Mandroid2.0 wrote:The Sharks deserve to lose at this point. Kudos to Nabby for being the only member of the team to pull himself together tonight and perform adequately after an embarrassing loss on Sunday and equally unnecessary defeat tonight.

I'm hoping the Wings take it this year, if the Sharks cannot. I hate the East Coast. God, do I hate the East Coast....

c'mon philly is like the oakland of the east.


I have no idea why the rangers are folding up like a lawn chair at this point. to me, on paper they are the much better team. I guess I have to question the effort, as they put a real clinic on vs. njd. I really haven't watched much of this series, but I did hear that crosby was diving and getting calls. still I did tune in for a bit last night and saw nyr go on something like 4 consecutive powerplays and couldn't get it going.

This is a weird second round. all the series could've easily been 3-0 at this point.

I'm disappointed in the sharks and the avalanche. wow, who'd a thunk it?

madlee wrote:c'mon philly is like the oakland of the east.

I always thought that was Baltimore.

I was hoping that the Philly/Habs matchup would turn interesting, and so far it's been pretty good. I'm guessing it gets even better, and possibly goes to 7.

I'm disappointed in the sharks and the avalanche. wow, who'd a thunk it?

Please see the last two 2nd round exits for the Sharks. It's weird how at certain points in any given season, key players just stop showing up. Thornton isn't usually one of them, and there are rumors that he's injured, but still - he's usually pretty dependable, and between him and Nabby they've been able to steal several games. He's not there, Nabby's had a couple of mediocre games, lots of the go-to guys are gone, look where we are. You get used to it after watching enough games.

And all due credit to Dallas. There isn't anyone on that team that's taking bad shifts right now. They're making a serious go of it.

I noticed a trend with the Sharks this season: whenever you see 2 Sharks players run into each other, expect them to lose. Usually it's 2 D men. And it happens a lot. They've lost some without that warning sign, but only won 1 game where it's happened.

I think the Avs are doing about as well as could be expected. They were strung together at the trade deadline, and have a lot of talent and some luck, but they're going up against a team that's firing on all cylinders and has been for quite some time. Detroit had a bad month this year. Other than that they've been playing like a well-oiled machine, at or near this level since day one.

madlee wrote:I have no idea why the rangers are folding up like a lawn chair at this point. to me, on paper they are the much better team. I guess I have to question the effort, as they put a real clinic on vs. njd.

Funny, I thought the Devs handed that series to the Rangers and now the Rangers are up against a team stacked with talent. Pittsburgh's really, really good.

...but I did hear that crosby was diving and getting calls.

I've watched all the games and I haven't seen it. I think there's a lot of anti-Crosby bias out there that calls him a pussy. Seems like he plays pretty fuckin' hard to me.

I'm just hopin' that Habs can pull it out and overcome the Flyers. That would make me happy.

stevenstillborn wrote:

madlee wrote:I have no idea why the rangers are folding up like a lawn chair at this point. to me, on paper they are the much better team. I guess I have to question the effort, as they put a real clinic on vs. njd.

Funny, I thought the Devs handed that series to the Rangers and now the Rangers are up against a team stacked with talent. Pittsburgh's really, really good.

...but I did hear that crosby was diving and getting calls.

I've watched all the games and I haven't seen it. I think there's a lot of anti-Crosby bias out there that calls him a pussy. Seems like he plays pretty fuckin' hard to me.

I'm just hopin' that Habs can pull it out and overcome the Flyers. That would make me happy.

Since you are a fan of NJD, there may be a little bias there. Gomez seemed to be playing like a man possessed. to me, it looks like the rangers blew that 3 goal lead, and they are kind of scratching their heads.

pittsburgh loaded with talent? more than any other team? do they really have better players than detroit? or nyr? on paper, nyr looks like the better team to me. for whatever reason, they are in a 3-0 hole.

I'm a little concerned what the league and the officials will do if it ends up being an all pennsylvania semi final.

I'm not sure if detroit is really firing on all cylinders as you say. if they were, what happened with nashville? I do agree that colorado is put together with band aids, and I'm sure a healthy forsberg would have had an impact.

madlee wrote:pittsburgh loaded with talent? more than any other team? do they really have better players than detroit? or nyr?

I will answer your questions in order:

yes
no
no
yes

And yeah, I'm a devils fan so I'm biased, but we'd been underachieving against the Rangers all damn year and, Gomez or no, our defense blew it more than once in all four losses. We can't win that way.

madlee wrote:I'm not sure if detroit is really firing on all cylinders as you say. if they were, what happened with nashville?

What do you mean? They won.

I do agree that colorado is put together with band aids, and I'm sure a healthy forsberg would have had an impact.

When was the last time anyone saw that in the playoffs?

I don't think the devils were playing anywhere near their best hockey. However, gomez seemed to relish playing against his old team and carried them, in a way that I was hoping jagr would do against pittsburgh.

a healthy forsberg was seen in round one.

detroit went 7 games against a team people thought they were going to sweep. for awhile there, it looked like the wheel had come off.

madlee wrote:detroit went 7 games against a team people thought they were going to sweep. for awhile there, it looked like the wheel had come off.

Agreed. I thought that maybe they were gonna punt this one away. Then they switched to Osgood and everything's back to normal.

madlee wrote:
pittsburgh loaded with talent? more than any other team? do they really have better players than detroit? or nyr? on paper, nyr looks like the better team to me. for whatever reason, they are in a 3-0 hole.

The Rangers have always been better on paper than on ice. 1994 was an aberration. They try to buy championships like their baseball counterparts the Yankees, but fail to get their high-priced superstars to gel as a team. The Red Wings get away with it because they also develop their young players, are maddeningly good at late-round drafting (Zetterberg, Datsyuk), and their veteran core has been there for-freaking-ever.

Pittsburgh? After Crosby and Malkin, they have:
Marian Hossa
Petr Sykora
Sergei Gonchar
M-A Fleury and Jordan Staal are future All-Stars, and Ryan Malone gives you 20 goals a year without anyone outside of Pittsburgh even noticing. There's two lines, a goalie and one of the league's top defensemen right there. And I'd put their checking lines against any others as well.

That said, a possible Finals matchup against the Wings makes me nervous. Fucking Wings.

Yeah, Crosby's big diving moves sure prevented the Rangers from scoring any goals the other night.

madlee wrote:
c'mon philly is like the oakland of the east.

And Detroit is the Oakland of the midwest!