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iamkirinlemon

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  1. On that particular play I won't fault them. I agree they have been pretty crappy this series. But come on ... someone falls down in a pile, skate blade comes out of nowhere and cuts your face. It's really hard to assign blame for stuff like that.
  2. When I watch basketball, baseball, and football, the other major sports in North America, I am always struck by how perceptive the announcers and commentators are in general. We see analysis of plays, diagrams, specific reasons for wins and losses, and just an overall better product. Hockey, on the other hand, has largely atrocious coverage in the USA. I always wondered why I could never participate in truly intellectual hockey discussions. I've been following the sport for years. Basically, it's my fault that I've bought into the drivel ESPN gives us. Here is all I have learned about hockey from ESPN: 1) If the power play isn't working, keep it simple and shoot the puck. 2) Put traffic in front of the goalie. 3) Trap = clogging the neutral zone. Don't skate through. 4) Bang bodies out there and stir up your team. 5) Those guys are tired; they need a shift change. 6) Goalies shouldn't give up bad rebounds. 7) Great save ... he makes it look easy. 8) If your team is losing, change up your lines to create a spark. ... And some player-specific expertise: 1) Sakic has a great wrist shot. 2) Giguere makes every save look easy. (I wonder why ...) 3) Brodeur is SO GOOD at controlilng the puck. (I won't tell you what he is doing; I'll just salivate over him.) Dump the puck in AWAY from him. 4) Madden is SO DANGEROUS shorthanded. 5) Cechmanek is not dependable in the playoffs. ... I could go on, but you get the idea. Where exactly is their expertise? I could write a computer program to randomly spew out these comments. In fact, that's precisely what they do in sports video games. Anybody can make these comments. They aren't WRONG, but they are hardly insightful. It's just rehashing what every fan has already heard for years. Perhaps I am not being fair ... they have done bits on how to win faceoffs, since they decided to make such a big deal out of them. And I learned about one set play ... win faceoff to person who shoots. Yay. Thankfully, this year I realized I knew nothing, and tried to read a lot. I learned about all the details ... how the trap works, how to beat the trap, how coaches build various set plays, how and why those set plays work, why specific line adjustments are made, how exactly to get a goalie to move around, how to make physical play work, etc etc. With a lot of these concepts getting 'name dropped' so often, you think there would be some detailed analysis to accompany it. Some of the analysts here are not bad. I think JD is decent. My hockey knowledge has increased listening to him. Canada's analysts, even though many have already decided this series is not worth it, are noticing and finding the subtle coaching adjustments and changes, and are then telling the fans about them. I always watch the clips on TSN.ca, as well as the Coach's Corner clips on CBC.ca. Every time I watch, I learn something. If we really want to make hockey more interesting, we have GOT to get better analysts. They are dumbing the game down. No wonder they have nothing to say and are bored (and boring) to tears.
  3. Madden got cut by a skate accidentally. Ozolinsh was perhaps indirectly responsible since he knocked Madden down - you can't fault the refs on that one. Most of the Ducks fans on LGD are morons (MOST, not all). For them, this series with NJ is not even about NJ; it's about Anaheim surpassing the Kings as the most accomplished franchise in California. When Anaheim loses, most of their anger is not directed at the Devils fans ... it's directed at the Kings fans who are trying their best to drive the Ducks fans crazy.
  4. The Devils haven't made ALL the goalies they faced look ordinary. Grahame played quite well. It was only one game, but still. Khabibulin was really bad for Tampa. A hot goalie in that series and anything could have happened.
  5. I despise the media. Article from The Sporting News: http://www.sportingnews.com/voices/paul_gr...t/20030605.html The part that particularly bugs me: The few players worth watching are in the West: Peter Forsberg, Markus Naslund, Joe Sakic, Sergei Fedorov, Todd Bertuzzi, Marian Gaborik, Jean-Sebastien Giguere, et al. If you subscribe to NHL Center Ice and you live in the East, start staying up late. WHY is Giguere on that list? Has this series not yet shown people that he is giant pile of goalie equipment that can barely move in net? Once again, it is clear that the media picked their storylines before the finals, and instead of watching, they just spout the same drivel. If NJ wins tonight and Giguere gets the Conn Smythe, and nobody in the media contests this, I swear heads are going to roll. I don't know where, but they are ... If Giguere posts two incredible games, then even if the Ducks lose I can accept him winning the Conn Smythe. But not now; he still has something left to prove.
  6. I don't think the Ducks themselves feel like they are playing "bonus hockey". Minnesota definitely did when they played Anaheim, but I think Anaheim feels they are the best in the West, and they think they should be able to beat NJ. This means they will be under a ton of pressure for Game 6. Oddly enough, I think this all works in NJ's favor. Sure, NJ has had issues in closing out series before, but I see Game 5 generating a lot of positive momentum. They didn't win with defense; they won with overwhelming heart and determination. That is the sort of thing you can carry over with you. Games 1 and 2 were very one-sided, so I'm not surprised NJ didn't get any momentum from them heading into Anaheim. I think Game 5 is different ... the effort will linger and create a huge boost in Game 6. Everybody is contributing offensively. Stevenson hopefully has one or two more games in him, and he made a huge difference. Brodeur has something to prove, and he has always been strong following shaky games. If Nieuwendyk comes back, that's the icing on the cake. EDIT: I can't spell.
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