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2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs Thread


LittleBallofHate

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9 minutes ago, Kinkyisth3b3st said:

Zero people outside of that trash city actually like Rancourt. I hear he’s a complete bitch off the ice too; frequently pulling the “do you know who I am?!?” card. 

Marc Savard said on Hockey Central today that he tried to be way too involved with the team, too. He said "I thought he was going to steal my equipment and try to take the ice". All the Bruins fans in my family love him. I'd never heard he was that big of an a$$hole, though, but it doesn't surprise me. 

7 minutes ago, Kinkyisth3b3st said:

LOL D!ck Rash just take a moronic penalty costing his team a powerplay.

Once a dumb fvck Rag, always a dumb fvck Rag. He knew a penalty was coming, what possibly went through his head?

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Feel kinda bad for Gardiner to be honest. He was trying tonight, but he looked real bad. He had solid season it seems (52 points), but tonight everything he did ended up in the back of the net. A lot of people are sh!ting on him on HF for the second Debrusk goal, but I feel he played that one perfectly. Andersen should've had that one and Gardiner took the body. With that said, it doesn't excuse his game.

I wouldn't be surprised if Toronto was looking to ship him out of town. He's not very good defensibvely, but he can produce points, that's for sure. In fact, he has progressed in every season since 2014-2015. He's 27 yrs old with1 year left at 3.45 mil.

Is he someone we look at potentially? I'm not so sure (not sure at all for that matter), but maybe some of you think otherwise.

Edited by Devs3cups
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6 minutes ago, Kinkyisth3b3st said:

There’s zero chance Toronto is ready to move on. When he’s “on” he’s a top-20 defenseman in the league. His issue is that when he’s “off”, he’s so, so, so fvcking off. 

He was a -5 today. Holy hell. Saw a stat that he tried 12 stretch passes today, which is the most by any player in the playoffs this year. He completed five of them, 7 turnovers, and two of those turnovers directly lead to Boston goals. 

Oof ouch owie 

Yeah, I don't think they will get rid of him, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did for the right deal because he's pretty fvcking bad bad defensively. -5 in a game 7. That's... absolute sh!t. His offensive game is real good though. And I've seen him play extremely solid games. But in general I see him more as a guy with great offensive abilities and so-so defense. He seems to often force plays and take bad decisions along the boards and during breakouts

As you've said, when he's hot, he's hot. But when he sh!ts the bed, it's brutal.

Edited by Devs3cups
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4 hours ago, thecoffeecake said:

The reward is you make the playoffs and get home ice. You gotta win the games one way or the other. I don't care if Nashville and Winnipeg is 1st 2nd or 3rd round, the better team comes out either way. 

I agree with you about jumping divisions. I think if 4 teams from each division make it, they should be put in their own division's bracket. But of course in the long term it's good for rivalries when you're often getting series between teams of reasonable proximity who play more in the regular season, who compete more directly in the playoffs. I think in our division especially, as we're packed with natural rivalries. 

It gives you more interesting and ongoing storylines with a structure like this, too. This metropolitan second round matchup has become one of my favorite parts of the playoffs. You don't get that with just a scramble of teams in a conference format. Competing within your division should mean something, and I love the Washington/Pittsburgh matchup, who fought all year for the top of the division, and same with what will hopefully be Boston/Tampa. These things linger into the regular season, too. I think it's a lot of fun. Win your division, and you get to move on. 

These decisions are calculated over countless hours of deliberation. Those "fools" know a lot more than you do about enhancing the league's bottom line. Of course this was experimental, but the league wasn't sacrificing a big check to roll the dice.

But you don't always get home ice, how the hell was it fair last year that Pittsburgh was second in the league yet started on the road in the second round? It's a joke.

Colorado and Detroit weren't in the same division and that's one of the NHLs favorite rivalries to talk about. It's because both teams were winners, winning teams will find each other in 1-8 seedings, that's how rivals really start. 

The league is run by morons, that's why there's empty seats galore in cities like Carolina, Arizona and Florida when those cities shouldn't have teams in the first place and they manage to change rules every year for the sake of it. The NHL could be so much bigger if it got out of its own way but you can't fix stupid. 

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3 hours ago, Kinkyisth3b3st said:

He was a -5 today. Holy hell. Saw a stat that he tried 12 stretch passes today, which is the most by any player in the playoffs this year. He completed five of them, 7 turnovers, and two of those turnovers directly lead to Boston goals. 

Oof ouch owie 

That's basically how they've been playing all year. Last season they skated it more, now they try to stretch the zone and it's not a great strategy vs a great neutral zone team like Boston. My point isn't to exonerate Gardiner, but to me this is more about coaching and systems play than decisions by an individual player.

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2 hours ago, Satans Hockey said:

But you don't always get home ice, how the hell was it fair last year that Pittsburgh was second in the league yet started on the road in the second round? It's a joke.

Colorado and Detroit weren't in the same division and that's one of the NHLs favorite rivalries to talk about. It's because both teams were winners, winning teams will find each other in 1-8 seedings, that's how rivals really start. 

The league is run by morons, that's why there's empty seats galore in cities like Carolina, Arizona and Florida when those cities shouldn't have teams in the first place and they manage to change rules every year for the sake of it. The NHL could be so much bigger if it got out of its own way but you can't fix stupid. 

Pittsburgh had home ice 3 out of the 4 series and won the Stanley Cup. Case in point. It doesn't matter if they had home ice in the second round or third round. They had the point totals to get it more times than not. Why did that Washington/Pittsburgh series have to be a single round later? Again, this isn't an 8 round playoff, who cares if the best teams meet in the second or third round? That's what this is all about. Please explain to me why you think that matters.

You should have to win your division to earn the right to play for your conference. That's just another logical way of determining champions, whether you personally like it or not. There's nothing moronic about it. If you think that's stupid, then you have to think conferences are stupid. The Q has a 1-16 playoff, let's just do that. 

Phoenix has a metro area of almost 5 million people, Miami five and a half (I'll give you that Raleigh might be questionable, but it's a great town with great fans that deserve a more competitive product). You have to go down swinging in those markets. 5 years ago, you would've had Nashville on that list. The growth of the sport in the South has been a huge boost to USA Hockey. Without it, you might not have Matthews, Ghost, Coleman or Noesen, it's a pretty deep list. I'd rather see the league take a hit to grow the sport in this country. What do you care if people aren't showing up to Coyotes games? Owners make less money to improve the footprint of the sport in the United States. That's a trade any fan would make. 

If the league is run by morons, go drop your application at the league offices next time you're in the city. The league obviously isn't planning strategically in the long term, they've just dropped teams in towns that don't work for sh1ts and giggles. I don't like a lot of the things the league does, but you don't know better than the owners and league management. 

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I think this is the first time in memory that the actual 8 best teams are remaining in the second round of the playoffs.

Plus, I didn't realize how alarmingly weak the Leafs are on the back end.

The Devils will have big time competition for Carlson if the Devils decide they will go after Carlson.

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4 hours ago, thecoffeecake said:

Pittsburgh had home ice 3 out of the 4 series and won the Stanley Cup. Case in point. It doesn't matter if they had home ice in the second round or third round. They had the point totals to get it more times than not. Why did that Washington/Pittsburgh series have to be a single round later? Again, this isn't an 8 round playoff, who cares if the best teams meet in the second or third round? That's what this is all about. Please explain to me why you think that matters.

You should have to win your division to earn the right to play for your conference. That's just another logical way of determining champions, whether you personally like it or not. There's nothing moronic about it. If you think that's stupid, then you have to think conferences are stupid. The Q has a 1-16 playoff, let's just do that. 

Phoenix has a metro area of almost 5 million people, Miami five and a half (I'll give you that Raleigh might be questionable, but it's a great town with great fans that deserve a more competitive product). You have to go down swinging in those markets. 5 years ago, you would've had Nashville on that list. The growth of the sport in the South has been a huge boost to USA Hockey. Without it, you might not have Matthews, Ghost, Coleman or Noesen, it's a pretty deep list. I'd rather see the league take a hit to grow the sport in this country. What do you care if people aren't showing up to Coyotes games? Owners make less money to improve the footprint of the sport in the United States. That's a trade any fan would make. 

If the league is run by morons, go drop your application at the league offices next time you're in the city. The league obviously isn't planning strategically in the long term, they've just dropped teams in towns that don't work for sh1ts and giggles. I don't like a lot of the things the league does, but you don't know better than the owners and league management. 

 

Because it makes the regular season fvcking pointless! You don't actually get rewarded for sh!t, having to play tougher teams and on the road in the second round despite being awesome all year. Yeah some fvcking reward. You'll be a singing a different tune if it actually happens to the Devils. You're also taking away one possible home game revenue for a team that did better during the year than their opponent. 

They don't even play in Phoenix anymore which was one stupid mistake right off the bat because they play in Glendale now which is a pain in the ass for people to get to so they don't even bother. Florida plays in Sunrise which is over 30 miles away and probably takes 45 mins to over an hour when there is traffic to get there from Miami. It's an absolute dog sh!t location that a team should have never been moved to. Coleman and Nose are from Texas so don't know why you mentioned them, Dallas draws fine when the team is actually decent. Ghost who gives a sh!t, 1 really good player from Florida since 1993, who cares. Matthews I'll give you but he's in Toronto and it doesn't do sh!t for USA hockey anyway since they didn't even go the Olympics.

 You put my in charge of the NHL and I'd damn well do a better job than these fvcking dweebs like Gary Bettman and Bill Daly do. You would love me lol

This is going to be an endless argument and we aren't ever going to agree but that's the whole fun of a message board anyway lol 

Edited by Satans Hockey
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9 hours ago, Satans Hockey said:

 

Because it makes the regular season fvcking pointless! You don't actually get rewarded for sh!t, having to play tougher teams and on the road in the second round despite being awesome all year. Yeah some fvcking reward. You'll be a singing a different tune if it actually happens to the Devils. You're also taking away one possible home game revenue for a team that did better during the year than their opponent. 

They don't even play in Phoenix anymore which was one stupid mistake right off the bat because they play in Glendale now which is a pain in the ass for people to get to so they don't even bother. Florida plays in Sunrise which is over 30 miles away and probably takes 45 mins to over an hour when there is traffic to get there from Miami. It's an absolute dog sh!t location that a team should have never been moved to. Coleman and Nose are from Texas so don't know why you mentioned them, Dallas draws fine when the team is actually decent. Ghost who gives a sh!t, 1 really good player from Florida since 1993, who cares. Matthews I'll give you but he's in Toronto and it doesn't do sh!t for USA hockey anyway since they didn't even go the Olympics.

 You put my in charge of the NHL and I'd damn well do a better job than these fvcking dweebs like Gary Bettman and Bill Daly do. You would love me lol

This is going to be an endless argument and we aren't ever going to agree but that's the whole fun of a message board anyway lol 

I don't think it's a coincidence that three of the teams struggling the most right now are the three that decided to building their arenas way out of the city in a cotton field (Arizona) /everglades (Florida) / farmland (Ottawa).  Not sure how much of that is on the league vs the actual team.   The Arizona one is a shame because they had an arena voted on and approved in Scottsdale that fell through at the last second, leading them to get desperate and moving to Glendale.     

Edited by Lateralous
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16 hours ago, thecoffeecake said:

 

This format cultivates rivalries. You should have to beat the best team in your division to earn the right to play for the conferences. Why do we bother with divisions or conferences at all? And why even bother with a playoff? We spend 82 games determining the the best team in the league, why should a 2 month tournament determine the league champion? You want to talk about unfair, there it is. 

 

I hate this argument and logic for several reasons.  Rivalries are cultivated easily, and have been, through regular season matchups and frequent meetings.  The schedule is constructed with emphasis on divisions and conferences.  You play teams within your own division and conference more often than you do teams from the other conferences.  This has and still does built rivalries.  If anything, you could easily make the argument that this current playoff format is prohibitive to building rivalries.  We already know we hate the Flyers, Rags, Penguins, and Islanders.  Why?  Out of sheer geographic proximity for one, and the fact that they were, and still are, in our division and have been for a long, long time. (Back when it was the Atlantic for a while with 3 divisions per conference, and of course now with the Metro with 2 divisions per conference).   We see those fvckers a ton during the regular season.  That is what has built rivalries between us.  If we happen to meet them in the playoffs, through re-seeding, then that's just icing on the cake and it adds to the animosity and intensity we already feel for them.  We don't need a playoff format to increase the odds of seeing them.  With the current playoff format, it is impossible to see teams from the other conference in the first or second round, and that to me is just as stupid as it gets.  We are in the Eastern Conference together for a reason.  The divisions matter and are important during the regular season - you play and jockey with teams in your division to try and get to the big dance.  Once the regular season is over and you are actually at the big dance, divisions shouldn't matter anymore -- at that point you are all now part of the same conference, and you're fighting to get to the Conference Final and win that series so that you get to represent your Conference in the eventual Stanley Cup Final where you see the team from the other Conference and compete for the championship.  To me that's pretty much as basic as it gets and I thought almost everyone understood that.  

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2 hours ago, njbuff said:

I think this is the first time in memory that the actual 8 best teams are remaining in the second round of the playoffs.

Plus, I didn't realize how alarmingly weak the Leafs are on the back end.

The Devils will have big time competition for Carlson if the Devils decide they will go after Carlson.

But the playoff format is soooo unfair, why should the best 8 teams still be left?? ;)

There wasn't a question that the Devils were going to have competition for Carlson. But that series sealed the deal on that. Hopefully they can play on the fact that 1) he's from New Jersey, and 2) The team is moving in the right direction and is really lacking exactly what he brings. 

That and a boatload of cash, of course. 

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Hate to admit it but I agree with thecoffeecake on this one.  I didn't like it at first but you need to think of it with the division in mind.  It just so happens that the two best point totals came out of the same division and that itself puts a lot more weight in winning your division during the regular season.  Once you take care of the best teams in your division, you need to face the winner of the other to have a shot at the league championship and I don't see anything wrong with that.

The one thing that I could see making this system a little more refined would be more games against your division teams, but the whole home/away scheme with the other conference kind of hinders that.

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26 minutes ago, Crisis said:

Hate to admit it but I agree with thecoffeecake on this one.  I didn't like it at first but you need to think of it with the division in mind.  It just so happens that the two best point totals came out of the same division and that itself puts a lot more weight in winning your division during the regular season.  Once you take care of the best teams in your division, you need to face the winner of the other to have a shot at the league championship and I don't see anything wrong with that.

The one thing that I could see making this system a little more refined would be more games against your division teams, but the whole home/away scheme with the other conference kind of hinders that.

See, I for one don't think we need any more games against our division - we already see them a ton as it is.  I also love the home/away against the other conference.  It's something I was asking for for years.  To me it was a real drag not being able to see each team in every other team's building at least once per year.  I think it's great for balance and parity -- no team can say they had it unfair by being on the road against the other conference more than another.  i.e. I can remember in years past for example, the Devils would play host to a Western Conference team like, say, San Jose, however we in turn would not visit them in the same season.  How is that fair?   It's also great from the fans perspective -- I personally get tired of seeing my team play the same teams over and over again.  It's great to see how we stack up against teams we don't see has often.  Not saying we need to see them more than twice a year, but to me the home/away split vs teams in the other conference is just perfect the way it is.

 

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4 minutes ago, NJDfan1711 said:

See, I for one don't think we need any more games against our division - we already see them a ton as it is.  I also love the home/away against the other conference.  It's something I was asking for for years.  To me it was a real drag not being able to see each team in every other team's building at least once per year.  I think it's great for balance and parity -- no team can say they had it unfair by being on the road against the other conference more than another.  i.e. I can remember in years past for example, the Devils would play host to a Western Conference team like, say, San Jose, however we in turn would not visit them in the same season.  How is that fair?   It's also great from the fans perspective -- I personally get tired of seeing my team play the same teams over and over again.  It's great to see how we stack up against teams we don't see has often.  Not saying we need to see them more than twice a year, but to me the home/away split vs teams in the other conference is just perfect the way it is.

 

I don't disagree with you.  It certainly makes every subsequent season more comparable if a team always goes on a Cali swing or a western Canada trip.  My point was more aimed at creating more separation within the divisions, I suppose.

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