The OFFICIAL Stanley Cup Playoffs Thread

[Maple Leafs]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

Scott Clemmensen gotta get his groove on. You better recognize.

Has he reacted to any of the shots from that shootout yet?

[Dr. Sak]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

If any Sabres fans want to throw $50 on the series, let me know.

Make him buy you Tim Horton's for a month instead.

[RendeR]

This is looking to be a 7 gamer with nothing but excitement along teh way.

Sens looked great in the first period then went flat, sabres have been flat all night with the exception of the first 5 minutes of the game when it appeared we had a power play durng 5-5 play.

Can't wait for the 3rd, 2-2 game 1, LETS GO SABRES!!

[bbor]

Very nice redirect goal by Saprykin.

[Karlifornia]

I'm rooting for Ottawa the rest of the playoffs.

[RendeR]

I'm seriously ashamed of the Sabres performance in the 3rd period. No life, no skating, no emotion. They just waltzed around out there as if they thought it was going to fall in their laps.

Grats Sens, they played their butts off in the 3rd and took this one.

[Maple Leafs]

I missed almost the whole game... saw the first few minutes and bit of the third. I take it the Sabres didn't bring their best game?

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

Has he reacted to any of the shots from that shootout yet?

What? Oh, I'm sorry, that wasn't Scott Clemmensen in the shootout. That was my cousin Latanya. She had won a contest, and that was her prize.

[MizzouRah]

It's like Ottawa scares the shit out of Buffalo, great game by the Sens tonight.

[Milton]

Originally Posted by Chubby

That's exactly our (Sabres fans) point tho...

The Rangers played their A+ game, the Sabres played their C game and the Sabres still won in 6.

Just when exactly do the Sabres break out their scary A+ game?

[RendeR]

Originally Posted by Milton

Just when exactly do the Sabres break out their scary A+ game?

They'd best crack it open tomorrow night or their gonna find themselves bent over a stump taking it the hard way.

Couple times this season they had great wins treaks, 10 games to start the year, another 8 game streak a few months in, both times they did that they would generally be trailing going into period 2, explode for 2+ (on a couple of occasions 4-5) goals in the second and cruise through teh third for the wins.

I don't think they can do that with Ottowa and win the series, they really need to put their best game out there every single moment. if they do that, they'll win.

As for Ottowa scaring the Sabres, its not a fear thing, its mental. We've played them so close in every single meeting for the last 2-3 seasons and for whatever reason the Sens generally come out on top more often.

Luckily for Sabres fans the playoffs have not been the Sens best moments. here's hoping that trend continues and the Sabres take the next 2 games. If we're up 2-1 with 4 to play I think the Sabres take the series.

God forbid they play like they did last night again though. My god that was awful. I'm still ashamed.

[bbor]

Render i love ya man....your passion for hockey rawks....BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD IT'S OttAwa.

[RendeR]

Fuck OttOwa

[RendeR]

DOLA, and its O-TOW-wa to me because they're always TOWing along in second place to the Sabres

[bbor]

lol

[Chief Rum]

Good luck to Wings fans tonight. I am expecting a difficult, back-and-forth, wild series that goes at least six.

My theory as espoused to my brother the other day is if it goes four, it could be a sweep either way, five it will be a Wings win, six it will be a Ducks win, and if it goes full seven, it's a toss up, with the edge to the Wings.

I don't think it's likely at all to be four or five. One team would have to just dominate and the other fall apart, and I can't see Pronger-Nieds-Giguere allowing that from ANA or Lidstrom-Chelios-Babcock from DET.

I love the subplots in this series, BTW. Babcock vs old team he took to the Cup finals. Niedermayer vs Lidstrom, constant Norris rivals. Pronger vs Chelios, old division rivals from STL and CHI. Bertuzzi vs Burke, the guy who built the team now and the guy who built the VAN team around Bertuzzi. Hasek vs Jiggy, one of best GK of all time against one of best playoff GK. Old school Original Six versus new fangled 90s expansion. Passionate Hockeytown versus laid back SoCal in a heat wave.

Can't wait to watch (too bad I'll be working tonight furing the first game).

Fact of the day: It's a smaller sample size (as Jiggy also missed some games in the first round), but Jiggy's stats right now are better in this postseason than in 2003, when he won the Conn Smythe.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Chubby

That's exactly our (Sabres fans) point tho...

The Rangers played their A+ game, the Sabres played their C game and the Sabres still won in 6.

Sorry, I missed this earlier but you're out of your god damn mind if you think that was the Rangers A+ game.

Taking stupid penalties all throughout the series, icing the puck when not necessary, allowing Buffalo forwards to camp out in front of the net, and bad turnovers leading to immediate goals is not an A+ game. There were stretches in games that they played well (A), and many other times when they were in that nice D or F range.

[RendeR]

Originally Posted by Logan

Sorry, I missed this earlier but you're out of your god damn mind if you think that was the Rangers A+ game.

Taking stupid penalties all throughout the series, icing the puck when not necessary, allowing Buffalo forwards to camp out in front of the net, and bad turnovers leading to immediate goals is not an A+ game. There were stretches in games that they played well (A), and many other times when they were in that nice D or F range.

Then the Rangers must have been playing pickup level hockey during the season because that team played so far above its normal abilities in those two series of playoffs its not even funny.

If the Rangers had played one whit below their A game they'd have been tossed by Atlanta, let alone Buffalo.

[Milton]

Originally Posted by RendeR

Then the Rangers must have been playing pickup level hockey during the season because that team played so far above its normal abilities in those two series of playoffs its not even funny.

If the Rangers had played one whit below their A game they'd have been tossed by Atlanta, let alone Buffalo.

All of this handing out of grades is giving me a headache, but imo, regardless of either team's play earlier in the season, by the second round of the playoffs there was not a whole hell of a lot of difference in the level of play between the Rangers and Sabres. 7 seconds away from scaring the shit out of upstate NY. And, oh yeah. Wide Right.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by RendeR

Then the Rangers must have been playing pickup level hockey during the season because that team played so far above its normal abilities in those two series of playoffs its not even funny.

If the Rangers had played one whit below their A game they'd have been tossed by Atlanta, let alone Buffalo.

They really needed to be fully at their A game to beat Atlanta by a combined 17-7 over 4 games. Jackass.

And yes, they did play damn near pickup level hockey for half the season. Lundqvist was awful for a great portion of it, and when they did heat up in the 2nd half, they played so poor that they had just 2 fewer points than Buffalo had over that same stretch.

[Schmidty]

Well, that was good. 3 more.

I predict Wings in 5.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Good luck to Wings fans tonight. I am expecting a difficult, back-and-forth, wild series that goes at least six.

My theory as espoused to my brother the other day is if it goes four, it could be a sweep either way, five it will be a Wings win, six it will be a Ducks win, and if it goes full seven, it's a toss up, with the edge to the Wings.

I don't think it's likely at all to be four or five. One team would have to just dominate and the other fall apart, and I can't see Pronger-Nieds-Giguere allowing that from ANA or Lidstrom-Chelios-Babcock from DET.

I love the subplots in this series, BTW. Babcock vs old team he took to the Cup finals. Niedermayer vs Lidstrom, constant Norris rivals. Pronger vs Chelios, old division rivals from STL and CHI. Bertuzzi vs Burke, the guy who built the team now and the guy who built the VAN team around Bertuzzi. Hasek vs Jiggy, one of best GK of all time against one of best playoff GK. Old school Original Six versus new fangled 90s expansion. Passionate Hockeytown versus laid back SoCal in a heat wave.

Can't wait to watch (too bad I'll be working tonight furing the first game).

Fact of the day: It's a smaller sample size (as Jiggy also missed some games in the first round), but Jiggy's stats right now are better in this postseason than in 2003, when he won the Conn Smythe.

Sorry I'm a little late in this... Was out of town all day yesterday, good luck to you too, Chief!

Woah. That was a tough game. Very physical. Given the already depleted state of the Wings' blueline, I am not sure if they will be able to wishtand that kind of pressure and pounding over the course of the entire series.

The Ducks out played the Wings. I think this was the first game the Wings were out shot in the playoffs and, if not, it was easily the biggest difference in shots, something like 33 to 19 or something. The Wings are very rarely out shot in a game.

The game came down to solid penalty killing by the Wings and an outstanding performance by Hasek. He was excellent once again.

Both of the Wings' goals were total flukes. If Beauchemin were Colombian, I'd recommend a serious security detail.

The Wings will need to play better if they want to win this series. They got two very luck goals and great goaltending. The latter can carry the day in a series (as any Wings' fan knows all too well), but that's a dangerous path to venture down.

[duff88]

For anyone who's team is eliminated and have nothing to look forward to, I made this:

2007 NHL Draft Top 100 - Profiles - Stats - Reports

1 Patrick Kane RW
2 Jakub Voracek RW
3 James Van Riemsdyk LW
4 Kyle Turris C
5 Karl Alzner LD
6 Kevin Shattenkirk RD
7 Alexei Cherepanov RW
8 Keaton Ellerby LD
9 Ryan McDonagh LD
10 Sam Gagner C
11 Logan Couture C
12 James O'Brien C
13 Thomas Hickey LD
14 Zach Hamill C
15 Lars Eller C
16 Bill Sweatt LW
17 Patrick White C
18 Jonathon Blum RD
19 Ian Cole LD
20 Angelo Esposito C
21 Brett MacLean LW
22 Tommy Cross LD
23 Dana Tyrell LW
24 Mikael Backlund C
25 Simon Hjalmarsson LW
26 Mark Katic LD
27 Oscar Moller RW
28 Maxim Mayorov LW
29 Joakim Anderson C
30 Logan MacMillan C

[Logan]

Ha! Two Logans in the top 30. The world is certainly changing.

[bbor]

Gagner at 10 would be a steal.......same with Esposito at 20.

[duff88]

Originally Posted by bbor

Gagner at 10 would be a steal.......same with Esposito at 20.

I want to add something; this is not a mock draft, this is a list. I don't believe Esposito will last until pick number 20, but I would take the 19 players rated ahead of him before I would take him.

Living in Chicoutimi and with the huge Sags-Remparts rivalry, I can say Esposito is one of the prospects I've seen the most in this draft and I think he has some huge weaknesses. He has the potential to be an excellent player, but I think there are some big risks around him. Plus he doesn't work very hard and he is often unnoticeable in important moments. There comes a point where you have to pick him based on that potential, but not before some of the guys ahead of him.

[st.cronin]

Wow, that's not something you expect to see.

[RendeR]

I love this team.

[henry296]

Can someone tell me why the first Buffalo goal was waived off? I saw the goal, flipped channels and than saw it was 0-0.

[Chubby]

Originally Posted by henry296

Can someone tell me why the first Buffalo goal was waived off? I saw the goal, flipped channels and than saw it was 0-0.

Went in off of Vanek's hand. No goal can be scored if it deflects in off a hand regardless of intent.

[B & B]

[Maple Leafs]

[B & B]

CLASSIC!

Maple Leafs, I think thats gonna be my desktop for the rest of this short-lived series.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Chubby

Went in off of Vanek's hand. No goal can be scored if it deflects in off a hand regardless of intent.

The 4th Sabres goal of Game 1 vs the Rangers disagrees.

[Karim]

From what I've been reading from people who watch the Q intently, Esposito has bust written all over him. His work ethic is not close to professional calibre and he combines it with an attitude. When he was drafted in the mid-first round, he refused to report, waiting for an NCAA offer which never came. He was near the top at the start of the year but there's a reason why he's dropped to #20.

[duff88]

Originally Posted by Karim

From what I've been reading from people who watch the Q intently, Esposito has bust written all over him. His work ethic is not close to professional calibre and he combines it with an attitude. When he was drafted in the mid-first round, he refused to report, waiting for an NCAA offer which never came. He was near the top at the start of the year but there's a reason why he's dropped to #20.

Although it's not really well regarded, it's pretty frequent for players in the CHL draft to play the NCAA card to be sure to go to the team they want. Esposito did it to be drafted by Quebec, otherwise he would have been the first overall pick. His attitude problems may be a bit overblown right now, although he's not the kind of guy I'd build my team around.

[Maple Leafs]

Hey Wings fans, what's the deal with all the fans singing along to Let the Day Begin after the first whistle in game one? Is that some sort of Detroit thing?

[Schmidty]

The Wings look horrible. No energy. No apparant concentration on the game. Nothing.

[Schmidty]

Good. Maybe that goal will wake them up.

[bhlloy]

So... the Ducks marginally the better team in game one, but lose on two bad goals. Detroit marginally the better team in game 2, but lose because two of the four Ducks goals were bad goals.

This is going to be an awesome series. It will be hard to feel sorry for Selanne if he fails to win the cup again, because he has been absolutely invisible since the middle of the Minnesota series. If he starts scoring like the regular season, I think the Ducks win the cup.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

So... the Ducks marginally the better team in game one, but lose on two bad goals. Detroit marginally the better team in game 2, but lose because two of the four Ducks goals were bad goals.

This is going to be an awesome series. It will be hard to feel sorry for Selanne if he fails to win the cup again, because he has been absolutely invisible since the middle of the Minnesota series. If he starts scoring like the regular season, I think the Ducks win the cup.

Hmm, maybe I heard/read differently. I was at work tonight, and the game was on, but I wasn't able to pay much attention to it. But the stats say we had the shot advantage again, and both articles I read indicated we were again controlling puck possession and rattling the Wings with our physical play. And I also read Hasek had to make some incredible saves to even keep us from just scoring three goals in regulation.

I did read that two of our goals came after reviews. The only one I have seen described was the Rob Niedermayer goal,a nd that just sounds like a weird goal. I'll need to see it on replay before I can make a call on that.

Anyway, regardless of result, my understanding is we were at least playing even and maybe playing better in both games (just in Game One, we didn't have the luck, and Game Two we did).

It would be even more interesting to have seen this series with Schneider and Kronwall available. Regardless, the series is living up to its billing so far.

[Schmidty]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

But the stats say we had the shot advantage again, and both articles I read indicated we were again controlling puck possession and rattling the Wings with our physical play.

Dude, I forgot that you play for the Mighty, Mighty Ducks. I'll look for you on the ice next time. Good luck!!!!!

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Schmidty

Dude, I forgot that you play for the Mighty, Mighty Ducks. I'll look for you on the ice next time. Good luck!!!!!

Heh...we're not the Mighty Ducks anymore. Now we're the mighty Ducks.

Seriously, though, I enjoy the Red Wing contingent here, and have been looking forward to some banter with you guys. My gut still says this goes seven, and the luckiest team may end up being the one that advances.

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Hmm, maybe I heard/read differently. I was at work tonight, and the game was on, but I wasn't able to pay much attention to it. But the stats say we had the shot advantage again, and both articles I read indicated we were again controlling puck possession and rattling the Wings with our physical play. And I also read Hasek had to make some incredible saves to even keep us from just scoring three goals in regulation.

I did read that two of our goals came after reviews. The only one I have seen described was the Rob Niedermayer goal,a nd that just sounds like a weird goal. I'll need to see it on replay before I can make a call on that.

All Ducks in the first period - after that we turned the puck over way too much and our power play was useless. The Maltby shorthand goal was one of the biggest jokes I have seen - we gave up a rush on the shorthand, Giguere made a save and then we gave the puck up in our own zone again (on a powerplay) and Maltby scored.

Still not 100% sure what happened on the Niedermayer goal. Basically what I remember was that the puck got deflected on net, and it got stuck in Hasek's pads and he flopped onto his back into the net with the puck clearly visible sitting on his leg. The kind of wacky goal that only Hasek will give up - I can't imagine that is what you want to teach young goaltenders to do when they don't know where the puck is. He made a couple of stops in the first period that only Hasek can make as well though. I guess you take the good with the bad.

[Pyser]

i only caught the overtime, but from what i saw, the ducks winning that game was inevitable. they controlled the play the whole time i saw.

[Honolulu_Blue]

The Wings had the edge as far as special teams play, but that was it. The Ducks carried the play throughout the game. They had more shots and had the puck far more often then the Wings. They had many more scoring opportunities at well and did a great job in transition.

[bbor]

Na-Na-Na-na....hey-hey ye goo......?

[Karim]

Somebody remind the Sabres it's the Conference Finals...

[Pyser]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by bbor

Na-Na-Na-na....hey-hey ye goo......?

I will never be happier for a Canadien team to advance. I hope Buffalo doesn't come close to sniffing a win.