View Full Version : Stanley Cup Playoffs 2009-2010
It's that time of the year, when a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of ... intense ice hockey action! First round games start tonight (currently watching the Pens lose to the Sens). Time for a poll for the Org favorite.
The Caps are favored by a mile, with a high scoring offense with plenty of depth. Which means they will lose to a grittier, more physical team in the second round. ~:rolleyes:
Sasaki Kojiro
04-15-2010, 02:41
I might watch some of it for the first time. Really enjoyed the canada vs USA final. The stakes were a lot higher there though.
But I don't know who to root for :shrug:
seireikhaan
04-15-2010, 02:43
I'll root for the sabres. Mostly because I kinda feel bad for the city of Buffalo's sports teams. And because I know nothing of hockey.
GeneralHankerchief
04-15-2010, 05:51
Gotta go with the Flyers, even though we're a soulless bunch of unlovable robots without a goalie this year. Despite this, I'll be totally on board the bandwagon again if we beat the Devils and (heaven forbid) He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named and the Penguins.
Sasaki Kojiro
04-15-2010, 05:56
I'll root for the sabres. Mostly because I kinda feel bad for the city of Buffalo's sports teams. And because I know nothing of hockey.
I think I'll go for them too. Because that goalie from the olympic final plays for them, and because his nickname is "miller time".
Reenk Roink
04-15-2010, 06:31
Gotta go with the Flyers, even though we're a soulless bunch of unlovable robots without a goalie this year. Despite this, I'll be totally on board the bandwagon again if we beat the Devils and (heaven forbid) He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named and the Penguins.
You guys have Chris *********** Pronger! :2thumbsup: The biggest playoff beast in recent memory. :yes: I want him to meet Ovechkin and absolutely wreck him, but yeah, I still think the Caps are gonna win. :shrug:
Kagemusha
04-15-2010, 10:41
My favourite is Detroit Red Wings, while we dont stand a chance this year. I bet Boston or Chicago will take the trophy.
Hosakawa Tito
04-15-2010, 10:52
My heart's with the Sabres. Now for some of Lord Stanley's Cup trivia. (http://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/article/467802)
Kris Draper's Red Wings may be No. 1 but when he had the trophy in Toronto earlier this summer, his newborn daughter used it for No. 2.
How's your Fruit Loops taste now you crazy hosers? :laugh4:
GeneralHankerchief
04-15-2010, 14:06
You guys have Chris *********** Pronger! :2thumbsup: The biggest playoff beast in recent memory. :yes: I want him to meet Ovechkin and absolutely wreck him, but yeah, I still think the Caps are gonna win. :shrug:
Yes, this is why we got Pronger, but unless Boucher recaptures his magic from 2000 it's going to be tough to do. The Flyers have baffled the Devils all year long (and again in Game 1) so I'm cautiously optimistic about this series, but considering our goalie body count this season I think Boosh needs to wrap himself in a bubble between starts so his leg doesn't get accidentally amputated or something. :wall:
Despite this, I'll be totally on board the bandwagon again if we beat the Devils and (heaven forbid) He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named and the Penguins.
I'm with you on the Penguins. I'd love it if the Sens knocked the big whiner out in the first round.
Strike For The South
04-15-2010, 15:40
I just want to see the absolute headhunting that will go on when and if the Pens and Caps meet up
Not a promising start by the Caps. Montreal played a very tight defense, and there seems to be an inverted Slovakian inside the crease. The Caps peppered Halak (47 shots), but couldn't get by him, and the Caps' leaky defense beat them in the end.
Caught the 3rd period and OT of the Kings/Canucks game. Looked like I was watching a recorded game on fast-forward. Awesome intensity, bodies flying everywhere, very quick pace. Looks like that might be the best series to watch in round 1.
Centurion1
04-17-2010, 01:43
im rooting for the caps yeah a tough loss last night though.
MOTHER RUSSIA!!!!!!!!
Ovechkin not shining but he gotta warm up.
in the end though anybody but that pretty boy sidney crosby, malkin is better imho.
GeneralHankerchief
04-23-2010, 04:19
The Caps are favored by a mile, with a high scoring offense with plenty of depth. Which means they will lose to a grittier, more physical team in the second round. ~:rolleyes:
IhopeIhopeIhopeIhope
IhopeIhopeIhopeIhope
Congrats to the Flyers. :bow: New Jersey needed to die anyway, for the sake of the league. Hopefully the Caps can finish off Montreal tonight, and get a few days rest.
I'll be curious to see how the Penguins handle their 3OT loss to Ottawa.
Excuse me for sounding ignorant, I really only follow slightly local sports, but I saw that the B's are leading in their current playoff game. Perhaps others could enlighten as to their chances in the rest of the tournament! GO B's!
It's funny, even though I am Canadian I have been a Washington Caps fan since the 80's.
When we were kids choosing up jerseys to play street hockey other kids had got there eariy and took all the popular jerseys and all that was left was Buffalo or Washington. For some reason I chose the caps one, and I have been a big fan from then on. I think I have the complete set of jerseys from the 70's right up until the mid 2000's. Some great players from that team in the past, Rod Langway, Al Iafrate, Sylvain Cote.
Yep, this could be the year...
scotchedpommes
04-24-2010, 13:08
As long as Detroit [and the Canucks, to a lesser extent] fail painfully I will be reasonably content. The destruction of Chris Pronger would be a bonus.
GeneralHankerchief
04-24-2010, 21:32
As long as Detroit [and the Canucks, to a lesser extent] fail painfully I will be reasonably content. The destruction of Chris Pronger would be a bonus.
Well, right now he's the one that's doing the destruction - unfortunately, it's to his own team. One of our top scorers, Jeff Carter, had the unfortunate misfortune of getting in the way of one of Pronger's slap shots and is now out for the playoffs.
Aside from that, he's played exactly as I expect him to though. :yes:
Seven games, of course. 53 saves by Halak. grumble grumble....
Megas Methuselah
04-28-2010, 20:27
Now that finals are over, I can actually start watching hockey again! It won't be the same legend as it used to be before that year they closed off and played "Movie Nights in Canada" :inquisitive: instead of hockey nights, but it's still fun a fun sport to watch and play.
Reenk Roink
04-29-2010, 04:47
Ouch Caps ouch. :no: Feel especially bad for Mike Green. Guy gets a lot of undeserved flak most of the year when he's playing amazing and then has a bad playoffs to legitimize the hate.
Son of a..... *(&$%^%! Caps.... Habs....
http://feministing.com/imageStorage/doh.jpg
Strike For The South
04-29-2010, 15:18
Havlik (sp) stood on his head.
That was unreal
Reenk Roink
04-29-2010, 15:20
Havlik (sp) stood on his head.
That was unreal
They said HALAK's name like 5000 times that game...
:beam:
He was great in being clutch for the last three games but he wasn't so good in games 1-3, and the Caps gave him a lot of easy shots...
GeneralHankerchief
04-29-2010, 15:25
Didn't Price play a few games in net for Montreal though? Halak only got hot when they put him back in for good. -edit- nvm, that was only for Game 4.
And yeah, that's got to suck for Washington. I'm happy that such strong competition has been eliminated, but at the same time I can't feel too good because I know all too well how one of those gut-wrenching losses feels.
Halak made some great saves in games 1 and 5. In games 6 and 7 he was just defending a shootaround. The Caps didn't get anybody in front of the net, they just crossed the line and wound up. No traffic in front of Halak, except of course the 2 goals which were essentially scrums. 1 for 33 on the power play in the series. They deserved to lose.
Kagemusha
04-29-2010, 19:59
My bets on the next pairs is that San Jose will beat Detroit,while i dont like that idea one bit.Blackhawks will beat Canucks. Pittsburgh will take out Montreal. While Boston drops another bomb by defeating Philadelphia.
Reenk Roink
05-09-2010, 05:50
Sharks better win now... :sad:
GeneralHankerchief
05-11-2010, 05:39
Okay, things are officially starting to take a turn for the crazy in the East. Montreal forces a second consecutive Game 7 against one of the two NHL Poster Boy teams and the Flyers lose their goalie (again!) midway through the Bruins game and keep on plugging to stay alive. Not to jinx anything, but if things go the way I want them to go a #7 seed will have home-ice for the conference finals! When's the last time that's happened? :dizzy2:
Reenk Roink
05-11-2010, 05:51
Montreal is the real deal, it's not even just Halak who has been outplayed by Fleury in 3 games (then again he vastly outplayed Fleury in the other 3)... :shocked2:
GH, not that I hold much hope of the Flyers coming back, but I just want the rest of the Eastern Conference to know what it is like to face Chris Pronger after going through him so much in recent years. Again the best player on the ice! :help:
Montreal just plain outworks whoever they are playing. Even excluding Halak, they have been playing some great team defense, they had a ton of blocked shots in the Caps series. It takes them a game or two to figure out what needs to be done, but then they just grind it.
Have fun on the golf course, Sid. :laugh4:
Edit-> Good job by the Flyers to force game 7.
GeneralHankerchief
05-13-2010, 04:16
Bruins commentor on an ESPN thread:
how do we beat the best goalie in the world, and now we cant beat a back up?!
One more game, baby. :smoking:
WOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!! Montreal makes it to the East final!
I got a feeling! :hat:
Nice choke job by the Bruins. From up 3 games to nil, to 3-3. Then from 3 goals to nil, to losing 4-3.
So a #7 seed gets to host the conference finals. Got to love the second season. :laugh4:
Sharks better win now... :sad:
Fail Red Wings FAIL
GeneralHankerchief
05-15-2010, 08:14
I have a habit - more a rule, actually - of not getting too emotionally invested in teams until they make the final round in sports. Been burned way too many times in the past when I've decided to back teams too early and summarily gotten my guts ripped out (every Eagles team first half of last decade, Flyers the year before the lockout, even that stupid horse Smarty Jones, etc). It's better for my health this way. But you know what? Screw the rules. I'm waiving the rule after tonight. Not after this team takes down two of our three biggest rivals (Rangers and Devils) just to get here and then falls behind 3-0, comes back from that, falls behind 3-0 in Game 7 itself and comes back from that to win 4-3 and 4-3 in the larger sense too. This sort of thing just doesn't happen to a team that won't even make it to the Cup finals. Montreal's been great, but Halak and Cammalleri don't seem as menacing when you've stared oblivion in the face so many times and are still kicking. We'll solve Halak, we'll weather Cammalleri's and the rest of 'em's storm. And if it comes down to another Game 7, you can count on Pronger and Timmonen not inexplicably forgetting how to play like Gonchar did for the Pens and Green for the Caps. As for beyond, we'll deal with that when we come to it.
I'm kind of hoping that this loss makes Boston sports comes full-circle - i.e. how the comeback in the '04 ALCS kind of kicked off a golden age for them and now this collapse of theirs signals the end of it. Hopefully that good karma and those championships will transfer to us too, but if not then we'll make our own luck. Bring on the Habs!
Go Flyers.
I wish you good luck figuring Halak. The Canadiens have a history of young goalies performing amazingly well in playoffs and Halak is yet another. Wait until you see the miracles this guy can do. The Habs have been outshot in every games they won so far, but Halak stood firm every time. This guy is the new Patrick Roy.
Who would have predicted that seeds 18th and 19th would have made it to the East Final? Last night, I really wanted the Bruins to win because I knew the Flyers would be pumped after an 0-3 comeback, but hey, this is gonna be a great matchup! I can't wait till sunday!
Go Habs Go! :smug:
Reenk Roink
05-15-2010, 17:17
I don't want to be a party pooper because both the Flyers and Habs are great stories and this years playoffs has been among some of the best I have seen mainly due to the East, but the fact of the matter is that whichever Eastern team prevails will simply be CRUSHED by San Jose/Chicago. It won't even be close.
It seems that I vastly overrated the Capitals, who have the best scoring depth but are average elsewhere, and get cold at the worst time. The Penguins would be a threat if Gonchar and Fleury and especially Malkin :no: (and even Crosby in the 2nd round) didn't underachieve.
San Jose and Chicago have great scoring depth, actually can play good defense and can overcome their average goalies. They are also bigger and faster than both Montreal and Philly. It kinda seems like the late 90's early 00's where the juggernauts of Detroit, Colorado, and Dallas basically wrapped up the Stanley Cup after the Conference finals.
GeneralHankerchief
05-19-2010, 16:32
I'm withholding judgment on this series until Montreal gets to play in their own building, but so far it looks like Halak's aura of awesomeness has faded a bit, especially with that third goal last night. We've got to keep more consistent pressure going down the Montreal end though; Leighton's been playing out of his mind but there's no way he can keep this up.
Issss! Yesterday's game almost made me cry. What are the Habs doing? 2 shutouts in a row.... :sad:
Philly is doing what the Caps and Penguins wouldn't (or couldn't) do, putting guys in front of the net, screening Halak, and jumping on rebounds. We'll see what happens in Montreal, but it looks like the Flyers have the upper hand.
Congrats GH! Flyers v Blackhawks, should be interesting.
GeneralHankerchief
05-25-2010, 02:54
Thanks drone! Was not expecting these two series to be over so quickly. Montreal had a good showing, but it seems like they just ran out of gas in this series. Matchups probably didn't help them too.
Chicago's obviously going to be the favorite, and rightly so, but we're sure not going to lie down and get swept. If we can split the first two games, we'll be okay. :yes:
Reenk Roink
05-25-2010, 18:33
I hate the Blackhawks so much and I wish they weren't so good. :sad:
However, now that the Flyers are healthy they actually look pretty good on paper. Richards, Briere, Gagne, Carter is a great set of forwards and they also have been playing pretty well. Not to mention other guys have been playing out of their minds like Leino. Pronger is just better than Keith, screw the fact that Keith will get the Norris, and the rest of the D is strong and are playing up to their name. Of course the fact that their goalie is the third stringer on a team with incredibly weak goaltending makes me facepalm but he has played well.
I still think Chicago will steamroll the Flyers but I want to be proved wrong badly. Pronger has got to destroy Byfuglien and then snap Kane like a twig and outscore Toews to win the Conn Smythe which should have been his in 2006 and 2007.
The Habs lost,,, *cries* *cries*
Reenk Roink
05-30-2010, 06:35
So... was this a good game or a bad game... :huh2:
Kagemusha
05-30-2010, 07:19
Tough game,but Chicago took it 6-5. These are interesting finals as i like both teams, but maybe my scale tips over to Chicago a bit with its couple very important Finnish players, first and foremost ofcourse Chicago´s goalie Antti Niemi.
GeneralHankerchief
05-31-2010, 02:33
Aw c'mon Kage, the Flyers have had a ton of Finns over the years! We've got Leino and Timonen on the current team, plus we've had Sami Kapanen, Niittymaki, Joni Pitkanen, even Timonen's crappy younger brother for a while.
Kagemusha
05-31-2010, 08:27
Aw c'mon Kage, the Flyers have had a ton of Finns over the years! We've got Leino and Timonen on the current team, plus we've had Sami Kapanen, Niittymaki, Joni Pitkanen, even Timonen's crappy younger brother for a while.
Like i said i like both teams and i am not terribly emotionally invested at the series.So if the Flyers will take it im glad as well.~:)
It's getting a little chippy...
Kagemusha
06-01-2010, 16:27
Another one for Chigaco. GH dont start hating me for mentioning Niemi.~;) Outstanding game from him. I hope the Flyers can take the next one in order to create a proper thriller out from this series.
GeneralHankerchief
06-01-2010, 20:44
If there's any hope, it's how we played in the third period. If we keep up that intensity throughout the entire series, there's no way Niemi continues to stop 16 shots a period. I think that momentum combined with us coming home for Game 3 puts the Flyers back in the series.
That said, Leighton needs to play better. He's given up too many softies this series, which is more amplified considering how Niemi played in those last 20 minutes.
Nice win for the Flyers. You can tell that the Blackhawks have more individual talent, they look dangerous on breakaways and seem to be corralling loose pucks, but the Flyers are grinding. All three games so far have been exciting, hopefully this goes at least six. :2thumbsup:
GeneralHankerchief
06-03-2010, 11:35
Right now, the first lines for both squads have been effectively neutralized. It's going to come down to depth and goaltending - I think the Flyers have the advantage in depth, but it's offset by their goaltending disadvantage. However, this is two games in a row now where the Blackhawks have just looked blown in the third period.
Reenk Roink
06-03-2010, 20:22
Did not watch the OT last night so I'm happy the Flyers won. But more than this good series so far, I have been drawn by Chris Pronger's antics with the media and the Hawks. Love to hate this guy more and more. :beam:
GeneralHankerchief
06-07-2010, 11:34
Oy. :wall:
We can still win this thing, it just got a lot harder.
Reenk Roink
06-07-2010, 18:16
Hmm the Flyers really should have split the first two games...
As for Chicago, even when they win...
https://img693.imageshack.us/img693/8994/prongerumad.jpg (https://img693.imageshack.us/i/prongerumad.jpg/)
Sorry, GH. Strange ending.
Reenk Roink
06-10-2010, 20:07
Ugh, I'm still thinking "Leighton..." at this moment. :sad: I know he played well in the Boston and Montreal series, and had good games in the finals, but game 1 especially should have been Philly but for him... :wall: The cup winning goal wouldn't be such a big deal if there weren't several weak type goals like it.
GH, I hope you at least enjoyed the pretty amazing run. :yes:
GeneralHankerchief
06-10-2010, 21:16
Ah well.
I did enjoy the run, and I am one of those who subscribe to the "it's the journey, not the destination" school of thought, but it would be nice every once in a while if we got to the correct destination too.
Unfortunately I had work last night and couldn't see the goal (only on radio) so I was treated to about 7 hours of people telling me that either a) it sucked about the loss, and b) it was a BS goal and shouldn't have counted. The radio people were really confused about it too - I didn't even have the chance to properly swear upon realizing that the series was over. TBH I had never considered that the Flyers were going to lose Game 6 at any point. If we were going to lose the series at all, it was going to be in Game 7. That's why the Kane goal came as a double shock.
I think we're in a better position next year than Chicago is though. More talent under wraps for longer. As great as Leighton's run was, the entire Finals proved that, while good, he simply isn't good enough at the highest level of performance, and unfortunately we're the kind of team that needs the goalie to go the extra mile. Dream scenario is that we ship out Carter (too many centers on the team and Giroux is going to be better) and get a true #1 goalie in return, and resign Leighton to be a very high-caliber backup.
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