Thank goodness the Avs didn’t choke in OT again tonight. My hope is renewed yet again.
Favorite part(s) of the game: Modano’s two high-sticking penalties. 
In other news…go Predators! (At least for this round!)
The devils early exit in round one is almost here…Didn’t see that one coming.
Glad to see the Avs get another win…even if they were outshot like its going out of style…
The Habs seem bound and determined to not win again this year (not to take anything away from Boston, they are playing very well.) Talk about a city that does not tollerate loosing…I’d hate to play hockey in Montreal for any of the last ten years…
Now if the Red Wings can just keep loosing…
[G. Hart] Ten seconds … Ladies and gentlemen… the Flyers… are going to win… the Stanley Cup! THE FLYERS WIN THE STANLEY CUP! THE FLYERS WIN THE STANLEY CUP! THE FLYERS WIN THE STANLEY CUP![/GH]
4-1 Ottawa.
Did I mention Toronto lost?
I’ve had some time to cool down from game 4 preds/wings, and I just want to list the things the wings need to do to win.
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Nashville needs to stop being allowed to get behind the wings defense. Two first period goals given up because of two preds on breakaways? :eek: That’s embarassing. Keep Lidstrom, Dandenault, or Schneider back or get scored upon again. Better yet, remember that whole “left wing lock” thing from a couple of years back.? Wasn’t that great? Sure it was. Dust it off and get back to it or prepare to play golf.
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Stop throwing the puck at the net every single time you see it. Vokoun has made a lot of saves simply because the wings are putting it into his chest every time. Take a second and aim. Drapers goal between Vokouns legs wasn’t a fluke. He payed attention and waited for a shot. He didn’t just wind up for a slapper because he crossed the blue line.
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Get Holmstroms big fat ass in front of Vokoun on the power play. Heck, put it there every time he is on the ice. He’ll get the ugly goal. He’ll even drive the Preds nuts. Win/win situation.
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Speaking of going nuts, what’s with all the penalties? Try sipping some chamomile before game time. Sure, Nashville flops every time somebody touches them, but that isn’t the reason that you are getting so many penalties. Try playing with more discipline. Keep the sticks down. No two handed chops. Get it out from between their legs. Keep the hits clean as can be. Most of all, quit complaining. Let the Preds dive. The refs will see it. Focus on the game.
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Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Hull is a bad idea. They are all smart and skilled players, but none of them are particularly grindy. If that puck gets dumped to the boards, I wouldn’t rely on any of them to go down to the corner and muck it out. That is why you have Deveraux, Draper, Maltby, McCarty, and Homlstrom. They go in and do the dirty, ugly work so everybody else can have the puck.
5b)Draper scored a lot of goals during the regular season because he wasn’t on the grind line. Maybe it’s time to give them a break. Put Zetterberg back there to give that line some offense. Move Draper up to give Whitney and Yzerman some speed and grit. That leaves Shanahan/Lang/Holmstrom and Deveraux/Datsyuk/Hull. You could do worse.
6)Dave Lewis needs to quit flailing. Once the wings got down in the last two games, noone was on the same line twice for the rest of the game. Also, Cujo should’ve been put in to give Legace a break from the grind in the first game in Nashville. Now all you’ve done is dented Legace’s pride and put in a cold goalie with a potentially bum ankle. If the wings blow another first round, it’s on his head. Maybe there was a reason that Bowman wanted Barry Smith to take over the wings.
Ah, I feel better now. Moving on…
Where is my Toronto/Ottowa series? That’s probably the best series on ice right now and I haven’t seen a game of it :mad: :mad: Instead I get San Jose/St. Louis and Tampa Bay/NY Islanders!?!? That’s just not right.
Modano gets 2 high sticking penalties? Not surprising. Dude seems to think every time he touches the puck the defense should part like the red sea. If the defense does their job, he throws a hissy fit. Maybe he should stick to open skates at the local rink. All the open ice he wants. Also, who knew that the loss of Hatcher would gut this team so completely.
Speaking of gut wrenching trades, I still don’t know why the Avs traded Drury. The man is the frickin personification of the word clutch. Did they honestly think that Morris, now Vaanaanen (get this man another consonant!) was better? All it is going to take to blow the Avs cup hopes is a team that can thwart their top line.
I wonder why Tampa and San Jose aren’t getting any respect as far as the cup goes. I’ve heard a lot about Toronto and Philly. The wings and avs are quite prominent as well. Hasn’t it occured to anybody that maybe there was a reason that those two did so well?
IMHO:
They’re expansion teams with little history and reputation.
Neither has a “star” of the renown that these other teams do. ESPN and the like love to cover stars.
They are in cities not traditionally linked with anything hockey. The local media doesn’t cover hockey as much in these cities. (Being a San Jose resident I know this first-hand. Sharks coverage is often relegated to a short blurb after football, baseball, basketball, golf, college sports, and even off-season moves in the other leagues have been covered.)
Also, Tampa is in a traditionally weak division and is therefore probably considered weak by association despite their point total.
GO LIGHTNING!!!
Khabibulin (and his 2 goals allowed in 4 games) rocks! So does Martin St. Louis! I loved his short-handed goal last night.
- Shibb, counting his pennies to see if he can afford to go to game 5 tomorrow night
That trade killed me. When Drury still played for the Avs I thought he played like a young Peter Forsberg. Along with Hejduk and Tanguay, the Avs had three of the best youngsters in the entire league back then.
This is going to make me look like a hindsight moron liar since I forgot to hit submit before today’s game, but since I already wrote it I’ll post it now. Particularly since I was right on point 5
To respond to Harborwolf’s points.
1.Absolutely true. Hatcher is more of a hindrance with his speed, and at no point should Hatcher and Fisher be on the ice together. The rest of the guys gotta pinch in smarter, both Lidstrom and Chelly are being uncommonly risky.
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In game 4 they took good shots, one timers, long ones, short ones, hard ones sneaky ones. I don’t think they were shooting too much, it was just one of those times when nothing went in. I hope they continue to shoot more, as they have a tendancy to get fancy and not shoot, particularly on the power play.
3 and 4. True Dat. -
I disagree, it’s a great and unique line that I think should stay together, they don’t need to grind, they can skate around and poke, pickpocket and slip around, and do all kinds of things that mess up the D, then get Hull an open shot.
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It’s a style I’m not comfortable with, but thats cause it’s not Bowmans. I’ll give him this playoffs to show what he can do. But I think it would be better to groom Legace for the future, rather than go with the guy who has screwed the pooch every chance in the playoffs.
San Jose has made through thanks to game winning goal of Mark Smith? Who? Oh, 4th line scoring. Man, the Leafs could sure go for some of that right now. And St. Louis continues to realise it means squat to make the playoffs and not do anything while here.
WOOHOO! Yay Sharks!
Well, the real red wings finally showed up for their series last night. Shame the preds didn’t. Looks like they thought they had the series wrapped up. Let’s hope the wings don’t fall into the same trap in Nashville.
Yes, Zetterberg/Datsyuk/Hull were great last night. I can admit when I’m wrong. Still, the first goal had Shanny replacing Hull. 
And I still think that line doesn’t have enough crash to it.
The wings finally tightened up defensively and didn’t allow any breakaways. Dandenault and Hatcher looked good out there. Cujo was surprisingly good. All in all, I’m a happy camper.
As for other things, Alex Auld!?!? What the heck was Marc Crawford thinking? Maybe his hair has taken over his brain. These have beent the worst goalie moves since Philly vs. Detroit for the cup.
San Jose in 5. Kind of a shame. I still like Osgood, but his team played like crap in front of him. He’ll likely take the heat though. Easier to blame one person than an entire team and coaching staff. Dude deserved better. Anyways, congrats to San Jose. Enjoy a few days off.
Poor Kovalev. Montreal could win the cup and he’ll still be remembered for “handgate.” What am I saying? I’m not sorry for him at all. Double OT and he blows the game by trying to draw a penalty. The fact that his hand was well enough for him to play and score a goal, means he lost the game because he was an idiot.
Well, it was well enough for him to score a goal in the next game. But I bet it stung like the dickens when it got hurt. It wasn’t that he was trying to draw a penalty but that he lost his focus and let the puck get by.
That’s the problem. He lost focus in double OT in the playoffs because of an owie on his hand. He lost focus so much he ran into his own player. He lost focus so much he cost his team the game.
Hockey is a tough sport. He commited the cardinal sin of not dealing with what was essentially a booboo.
Well, yeah, but it’s not the same as trying to draw a penalty, which is what so many people were claiming. Flopping/diving is much more serious, generally speaking.
Auld wasn’t bad, the problem is the rest of the team. Not only can’t they score, they can’t even get anywhere near the Calgary net. I know it would take more than just one player to fix things, but if only Bertuzzi hadn’t been such a bloody idiot they could really use him right now.
Martin St. Louis ROCKS!!
What an exciting game! Not the best ever played, but lots of drama. NY up early on a power play goal, then the Lightning storm back with two hard earned goals (and lots of missed chances) in the second. Islanders tie it up in the third, but St. Louis goes top shelf over DiPietro to win it four minutes into overtime.
I become a Charter Member, the Leafs get their 3rd shutout today, it was 20 degrees outside today and it’s the weekend. What a great day!
And what did I say about 4th line scoring, it may not have been pretty and it may not have been skillful but it counts. One more win and it’s on to Tampa.
I saw on the CBC that playoff tickets for Tampa Bay home games were going for as low as $8USD; and they cannot even sellout the stadium!!!
What is wrong with hockey in America??
Football, basketball and baseball have a stranglehold on the market. It’s sad, really. We have an East Coast Hockey League team down here (the MS Seawolves), a darn good team (won the Kelly Cup a couple years back) to boot, and people are writing in to our newspaper saying that they’re thankful the season is over (the Wolves just got knocked out of the playoffs) because they don’t want hockey to waste space in the paper.
Have these people ever seen a hockey game, much less actually played the sport? If they’d give hockey a fair shake (especially down here, where freaking NASCAR and the like take precedence), they might, I don’t know, enjoy it. Maybe they feel threatened by a sport that takes more intelligence to engage in than, say, pro wrestling.
(My parenthetical prowess cannot be denied. THREE parenthetical phrases in one sentence? I must be crazy.)