That was more an indication of the final score than anything else. I was being creative.
After every Lightning game they put the three stars of the game in the St. Pete Times. Usually it’s one or two offensive guys and a defender and/or goalie. Today they honored Keith Primeau’s game last night by mentioning his outstanding play on an otherwise mediocre night for the Flyers. They even had a piece on what a good guy Hitchcock actually is. Very classy journal.
Everybody keeps saying seven game series. As good as last night was, I still don’t see the Lightning taking two in a row there. Although, as was mentioned about umpteen times last night, the Bolts haven’t lost yet on the road in these playoffs, which is fairly amazing.
I missed the first period and a half last night, although I caught some of the second on the radio. My personal highlights were:
TB’s shutdown defense, especially on the powerplay
The passing on the fourth goal from St. Louis and Roy ending up with the feed to Richards.
St. Louis’ brilliant distribution pass to LeCavalier as he broke down center ice to swing the momentum back right after Primeau’s goal.
I’m spending this weekend in DC for a friend’s bachelor party. We’re supposed to be on the Mall and at museums Saturday afternoon. I wonder if I can trick them into a bar or pub somewhere that just happens to be showing the game.
That occurred to me as I was walking up the steps this morning… :smack:
And he was it. Esche didn’t show up. LeClair? Don’t even remember hearing his name. Recchi? Handzus?? Lot of silence.
On the plus side, whoever comes out of the East will have a good series against the West champ - that is, it’s not like in the NBA, where the West is clearly dominating. All four remaining teams look to be about the same, strengthwise.
And you’re such a nice, level-headed sport for a Philly fan that I may even have to cheer for the bad guys, er, I mean, Flyers, if we can’t pull out the win. Plus there is a dearth of Sharks and Flames fans in here lately.
Yeah, where are those fans? I know San Jose’s not a typical hockey town, but geez - what else do they have going on?
And Calgary - man, those people are ecstatic to be back in the playoffs, let alone this far. Do the Flames still play in the Saddledome? (Was that what it was? Stampede?)
Hey, I’m still here. Last night’s Game was intense, I saw it as a complete reversal of game 1. In game 1, the Sharks outplayed the Flames, yet lost to a brillant job of goaltending by Kippersau. Last night it was the reverse, I thought the Flames punched San Jose in the face, pushed them all over the ice and only lost because Nabokov played almost perfectly. I still like the Flames in this series, certainly their demenor during the last 5 minutes dosen’t point to them rolling over like San Jose did in game 2. They’ll win Sunday and pretty much lock up the Westen Conference, then on to the cup!
Nope. And she’s not even a hockey fan, in fact she hates it. But…I needed a team for the cup run, because it’s always exciting, and so I figured, “Why not the Flames?”, and damned if I didn’t get bit hard by the fan bug!
I’m really not a hockey fan, but I pay attention to the Flyers come playoff time, and I know the players and stuff pretty well. Anyway, you guys might kind of laugh at this analysis because I really don’t know the sport, but I have a few questions.
First of all, is it at all normal that one team dominates the play as much as the Flyers have all playoffs long? I don’t mean that they’re just better than anyone, but I’ve noticed that they seem to spend literally minutes at a time in their offensive zone (I don’t know terminology- down near the other team’s goalie). I think the proper term for what they do well is “cycling.” I know the Flyers’ style has always been the big, strong, push’em around style, but do teams really control the play for long periods of time like this? The announcers were talking about it today, so it must have been notable, but I don’t understand how you could ever lose if you have control all game like that. That leads me to my next question:
Why the hell don’t the Flyers ever get good shots? They seem to, I don’t know, dick around with the puck around the perimeter and behind the net too much. If this was basketball, I’d say they were passing around the three-point line, and nobody was driving to the basket. Is that just normal hockey, is it a result of the way the Lightning play on defense, or do the Flyers just naturally tend to move it around (and around and around) without really attacking? I don’t know why they don’t just whack it in on the goalie, with all those big strong MFers they have.
Finally, a little observation of my own- St. Louis on Tampa must be a really, really good athlete. He seems like he does everything faster and more, I dunno, flashy than everyone else. Squirrelly little bastard.
Oh yeah, and that Villy dude on Calgary is one cheap-shot bastard. Reminds of Barnaby from the Sabres back when the Flyers were good in the late '90s.
there is nothing wrong with your counting, way back when the wha was absorbed by the nhl, the wha records were abandoned & donot count, but the couple of years howe was in the minors do, thus the confusion. but the dirty trick was that the players professional status counted. this is why gretzky was not eligable for the calder trophy (rookie of the year) because he played the previous season (78/79) in indianapolis
Good teams control the play, just like in football. But good teams don’t always score the most goals. The Flyers, when they’re “on,” are in the Lightning’s zone more than the Lightning is in the Flyers’ zone, but all it takes is one Lightning (St. Louis?) to swipe the puck and go in on a breakaway.
It’s not necessarily the number of chances a team gets, it’s what a team does with them. I’ve seen teams outshot 14-5 and still outscore the other team 2-1.
That tic-tac-toe passing system they have can be a pain to watch sometimes, especially when they’re on a power play. It’s meticulous, it’s deliberate, and goddamitwhywon’tsomeoneSHOOT! But it does work for them pretty well, because even though they have plenty of big players, they also have plenty of highly skilled players who can complete a precision pass. If you do that often enough, the other team will fall out of its system, and when their system breaks down, you have yourself a great scoring opportunity.
Simply throwing it at the net isn’t a bad idea, except that when a huge shot is taken either there’s no rebound at all or the rebound comes all the way out of the zone.
Congrats to those Calgary upstarts. I always liked the team, and I’m glad they’ve got some long-overdue success. On the downside, I think a Tampa Bay-Calgary Stanley Cup final would get terrible ratings…
Sorry I missed this before; it’s been a bit hectic lately. That was a rough game, but I only saw part of the first period and then the whole second period. We were at the ESPN Sports Zone in downtown DC, after our trip to the Spy Museum. But it was pricey with mediocre food and really bad service, so we left and by the time we got back the game was over. I missed the final two goals (by the Lightning), so I don’t know if they had any real chance of getting back in.
Anyway, from Tuesday:
Bolts :D:D:D:D Flyers :(
That was a fantastic game. I love the way the momentum flows back and forth. In the first period the Lightning hammered the Flyers, and the second period started out the same. Then the Flyers came back, scored two quick and the Lightning were on their heels for most of the second. From this part of the country some of the calls seemed a bit suspect, particularly when the Flyers got the four on three, but the Lightning held firm and finally iced it with just a little bit to go in the third period when the Flyers had no choice but to leave the net open.
I fully expect the Flyers to win tonight, although I’d be delighted with the opposite result. This whole series has been a classic with two very different styles of play and both with success to point to. Game 7 should be spectacular.
Game 6s scare the living poop out of me. If the Flyers lose, I’m not sure I’d call this season a success. Ok, on one level it is, but still - it would feel quite lacking. OTOH, if they win and we have a Game 7, and then they lose Game 7, I will feel their season WAS successful, because they took TB to a Game 7 in the conference finals.
Anyway… should indeed be quite the game tonight. If we consider patterns, then the fact that they lost last time should bode well for this one. They looked flat in the first period of Game 5, almost on their heels. When the game was 3-0, I actually turned it off. Okay, I muted it. On both TVs. I looked up a short time later, and it was 3-2. From then on, I watched closely, and they did indeed show the verve and panache I expected of them.
I don’t know what to expect tonight. They split the previous two games that were in Philly.
Gotta give props to the Flames. Hard work and a hot goalie goes far these days. Thanks to the Ducks last year and the Flames this year the nature of the league seems to be changing. The high payroll teams are taking a beating from hardworking teams with low payrolls.
Also, is there a better player in big games than Iginla? Since the 2002 Olympics he has made a habit of showing up big in the important games. Not to mention Gelinas with his three series clinching goals this year.
Well, I’ll tell ya. Knowing this was a critical Game 6, I took a nappy-poo around 6 pm here, all the better to be focused for the 7 pm start time.
I awoke at 1 am. :eek:
Undaunted, I stayed up anyway. I quickly discovered the outcome (hooray!), and I watched a couple of Sportscenters to see the highlights. Then I found that ESPN rebroadcast the game - I picked it up at just the right time, with a few minutes to go in regulation. Score and score!
There have been two OT games in the Flyers '04 postseason, and I’ve missed them both…
I’m glad to see someone other than Primeau was able to stand up for the Flyers - go Gagne!
And so we get what we’ve been expecting to get: a Game 7. 7 pm Eastern Saturday, in Tampa… fasten your seat belts!
If the Flyers lose, I’ll be sorely disappointed - but at least they’d have taken the series to seven games. I think that a seven-game series indicates that the teams are very evenly matched, that neither team is necessarily the better one.
Dude, I can’t believe you missed it! I mean, seeing the replay is nice but the tension is out if you know the outcome. What a game! To heck with the seventh game indicating it’s evenly matched. Just last night’s game indicates that. The Lightning scored on their first shot. Then Philly ties it up. Then Philly goes up. Then the Bolts tie it up at 2. Then they go up by 1. Then Philly ties it up. Then Tampa Bay gets up again. Then we withstand the onslaught for most of the third period, Tim Taylor almost puts it out with a wrap around just missing with five minutes left, and then Keith Primeau coming up HUGE in the last two minutes to force OT. If Philly pulls off the win in this Primeau is far and away the series MVP. Flyers aren’t even close in this series without Primeau. Then Khabibulin is huge in the OT, but finally the Primeau-Roenick-Gagne line gets a bit of luck (where preparation meets opportunity, not trying to discount it) and takes advantage to send the series back to Tampa. This game has more drama than you dare ask for. Tampa put themselves in a bad situation in the third by laying back and letting Philly come to them; I hate it when teams try and protect a one point lead instead of trying to seal the game by playing both ends. Still, the talk on Sports Radio this morning here was not “Darn, we lost” but “Wow, what a game!” I’m sure it’s disappointing for the Bolts to have been 1:40 away from the Stanley Cup, but the only difference with fiction is that in the movies Primeau would have scored just as time was expiring.
Did you see the replay of the first goal from Philly (I think it was also Gagne, but might have been LeClair). Amazing stuff, puck is bouncing through the air and he’s twisting and off balance but has great concentration to knock it in.
Yeah, I’ve seen it - they’ve shown it on Sportscenter like every four minutes. It’s one of the Top Plays.
I like Primeau’s wrap-slap, myself. Shoot, move around to the other side, slam in rebound. Awesome!!
Teams should never lay back with a one-point lead, even in the regular season. It’s just not a real lead. A three-goal lead, maybe. With a two-goal lead, if the opponent scores one, he’s only back by one. That’s a virtual tie in the playoffs.
Hitchcock put Primeau, Gagne, and Roenick on the same line before the game, from what I heard, and it paid off. Hope he keeps them together in Game 7.
