The 2004 SDMB NHL Playoff Hockey Thread

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

We’re into Day 2 of the NHL playoffs, and like every decent Canadian I’m wearing the jersey of my favourite team (the holy Ottawa Senators) and worrying about all the guys I drafted in the office pool.

Let us review the happenings so far, in the eight Round 1 battles:

Boston vs Montreal
Game 1: Boston 3, Habs 0

Raycroft lookin’ good in his first playoff start. Are the Habs out of gas?

Detroit vs Nashville
Game 1: Red Wings 3, Predators 1

The series nobody expected to be close was a hell of a fight for about 40 minutes. Can the Predators recover? And how about that goal by Robert Lang? Lord Jesus, what an effort.

Vancouver vs Calgary
Game 1: Canucks 5, Flames 3

Flames rookie sensation Mikka Kiprusoff was brutal in his playoff debut and the Canucks didn’t look like they missed Todd “The Felon” Bertuzzi.

Dallas vs Colorado
Game 1: Avalanche 3, Stars 1

David Aebisher the hero here, stopping 37 of 38 shots. Peter Forsberg looked very good indeed. Is Colorado a sleeper?

Ottawa vs Toronto
Game 1: Senators 4, Leafs 2

It was all Leafs for 20 minutes… and all Senators for 40. Are the Leafs’ old legs wearing out?

Tampa Bay vs New York
Game 1: Lightning 3, Islanders 0

Don’t be fooled; the Isles outshot the Bolts 30-18. Khabibulin stole this one for Tampa. They might not be as strong as some people believe.

New Jersey vs Philadelphia
Game 1: Flyers 3, Devils 2

The other geographic grudge match sees the defending champs drop a tough one. Devils with 39 shots, but Esche turned them away. Tell me again why the Flyers traded for Sean Burke??

St. Louis vs San Jose
Game 1: Still in progress!

Stay tuned!

Who do you cheer for? And isn’t this the BEST???

2

Islanders all the way here. I bleed orange! Your summary on game one for us is corect. I will add that Tampa’s first 2 goals were absolute gifts! Eric Cairns gave up 2 brutal turnovers that resulted directly in the goals. The Isles will bounce back.

Let’s all really enjoy this playoff run though, whatever your team. I fear it may be the last for a while, and when the next one comes, the league will be drastically different!

3

What an odd game between Toronto and Ottawa, but I loved it! It’s unfortunate that 2 of the goals happened on that 5 on 3 powerplay, because that’s all that the Leaf fans need to start playing the blame-game. I think Nolan said it best with “boo-hoo”.

Hossa playing superman with his skates higher than his arse, and Lalime making that flying glove save! Alfie doing some forechecking, and Neil not taking one stupid penalty. It was certainly different hockey than their last few regular season games, and I’ve loving it!

Go Sens Go!

4

First of all - once again, I’m feeling confident that this is the Senator’s year.

If the Leafs play the rest of the series like they did tonight, it won’t go beyond 4 games.

How long has it been since 1967? :stuck_out_tongue:

Second - RickJay, you must have issues. Does your family know about this? Are you a closetted Ottawa fan? You would be safer in a Habs jersey.

5

Let’s go Red Wings!

I have to admit I was a little nervous for two periods. The Wings have a horrible habit of running into goal tenders doing an impression of Superman. That being said I never really had a doubt, and now we have the first one the series is over. I kind of which it was like playstation and I could just fast forward till the next round.

Prepare for the legend of Legace to begin everybody, you all might as well start watching baseball, cause the cup is already on it’s was to Hockeytown. :cool:

6

I am a transplant to Toronto, from Kingston, where I developed my love for God’s anointed team, the Senators of Ottawa. The time of conquest is nigh. The Grail will be ours.

Yes, I now make my living in this jungle of zombified Leafs fans. I do verbal battle with them on a daily basis. The trash talk flies hot and heavy. I consider myself a prophet, and hopefully I can convert some of these poor, misbegotten souls from the error of their wicked and misguided ways.

wolfman: I snagged Legace in the pool. I expect many points. The Leaf fans in the pool laughed at me during the draft. “Ha,” they said. “Har.” They insisted that Curtis Joseph would start. Why? Because he was a Leaf once.

7

Go Avs!

seriously…I have to stand by my team, but unless Aebisher is unbelieveable for the next month or so…

So it boils down to this…Who is going to beat the Devils this year?

I also wouldn’t mind seeing the Habs pull it out this year…lord knows that city dosen’t tollerate any loosing…Detroit the hardest city to play in? Hell no…

8

That was my major worry comming into the playoffs. That the focal point of Toronto suckyness, Cujo, would start. If he did then his suckyness would overwhelm the godliness of the Red Wings and Yzerman. But since Lewis this season had the vision, granted by God, not to start a former Maple Queef, the outcome is certain, so has it been written, so shall it be. The only question left is, can the Wings make a 16 game sweep?

9

If anyone had told me in October that the Sharks would finish the season with the third-best record in the league, I would have laughed in their face.

I think they’re capable of going all the way, but I don’t think they will. They lack the experience, and some of the other teams in the west (e.g. Detroit, Colorado) are just made for the playoffs. I think they’ll beat the Blues, but will die in the second round.

10

Sharks baby!!
Sharks started off the season terrible. But they have been looking real good lately. Evgeni was great last night. I think that Evgeni will have to play incredibly for Sharks to get deep into the playoffs. But I also think that he’s capable.

Evgeni, Evgeni, Evgeni

-Shaggarito

11

Since this isn’t the Pit, I’ll have to sanitize my post. Ahem.
Gddmn mtherfcking sshle sh*teating BLUES!
Ah well. There’s always Game 2.

12

In the regular season, Preds and Wings are all tied up against each other, so we know the Preds can take it to them. And damn, did they keep momentum going after that first goal after 14 seconds or what? I haven’t seen the Preds play so fast or hard all year. It’s good to see the first-timers pouring it on. I just hope they don’t burn out too quickly. I think Preds will walk away with at least two wins.

I pray they do, at least. I have tickets for game 6 here in Nashville :slight_smile:

13

It is one of the great mysteries of the universe that Curtis Joseph is considered a ‘playoff goalie’. How many Stanley Cup Finals has he been to again? Wait, wait, don’t tell me…

With my beloved Oilers missing out on the playoffs, I’m finding myself rooting against more teams than for them. On the hate list: New Jersey, Philly, Dallas, Detroit, Colorado (just sick of them), Calgary (as an Oiler fan I am biologically required to think this way) and Montreal. Not that fond of Toronto either. Maybe I’m just a crank.
:slight_smile:

Ottawa over San Jose in the finals, BTW.

14

It would appear the Flyers have a pretty good shot at being that team.

As to the Curtus Joseph issue - is he in fact the most overrated player in the history of the NHL? Okay, Eric Lindros was, but second most?

15

Damn straight.

He seems to be doing the job so far, and offense is starting to wake up. Is this where we see all that talent step up and do what we got it for? Quick look after two: Tanguay 2g,1a Sakic 2g,1a Foresburg 2g,1a Blake 3a, Aebischer 1.5 gaa.
Four guys with 3 points each after two games, and a netminder with a 1.5 gaa? There might be hope(but lets not get ahead of ourselves).

Philadelphia, who look tough.
I think it’s the Wings that we need to worry about, maybe the Sharks. Time will tell.

16

Cujo would be top 5 for sure. Ken Dryden would also be there, IMO.
As for this year’s playoffs, what’s going to give first; Dan Cloutier’s temper from being bumped everytime there is a shot on goal or the referees whistle so they actually start calling some of the goaltending contact? A goalie trying to do his job should not have to fight through the check to do so. Not that the refs are doing a bad job, I just think that Burke (VAN GM) is going to whine and whine until players get penalized for looking at Cloutier. The problem is that most of the contact is because the VAN d-men push the CGY players into Cloutier. That must be a defenseman thing…I just don’t understand.

17

I was worried about my Avs after the first game against the Stars. Even though they won 3-1, I felt like (except for Aebischer, who was outstanding) their playing was mostly subpar.

Game 2 reaffirmed my hope. Colorado’s big guns stepped up and delivered, and Aebischer was great again. If they can keep playing like that, and cut down on the penalties, they’ll be tough to beat. Not that I’m biased. :slight_smile:

Did anyone see the Stars player crack Hinote (I believe it was Hinote) in the face with a high stick after his goal? I don’t know if it was intentional, but still…

18

Sharks fan checking in. That was a hard-hitting game against St. Louis yesterday: 3-1 Sharks! Go Sharks! This series is now at 2 and 0.

BTW, didn’t the Blues’ penalty box at one point look like a carton of eggs, what with four white-helmeted Blues in there at once? An appropriate image, given the fact that it was Easter Sunday.

19

Detroit and Nashville split their six games against each other this regular season, and the Preds usually always play better than usual against the Wings. In their short history, the closest the Predators have come to a rivalry is with Detroit.

The first two games between Nashville and Detroit were excellent, even if the Preds came up short. If Detroit wasn’t such a stacked team, or they happened to make just a few more mistakes, the series could be 2-0 for Nashville.

As for the goaltenders, Manny Legace has played very well, but Tomas Vokoun has taken the spotlight so far, IMO.

On the subject of Curtis Joseph, I thought he was one of, if not the most underrated goalies in the league - when he played in Saint Louis. Now, well, it’s another story.

For the record, I believe there are only three goalies in the league who have won the Stanley Cup as the starting goalie - Ed Belfour, Martin Brodeur and Chris Osgood. (Please, correct me if I’m wrong.)

I’ll be happy if the rest of the games in the Detroit/Nashville series are as great as the first two, even if the Predators get swept. And the Avalanche never win another Cup. The people in Colorado may deserve their own hockey team (we’ll see how they cope when the Avs miss the playoffs some year), but they didn’t deserve my team.

I may be a Predators fan, but I’m still a Nordiques fan at heart!

20

Who’s gonna beat the Devils? I can’t believe that actually got asked. This is Philly’s year, all the way. I just loved the end of the second game - it looked like Esche was gonna drop the gloves at the buzzer. I can’t wait for game three! :smiley:

Speaking of being unable to wait - three games on ESPN and the Deuce on Easter Sunday…guess my work isn’t gonna get done today!