Because Montreal only likes to hire French coaches or former Habs players. Therrien though is a decent coach.
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The Everything NHL Thread
- Thread starter Jackal
- Start date
3:6 is rough, but teams down in the series tend to get the bounces from the refs and Washington got some help at the end of Game 2 so it's hard to complain much... tends to even out over the series.
Playoffs sure have been fun so far this year. I feel like last year the first round wasn't that memorable, but Detroit/Anaheim, Ottawa/Montreal, St Louis/LA, and Washington/NYR have been a lot of fun. I haven't seen much of Chicago/Minnesota or Boston/Toronto, but they both seem to be a lot closer than I expected, too. Wish Vancouver/San Jose was closer (if only because it's more fun to trash talk that way), but man this has been exciting so far. Hope it keeps up.
While they're just my home team more so than "my team", this series is making me more optimistic about Detroit's future even though I think they're probably a vastly inferior team enjoying a good matchup... some of the younger guys are better than I thought they were. I think as Datsyuk and Zetterberg continue to age that forward core is really going to struggle (Franzen is already drifting toward irrelevance and that roster is full of aging vets that aren't doing much like Cleary, Bertuzzi, and Samulesson), but Nyquist has been super clutch this year with a goal and the primary assist on the two overtime winners. Brunner leading the team in points is kind of worrying, but good to see him doing well after cooling off so much the second half of the regular season, too. I think between those two and Tatar Detroit's young forwards are only borderline playoff tier, but the blueline looks like it might actually be trending toward the top chunk of the league again. There's no PK Subban or Drew Doughty or Erik Karlsson here, but Brendan Smith and Danny DeKeyser both look like top pairing guys, which is something that I'm not used to seeing from young guys in Detroit. Kronwall is getting pretty old himself, but the blue line's future is pretty bright with them... though I'm not sure how Detroit finds the rest of the pieces to be competitive again, because in my head this just adds up to them being Calgary and finishing in the 7-10 range the next few years.
Playoffs sure have been fun so far this year. I feel like last year the first round wasn't that memorable, but Detroit/Anaheim, Ottawa/Montreal, St Louis/LA, and Washington/NYR have been a lot of fun. I haven't seen much of Chicago/Minnesota or Boston/Toronto, but they both seem to be a lot closer than I expected, too. Wish Vancouver/San Jose was closer (if only because it's more fun to trash talk that way), but man this has been exciting so far. Hope it keeps up.
While they're just my home team more so than "my team", this series is making me more optimistic about Detroit's future even though I think they're probably a vastly inferior team enjoying a good matchup... some of the younger guys are better than I thought they were. I think as Datsyuk and Zetterberg continue to age that forward core is really going to struggle (Franzen is already drifting toward irrelevance and that roster is full of aging vets that aren't doing much like Cleary, Bertuzzi, and Samulesson), but Nyquist has been super clutch this year with a goal and the primary assist on the two overtime winners. Brunner leading the team in points is kind of worrying, but good to see him doing well after cooling off so much the second half of the regular season, too. I think between those two and Tatar Detroit's young forwards are only borderline playoff tier, but the blueline looks like it might actually be trending toward the top chunk of the league again. There's no PK Subban or Drew Doughty or Erik Karlsson here, but Brendan Smith and Danny DeKeyser both look like top pairing guys, which is something that I'm not used to seeing from young guys in Detroit. Kronwall is getting pretty old himself, but the blue line's future is pretty bright with them... though I'm not sure how Detroit finds the rest of the pieces to be competitive again, because in my head this just adds up to them being Calgary and finishing in the 7-10 range the next few years.
Honestly I don't see what's so great about Detroit's youth, there's literally not a single blue chip prospect/young player in the system (which is to be expected having picked so low for so many years). The only reason people say it's top 10 in the league is because of reputation.
The Golden Piloswine Report:
My favorite player in the league, Tomas Vokoun, will undoubtedly start Game 5 in Pittsburgh. It will surely add a spark to the Penguins team & since the game is at home, a spark to the fans who couldn't fathom the Penguins not sweeping the Islanders. LOL At the last goal scored at the Nassau.
My favorite player in the league, Tomas Vokoun, will undoubtedly start Game 5 in Pittsburgh. It will surely add a spark to the Penguins team & since the game is at home, a spark to the fans who couldn't fathom the Penguins not sweeping the Islanders. LOL At the last goal scored at the Nassau.
cizikas is the man with that goal ive never screamed louder at my tv (also tavares -- love when he scores at the coliseum and they shout M-V-P)
it should be interesting on what the penguins do with fleury / if they'll put vokoun in. this win was definitely the momentum the isles needed :)
it should be interesting on what the penguins do with fleury / if they'll put vokoun in. this win was definitely the momentum the isles needed :)
sens lead the habs 9-0 in third period goals this series... pretty unreal stat considering how much we struggled to score goals in the regular season. i actually only got to start watching tonight's game with 10 minutes left in the third and goddamn i'm glad i did
also lol @ the first gif above
also lol @ the first gif above
Smith, DeKeyser, Nyquist, Tatar, Andersson, Lashoff, Mrazek, Jarnkrok, Pulkkinen, Jurco, Ouellet, Sheahan, Sproul, Jensen, Almqvist. These are some decent prospects for the future, especially the first 7 already showing promise with their time at the NHL level.
To your point, it's no Gagner, Paajarvi, Hall, RNH, Yakupov, etc but every team can't miss the playoffs year in and year out to be gifted those high draft picks. Unfortunately, some teams have to play for the cup...
In other news, lol Penguins. And go Sens!
I'm hoping for a sweep of Vancouver. I've never liked the alien twins. =/ Plus I think a sweep of a higher seed will give the sharks the momentum they need to make it deep into the playoffs, dare I say, even past Chicago who's beating Minnesota 3-0 atm with 4 minutes to go in the 3rd.
And if anyone read the article about Fleury's goaltending BEFORE game 4 on nhl.com, it had goalies from as low as the CHL giving advice to Fleury of how to improve his goaltending for game 4. Now there are probably goalies of Pee-Wee teams giving Fleury tips of how to improve his game. Well the Penguins prepared for this by signing Vokoun.
Anyway if the Pens don't get to round 3, a prediction of mine is that Balysma MIGHT be fired. The GM went out of his way to take advantage of the extended cap by signing these guys, and it's not showing atm.
EDIT: For god's sake put Iginla on Right Wing, he's horrible on left.
And if anyone read the article about Fleury's goaltending BEFORE game 4 on nhl.com, it had goalies from as low as the CHL giving advice to Fleury of how to improve his goaltending for game 4. Now there are probably goalies of Pee-Wee teams giving Fleury tips of how to improve his game. Well the Penguins prepared for this by signing Vokoun.
Anyway if the Pens don't get to round 3, a prediction of mine is that Balysma MIGHT be fired. The GM went out of his way to take advantage of the extended cap by signing these guys, and it's not showing atm.
EDIT: For god's sake put Iginla on Right Wing, he's horrible on left.
Later Canuckssss
I can't even explain how happy it makes me to see the two softest teams in the league getting dominated in the first round. Fuck the Canucks and fuck the Habs, sorry but you can't win championships when your main offensive strategy is divin...ahem, power play generation. I will never forget the line brawl where all 5 Habs players lost for as long as I live.
5 on 5 goals for:
Team A: 5th overall in the NHL
Team B: 29th overall in the NHL
5 on 4 goals for:
Team A: 3rd overall in the NHL
Team B: 21st overall in the NHL
Total goals for:
Team A: 5th overall in the NHL
Team B: 27th overall in the NHL
It would appear that Team B is much more reliant on their power play to score goals for them than Team A. Their PP ranking jumps up 8 spots from their 5 on 5 play which bumps up their overall goal scoring by 2 spots. The other team remains 5 overall in goal scoring.
I wonder which team is which...
Let's try this again with 2 more teams.
5 on 5 goals for:
Team A: 17th overall in the NHL
Team B: 25th overall in the NHL
5 on 4 goals for:
Team A: 17th overall in the NHL
Team B: 9th overall in the NHL
Total goals for:
Team A: 19th overall in the NHL
Team B: 24th overall in the NHL
What a coincidence. Team B relies on their PP to score goals more than Team A once again.
Team A: 5th overall in the NHL
Team B: 29th overall in the NHL
5 on 4 goals for:
Team A: 3rd overall in the NHL
Team B: 21st overall in the NHL
Total goals for:
Team A: 5th overall in the NHL
Team B: 27th overall in the NHL
It would appear that Team B is much more reliant on their power play to score goals for them than Team A. Their PP ranking jumps up 8 spots from their 5 on 5 play which bumps up their overall goal scoring by 2 spots. The other team remains 5 overall in goal scoring.
I wonder which team is which...
Let's try this again with 2 more teams.
5 on 5 goals for:
Team A: 17th overall in the NHL
Team B: 25th overall in the NHL
5 on 4 goals for:
Team A: 17th overall in the NHL
Team B: 9th overall in the NHL
Total goals for:
Team A: 19th overall in the NHL
Team B: 24th overall in the NHL
What a coincidence. Team B relies on their PP to score goals more than Team A once again.
Tomas Vokoun WILL Start Game 5 VS. Isles!!
Team A (Montreal) scores 28.7% of their goals (42/146) on the power play,
Team B (Ottawa) has 22.3% of their goals on the power play,
Team A (MON) had 203 power plays this season
Team B (OTT) had just 157 power plays
And on top of all that, Montreal only had 4 more wins this than the injury-wrecked Ottawa, despite a clear dominance in the power play stats.
The difference between 29th and 21st is just 5 goals, which is less than the distance between 3rd and 4th. So I'm not sure what you were trying to prove by saying "look! this obscure number is higher!", but you might want to connect a few more dots next time. If Montreal scored as many power play goals as Ottawa this season, they would only be +5 goals scored on the season...probably not winning a division title. I expect a bit more from someone who watches hockey as much as you. You're seriously trying to convince someone that Montreal is tougher than Ottawa. I'm not even going to touch the Canucks/Sharks one because if you really had to hide the names of the teams, it should already be obvious what the truth is
1) I bet you didn't watch the series. Watching highlights on NBC or NESN doesn't count.
2) The Sharks had 24 powerplays over the course of the series. The Canucks had 10. The Canucks were lowly ranked on the power play this season while dictating 5v5 play, a reverse from 2011.
3) The Canucks outhit the Sharks throughout the series. The problem was we couldn't score and rightfully so.
4) Funny how there were two good instances of embellishment (one from Couture from H Sedin's butt of the stick up on his head and the other one from Thornton shaking his hand after a "slash" when closer inspection showed the stick actually hit Thornton's stick), but there wasn't really any uproar about the Canucks diving this series (surprising I know). With the microscope on the Canucks on their supposed diving acts, I'm surprised no one has called us out with .gifs like in the previous seasons!
cannot stop laughing