2013 NHL Playoff Thread

[Banedon]

http://imgius.com/photos/20130509136808541567205.gif

[Banedon]

A couple other funny gifs, but nothing compares to that Ovie one...

 

 

http://25.media.tumblr.com/33df3cf55ae78016505c97e6f15f148b/tumblr_mmij20FEDD1qci7aeo1_500.gif

 

http://gamereax.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/chokeslam.gif

 

[shnsajax]

Of course this is St. Louis.

 

http://thebiglead.fantasysportsven.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/St-Louis-Blues-playoff-beard-vagina.jpg

[jersey cubs fan]

Of course this is St. Louis.

 

http://thebiglead.fantasysportsven.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/St-Louis-Blues-playoff-beard-vagina.jpg

 

Was she there with a gay man?

[kujay]

Wow. And I don't doubt for a second that is real.

[seanimal]

the worst part might be the sobotka jersey

[kujay]

Haha there is a disproportionate amount of love for that dude in this town. I don't get it.

[Banedon]

the worst part might be the sobotka jersey

 

Saw someone wearing one of those into work today.

[Banedon]

Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, John Tavares of the New York Islanders and Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins finished with the three-highest vote totals.

 

Were players outside of the eastern time zone even eligible?

[sneakypower]

doesn't seem like it, nor were players who contribute defensively

 

i can't see Toews ever winning, if he didn't get nominated this year; the argument for Tavares is basically he carried his team to the playoffs, but i'd figure Datsyuk would have an even stronger case

 

Toews, Getzlaf, Datsyuk would probably be my finalists

[Guest]

no hawk finalists for any of the major awards.

[seanimal]

no hawk finalists for any of the major awards.

 

saad for the calder

 

this too many trophies thing really does throw you for a loop

[Guest]

no hawk finalists for any of the major awards.

 

saad for the calder

 

this too many trophies thing really does throw you for a loop

 

ah yes, that's true.

 

i know that toews may win the stupid best defensive forward award or whatever, stupid. any forward so great defensively and so good offensively should win the hart over the usual cast of asses that don't backcheck.

[seanimal]

doesn't seem like it, nor were players who contribute defensively

 

i can't see Toews ever winning, if he didn't get nominated this year; the argument for Tavares is basically he carried his team to the playoffs, but i'd figure Datsyuk would have an even stronger case

 

Toews, Getzlaf, Datsyuk would probably be my finalists

 

toews will always have a tough time with this as long as there are elite players on the same team, given the way the hart trophy is qualified (most valuable to team). datsyuk makes sense, getzlaf to a lesser extent.

 

but the most valuable to the team thing makes it silly that crosby was nominated given the pretty good performance of the pens without him. however, if you're talking most valuable of all players, that ovechkin and tavares are on the list is awful. there were mounds of players more valuable than them. if i had to rank league most valuable i would say

 

1) crosby

2) toews

3) seguin

 

a bit of a flier on seguin since the points aren't there, but he was really, really good this year and is a big reason why boston won hockey games. they did very well when he was on the ice, esp. at even strength

[Drew Doughty]

seguin is good at ES because he plays with the much, much better patrice bergeron. which isn't a knock on seguin, bergeron is just that good.

 

i wouldn't nominate crosby because he didn't play enough games. give him the lindsay, but give the hart to someone like bobrovsky or toews or whoever really i don't care, but i dont like crosby playing 3/4 of a season and winning it.

[kujay]

I hope Toronto comes back and beats Boston in this series so I don't have to see Boston's obnoxious anthem singer anymore these playoffs.

[seanimal]

seguin is good at ES because he plays with the much, much better patrice bergeron. which isn't a knock on seguin, bergeron is just that good.

 

bergeron is pretty awesome, but sequin seems to have an edge when looking at some of the underlying info that wouldn't be colored by the 6 extra games he played

[shnsajax]

The OT period between Washington and New York has been amazing.

[kujay]

Oh wow what a gut punch for St. Louis.

[Butterscup1679666578]

man, what a dagger that was.

[kujay]

The Blues are playing pretty well they just don't have that top level offensive talent.

 

And Cartman leading the Go Kings Go chant is pretty funny.

[seanimal]

seguin is good at ES because he plays with the much, much better patrice bergeron. which isn't a knock on seguin, bergeron is just that good.

 

bergeron is pretty awesome, but sequin seems to have an edge when looking at some of the underlying info that wouldn't be colored by the 6 extra games he played

 

haha, what a dope, i used a "q" instead of a "g". anyway i thought about this more, and i'm curious why you say that bergeron is "much, much" better. granted, my exposure to the bruins is limited to nationally televised games or a feed here or there cause i don't have the nhl network, but from what i have seen and what the numbers seem to say, seguin has the edge

[kujay]

Only one game today? What a drag.

[Drew Doughty]

seguin is good at ES because he plays with the much, much better patrice bergeron. which isn't a knock on seguin, bergeron is just that good.

 

bergeron is pretty awesome, but sequin seems to have an edge when looking at some of the underlying info that wouldn't be colored by the 6 extra games he played

 

seguin's and marchand's corsi/fenwick were horrible with bergeron out (i saw the stat a week ago and now i can't find it -- i wanna say they were registering about 30% of all shot attempts while on the ice for that 6 game stretch). bergeron also has the disadvantage, i guess, of getting more d-zone starts b/c he can win draws. when he loses those draws, i have to imagine that hurts his numbers a bit. seguin and marchand both presumably saw time away from bergeron at times during the season, which would ease their matchups and help their numbers.

 

of course the flip side to the whole "numbers terrible without bergeron" thing is that boston's center depth isn't spectacular and guys like chris kelly or greg campbell can't carry the play like bergeron can when facing tougher competition. seguin and marchand still both failed to carry the play themselves without bergeron. bergeron is one of about 5 guys in the league that can drive the play that well while providing elite defense (off hand i'd say bergeron, toews, kopitar and backes, maybe mikko koivu).

 

just to cover the 6 games while bergeron was out, seguin's numbers (fenwick/corsi)

4/13 @ CAR - played with Chris Kelly & Jordan Caron - 0/1

4/11 v NYI - with Kelly & Caron - 2/1

4/10 @ NJD - with Kelly & Paille - -1/0

4/8 v CAR - with Kelly & Paille - -5/-4

4/6 @ MTL - with Peverley & Marchand - -7/-6

4/4 v NJD - with Marchand & Jagr - -7/-8

 

4/15 v OTT - with Bergeron & Marchand - 6/2

4/17 v BUF - with Bergeron & Marchand - 13/14

4/2 v OTT - with Bergeron & Marchand - 9/10 (game where bergeron got hurt)

3/31 @ BUF - with Bergeron & Marchand - 11/11 (last full game bergeron played)

 

of course we don't really have a recent sampling of games that bergeron played without seguin, and i'm not about to scour shift charts to find games where they played apart from each other either. so we don't know for certain that bergeron would be alright without seguin, but we do have pretty good evidence (in a small sample) that seguin relies pretty heavily on bergeron.

 

i'll also add here after the fact, the last four games he played without bergeron were with mediocre players, but i'm going to assume (you're free to use nicetimeonice.com to look through shift charts and prove me wrong) that julien went away from matching a checking line against tough matchups like he does when he has bergeron. so i'm ASSUMING that seguin drew softer matchups with bergeron out. if he used seguin in a shutdown role, that might account for some of the QoC differences between them this year.

 

"much, much" was a bit of hyperbole, but i'm comfortable in saying bergeron is their best forward.

[NewUserName]

I have not been this juiced for a Wings game since 09 probably. Not sure why, cause I do think we can beat The Hawks if we do win. I guess it is my dislike for The Ducks