NHL Thread

[Ninetales]

Originally Posted by Laces Out Dan!

Never thought Id be glad to see Chicago win the cup...I feel so dirty haha. The lesser of two evils. Its great to see a bunch of those good Canadian boys hoist another cup though...Toewser, Keith, Seabrook, Shaw to name a few. You'd have to think with the inconsistency of Canadian tendys lately, Crawford could very well have put himself on the short list for the winter olympics. You'd have to think unfortunately that Marc Andre Fleury has played his way off that list...and I think the top 3 could possibly look like Lou, Price, and Crawford or Ward.. But anyways, we'll leave that for another discussion. Here's a beautiful shot from the playoffs..

I was surprised Crawford didnt win the conn smythe. I mean it wasnt like he was the runaway favorite but i bet if not for that 5 goal game he played it wouldve been his. Bummer.

And ya id say Lou, Price, Crawford should be the top 3 for the olympics. Id take Dubnyk over ward and Fleury though. Hes put up solid numbers on an incredibly god awful team and doesnt get enough credit for that.

[Paul Smeenus]

Originally Posted by Ninetales

I was surprised Crawford didnt win the conn smythe.

Really? With all the glove side trouble he had? I thought Kane was the obvious choice for Chicago

[Ninetales]

Originally Posted by Paul Smeenus

Really? With all the glove side trouble he had? I thought Kane was the obvious choice for Chicago

He had a really great sv% all throughout the playoffs and held them in games in the finals when the bruins were really pressing (eg 1st period of game 7)

Kane was great but was invisible at times during the playoffs. its not like he had a ridiculous stat line either. Im not complaining about it just I wouldve voted for crawford is all

[FRED HALE SR.]

Originally Posted by Ninetales

He had a really great sv% all throughout the playoffs and held them in games in the finals when the bruins were really pressing (eg 1st period of game 7)

Kane was great but was invisible at times during the playoffs. its not like he had a ridiculous stat line either. Im not complaining about it just I wouldve voted for crawford is all

Game 7 what series were you watching? Kane was absolutely their best player throughout the playoffs and also during the regular season.

[Laces Out Dan!]

The only reason I was glad to see a skater win the Conn Smythe is because it seems like in the last few years, the goalie wins it no matter what. And I know some do deserve it as being the best player and anchor for the team...Jonathon Quick is the perfect example...but I just don't wanna see it become a trend, where a goalie plays well and does his job..so he gets the trophy. I personally think Keith was the best chicago player throughout the entire playoffs.

[Thom Yorke]

Well, that was a heartbreaker.

At least the Bruins played well last night though. Games 4 and 5 were downright awful for Boston, but last night they brought about 58 minutes of good hockey, and the first 20 minutes in particular was incredible. I knew something was going to go wrong when they were only up by 1 after the first period after absolutely dominating though.

I can't really get over how poorly Chara and Seidenberg played. Just an awful showing by both of them in this series, and particularly in the last 3 games. The Bruins as a whole had a pretty bad showing though. I thought only Bergeron (outside of last night, but credit to him playing through all of that), Lucic and Seguin were consistently good on a game-to-game basis.

As for the Hawks, great series. They didn't try to get into the physical game with the B's and used their forecheck to give the B's D fits, and had a great transition game. Like Dan, I thought Keith deserved the Conn Smythe (I thought Keith deserved it in 2010 as well), or maybe Sharp.

[Ninetales]

Originally Posted by FRED HALE SR.

Game 7 what series were you watching? Kane was absolutely their best player throughout the playoffs and also during the regular season.

Haha whooops meant 6.

and ya i can buy the fact that goalies get it a lot of the time and its refreshing seeing a change from that. its extremely difficult to compare goalie stats to player stats especially if there isnt a clear MVP. dmen seem to rarely be in the running for conn smythe too which is sad.

[FRED HALE SR.]

Originally Posted by Thom Yorke

Well, that was a heartbreaker.

At least the Bruins played well last night though. Games 4 and 5 were downright awful for Boston, but last night they brought about 58 minutes of good hockey, and the first 20 minutes in particular was incredible. I knew something was going to go wrong when they were only up by 1 after the first period after absolutely dominating though.

I can't really get over how poorly Chara and Seidenberg played. Just an awful showing by both of them in this series, and particularly in the last 3 games. The Bruins as a whole had a pretty bad showing though. I thought only Bergeron (outside of last night, but credit to him playing through all of that), Lucic and Seguin were consistently good on a game-to-game basis.

As for the Hawks, great series. They didn't try to get into the physical game with the B's and used their forecheck to give the B's D fits, and had a great transition game. Like Dan, I thought Keith deserved the Conn Smythe (I thought Keith deserved it in 2010 as well), or maybe Sharp.

I was stunned the way it ended but I figured the B-hawks were the better team throughout. Keith was certainly very good, but Kane brought that consistent scoring throughout that wins the Smythe usually. Not too many D-men are gonna raise the Smythe without a Niedermayer on their back. Good series all things considered, getting amped up for the draft already.

[Paul Smeenus]

Originally Posted by Thom Yorke

Well, that was a heartbreaker.

At least the Bruins played well last night though. Games 4 and 5 were downright awful for Boston, but last night they brought about 58 minutes of good hockey, and the first 20 minutes in particular was incredible. I knew something was going to go wrong when they were only up by 1 after the first period after absolutely dominating though.

I can't really get over how poorly Chara and Seidenberg played. Just an awful showing by both of them in this series, and particularly in the last 3 games. The Bruins as a whole had a pretty bad showing though. I thought only Bergeron (outside of last night, but credit to him playing through all of that), Lucic and Seguin were consistently good on a game-to-game basis.

As for the Hawks, great series. They didn't try to get into the physical game with the B's and used their forecheck to give the B's D fits, and had a great transition game. Like Dan, I thought Keith deserved the Conn Smythe (I thought Keith deserved it in 2010 as well), or maybe Sharp.

What was Chara's plus/minus for the series? Seems like he was on ice for practicality every Blackhawks goal. He looked lost out there

[Thom Yorke]

Originally Posted by FRED HALE SR.

I was stunned the way it ended but I figured the B-hawks were the better team throughout. Keith was certainly very good, but Kane brought that consistent scoring throughout that wins the Smythe usually. Not too many D-men are gonna raise the Smythe without a Niedermayer on their back. Good series all things considered, getting amped up for the draft already.

Speaking of Niedermayer, I thought that was the worst Conn Smythe winner in recent memory. He did not deserve that one at all.

I dunno about Kane. He's not a bad Conn Smythe winner, but he didn't bring consistent scoring at all. He was huge to close out the Kings and was great in games 4 and 5 against Boston, but what else did he really do? He racked up a good deal of assists when Chicago was firing on all cylinders against Minnesota and got a couple goals in the first few games against the Wings. There were a few times in these playoffs where people were really getting on him for not producing (which, let's face it, is his whole game as he's not exactly a complete player), and it's tough to give a playoff MVP to someone like that. I thought Keith was a very consistent factor throughout the whole playoffs.

And yeah, the draft should be great. I can't get too excited right now because of the way the Bruins went out and because they lost their first rounder for Jaromir ****ing Jagr, but objectively, it'll be a hell of a draft. There's some great top-end talent and it looks really deep. It's a nice change-up for what was probably a bit of a down-year last year. Plus, with all these compliance buyouts happening over the coming days and with teams having to shed salary in other ways, I'm wondering if there will be more trades.