Board 8 > NHL Discussion Topic - Playoff Edition

(+) Yeah! (+)

Fuck the Bruins
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Vegas is back to looking good
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Yep, really nice bounceback considering how shit they looked the game before.

i am jinx
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Why must I type what I had typed.
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Wow. Vegas had so many chances to get that out of there too.
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lol, that aggressive early empty net did not pay off.
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I can't see the NHL having the balls to suspend Marchand for a game after licking someone else after being directly told to stop, but..

Are we about to get a "Brad Marchand Rule"
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Marchand could strangle a player to death on the ice and the league would say "come on Brad, stop it".
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Probably

Though I suspect the police would still get involved
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At the minimum, licking should be treated exactly as spitting, because you're intentionally putting your saliva on another player. Spitting can get a game misconduct penalty. And then I assume fines or suspensions could follow, but I can't see that happening unless the league talked to a player first. Oh, but they have, but yet again who knows what the NHL will follow through on and won't in terms of player discipline.
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Oh, turns out the NHL... once again isn't doing anything. They decided to go with another round of warnings.
https://twitter.com/PR_NHL/status/992822498852003842
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TheKnightOfNee posted...

Oh, turns out the NHL... once again isn't doing anything. They decided to go with another round of warnings.
https://twitter.com/PR_NHL/status/992822498852003842

"Come on Brad, stop it"
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"Supplemental discipline" aka "more 'please stop'"
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How about those Jets?
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Dem Jets be firing
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Need to win game 6 in Winnipeg. If it gets to game 7, I feel Nashville takes it.
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I'm a little worried that both Tampa and Winnipeg aren't exactly playoff veteran teams. As in, Pittsburgh could plausibly beat them...
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I mean, really, is there a team Pittsburgh can not plausibly beat?

I don't think there is and I don't even have your unbridled pessimism on the subject!
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Given that they aren't very good and haven't had to beat a legit quality team with playoff experience ever in the past two years, I'd like Boston and (this year's version of) Nashville over them pretty comfortably.
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...Wait, how is Tampa not a playoff veteran team? They were in the SC Final in 2015 and the ECF in 2016.
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Pretty different team though. Kuch was a second line guy, Vasilevsky was the backup, Stamkos was injured all the time, most of their current third line wasn't even in the league, etc.

And the general fact that in both of those years they were young surprising teams with no expectations.
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Tampa tends to be one of those teams people find forgettable for whatever reason
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Meow1000 posted...

Tampa tends to be one of those teams people find forgettable for whatever reason

Even I'm guilty of this, despite them being in the same division as the Leafs and the top team in the conference this year.

I think Tampa is going to come out of the East though, with the winner of Preds/Jets being the West team.

It'll be nice to see any of those 3 teams win the cup.
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My ranking for who I'd most like to see win at this point would probably be:

Jets
Lightning
Predators
Sharks
Capitals

Knights
Penguins
Bruins

Any of the top 5 would be nice to see, though.
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Boston needed 7 games to squeak past Toronto in a series where Matthews was invisible and will need that many against Tampa too. Not really seeing how that gets past Pittsburgh comfortably. Penguins are pretty clearly better than their record which is tainted by how bad they were at the start of the year (hangover or whatever, I dunno).

I don't put much stock in playoff experience at all (pretty sure it's statistically insignificant once you control for which team is better) but if you do that would only make Pittsburgh more scary since they have more of it than anyone right now, certainly including Boston and Nashville.
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Fuck the Bruins!
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The Bruins got rid of Toronto, so they served their purpose as far as I was concerned.

I had no strong feelings one way or the other about this series really.
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Wow, I didn't really see that coming. I mean I thought Tampa would win but not that easily - especially after dropping game 1.
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I didn't want Boston or Toronto making it past this round, so I guess, good job Tampa.
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If Washington can actually eliminate Pittsburgh, I think I'd be happy with any of the remaining teams winning. Pending Stanley Cup Final matchups anyway. The East was really lacking in teams that I would have liked to see win the Cup. The Lightning and Capitals were among them so we'll see what happens tomorrow.

When the refs spend two minutes huddled up talking in order to penalize someone else for "delaying of game" by shooting the puck out of the glass, costing 10 seconds in time needed for a faceoff

THIS IS FINE
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Sharks are done.

Soooo many A++ quality chances that they fail to score on. The hockey gods just aren't with them.
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and of course Vegas gets one decent chance and immediately scores

it's like watching a Caps game!
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Better team lost
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Surely Vegas won't beat the winner of Jets/Preds.

Right?
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davidponte posted...

Surely Vegas won't beat the winner of Jets/Preds.

Right?

Better goalie wins. Which means if Fleury keeps playing like this, they win the cup.
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davidponte posted...

Surely Vegas won't beat the winner of Jets/Preds.

Right?

Fleury has been good. Luck has been on their side.

Who knows.

But they get their first real opponent now.

SmartMuffin posted...

Better team lost

I can't tell if you legitimately still believe this or are just so unwilling to take the L and admit you were wrong that you're just doing a shtick.

I also don't know which one would be worse.
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I mean today, in this specific game, it's undoubtedly true. The Sharks had like 15 amazing scoring chances and converted on zero. Vegas had like four and converted on two.
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As a complete hockey newb who just wants to cheer his city's first ever local team, can someone tell me why the Knights are "objectively" lame? Are they just carried by an amazing goalie?
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Yes. They're a collection of the 8th best player on every team who have no right to be good. Their GM even traded some of the players they got for draft picks because he had a "5 year plan" and wasn't even trying to win this year.
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I'm just salty that my team has been mediocre for 50 years and Vegas is good in their first year. I selfishly want to see them do poorly.
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SmartMuffin posted...

They're a collection of the 8th best player on every team who have no right to be good. Their GM even traded some of the players they got for draft picks because he had a "5 year plan" and wasn't even trying to win this year.

Are there accusations of cheating or the Vegas underlords putting a mob fix on them or something? Cuz if not, that almost sounds like a feel-good story (though maybe not if you don't live here lol).
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CaptainOfCrush posted...

As a complete hockey newb who just wants to cheer his city's first ever local team, can someone tell me why the Knights are "objectively" lame? Are they just carried by an amazing goalie?

They're not objectively lame and anyone still saying that can be safely ignored. The Vegas top line was one of the legitimate best in the NHL all season and they have a ton of depth because they found a lot of undervalued players with chips on their shoulders.

The fact that they have an amazing goalie helps, but people still pretending like that's the only reason they're still alive and that they're hanging on by a thread until they face a "real" team is either not paying attention or just unwilling to admit they're wrong.
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CaptainOfCrush posted...

SmartMuffin posted...

They're a collection of the 8th best player on every team who have no right to be good. Their GM even traded some of the players they got for draft picks because he had a "5 year plan" and wasn't even trying to win this year.

Are there accusations of cheating or the Vegas underlords putting a mob fix on them or something? Cuz if not, that almost sounds like a feel-good story (though maybe not if you don't live here lol).

It would be feel good if there weren't a million more deserving teams out there with long suffering fans and legit good players.
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SmartMuffin posted...

CaptainOfCrush posted...

SmartMuffin posted...

They're a collection of the 8th best player on every team who have no right to be good. Their GM even traded some of the players they got for draft picks because he had a "5 year plan" and wasn't even trying to win this year.

Are there accusations of cheating or the Vegas underlords putting a mob fix on them or something? Cuz if not, that almost sounds like a feel-good story (though maybe not if you don't live here lol).

It would be feel good if there weren't a million more deserving teams out there with long suffering fans and legit good players.

Alright, yeah, it's a shtick.
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SmartMuffin posted...

It would be feel good if there weren't a million more deserving teams out there with long suffering fans

This is a less angry way of explaining my thoughts. I feel like an old, jaded wrestler upset at the new, young guy doing well because he didn't pay his dues like the rest of the guys in the locker room have. They all deserve it more than he does.

Even though that doesn't really translate because a lot of the guys on Vegas are veterans who have paid their dues and probably deserve it, but I'm sure you get what I mean.
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What I'm really trying to say is that Vegas is Roman Reigns.
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i'm from tennessee and i don't know what a sports championship is
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