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Smirking_Serpent posted:I'm a casual Kings fan. How are their chances against the Sharks? Anything special I should be watching for? For the past few years, the Sharks have beaten the Kings in San Jose - and vice-versa. It's as simple as that. Last year's semi-final went 7 games and the home team won every game. Therefore, the Kings won the series. It will be incredibly important if the Kings can pick up a victory in Game 1 or 2. The Sharks are no doubt the more offensively potent team with guys like Pavelski, Couture and Marleau (wunderkid Tomas Hertl has been injured most of the season thanks to a collision with Kings captain Dustin Brown so it remains to be seen how impactful he will be). On the other hand, while no offensive slouches the Kings play a defensive first system wherein they attempt to forecheck and pound their opponents into dust while converting on turnovers and odd man rushes. Their advanced possession stats are off the charts and they simply need to score more, something that has become a serious issue during long stretches of the season. It's an excellent match up in goal - Antti Niemi is a great goalie who sometimes lacks rebound control and Jonathan Quick simply lives for the playoffs - but you will know very early if Quick is in regular season or postseason form. His athletic skills are second to none but he must be mentally sharp or he will let in bad goals. The guy just doesn't seem to put up stellar numbers until April. I think it's an incredibly even series but if I had to make a gut call this season it would probably be the Sharks in 7. The Kings have had serious defensive lapses in the 3rd period and they cannot hold leads late. There was a period in the last 2 seasons where the Kings were something like 78-0 when leading going into the 3rd period. They have given up the third period lead and lost in regulation several times this year. MaoistBanker fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Apr 14, 2014 |
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Apr 14, 2014 11:04
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ElwoodCuse posted:Unfortunately this is completely not true. Hockey players are the absolute worst interviews in all of sports. And on the rare occasion somebody does do something interesting or cool or fun, the establishment comes down on him hard. Some more context, this is San Jose Sharks uber-rookie Tomas Hertl, who is Czech. The kid is a dynamo. His smile and love for the game is infectious. This beautiful goal was his 4th of the night. Hat tricks are rare, 4 is simply astounding. The even more amazing part? It was his 3rd NHL game. He scored 2 goals the night before. The NHL should have this kid's face plastered on every t-shirt in their store but hockey is run by old-school fools who preach about playing hockey "the right way by good Canadian boys." Luckily, several highly regarded Canadian players like Hertl's teammate Joe Thornton had some pretty legendary responses the next night to a journalist who asked if Hertl was "showing off". Thornton said if he had scored 4 goals he would have "whipped his cock out". By old-school fools, we of course mean Don Cherry - who is somehow regarded as a folk hero in Canada. So much so that he has a dedicated 1st intermission segment called "Coaches Corner" on the weekly national broadcast of "Hockey Night In Canada", which is the NHL's equivalent of NBC's Sunday Night Football. I've never thought less of this xenophobic, kill-joy old coot. Guys of his generation use terms like "enigmatic", "mysterious" and "selfish" to describe players of Scandinavian, eastern European and Russian descent simply because the person playing "their" sport doesn't speak good English. This was his response to Hertl's amazing night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFEZq5TdXQ0 Now, the goalie who faced Hertl (Marty Biron) retired soon after this game. It was a long time coming and the Rangers had several competent goaltenders in the minor leagues. For an old man to basically shame a young exciting player by implying that he cause Marty Biron to be sent down to the minor leagues (and therefore compel him to retire due to his age) is just shameful. And let me be clear: I DO NOT LIKE TOMAS HERTL, but I'll be damned if I didn't see Twitter explode after Hertl's 3rd goal that night and tune in. My wife and I were cheering and clapping after he scored his 4th, because if you love hockey, who wouldn't?! It was an incredible moment, moreso because his Mom traveled from the Czech Republic to see her son play. I am a Kings fan, and I know that Hertl is going to be an extremely effective (perhaps generational) player who will bother the club I love for the next two decades - but I am absolutely aghast at this old-school mentality in the NHL that somehow believes individual accomplishment shouldn't be celebrated. MaoistBanker fucked around with this message at 05:37 on Apr 15, 2014 |
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Apr 15, 2014 05:29
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Thaxxas posted:I'm a leafs fan. Mock me. I do have a couple questions though for those of you that eat, breathe and sleep hockey. Who knows? All I know is that you are no longer talking about the Leafs' epic collapse, and that's exactly the way the Leafs want it. Narrative changed. I wonder if Shanny is really going to go all-in, but I don't see it. Being a President of a team means shoring up sponsorship deals and schmoozing with corporate guys so that they spend every inch of available space advertising their product on TV, Internet and inside the arena. I don't really see Shanahan doing that, do you? Robitaille does it for LA and he does it well, but it largely means Robitaille doesn't get involved with hockey decisions. The only way this really works is if final decisions by Nonis & Co basically get the stamp of approval from Shanahan. It could be a Colorado situation where Sherman is still technically the GM, but it's a position in name only. This is a big pay jump for Shanahan, he's literally never had a job with these kinds of responsibilities before.
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Apr 15, 2014 20:04
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Frostwerks posted:Also, what the gently caress is up with cricket? Surprisingly easy to follow once you understand it's kind of like 5 games of baseball played back-to-back with one team batting 5 games worth of innings without changing sides, seeing how much they score and then the other team tries to beat it. Oh, and there is only one base, there are no balls and strikes and only 10 outs. Choose your swing carefully! This is the best beginner's video I've found, enjoy! - now back to hockey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naMJz2KlLoA MaoistBanker fucked around with this message at 22:45 on Apr 16, 2014 |
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Apr 16, 2014 22:31
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Shadow Ninja 64 posted:It's worth mentioning that it is actually a penalty for the goalie to skate with the puck past center ice. Hall of Fame goaltender turned coach Patrick Roy got busted for not knowing that once: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=429QFwN8Yy4 dekes Wayne Gretzky while doing it too..
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Apr 16, 2014 23:33
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