2014 NHL Playoffs

[NewUserName]

What a horrible, horrible turnover by DET in their own zone. Bye bye Red Wings

That is really what the Wings have become. The myth that they are a puck possession team has been over for several yrs. Truth be told the Wings made the playoffs because they sucked the least out of the contenders down the stretch. They didn't have some great stretch drive like last year. Probably would have been 11th or lower out West.

 

Also, as for our great management team. The Wings have 20+ million invested in players that did not even play today, several of them healthy scratches, a couple of injured that were injury risks when signed and a few in AHL. The Wings could easily of had Zach Parise and Ryan Suter but Holland/Babcock were worried about depth. Depth is easy to obtain, heck they had plenty of depth in Grand Rapids. Really good player are worth the risk. As an example, look at the salary cap risk the Hawks took in getting Hossa. Did it cause them cap problems? yes. Did it also help the Hawks win two cups? Yes

[sneakypower]

What a horrible, horrible turnover by DET in their own zone. Bye bye Red Wings

That is really what the Wings have become. The myth that they are a puck possession team has been over for several yrs. Truth be told the Wings made the playoffs because they sucked the least out of the contenders down the stretch. They didn't have some great stretch drive like last year. Probably would have been 11th or lower out West.

 

Also, as for our great management team. The Wings have 20+ million invested in players that did not even play today, several of them healthy scratches, a couple of injured that were injury risks when signed and a few in AHL. The Wings could easily of had Zach Parise and Ryan Suter but Holland/Babcock were worried about depth. Depth is easy to obtain, heck they had plenty of depth in Grand Rapids. Really good player are worth the risk. As an example, look at the salary cap risk the Hawks took in getting Hossa. Did it cause them cap problems? yes. Did it also help the Hawks win two cups? Yes

2 DET goals were scored in the entire series NOT by Datsyuk/Zetterberg

 

the depth is pretty pathetic, too

[NewUserName]

What a horrible, horrible turnover by DET in their own zone. Bye bye Red Wings

That is really what the Wings have become. The myth that they are a puck possession team has been over for several yrs. Truth be told the Wings made the playoffs because they sucked the least out of the contenders down the stretch. They didn't have some great stretch drive like last year. Probably would have been 11th or lower out West.

 

Also, as for our great management team. The Wings have 20+ million invested in players that did not even play today, several of them healthy scratches, a couple of injured that were injury risks when signed and a few in AHL. The Wings could easily of had Zach Parise and Ryan Suter but Holland/Babcock were worried about depth. Depth is easy to obtain, heck they had plenty of depth in Grand Rapids. Really good player are worth the risk. As an example, look at the salary cap risk the Hawks took in getting Hossa. Did it cause them cap problems? yes. Did it also help the Hawks win two cups? Yes

2 DET goals were scored in the entire series NOT by Datsyuk/Zetterberg

 

the depth is pretty pathetic, too

But if they sign Suter/Parise they probably do not even play Boston. But there are other needs also. Our power forwards on the top two lines either do not want to be a power forward(Franzen) or have no skill(Adelkader). The youth line was not good, but I think a lot of what brought them success during the regular season was out working other teams. In the playoffs everyone plays hard. I think they will improve. I dont even want to begin to talk about how bad our d corps is. After Kronwall it is a mess. And Kronwall is not a very good PP QB.

[TruffleShuffle]

i really do not see how the red wings could have signed parise and suter. those guys have a combined cap hit of $16m and the red wings were pushing right up against the cap this season.

[NewUserName]

i really do not see how the red wings could have signed parise and suter. those guys have a combined cap hit of $16m and the red wings were pushing right up against the cap this season.

Like I said they are wasting 20 million, a lot of which they added in the last 2 off seasons. They probably would have been forced to play some of these younger players all of last year, but would they really be that much worse off with them?

 

Its water under the bridge at this point anyway. It is just that in recent times the Wings have way over-valued veteran depth guys, while under valuing players in their own system. So they ended up paying way more for depth than they should have. Until this year when the youngsters were forced on them. If they were not paying the likes of Cleary, Samuelsson, Bertuzzi, Kindl, Weiss, Colavacchio, Tootoo, Miller, Quincey and others, there would be plenty of room to have added elite talent. Heck my biggest fear right now is that the Wings will re-sign Quincey and Legwand to 3+million for multiple years and our big hope for next season will be that Datsyuk and Zetts will stay healthy and youngsters will improve.

 

I just rant like this because I think Holland is over-rated in some ways. Obviously he is good at drafting and player development, but kind of bad at taking advantage of that strength. I also look at a team like the Hawks and they went ballz out and signed Hossa when it made no sense at all. In the end, it wasn't that hard to replace Eager, Ladd, Buff etc etc. But it would be very difficult to get a player the same level as Hossa.

[TruffleShuffle]

i really do not see how the red wings could have signed parise and suter. those guys have a combined cap hit of $16m and the red wings were pushing right up against the cap this season.

Like I said they are wasting 20 million, a lot of which they added in the last 2 off seasons. They probably would have been forced to play some of these younger players all of last year, but would they really be that much worse off with them?

 

Its water under the bridge at this point anyway. It is just that in recent times the Wings have way over-valued veteran depth guys, while under valuing players in their own system. So they ended up paying way more for depth than they should have. Until this year when the youngsters were forced on them. If they were not paying the likes of Cleary, Samuelsson, Bertuzzi, Kindl, Weiss, Colavacchio, Tootoo, Miller, Quincey and others, there would be plenty of room to have added elite talent. Heck my biggest fear right now is that the Wings will re-sign Quincey and Legwand to 3+million for multiple years and our big hope for next season will be that Datsyuk and Zetts will stay healthy and youngsters will improve.

 

I just rant like this because I think Holland is over-rated in some ways. Obviously he is good at drafting and player development, but kind of bad at taking advantage of that strength. I also look at a team like the Hawks and they went ballz out and signed Hossa when it made no sense at all. In the end, it wasn't that hard to replace Eager, Ladd, Buff etc etc. But it would be very difficult to get a player the same level as Hossa.

 

well yeah, they would've had room for those guys if they didn't make all those other signings, but a lot of those contracts were signed years ago. realistically, it would've been hard for a team with two $7m cap hit guys (zetterberg/datsyuk) to sign another two $7m cap hit guys.

 

the other issue was that there was a lot of competition for both players. almost everyone was in on suter and parise had a lot of suitors as well.

[NewUserName]

i really do not see how the red wings could have signed parise and suter. those guys have a combined cap hit of $16m and the red wings were pushing right up against the cap this season.

Like I said they are wasting 20 million, a lot of which they added in the last 2 off seasons. They probably would have been forced to play some of these younger players all of last year, but would they really be that much worse off with them?

 

Its water under the bridge at this point anyway. It is just that in recent times the Wings have way over-valued veteran depth guys, while under valuing players in their own system. So they ended up paying way more for depth than they should have. Until this year when the youngsters were forced on them. If they were not paying the likes of Cleary, Samuelsson, Bertuzzi, Kindl, Weiss, Colavacchio, Tootoo, Miller, Quincey and others, there would be plenty of room to have added elite talent. Heck my biggest fear right now is that the Wings will re-sign Quincey and Legwand to 3+million for multiple years and our big hope for next season will be that Datsyuk and Zetts will stay healthy and youngsters will improve.

 

I just rant like this because I think Holland is over-rated in some ways. Obviously he is good at drafting and player development, but kind of bad at taking advantage of that strength. I also look at a team like the Hawks and they went ballz out and signed Hossa when it made no sense at all. In the end, it wasn't that hard to replace Eager, Ladd, Buff etc etc. But it would be very difficult to get a player the same level as Hossa.

 

well yeah, they would've had room for those guys if they didn't make all those other signings, but a lot of those contracts were signed years ago. realistically, it would've been hard for a team with two $7m cap hit guys (zetterberg/datsyuk) to sign another two $7m cap hit guys.

 

the other issue was that there was a lot of competition for both players. almost everyone was in on suter and parise had a lot of suitors as well.

Yeah I understand. And I think there was some anti-Detroit sentiment in at 1 of those players. But it isnt really just about them, it is that they really do not leave themselves any flexibility to make such moves because they have so much money tied up into mediocre players. Part of that is there is an organizational view that loyalty is important. That is why a player like Cleary has been around when he should probably have been sent on his way.

[kujay]

Like Columbus, the Dallas fans are making their games a lot of fun to watch. Great first period for them.

[Butterscup1679666578]

hell of a meltdown, Dallas

[Banedon]

hell of a meltdown, Dallas

 

Well sonuva...I was exhausted and went to bed early last night...thought for sure this was going to a game 7.

[kujay]

hell of a meltdown, Dallas

 

Well sonuva...I was exhausted and went to bed early last night...thought for sure this was going to a game 7.

 

Yeah same here. That's too bad. Hope the other two West series go seven.

[Soul]

I'm definitely hoping the Wild can take care of business on home ice. Hopefully they can put the last game out of their heads and make things tougher on the Avs.

[biittner77]

I'm definitely hoping the Wild can take care of business on home ice. Hopefully they can put the last game out of their heads and make things tougher on the Avs.

 

There ought to be at least one first round upset so why not there. Or #Lumbus. Either or both would be fine by me.

[Derwood]

Pens are completely dominating right now

[Derwood]

welp, time to start drinking

[Derwood]

Fleury gives up two quick goals.....oh please oh please oh please let him melt down here

[Derwood]

IT'S HAPPENING

[Guest]

these playoffs have been insane. this would be the ultimate collapse by the pens.

[kujay]

I had turned this game off. Wow.

[Derwood]

well damn, couldn't get anything going with the goalie pulled. That series was fun as hell and I can't wait for next year

[Soul]

What is it with MIN blowing 2 goal leads?

[Soul]

MIN/COL going to game 7. Avs pulled the goalie with nearly 3 minutes left w/ only 1 goal lead.

 

Not sure but I don't remember seeing that before. Wild burned them twice with the empty net.

[Andy]

MIN/COL going to game 7. Avs pulled the goalie with nearly 3 minutes left w/ only 1 goal lead.

 

Not sure but I don't remember seeing that before. Wild burned them twice with the empty net.

Roy's been pulling the goalie early all year, apparently. Colorado's won two games in this series in OT after tying the game on empty-net rallies, so it's working.

[Guest]

Sharks-Kings about to go to Game 7. Sharks give up 3 goals in just under 3 minutes midway through the third.

 

They've scored 4 goals in the last three games after scoring 17 in the first three.

[brinoch]

Well, I'll shut up. Still, Crosby and Malkin have had a tendency to not score when the Pens have been eliminated in a series. Of course, you can probably say that about any star players.

 

In the Playoffs, it isn't unusual for the top six to cancel each other out via match-ups and top D-men. So, if you don't have a strong bottom six and a solid goalie, it's hard to win. That's one of the reasons the Hawks won 2 Cups in 4 years; they roll four lines and have had very good goalie play. Pittsburgh's problem is they have a crappy bottom six and a terrible goalie. But, the other reality is that Pittsburgh has really dominated puck possession against Columbus, and puck possession drives wins. Malkin and Crosby look to be bit sheltered in zone starts, but that makes sense, given how much Pittsburgh drives possession: http://www.extraskater.com/team/pittsburgh-penguins/2013p#player-usage-chart.

 

For comparison sake, look at the Blackhawks: http://www.extraskater.com/team/chicago-blackhawks/2013p, and the Blues http://www.extraskater.com/team/st-louis-blues/2013p.The Blues are much better team than Columbus right now (maybe not in the future though). And you can see how even this series was.

 

Toews is a beast. Kane is ridiculous. Sharp and Hossa were completed negated by Handzus. Versteeg hasn't been awful, but wasn't good. Bollig is terrible. Oduya and Hjalmarsson drew the toughest assignments. Brookbank did a credible job of filling in for Seabrook. Nick Leddy is doing a great job (and I think you'll see him paired with Hjalmarsson next year; Oduya will likely be traded. And Roszival/Brookbank will work to break in another young d-man). The Hawks would have been better served going with Regin or Morin and sitting Bollig (and Handzus). The optimal lines are probably, at this point:

 

29-19-88

10-28-81 (I don't love Ben Smith here... but he's earned a shot, and with Pirri traded...)

20-16-65

11-12-23

 

Quenneville won't bring in Regin and Morin, though, since he needs the Handzus security blanket. But Handzus has been terrible this year, and a net drag. The two worst players on the ice against St. Louis were Handzus and Bollig. Switching up the lines allows Q to roll four lines, which was integral to success in the Cup years.