NHL Playoffs
 

I know this is robotics and "we don't do sports," but I was just wondering if we had any hockey fans on these boards? I know DJ Fluck had an Avalanche avatar for a while and I think there are other fans here too. So anyway, I just thought I'd make this thread for people to post their thoughts on the playoffs and stuff.

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

Avs will take it all, now that they have sparked again...(just at the right time too!) :D

Avs over Leafs in 6

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

I'm not takin the Leafs over the Flyers who beat the Devils in 5 (cough, cough NJ teams!).

no hard feelings.

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

GO SHARKS! I've been to all three playoff home games thus far (all wins). It's awesome that everyone has written them off as a fluke this year. I guess all the renound hockey writers back east probably go to sleep before most Sharks games finish out here. They play either Vancouver or Colorado in the second round with home ice advantage. I like their chances against either team (but especially against Vancouver).

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

I'm a hockey fan. Go Detroit!

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

hehehe, I may be one of those writers (Between the Lines on www.spectorshockey.net). They are a good story and they could really get places.

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

Go Wings! I, unlike my friend from Kokomo, Indiana, root for the right team in the NHL :-p

As a sidebar, I was the winner of the FIRST Fantasy Hockey league this year... anyone who's interested for next year, let me know along the end of the summer. It'd be nice to have a few more teams next season.

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

YAY! A thread us Canadians love! I have to say that Leafs will beat Ottawa in game 7 tomorrow night. The Leafs lost last night because they played like garbage and couldn't get the puck out of their end. Hopefully Montréal beats Boston so we can have another Canadian team advance! GO LEAFS GO!

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

GO WINGS!!!

That's all I have to say about the subject.

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

flyers need boston to win cause any other team will go after KJ's hand a lot more. Flyers own TO though! hehehe

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

GO LEAFS GO!
GO LEAFS GO!
GO LEAFS GO!
GO LEAFS GO!
:D

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

boston lost *tear*

its all up to the Av's and philly to pull through for me

Re: NHL Playoffs - Wings Lose to Calgary
 

WHY!!?

Why did the Red Wings have to lose to calgary in overtime?

WHYYYYYYYYY!!!!!?

Oh well, it's only the first game, I hope.

Re: NHL Playoffs - Wings Lose to Calgary
 

We all know the Wings are taking it all the way this year :-D

Re: NHL Playoffs - Wings Lose to Calgary
 

lets see... would you rather have your team lose in OT... or 5-2??? *tears for Colorado*

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

Well, I was a devout Whalers fan back in the day...until they were taken away from me unjustly. :( Now I don't really follow hockey that much anymore as a result, although I have gone to a couple Rangers games... so in conclusion, go Whalers!

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

AVS!!!!! So what if they lsot last night. The last 10 teams to win a game 1 by 3 or more goals went on to LOSE the serires. heehee...victory for the avs! Plus, calgary is VERY similar to the team who knocked Detroit out last year, the Mighty Ducks of Anahiem, in the fact of their physical style, great goalie, and for amazing ability to stick around when being totally out-played. Even if detroir win, Colorado will send them home on their way to a 3rd stanley cup. I mean, look whats happened the last 2 time NJ won the cup, colorado won the year after, and colorado won the next year(95, and 2000 NJ victories, 96 and '01 Colorado victories).

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

euughhh... that was embarassing... Montreal lost 4-0 to Tampa... oh well, Go Habs Go!

GO LEAFS GO!
GO HABS GO!

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

Wings all the way baby!

I'm not worried right now. Just some learnin' going on about calgary. No sweats yet...

:D

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

Avs just needed a wakeup call..and playing like crap and losing 5-1 definately was the alarm clock...its much better then playing hard and losing by a goal in overtime....that just hurts the spirit :p


Go Avs!

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

Actually, only 6 of the last 10 teams to win game 1 by three or more goals have lost the series. Besides, stats like those don't really mean anything because they aren't team specific stats. The fact of the matter is, if the Sharks keep playing the way they have for the majority of the season (skating hard, tenacious forechecking, quick transitions from defense to offense, great PK, average PP, great goaltending, and sound defense zone coverage) then the Sharks have a very good chance of knocking the Avalanche out of the playoffs. Having home ice against the Avalanche is huge for the Sharks who, like the Avalanche, are undefeated at home in the playoffs thus far. Also, if Aebischer starts game #2 this afternoon he'll be lit up again. He was VERY shaking in game #1 (kicking out rebounds into the slot, not seeing unscreened shots, and very sloppy puck handling when he had to). If I were Granato I would start Salo without hesitation.

Btw, DJ, it was 5-2.

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

lol, i remember back in the day, I knew so many people that were heartbroken bout that one. At least the 'Canes made it to the finals a couple years ago.

Flyers 1 Leafs O.

SOB (Society of Orange and Black) 2004. This IS the Year. Join the Club at HfBoards.

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

Wings won today, 5-2. The series is tied at one apiece.

The Wings are my favorite team - living in Michigan may have something to do with that - but I'm still rooting for a few other teams...

I want to see a Detroit/San Jose conference final, and a Montreal/Toronto matchup in the East. Far more than those, though, is my dream...a Detroit/Toronto cup final. If that happens, I wouldn't care who wins...seeing my two favorite teams make it into the finals would be more than enough for me. :)

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

That would be nice 2 of the original 6 at it agian...

Did you know that when the NHL first born - all it took was 8 wins in the playoffs for the stanley cup? :)

But see - Detroit just had to scout what they where up aginst. I'm not worried...

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

GO SHARKS! 1 win away from their first ever trip to the Conference Finals!

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

Even if the Sharks manage to get past the avalanche (and the way they are playing right now, it wouldnt suprise me) I think the Sharks have about as much chance of taking the Cup as the chance of George W Bush voting for John Kerry in the upcoming election. The Sharks played in one of the weakest divisions in the NHL, and are still a young team. Seriously, I think the cup is going to stay in the East this year.

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

Whether or not they played in a weak division doesn’t matter, and that’s even debatable. They finished with the 3rd best record in the NHL, with the 4th best defense. You may think that doesn’t mean anything either, but they dispatched the Blues in 5 games without much effort and without 2nd line center Alyn McCauley and 3rd line left wing Scott Thornton for the majority of the series. In fact, rookie Marcel Goc (who is exactly 5 days younger than me) playing in his first ever NHL game had an assist on the series clinching goal against the Blues. The Sharks have displayed incredible depth all year, and have relied on 3 rookie defensemen (Rob Davison, Christian Ehrhoff, and Tom Preissing) for the majority of the season. After adding veteran winger/center/everything Curt Brown and journeyman defenseman Jason Marshall (who helped anchor Minnesota’s relatively young defense to the Conference Finals last year) the Sharks have a reasonable chance of getting past either Calgary or Detroit (if they can win 1 of their next 4 games). Even if the Sharks don’t win the cup this year they will, for all intents and purposes, add speedy left wing Marco Sturm for a run at the cup next year (or whenever the lockout ends). The Sharks have built a solid team out of spare parts and cast offs from other teams and even their own (Alex Korolyuk was a regular scratch for Darryl Sutter). They’ve got a good chance this year, and they should be a competitive team for years to come.

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

Ok im sick of all the seperate threads for each series.


Calgary over SJ in 6
Iginla and Kipper...lol killer

Tampa Over Philly in 5
Esche seems to have the "flu" and Philly lost all 4 meetings with TB this year...I expect Philly to take one at home and the blow the rest of the series...with people like Stillman, Richards, St Louis, Modin, Andreychuk and Khabibulin in net...how can you call them anything but the favorite?

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

For once I think that I agree with DJ. Since the Flames have knocked out the Canucks and the Wings - they are this year's Aneheim story. I easily think that the Flames can handle SJ. They have the talent that has finnaly woken up.

And - you all may quote me - I think that the Detroit Red Wings need to be broken up now. They don't have that intensity to win the cup as they did in 97/98. We are old and slow. We do have the knowlege - but too much of it. I think most of them think that the other team will just fall over just to see all the star's name on the Roster - which I think is bs...

:eek:

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

The Sharks can beat Calgary as long as they start looking like they did vs. the Av's.

GO SHARKS!!!!!!

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

My (new)predictions;
SJ over Calgary in 7, SJ only is down 1 game now. Nabokov can(and will) be a shutdown goalie, not to mention Toskala. Marleau and Cheechoo are both great offensive, AND DEFENSIVE, players(cheechoo's dive in Game 3-i think it was 3 anyway- vs. colorado). Calgary has proven it can win without Iginla, but a lot of their miraculous wins have been luck. We'll see it, like we did with anahiem last year, luck can only carry you so far. Its virtually impossible for Cinderella teams like Calgary to win a cup.

TB over Philly in 6, Khabibulin, and St. Louis, need I say more? Philly cant seem to put it all together at the same time during the play-offs. The have good defese for a couple games, then good offense, then a hot goalie, but never all at once. TB is playing their hearts out, and under captain dave Adrechuk(or however its spelled) leadership, and his desire to win his first cup, they can do it.

SJ over TB in 7, a goalies battle. Both have good offenses, but better defenses and better goalies. SJ cements it place as a western conference powerhouse with their first cup. Both these teams have used their speed as an advantage so far, but now it can get countered by the opponents speed. SJ has proven it can deal with fast teams when it beat colorado. TB has had an easier road and we dont know how they will fare under the pressure of the stanley cup finals against such a high quality team in SJ.

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

Marleau has been as inconsistent in the playoffs as he has been throughout his career. His 7 playoff goals have come in only 3 of the Sharks’ 14 playoff games. When he has scored, he has scored a lot, but he hasn’t put points up when the team has needed them (I.E. games 4 & 5 vs. Colorado, and 1& 2 vs. Calgary). He has incredible talent, but he is invisible for large portions of games, and whole games sometimes. He has also been marginal, at best, defensively.

If the Sharks are going to beat Calgary in either 6 or 7 games they’ll need to better adapt to the Darryl Sutter obstruction and interference based defense that the Calgary Flames employ. They’ll also need to stop getting caught in the offensive zone with all 3 forwards below the hashmarks. They’ve given up what seems like hundreds, but probably is only dozens of odd-man breaks in this series. They backchecked a lot better against St. Louis and Colorado. They should remember how they won games with Sutter as a coach and then remember how they were beaten by other teams as a Sutter coached team.