Stanley Cup Playoffs 2020 Thread

[Thorner]

If it's true, and Monahan is a good piece but not a true "core" type player, we don't need to stress too much about that 3 year term. If Cozens goes to plan, I can't see Monahan being any worse than a super-stop-gap. 

He'd help us get to the playoffs. 

Edited August 21, 2020 by Thorny

[Eleven]

RIP bracket.

[PerreaultForever]

14 hours ago, sabresparaavida said:

Both the Islanders/Bruins (shudder) seemed to have played really well in their series, and the Flyers did dominate the round robin, so I wouldn't count them out. I think the west will be one of vegas or colorado though. 

Philly isn't impressing me against Montreal. I put very little stock in the round robin. Bruins players are already on record saying they had trouble taking those games as anything more than exhibition and I suspect other veteran teams felt the same. 

[Eleven]

13 minutes ago, PerreaultForever said:

Philly isn't impressing me against Montreal. I put very little stock in the round robin. Bruins players are already on record saying they had trouble taking those games as anything more than exhibition and I suspect other veteran teams felt the same. 

This is why I have Boston going through to the final in my bracket.  (And losing!)

[Gabrielor]

One of the more contrarian opinions I’ve taken, but I had Dennis Gurianov as a top 10 pick in 2015, ahead of Strome.

Glad to see he’s making me proud.

[PerreaultForever]

2 hours ago, Eleven said:

This is why I have Boston going through to the final in my bracket.  (And losing!)

They might if Halak can hold up. Tampa looks pretty solid this time though and they have a pretty solid record head to head against the Bruins. 

The big thing about these playoffs is nobody is affected by the wear and tear of the regular season. The only injuries are those occurring now and so with generally full line ups upsets are less likely. Bruins do benefit from that and Krejci is on fire which is big for them. The goaltending is suspect though for a close series. 

[Stoner]

9 hours ago, Randall Flagg said:

How can a team look so bad and so good in the same game? lol

They started trying?

[LTS]

10 hours ago, thewookie1 said:

Kinda sad as that leaves us with Tampa, Boston, the Isles and likely Philly as Eastern Conference candidates. 

Doesn’t leave me many teams to root for. I hate Boston, dislike Philly, and really not fond of Tampa. The Isles aren’t terrible but they have rather boring games.

 

As for the West, we have Vegas and Colorado, already through and neither are teams I like as one has barely existed and thus doesn’t deserve a Cup and the other somehow always got lucky with any draft pick they acquired and got to have an inadvertent tank year without any residual problems. Then we have Dallas who is both boring to watch and will always be undeserving until we win a Cup. Calgary which I actually like but want more trade possibilities. St. Louis is a huge no from me as I will always despise ROR having success regardless of if he forced his way out or not. And Vancouver just angers me because Quinn Hughes doing well only makes media and people alike talk down on Dahlin. Plus they make a risky trade and it worked out versus practically any risk we take explodes in our faces. 

I guess Isles vs Avs would be a weirdly interesting Final to me. As at least I don’t hate Compher or Zadorov.

I'm curious when you think it would be okay for Vegas to win a Cup?  How many seasons in?

[ubkev]

3 minutes ago, LTS said:

I'm curious when you think it would be okay for Vegas to win a Cup?  How many seasons in?

One more than it takes us ?

I want em to win. It'll help my bracket!

[thewookie1]

1 minute ago, LTS said:

I'm curious when you think it would be okay for Vegas to win a Cup?  How many seasons in?

Their fanbase needs to suffer to earn it essentially. They can't just waltz into the playoffs year after year.

Buffalo has suffered, Vancouver has suffered, Washington and St. Louis suffered through down years and terrible let downs and then finally won their respective Cups. Most fanbases have felt the sting of missing the postseason, of losing players, bad contracts, etc. Vegas was given a silver platter of an expansion draft and has had absurd amounts of success already. 

Let me say, I do like Vegas, they have a great looking arena from what I can see and a very solid team; however I don't feel their fans deserve a Cup. 

 

[LTS]

7 minutes ago, thewookie1 said:

Their fanbase needs to suffer to earn it essentially. They can't just waltz into the playoffs year after year.

Buffalo has suffered, Vancouver has suffered, Washington and St. Louis suffered through down years and terrible let downs and then finally won their respective Cups. Most fanbases have felt the sting of missing the postseason, of losing players, bad contracts, etc. Vegas was given a silver platter of an expansion draft and has had absurd amounts of success already. 

Let me say, I do like Vegas, they have a great looking arena from what I can see and a very solid team; however I don't feel their fans deserve a Cup. 

 

The reason I ask is that the Sabres made it to the Cup finals in 1975.  Would it have been okay if they had won that series then?  I realize we're not at that point with Vegas, but I was just curious on how you might compare the two situations.  

Naturally you can't add the additional years of not winning to the evaluation.  In 1975 the Sabres were in their 5th season... not a lot of suffering had gone on (they weren't perennial playoff performers, that's true).

[SwampD]

20 minutes ago, LTS said:

I'm curious when you think it would be okay for Vegas to win a Cup?  How many seasons in?

50 and counting.

[dudacek]

9 hours ago, Randall Flagg said:

By the way, I've been hesitant to feel as strongly positive about Sean Monahan as some other posters. I think he's pretty bad off the puck. Calgary fans are describing the Johnny Gaudreau era as "wasted by Sean Monahan" right now, and are saying they "literally never want to see Sean in a Flames jersey again." 

If he does end up being a target of Adams, we are getting a player that's more flawed than most of us think. 

That said, if you find the right role (not 1C) and provide defensive insulation, he could be like Skinner was next to Jack - perfectly at home, while struggling so much outside of home. 

I remember when I first started floating Monahan’s name, and some of you said “why would they ever move Monahan?”

This is why.

Buffalo fans expecting Monahan to replace O’Reilly will be disappointed. He’s more of a Derek Roy-level player.

And we sure could use a Roy-level player on this team. Buy low when you can.

[Flashsabre]

9 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I remember when I first started floating Monahan’s name, and some of you said “why would they ever move Monahan?”

This is why.

Buffalo fans expecting Monahan to replace O’Reilly will be disappointed. He’s more of a Derek Roy-level player.

And we sure could use a Roy-level player on this team. Buy low when you can.

Monahan for Risto, do it while they are reeling and not thinking straight?

[LGR4GM]

10 minutes ago, Flashsabre said:

Monahan for Risto, do it while they are reeling and not thinking straight?

They have an analytics guy that is fully against trading for Risto. 

[blueNgold0926]

Mountour + Mitts + 8th overall + 2021 2nd round pick

for;

Monohan + 2020 CGY 1st + 2021 3rd round pick

Not sure if that's enough to get it done but they do have a big need at RHD, all but one are UFA this offseason. 

[dudacek]

9 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

They have an analytics guy that was fully against trading for Risto two or three years ago, according to Brian Burke.

 

[Marvin]

8 hours ago, LTS said:

The reason I ask is that the Sabres made it to the Cup finals in 1975.  Would it have been okay if they had won that series then?  I realize we're not at that point with Vegas, but I was just curious on how you might compare the two situations.  

Naturally you can't add the additional years of not winning to the evaluation.  In 1975 the Sabres were in their 5th season... not a lot of suffering had gone on (they weren't perennial playoff performers, that's true).

Toronto and  New York nixed our entry in 1967. 

The first two years were fun only because they were new.  They were better than the tank teams, albeit barely.  But they played hard, Perreault was just so much fun to watch, and we had a lot of fun with a lot of hope.

Tim Horton died in year 1974.

The league repudiated the rules to accommodate the Flyers and then many other teams to level effects of talent even though the Habs overwhelmed it.

IMHO, you can't really appreciate the good times without some bad times, even if they were brief.  What happens if they miss the playoffs for a few consecutive years?  Does attendance drop through the ice?  That happened to the Islanders, Florida, St. Louis, etc. -- never had early lean years off the bat, so their attendance fell harder with bad times.

 

[ubkev]

Fast start in this one!

[Wyldnwoody44]

The Habs are way more aggressive and physical than I ever expected 

[ubkev]

We got some fire wagon hockey right now.

[darksabre]

How does every other team in the league manage to draft players who develop and contribute? 

[thewookie1]

9 hours ago, LGR4GM said:

They have an analytics guy that is fully against trading for Risto. 

Is he still there though?

[BagBoy]

Flyers / Isles

Bolts / Bruins

Go Tampa!

[Wyldnwoody44]

That last Vancouver goal was a thing of beauty