NHL Playoffs (1 Viewer)

Jefman said:
The story of the 2017-18 NHL season is clearly about the emergence of it's 31st franchise: the Vegas Golden Knights. Knowledgeable hockey fans can appreciate billionaire Bill Foley, a graduate of West Point (made his fortune at Fidelity National) who put up $400 million of the $500 million franchise fee (the other $100 million was put up by former NBA Sacramento Kings owner's brothers Joe and Gavin Maloof) who assembled this remarkable staff of GM George McPhee who took the Washington Cap's to the NHL Stanley Cup Finals in 1997-1998 only to get bludgeoned by the Red Wings. His claim to fame after that was confronting Chicago coach Loren Molleken over perceived dirty play and punching him out only to get jumped by some retaliating Blackhawks players who ripped his suit up. In turn NHL commissioner, Gary Bettman, suspended McPhee for twenty games without pay. He did lead the Caps to about eight southeast division titles over the next sixteen years but the Caps also earned a well deserved label of being an excellent regular season team but perennial chokers come playoff time. McPhee brought in well regarded Canadian hockey scout Kelly McCrimmon (a real genius who will soon get hired as an NHL GM) and then hired former Red Wing Gerard Gallant to coach the team. Gallant was fired mid season last year by Florida Panthers owner Vincent Viola on a road trip in Raleigh NC and was told to find his own way home: a brainless move (witness him leaving VGK frontline stars: Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith unprotected in the entry draft and then seeing the Panthers not making the playoffs. Thanks Vinnny!) by another West Point graduate as he was targeted immediately as a coach who understood NHL hockey in the modern era: play four capable lines built around excellent goaltending and fast, mobile puck clearing defensemen. All the other nonsense about uniforms, fans etc is simply blather as the the horrible October 1 shootings put the team on edge entering the season. They have responded as a team: unselfish, incredibly appreciative, humble, resilient and down right exciting. The story will have an ending. Not sure when. So far they are 5-0 in the playoffs and the Sharks play game 2 tonight without one of their better weapons Evander Kane who lost his cool Thursday in the Golden Knights 7-0 blowout and now must sit a game for his cross checking Pierre Eduard Bellemare who has emerged as this non descript yet effective fourth line centerman. The other teams remaining are all excellent: Bruins playing a terrific Lightning squad assembled by Red Wing Hall of Famer Steve Yzerman, the two time defending champion Penguins playing the underachieving chokers: Washington Caps and the splendid Winnipeg Jets with their incredible home ice advantage vs last years finalists the Nashville Predators and their fantastic back line. Enjoy the outcome.
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For a guy from Las Vegas you know your s---:D
 
a coach who understood NHL hockey in the modern era: play four capable lines built around excellent goaltending and fast, mobile puck clearing defensemen.

Youre analysis of Hockey in Las Vegas reminds me of Moneyball and the Oakland A's

Terry
 
Interesting Terry: Actually I am a native of Detroit. Original six fan. Used to watch the Red Wings on UHF Channel 50 and the Leafs (listened to Bill Hewitt-Foster's son) or Canadiens (Danny Gallivan) every Saturday night CKLW Channel 9 out of Windsor. My hockey observations go back to as far as 1966-A first place Red Wings team succumbed to Montreal in the Cup finals 4 games to 2 blowing a two games to none lead in that series riding great play from Conn Smythe trophy winner Roger Crozier in goal ( incredible effort somewhat duplicated by Ron Hextall in 1987). Cried myself to sleep after losing our fourth final (61, 63,64 & 66) in six years. Gut wrenching. Hockey fan you bet. In fact my collection of NHL endorsed table hockey games circa 1960 to 2004 is incredible. I digress. In a recent interview Vegas Golden Knights GM George McPhee said yes in building the team they used some analytics. Fact is Billy Beane of the Oakland A's and Moneyball fame used analytics, in my opinion, way too heavy handily almost to a fault. To expound on a Scotty Bowman philosophy: When the team loses three games in a row we don't practice we go bowling or to the movies. Win six in a row and practice will be a long, hard skating, heavy hitting torture chamber. Boredom must not seep into your team. Not really a gimmick: Scotty won nine Stanley Cups. Call it quirky so what. Do we call Lombardi, Belichick or Gregg Popovich quirky? Driven, focused, obsessive? So in reality I am blown away by the effort of the Golden Knights this year. Have watched every game. They are good. Good enough to beat Pittsburgh let alone San Jose or the Winnipeg/Nashville winner? Let's see. I will say that the sports books have made them the favorite with the Penguins to win the Cup. The sports books know sports better than anyone. Last I looked they were not set up in the parking lot in a tent. No actually they do quite well and that's because they set very accurate and succinct odds. It is unprecedented in any sport to see an expansion team perform with the success this team has achieved this year. Prime time NBC Saturday tonight from Las Vegas! Go Knights Go.
 
Bowman had a big advantage - he got the choice of French Canadian players. I go back to the Leaf Stanley Cup winners of 1962. Quite a different game. As for baseball I was a big fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers and later of Bill James sabermetrics

The NHL allowed a strong expansion draft and the Vegas management has taken full advantage.

Terry
 
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Hockey is a funny sport. A team can look like world beaters in one series and then get rolled in the next. I'm not ready to give the cup to Vegas as yet. They have had an historic run as an expansion team and done everything right but a lot of hockey to be played. I still think the Caps might pull out their series. Nashville has underwhelmed so far but they have another level.
 
Draft lottery is tonight. I hope Buffalo Montreal Ottawa don't win it {sm4}
 
Panzer ace said:
The Sharks have a chance to hand Las Vegas its first ever playoff loss tonight.

^&grin
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Let's just say that the Sharks handed Vegas its first ever playoff loss with some extraordinary help from Referee Kelly Sutherland and the keystone cops who man the controls at the NHL "situation room" in Toronto. Jonathan Marchessault's goal in the first overtime was emphatically a goal but ultimately waived off for goaltender interference. I watched the play seven times and its beyond comprehension that no one: Ed Olcykz, Joe Miceletti etc could explain why San Jose's Brenden Dillion had no role in steering Marchessault to clip San Jose goalie Martin Jones on that play prior to Marchessault spinning, securing the puck and poking in the shot. Beyond livid but a lifelong hockey fan. Life goes on but I'm jaded we got jobbed by those putzes.
 
There will always be bad calls in every series. You just gotta hope they even up. They call too much now days.
 
On the "no goal" call due to goalltender interference I ffound what I think is the best film. It shows the play close up from 4 different angles. I watched it several times at regular speed. slo-mo and frame by frame. It is very clear that when the Vegas player cut in around the top of the crease he took out the goalies stick and spun him around. He was not pushed into the goalie by the Shark

http://www.nbcsports.com/video/jonathan-marchessaults-game-winner-overturned-goalie-interference

Terry
 
PENS need Malkin back, they played with zero enthusiasm or energy today. Still stole one in Washington, hopefully that helps for the rest of the series.

TD
 
tdubel said:
PENS need Malkin back, they played with zero enthusiasm or energy today. Still stole one in Washington, hopefully that helps for the rest of the series.

TD
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Last year I thought the Caps outplayed the Pens in 5 or 6 of the games in that series and they still lost. The Pens have a knack for scoring in flurries even when they are getting outplayed. That same thing happened in game one. The Caps played a bit more physical yesterday. Tom Wilson is an old school beast. They will need to keep that up to have a chance. They can't just let the Pens skate around like they are at Disney on Ice or they are toast. One commentator said last night there have only been three fighting penalties called in the playoffs so far this year. He compared that to a few decades ago when there were over 30 such penalties by this point. The Caps looked laser focused in game two. The big question is whether they can sustain that on the road when it gets tight or do they fall apart like they have so many times before.

The Preds narrowly averted disaster with a double OT win. The Jets are giving them fits with their speed creating opportunities and turnovers. Too many perimeter shots by the Preds. When the Preds go to the net they are scoring. Subban is a turnover machine. He needs to play smarter.
 
The Sharks seemed to be one step behind the Golden Knights last night. Even when they tied the score I still felt like Vegas had the momentum. Vegas wanted it more, San Jose has no excuse for that loss.
 
Well, another loss, down 2 to 1. Puck just didn't bounce our way literally. How does Ovech score on that one, wow.

TD
 
And another player hospitalized thanks to that thug Wilson . And again no action taken as it wasn't even called a penalty on the ice . Have to say as jaded as the Pens look there are 2 issues . The officiating is terrible and Pens dont have an enforcer to at least give something back . I can see us losing again Thursday and then going out over the weekend .



tdubel said:
Well, another loss, down 2 to 1. Puck just didn't bounce our way literally. How does Ovech score on that one, wow.

TD
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Good game between the Pens and Caps. The Caps finally are playing physical and getting in the heads of the Pens. Tom Wilson was lighting people up. The expression on that Pens player's face when he looked up and Wilson was getting ready to send him to the land of nod was priceless. He looked like a chipmunk that had just stepped in the path of a freight train. Good series.

The Preds look to be in trouble. They somehow blew a 3-0 lead. Winnipeg has mostly been the better team. They apparently haven't lost a home game since February.
 
Combat said:
Good game between the Pens and Caps. The Caps finally are playing physical and getting in the heads of the Pens. Tom Wilson was lighting people up. The expression on that Pens player's face when he looked up and Wilson was getting ready to send him to the land of nod was priceless. He looked like a chipmunk that had just stepped in the path of a freight train. Good series.

The Preds look to be in trouble. They somehow blew a 3-0 lead. Winnipeg has mostly been the better team. They apparently haven't lost a home game since February.
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He left his feet and tried to take that players head off, he's lucky the player was not concussed, those are the sort of hits the league is trying to get out of the game, no place for it.

The Ovechkin goal was just sick, he batted that puck in out of the air, he's by far my favorite non Bruin in the NHL, a couple of years ago when he was rumored to be on the trading block, I was hoping he'd land in Boston, would have been a dream come true for this Bruins fan.

As far as the refs, you hate to go there, but they were just God awful in game two Bruins/Devil Rays; Krug gets a slashing call on a swipe that hit the guy in the thigh, then a double minor was called on the Bruins when the Devil Ray player hit HIMSELF in the face with his stick, then Marchand gets hacked across the hands on a breakaway, no call, then Pasta gets cross checked head first into the boards, no call.

Just horrendous officiating so far in the series, throughout most of the playoffs to be honest, these clowns get 250K a year for this?
 
Warrior said:
He left his feet and tried to take that players head off, he's lucky the player was not concussed, those are the sort of hits the league is trying to get out of the game, no place for it.

The Ovechkin goal was just sick, he batted that puck in out of the air, he's by far my favorite non Bruin in the NHL, a couple of years ago when he was rumored to be on the trading block, I was hoping he'd land in Boston, would have been a dream come true for this Bruins fan.

As far as the refs, you hate to go there, but they were just God awful in game two Bruins/Devil Rays; Krug gets a slashing call on a swipe that hit the guy in the thigh, then a double minor was called on the Bruins when the Devil Ray player hit HIMSELF in the face with his stick, then Marchand gets hacked across the hands on a breakaway, no call, then Pasta gets cross checked head first into the boards, no call.

Just horrendous officiating so far in the series, throughout most of the playoffs to be honest, these clowns get 250K a year for this?
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Hockey is a contact sport. The official three inches away didn't call a penalty on Wilson. Having some PC group review every hit after the fact is ruining the game. If that guy didn't want to get hit, he should consider another profession or maybe keep his head up when bringing the puck up the ice. Wilson didn't leave his feet until after he hit the guy and bounced off him. I'm glad to see the Pens distracted with the officiating though. Particularly after the outrageous calls they got in the finals last year. With the Pens as the NHL franchise, I'm sure they will suspend him. The irony is that Wilson isn't a particularly important guy on the Caps. He has just gotten into the heads of the Pens with some old school hockey.
 
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