UMFan83

Random but if you had to pick your favorite goal of the playoffs so far, which would you pick? I'll start with my honorable mentions: Kane's SH goal G5 vs. Nashville, Hossa's GW goal G5 vs. Nashville, Sharp goal on 2-on-1 G2 vs. Vancouver, Any of Buff or Toews' goals in G3/G4 vs. Vancouver, Kane's goal from the Neutral Zone faceoff circle G6 vs. Vancouver, Buff's GW goal G1 vs. San Jose, Buff's GW OT goal G3 vs. San Jose, Buff's GW goal G4 vs. San Jose, Kopetsky's GW goal G1 vs. Philly, Hossa/Eager goals 28 seconds apart G2 vs. Philly, Kaner's breakaway G4 vs. Philly (only one in a loss), Sharp's goal to put away Philly in G5. But my favorite goal of the playoffs was Versteeg's GW goal with 90 seconds left in Game 2 against Vancouver. I'd say the goals in Game 5 vs. Nashville were probably bigger in terms of not going down 3-2 in a series, but that goal really changed the entire complexion of the Vancouver series. If he doesn't score there, the game probably goes to OT, and the Canucks could have easily won and taken a 2-0 lead heading to Vancouver. Instead the goal ties up the series 1-1, gives the Hawks a crapload of confidence after falling behind 2-0 in the first 5 minutes of the game. It was a gutcheck moment and possibly the lowest point of the playoffs so far, and they responded. Plus I love how the goal was scored. Steeg did his trademark "hold the puck way too long" and passed up a freaking open net, but the Hawks recover, pass it around, it gets to Versteeg again, and puts up a beauty right past Lu, pops the water bottle, and leaves the memorable image on Lu lying face first on the ground in defeat.

The only 2 people that will be in the discussion will be Silva and Marmol. I guess Soriano would have a slight shot, but I haven't looked to see how deep the OF candidates are this year.` If the decision was today, I'm gonna guess only Silva goes. If Silva falls apart at some point in the near future, Marmol is a great backup pick. Despite Marmol's awesome K numbers, the Cubs crappy season combined with no players getting much hype means that they will only get 1 All Star for the 2nd year in a row.

By "well-rested" does he mean because he's been in the box a bunch for retaliating against Pronger, or does he mean that Buff hasn't been giving 100% in this series? My take is he was suggesting the latter. But I don't really know for sure. I thought he was implying some combination of "he's been worthless" and "he's been dogging it." Which was hard to argue with. No doubt, when Buff goes max effort, nobody can stop him. He's just always been one of those guys who can't get himself to stay at top speed for more than a game or two at a time. Remember when he went nuts earlier this year when he was trying to make the olympic team? Then he disappeared again. Just give us one more game, big guy. Then you can go shopping for a new blazer. The goal at the end of this game shows me what Buff is capable of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yaqBQDIhNA Edit: It's also my favorite goal of the regular season.

By "well-rested" does he mean because he's been in the box a bunch for retaliating against Pronger, or does he mean that Buff hasn't been giving 100% in this series?

I don't think you are. What he's suggesting is that the Cubs trying to trade for Jake Peavy would not be a good idea.

Gotta love the NL. Dontrelle Willis has an ERA somewhere around 6.00 in his 3 years (22 starts) with the Tigers, then goes to Arizona and pitches 6 scoreless innings with the DBacks. Jake Peavy wins a Cy Young and is known as one of the best pitchers in baseball with San Diego, goes to Chicago and has an ERA over 6.00.

Looks like most of Pittsburgh didn't either.

The winning pitcher of a baseball game played in Pittsburgh, PA on June 7, 2010.

It's hard to imagine Kenny Williams actually selling. I see him trying to pry Roberto Alomar out of retirement or something, but if true, thats a brilliant idea. They have the perfect setup for a team thats selling, veterans on one year deals and hoards of relief pitching. Combine that with a pathetic minor league system and a decent chunk of their core being aging its a no brainer.

Too bad your not going to a weekday game. You could get there an hour before the game and still have decent odds of getting 4 seats within 2-3 rows from the front.

Also, I've seen tons of comments about no penalty called when Briere got hit in the eye by a high stick, but haven't seen anyone mentioned when almost the exact same thing happened to Campbell earlier in the game, although he didn't seem to be bleeding like Briere was.

From a Flyers blog: What game was he watching?

FWIW, Puck Daddy still has Pronger in the Conn Smythe lead after game 5. It isn't unprecidented to see the losing team win it. Remember the trophy is for most outstanding player of the playoffs, not just the finals. It just happened back when Giguere won it in like 04.

SOG is a bit misleading when one team consistently has a 2-3 goal lead for the last 2 periods IMO. They had a 13-7 lead in the first when the lead was being built. Not that they stopped attacking after the first but they tended to be less aggesive in general trying not to make dumb mistakes that lead to breakaways going the other way.

Who the f cares? It doesn't change how the Blackhawks play at all. The Puck Daddy Blog has been tracking Conn Smythe candidates all postseason, so it's something I've been following and tracking. It's blatently obvious I don't think the Hawks are locks to win the Cup and I can easily see a scenario where the Flyers take Game 6, and shock the Hawks in Game 7. We talked about the Conn Smyth before and after the Sharks series, it didn't seem to affect the Hawks.

Yeah, I noticed that too. The NBC guys made a good point that with the extra day of rest in between game 5 and 6, the coaches probably felt they could overextend their best players a bit.

I seriously want to put the disclaimer that I'm not getting ahead of myself. I know the series is still in doubt and all that. But I am wondering who the heck is in the lead for the Conn Smythe right now. Toews has done almost nothing statistically in the Finals, but was the clear favorite coming in. Niemi has been mediocre at best this series. Buff had a horrible series and was hurting the team until tonight. Kane has had a good last couple of games but was pretty far from the favorite before this series. Keith? A non-Hawk? I think it would still goto Toews but if he did win it, it would almost be by default based on the first 3 rounds. btw, Puck Daddy's blog had Pronger in the lead after game 4, followed by Niemi and Toews.

We've closed out 3 of our 5 series victories since last season on the road. I see no reason why we can't do it again Wednesday. The series is following the pattern of the Calgary series last year. Win the first 2 at home, lose the next 2 on the road, win game 5 at home and when logic would dictate they lose game 6 back in Calgary, they instead won to close out the series.

Peter Laviolete is such a douche. I can't stand him. They are showing his postgame on CSN, and he looks disgusted right now.

Wow Comcast just showed that on Versteeg's goal (the 3rd one in the first), the Hawks clearly had 6 men on the ice. I mean it wasn't even close.

Anthem was insanely loud. But after that I thought there were some nerves. Of course that went away when the avalanche started. The crowd wasn't as bad as I thought they'd be. Maybe a little nerves but it helped that the Hawks came out flying. Dex, I can't possibly stress enough how much we dominated the first period. When you watch it later you'll be like "holy [expletive]". I was waiting for the Hawks to dominate a period, but they dominated that period even more than I ever thought they could. A lot to be happy about tonight.

I like the way you post too.

Pronger was -5 tonight. Eat it.

We embarrassed the Flyers in the first period. Seriously we destroyed them. Best period of the year most likely. Third period was all defensive, so we played that well. Second period was a little shakey but I'd say even in play.

If I see the Blackhawks again in the UC before September, unless its part of some victory celebration, I will not be happy.