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https://twitter.com/ScottABC7/status/1040684682466217984

E A S T
Tampa // CBJ
Boston // Toronto
Wash // Carolina
NYI // Pit

W E S T
Calgary // Colorado
San Jose // VGK
Nashville // Dallas
the 'Peg // StL

Will Tampa choke again? Will Calgary skate through the West?

Let's get it.

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

what a run

.

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

I thought they had a pretty average team coming into the year and they were dead AF. No zip to their game at all. O'Reilly was the only forward that stood out at all, defense didn't really move the puck with any pace or purpose, goalies were kinda trashy, etc.

Bringing in the Chief was a good mid-season hire, guy with a lot touch on Xs and Os but who demands some intensity. A big change was Binnington in goal, too. He was kind of meandering, last year they loaned him out to get him some playing time (to the Bruins affiliate) and this year they were ready to send him to the ECHL. He played pretty decent in the AHL but only 15 games or so; he wasn't even their starter.

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

Rest In Peace, Bad News Brown

Overachieve during the season and then fall apart in the playoffs.

They made a very poor decision going all in like this, I can't believe the ownership let their management mortgage the franchise's future in order to save their own jobs (at worst) or give the fans some short-sighted enthusiasm (at best). They could have stocked their cupboard for a reload around some solid pieces still there, instead they traded three years worth of first and second rounders for the chance to squeak into the playoffs. Not only that, they didn't come back with Bob for the final game, basically saying they didn't care if they played Tampa or Washington in the first round.

They will be full of piss and vinegar in this series but Tampa is too good. We haven't seen a team this strong in the regular season in a while. Statistically they are better than last year, especially on defense and the penalty kill. They are pretty healthy and got to rest some guys at the end of the season. I would be stunned if they flopped and lost this series.

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

but knew they had potential....they should have beat the caps last year.

You look at the West, five or six teams could win it, but all of them could even more easily lose in the first round. All four series in the West could literally go either way and I saw that coming a month ago.

San Jose was still playing well at that time but they had a lot of question marks that only magnified right after with a huge ass losing streak. But now they have all their guys healthy and Vegas kind of sputtered at the end with Flower hurt. San Jose draws first blood and I think now the series is going seven even though on paper Vegas had beaten them in two regular-season series and a playoff series in addition to being a tough matchup with a bit more momentum.

The Avs were hot as hell at the end, Grubauer has been great. That's not good news for the Flames, who have a lot going for them still but remain top-heavy with at least one of their stars looking a little worn. I like what the Flames have going but it's not exactly rock solid, and the Avs roll in with plenty of wind at their backs. Very even matchup, and it's the top overall seed against the bottom seed.

St Louis played great down the stretch and if you were picking on the final 30-35 games, you'd pick them. Binnington is not going to have some Andrew Hammond "OH SHIT THIS IS THE PLAYOFFS" moment, but I also don't know if he can keep it rolling like he has. Winnipeg is built to win in the playoffs, but they haven't really had their shit together in a while now. Hard to say which team will show up for the Jets in this series.

Nashville made a lot of good moves at the deadline but it's been a scramble to make them work. They've got a couple key guys on defense nursing injuries that are either healing or still bothering them actively. Their power play is pretty trashy. Yet they still won the division and have an awesome team with no holes on paper. The Stars have some guys who can go off even though they didn't score for shit during the season. They also have the guy who's been the best goalie in the league this year, and that often comes in handy during the playoffs.

The East I don't see that much suspense. Tampa will recover and win that series. The Caps should be able to handle Carolina, who is a regular-season team if there ever was one. The Bruins should bounce Toronto if their respective second halves mean anything at all. I do think the Pens-Isles series is very interesting. Two very good coaches there. I picked the Isles figuring Letang and Malkin were hobbled. Malkin looks pretty spry, Letang looks adequate at least. But the Isles got the first game and if they get Game 2 also then they have a great chance to win the series anyway. I don't think they have a deep run in them but winning a series would be huge for them. They also have the edge in two key areas despite having less firepower than Pittsburgh: structure and goaltending. I have not been a huge fan of Matt Murray this year whereas Lehner has been very solid. The Isles are a classic Trotz team; they aren't going to beat themselves.

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

Can't believe CBJ made those moves at the deadline with two of their players set to become FA.

Still, I wouldn't be shocked to see them beat Tampa.

Tampa is the most talented team in like 20 years, but at some point they're going to have to start playing playoff hockey.

/narrative'd

Smith had a terrible start but by the all-star break he was back winning games. Rittich was rolling at that point. Looks like they are going with Smith but I think his leash, much like Mrazek's with Carolina, will be shorter than most because they basically used a tandem all year.

I didn't expect Calgary to do much at the deadline. Treveling is very measured and conservative. I imagine he at least looked at Stone for a variety of reasons, but I don't think he could have beaten Vegas's offer. Maybe Kylington and a first but even there I doubt it because Brannstrom to Kylington is a bigger drop than a first to a second. I also got the impression that the Flames weren't all in on this season. There is a good chance that even with a big move they would have flopped anyway, and a decent chance that not making a big move bolstered the confidence of the existing group. I believe in that, especially when a team is playing over its head. Why rock the boat and bring them back to reality? The Sharks did the same thing not trading for a goalie, even though it was super obvious their guys played poorly except for the period immediately before the deadline.

The last thing I'll say for both those teams, as well as Vegas and to an extent Columbus, is that there weren't really goalies on the market. Vegas was over-playing Fleury and Subban was banged up and under-performing. The Sharks really needed to make a move like they did with Reimer in 2016. Columbus was facing Bob's departure and thin organizational depth in goal. All they got was Keith Kinkaid, who I think was one of two goalies to move, the other being Cam Talbot and Anthony Stolarz. Basically three third-string goalies getting shuffled around. I don't think the Red Wings actively shopped Howard even. So not much on the market for goaltending and pretty little on defense, too. If you needed anything besides a winger, you were kinda SOL.

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

SJ's goalies on the other hand...



Jensen has been great for the Caps. Great move for depth by GMBM.

The first period was a textbook embodiment of the debate everyone is having about shot quality vs shot quantity.

Canes dominated shots. Caps came out ahead 3-0.

Caps were hitting the shit out of Niederrider and Aho. Brooks Or-peck was playing like a 25 year old.

Not the Caps best game, but still a solid win.

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But is Columbus gonna do it? I kinda hope not, Torts is an asshole and I don't hate the Bolts. But the way they've played the last 5 periods or so is nuts!

------

12 play and 12 planets are enlighten for all the Aliens to Party and free those on the Sex Planet-maxxx

XBL: trkc21
Twitter: @tyrcasey

even though emotionally i think tampa has a great group and torts is a prick. i do like the actual columbus players though. guys like seth jones and nick foligno are all class.

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

If that's not a suspension, I don't know what is. I think just one game but yeah that was dirty. Kadri got three games for a similar hit last year, but he's got a little more of a rep and came from further away. I think one game sounds right but definitely a suspension.

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

Rest In Peace, Bad News Brown

By a team who can play very hard.

>E A S T
>Tampa // CBJ
CBJ. Fuck warm weather hockey.
>Boston // Toronto
Toronto. Fuck American hockey other than NYR.
>Wash // Carolina
Carolina. Fuck that team we usually knock out.
>NYI // Pit
NYI. Fuck that team that usually knocks us out.
>W E S T
>Calgary // Colorado
Calgary. Fuck 90s relocation teams.
>San Jose // VGK
San Jose. Fuck 10’s expansion teams more.
>Nashville // Dallas
What?? Nah.
>the 'Peg // StL
Winnipeg. John Davidson is a Ranger.

also the pens but, this team doesn't seem as strong as years past, hope they can
pull it together.

Woof

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

Some teams played well right at the end (Dallas, Colorado) but the Blues were the best team for the last two+ months of the year. I was a little worried about Binnington in the playoffs but he's been good. The Jets kind of backed in but they haven't been playing poorly. I think the Blues will finish them off and I like their odds against both Dallas and Nashville.

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

https://russianmachineneverbreaks.com/2019/04/13/tj-oshie-kicks-justin-williams-stick-out-of-hands-scores-on-semi-breakaway/

I thought they would lose the series but in 6 or 7 games. Isles too structured. Pens have played maybe 15-20 minutes good minutes out of 180 so far.

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

I would have expected their talent to win out over the islanders system. Plus the Pens have been playing well since the deadline.

they had guys banged up, inconsistent goaltending, not many guys in supporting roles cooking, etc. but more than anything the islanders are just dictating exactly where they go with the buck in the first 100-120 feet of the ice and it's making them easy to get off the puck. take away the first eight or nine minutes of today's game and the pens barely had the puck. a lot of times they couldn't even get a cycle or any sort of movement going. it's the same system trotz used last year against them but it's working even better now.

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

Rest In Peace, Bad News Brown

They took these guys lightly and really eased up with that 3-0 lead in Game 1. I get that Hedman basically hasn't been 100% all year and played hurt the last month (didn't play at all today). But no excuse for Kuch to lose his cool and get suspended. Their defense played without Hedman before and they used eight guys for most of the year; they can't use that excuse to play as poorly as they have. This is just a nightmare series for them. Luckily it will be over soon.

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

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

getting out of Ottawa must be the best feeling in the world.

He knew that top line overachieved and was more like a second line. It took some time for this to come together because Stastny got hurt, Patches had a couple injuries and a big slump and Stone didn't get there until late February but once it came together they have been going nuts.

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

they fuckin got after it tonight.

<--- Big Baller World Order

in the Ovechkin Era.

Let us incinerate its memory and never speak of it again.

Game 4 Thursday.

as I was saying

one of the best teams of all time, swept handily by the 8th seed.

Not even the 2009-10 Capitals played this horribly when they blew their 3-1 series lead.

Rest In Peace, Bad News Brown

Glad the Caps were bumped down the list

This is bigger to me that Vancouver or Chicago losing or any of the early top teams (in the 20s and 30s) losing.

Lost in the shuffle of this monster upset is that Guelph rallied from being down three games to none against London (OHL powerhouse) to win their series! Wow!

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

in the first round.

This is easily the biggest choke in league history, if not American Sports history (as far as getting knocked out in the first round of a playoffs)

They look at the NBA, MLB, NFL and NHL. Statistically speaking, this was the biggest choke in North American team sports history.

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

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/16/sports/tampa-bay-lightning-playoff-meltdowns.html

i saw choke and i had to remind yall about that. Fuck the Sharks.

November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

I felt that one coming a little bit. The Sharks won the first two games pretty handily, didn't see that one coming.

Of course the Yankees blowing it against the Red Sox is right there, too.

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

my team is trash and we got hosed in the draft. So i saw a chance to shit on the Sharks and I took it.

November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

will kopi re-rebound or is his body breaking down? is jeff carter dead? what the fuck were they doing with kovalchuk? are any of their prospects going to amount to shit? i think anderson-dolan will be a good role player, beyond that pretty close to zero confidence. picking fifth isn't bad this year and they'll have high picks in later rounds plus pursue college free agents. they will probably now become obsessed with smaller, faster players as an overreaction to this dumpster fire of a roster. they have to have the most bizarre situation in the entire league right now.

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

I liked Fat George Clooney's speech. Im convinced that Desjardins was brought in to tank. Sounds like he did not have the locker room at all and everyone hated him. Hopefully Blake has some master plan cooking. But Mclellan is a step in the right direction. Next step is to get the leaders to step up. Brown and Doughty were the only ones who looked good. Carter, Quick, and Kopi all looked like shit. Im gonna say its because of the coach. I hope.

November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

no one cared about desjardins one way or the other because they knew he was just there to ride out a lost season. up until shortly after the pearson trade management was pushing the line that they hadn't given up on the season but by the all-star game they had for sure.

the thing i don't get is how immediately desjardins started cutting kovalchuk's minutes and then basically played out a feud with him over the course of the season. an interim coach doesn't do something like that without the blessing of management. not sure what the end game is there.

the plan now is going to be to dink and doink with college FAs and anything else that doesn't require much investment. they have done a pretty poor job stocking their cupboard and they've got an extra first this year but not much else (an extra third, an extra fourth, no extra future picks). even with dumping pearson's contract and muzzin's departure i think they have about $7M in cap space this offseason. that's pretty lean, enough for one mid-level guy once they sign their RFAs. they will take flyers on anyone with speed and skill because they know they are stuck with a slow, heavy team that doesn't have any scoring punch. wagner and campbell were probably the only positives of a season where they were basically an AHL team playing in the NHL in that they were trying to develop players as a top priority.


we wanna say that carter, kopi and quick struggled because of the coaching but i don't think it's that. first of all the atmosphere there got very lax at the end of stevens' tenure and didn't really improve after. much more concerning is that carter had a significant injury last year and then got beat up again after he came back. he never got his legs in shape and you wonder if he can rebound or not. if he doesn't have his speed, he's just a power-play specialist, won't have anything to give 5on5.

quick has had a number of injuries and as we've seen with many goalies once you have groin and hip stuff it becomes pretty persistent. i think he's a guy that they could move for value now whereas carter is very iffy, especially with fewer teams than ever (almost none) worried about the cap floor. he is valuable to that type of team because he's owed very little in the last two years in his deal.

kovalchuk, who knows? he costs a lot for a power-play specialist. they could dump him retaining a good chunk of his salary, i think. they tried moving carter and kovy at the deadline but since they have years left it wasn't the right timing.

kopitar's contact is enormous and he is in physical decline. he's talented enough to produce with less but not if he doesn't have any wingers. when brown came back he turned it on a little but he's taken a beating over the years and never been particularly athletic. he could become a checker and do great, but not with an eight-figure cap hit.

i frankly am surprised that tmac chose them over buffalo. for all its problems--the foremost of which is living in buffalo--that sabres job is a better gig. dean didn't do them any favors by getting desperate the last couple of years--the lucic and sekera deals, among others--but this new regime hasn't done much right either. if i were them i would try to blow the whole thing up, but who knows if that's even possible?

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

I'm no big time hockey head by any means. But the Lightning are chronic underachievers. They never meet the expectations in the postseason.

Can we talk about the Rays now?

That's not shabby. Their main guys nutted up in two huge games last year, yes. This year was a colossal failure but I don't think it will be like Chicago where it just all comes unraveled now. I still think this group can win it all, but they need a couple of glue guys. Callahan seems to fit that bill but he barely plays and if anything his contract has been a nuisance for them. When they won in 04 I thought Andreychuk and Fedotenko were unsung heroes for them. They need a couple guys like that to balance things out.

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

series win.

Rest In Peace, Bad News Brown

<--- Big Baller World Order

masterful coaching by Trotz

Prior to last year that's something I never thought I'd say

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

and Sullivan hasn't yet figured out a response, this year or last year.

Between that and a weak defensive corps, Pens were toast.

Rest In Peace, Bad News Brown

Like I figured both CGY-COL and STL-WPG are going seven. Nashville-Dallas could go deep, too, at a minimum all the games will be close. We'll see about the Caps, I still think win in six. Toronto and Boston could get real nutty.

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

its so damn stressful

and they out there trying to kill each other too

i was a little worried there because not only have the stars had great goaltending and pretty solid defense, they've also underachieved offensively. they have enough pop to score in bunches, especially in a short string of games.

if nashville loses this series i think lavi is out.

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

First ever playoff series win comes in a make or break season, and it's a historic sweep nobody saw coming.

------

12 play and 12 planets are enlighten for all the Aliens to Party and free those on the Sex Planet-maxxx

XBL: trkc21
Twitter: @tyrcasey

Didn't have any work for the first couple games so I went with a friend who's written a lot about hockey for beers and the first day of games. He showed up an hour after puck drop and the first thing he said was "has Columbus been swept yet?"

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

Winnipeg went to a new gear and we have yet to match them.

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

what choice do they have? dell has been terrible this year and he has made two appearances in the series where he's been pretty bleh.

it doesn't matter because the series is over for all intents and purposes.

more concerning is the five years jones has left on his contract, their lack of a solid backup and the fact that they don't have much in the A either. not sure about guys still in juniors but for a team trying to win now that wouldn't matter anyway.

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

Bettman's shortsighted focus on gameday revenue over televised atmosphere is a joke.

Nassau has no public transit and awful traffic.

Barclays wasn't built for hockey.

It's a mess.