NHL Playoffs 2017: Final Act: The Real Fight Begins

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > NHL Playoffs 2017: Final Act: The Real Fight Begins

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Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

rewatching highlights of leafs-bruins 2013 game 7 and getting so psyched for playoff hockey yesssssssssss

# ¿ Apr 10, 2017 20:18

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# ¿ May 8, 2024 07:10

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

oh gently caress i am fuckin READY

# ¿ Apr 12, 2017 18:09

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

can't wait to put up a witty away message on my AIM while i'm watching the game tonight

# ¿ Apr 12, 2017 21:10

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

Matt Zerella posted:

Can I see the playoff poster.gif? I need a laugh

i'm sure hank will give you plenty of laughs tonight

# ¿ Apr 12, 2017 21:15

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

playoff hockey, real good

# ¿ Apr 13, 2017 16:25

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

bump_fn posted:

Hawks / bruins cup final

get out, and never come back

# ¿ Apr 14, 2017 00:47

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

here's my back up Good Post:

bump_fn posted:

Hawks / pens cup final

ftfy

# ¿ Apr 14, 2017 00:47

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

bewbies posted:

I don't think I've ever been in a stadium or arena or whatever where anyone was anything other than cool to visiting fans, where the gently caress does all of this violence actually happen?

New York and Philly, where else

# ¿ Apr 14, 2017 15:28

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

Wonderllama posted:

I'm ok with Pittsburgh getting further in the playoffs because I enjoy PAS shitposting, they win the cup

qft

# ¿ Apr 17, 2017 02:54

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

Chad Sexington posted:

Guentzel was sharp, but one goal was a lucky bounce to his stick and the GWG was all Crosby. But then I thought Murray was overhyped too so what do I know.

i mean sure, if guentzel and sheary were playing with bonino instead of crosby, they probably wouldn't be particularly remarkable players. but still, jake especially seems to have the awareness to take full advantage of the opportunities crosby produces, while also having enough skill to be dangerous if left unattended

not a huge sample of course, but even over his 40 games in the regular season he was producing at a ~35 goal / ~70 point pace

# ¿ Apr 17, 2017 04:12

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

Ginette Reno posted:

I don't agree with that at all. They'd still produce whether with Crosby or not. But yeah I mean they definitely take it to the next level with him. But those two are too good individually for me to think it's all Sid. There are shifts where they are the ones carrying play and Sid is the passenger and it happens on a regular basis. Sid has never had that before.

yeah, poor wording on my part. i don't think they're passengers to sid, but i don't think jakey would produce at a ~70 point rate without him. but that's not a knock on him -- what i'm really trying to say is that i think his skillset is especially well suited to produce with crosby, and it takes more than being a passenger to score at a 70 point pace, even if you are playing with crosby.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2017 04:45

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

Ginette Reno posted:

It took him a while to trust Guentzel. Kunitz spent months and months dragging Crosby down.

But yeah overall I have few complaints. There is quite simply no way that the young guys the Pens have now become the same players under Shero/Bylsma that they have under JR/Sullivan. The Pens saying gently caress it and throwing caution to the wind and bringing these kids along not only got them a cup but has them well positioned to get more. How many coaches would have Sheary/Guentzel with Crosby when they have Kessel and Hornqvist to choose from?

Hell Hornqvist is on the third line right now though I'm sure at least part of that has to do with Sullivan's obsession with rolling three strong lines.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. part of what's unique about sully is that he has experience with a lot of the young guys from his time in wbs. and it turns out that most of those young guys are extremely competent (putting it mildly) NHL caliber players. Pretty insanely lucky set of circumstances, really. But thank god sullivan isn't squandering it

# ¿ Apr 17, 2017 16:45

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

sportsgenius86 posted:

Werenski is out the rest of the playoffs with a facial fracture

only missing 1 game with a facial fracture really isn't that bad when u think about it

# ¿ Apr 17, 2017 17:44

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

i'm excited to see how much more adventurous MAF gets with each successive win

in games 1 & 2 i remember being surprised at how little he ventured out to play the puck, how he didn't wind up on his belly or back too much, and how he didn't bite hard on CBJ players bringing the puck around the net leaving wraparound attempts totally unprotected. in game 3, i remember being worried that there was a little more of all of these things

game 4 should be fun

# ¿ Apr 17, 2017 20:44

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

myron cope posted:

Do I count as a playoff poster if I only come back for the playoffs but I used to be here all the time?

That was a very exciting Penguins game yesterday. I was very mad at Bob Errey when he said Fleury kept his head there on purpose to make that save, but he may have been kidding.

nice av

# ¿ Apr 17, 2017 21:03

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

that bruins player basically fell into ryan, was a good call by tim peel

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 04:25

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

kalensc posted:

Yep. Add in cross-checks in front of the net and after the whistle (and all the other stuff) and I've really soured on the NHL over the years. I love hockey but the ratio of smart/skilled dekes & passes to dumb/cheap hits & stickwork has gotten too low for me to enjoy watching much more than highlight reels.

you loving dumbass. you stupid little

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 17:09

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

Jamwad Hilder posted:

the best parts of hockey are, in order:
1. sick dekes
2. snipe shows
3. monster hits
4. big saves
5. injuring the other team (different than #3 because you can appreciate #3 even if it happens to your team if its a clean hit)

also when a penalty ends right as the puck is being cleared so a player gets a breakaway as they're leaving the box

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 17:34

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

also this video of mike modano getting ruined by messier (bad) but then getting dropped in his stretcher as he's getting loaded into the ambulance (very good)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yxLlZkknv0

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 19:42

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

another thing that owns are crazy fan tattoos of hockey stuff. like this one

https://www.instagram.com/p/BS4jguQDMYv/

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 20:00

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

Slappy Pappy posted:

It seems like the Caps are not handling the forecheck very well, which was one of their strengths during the regular season. I hope the coaches can figure it out - I think if they can resolve their zone exits all will be right with the world again. Otherwise, the series so far has had more to do with Toronto playing well and coming together at the right time than it does with any glaring problem on the Caps' side.

My numnuts analysis is that during the regular season the Caps created a lot of open passing lanes by hesitating during breakouts and allowing forecheckers to overskate the lanes. Babcock said "gently caress that - forget the lanes and attack the puck" and more often than not the Caps are just getting chewed up trying to delay and hesitate their way out of the zone. Furthermore, the forwards are losing confidence in the break, staying back more and not creating the passing lanes that open up when you skate hard. The Leafs are generating way too many turnovers as a result. Caps might need to de-fancify things and just move the puck out quickly like everyone else is doing.

i haven't been able to watch much of the wsh/tor series, but some of trotz's usage decisions seem really bizarre. ovi getting only 15 mins TOI is kind of outrageous, and i was surprised to see shatty have the lowest TOI wsh's entire d corps

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 21:35

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

T-Bone posted:

Snow poking Barnaby like he's a dead animal gets me every time

and then Trefilov hitting Snow again I'm dying

holy poo poo i don't think i've ever seen this, it is loving incredible my god. snow piledrives trefilov!!!!

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 21:44

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

MAF is bad but i don't see him spotting CBJ another 5 goal game :shepface:

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 03:10

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

pens d corps starting to show the cracks we were all expecting sans letang.

i think maatta looks especially bad, and i'm getting more and more pessimistic about his overall outlook. he's disturbingly slow for a young guy and if anything it seems like he's making worse decisions with the puck as he gets older. his career WOWY's don't look great and it's looking more and more like he might turn into a bust

i would even be open to sitting him and playing gaunce instead for gm 5. normally i would just say shelter him, but we really don't have the depth for much sheltering at d

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 03:57

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

Kilza posted:

Honestly, I'm just done after tonight's game. I felt positive going into the game, but I stopped watching after it was 4-0, and seeing it end up 7-0 just makes things worse. All those positive feelings are gone. That was the worst game the Oilers played all season, and it's beyond frustrating when the Oilers had been the better team in the series, could've been up 3-0 if they didn't fall asleep in Game 1, and instead now they're tied 2-2. But there's no chance in hell they're winning another game in this series. They're done. Stick the in them, they aren't coming back.

At least we made the playoffs, at least we won 2 games, and at least the Flames still suck more than we do. Now hopefully Chiarelli does some work in the off-season to make us better, because this team isn't going far the way they are right now.

Congrats on your series win, Sharks fans.

N
I
C
E

M
E
L
T
D
O
W
N

^___^

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 06:09

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

Pornographic Memory posted:

I don't really think he could be worse than Maatta (or Daley for that matter) so I dunno! But for what it's worth I don't think many teams would be too comfortable having a career AHLer even as their 7th defenseman in the playoffs, which is the alternative to not having traded for Streit (or another defenseman).

Yeah I thought part of the rationale for getting Hainsey and Streit was to have a surplus of middle/bottom tier depth on D. Obviously that's not ideal, but there was no realistic way for the Pens to bolster their top tier D, esp with Shatty going to WSH. So if you know you're going to have to rely on a bunch of mediocre defensemen, at least having a lot of them that you can rotate in and out means that you're not going to have to rely on a bunch of mediocre, exhausted defensemen.

I don't necessarily think Streit will be a huge upgrade on the D line, but at least he's well rested. I think Maatta in particular needs another night off to allow his legs to transform back from stone into flesh.

I'm not sure what's up with Hagelin, no real status update as far as I'm aware. Latest I heard is that he's not practicing with the team today, along with the other injured players, which is not a great sign. I think best case scenario would be that he gets ready for the 2nd round, but then again if he was that close to being ready then I'd have to expect he'd at least be skating with the team. He would be a huge upgrade on our offensive depth rn, I really hope he get back into the lineup

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 20:22

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

xzzy posted:

Not great either. Didn't deserve a page full of empty quotes.

Zodijackylite posted:

A dirty play "below the belt"

pretty solid follow up too

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 22:42

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

Ginette Reno posted:

He's had some injuries and surgery to remove a potential cancer. I remember him being slow as hell even in his rookie year but he seems slower now even than he was back then.

Still he usually makes up for it by being smart and having a good pass/gap. But yeah it's definitely noticeable when he fucks up because his lack of foot speed can doom him.

I don't know, I don't remember ever thinking Maatta was slow his rookie year, but maybe that's selective memory. I think he's gotten noticeably slower, and if anything I think his decision making, gap control, etc. are also at best stagnant (not improving) and IMO I think they're actually declining. Especially over the past year or so, he just seems to make increasingly poor decisions with the puck, leading to more turnovers (and not in a "well, he has the puck so much so it's actually a good thing he has a lot of turnovers!" kind of way) that he can't recover from because he's so slow. Injuries have definitely contributed, but I also wonder if he's got a bit of a confidence issue.

If you look at his stats from the past 2 years, he puts up pretty comparable CF%rel as Daley and Cole, which is slightly negative, with Cole having slightly less favorable zone starts than Maatta or Daley. However, most of Maatta's ice time has been with Letang over the past couple years, and as you could probably guess his WOWY's suggest that Letang is the one driving possession when they're together.

Basically his stats are getting worse, he's looking worse via the eye test, and even though he's young there just aren't really the hints of improvement that you'd hope to see for his long-term outlook. He's not so bad that we need to dump him ASAP or anything, and given how young he is and how talented he looked in his rookie year, there's still reason to have some hope, but the clock is definitely ticking.

For short term outlook in the playoffs, I just think we have enough depth in Streit that it'd be worth resting Maatta a game here and there so that he's not battling fatigue on top of his already tortoise-like speed, but I don't necessarily think Streit is a huge upgrade or anything.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2017 23:04

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

shyduck posted:

Blues/Wild is going 7.

That would truly excellent

# ¿ Apr 20, 2017 05:42

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

Bob posts a 0.882 SV%
MAF posts a 0.943 SV%

Pens D giving up more shots against than anyone else in the playoffs, including lots of good scoring chances

PAS whining about how fleury sucks so much, shameful. sound like abunch of wonderllamams. i hope we buy him out this offseason, but he's been bailing out dusty ol' daley and maatta left and right

also torts team loses by emphasizing hits over skill, what a surprise

# ¿ Apr 21, 2017 03:33

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

cenotaph posted:

Fleury might have a good save percentage but the's still out of position all the time and giving up insane rebounds. Still playing the puck directly to the other team, too. He's just nerve-wracking to watch.

he might be out of position and giving up insane rebounds, but he's keeping the puck out of the net despite pretty relentless scoring chances, and without a whole lot of help from the D

don't get me wrong, i still want him to get bought out (or traded lol) after this season, and want murray back as the starter as soon as he's healthy. but you might have a bit of a blind spot if you're watching these games and thinking "if only MAF were better!" when he's putting up a 0.933 while maatta, daley and cole are just standing around

if we have to keep playing MAF, who knows, maybe he'll regress, and i'll be the first to say how much he sucks. but until then, gently caress it we've got an average goalie on a hot streak and let's not take that poo poo for granted

# ¿ Apr 21, 2017 06:25

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

history aside, i really don't want the pens to face the caps in the 2nd round. the key to us beating the jackets was getting a 0.933 from MAF and Bob gifting us an 0.882. maybe we get lucky and MAF stays hot, or even luckier and murray comes back (please god), or even luckierier and Holtby stays at around 0.900, but i wouldn't count on any of these. and given how poorly we contained CBJ's offense, i'm not looking forward to seeing what kuzy, ovie, backstrom, oshie and playoff hero tom wilson can do to a letang-less D corps

# ¿ Apr 21, 2017 19:23

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

kalensc posted:

Pens winning would be very cool (to me, a Pitt fan) and mayyybe would create a trading market for MAF if he started through the SCF (lol). Quite unlikely considering their injuries, and I suspect the Caps struggles versus the Leafs have been mostly ironed out and/or were due to "looking ahead" to this 2nd round.

Overall, I agree with your assessment, except... I'm not so sure about the Caps' struggles being ironed out. Pretty amazing that they were all decided by 1-goal games, and all but one were decided in OT. I only got to see the end of most of their games, but it didn't seem like WSH started off the series slow and then hit their stride after a couple games. Seemed more like they were generally playing pretty well but unable to shut down the Leafs as much as everyone expected.

As a Pens fan, I'm still not super optimistic about the series given our injuries, but I feel a lot better about the match up than I did before the TOR series, even with WSH winning in 6.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2017 20:00

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

hagelin is apparently skating again, though not yet with the team. please god let him recover in time for at least some part of the semis

# ¿ Apr 24, 2017 20:44

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

Ginette Reno posted:

Hagelin practiced today. Sounds like he's getting close. It would be nice to have him for this series.

yassssssss this makes me happy

something i've been meaning to mention here. i noticed the pens using an interesting system for PKs during the CBJ series. i'm not sure if i just hadn't noticed it during the season or if it was new. it looks like instead of a traditional box structure, they had both forwards play towards the center of the ice. the higher forward would follow the puck to put pressure on the carrier, while the lower forward would move to weak side to clog lanes. tbh it seemed pretty ineffective and looked like it made it easier for CBJ to shake coverage since the pens forwards would be constantly roving across the sides of the ice. anyone else notice this? is this something new, and what's the strength of this system?

# ¿ Apr 26, 2017 19:58

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

Ginette Reno posted:

It's basically a diamond formation and it's used to pressure the top of the pk and force them into mistakes. You see a decent amount of teams using it now because a lot of powerplays use more of an umbrella formation where one guy is up top passing to a one-timer option on his left or right.

The disadvantage to it is because it's more aggressive it means a quick passing PP can make it look bad. The advantage is when done well it forces teams into rushed passes and can often take away one-timer passes from at least one part of the ice.

Box formations do a better job taking away cross-ice one-timers but they lack pressure up top which can be a disaster against a good passing PP. Torts used more of a traditional passive box with his players and the disadvantage there was they gave the Pens PP all day to pass the puck around the perimeter and worst of all they gave Kessel room to skate the puck off the ice and try to penetrate the box with shots/passes. If you let Phil do that, you're in trouble.

I'd say in general the trend these days is towards aggressive pks that play more of a diamond formation. Teams are all about trying to pressure the top of umbrellas hard to force turnovers. You don't see a whole lot of passive box pking any more.

thanks, makes sense. i think their PK may have just been poorly executed, because I don't think they really maintained the diamond formation very well at all iirc. seemed to me like the forwards were both often in the middle of the ice, with one higher near the blue line and one more in the slot

yeah the CBJ really gave the pens PP too much space. caps have been much better at pressuring their PP in the past, which causes major problems because the pens essentially don't have a zone entry strategy on the PP

# ¿ Apr 26, 2017 21:22

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

pierre is such a caricature, he definitely makes broadcasts more entertaining even if he isn't all that insightful

also doc emrick is an awesome PBP guy

# ¿ Apr 26, 2017 23:43

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

RC Cola posted:

The reason I hate Crosby so much is that he's shoved down my throat every minute of every game all season and post season long. Crosby could get concussed game 1 and that's all they'd talk about all season.

well that's dumb. guys like crosby and mcdavid don't come along very often. just let yourself witness greatness without crying about the marketing. i mean think of how much you would have hated, like, gretzky or orr

i'm not saying the league does a good job of marketing crosby, btw

Wonderllama posted:

Plus he a straight chump busta

see, this i understand

# ¿ Apr 27, 2017 03:37

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

Good hockey games tonight IMO

Benson Cunningham posted:

You mean healthy, top tier defensemen for concussed, broken necked defensemen who average like 40 games a season?

Letang is better than Subban, but given age and injuries I would obviously prefer Subban over Letang rn

# ¿ Apr 27, 2017 07:08

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# ¿ May 8, 2024 07:10

Sharks Eat Bear: Dec 25, 2004

I get that people like Subban more than Letang, but how is he better? Aside from age / injuries, of course. Yeah yeah, I said that Letang is better, and maybe he's not, but lol at you if you think that's an "lol" statement. That's right, lol at you.

They look pretty comparable when you look at a variety of scoring and possession stats. Based on eye test I'd say that Subban is a better scorer and Letang is a better defender, but they're both pretty solid 1A guys that can score and defend. And they both play with intensity -- Subban in a pumped up, positive energy sort of way, and Letang in a tunnel vision, murder your own parents sort of way.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2017 16:40

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > NHL Playoffs 2017: Final Act: The Real Fight Begins

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