Sharks finish the postseason on a 2-7 run and are now 1-8 in the past two conference finals. :banghead:

Great Sporcle quiz of Michel Therrien's rant from the 2006 season.

Can you name the following details from Michel Therrien's famous rant? by sem | Online Games & Trivia by Sporcle

Well, at this pace the Sharks will win 2 games in the WCF in 2012, 3 in 2013, and should be able to make the finals by 2014.

I think the Sharks are still set up to be a very good team for a while. They need to fine tune something, but they have a good core and I think they have solidified their netminding for a while with Niemi. The only albatross like contract they seem to be saddled with is Heatley. He looked a step slow all playoffs long and 3 goals just isn't enough. His production in the regular season was down as well. Sure, he may play some better defense than before and do more of "the little things", but you don't pay a 25-30 goal scorer who does that sort of thing $7.5 million a year.

Ever since the cap era, I think the best way to really determine a value of a player is to see how they are playing against their contract. Heatley isn't doing that in any way.

Thank you Brian Rafalski for some great seasons in Detroit. Best of luck to you in a post-playing career, wherever it may take you.

After taking some time to wind down from cursing out linesmen, the hockey gods who seem intent on adding Raffi Torres to the shameful names on the Cup and the kid I met at age 11 who convinced me to be a Sharks fan in Michigan instead of naturally gravitating to the Red Wings in the first place, I can breathe again.

Vancouver's been the best team in the regular season, and once they got past their mental hump of Chelsea Dagger, started playing like it. I think either San Jose or Detroit *could* have beaten them if one team had finished off the other in 5. (San Jose not pissing away games 4/5, Detroit showing up for games 1/2) Instead, they battered each other down through 7, and the one left standing didn't have much more left in the tank then the one that fell. They needed a bit of luck and some health to topple the Canucks, and got neither.

The other problem is that it took them until game 3 of the Western Conference Finals to find a 4th line that could play more then 5 minutes a night and not be an automatic -2 across the board. That's the 16th postseason game. McLellan waited too long to switch that up.

Boyle needs another D-man that can play and let him go less than 29 minutes a night in the regular season, and they need to figure out what the hell is Heatley's deal. Boyle earns his paycheck, Marleau's just a streaky player (10 goals in 8 games, then nothing for the next 10, end with 40 on the season), and Thornton's finally realizing his potential in the postseason. If he's hurt and that's why he can't skate or bend, tell him to copy Selanne and take off all the time he needs even if it's until January. If he's not, keep him on the 3rd line/limited PP time until he's willing to waive his NTC (assuming it's still in effect) and get some cap space out of it.

Fucking Bruins. Pathetic effort tonight.

Classy fans in Tampa.

They deserve to get trashed for giving out artificial noisemakers.

Yeah I'm not sure I've ever seen a home team win and then the hometown fans toss junk on the ice.

It must be a Florida thing...back in the 90s the Panthers' fans use to throw rubber rats on the ice.

At least Lucic got his end of game sucker shots in again though.

That was great.. some of those noise makers were smacking players on the heads, doubt they will ever give those out again.. good thing for helmets.

Mike Smith for Game 7?

Watching these two old-timer goalies struggle this series, I'm surprised more NHL coaches don't think about resting their veteran goaltenders every 5th game or so... Seems to me you can afford to do it when you're up 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, or even when you trail in the series so long as you're not staving off elimination.

I do love watching Martin St. Louis play. He's very good and such a very, very wee little man.

I hope Simon Gagne scores the GWG in Game 7 again this year against the Bruins.

Go Bruins....us Leaf fans want that extra 2nd rounder if u make the cup final:)

2 1sts and a 2nd for Kaberle...excellent

I really believe had Tampa played anyone BUT the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round; they would be out by now. They learned how to play playoff hockey against the Pens, and with their scoring being low, there wasn't much danger of the Pens running away with a game.

This game is going to kill me.

Let me join the "This game is going to give me a fucking coronary" club.

Dola: GOAL HORTON!

Congrats BOSTON for losing 4 games to 1 to the Stanley Cup Champions: The Fucking Canucks!!!!!!!!!!

Bruins Win!

That was the most intense thing I've ever witnessed. I need another beer.

Bruins!

seriously, though, Doc Emerick and Pierre McGuire are both completely unbearable.

(sorry Pumpy)

bite me etc

Un-Effin-Real!

Soooooooo excited right now.

dola

I'm one of the guys who thought Tuukka deserved the majority of the starts this year.

Or hey, let's give the whole Vezina to Timmay. Awesome.

Great game. Boston deserved the win IMO for being the more active team for 55 mins but definitely could have gone either way. I do feel bad for Roloson who was excellent, if he'd have had one more game like this it wouldn't have gone to 7 games.

I can't figure Hedman out. He never seems like he's trying out there. I don't see him as the next Pronger that's for sure. You can understand young defensemen making mistakes but a lack of physical play and effort for a guy that size is worrying.

The puck control by the Bruins was a one-sided affair, good game though, zero penalties? When does that ever happen?

I don't think he's ever supposed to be Pronger, he just got labeled that because of his size. He plays a position game of Lidstrom in Prongers body...or the next Bouwmeester.

But I agree he's frustrating. But he's also 20.

Against Pittsburgh, he was awful the first 3 games. The last 2, seemed like he was on the ice every other shift and single-handedly diffusing the Pens entry.

I understand how Game 7s tighten up in general, but I'm not as supportive of swallowing the whistle when you have a team like Tampa who thrives on the power-play. I wasn't paying the closest attention, but I saw Marty get hooked early in the game, and i'm sure there could have been the usual 3 penalties per team if the zebras were willing to make the calls. The fact that they didn't essentially torpedoed any chance the Lightning had.

Hedman is a good offensive defenseman, for sure, and I've been alerted to good defensive plays he makes when I'm not actively worrying about him. But he does seem to get into a ton of defensive pickles. Thankfully for Tampa, he is only 20, and his defensive game can continue to grow into his frame and his skill set over the next few years.

from what I remember, Hedman was compared to Pronger a lot before the draft.

I remember everyone calling him the next Pronger before the draft, but that's obviously not his game. I will say that he's never going to be Lidstrom with that size/skating ability, and if he can't play a bit more physical he's never going to be worth a top 3 pick.

As for not calling any penalties, meh. As a completely neutral observer who wanted the Lightning to win, I though Boston was on the short end of way more no calls than the Lightning were.

Atlanta to Winnipeg is set to become official in just a few short hours: True North calls press conference for this morning - Winnipeg Free Press

Good for Winnipeg, but damn if the more I read about it, the more ASG sounds like Rachel Phelps from Major League. Probably be worth it just to get them out of the ownership in the NHL.

This! :popcorn:

Something we can all agree on

http://communities.canada.com/thepro...n-show-up.aspx

Victor Hedman = The new worse than Tyler Sloan?

While I am happy for the folks in Winnipeg, I hate it when teams move. Really, really hate it. I was all right with the idea of Phoenix moving to Winnipeg, since Winnipeg sort of "had them first", but it sucks for all of the Atlanta Thrashers fans (or fan) out there. I never like to see this.

I also don't quite understand why the NHL has been twisting itself into knots and bending over backwards and there have been all of those endless legal proceedings to keep the Coyotes in Phoenix and Atlanta just sort of... goes out with a whimper. I haven't followed the Phoenix stuff too closely, because I find it boring (I deal with enough legal mumbo-jumbo in my daily life), but it strikes me as odd.

You oughta had to endure them up close. Wait, you haven't done anything remotely bad enough for me to wish that on you. Let's just say that the closer you get, the worse they seem.

They make the Smith family (ex-Falcons ownership) look like geniuses, they make Bernie Madoff look respectable.

Beyond that, I don't have any thoughts about them at the moment that I can express without incurring some degree of legal liability. I don't have anything planned nor any intent to act, but I certainly have some colorful wishes for them suffering the fates they deserve.

I feel bad for the ATL fans, they got screwed with a bad owner then had their team stripped away pretty quickly. I pull for all the Southern teams and I was hoping to make a trip to ATL to watch a game next year since it would be a quick flight but that won't be happening.

Guess I'll have to check out Winnipeg when they come through Raleigh (three times :lol: ) next season.

Woo

They want 13,000 season ticket holders in order to get the team to Winnipeg. Seems they should tell people what the team will be called, but I'm guess they won't yet.

No name yet, my guess is they wait until the initial surge of ticket sales dies down, then announce the name as a way to renew interest.

Why not just go with the Jets again?

I assume that option is still on the table.

Wondering this too, similar with the return of the Browns after the first Browns became the Ravens. IIRC, the new Browns and the old Browns share a record book, team history, etc, while the Ravens history starts as of 1995 (or whenever they formed).

Curious how it will work out if they use the Jets as the name.