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The Everything NHL Thread

Henrique so clutch!

I honestly hope this will be a good series. I don't think they'll be good enough to stop the Kings, but honestly I didn't think they'd dominate Philly and the Rangers either. It'd be cool to watch Marty add another cup to his collection, so I hope they win!
 
suck it rags. Don't really prefer either team over the other as far as who wins, but I'll predict that the Kings win it in 6.

Aldaron said:
DDEEEEEVVVVIIILLLLLLSSSSS

after going an ok 5 for 8 in the first round, a wash 2 for 4 in the 2nd, i nailed both these for 2 for 2 and for 9 for 14 overall predicting series winners, which is ok i guess.

Devils vs. Kings, Devils in 7!!!
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went 9 for 14 too, except I got 6 right in round 1 and only 1 right in round 2 >.<
 
While neither of them are really teams I feel possessive of, I really like both of the teams in the finals this year and the way that they're managed. Don't have a huge rooting interest(though I'll probably both predict and cheer for LA because being neutral is boring), but pretty satisfied with who got to the finals after where we were in round 2. Should be pretty fun hockey and there's some great talent on both sides who've never won the cup (and the nice storyline of supposedly washed up Brodeur returning to the finals) that should make things exciting. I think if neither team is a rival of your home team and you're not holding grudges from before the lockout it's pretty easy to feel good about both teams and the hockey that will happen in this series.

My cup pick finally went out here with the Rangers, but I'm not at all surprised -- like I said when we were watching the Caps series, I didn't think that the way they were using so few players for so many minutes was a sustainable strategy relative to what the Caps were doing in that series and predictably they ran out of gas almost immediately after winning the series. Still like/respect the team, they've got plenty more chances ahead of them.
 
I usually root for teams based on players, and both teams have one player I'd be happy to see win. Quick on the Kings (good, tough american kid) and Kovalchuk on the Devils (heartless russian with heart)

I'd be happy with either team winning
 
I'm pulling for the Kings, have been since the Conference Finals started. I can't root for any EC team to win since the Panthers were eliminated.
 
Gotta root for the Kings. They remind me of the Bruins last year. Hot goalie, defensive commitment, team offense instead of one player who can blow your doors off. The Devils on the other hand are essentially incapable of winning if Kovalchuk has less than 2 points. Plus the Kings took the hardest route possible, exposing the Canucks for what they are, then destroying the Blues and Coyotes to KO the 1 2 and 3 seeds.
 
just wanted to say...lol, another weekend completely missed by the NHL schedulers just like I predicted. That's 3 weekends in a row dropping the ball with significant NHL games. Complete idiocy.
 
I blame knocked out teams for not playing still so that jrrrrr can have his weekend NHL games.

Also the NJD since they knocked out NYR rendering them unable to play during this weekend. How dare New Jersey try to win a playoff series as fast as possible.
 
Seriously. It would have been game 7 of LAK/PHX on Saturday and game 7 of NYR/NJD today but the series ended. How would you have done it better Jrrrrrrr?
 
I already explained it in this thread, I've been saying something every weekend where the NHL is completely absent from the TV schedule. If they didn't take inexplicable 3 extra days between games when theres only one game to play...while other series are inexplicably waiting, or if they didn't take a complete gamble on BOTH series going 7 games, they could have had important games on all weekend when normal people could actually watch them. Oh and just to top it off, the Stanley Cup finals have one game this Saturday and one game next Saturday if needed. Instead of Friday+Sunday like any sane person would have done.

Notice how the NBA doesn't have this problem? They've had games on constantly for the last couple of weeks, the biggest games on the weekends, and they are going to continue this trend all the way through the Finals. Someone in the NHL marketing department needs to get fired ASAP.

THE_IRON_KENYAN said:
we can just bash jrrrrrr until the games come on and when they do it will seem like we didnt have to wait at all
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Because he's the hero Smogon deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we'll hunt him. Because he can take it. Because he's not our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A dark knight.
 
jrrrrrrr said:
Gotta root for the Kings. They remind me of the Bruins last year. Hot goalie, defensive commitment, team offense instead of one player who can blow your doors off. The Devils on the other hand are essentially incapable of winning if Kovalchuk has less than 2 points. Plus the Kings took the hardest route possible, exposing the Canucks for what they are, then destroying the Blues and Coyotes to KO the 1 2 and 3 seeds.
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http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/teams/njd/stats

(something is apparently messed up on Yahoo's side, when it loads you'll have to refresh and quickly stop the page to keep the offensive stats showing)

Nice, even distribution of points through players and lines. Yes, Kovalchuck is the points' leader. No, that in no way implies the Devils are a 1 man offensive force.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/players/2944/gamelog;_ylt=Ai.SEp_Vi.aZloZq0m3JyGpivLYF

Of the 12 Devils' wins, Kovalchuck played 11 (meaning 1 win without him). Of those 11 wins with Kovalchuck, he scored less than 2 points 6 times. So the Devils have 7 wins where Kovalchuck does not in fact get 2 points, and 5 when he does. Of their 6 losses, Kovalchuck didn't have 2 points. So basically, when Kovalchuck doesn't get 2 points, they're 7 - 6, and then 5 - 0 when he does.

Which just tells me they can keep it close and win without him on his A game, but when he is, the opposition better watch out x)
 
Ignoring jrrrrrrrrrrrrrr being jman as usual: I'm glad I clicked that link because I'm greatly amused that Salvador has more points in the playoffs than he did in regular season. Hero mode engage.
 
In addition, Kovalchuk is clearly still having issues with his back injury that forced him to sit that one playoff game. He's not as quick as he normally is at 100%... tough to imagine they'd be where they are if a hurt player was the only reason. I'd also think he'd have more points than that if the offense and winning had to run through him.

Clearly, jrrr has not watched many of the Devils games or he'd see that they're winning through forward depth, just like the Kings. Both teams have had great bottom six play.
 
NJ's 4th line has been phenomenal for them. Bernier, Carter and some other guy I don't remember but their forecheck is impressive and the ability chip in points while playing 4th line minutes is impressive as hell. Definitely not a top-heavy team.
 
Carl said:
Clearly, jrrr has not watched many of the Devils games or he'd see that they're winning through forward depth, just like the Kings. Both teams have had great bottom six play.
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Clearly, none of you watched the Devils during the regular season where they were as close to winless as you can get when Kovalchuk had less than 2 points. And that was through the halfway point of the season (in late January they only had 2 wins when Kovie had 0 or 1 point). The Devils have been greatly overperforming in the playoffs, mostly due to the relatively easy bracket they've played. Sorry but Florida and Philly is not the hardest route through the playoffs.

But yeah, thank you everyone for dismissing another completely legitimate post because you like the team it criticized!

Aldaron said:
Of their 6 losses, Kovalchuck didn't have 2 points. So basically, oints, they're 7 - 6, and then 5 - 0 when he does.

Which just tells me they can keep it close and win without him on his A game,
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So that basically demonstrates what I said. They're 5-0 when he scores 2+ points. They're barely .500 against bad teams when he doesn't. And sorry again but 7-6 with the bulk of those games being against Florida and Philly is not impressive. A defense-first team like the Kings should expose this over a 7-game series. If the Devils try to have a balanced attack, they will lose this series. Feed that puck to Kovie and cross your fingers if you're a Devils fan.
 
jrrrrrrr said:
Clearly, none of you watched the Devils during the regular season where they were as close to winless as you can get when Kovalchuk had less than 2 points. And that was through the halfway point of the season (in late January they only had 2 wins when Kovie had 0 or 1 point). The Devils have been greatly overperforming in the playoffs, mostly due to the relatively easy bracket they've played. Sorry but Florida and Philly is not the hardest route through the playoffs.

But yeah, thank you everyone for dismissing another completely legitimate post because you like the team it criticized!
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Pretty sure the Devils won quite a few times despite Ilya Kovalchuk tallying 0 or 1 point in regular season games. Unless you meant just the month of January, in which case, yes, there were two games the Devils won where he didn't have multiple point games. But 12 games in the middle of the season is a much larger, more recent sample size than 18 playoff games that just happened, right? My bad. I should have been watching old tape from the New Year instead of referencing things like this Rangers series that just happened when I posted.

I won't disagree that the Devils have over performed in the playoffs (based on expectations) but can you honestly say that the Kings haven't over performed right there with them? Neither team was expected to be here.

Then again, the Kings aren't really an 8 seed and the Devils aren't really a 6 seed caliber team, either. The Devils topped over 100 points in a division that featured 3 other teams over the century mark. They had the same number of points as your Bruins, in fact. (Someone should have reminded the Capitals that the regular season matters for the playoffs... Oh wait, I guess they did (Boston was 1-3 vs Washington in the regular season)... jrrr was right!!!!!!) Kings, meanwhile, could and should have won their division and now they're playing like the team most people thought they could be in September. Just hope nobody reminds them that they had like the worst offense in the league by regular season stats.... Cause remember, that matters, guys!

Both teams, coming into the playoffs, were better than their seeding... And they proved it by taking advantage and winning when it mattered. LA played one truly weaker opponent that everyone expected them to beat (Phoenix) just like NJ (Florida). They both had one 100 pt team that they cruised through (St Louis & Philly, respectively), and they both knocked off conference champs. The Kings did have the tougher road, and did it in fewer games (hmmm, maybe that's why LA is favored to win the cup, hmmmm) but were the types of opponents, by record and standing, really that different from what the Devils faced?

But let's base everything happening in the postseason on the regular season. I should keep my fingers crossed that Dustin Brown keeps up his 1.14 p/g pace... he might revert back to his .658 p/g regular season form.


Oh shit, sorry.. I realized I just "dismissed" yet another one of your "legitimate" posts because it criticized the Detroit Red Wings. Really need to stop doing that and just go back to ignoring you..
 
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