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2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs thread


MadDog2020

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Never fun watching your #1 rival be good, lucky, or some combo of both, and being in a spot we wish our team could be in.

 

In titans04's defense, we know a lot of Devils' fans would be saying something like "Awww look at the poor wittle Ranger fans all butthurt because they can't stand the fact that the Devils are better than them!  Call the waaaaaambulence!" if things were reversed.  I hate the Rangers as much as anyone, despise them, always want them to fail miserably, but I can't get too wrapped up in what they're doing and constantly put them down or bitch about them to make myself somehow feel better about my hockey life sucking for the moment.  The Rangers are a good team and a Cup contender.  I don't find them particularly likable or embraceable, and even if they were, I still wouldn't root for them.  I would have loved for them to suck forever, just like I would've loved for the Devils never to be where they are right now, but it is what it is. 

 

Anyway, everyone has their own way of dealing with this.  I've pretty much just checked out of the NHL (the Mets are helping immensely in that regard), but I pretty much do that when the Devils aren't part of things anymore, outside of checking highlights here and there and having a general idea of where each series stands.  Can't lie...I'll feel a lot better if the Rangers eventually get eliminated.  I think I could take 15 out of 16 playoff teams hoisting the Cup.  If the Rangers are the team passing it around...there are no words...none with more than four letters, anyway...   

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For the first time I'm really worried this might be the Rangers year. I don't know...sort of knew it wouldn't be last year but something about this year. Everything is just going so well. Luck, injuries. They win when they play well, they win when they don't. I know they still have 2 more rounds before they even get there and they still haven't even finished off Pitt but this might be there year.

I have that same creepy, sickening feeling.

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Well. Which team do we want facing 'em in the second round, it's about that time, lol.

Isles. At least that series might drain the Rags physically and emotionally. The Caps would roll over like a two dollar whore, as they always do when they play the Rags.
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Never fun watching your #1 rival be good, lucky, or some combo of both, and being in a spot we wish our team could be in.

 

For the longest time I had that for my other two sports teams lol...well, it's still true in the NFL obviously although at least it wasn't the Patriots AND the Giants in the Super Bowl again.  Maybe the worm's slightly turning with the Mets right now (vis-a-vis the Yankees/Braves/Phillies all being mediocre-bad while we're in first) but of course now I get that with the Devils being bad and the Rangers probably winning  :P

Edited by NJDevs4978
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I was convinced the Rangers were Cup winners before the playoffs started. But now, I don't know. Pittsburgh isn't good. At all. They sucked the last part of the season by a long stretch, they have a horrid defense and yet, the Rangers have let them hang around in most games.

 

The Rangers will need to raise their level, but can their best players do it consistently? Girardi and Staal take a beating every night, Yandle and Boyle are prone to blunders. Can a team with a better defense and better offense expose them? 

 

I sure hope so. 

 

I'm really sick of the Rangers fans already.

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I still think the rags come up short in the end, I'm so far passed getting all bent over individual calls etc.  Easier to  get use to it they aren't falling apart any time soon going forward. Only hope is we get back to being competitive with them sooner rather than later. Without some serious help from the hockey gods that's not likely to happen for another year or three. To me that's what sucks the most not what other teams are doing. We had it good for years (way back when) and now we're in trouble.

 

I think it's much more exciting when both teams compete against each other at a high level rather than it being one-sided.  Makes winning that much sweeter.  

Edited by titans04
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Yeah, I tend to worry about what competitive teams are doing when the teams I root for are competitive too. The Devils most definitely weren't that most nights. Right now I just kind of accept that the Rangers have a Cup contender window going...and the Devils will need some time to assemble a team that can create one.

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Pens have seemed to slow the rags down all series, and they haven't blown the pens out at all at any time. So people to slow the truck when it comes to them going all the way when they seem to mentally struggle with the an injury ridden pens team as it is

The Rangers have not dominated as I expected, but the Pens have pretty much played an all-out defend game as if they were a soccer team.  They know if the game opens up they will get killed.  Rangers have still gotten it done.  Plus, Fleury is playing the best he has played in years.  Win this series first, and then I expect the next series to open up a bit.  

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I wouldn't call the Rangers too lucky, or any luckier than they were last year, at least. They're getting way more banged up in this series than they did at any point last year. I think I've seen Girardi hobble off and/or go down the tunnel 2-3 or so times these past 4 games? Staal and McDonaugh are getting beat down too. I think Yandle's gone down the tunnel a couple times too. Yandle and Zuccarello aren't practicing in today's mandatory full practice... Etc., etc...

 

What stood out to me LAST year was how little physical adversity they had to deal with in all of their series, especially how little of it was in the Flyers series. The Flyers barely put the body on and before you know it, the Rangers dominated them. Ditto on last year's Penguins, who were soft as a rose petal. And then Montreal beats Boston somehow and matches up with the Rangers in the ECF and there was absolutely no physical edge to that series outside of a Prust hit on Stepan.

 

This year, we can say what we want about how awful the Penguins are, but they've played them hard and have taken the body. And oh man, if the Isles get them next round, it'll be more of the same, but worse; and against a more skilled team than any of the teams the Rangers faced last season (Isles have their problems, but I'd still rank them higher than last year's Flyers, Penguins with a bad Fleury, and last year's Canadiens with PK/Price and no one else, anyday). The road will be harder this year than it was last year; even the Caps are a tad better than they've been in previous seasons.

Edited by DJ Eco
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I wouldn't call the Rangers too lucky, or any luckier than they were last year, at least. They're getting way more banged up in this series than they did at any point last year. I think I've seen Girardi hobble off and/or go down the tunnel 2-3 or so times these past 4 games? Staal and McDonaugh are getting beat down too. I think Yandle's gone down the tunnel a couple times too. Yandle and Zuccarello aren't practicing in today's mandatory full practice... Etc., etc...

 

What stood out to me LAST year was how little physical adversity they had to deal with in all of their series, especially how little of it was in the Flyers series. The Flyers barely put the body on and before you know it, the Rangers dominated them. Ditto on last year's Penguins, who were soft as a rose petal. And then Montreal beats Boston somehow and matches up with the Rangers in the ECF and there was absolutely no physical edge to that series outside of a Prust hit on Stepan.

 

This year, we can say what we want about how awful the Penguins are, but they've played them hard and have taken the body. And oh man, if the Isles get them next round, it'll be more of the same, but worse; and against a more skilled team than any of the teams the Rangers faced last season (Isles have their problems, but I'd still rank them higher than last year's Flyers, Penguins with a bad Fleury, and last year's Canadiens with PK/Price and no one else, anyday). The road will be harder this year than it was last year; even the Caps are a tad better than they've been in previous seasons.

 

Also the goalies they faced before the finals.  Flyers had their backup in for half the series, Montreal was down to a backup's backup from the AHL, Fleury went down the tubes...oh well. Just seemed like they kept getting breaks in that area until they ran into Quick.

Edited by JSR
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