Stanley Cup Playoffs Game Discussion Thread

[Bmwolf21]

Tonight's games:

 

Montreal at Boston, Game 1, 7 p.m. ET

 

Nashville at Detroit, Game 1, 7 p.m. ET

 

Calgary at San Jose, Game 2 (Calgary leads 1-0) 10 p.m. ET

 

Dallas at Anaheim, Game 1, 10 PM ET

[Corp000085]

Good idea to have one thread. I forgot to pin one yesterday. I'm excited for the montreal series. It will be interesting to see once and for all if they are for real this year. It's also a good warmup for tomorrow, when the team that i'm rooting for takes the ice against the flyers. It will also be very interesting to see how calgary and san jose play out tonight, as its a back-to-back situation there.

[R_Dudley]

Here's my Guess's

 

Montreal Over Boston

 

Detroit over Nashville(although I would love for a Nashville upset)

 

San Jose ties it up (although I'm big Calgary fan)

 

Anahiem over Dallas (in a 2-1 OT thriller)

[millbank]

What a entrance of players

[Hirly5]

did anyone hear the anthem at the montreal game? The whole crowd was chanting with the singer in french. All the montreal players looked like they were ready to go to war and start killin caniacs.

[Bmwolf21]

I'm flipping back and forth between the Habs-Bruins CBC Center Ice feed and the Vs. broadcast of Preds-Wings, and what a difference in the two games. The Preds and Wings look like they are feeling each other out, but the Habs-Bruins game looks much more energetic and up-tempo.

 

It's tough for me to root for either team in the Nashville - Detroit series. I don't like Detroit, probably as a result of following Colorado during the Avs-Wings wars, but this Nashville team is full of punks and thugs and I'd love nothing more than to see them get swept and get their butts kicked right out of the playoffs.

[SwampD]

it looks like the bruins are doing all they can just to hang on. i'd be surprised if the habs don't blow it open in the third.

 

just for kicks i switched over to the AHL phantoms/penguins game on the NHL network. looks like a highschool game.

[Bmwolf21]

Scot Nichol has an arm injury and won't return. Hang on, let me find a tissue to dry my tears... <_<

[Bmwolf21]

Wow, amazing head-to-head stat in the Montreal game. According to HNiC, Montreal has led the Bruins for 397 1/2 minutes and was tied with them for the other 140+ minutes. They never trailed Boston all year.

[Bmwolf21]

So Montreal takes a 1-0 lead with a pretty commanding performance (Montreal outshoots Boston 32-18, and I can't remember a lot of prime scoring ops against Price), Detroit scores a pair in the 3rd to take a relatively boring Game 1 3-1, and the two late games coming up.

 

Ellis stopped 37 of 39 in the loss for Nashville, he was pretty damn solid up till Zetterberg's GWG off the one-timer.

[Hawerchuk]

Someone please tell me why SJ - Flames game is back to back and The Caps and Filthadelphia doesn't even start until tomorrow?! Pretty dumb if you ask me and the schedule makers. What the hell?!

[Bmwolf21]

Man, Kiprusoff and the Flames' PK unit really had to stand on their heads to keep the Flames in this game. Almost halfway through the 3rd and Kipper has already stopped 34/36 and the Flames have killed off 10:27 of shorthanded time...

[Hawerchuk]

Man, Kiprusoff and the Flames' PK unit really had to stand on their heads to keep the Flames in this game. Almost halfway through the 3rd and Kipper has already stopped 34/36 and the Flames have killed off 10:27 of shorthanded time...

 

I know. SJ is pounding them with shots. Amazing. 27 alone in the 2nd I think. WOW!

[Seth Greenstein]

Quick thoughts on day 2:

 

Montreal looks like they are completely ready for the playoffs. Not warrier like, but definitely ready.

Very odd scheduling and I didn't realize it until today that the Caps don't start until tomorrow.

You knew SJ had that in them. Nabakov might win the Vezina trophy this year and he showed why - he made some serious saves today. He could go to jail for the amount of thefts he had tonight.

Detroit game - hate both teams, boring game.

Shocked by the Dallas game. If Dallas plays that well all playoffs long, they will be a force to reckon with now that they are a top 6 scoring team in the NHL. Turco looked outstanding when he had to play but otherwise, looked bored. At one point, the Ducks only had one shot in 21 minutes! Ducks looked like the Senators. And that's NOT a good thing.

[Peace Frog]

It's tough to judge teams after just one game but I'd say Montrebeck & Dallas look pretty formidable. I may have to pull for Les Habitants just because poor Canada hasn't won The Cup for 16 years.

[Seth Greenstein]

It's tough to judge teams after just one game but I'd say Montrebeck & Dallas look pretty formidable. I may have to pull for Les Habitants just because poor Canada hasn't won The Cup for 16 years.

 

I'm down with a Canadian team winning, just not the Leafs, Senators, Canucks and Oilers. The only teams I don't have a hatrid for are the Habitants and the Flames...

 

And I would agree that if both of those teams play like they did last night, they could be formidable. To be honest, the three teams who had the best open to the playoffs are the Pens, Habs and Stars.

[Bmwolf21]

Nabokov made the save of playoffs (thus far) on Nolan late in the third. Unreal. LINK

[carpandean]

Nabakov made the save of playoffs (thus far) on Nolan late in the third. Unreal. LINK

It was a good save and one of those that looked great, but really he just stuck his hand out and Nolan shot it at his glove. It was a good effort just to get his arm out there, but he didn't have to make any adjustment after the puck left Nolan's stick.

[SabresFan526]

So, apparently the Dallas PP will be much worse without Zubov. If they score 4 PP goals against Anaheim without Zubov, how good are they with Zubov? The Ducks just unraveled taking stupid penalties, and the Dallas PP was just absolutely extraordinary with 4 goals. Here's the thing that's surprising, I have not seen Dallas hockey regularly for a little while now, but when they brought Dave Tippett in to coach, the big thing was that he was the special teams coach for the Kings when they had a lethal PP and upset the Red Wings in the playoffs some time ago. The Stars special teams has not seemed spectacular during Tippett's tenure. Not bad, but not spectacular a la the work he did with the Kings, but last night was what I had expected to see from the Stars all these years under Tippett. I think part of it is that the Stars finally have some talent at forward that can score which they haven't really had in about 3-4 years. So, part of it's the system, but man, Dallas can be scary with talent and they've got it now with Ribeiro and Richards to add to Modano, Lehtinen, and Morrow, etc. Good win by the Stars, and surprising. I'm not a big Ducks fan nor am I fan of their style of play, so I'm happy to see the Stars win.

[Bmwolf21]

It was a good save and one of those that looked great, but really he just stuck his hand out and Nolan shot it at his glove. It was a good effort just to get his arm out there, but he didn't have to make any adjustment after the puck left Nolan's stick.

Disagree that it was just Nolan shooting into his glove. The shot was being released as Nabokov started reaching out, and he caught it just shy of the goal line with his arm completely outstretched. It was a fantastic save - Nolan had an empty net to shoot at and Nabby point-blank robbed him.

[Goodfella25]

I'm excited for another night of the Senators gettin absoultely run over by the Penguins. I wager that we will see Ray Emery play at some point before this series is over--and judging from that last game, I'd say that means we'll see him within the next 3 games.

[carpandean]

Disagree that it was just Nolan shooting into his glove. The shot was being released as Nabokov started reaching out, and he caught it just shy of the goal line with his arm completely outstretched. It was a fantastic save - Nolan had an empty net to shoot at and Nabby point-blank robbed him.

He definitely robbed him; I'll give you that. My point is that if you watch the shot from behind (around 0:23-0:28) he has already started reaching out when Nolan releases. If you extend the line that his hand is already heading on, it goes right to where it ends up. He reached for the most likely spot and Nolan put it there. I didn't mean to suggest that Nolan hit a stationary glove. It was a great save because he was way off to the other side and managed to get his glove over to that "most likely" spot just in time, not because he adjusted to where the shot actually went. He may still have been able to make it if Nolan put it higher or lower, but he was a little bit lucky that Nolan didn't. It's like some of those saves that Ryan and Marty made where they reached their stick out to the center of the open net and blocked a shot. Looked amazing, but also a little lucky. Don't get me wrong, I'd be cheering Miller as a god, too, if he made that save for us. ;)