2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs Thread

[mfitz804]

41 minutes ago, Kinkyisth3b3st said:

Starting with Johansson, fhis season the devils traded:  3 (!!) 2nd round picks, 2 3rd round picks, gave away one of their top defensive prospects and goal-scoring fan favorites....

and some of you want to complain they didn’t make MORE moves?

this is still a rebuild, guys. You can’t be an 8th place team and throw assets at the wall hoping you win a few more games. 

Evander kane May be the difference between a 5 game series and a 7 game series, but this isn’t a Stanley cup team yet. Maybe the devils chase him in the offseason. Maybe not. Regardless, shero has done a fabulous job 

Agreed. To do so would have been to risk the future even further, and for what? Evander Kane would have made a difference in this series. Would that difference been winning the series as opposed to losing? I can't be sure. We'd still be the 8th place team up against #1, which was also #2 in the entire league. 

It sure would have been nice to watch him put Kucherov on his ass, though. 

[thecoffeecake]

1 hour ago, Deek_1969 said:

I never write them off until they are officially out. But they are being outplayed by higher skilled players. They had a ton of money to spend at the deadline and failed to do so. Grabner isn't even playing, so we lost a second and Rykov. I like Maroons size and ability to screen the goalie, but no skill. Just look at the break away last night and it says it all. The Devils made a ton of trades, but mostly minor league. We lost two picks in 2018 and not much to show in return. Wondering if we could have traded the 2nd and 3rd for Kane??? Hopefully they get Hall some real offensive help in the offseason. 

 This whole "being out played by higher skilled players" thing is nonsense. Parity is razor thin in the NHL. Losing in 5 is one thing, but they've been thoroughly out played more times than the talent gap would predict. This isn't the NBA. Every team should have a shot in every series. I think the Devils were unprepared and their inexperience was one of the biggest factors. You hope we keep improving, and I trust that we will, but no one would be shocked if we weren't back in the playoffs until 20 or 21. Disappointed they haven't kept this series very close. 

[CarpathianForest]

2 hours ago, thecoffeecake said:

 This whole "being out played by higher skilled players" thing is nonsense. Parity is razor thin in the NHL. Losing in 5 is one thing, but they've been thoroughly out played more times than the talent gap would predict. This isn't the NBA. Every team should have a shot in every series. I think the Devils were unprepared and their inexperience was one of the biggest factors. You hope we keep improving, and I trust that we will, but no one would be shocked if we weren't back in the playoffs until 20 or 21. Disappointed they haven't kept this series very close. 

Double check that roster on TB. It's a miracle that the Devils beat them in the regular season. I'll repeat what I was attacked for saying last night, the Devils don't have that extra gear yet that Tampa has where they can turn it up past 11 in the playoffs.

[Chuck the Duck]

5 hours ago, Deek_1969 said:

I never write them off until they are officially out. But they are being outplayed by higher skilled players. They had a ton of money to spend at the deadline and failed to do so. Grabner isn't even playing, so we lost a second and Rykov. I like Maroons size and ability to screen the goalie, but no skill. Just look at the break away last night and it says it all. The Devils made a ton of trades, but mostly minor league. We lost two picks in 2018 and not much to show in return. Wondering if we could have traded the 2nd and 3rd for Kane??? Hopefully they get Hall some real offensive help in the offseason. 

I thought Buffalo got a first for Kane.  We are not in any position to be giving up first round picks.

The Maroon trade has been ok.  At least he produces a little.  The Grabner trade has been a disaster, and was one that I hated from when it was made.  He’s done nothing, won’t be resigned, and cost us a second and top D prospect that went to our biggest rival which you know will come back to haunt us in the future.  Shero has been great, but that trade was not 1 of his finer moments.

[Satans Hockey]

I wish we got this creative with our towels, so awesome.... 

 

[aclc79]

Those two other series in the East go again tonight.  Who gets the momentum?

[jagknife]

1 hour ago, aclc79 said:

Those two other series in the East go again tonight.  Who gets the momentum?

I think the Caps keep their momentum going, Bruins without Bergeron still manage to win their game.

[jagknife]

Hartman only got a game for his hit that was more obviously to the head than Doughty’s.

Department of Player Safety is a freaking joke

[CarpathianForest]

So Caps come back and win series against CBJ who definitely would give PITT a run for their money. Instead PITT plays WSH who quickly fold as usual

[CarpathianForest]

8 minutes ago, Kinkyisth3b3st said:

This post makes no sense

What I'm saying is......I was trying to eat taquitos and type. Give me a break!

[Devils Pride 26]

7 hours ago, thecoffeecake said:

 This whole "being out played by higher skilled players" thing is nonsense. Parity is razor thin in the NHL. Losing in 5 is one thing, but they've been thoroughly out played more times than the talent gap would predict. This isn't the NBA. Every team should have a shot in every series. I think the Devils were unprepared and their inexperience was one of the biggest factors. You hope we keep improving, and I trust that we will, but no one would be shocked if we weren't back in the playoffs until 20 or 21. Disappointed they haven't kept this series very close. 

You can’t hide defense.

[CarpathianForest]

Excellent! So during intermission they're going to talk about how great Pittsburgh is because there aren't enough video pieces licking the Penguins' taint

[thecoffeecake]

4 hours ago, CarpathianForest said:

Double check that roster on TB. It's a miracle that the Devils beat them in the regular season. I'll repeat what I was attacked for saying last night, the Devils don't have that extra gear yet that Tampa has where they can turn it up past 11 in the playoffs.

You clearly don't understand the talent parity in the NHL. The Lightning won 48 games in regulation or overtime this year to the Devils 39. That's a 9 game, or 23% advantage. That total for Tampa was the highest in the NHL this season, so even the best team in the league only managed to win a little more than half their games in regulation or overtime (and for the sake of determining the better hockey team, you can throw out overtime wins). The lowest total was Arizona at 27, over half of what Tampa managed. Compare that to the NBA where Houston won 65 times to Phoenix's 21, triple the rate (rough year in the Desert).

Look at the Golden Knights roster and look at LA's roster. Do you see how that argument just doesn't apply to the NHL? It's a 20 man game more reliant on systems and effort than any other league, maybe in the world. Were the Devils expected to lose? Of course. Was talent the primary factor in them getting thoroughly dominated so far? No, plain and simple. The scales aren't that unbalanced in this league. It's designed that way. Anyone can beat anyone else on any given night, and it's not a big surprise. 

They're in this position because of inexperience, unpreparedness, and poor execution. The talent disparity falls behind those factors. 

[CarpathianForest]

Taquitos are eaten. What I was saying early was that the Caps will crawl back into and eventually win their series with CBJ. They will move on to the next round where they will inevitably choke against Pittsburgh. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

[MadDog2020]

Taquitos are eaten. What I was saying early was that the Caps will crawl back into and eventually win their series with CBJ. They will move on to the next round where they will inevitably choke against Pittsburgh. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

2-0 Caps.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[thecoffeecake]

21 minutes ago, Kinkyisth3b3st said:

@DevilMinder how much money we gotta raise to ban this troll?

I’ll clarify. I’ve been here since 2007. I’ve posted 10 thousand times so I’ve probably read around 150,000 posts in my decade+ on these forums. This is easily, by far the stupidest thing I’ve read in my entire life. 

Few times in my life has something online made me laugh AND scream at the same time. This is just... I’m speechless. The DUMBEST thing I’ve read. It takes the cake. It takes the coffee cake!

In your singular and (in)coherent thought, you said that a) the talent gap between the Devils and the #1 seed in the east isn’t that big (disregarding I guess that Tampa Bay finished with 113 points; a point total the Devils have never reached in their franchise history). In that SAME thought you say you wouldn’t be surprised if the Devils don’t make the playoffs  in the next 2 or 3 years. 

That is the kind of post that makes ‘7’ tell you to step back from the ledge. I bet even Carpathian thought “chill lol” when he read it.

every single person who read that post is now dumber. You should feel bad.

Geez man. Get over it, already.

[thecoffeecake]

I'm beginning to think a few of you just don't understand the unpredictability of the NHL, something that was very intentionally manipulated by league management and owners. The talent gap is so small in this league, no one can know what is going to happen game to game and year to year. The Oilers were a consensus Stanley Cup favorite going into the season; the Rangers were still considered a middle of the pack playoff team, as were the Stars, the Hurricanes, the Blackhawks, the Jets, the Canadiens, the Flames. All of those teams are either at home, or in the case of the Jets, were a cup favorite going into the playoffs. No one thought Boston or Vegas was gonna do what they did.  And it's amazing people can't get this through their head after seeing Vegas dominate in the regular season and sweep a team of Kopitar, Doughty, and Quick. Marty, are you gonna have the balls to argue Vegas just swept the Kings on talent alone? I wouldn't be surprised, but I'd love to hear it.

Of course I think the Devils are going to make the playoffs next year, but we're far from one of the 3 or 4 locks. The NHL is a coin flip, and if you don't understand that, you don't know this league at all. 

[Nicomo]

Yeah, there’s so much parity in the league, that’s why the Penguins, Blackhawks, and Kings have won the last 10 Cups...

As far as the VGK sweeping the LAK, it was mostly due to the stellar play of MAF. 

[thecoffeecake]

1 hour ago, Nicomo said:

Yeah, there’s so much parity in the league, that’s why the Penguins, Blackhawks, and Kings have won the last 10 Cups...

As far as the VGK sweeping the LAK, it was mostly due to the stellar play of MAF. 

That's how they won their division too, I suppose. I guess an expansion team full of relative nobodies has just wished its way to success over 86 games so far. 

 

Yea, those teams have been good, and the regular season has been tighter and more unpredictable than any other in sports since the lockout. Great for those organizations, but I'm not introducing some foreign concept. Parity is a word constantly used by Bettman, other league execs, owners, the media.  They created tight salary controls to create exactly this. 

It's great that you threw a bumper sticker worth of substance at this one, but it's widely accepted across the hockey world that this is an extremely tight league. A few people on here seem to think this is the NHL of the 90's, but I don't know what else to tell you guys.

[hit the post]

9 minutes ago, thecoffeecake said:

That's how they won their division too, I suppose. I guess an expansion team full of relative nobodies has just wished its way to success over 86 games so far. 

 

Yea, those teams have been good, and the regular season has been tighter and more unpredictable than any other in sports since the lockout. Great for those organizations, but I'm not introducing some foreign concept. Parity is a word constantly used by Bettman, other league execs, owners, the media.  They created tight salary controls to create exactly this. 

It's great that you threw a bumper sticker worth of substance at this one, but it's widely accepted across the hockey world that this is an extremely tight league. A few people on here seem to think this is the NHL of the 90's, but I don't know what else to tell you guys.

I vote for nothing....But that's me .

[SterioDesign]

3 hours ago, Kinkyisth3b3st said:

@DevilMinder how much money we gotta raise to ban this troll?

 

If i'd have to guess I'd say the same amount you paid for not getting banned lol

[thecoffeecake]

2 hours ago, Kinkyisth3b3st said:

I’ve never seen someone so angrily ignorant in my entire life. Every single one of your posts reads like you’re talking down at a bunch of morons. Instead, there’s a bunch of people who think you’re an arrogant, obnoxious dumbass.

Listen, bud, I'm done with arguing with you. I don't know who you are, I've never met you, and if I ever did, I wouldn't care that we disagreed on a hockey forum. You've been after me particularly hard since that Yankees debate, and I'm not playing these games with you anymore. Get the fvck over it. If you want to disagree with me and debate things that come up on this board, great, that's exactly why we're here. If you want to keep being a petty child, you do that, but I'm just gonna ignore it. Argue the fvcking points and move on. If you think I'm such an idiot, you can easily put me in my place doing that.

Jesus fvcking Christ. 

[thecoffeecake]

2 hours ago, Kinkyisth3b3st said:

“Expansion team full of nobodies” was given the easiest and most instant-contender lineup ever by the NHL. They came together as a great team, and that’s awesome, but don’t pretend like Billy Karlsson, Marchessault, and James Neal aren’t 3 elite offensive players and MAF isn’t one of the 5 best goalies in the NHL. This isn’t exactly the expansion ducks.

I agree with you that there's more talent on this team than any other expansion team probably ever in North American sports, and I would argue the NHL went out of its way to make sure Vegas wasn't going to be terrible as long as most, but the fact that they ended up with guys like that underlines my point. There's so much talent in the league that those guys were expendable. They weren't top 8 or 9 guys on their respective rosters. Their old clubs either had more talent, or these guys weren't considered valuable enough to continue paying them (in the case of Neal specifically).

There was no way this team was going to be Atlanta bad, regardless of the expansion set up. 

[Marshall]

2 hours ago, Kinkyisth3b3st said:

“Expansion team full of nobodies” was given the easiest and most instant-contender lineup ever by the NHL. They came together as a great team, and that’s awesome, but don’t pretend like Billy Karlsson, Marchessault, and James Neal aren’t 3 elite offensive players and MAF isn’t one of the 5 best goalies in the NHL. This isn’t exactly the expansion ducks.

Nobody thought they were elite players on October 1. Maybe Fleury, and JAM had proven to be a really good player, as was Rielly Smith and a few other guys, but c'mon. If you thought William '15 Goals In Past 162 Games' Karlsson was elite going into this season...the Devils have a lot of elite players too!

Edited April 20, 2018 by Marshall

[AEWHistory]

2 hours ago, Marshall said:

Nobody thought they were elite players on October 1. Maybe Fleury, and JAM had proven to be a really good player, as was Rielly Smith and a few other guys, but c'mon. If you thought William '15 Goals In Past 162 Games' Karlsson was elite going into this season...the Devils have a lot of elite players too!

In fairness, calling them elite is probably over the top, but you have to admit that Vegas has been handed the easiest, most cream puff expansion in NHL history.  Hell, maybe in all sports history.  I am sure that every team that has ever gone through the expansion experience (and that is most now) is looking back over their early struggles and cursing their rotten luck at not getting the VGK's sweet deal.  Of course, the flip side is the Devils might still be in Kansas City had they been honestly competitive in the mid-70s, so we all benefited in the long run.  Still, it was painful until they became competitive and Vegas will never know those tough years.

Edited April 20, 2018 by AEWHistory