Running Stanley Cup Playoff Thread

Whatever the opposite of choking is, that would be Vancouver right now.

 

Does NBC even know they exist? After all, they don't play for the five teams NBC crams down our throats.

I'm half-expecting to see Mike Emrick tell us that they'll be airing a consolation tournament between the Capitals, Rangers, Penguins and Flyers for the AVCO Cup instead of the rest of the postseason.

 

2-1 Canucks with about six to go.

I originally wanted the Preds to win to force a game seven but I take it back.

I don't think I could take another game of mind numbingly boring hockey.

End it already.

 

Its been blowing up on sportstalk in San Francisco (well, as much as hockey talk blows up there). Yes, they did play for the Sharks together at one time, so who knows what the backstory might be.

I stopped following the Sharks in the regular season after they pissed away the Presidents Cup four years ago. They blow this one, I might totally throw in the towel. There's just been too much talent that skated through the sharks' head at the Tank to keep choking this time of year.

 

They are far from choking. They've got two more chances and the chances of them losing are very slim.

They are built differently than before. Niemmi seems calmer than Nabakov and more likely to win a game himself.

The Sharks are less dependent upon Marleau as well; Last year it was Marleau/Thornton/Heatley or very little else; now its Thornton/Setoguchi/Pavelski/Clowe/Couture/Heatley/Marleau.

 

I wouldn't put too much stock in the President's Cup, whose winner rarely advances deep into the playoffs (this year being a notable exception).

The regular season still means something, and the President's Cup is a noteworthy accomplishment, but the level of competition between teams is so narrow -- and a goaltender can steal a series -- that the NHL playoffs are a total crapshoot. I kinda wish there was a little more emphasis on the regular season, but our culture in North America doesn't seem to hold it in very high regard. Then again, I follow a team that was notorious for hanging division championship banners in the Boston Garden.

 

Hanging division championship banners was more common than you might think. Even multi-Cup winners did it.

 

Hoping for a big Wings win so I can watch Game 7 at a birthday bash at the local pub -- a bash in my celebration, of course! That would be a great birthday present. I can dream...

 

Rarely? Check your numbers.

 

They may not be far from it, but they're in the neighborhood. They're turning playoff failure into an art form only a Chicago Cubs fan could like. It was bad enough under Wilson when they'd score a goal in the first 10 minutes and make the defense try and hold it up, but now the bar is set higher. Not only among Sharks fans, but thanks to Meesers. Sabean, Bochy et al, among Bay area sports fans in general. I may be preaching to the mirror, but if things don't end with the Cup being paraded down Santa Clara Street at the end of the season, they've got to seriouisly think of getting some new blood in there.

 

Since 02-03, the PT winner has won one Stanley Cup. In that time, only three PC winners even made it to the conference finals -- Ottawa in 02-03, Buffalo in 06-07 and Detroit in 07-08 (won Cup).

Just before that, the PT winner won three of the four Cups. The exception was St. Louis in 99-00, which lost in the first round.

Seven teams have won both the PT and Cup since the PT was introduced in 85-86.

 

Clowe is out for Gm. 6. That's a big blow to the Sharks. Hopefully Marleau plays like a man possessed and has the game of his life while Niemi pitches a shutout (for the record I dreamt it was 4-1 in the 1st period.)

Wings lost Franzen so that makes up somewhat for it.

Sharks have to hit Datsyk hard and make someone else win it.