedecked in all their nauseating, uh, THEM-ness, Patrick and co took the ice - and Donna took to the glass to greet her son. Her first message concerned the length of his helmet-escaping curls of pettiness and a certain missed appointment that might have tended that ugly mop of his. It took several rotations around the rink for him to notice HIS OWN MOTHER, but he did, and the reaction was instant, priceless, and unambiguous. He stopped, stared his very most earnest I-hate-you-and-I'm-telling, squinty-eyed, bratty pout toward us and went red in the face. Unfortunately, I was too giddy and too busy blurting "We LOVE YOU, PATRICK" and "MOMMA'S HERE, PATRICK, MOMMA'S HERE" to think about snapping pictures. Meanwhile, Ouduya, Toews, Stahlberg, and, maybe Keith, each took notice in turn and tried not to laugh, but did, and smiled our way - they cool.

Kane spent the next few minutes trying, but failing, to avoid eye contact and hovering along the other side of the rink. Eventually the warm-up drill forced his return toward us. Up went Donna's rhetorical about being more like Zetterberg. He looked again directly at the sign. I toasted him with my beer hand and gave him a wink. He tensed noticeably and beared down hard on his shot. And missed. Badly. I was flooded with dubious but grand estimations of accomplishment. Had this little display, of the MILDER quotations only yet, mind you, really gottten to him? Nonsense. He's a pro, right? Something like this is beneath his consideration. It HADN'T. No way. Little did I know we were about to find out. It had. Inarguably.

With no attempt at subtlety whatsoever, Patrick shot us another glance and skated straight to their bench. He leaned over, had a brief exchange with the staff hovering around the tunnel, gestured in our direction, then rejoined the warm-up. No more than 90 seconds later an usher came straight to our little troll-dom in the corner. This usher was no Jim (see Chapter I). Usher Not Jim: "Who is that?" Me-again with the stupid honesty:"Patrick Kane's charming mother, Donna". UNJ <reaching for the sign>:"I have to take that". Me <realizing surrender was inevitable but hoping for the pleasure of an answer-THE ANSWER>:"May I ask why? Your supervisor screened it at the door and said it was ok." UNJ:"All I can tell you is Blackhawks's security has demanded it be taken down". And he snatched the sign.

I. WAS. FUCKING.... Gleeful! Wait. Titilated? I don't know quite the word to express my degree of delight and the shear satisfaction of knowing it bothered him - it REALLY bothered him - not to mention the real and personal confirmation that he's every bit the thin-skinned little brat I've presumed him to be. If that strikes you as odd, or you imagine I might have been more upset at the lost opportunity to troll with Donna in-game, you forget (as the usher failed to ascertain) that I had a backup. So while the Lovely Mounted Mrs. Kane never saw the bright lights of the NBCSN cameras, the printed and rolled copy sitting on the the chair the usher bumped as he confiscated the other got plenty of airtime, as did the other quotations, and continued to pester poor humorless Patrick, as you'll see.

Chapter III: Wherein I Shut Up (Mostly) and Expand on What You May Have Seen

So the rest of my night on the glass was fairly well documented and already remarked on by others here. I won't go into narrative mode on all the details as I've already TL;DR'd the hell out of this post. But those of you who made it this far, or scrolled down this low, now get a brief collection of highlights and visuals of what you may have seen, and with a few captions along the way.

This view. No photo will do it justice. I was in awe. Backside of both Jimmy's pictured, so to speak.



In case any of you were wondering what I looked like without a giant head in front of me.



Speaking of that giant head, we spent the 1st keeping the backup a secret and celebrating Jimmy's saves like so. This got the most airtime and was most recognized, so I'll just include two favorites, no explanation required.





Starting in the second, we deployed the backup and reintroduced Patrick to his momma. Every time he was on the ice for a stoppage in our end thereafter, we held her and a quote up. He looked often. The first time, he was noticeably surprised to see her reappear. NBC seemed determined not to give her much TV time, but I found a few choice moments that made it to air.

The gang all together. Donna's informing Patrick about his adoption.



Closeup of the adoption sign seen clearly legible on NBC (for J.J.)



Mom informs Patrick about her dinner plans with Pavs at this point. He was not amused.



And, finally, my favorite moment captured by NBC, Patrick and his mom together at last. Right before this, he gave another disgusted look our way. The adoption sign was up again, right in front of him.



Also part of the experience but not documented visually were several moments I want to commit to posterity here, including a handful of acknowledgements, nods, and smiles from Wings players, the handful of occasions when Kane's glance and reaction were so apparent that the crowd around us pointed it out and chanted along with us at him, me planting a peck on Donna's cheek before the 2nd with him looking on, and, possibly my personal favorite late in the third, when Jimmy, after making another big save, looked our way and responded to my toasting him by raising his glove and giving us a wink.

So there you have it, my verbosity and my thanks. I couldn't and probably wouldn't have done it without WiiM - and I am so damn glad I did.

(I have dozens and dozens more images. If anyone's interested, maybe I'll post a miscellaneous album on imgur and provide a link in the comments.) UPDATE: It was requested. Link to a full album.

So, uh yea, I guess Chicago really is capable of winning a few games in a row.

So pissed I missed this game.

Every single wings penalty was boneheaded and cost em. Idiots.

Fuck Brandon Inge.

cmon.

which is absurd, and also that the start date of the western series would be determined by the winner of the detroit/chicago series. that makes no sense, they are finishing on the same day and play in the same part of the country essentially.

at any rate, i don't care about dumb league decisions at this point, i'm just pumped to see two game 7s.

GO KANGS!!

Cotdamn, what a save

Hats off to Niemi too.

LA's defense was too tight all game. Sharks rarely had room to move.

Couture's backhand, he makes a nasty fucking save on a rising backhand that came off Cout's stick in a hurry while Quick was about 80% out of position. That was the first of many. He had em on I think Marleau and Pavelski in succession right before the second Williams goal. With about five minutes left he fucking stoned Pavelski off a rebound chance and had another tough one with two saves in a row with 1:19 left.

I thought that line had great jump and in a just world would have scored a goal or three. But Jonathan Quick has a way of committing larceny and walking, NOT GUILTY, THAT'S HOW HE STAY FILTHY!

Boyle's goal, pretty good screen there by Marleau, I guess. I had kind of an uncomfortable exchange with Boyle yesterday morning. During the scrum he was talking about his run with Tampa and when were pretty much alone I asked him about little shitty breaks being magnified, for example the ice quality in Game 7 against the Flyers that year, Gelinas being two centimeters from winning the Final, etc. He was like "Well yeah but you try really hard not to think about that ..." and then he started thinking about it. It was kind of odd, I don't think I've ever apologized to someone before, I just kind of laughed and dropped it, we kept talking about other stuff. Ah well, he played well, I guess I wasn't in his head lol.

Williams obviously had an awesome run there and really he could have buried a couple more really solid chances. Even Sutter praised him after the game, pretty rare for him to single a guy out or answer a question directly, but he did it twice with Williams.

holy shit that boy is fucking good.

but damn they gave us all we could handle. Thank the hockey gods for Jonathan Quick. I definitely think St Louis prepped us for this game. I dont think any team will play us as physical as the Blues did. They woke us up and got us playing better. We still havent hit our peak though. I doubt either of the 2 goalies left can match what Elliot and Nemo gave us. Hopefully we can start scoring goals now.

in a lot of ways i think it could be argued that the sharks' skaters outplayed the kings' skaters, slightly but enough to notice. niemi played well and was pretty much overlooked because quick was clearly better. quick stole game 1 for them, obviously game 2 had an odd twist that got more than balanced out later in the series (games 3 and 5) and then quick was great again last night. everything was an inch apart. the kings' start in game 5 was strong and the first half of game 4 for the sharks was dominant.

going forward, i mean the kings need SOMETHING from that left side. they juggled a little again last night, mostly for matchups. they need brown to get going. i dont want to speculate but i think all of those guys (brown, williams, kopitar) are pretty far from 100%, and then you look at King/Clifford/Penner, well, that's not exactly a star-studded trio. I'd like to see Toffoli get some time on his off wing, he can finish.

he needs to get going. He is playing like a bottom 6 guy right. Coming out with lots of energy and taking a body here and there. But we need him to score or get involved in more than a goal a series. I dont know about him but is it me or does he always hold onto the puck for way to long and take himself out of position for shots? It seems like on break outs he will hold the puck to long then shoot. Or make a bad pass. He is just all out of wack.

Brown is not a natural scorer so I don't really look at him finishing or not as a big deal. I couldn't care less about that really.

What I look for with him are two things, first is he playing a straight-line game on offense and second is he around the puck on defense.

He's gotten better in terms of being around the puck on defense. He's got his legs and he's not backing down from anyone. He's even agitating a little although nothing like last year.

Obviously at this point it's hard to get concrete info on the guys we KNOW are injured, but let's put it this way, he's gone through a lot of ice packs recently.

The thing to me with all these left wings is that they need to simplify their game, really they need to play like Sutter did as a player. Lots of straight lines. Go to the front of the net and stop.

Penner is going to the BACK of the net and stopping a lot, probably because that is a position where he doesn't have to move his feet much and he can get the puck out front for Richards/Carter. I don't like that though, it makes their cycle predictable and doesn't utilize Penner's big ass to carve out any space for them.

i'm no hockey expert but that was fun as hell to watch.

this shit getting too big.

hopefully you guys win. I would love home ice again.

rob had made a comment about developing defensive defensemen and i was looking for it to respond for about 20 minutes before giving up.

if he's reading, the short answer is that it's a position that takes a long time to develop in almost every instance and also one that most guys convert to at some point. everyone comes up trying to be (and usually being) a scorer, but not everyone can do it at top level. almost everyone gets to their draft year as an offensive dman or an all around guy, the specialization tends to happen later. even if that's not the case, it's kind of like being an offensive tackle in football. you need to be aggressive but in a contained way, you need to be very smart and you need the repetition to get the recognition. there is just no substitute for experience as a defensive defenseman, so you tend to see experienced players in that role.

I looked for that post I made to see if you replied a couple of nights ago and gave up.

Great series... Thought the Sharks played better... Quick was the difference... And the fact that all the Kings lines scored goals...


Really glad this wasn't a full 82 game season... I would've been way more invested in the team and the loss would hurt so much more...

I wonder whats gonna happen to the Sharks in the offseason... Still not too deep with prospects, but I could see some trades being done to go all out into rebuilding mode...


Fuck it though.... Next year, we get a full season and the fuckin OLYMPICS!


GO SHARKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




EDIT: Rob, just saw your post wondering where I've been... I was definitely nervous about the series, but mostly been busy with a lot... Kinda ironic how Justin Bieber was at the game last night (referencing our old avi bet)... Good luck in the next round... Hope your team doesn't win another cup...

its so much easier to talk shit to the assholes like the ones that post on reddit.

Damn good series and yeah Sharks outplayed the Kings but Quick stole the series. I am just hoping we can put it all together next series. 2 goals a game wont work for much longer.

Also fuck Bieber and his bandwagon ass. Isnt he from Canadia? Stay out of Staples douchebag.

But none of them are nowhere near the douchebaggery assholeness of this fuckin guy...

http://i44.tinypic.com/2doxme.jpg

I know you saw him behind the bench during game 4... He's what I believe the entire King's fan base looks like after last year...

I am pretty sure there was a thread on him on reddit. But luckily the core of our fan base is made up of middle aged white guys. Dont know how much its changed since I have only been watching for like 4 years but lots of middle aged white guys. I guess its the one thing they can do in LA where they are still the majority. If we keep winning that will change.

I also think Hertl (sp?) will be a solid player for them, plus we have seen their ability to mine steals from the lower rounds.

Their cupboard got pretty bare following the Burns deal but it's not like Wilson didn't know it. I have to say that (sorry cel77!) I have more respect for Wilson after this season, he made some very savvy and unconventional moves that panned out.

A year later and I'm still pissed he traded McGinn...basically straight up for Galiardi at this point... I would much rather have McGinn...

But this year, he traded 2 huge fan favorites that I had to listen to people whine and cry about, but those were great trades and then to get anything for Zus was great too!

I hope they can re-sign Torres...

the burns to forward thing, i didnt get people who hated that. did they watch him play? i remember he did the kings DIRTY two years ago when he was with minnesota, made two huge offensive plays jumping up on the play. he also hung his goalie out to dry a couple times trying to do the same thing (the wild did win the game though). being that he was a very good forward at the junior level, it was fine with me. the puck daddy and other critics were thinking of it in terms of saving face from a failed trade, but it was just making the right move for the team.

i also think people had undersold the rest of their defense corps big time.

let's face it, clowe was playing terrible and murray was just decent ths year, not good enough to be re-signed for good money. they were pretty fortunate to have hannan come in the way he did, but obviously they had a lot of familiarity with him. i always said that if they had *one* more stud forward when he and McLaren were their main guys, they'd have won it all.

in the end they managed to clean up contract status issues, improve their team immediately and restock their thinning organizational depth, all by making a bunch of minor moves and showing confidence in what they had.

as an outsider, i dont have any strong feelings about mcginn or galiardi. obviously galiardi was good for them this year once he became a regular. i dont expect him to stick as a top six guy though lol. to me that deal was a $300 bill for a used mattress.

There was no one player or one line that was doing it for San Jose. They leaned on their top power play group but that's mainly because 1) it's damn good and 2) their second unit is all put together with tape and chewing gum (no Havlat, for openers).

5on5 wise, I dunno, there were like three games where the Thornton line was their best, two where the Couture line was, etc. I have seen several people comment on some lack of depth but that seems a little ridiculous to me. Gomez did some good things, he was in their bottom six the whole time. Pavelski played a lot of third line minutes, he was fine, one of their more aggressive offensive guys like always.

What was happening so great for the Kings in their bottom six? They had a whole lot of nothing happening on the left side throughout the lineup. Lewis was the one guy I might single out as making an impact, he had a huge goal and he also managed to do a good job defensively both 5on5 and on the PK. I'm just not seeing a big advantage for LA, though the third line improved with Brown moving down for a bit there.

Really I'd say overall it was even with a slight edge for San Jose on the power play, slight edge for Kings on the PK (if that makes any sense), slight offensive edge for the Sharks, pretty even defensive work and a clear advantage in goaltending for the Kings, although Niemi was very good.

Overall the defense was pretty good, I was really impressed with the Sharks' group. This was a series where I wouldn't have been surprised to see the loser outscore the winner aggregately, though that didn't wind up happening.

It makes me sad that this could not have been an in-season firing with all the down-in-flames fuckery that would have been conjured up by the New York news media while the team circled the fucking drain.

IT'LL STAY IN THE ROOM ... AND BY THAT I MEAN THE UNEMPLOYMENT OFFICE.

fucking Rangers.

I hope they pay Richards and Nash forever.

What's great is this game would be considered a win in that bogus streak they had earlier in the season

if it's a penalty, then it's a penalty. let it go.

Two Original Six's, two Expansion Six's

1) Chicago vs. 5) Los Angeles

Blackhawks won season series 2-1.

Total Shots
Kings: 84
Blackhawks: 84


Goals scored
Kings: 9
Blackhawks: 12


Hits
Kings: 92
Blackhawks: 65


Faceoffs Won
Kings: 95
Blackhawks: 95


Power Play
Kings: 2/11
Blackhawks: 2/14

to win though, but to force 7 at least.

they won game 7 twice, so it's rightfully theirs lol.

let alone whether you make that call (you DON'T), what exactly was the penalty?

It was a clean hit, and then they shoved each other.

There wasn't even a penalty there.

Anyway, I love playoff hockey.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/30/sports/hockey/justin-williams-and-the-kings-are-in-game-7-heaven.html?ref=hockey&pagewanted=print


LOS ANGELES — For a team that has been to the summit, the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings have managed to conquer quite an assortment of new challenges this postseason.

On Tuesday, they won Game 7, 2-1, over the San Jose Sharks to advance to the Western Conference finals. Last year, the Kings did not reach a Game 7 in any of their four series. Similarly, they did not experience a series deficit like the 2-0 hole they climbed out of in the first round against the St. Louis Blues.

“All the games have been very close,” the captain Dustin Brown said. “It’s a completely different year, but at the same time our team is very similar and we can win a lot of different ways. We can grind it out and find different guys at different times.”

For 14 of their 20 dressed players, including 12 homegrown products, it was the first Game 7 of their careers. Fortunately for the Kings, wing Justin Williams had experience to spare.

Williams scored twice in a little less than three minutes during the second period. In four career Game 7’s, Williams has five goals and four assists, along with the distinction of being the first player in league history to score in each of his first four Game 7’s.

“When I think Game 7’s, I think Justin Williams,” said Coach Darryl Sutter, who seldom offers such high praise for an individual.

Williams, who also won a Cup in 2006 with the Carolina Hurricanes, arrived in Los Angeles in 2009 as a buy-low acquisition. Injuries and the resulting mixed form had clouded his future in Carolina, even though he consistently returned to the lineup earlier than expected.

He has sustained two tears of both his medial collateral ligament and anterior cruciate ligament, two fractures of his left hand and a torn Achilles’ tendon, among other injuries.

Williams, 31, missed more than 100 games in his first two seasons with the Kings, but he has not missed a game over the past two seasons. He has become a mainstay of market research for injury prevention, as he seems to be among the first to try every pad, brace, sleeve, protector, stocking, sock, glove and potion available.

For Williams, being part of deep playoff runs more than validates the arduous recoveries and fastidious maintenance.

“It feels more than worth it just to help, to see the faces of the guys when you score, and to see the happiness everyone has for everyone else in this room is key; that’s what makes it all worth it,” Williams said.

He passed up credit for the victory, deferring to goalie Jonathan Quick and the solidarity throughout the Los Angeles lineup.

“I wouldn’t say hero; I’d say the hero was the goaltender tonight,” Williams said. “If I didn’t score two goals tonight, someone else in this dressing room would have.”

Quick turned in the latest in a series of awe-inspiring playoff performances Tuesday. His bid for his third shutout of the series was ended by a Dan Boyle slap shot, but he played a game that several Kings felt surpassed his previous dominant outings.

Early on, Quick made an improbable recovery to rob Logan Couture during a scramble. It would be the first of many spectacular saves against the line of Couture, Patrick Marleau and Joe Pavelski, San Jose’s three leading goal-scorers during the regular season.

Immediately before Williams’s second goal, he stopped Marleau and Couture in quick succession, sending the Kings the other way for what would stand as the game-winning goal.

Brown said that feeding off Quick’s play in net was nothing new for the team.

“He’s one of those guys that you want to play as hard as you can for because you know that regardless of the score of the game or how he feels, he’s going to be busting his butt for you,” Brown said. “It’s a contagious, snowball effect.”

Quick turned aside Couture and Pavelski in the drawn-out, waning moments of the game, but his save on Pavelski with 5 minutes 4 seconds remaining probably preserved the series for Los Angeles. After saving a slap shot from the left point, Quick lunged to his right to glove Pavelski’s point-blank shot from the right side of his net while lying on his side.

“That save was a game-breaker for them,” Brown said. “That’s why he’s our backbone back there.”

For Quick, Williams and the rest of the Kings, repeating as champions has become the only acceptable expectation.

“The desire to repeat comes from the hunger of winning once and having that drive and that anger that you don’t want anyone to raise that Cup but you,” Williams said.

dude can play so its sad that he does the shit he does

and the TV guys calling Filppula's injury "unfortunate" are pathetic

shit was dirty, point blank and it cost the wings one of their 3 best forwards