2014 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs (predictions and discussions)

Another Game 7, nice. Should be a good one, think it may be another road team winning. Quick is a beast.

 

I still have trouble picturing Anaheim as a serious Cup contender. Their offense tends to go AWOL for long stretches --- even entire periods ---- at a time. Take away the Getzlaf-Perry line --- easier said than done, for sure --- and they seem very ordinary.

The defense doesn't seem like anything special and while Gibson has been excellent the past three games, can he get and stay hot long enough to go all the way?

I really do like the makeup of the Kings. They do everything hard --- pass, shoot, hit, body check, whatever. And Gaborik has been a great addition. Picking LA to win another low-scoring game on Friday.

 

Like to see Anaheim win, but hard to bet against Quick. Gibson would be a great story though.

 

Ton of pressure to put on a 20-year-old rookie who only played a few NHL games during the regular season. Series has been low-scoring on both sides, so everything is sort of magnified. I thought he played fine again on Wednesday in the loss.

 

Got to go with the Habs the rest of the way.

 

The Bruins are coached by a guy who has defense as his top priority by a mile or so, and their three best players, Bergeron, Chara and Rask, reflect that priority. Stands to reason that when this excellent club gets beat, it's because their offense gets shut down or sputters of its own accord.

 

Michel Therien is the same type of coach as Julien.

 

Come on. Marc-Andre Fleury actually had a pretty good playoffs. Outside of Game 4 in Columbus, he was Pittsburgh's most consistent player not named Paul Martin.

In Game 5, the Penguins completely didn't show up. Zero effort. No goalie wins that game.

In Game 6, the first goal bounced of four people in front and went in, the second goal was the under the armpit goal you spoke of, and the third was a scramble where Brassard was allowed four cracks at it without being hit.

In Game 7, the two goals were a 2 on 1 and a power play screen shot he had no chance to stop.

Spare me that Fleury was the problem. That team was built to score goals, and they scored three in the final three games. Lundqvist was fantastic and stole Game 7, but to try to place ANY blame on Fleury is just following a tired narrative that he's the problem with Pittsburgh.

Bylsma will be fired, Shero SHOULD be fired and there should be plenty of personnel changes. If not, it will be the same old song in the spring next season. The Penguins have been built to win in December, not in May.

 

I am far from a Fleury fan, I think they'd be wise to move on from him but the Rangers scored 15 goals in 7 games. This series cannot be pinned on Fleury.

 

Lots of teams use the Julien-Therien approach. But to my mind, the difference in the series was that Subban was a force on offense, and Chara was not.

 

It's so weird to hear Penguins fans basically describe their franchise as the Capitals of the last few years.

 

Crosby, the league's allegedly biggest star, was a JAG against the Rangers. So Pittsburgh lost. Why overthink this?