What, no hockey fans? - Page 9

No nap is required.

The pressure on the Pens is FAR bigger than the pressure on Detroit. The Pens MUST win and home, and Fleury MUST stand on his head again, in front of the home town crowd.

There is no need for OT.

I predict that the Pens will go down hard tonight: 4-0 Detroit.

I'll say I would like to see it go 7.

I have a bit more respect for the Pens than I did last week. I already had reapect after they way they stomped Philly. They should just try to avoid taking eachother out with slapashots to the face.

[quote=BigE;915255]No nap is required.

The "nap" is in case I have to stay awake until 1am again!!!!

I really hope they can pull out another big one. The igloo will be
Rock'n!!!!!!!

Let's go 7 games....winner take all

It's been a great series......

Osgood thought the puck was in.....

Great win for the Wings - Thought for a sec there that the Pens had pulled off another comeback. Looked like the Wings did too. Hard to imagine the change in emotion from panic watching the puck drop behind you to elation realizing the you held on and won. Can't believe the ref's didn't call a tripping penalty when Datsyuk went down. Would have been a pretty bad call to miss if Pittsburgh had scored to tie the game.

Great series and two good games to broadcast on NBC. Hope it drew some viewers.

Congrats to all, winners showing world class class and the new kids on the block conceding defeat and congratulating the victors.
Just wait til next year!

The pens played much better than I thought they would. Malkin actually showed up! Still, neither he nor Crosby were much of a threat.

So would splitting Crosby and Malkin - as a team they were fairly simple to contain. Splitting them could have made line matching a bit more difficult.

Still, I'd go Malkin for Ovechkin. And if possible, Hossa for Healey.

That's exactly why I'd love to see Therrien fired soon. He has one game plan he just throws out there over and over and over. Babcock changed his game every game, sometimes every period as needed.

He refused to split Malkin and Crosby, even though they hadn't produced together since, what, the Sens series? He's a good coach, but not an elite coach. This team needs an elite coach that knows what to do with a roster full of talent.

Harsh words for a guy who coached them to the cup. I agree on the whole game plan thing, but would you really want to see him fired? If so, who would you want? (realistically, I mean coach who they actually have a shot at getting).

Yes, he did take them to the Cup, but how great does a coach have to be to take that roster through the playoffs? I think anyone could have done it through the ECF honestly. He shouldn't be replaced with just anyone, it would have to be a spectacular coach, ala Bowman, Badger Bob, even Babcock types. I honestly don't have anyone in mind because frankly, I don't know who's even available at this time.

You could clearly see the difference in coaching abilities between Babcock and Therrien in this series. Most times, MT had no answer for what Babcock was doing.

I agree with Rob on the reffing (I don't blame any losses on it). Throughout the playoffs in both conferences it was bad. Bettman wants a new NHL, played by new rules...then do it. What we had was a mix of old time hockey and new nhl. Sometimes they called em the old way, sometimes the new way. Most games it flip flopped from period to period or even minute to minute. Very confusing and frustrating. As for the new NHL, I'm not nearly as fond of it as the old. Give me old time hockey any day, the game went faster and was generally more exciting even though scoring may have been lower over all.

Congrats to Pittsburgh for making it entertaining. Hockey season is now officially over.

Actually, let me reword that: change "fired" to "replaced with a more qualified candidate at the earliest opportunity".

I don't think you can blame MT. He did not have the players to compete with Detroit.

As far as the officiating, it stunk for both sides. There would have been a riot if the Pens tied the game. 10 seconds or not Dats had an empty net to shoot at and was tripped.

I disagree that the game should be changed to eliminate more contact. If the Pens passes were more accurate, they would not have had the problems they did. Detroit moved through the neutral zone with ease by quick precise passing. I saw plenty of ticky tac obstruction from both sides, but the game should require some power as well as speed.

It was a fun series. Hopefully for my PA friends, the Pens organization will make the right moves to improve in the off season. No easy feat.

I would expect the Wings to improve their roster between now and the 2009 playoffs.

It does. Go back and look at New jersey in the 90's, if you want to see obstruction.

The game is pretty darn good, IMHO.

I love hockey (Im Canadian after all), but man were the playoffs boring this year. I hate it when it's all US teams (sorry guys). Its great that Crosby is Canadian and all that, but it just isnt the same as having an actual Canadian team in there. I thought Montreal might do it, but they just couldnt get it done. Congrats the Redwings, they played great this year. Definitly deserve it.

There is always next season I guess. Go Flames!

And so they start....

Actually this is the biggest non-surprise of the off-season. Can Chelios be far behind?

Not a hockey fan, but this sort of news about local team has my attention:
Alex Ovechkin accepted the Lester B. Pearson Award, given to the most outstanding player as voted by his peers. He also captured the Hart Trophy as the league's MVP -- in a landslide. Ovechkin is the first Capital to win either award, beating out Calgary's Jarome Iginla and Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin for both honors. Ovechkin also became the first player to win the Hart and Pearson awards along with the Art Ross and Maurice "Rocket" Richard trophies, given for leading the league with 112 points and 65 goals, respectively.
"I wanted to win everything," Ovechkin said. "Maybe next year the Stanley Cup."
Ovechkin was the biggest story of the night at the Elgin Theatre, but the best tale belonged to Capitals Coach Bruce Boudreau, who won the Jack Adams Award as the top coach after being promoted from the minor leagues Nov. 22 and leading Washington from last place to the franchise's first playoff berth in five years."The one thing I want to do is enjoy and remember this," Boudreau said. "Because a lot of times, it happens right off the bat so people think, 'Oh, this is going to happen every year,' and then they never get another chance again. You may never get here again."
"I think I'm the happiest 22-year-old guy on the planet," Ovechkin said. "I have everything."
Even before Thursday night this had been a memorable week for Ovechkin -- and it's not over yet. On Friday afternoon, District Mayor Adrian M. Fenty will present Ovechkin with a key to the city during a fan ceremony on the steps of the John A. Wilson Building. Then Ovechkin will be honored by Leonsis at a private dinner at a posh downtown restaurant.
Ovechkin said he will return to Russia on Sunday and spend the majority of the summer in his homeland, though he plans to vacation in Turkey with teammate Alexander Semin and seven other associates before returning to Moscow to train with Dynamo of Russia's Continental Hockey League (formerly the Russian Super League).

With that squad, I'd go for Mike Keenan.

Yiikes! That's not how anyone plays hockey anywhere anytime....

"Playing the man" is drilled into you from your first ever game as a child. It's in the basic fabric of the game.

Sure play the man but what's up with the fighting? No other team sport allows this. It's completely idiotic.
Here's a recipe for increasing the NHL's appeal to a broader fan base:
-Get rid of fighting.
Yeah hardcore fans will scream and holler but it doesn't matter if they leave because they'll be replaced by many more. Plus it's doubtful a lot will leave. Good luck with this one though as I'm sure we're about to hear the arguments to keep the fighting. Well if the NHL was swimming in popularity teams wouldn't be disappearing.

-Change to an International size rink.
The skating has gotten so fast now that it's really time to go to the wider rink. More passing, more interesting.

-Hire someone who had a hand in making Nastar's dramatic rise in popularity.

I have to say that this years Stanley Cup was among some of the best nhl hockey I've seen in a long time but I admit I don't watch much.

Fighting keeps the game safer. Without is, players will use their sticks as weapons. Knowing that an enforcer is coming after a player after a cheap shot, has proven to be a great deterrent.

Besides nothing is much more exciting than a couple of heavyweights going at it.

Precisely.

I do think, that the International size rink will "Improve" the game. But, all the arenas would either need to be modified, or new ones built. Still, I'm not sure that the "Big Rink" would be accepted here since fans like to see a lot of contact. It would dramatically change the face of the game. It may even cause a decrease in average player size, to deal with the additional skating requirement!

: I'm also in favor of allowing a few minutes of fighting to resolve the disputes like men. I think that prevents folks from using sticks, gloves and razor sharp :skates as weapons. On the same note, I'm in favor of crimminal punishment for blatent extreme blind sided cheap shots or use of equipment as weapons too. fights yes, but make it a fair fight.

I stumbled across a Blues jersey in excellent condition today in a thrift store pirced at $7.00. I've never been a Blues fan, but for 7 bucks I'll follow them some next season and see how they do (along with the Stars and Canes). I wouldn't have paid $10.00

Feel free to say the Blues suck, I currently agree Hey, if they fold my $7 jersey will be a collectors item..

If you find a Wings sweater for $7, buy it for me.