NHL Playoff Pool (Make Finals Picks)

[b0mberMan]

I'm not a huge hockey guy, but I watch the playoffs. The Devils are miserable to watch. Can't possibly pull for the Rangers more, and I don't care about either team.

This is a load off of a lot of people's minds here. Thank you.

[DuchesneEast]

I'm not a huge hockey guy, but I watch the playoffs. The Devils are miserable to watch. Can't possibly pull for the Rangers more, and I don't care about either team.

I actually think the Devils have been playing more aesthetically pleasing hockey. Kovalchuk has had some beautiful moves, I have seen some nice touch passing to impossible spots, Parise has been great, volchenkov has had some nice hits.

[claver2010]

I'm not a huge hockey guy, but I watch the playoffs. The Devils are miserable to watch. Can't possibly pull for the Rangers more, and I don't care about either team.

I actually think the Devils have been playing more aesthetically pleasing hockey. Kovalchuk has had some beautiful moves, I have seen some nice touch passing to impossible spots, Parise has been great, volchenkov has had some nice hits.

Agreed

[bchockey04]

Also agreed...

These are not your early '00's Devils. At one point last night they were winning and were still forechecking 3 guys.

Sadly i find neither of these teams easy to hate (unlike the penguins and flyers). Lots of U.S. college guys and not too many dicks on either team.

[flyingelvii]

I'm not a huge hockey guy, but I watch the playoffs. The Devils are miserable to watch. Can't possibly pull for the Rangers more, and I don't care about either team.

Seriously? The Devils are the only team left that actually plays offense and doesn't spend all game clogging up the middle of the ice blocking shots. As Duchie intimated above, Parise and Kovy are the two most dynamic and exciting players out there IMO.

[claver2010]

I think Puck Daddy had a good take on Torts press confs http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/defense-john-tortorella-media-misbehavior-150345883.html#more-33507


Essentially, who gives a fuck.

[bignick33]

I live for hockey slapfights.

[twballgame9]

I'm not a huge hockey guy, but I watch the playoffs. The Devils are miserable to watch. Can't possibly pull for the Rangers more, and I don't care about either team.

Seriously? The Devils are the only team left that actually plays offense and doesn't spend all game clogging up the middle of the ice blocking shots. As Duchie intimated above, Parise and Kovy are the two most dynamic and exciting players out there IMO.

I have watched the series so far. The Devils are boring. They might not reach the epic levels of blue line trap boring that they are historically know for, but their style of play still blows. And I wasn't comparing them to anyone but the Rangers; I wouldn't even have known the Western Conference finals were happening if you hadn't mentioned it.

[DuchesneEast]

I'm not a huge hockey guy, but I watch the playoffs. The Devils are miserable to watch. Can't possibly pull for the Rangers more, and I don't care about either team.

Seriously? The Devils are the only team left that actually plays offense and doesn't spend all game clogging up the middle of the ice blocking shots. As Duchie intimated above, Parise and Kovy are the two most dynamic and exciting players out there IMO.

I have watched the series so far. The Devils are boring. They might not reach the epic levels of blue line trap boring that they are historically know for, but their style of play still blows. And I wasn't comparing them to anyone but the Rangers; I wouldn't even have known the Western Conference finals were happening if you hadn't mentioned it.

Since when is sliding all over the defensive zone exciting?

[bignick33]

This is not hockey-related, but there were some discussions of twitter in this thread, so I thought this is the place to post this article. Apparently Steve Blake and his wife were threatened after he missed a game winning three last night:

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/stor ... ts-twitter

I didn't see the game, and I root against the Lakers, but this nonsense is similar to the racist Bruins tweets in that it's demonstrative of how twitter gives a voice to morons. Twitter is a great thing for the most part, but I suspect we'll here more and more of these types of stories going forward.

By the way, any mention of Steve Blake or UMD continues to require posting of this:

[claver2010]

First, wrong board

Second, agreed. It does give a voice to idiots. If I was an athlete I don't think it would be worth it and I think there are more and more that are realizing it -I know some players on the teams I root for shut theirs down because of idiots and these players range from JAG pros to borderline allstars.

[flyingelvii]

I'm not a huge hockey guy, but I watch the playoffs. The Devils are miserable to watch. Can't possibly pull for the Rangers more, and I don't care about either team.

Seriously? The Devils are the only team left that actually plays offense and doesn't spend all game clogging up the middle of the ice blocking shots. As Duchie intimated above, Parise and Kovy are the two most dynamic and exciting players out there IMO.

I have watched the series so far. The Devils are boring. They might not reach the epic levels of blue line trap boring that they are historically know for, but their style of play still blows. And I wasn't comparing them to anyone but the Rangers; I wouldn't even have known the Western Conference finals were happening if you hadn't mentioned it.

Since when is sliding all over the defensive zone exciting?

Yeah, the Rangers are playing such exciting hockey that everyone is talking about how to change the rules to prevent players from blocking so many shots.

Oh, and go Dry Island West.

[twballgame9]

I'm not a huge hockey guy, but I watch the playoffs. The Devils are miserable to watch. Can't possibly pull for the Rangers more, and I don't care about either team.

Seriously? The Devils are the only team left that actually plays offense and doesn't spend all game clogging up the middle of the ice blocking shots. As Duchie intimated above, Parise and Kovy are the two most dynamic and exciting players out there IMO.

I have watched the series so far. The Devils are boring. They might not reach the epic levels of blue line trap boring that they are historically know for, but their style of play still blows. And I wasn't comparing them to anyone but the Rangers; I wouldn't even have known the Western Conference finals were happening if you hadn't mentioned it.

Since when is sliding all over the defensive zone exciting?

I like blocked shots. Callahan is awesome.

[claver2010]

Good article on the "shot blocking problem" http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/47298-The-myth-of-the-blocked-shot-problem.html#.T7K1tbA3j9Q.twitter

[DuchesneEast]

Good article on the "shot blocking problem" http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/47298-The-myth-of-the-blocked-shot-problem.html#.T7K1tbA3j9Q.twitter

He makes an awful argument that shot blocking doesnt help:

"Yes, the Rangers are good at it, but the Devils are ranked 15th, the Kings ninth and though the Coyotes are fourth, "

So 3 of the top 9 and all in the top half??? That means it actually may be helping.

[claver2010]

I think the point is that shot blocking is a part of defense and defensive teams win in the playoffs but it is only part. Last year the final four teams were 4th, 5th, 13th, & 14th.

There have been an average of 15.7 blocked shots per game in these playoffs. Last year it was 16.6. The year before it was 16. This is actually the lowest shot-blocking total we’ve had in three years.

Shot blocking isn't a new thing it's just that one of the league's marquee teams is very good at it/makes it part of their game which results in announcers harping on it combined with defensive oriented teams (or very good goalies) left in the playoffs results in this narrative

[twballgame9]

I fail to see why effort and hustle are a problem.

[claver2010]

I fail to see why effort and hustle are a problem.

Agreed, maybe because it's the team I root for but it take a hell of a lot of stones to get infront of a 100 MPH puck with minimal protection on your face. Despite these players being armored up, it's not like they're invicible (see: Callahan last year and I think he's playing with something this year as well).

[DuchesneEast]

I have seen Ranger games that look like Italian soccer games this year.

[Dick Rosenthal]

Laughable. The Devils are so unathletic and slow it is awful. Even Parise and Kolvachuk are slower than whale shit at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean--I'll grant you that McDonaugh is fast but it looked like a cheetah running down a turtle when he went after them in Game 1. if the Rangers are willing and able to focus for more than 10 minutes they are going to score a lot of goals on this team. When you consider how bad they made the Devils look for the 10 minutes that they were paying attention in Game 2 it is pretty clear that the speed gap is huge.

Also, there is not a bigger whiny koont in sports than Deboer. What a doughy-faced fajjet. I wish Torts and he had fought during the 3 second massacre.

[flyingelvii]

I think the point is that shot blocking is a part of defense and defensive teams win in the playoffs but it is only part. Last year the final four teams were 4th, 5th, 13th, & 14th.

There have been an average of 15.7 blocked shots per game in these playoffs. Last year it was 16.6. The year before it was 16. This is actually the lowest shot-blocking total we’ve had in three years.

Shot blocking isn't a new thing it's just that one of the league's marquee teams is very good at it/makes it part of their game which results in announcers harping on it combined with defensive oriented teams (or very good goalies) left in the playoffs results in this narrative

Shotblocking isn't new. Shotblocking as a legitimate team strategy is new. Just as the trap was not new when the Devils embraced it. I respect them for having the balls to do so but I find those games to be boring and frustrating to watch.

Edit: The shot block stat is somewhat misleading as there's no way to quantify guys being gun-shy on their shots so it doesn't get blocked. I didn't watch Game 2 with that analytical of an eye but you could see that halfway through Game 1 the Devils defense was scared shitless in pulling the trigger because everything had been blocked up to that point.

[flyingelvii]

Laughable. The Devils are so unathletic and slow it is awful. Even Parise and Kolvachuk are slower than whale shit at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean--I'll grant you that McDonaugh is fast but it looked like a cheetah running down a turtle when he went after them in Game 1. if the Rangers are willing and able to focus for more than 10 minutes they are going to score a lot of goals on this team. When you consider how bad they made the Devils look for the 10 minutes that they were paying attention in Game 2 it is pretty clear that the speed gap is huge.

Also, there is not a bigger whiny koont in sports than Deboer. What a doughy-faced fajjet. I wish Torts and he had fought during the 3 second massacre.

So the fact they haven't been able to do that in the ECF after two pretty physical 7 game series doesn't trouble you?

[DuchesneEast]

The Rangers game is defense, Philly was a better scoring team and the Devils were able to keep a lid on them. I look forward to a grinding 2-1 game today in beautiful Newark.

[DuchesneEast]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nhl--rangers-rookie-chris-kreider-making-it-look-easy-as-he-jumps-from-ncaa-title-to-nhl-playoffs.html;_ylt=AvxCOTPWLhnPY9xaHmig.C57vLYF

Kreider article. Its odd, all the good publicity and I cant think that it could help hockey recruiting. York could just mail kids a picture of his ringed fist or a rolled diploma in a ring.

[flyingelvii]

The Devils 4th line has impressed me so far all series. Always seen to bring the energy.

[Dick Rosenthal]

So the Rangers slept through the first period and then utterly dominated. Speed kills gentlemen (I would have thought Duchie as a pathetic 80s Miami Hurricane fan would have remembered that old adage). I think Kreider asked Fatso Uncle Daddy if he had seen the sunrise that morning before he put the kill shot into the Devils net.

[claver2010]

I'm just glad the book is out on Henrik

[flyingelvii]

The Rags should totally be favored over everyone based on their ability to put 10 minutes together and get owned by AngryDick's self-assessment of the Devils 4th line. While its certainly not impressive, the NJD 4th line is probably in line with the B's last year. Won't score a lot but will kill your 1st or 2nd line like no other.

[Dick Rosenthal]

Well, except that they didn't kill the Rangers 1st line, but rather were marched into the rain forest, asked if they had seen the sunrise and then shot at point blank range. But other than that, masterful analysis Easterbrook.

And Claver, Lundqvist does have holes, it just takes talent to expose them and the Devils are decidedly underskilled compared to the Rangers last two opponents. Here is all you need to know, Peter Harrold had the best scoring oppotunity for the Devils yesterday. Peter Harrold would have a hard time cracking the top three pairs on The Whale.

[claver2010]

Clearly he has holes like all goalies, ex he had trouble catching the puck a couple of times yesterday. I just appreciated the hysteria last series of OMG JUST SHOOT HIGH GLOVE!11!!!