NHL Playoffs (2 Viewers)

[Panzer ace]

I might be in the minority, but if Rinne can do his best Patrick Roy imitation I think the Preds have a great shot at winning the Cup. I could see them winning a couple of games 1-0 with Rinne standing on his head.

I hope that the Preds lose though because if they win, another team that arrived in the league post 1990-1991 will have won a Stanley Cup before the Sharks.

 

[Combat]

I might be in the minority, but if Rinne can do his best Patrick Roy imitation I think the Preds have a great shot at winning the Cup. I could see them winning a couple of games 1-0 with Rinne standing on his head.

I hope that the Preds lose though because if they win, another team that arrived in the league post 1990-1991 will have won a Stanley Cup before the Sharks.

I'm sort of with you but when it comes to the Stanley Cup certain teams like Chicago and Pittsburgh seem to have the luck of the devil. The Preds are a deep and well-rested team though getting great goal tending and tough to beat at home. Game one is huge for the Preds maybe catching the Pens a bit tired late in the game. I can see the Pens losing game one and still winning the Cup but I don't see the Preds doing that. Like the Sharks last year not many Preds players have experience at this level of the playoffs and they need a good start. If the Preds can win tonight, then I like them in this series 4-2. Lose and it might be 4-2 Pens.

 

[Warrior]

I'm sort of with you but when it comes to the Stanley Cup certain teams like Chicago and Pittsburgh seem to have the luck of the devil....................

Nashville scores the first goal, then the old coaches challenge comes into play on an offsides; naturally they wave off the goal, marginal call at best, his skate blade was .000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 over the line, then Nashville gets TWO penalties called on the same play, power play goal Pittsburg.

And they just scored again.

You know, if the league wants to grease the skids and hand the cup to Pittsburg, then just cancel the rest of the series and get it over with.

This is a joke.

 

[tdubel]

Nashville scores the first goal, then the old coaches challenge comes into play on an offsides; naturally they wave off the goal, marginal call at best, his skate blade was .000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 over the line, then Nashville gets TWO penalties called on the same play, power play goal Pittsburg.

And they just scored again.

You know, if the league wants to grease the skids and hand the cup to Pittsburg, then just cancel the rest of the series and get it over with.

This is a joke.

The replay was close, but that goes both ways and often has hurt the Pens in this playoff. The last series should have ended at game 6 if not for an awful call against Pitt. I have no idea whether we win this game or not, but as for the first period, the Pens looked on it, when you can consistently stay at Nashville's end, you have a chance at goals and they got a few.

TD

 

[tdubel]

The replay was close, but that goes both ways and often has hurt the Pens in this playoff. The last series should have ended at game 6 if not for an awful call against Pitt. I have no idea whether we win this game or not, but as for the first period, the Pens looked on it, when you can consistently stay at Nashville's end, you have a chance at goals and they got a few.

TD

Well, take that back about being consistently at Nashville's end. I guess it is quality over quantity, happy to get away with a Game 1 win!
TD

 

[Warrior]

I might be in the minority, but if Rinne can do his best Patrick Roy imitation I think the Preds have a great shot at winning the Cup. I could see them winning a couple of games 1-0 with Rinne standing on his head.

I hope that the Preds lose though because if they win, another team that arrived in the league post 1990-1991 will have won a Stanley Cup before the Sharks.

Rinne blew that one last night, he's always been their weak link, if he turns back into a pumpkin, this series will be over quickly.

 

[Combat]

Nashville scores the first goal, then the old coaches challenge comes into play on an offsides; naturally they wave off the goal, marginal call at best, his skate blade was .000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 over the line, then Nashville gets TWO penalties called on the same play, power play goal Pittsburg.

And they just scored again.

You know, if the league wants to grease the skids and hand the cup to Pittsburg, then just cancel the rest of the series and get it over with.

This is a joke.

That was an awful, terrible, "the fix is in" type Michael Jordan/LeBron NBA call. It turned out to be huge. The ref was looking right at it. Not kind of sort of, but with his nose pressed down on it and called it onside. The replay sure as shinola didn't show any proof it was offside. It just highlights why it is so hard to beat teams like the Pens and Blackhawks in the playoffs. And then the refs give them a 5 on 3 that makes a two-goal turnaround that few teams are going to overcome against a great Pens team on the road. Very weird game. Like the Caps series the Pens get outplayed and outshot for almost the entire the game but manage a quick goal here and there to win. Rinne played by far his worst game but he was half-asleep with the lack of shots. James Neal was a dolt as well. He blew a lot of scoring chances and then drew that 5-3 penalty. I'm not sure how this one should be assessed. Either the Pens can win while playing their worst possible hockey and things can only get easier or the Preds are a much quicker and fresher team that can skate them off the ice if Rinne picks up his game. Hard to tell. Game two is must win though for the Preds.

 

[LTC PaulN]

I might be in the minority, but if Rinne can do his best Patrick Roy imitation I think the Preds have a great shot at winning the Cup. I could see them winning a couple of games 1-0 with Rinne standing on his head.

I hope that the Preds lose though because if they win, another team that arrived in the league post 1990-1991 will have won a Stanley Cup before the Sharks.

...Growing up in Buffalo, I used to pull for the Bruins because at least every 20 years or so they could bring the cup home. Like the Nills of the NFL who have never brought a Lombardi trophy back to the mistake on the lake, the Sabres rank high on the perennial choke team lists.

 

[Warrior]

That was an awful, terrible, "the fix is in" type Michael Jordan/LeBron NBA call. It turned out to be huge. The ref was looking right at it. Not kind of sort of, but with his nose pressed down on it and called it onside. The replay sure as shinola didn't show any proof it was offside. It just highlights why it is so hard to beat teams like the Pens and Blackhawks in the playoffs. And then the refs give them a 5 on 3 that makes a two-goal turnaround that few teams are going to overcome against a great Pens team on the road.

Yup; that was a dogshit reversal, nothing conclusive in any of the 421 different angles they showed.

Imagine a casual fan tuning in the for finals and witnessing that nonsense, let alone two penalties on the same play.

Pittsburg is very good, yeah, whatever, we all get it, then throw in reversals on goals and two man advantages and forget it, lights out.

Nashville had all the momentum early on, then they got the all important first goal, then it was reversed and it seemed to suck the life out of them.

Rinne probably fell asleep with the lack of action, the Penguins went 35 minutes without a shot on goal, did I hear that right, that is unbelievable.


I tuned out after that third goal with 10 seconds left in the first period, enough is enough.

Go get em in game 2, it's do or die time for Nashville, you can't go home down 2 zip............................

 

[Panzer ace]

Rinne blew that one last night, he's always been their weak link, if he turns back into a pumpkin, this series will be over quickly.

Admittedly I don't watch a lot of Preds hockey but it seems like Rinne is weak on the glove side. The NHL TV analysts even alluded to it. I guess it makes me wonder why other teams didn't expose this on the way to the Cup Finals?

 

[gk5717]

Rinne has been as solid as any goalie in the playoffs. Give him a break he had one not so good night. As I stated before that challenge on an off side goal is BS, I don't care what team you want to win. If the off sides is that close it makes absolutely no difference in the fact a goal was scored.
At least for me "What a I don't care who wins or loses series" this is. Really, how did a NHL team end up in Nashville? At least in Florida and Arizona you have transplants.
Gary

 

[Warrior]

Admittedly I don't watch a lot of Preds hockey but it seems like Rinne is weak on the glove side. The NHL TV analysts even alluded to it. I guess it makes me wonder why other teams didn't expose this on the way to the Cup Finals?

There is a book on every goalie and why teams don't exploit weaknesses is beyond me.

In the 2013 Stanley Cup finals, the Bruins were up two games to one and in command of the series, their only loss was a double OT loss in game 1 thanks to some 4th line scrub missing a wide open net that would have won the game in the first OT. The book on Crawford was gloveside high, gloveside high, gloveside high, the Bruins in game 3 scored all of their goals gloveside high.

So what happened the rest of the series; they went away from that, lost the next three games in a row and that was all she wrote...........

 

[Warrior]

Really, how did a NHL team end up in Nashville?

My guess is by covered wagon.

 

[Warrior]

And as far as the offsides coaches challenge; you love it when your team gains from it, but want to throw the remote through the TV when your team gets screwed out of a goal over it.

I hate to beat a dead horse, but man oh man, what BS................Nashville has a right to be upset over getting screwed last night as you don't know the way things would have turned out if they had let that goal stand, they had all the momentum at that point, Pittsburg was playing like a hot mess up until that reversal.

 

[tdubel]

Look, I get it, the Pens are not the underdogs here, but give some credit, it is sorely lacking. Murray - if the Pens got outplayed, then I guess that means Murray had a lot of saves, the Defense had a lot of stops since they only scored 3, correct? Additionally, if we only actually attempted 12 shots, we scored on 5, that seems pretty darn accurate? Seems we got tied up 3-3, but yet, scored 2 more goals (one being an empty net), but still definitive winners of this game.

As I said before, I may not agree with replays either, but the Pens have been on the other end of bad calls, replays, etc. It all comes around, should be a good final series, hopefully the Pens accuracy continues and they do the back to back trick again. It would be quite a feat for sure.

The Predators may well win the Cup, there are 6 games left, I am just happy to get the 1. If we get up 2-0, well, that would make me feel a lot better, lot of hockey to play.

TD

 

[Panzer ace]

Look, I get it, the Pens are not the underdogs here, but give some credit, it is sorely lacking. Murray - if the Pens got outplayed, then I guess that means Murray had a lot of saves, the Defense had a lot of stops since they only scored 3, correct? Additionally, if we only actually attempted 12 shots, we scored on 5, that seems pretty darn accurate? Seems we got tied up 3-3, but yet, scored 2 more goals (one being an empty net), but still definitive winners of this game.

As I said before, I may not agree with replays either, but the Pens have been on the other end of bad calls, replays, etc. It all comes around, should be a good final series, hopefully the Pens accuracy continues and they do the back to back trick again. It would be quite a feat for sure.

The Predators may well win the Cup, there are 6 games left, I am just happy to get the 1. If we get up 2-0, well, that would make me feel a lot better, lot of hockey to play.

TD

Tom:

Agreed on Murray, he was the better goalie. He was peppered time and again and withstood the challenge.

I learned the my lesson on the off-sides/replay things earlier in the season when the Sharks had a goal disallowed on similar play. Like George said I was so mad I swore that instant replay was the worst. The sharks defensemen's skate was over the line by a hair! Then about 2 weeks later the same call was made in the Sharks favor and the Ducks had a goal disallowed and then replay was the greatest thing ever!

-Jason

 

[tdubel]

Up 2-0, nice offense in the 3rd period, they peppered Nashville. I just hope this new found energy and momentum continues on the road, would be nice to close this out quickly as the gas has to eventually run the tank for the Pens!
TD

 

[Combat]

I'm not sure if the Pens are the better team in this series but they are going to win. They have the confidence, luck, whatever you want to call it of a champion. Rinne looks scared on the big stage. I think he gave up three goals in the entire series with Chicago. Eight goals in the first two games against the Pens. The big guys for the Preds have been nowhere to be found so far. They have to step or get swept in this series. Guys like Forsburg have done nothing. I wonder if any team has ever been outshot in every game but still won the Cup? It's like that movie "Groundhog Day". A team fires shot after shot on the Pens, controls the game and then bam the Pens score and win. And two games in a row in which the Preds have knocked a puck into their own net. Nashville is a rocking arena though. So they have a chance to get one or both at home and maybe make it into a series but I can't see them taking four out of five necessary to win this.

 

[Warrior]

I'm not sure if the Pens are the better team in this series but they are going to win. They have the confidence, luck, whatever you want to call it of a champion. Rinne looks scared on the big stage. I think he gave up three goals in the entire series with Chicago. Eight goals in the first two games against the Pens. The big guys for the Preds have been nowhere to be found so far. They have to step or get swept in this series. Guys like Forsburg have done nothing. I wonder if any team has ever been outshot in every game but still won the Cup? It's like that movie "Groundhog Day". A team fires shot after shot on the Pens, controls the game and then bam the Pens score and win. And two games in a row in which the Preds have knocked a puck into their own net. Nashville is a rocking arena though. So they have a chance to get one or both at home and maybe make it into a series but I can't see them taking four out of five necessary to win this.

What he said.

I'm on to the NBA finals and baseball until NFL camps open.

The NHL playoffs were fun while they lasted, enough is enough.

Leave to the #8 seed Nashville Elvis' to make it all the way to the finalsand then get steamrolled by the Penguins.

Now I know how NFL fans feel watching the Patriots dominate the league the past 17 years..............................

 

[tdubel]

What he said.

I'm on to the NBA finals and baseball until NFL camps open.

The NHL playoffs were fun while they lasted, enough is enough.

Leave to the #8 seed Nashville Elvis' to make it all the way to the finalsand then get steamrolled by the Penguins.

Now I know how NFL fans feel watching the Patriots dominate the league the past 17 years..............................

I think this could still be a series, the Pens gas tank has gotta be running near empty. George, you have to be at least happy the right color uniform is winning!!!!

NFL, with Brady in the league, as a Steeler fan, happy to have gotten to 3 SB's in that time and won 2 b/c you are correct in that the Pats are pretty dominate over this time frame!