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2011 NHL Playoffs II: Welcome to Smashville

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Re: 2011 NHL Playoffs II: Welcome to Smashville

That was phenomenal effort by Burrows to dive and get that puck out. Wow. I love hockey for plays like that.
 
FadeToBlack&Gold said:
As long as Vancouver isn't playing Chicago, he looks good. ;)
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Which is fine by me;) proves Toews is better than Kesler:D realistically though, he was still good in the Hawks series, but the average hockey fans don't know it.:p

MNS, so true. I actually just said that to a buddy I was talking with. "Kesler would be so much sweeter if he wasn't a Canuck.":p
 
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Re: 2011 NHL Playoffs II: Welcome to Smashville

Canucks take a 3-1 lead.

So, IF the Sharks and Bruins win Friday, and the Canucks win Saturday, would the NHL move the Conference Finals up?

I'm in an awful situation here. I have to go spend 11 days in the Adirondacks with no communication to the outside world. No technology, nothing. I may get to see Game 1 of the Conference Finals, and will be back in time for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

...That SUCKS. Boston will hopefully be playing in its first Conference Finals since 1992 and I won't be around to see it!? Though, that being said, I really hope the NHL DOESN'T move it up, because then I'll miss all of the Finals...which I'll watch regardless of who's in it.

Say they move up the next round, and I get to see Boston advance. Yippy....but now I don't get to enjoy the Finals live. Which sucks. Horribly. Especially because if Boston WERE to go all the way, I'd want to be around to A, go to the parade, and B, celebrate with family and friends.

My plan, assuming Boston doesn't repeat history, is to have my father record all of the games, and I'll avoid technology when I get back home, and power through the Conference Finals in a day. Maximum of 7 games, 2 hours per (assuming no OT), I could easily get through the series in one full day. To avoid the issue of him say, only having 5 or 6 games recorded and ruining the series for me (Imagine only seeing four recordings and seeing the Bruins lose Game 1), I'll have him record 7 times in the same time slot.


...Did I mention how much this SUCKS?
 
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Re: 2011 NHL Playoffs II: Welcome to Smashville

MavHockey14 said:
He's so gritty, but yet so skilled. He's such a great penalty killer, and he does ALL the little things right.
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He's certainly someone I'd want on my team if I was building one. Not a centerpiece, but he would be very much needed.
 
Re: 2011 NHL Playoffs II: Welcome to Smashville

MavHockey14 said:
Unfortunately. Although I don't think Bodreau is the problem, I'd love to see him canned, thus making him available to fill the Wild's vacant coaching job.:)
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Sounds like McPhee will take him back. Washington reminds me a lot of those Red Wings teams from the early 90s, that struggled with playoff hockey and exited early. Part of it was coaching, part of it was guys like Federov whose egos needed to be slapped.
 
MountieBoyOz said:
He's certainly someone I'd want on my team if I was building one. Not a centerpiece, but he would be very much needed.
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He's not the centerpiece, he's like the cherry on top. The guy who gives you the extra dynamic player that does everything well. A guy who can score and dish, but is very, VERY good defensively and playing his role. He's a guy you can't really when a cup without. (Bolland, Talbot, etc.)
 
FadeToBlack&Gold said:
Sounds like McPhee will take him back. Washington reminds me a lot of those Red Wings teams from the early 90s, that struggled with playoff hockey and exited early. Part of it was coaching, part of it was guys like Federov whose egos needed to be slapped.
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Earlier today I was reading Burnside's article on Washington and what a waste of talent this year was. I usually don't read too much ESPN stuff for NHL, but this was good. Talked a lot about how Ovechkin's playoff start in his career somewhat resembled a former Red Wing, who ironically is the GM down in Tampa Bay..
 
Re: 2011 NHL Playoffs II: Welcome to Smashville

MavHockey14 said:
Earlier today I was reading Burnside's article on Washington and what a waste of talent this year was. I usually don't read too much ESPN stuff for NHL, but this was good. Talked a lot about how Ovechkin's playoff start in his career somewhat resembled a former Red Wing, who ironically is the GM down in Tampa Bay..
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It took Yzerman buying into Bowman's style, then him selling it to the rest of the team, for Detroit to start making serious playoff runs.

Scotty used to make Federov kill penalties to punish him, and to dent his, "I'm a star forward, I shouldn't have to play any D" attitude. It was never completely drilled out of him, but it did help.

IMO, the Capitals are still looking for their Scotty Bowman. Granted, they aren't going to find a guy with his resume, but you know what I mean.
 
Re: 2011 NHL Playoffs II: Welcome to Smashville

FadeToBlack&Gold said:
It took Yzerman buying into Bowman's style, then him selling it to the rest of the team, for Detroit to start making serious playoff runs.

Scotty used to make Federov kill penalties to punish him, and to dent his, "I'm a star forward, I shouldn't have to play any D" attitude. It was never completely drilled out of him, but it did help.

IMO, the Capitals are still looking for their Scotty Bowman. Granted, they aren't going to find a guy with his resume, but you know what I mean.
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I totally agree. The Capitals need something to change, cause they have a hell of a lot of talent, but no Cup. In discussing this issue with some others yesterday, could we see either Backstrom or Semin, most likely the latter, being moved? Semin would have a lot of value, and with only one year left on his contract, he's in a perfect spot to be traded. He didn't really do much this year in the playoffs, and Backstrom was absolutely non-existent.

While it does indeed sound like Bodreau is going nowhere, as a fan, I can only hope.;) It's like me hoping somehow that once the lockout is lifted in the NFL, the Vikings make a play on Asomugha, although much like Bodreau in MN, it's a pipe dream.:p
 
Re: 2011 NHL Playoffs II: Welcome to Smashville

MavHockey14 said:
I totally agree. The Capitals need something to change, cause they have a hell of a lot of talent, but no Cup. In discussing this issue with some others yesterday, could we see either Backstrom or Semin, most likely the latter, being moved? Semin would have a lot of value, and with only one year left on his contract, he's in a perfect spot to be traded. He didn't really do much this year in the playoffs, and Backstrom was absolutely non-existent.

While it does indeed sound like Bodreau is going nowhere, as a fan, I can only hope.;) It's like me hoping somehow that once the lockout is lifted in the NFL, the Vikings make a play on Asomugha, although much like Bodreau in MN, it's a pipe dream.:p
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Backstrom was non-existent for most of the season.
 
Re: 2011 NHL Playoffs II: Welcome to Smashville

PrezdeJohnson09 said:
Backstrom was non-existent for most of the season.
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What was up with that? He was a 100 point player last year. I suspect bad seasons are often silent nagging injuries. I know if I work out, have a sore shoulder or anything like that, my goal scoring in hockey suffers greatly even if you don’t see a change in play.
 
Re: 2011 NHL Playoffs II: Welcome to Smashville

So, the Bruins won these three games while I was out of the country. If they lose tonight, I'm headed back to Canada till their series is over. :)
 
Re: 2011 NHL Playoffs II: Welcome to Smashville

Why would Semin have any trade value? He signs one year extensions at over $6 million a season for a Russian version of Ray Sheppard. Even the Russians don't want him.

RUS Coach Bykov to SovSport: "We won't invite Semin under any circumstances. His play in the last Washington game was very weak."
 
unh_hockey said:
What was up with that? He was a 100 point player last year. I suspect bad seasons are often silent nagging injuries. I know if I work out, have a sore shoulder or anything like that, my goal scoring in hockey suffers greatly even if you don’t see a change in play.
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The Capitals emphasized a more defense of style of play this year. It wasn't just Backstrom's production that was down.

Goals-Assists-Points

Ovechkin:
07-08:65-47-112
08-09:56-54-110
09-10:50-59-110
10-11:32-53-85

Backstrom:
07-08:14-55-69
08-09:22-66:88
09-10:33-68-101
10-11:18-47-65(DNP 5 games)

Now it's clear that Backstrom is a playmaker, not really a goal scorer. With Ovechkin's goal scoring production way down, the team trying to play more defenseively, and the much higher expectations of Backstrom, his performance was hurt a lot. Backstrom had 66 and 68 assist seasons previous to this one, and Ovechkin scored 20 more goals each year. 33 goals for Backstrom last year was why he hit the 100 point mark, but more realistically he should probably be more of an 80-85 point guy. He clearly had a poor year, BY THESE STANDARDS. 65 points isn't too bad though, and I'd suspect that there had to have been something that threw him off.

These numbers are crazy, Ovechkin's a freak.
 
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