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NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs
- Thread starter drganon
- Start date
drganon
Member
The leafs seem incapable of making it past the first round.
MikeM
Member
Reminds me of the Sens from the 2000’s.
drganon
Member
They did eventually make it to the finals, but that ducks team was too good.
MikeM
Member
Yep they were. Their year was the Hasek year tho- too bad he went down during the Olympics.
BossLackey
Gold Member
I've been thinking about getting into hockey. Went to Kansas City Blades (IHL team) a thousand times as a kid and loved it.
Who should I root for?
Who should I root for?
drganon
Member
If you aren't near any NHL team, just pick one with players or other stuff you like.
EverydayBeast
ChatGPT 0.1
Voted golden knights they seem like they’re on sports center every single time, I think Vegas should be proud of them.
RiccochetJ
Gold Member
Apparently playing in front of your home crowd is not the advantage in hockey playoffs like it is in other professional sports. What the heck happened these first two nights?
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Boston.
The only blip I see that may sink the ship is their goalies are unproven in the playoffs. And losing Bergeron for extended time will hurt their play. But still a strong enough team to carry them.
It's only one game, but they handled Florida fine who ended the season hot racking up goals for the last few weeks. Florida scored one goal.
On another note, I took LA Kings to beat Edmonton in a playoff bracket pool. No matter how good Edmonton's scoring is, never bet on them to go far with their ragtag of sketchy goalies. That team hasn't sunk one dollar or good draft pick into a solid goalie since Grant Fuhr 40 year ago. Probably their best goalie since then is arguably Tommy Salo off a trade. Thats how bad their goalies are. Every key draft pick they do is on forwards thinking they can forever replicate outcoring teams 7-5 like it's 1985 with Gretz and the gang. And none of their big trades ever involve them getting a good goalie back.
My bracket was this. Bos and Col to hit the finals and Bos to win. Looking good after one game in east. My west picks are shit so far. My Leafs will never go far either. See Edm above regarding goalies.
Bos
Car
TB
NYR
Col
Veg
LA
Dal
The only blip I see that may sink the ship is their goalies are unproven in the playoffs. And losing Bergeron for extended time will hurt their play. But still a strong enough team to carry them.
It's only one game, but they handled Florida fine who ended the season hot racking up goals for the last few weeks. Florida scored one goal.
On another note, I took LA Kings to beat Edmonton in a playoff bracket pool. No matter how good Edmonton's scoring is, never bet on them to go far with their ragtag of sketchy goalies. That team hasn't sunk one dollar or good draft pick into a solid goalie since Grant Fuhr 40 year ago. Probably their best goalie since then is arguably Tommy Salo off a trade. Thats how bad their goalies are. Every key draft pick they do is on forwards thinking they can forever replicate outcoring teams 7-5 like it's 1985 with Gretz and the gang. And none of their big trades ever involve them getting a good goalie back.
My bracket was this. Bos and Col to hit the finals and Bos to win. Looking good after one game in east. My west picks are shit so far. My Leafs will never go far either. See Edm above regarding goalies.
Bos
Car
TB
NYR
Col
Veg
LA
Dal
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My team is not in, makes it easier to have a clear head about things.
Boston and Colorado are the two best teams, that would be the best Finals. I think Bergeron's injury gives him some rest and the team should roll first round anyway. I'd be surprised if anybody in the east save for Tampa could even get them to a 7th game. Colorado, with the injuries and people coming off them, are possibly not at full strength. They have had early playoff exits before last season. I could see Dallas being a problem, or Winnipeg with their superior goaltending.
Best thing in sports for me, only the World Cup comes close.
Boston and Colorado are the two best teams, that would be the best Finals. I think Bergeron's injury gives him some rest and the team should roll first round anyway. I'd be surprised if anybody in the east save for Tampa could even get them to a 7th game. Colorado, with the injuries and people coming off them, are possibly not at full strength. They have had early playoff exits before last season. I could see Dallas being a problem, or Winnipeg with their superior goaltending.
Best thing in sports for me, only the World Cup comes close.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
What a disaster Chicago is. They hang on to aging vets Kane and Toews and dump their young guns Debrincat, Dach, Hagel. Now Kane and Toews are gone too.
That's loose cannon Bunting who elbowed Cernak in the face. Once that happened the game was over. It was 4-2 TB so the Leafs still had over a period to catch up. Instead he got 5 min major, TB scored to make it 5-2.
Idiot Keefe gets desperate and challenges the goal on an interference penalty which it clearly wasnt after a goal review already confirmed it a goal (crossed the line). Leafs lose the challenge and TB then goes on a 5 on 3 PP which they will obviously score which they did. So then it was 6-2 after two periods. If these didn't happen it would be 4-2 TB going into the third which is doable as a comeback. Not likely but within reach. It was over. Game ended up 7-3.
The worst sequence of major penalty and dumb coach's challenge all within a few minutes Ive ever seen in my life.
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I am very much a hockey fan and follow the Canucks. I live in the Seattle area but will not buy into the Kraken until the Canucks win the cup. Been following the Canucks for decades and refuse to give up lol.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Canucks have a solid core of scorers and Hughes. Rest of team stinks. Demko is terrible too. One lucky playoffs years ago. He's been bad ever since.
They are kind of similar to Oilers. They need D and G. But Oilers core scorers are best in the league, so even a shit goalie like Campbell can have aa 3.4 GAA and .888 save % and still go 21-9.
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Fucking Leafs.
We fans all know they wont go far, but hope and pray the team sizzles in the playoffs winning 5-4 every game.
It's amazing how management would skew so much of their budget on the core 4, while the rest of the team is a revolving door of second tier players and sketchy goalies. Going by the salary constraints they can never get a goalie over $5M. So Dumbass Dubas prays one of his fly by night $4M goalies pays like an all-star. Matt Murray was so shit and injured, Samsonov at $2M outplayed him.... then got nailed in game one like he always does in the playoffs when he was on Washington.
At that $4-5M salary range, the goalies you get are available shitheads like Murray, Campbell, Jake Allen and such. All the good ones that are cheap arent going anywhere... Oettinger, Sorokin, Saros etc... So every couple years, the Leaf roll the dice on one of these has-beens and hope time goes back 5 years when they were good, so it end up looking like a bargain pick up. And each time it backfires.
Everyone knew the giant contracts would lead to deficiencies, but management thought they could outscore opponents in run and gun hockey like it's the Oilers or Penguins from the 80s and 90s.
Very tough to win a championship in modern day hockey without at least some above average D and G. You dont need Hall of Fame quality studs protecting the puck. Just a solid enough back core and let the forwards do the rest. Like Darcy Kuemper. He played well on Colorado last year but not godly. But the skaters in front of him are good enough to score. All any goalie last year had to do on Colorado is not have a 3.00+ GAA and that's good enough.
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Dude, when Demko got hurt and they put in Delia...I swear, he was letting in 5 goals a night. I think Tocchet is going to right the ship but yeah we need better D and they need to be creative. Drives me nuts to see them enter the zone and do the same thing every night. I like Kuzmenko but they really need to get some scoring from someone besides Petterson.
Oilers had the best powerplay in the league this season didn't they?
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
I dont watch Canucks game much. Sometimes I have them on TV in the background as the late game, but I dont watch them closely. All I know is Petterson, Kuz, MIller, Horvat (when he was there) and Hughes can score and pass the puck around doing nice goals. Then it's like the opposing team would just keep scoring and win even if the core players all got 2 pts each that night.
Ya, Oilers scored at a 32% clip on PP. Thats insane. Googling it, it seems yes it's the best ever.
That's nuts!
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Home ice leads to more wins, but aside from top teams that have crazy home ice records, most teams arent that much better at home than the road. Every year, you always get soe teams that have much better road records too. I dont think the other major sports get that often.
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Yeah, as a blackhawk fan, it sucks, and they played just well enough at the end to lower their chances for Bedard
.
RavenSan
Off-Site Inflammatory Member
As the apparent resident Rangers fan in this thread -- I'll take it.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
I like Rangers to go far. Shesterkin is solid and they got a solid forward core and Fox on the back end. I took them over NJ in my pool bracket even though NJ has home ice and both teams were basically the same in season pts.
I'd trust the Rangers core and Shesterkin way more than Jersey and Vanacek.
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West Texas CEO
GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief and Nosiest Dildo Archeologist
Let's go Stars!
Bumblebeetuna
Member
I'm just glad the Stars game didn't go multiple OT's again. Game 1 brought back memories of the early 00's when I went to work at 4am and it seemed like literally every Stars playoff game went at least double OT.
Vyse
Gold Member
I’m from Vegas and went to the first playoff game. Hard loss, but I have faith in my Knights! Go Knights Go!
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Vegas has a solid team, but winning the cup will always be hard since their top players are Eichel and Stone. Two good, but not superstar players.
It's tough to win the cup with a balanced team with no superstars. It can happen (St Louis), but rare. They rode off one year wonder Binnington that year too.
Seattle is in the same boat this year. A very good balanced team with McCann breaking out. But playoff time will be hard to go far.
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
About time! That's Leafs for ya. Run and gun and hope they're on the winning side of it.
Hope Hedman and Cernak injuries are long. Did wonders yesterday for Leafs forwards zipping around.
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Vyse
Gold Member
Stone and Eichel killed it last night. Stone has been out almost all season. Great to have our Captain back. Stephenson, Marchessault, Smith, Roy, Theodore, Martinez, Kessel and Pietrangelo. These guys are fantastic. We have just had a really hard time with goalies this season. Quick was a nice addition. Getting the cup this year! Plus if you haven’t done so yet, catch a game at T-Mobile. It’s quite the experience.
MikeM
Member
Wild turnaround from the first game.
Trogdor1123
Member
if Edmonton gets past LA they will win.
McJesus saves all!
McJesus saves all!
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
They got the forwards! Like always, can their shaky goaltending save them!
Can Stuart Skinner be the man?!?!
Trogdor1123
Member
Secretly I think it’s actually CuJo behind the mask! Coming out of retirement!
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
What the hell happened?!?!? I just checked the boxscore. I was watching the Bruins game.
drganon
Member
TheGreatMusashi
Member
I fucking HATE Minnesota.
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