Stanley Cup Playoffs thread

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Wed May 03, 2006 7:56 pm

Devils in six.

Take care,
PK

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Wed May 03, 2006 8:06 pm

I am getting hyped up for the F. Beauchemin-J. Iginla, round three in a couple of hours from now. Probably they'll go at it one more time setting the tone for their teams, should be interesting.

ddtrane · Post by **ddtrane** » Wed May 03, 2006 8:36 pm

Nothing in sports this time of year beats a game 7 of the NHL playoffs. Nothing!!!!!

Sully · Post by **Sully** » Wed May 03, 2006 8:41 pm

I took the Ducks in 7. Should be a great one.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Wed May 03, 2006 8:49 pm

Sully wrote:I took the Ducks in 7. Should be a great one.

Ditto, although somewhere deep inside me would love to see the battle of Alberta.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Wed May 03, 2006 8:50 pm

ddtrane wrote:Nothing in sports this time of year beats a game 7 of the NHL playoffs. Nothing!!!!!

I place it 3rd in my book after the Super Bowl and the World Cup final...but yeah...Its AWESOME!!!

Looking forward to it...

Feanor · Post by **Feanor** » Wed May 03, 2006 9:34 pm

Have the Sabres stopped scoring on the Flyers yet?

I was checking some stats at NHL.com and noticed that Brodeur's worst playoffs was 98-99 when he went 3-4, had a GAA of 2.83 and a SV% of .856. I think Ottawa beat them that year.

Robert Esche had a SV% of .875 in this year's playoffs but his GAA was a whopping 4.20. Just shows how many shots he was bombarded with by a fast, skilled team playing under the new rules.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Wed May 03, 2006 9:43 pm

Feanor wrote: Robert Esche had a SV% of .875 in this year's playoffs but his GAA was a whopping 4.20. Just shows how many shots he was bombarded with.

Esche wasn't the main problem, the old, big guys with turtle legs from the D were just plain outmatched by the speedy Sabres.

Feanor · Post by **Feanor** » Wed May 03, 2006 9:59 pm

I agree 100%. That's what I meant by "Just shows how many shots he (Esche) was bombarded with".

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Wed May 03, 2006 10:28 pm

Here's one of the many things I LOVE about NHL.com -- no spoilers on the cover of games in progress.

The cover blurb always will just say that the game is in progress, with the TV network. If you want the live score, you can click on the "More" link to get it.

That is SO nice if you're recording a game and just want to check out the NHL.com cover for new features, columns, stats, etc. I wish more league Web sites did that.

Take care,
PK

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Wed May 03, 2006 10:46 pm

An upset is in the makings. CAL will have to have a 3rd period like the Oilers did vs the Wings to advance. ANA is just playing smart Hockey and matching CAL's hit by hit.

Sully · Post by **Sully** » Wed May 03, 2006 11:45 pm

Ducks in 7!

Here we go...Conference Semis:

Buffalo vs. Ottawa - Sens in 6

Jersey vs. Carolina - Jersey in 6

Edmonton vs. San Jose - Edmonton in 7

Colorado vs. Anaheim - Anaheim in 6

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Wed May 03, 2006 11:46 pm

10spro wrote:An upset is in the makings. CAL will have to have a 3rd period like the Oilers did vs the Wings to advance. ANA is just playing smart Hockey and matching CAL's hit by hit.

Anaheim played with focus and determination. No mistakes.Calgary looked like they were asleep...

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Thu May 04, 2006 12:00 am

Sully wrote:Ducks in 7!

Here we go...Conference Semis:

Buffalo vs. Ottawa - Sens in 6

Jersey vs. Carolina - Jersey in 6

Edmonton vs. San Jose - Edmonton in 7

Colorado vs. Anaheim - Anaheim in 6

Wow, what did I tell you guys. Ducks were one of the hottest teams to finish the season and they turned it all around after the Olympics as S. Niedermayer was returning from his knee surgery. Calgary just didn't have the secondary scoring they needed pretty much all season long and I think the turning point of the series was in game 6 for ANA when F. Beauchemin went toe to toe with Iginla. Twice.

From then on, they believed.
This is HUGE! Many thought CAL would end up with the Cup.

Sully, I agree with all your predictions except I have SJ over EDM in 7.

Sully · Post by **Sully** » Thu May 04, 2006 12:07 am

Looking at the matchups, Col/Ana and NJ/Car appear to be lopsided. However, it's best of 7. Anything can happen.

I can't wait to see Edm/SJ and Ott/Buf. Two great matchups on paper.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Thu May 04, 2006 12:11 am

What's this, no playoffs on Thursday?

Sully · Post by **Sully** » Thu May 04, 2006 12:14 am

10spro wrote:What's this, no playoffs on Thursday?

Yeah, seriously. I don't want to take a day off.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Thu May 04, 2006 12:39 am

Sully wrote:
10spro wrote:What's this, no playoffs on Thursday?
Yeah, seriously. I don't want to take a day off.

Yeah...I have gotten addicted also.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Thu May 04, 2006 1:35 am

Wow, I'm really surprised that Calgary lost. There goes one of my finalists!

While I'd rather have seen a Battle of Alberta, the Sharks are going to be a tough out for the Oil. The Oil was 3-1 against San Jose during the regular season.

Bring 'em on!

Take care,
PK

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Thu May 04, 2006 9:30 am

I guess it's pretty tough to win a seven-game series when you score only 16 goals, especially when five came in one game. No matter how good your defense and goalie are, 11 goals in six games isn't going to cut it in the "new NHL."

Plus TSN.ca ran an interesting video with Darren Pang and Bob McKenzie showing how Anaheim got to Kiprusoff. I never noticed this, but Kipper is VERY vulnerable high to the stick side. Panger and McKenzie showed a bunch of Anaheim goals to that spot in this series, even on the short side, so the Ducks' coaches did a great job of scouting.

Guess that's why Panger and McKenzie make the bucks as analysts!

Take care,
PK

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Thu May 04, 2006 9:32 am

Interesting facts about the top four seeds in each conference so far, from TSN.ca:

"It would be the first time since the NHL adopted conference play in 1974 that none of a conference's top four teams, based on regular-season records, reached its semifinal round. Ironically, the four best teams in the Eastern Conference all advanced, the first time that has happened in either conference since 2002 and the first time in the East since 1996."

Boys, if you want good hockey coverage, check out TSN.ca. It's much better than ESPN.com.

Take care,
PK

CrazyPsycho · Post by **CrazyPsycho** » Thu May 04, 2006 10:59 am

pk500 wrote:Interesting facts about the top four seeds in each conference so far, from TSN.ca:

"It would be the first time since the NHL adopted conference play in 1974 that none of a conference's top four teams, based on regular-season records, reached its semifinal round. Ironically, the four best teams in the Eastern Conference all advanced, the first time that has happened in either conference since 2002 and the first time in the East since 1996."

Boys, if you want good hockey coverage, check out TSN.ca. It's much better than ESPN.com.

Take care,
PK

Just don't read their power rankings. They are depressing.

laurenskye · Post by **laurenskye** » Thu May 04, 2006 12:44 pm

10spro wrote:An upset is in the makings. CAL will have to have a 3rd period like the Oilers did vs the Wings to advance. ANA is just playing smart Hockey and matching CAL's hit by hit.

Like my old hockey coach told me "Will beats skill everytime"

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Thu May 04, 2006 12:45 pm

pk500 wrote:"It would be the first time since the NHL adopted conference play in 1974 that none of a conference's top four teams, based on regular-season records, reached its semifinal round. Ironically, the four best teams in the Eastern Conference all advanced, the first time that has happened in either conference since 2002 and the first time in the East since 1996."
Take care,
PK

Well, unless you're a NAS, DET and DAL fan, we all know that playing in a less challenging division did not help their playoff intensity this year. I mean these three teams had their places in the playoff guaranteed with a month to go literally, while the divison led by Calgary' from 1st to last which was MIN, there's was just like a 6 point difference with a month to go before the playoffs. Heck, EDM found out they were IN only on the 2nd last game of the season, when my Canucks decided to play golf instead.

Never have the bottom four teams in a conference all won their first round series, Wow, interesting.

Calgary's problem is that they just lacked that secondary scoring the whole year and it really showed during the playoffs when things get tighter. Three shots in the 2nd period? Who put out the Flame? You can't rely on Iginla to do it all and if it wasn't for the Kipper last night, the score would have been much higher.

Now, about the second round coming up. Two games on Friday night. Buffalo at Ottawa and Colorado at Anaheim. On Saturday just one game, Jersey at Carolina, 2pm, no Saturday night hockey. No HNIC? Not on a SAT? Who are the wizards that came up with that idea? Edmonton is into San Jose on Sunday.

CrazyPsycho · Post by **CrazyPsycho** » Thu May 04, 2006 12:55 pm

Blame Ottawa. They booked up their arena with 2 days full of "Dora the Explorer" shows. On Saturday and Sunday. WTF were they thinking?!?