2009 NHL Playoffs

[Vendetta]

Don't let the Ducks fool you. They were capable of beating any other team on the Western Conference except the Wings, and probably any in the Eastern except the Pens. I fell in love with the Canes when they went on a giant-killer rampage, but my original guess of Wings/Pens is reality, and I'm not going to call this as a homer. Wings got a couple good bounces, and this series is going to at least game 6, I think. Refs are no calling like their lives depend on it (early on the Pens deserved some penalties, and later on the Wings deserved some). This series will be good, but give us back Datsyuk and Draper and the Wings are on all cylinders. Crosby and Malkin were limited, but Sid created chances and Malkin's effort led to the only goal.

I love me the Stanley Cup Finals.

 

[LUColt27]

Steelerbred, Anaheim might have been an 8th seed, but they're 2 years removed from the Cup championship, and in the West, no team is safe from lower seeds.

But I'm here to talk about how Sidney Crosby is a classless jerk, and he's going to get a beating at least once before this series is over. From ESPN: "Bad blood is already starting to boil as Crosby and Kirk Maltby ended up jawing at each other in Game 1."Yeah, he was doing what he always does," Crosby said after the game. "You know, he was giving guys lip service and things like that. And you know, I two-handed him on top of the foot there as we were skating by. So he felt like it was necessary to keep talking after the game, and I thought I'd whack him and that was it.""


Dive Taker, Kirk Maltby is a 4-time Cup winner who is 15 years your senior, and he served on the Grind Line with Kris Draper and Darren McCarty. You can "think you'd whack him and that was it," but if you insist on acting like a spoiled child, he would only be too happy to put you in your place. There's a reason it was called the Grind Line. Teams didn't want to face it, because as our 4th line, they were our group of enforcers, while still being deadly against opposing goaltenders. The Wings are not the type of team to suffer fools, and those that try get their helmet beaten in by somebody. So the next time you think of being cute, and giving a Champ a two-hander on his skate, think about who you're doing it to, and pray that you don't get your scraggly beard ripped out. You have been warned.

 

[Everlasting33]

Steelerbred, Anaheim might have been an 8th seed, but they're 2 years removed from the Cup championship, and in the West, no team is safe from lower seeds.

But I'm here to talk about how Sidney Crosby is a classless jerk, and he's going to get a beating at least once before this series is over. From ESPN: "Bad blood is already starting to boil as Crosby and Kirk Maltby ended up jawing at each other in Game 1."Yeah, he was doing what he always does," Crosby said after the game. "You know, he was giving guys lip service and things like that. And you know, I two-handed him on top of the foot there as we were skating by. So he felt like it was necessary to keep talking after the game, and I thought I'd whack him and that was it.""


Dive Taker, Kirk Maltby is a 4-time Cup winner who is 15 years your senior, and he served on the Grind Line with Kris Draper and Darren McCarty. You can "think you'd whack him and that was it," but if you insist on acting like a spoiled child, he would only be too happy to put you in your place. There's a reason it was called the Grind Line. Teams didn't want to face it, because as our 4th line, they were our group of enforcers, while still being deadly against opposing goaltenders. The Wings are not the type of team to suffer fools, and those that try get their helmet beaten in by somebody. So the next time you think of being cute, and giving a Champ a two-hander on his skate, think about who you're doing it to, and pray that you don't get your scraggly beard ripped out. You have been warned.

I didn't agree with his action but we all make mistakes and Crosby has made very few of them in his youth as a hockey player. If I were a Wings fan, I would be very mad at Crosby and hold the same opinion that you do. But, as a Pen's fan I am much more forgiving and understanding! That is just the psychology of sports, I guess!

As for last night's game, the Pens outshot the Wings which I heard almost never happens in Joe Louis Arena! So that was definitely the plus last night. We had a few unlucky bounces by Fleury's net and our faceoff WP% was embarrassing!

I don't believe we have the defense or goal tending to beat Detroit. But it really depends on how the Pens respond tonight. If Sid/Malkin can get some goals and Fleury actually plays well, we may have a chance!

 

[LUColt27]

I didn't agree with his action but we all make mistakes and Crosby has made very few of them in his youth as a hockey player. If I were a Wings fan, I would be very mad at Crosby and hold the same opinion that you do. But, as a Pen's fan I am much more forgiving and understanding! That is just the psychology of sports, I guess!

As for last night's game, the Pens outshot the Wings which I heard almost never happens in Joe Louis Arena! So that was definitely the plus last night. We had a few unlucky bounces by Fleury's net and our faceoff WP% was embarrassing!

I don't believe we have the defense or goal tending to beat Detroit. But it really depends on how the Pens respond tonight. If Sid/Malkin can get some goals and Fleury actually plays well, we may have a chance!

Yes, the Pens did outshoot the Wings at home, which is admittedly a rare occurrence (though it did happen in Game 2 against Chicago, and again against the Hawks at the end of the regular season) and they had good opportunities against Osgood, but he's called the Wizard for a reason, and not just because I do it. The Pens should be tougher, and Datsyuk and Draper are out again tonight, but the Wings haven't played their best this series yet. Crosby is being very effectively covered by Henrik Zetterberg, Malkin is ineffective as well, and Fleury seems to have the Wings in his head. We'll see in about an hour or so.

 

[LUColt27]

Game 2 is in the books, but if it had to be described in song, the only appropriate one would be Weird Al's "I Think I'm a Clone Now." The score and the final goal scorer mirrored Game 1's results, and in addition, the series mirrors last year's as well. The Wings have taken a 2-0 lead despite being outshot at home these past 2 games, and appear to be gathering steam, now that they are halfway to recapturing the Cup.

 

[Vendetta]

Wings in 5? It's looking like I might want to go into the business of gambling.

 

[Everlasting33]

The wings may even sweep the series...disappointing end for the pens this season.

 

[Harmakis7]

And here I was gunning for the Wings in 7.

 

[Breetai]

I don't know why the Wings had it tough with Anaheim who was an 8th seed. I wonder what they did so well that other teams cannot duplicate?

The absolute best defensive pair in the league, IMO, definitely helps out. Pronger and Niedermayer, when playing their best, cannot be matched by anyone. Plus, these guys have tons of playoff experience between them. Most of the did. As has been said as well, the west is much more competitive than the east. There are more teams in playoff contention most years. That means more points are being divided amoung these teams, deceptively lowering their point totals and making them look weaker than they really are compared to eastern teams. The Ducks could've easily been in the finals instead of Detroit, and most hockey analysists wouldn't have been too surprised.

 

[Breetai]

The wings may even sweep the series...disappointing end for the pens this season.

You haven't been watching hockey for long, have you?

Being down two games can change quickly. Three games, on the other hand...

 

[Everlasting33]

You haven't been watching hockey for long, have you?

Being down two games can change quickly. Three games, on the other hand...

Only 3 teams have come back to win the Cup after being down 0-2 in the series.

I feel like the Pens have done a lot of things right and we had a lot more scoring chances than the Wings...they just didn't go in. You can't beat luck

 

[Everlasting33]

this picture summarizes the luck of the pens:

 

[utdbear]

I think it's clear who the NHL wants to win the Cup. The lack of interference calls in this series is staggering.

 

[Breetai]

Only 3 teams have come back to win the Cup after being down 0-2 in the series.

Don't look at just one round of the playoffs. Look at the overall picture. They Pens are down 2 games to nil. If they win the next one, it's a 2-1 series and they're totally back in it. In fact, the next two games are both in Pittsburgh. If they do what Detroit did and win both home games, it's a tied series. They are not out of it at all.

 

[Breetai]

I think it's clear who the NHL wants to win the Cup. The lack of interference calls in this series is staggering.

Do you actually think it's like that; that refs... or even others, are paid off to help certain teams win? Quite a few people have said very similar comments to what you've said over the years, with the 1999 and 2004 finals being the most extreme examples.

 

[Vendetta]

I think it's clear who the NHL wants to win the Cup. The lack of interference calls in this series is staggering.

Detroit only had one call against them in Game 2, but the Pens only had one call against them in Game 1. Get serious, the refs handed the Ducks a game in the Wings-Ducks series, which ended up at Game 7. There has been terrible officiating against the Wings in every round. This round they're not calling interference and hooking calls. Pens got all the calls they wanted, and even now when they don't, they are still playing on the same level, if not better than the Wings. If the NHL wanted the Wings to win the Cup, they would've called tripping in Game 1 when Kronwall got tripped and it resulted in a breakaway for the Pens.

This series is on two men: Osgood and MAF.

 

[Breetai]

The wings may even sweep the series...disappointing end for the pens this season.

Now you know exactly why I said what I said in my response to this post.

You haven't been watching hockey for long, have you?

Being down two games can change quickly.

The Pens have now evened the series at 2 games. This is exactly why anyone who's watched hockey for a long time will never say anything like "it's looking like team-X might sweep the series" or "team-Y has this series in the bag." The only situation where you can say anything like that is if team is down 3-0 in a series. Even then, I don't like to say it.

It's now a best-of-three series. Let's see what happens!

 

[Vendetta]

5-0 Wings domination of the Penguins. I hope the Wings can wrap this up at the Igloo, but it won't be easy.

 

[Breetai]

The Pens spend 2 games making their big series comeback... then forgot to even show up to game 5. Makes me wonder what they're even doing in the finals? They don't deserve to win the cup after that showing. They reminded me of my favourite team; the Flames. The Flames played a few games much the same as the Pens played game 5. As a result, they showed they had no business at all winning that series. Likewise, the Pens are showing the same thing.

If you want to win the cup, you'd better show up for both home and away games.

 

[LUColt27]

While the officiating in this series resembles the NBA on a bad day, it has gone both ways. Of course, to me, the Pens have been getting the luckier breaks on non-calls, such as Malkin tripping Kronwall back in Game 1 and the too many men non-call that Helen Keller would have whistled down in Game 3, to use as examples. But that is all water under the bridge, because the wheels fell of the Pens wagon last night in Hockeytown, in a huge way. Datsyuk came baxck after missing the past 7 games and notched 2 big assists, as well as a solid hit on Malkin to remind him of why he's an MVP caliber candidate. In the end, the Wings whipped the Pens 5-0 to take a 3-2 series lead back to Pittsburgh, where they won last year. Interestingly enough, 2 of their past 5 Cups have been won on road ice in Pennsylvania. They look to make it 3 of 6 Tuesday night. Will they? I don't know, but evidently having Datsyuk back has reenergized the Big Red Machine.