Running Stanley Cup Playoff Thread

You can't put this one on Ovechkin

 

OV was a bad#$$ this series.

But the Caps don't have the shutdown goaltender -- they've tried to make it with every year's flash-in-the-pan. Maybe Neuvirth will become that guy (he shows a lot of promise, but he's still young). Holtby didn't impress me the one time I saw him. Their top defenseman is an offensive guy. They're a team built to play firewagon hockey, and even though they made a lot of changes to move away from that system, they're still a team built to play an offensive game.

Unfortunately, unless you're the 1985 Oilers, that doesn't get you far in the playoffs.

The old maxim -- best goalie wins -- still holds (unless the other team has a pop-gun offense ... and even that's not always the case, witness Montreal last year).

Crosby has similar talent around him, but he also has Marc-Andre Fleury behind him. That's made a big difference.

I like Bruce Boudreau. Hated him as a player because he was a pest who played for our local minor-league team's rival growing up, but he's not a bad coach. Unconventional, but solid. He completely tried to change their approach this year, they just got beat. Tampa isn't chopped liver. Stamkos & St. Louis can still bring it.

As a Boston fan, I'm not counting my chickens, but if you'd have told me the Bruins would be five wins away from the Stanley Cup Finals, and the goalies they'd have to beat would be Sergei Bobrovsky/Brian Boucher (as is custom, they always change mid-game) and Duane Roloson, I'd be licking my chops (especially with the way Thomas is playing right now).

 

You just outed yourself as an old guy.

 

How about getting some gritty, blue collar, defensive players to give some mental and physical toughness to what is a talented but soft team? Or getting a GM who will get those players? I'm not saying the Caps have to become the '94-'03 New Jersey Devils, but they have to be a lot grittier and tougher than they've been the last 4 years....or for their entire existence, for that matter.

I'm sure Ted Leonsis loves counting all the money Ovechkin and that offensive talent bring into the organization. But if he wants to win a Stanley Cup, he's going to have to totally remake that team - personality, personnel, coaching, EVERYTHING. When you have that kind of talent and crap the bed in the playoffs EVERY F'ING YEAR, it's a lot more than just the coach. Bruce Boudreau is not the second coming of Toe Blake, but he's just one part of the problem.

 

I think if they fire Boudreau that they could become the same old Caps. That would work here.

The problem isn't OV or Backstrom (latter gets a pass for what many of us suspect is more than a slight injury issue). Semin needs to go because he's long been a living heart donor, though what he does to the Whalercanes numerous times each season is a wonder.

It's still the goaltender. For all the money the Caps have handed to OV, Backstrom and Semin, some of that should have been earmarked for a better goalie. Did they bother to talk to Montreal when it was clear that they were going to deal Halak? Did they bother to talk with the Isles for Roloson ... or anyone else they had not named Rick DiPietro? Did they bother to talk with Niemi after the 'Hawks made it clear they didn't want him back?

Leonsis and McPhee have not been shy about spending to win. But, in the process, they've merely gotten by when whatever will put on pads and stand between the pipes. Until that is addressed, little is likely to change.

 

That makes seven consecutive one-goal playoff losses by Detroit to San Jose, this time on Devin Setoguchi's hat trick goal in overtime, the second OT winner by San Jose this series to go in off a Detroit stick (Zetterberg).

 

Niemi is not an upgrade.

 

Sharks beat the Wings in OT and they're up 3-0 in the series.

I'm thinking it'll be a Sharks/Canucks in the West and Boston/Tampa in the East.

A Canucks/Bruins Final would be pretty cool

 

Five of the Sharks' seven wins in the playoffs thus far are in overtime. (Without a loss)

I'm rather pissed off and probably irrational about it, but where do you go to find that kind of luck?

 

Red Wings are done. F*cking A ...Howard sucked tonight. Sharks have Wings' number, especially in one-goal games. What a joke of a series.

 

On second thought, I agree. But have the Caps made any effort to reach out to anyone else notable in the league? There's a good one not under contract now in Glendale ...

 

Puck Daddy has a brutal (and pretty much dead-on) analysis of the Caps

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Despite-the-hype-Capitals-season-ends-in-humbl?urn=nhl-wp4170&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

And Boudreau was right in the HBO doc:

I have never seen a bunch of guys look so [expletive] down when something bad happens. What are you guys, so prima donna perfect that you can't [expletive] handle adversity? So [expletive's] not goin' right … [Expletive] get your [expletive] heads out of your ass and [expletive] make it work by outworkin' the opposition.
"OUTWORK THE [EXPLETIVE] GUYS. IF YOU WANT IT, DON'T JUST THINK YOU WANT IT. GO OUT AND [EXPLETIVE] WANT IT. But you're not lookin' like you want it. You look like you're feeling sorry for yourselves. And nobody [expletive] wants someone that's feeling sorry for themselves."

Bruce was right. A bunch of soft guys who can't overcome adversity