Official 10-11 NHL Playoff Thread

[Danny]

Well I wouldn't say "lost his job", he stepped down as the NHL's head of discipline, he remains vice president of hockey operations as far as I understand

[batdad]

Wow. Surprising timing for that demotion of Campbell eh? ANyway, you guys know I am not a super Nucks fan. Of course i am rooting for them, but it won't be tear breaking time if they lose for me. Now some Bruins fans around here might cry if/when Canucks win.

Fate of Horton and Stanley intersection? I would not call that fate...I would call that the typical B72 jinx. Heh.

And yeah I know Horton and Seidenberg have been beasts. But I am sure there are some faults with Boston other than Kaberle and maybe Boychuck (who really was not that bad this year, just not as good as in the past). I would love to hear those from B's fans to show knowledge and not just fandom insanity. WOOO MY TEAM BESTEST YOUR TEAM SUCKY.

Canucks flaws--Inconsistency of Luongo, Erhoff on PP, Edler on PP, Edler has one thing go wrong early is horrid the rest of the night, Forward depth-Raymond not cutting it, 4th line is brutal (but with the amount of rest the Canucks have had this should not be an issue plus if they are real bad Malhotra will dress in game 2), rust of Canuck top players...did you know they have only played 5 games since May 9th? Wow. I thought the Stanley Cup run was a massive endurance test. 5 games in almost a month. Ugh. Canucks speed is absolutely outstanding. Not a team in the league matches with that. Yep..giving you a hint on flaws of Boston you crazy fans.

[bruins72]

This Bruins team has plenty of flaws. I honestly didn't think they were going to make it past Montreal. Then I was pretty confident versus the Flyers. That confidence wasn't there against the Lightning though. I honestly thought they were going to blow it. I was in agony in game 7. I knew the first team to score in that game was going to win and it could have gone either way.

Some of the Bruins flaws? Julien does NOT adjust well during a game. He just sticks to his game plan and seems to keep rolling the same 4 lines (and he seems to always roll 4 lines!) no matter if his game plan has been countered and they're getting killed. Obviously, our power play is atrocious. I honestly feel more comfortable when the teams are even strength. I get nervous when the Bruins go on the power play. They're more apt to give up a shorty than score on the PP. Also, Ryder is a floater. He can be huge one night and then disappear for a few weeks. He came up big in 1 or 2 games versus the Habs and then disappeared until Seguin's big coming out party versus the Lightning. Milan Lucic has been pretty cold for stretches of this series. I'm a big Lucic supporter (I don't know if you remember me asking about him back when the Bruins first drafted him. I've been a supporter that long.) but it seems like he's gotten away from his type of game several times this year. He's trying to be Cam Neely and not just being Milan Lucic. He doesn't have Neely's skills. Why not just stick with the type of game that got you where you are? Play physical, throw the body, and get some ugly goals. I really like Marchand but he can take some stupid penalties. He's great with Bergeron though. I worry that Recchi is slowing them down though. Oh and Krejci needs to work on his faceoffs. Of course we can't have a whole team of Bergerons.

Is that enough finding faults with my own team to satisfy you?

[philou21]

Great news that Colin isn't at the top anymore, good riddance!!! That was needed to be done for sure but Bettman would have never fired him. They are now talking about Shanahan to replace him, that could be interesting, all the big heads in the NHL should be retire players, that would run better this way. The only problem is....not every players would like to do that after their career.

[Danny]

Bruins lack mobility at the back end, and some of their Dmen tend to handle the puck like a hand grenade under pressure, that's the most obvious weakness. Oh and they pretty much need to play Chara and Seidenberg close to 30 mins because there's quite the drop off in quality after those two with Manchuk and Kaberle sucking. I won't go into special teams because that one can change quickly, so far it's obviously been atrocious. Forward depth is at least as good as on the Nucks IMO, I don't think there's a better group of bottom six forwards in terms of skill and speed than Kelly, Peverley, Ryder, Seguin, Campbell and Paille. To be fair that's the only area I see the Bruins having an advantage. The Bruins match up well with offensive minded teams. Contrary to popular belief this team isn't slow at all in general, they've just got 3 slow not mobile defencemen, they won't like trading chances against the Nucks but they won't mind a more open game than against Tampa or Montreal. They've done well against skilled, offensive minded teams all year long. Toughest series so far has been against the Habs by far, much tougher than Tampa eventhough both went to 7 games, because the Habs play such a solid and disciplined team defence. Head says Nucks in 5 or 6, but heart says Bruins hoist the Cup on home ice after game 6.
There won't be any crying, we're proud of our team, the Bs are heavy underdogs according to pretty much everyone, I'm totally relaxed.

[batdad]

Heh. Yeah that was some list of flaws. How in god's name did they even make the playoffs? Oh yeah, i forgot Florida, Carolina, Toronto, NY Islanders, New Jersey are all in their conference.

I think the one thing that may harm the Bruins the most is their skating. They have to be able to get there to make the hit. Not sure that they are going to be fast enough to play the way they need to against Vancouver to beat the CAnucks. The Canucks are an extremely mobile team. Chicago said they were surprised how much quicker the Canucks were this year, Nashville praised the speed (actually Trotz also annointed Kesler with the title of the new Mark Messier), and San Jose marvelled at the speed as well. Noone has kept up with them this season for any length of time. Let's see how it goes.

Interesting that Julien is poor at in game adjustments. VIgneault and Bowness are amazing at it. They juggle lines, juggle d pairs and change systems to get things that will work for that particular moment. The number of times one of those things can be credited with changing a negative outcome to a positive one is amazing. Just switching out one guy off a line has proved miraculous at times.

It will be one hell of a series. But it is not going to go 7. Boston either beats up Van and wins in 6 or Vancouver just totally outskates Boston. There is no in between.
Boston is going to need Chara to play 35 minutes with the Sedins and Kesler rolling.

Danny--so right on the forward depth. Canucks 3rd line has been outstanding since the Nashville series. Torres has figured things out and Hansen is unreal. You wait...you probably have not seen much of the Danish Dash. This kid is unreal with the hustle and desire. You will hate him because of it being the final, but man you would love to have him. Then if the Nucks do get Malhotra back from the injury the advantage will be minimal on 3-4 lines. And the Canucks only use 3. 4th line gets about 4 minutes. 2 shifts in P 1 and 1 in P2, Occasionally 1 in P3. That is all. So...don't expect the depth to matter. Normally I would be worried about a 3 line team in the Stanley Cup final, but with 5 games in 25 days..this team is not tired.

Boston has the best dman in the series, Canucks have the best group of D. Chara. Bieksa is right now the Canucks top dman. Been outstanding. Again you will hate him in this series but love him as a player.
Canucks have the top 2 forwards in the series, maybe top 3. Sedin, Sedin, Kesler are better than anything Boston has.
In goal--Luongo is technically better obviously..interesting to watch how things go down though here. Both are inconsistent.
Coaching-CAnucks hands down.
Special teams-Canucks hands down (The idea that the special teams thing can change when you are playing against the #1 PP in the league and the #3 PK in the league...hard to really stomach Danny--in small samples strange things happen though.) TRAFFIC TO LUONGO...only way.

[philou21]

Lou is probably the only thing that worry me in the Canucks team. What version of Luongo are we going see??? Though he never have a let down for more than 1 or 2 game and came back stronger after. Thomas is able to do that too. Thomas worry me, when he is in top shape, he is almost invincible ( even with his weird style of play ) so I'm wondering how the hell the Nucks are going to beat him. With their speed?

[Danny]

Heh. Yeah that was some list of flaws. How in god's name did they even make the playoffs? Oh yeah, i forgot Florida, Carolina, Toronto, NY Islanders, New Jersey are all in their conference.

I think the one thing that may harm the Bruins the most is their skating. They have to be able to get there to make the hit. Not sure that they are going to be fast enough to play the way they need to against Vancouver to beat the CAnucks. The Canucks are an extremely mobile team. Chicago said they were surprised how much quicker the Canucks were this year, Nashville praised the speed (actually Trotz also annointed Kesler with the title of the new Mark Messier), and San Jose marvelled at the speed as well. Noone has kept up with them this season for any length of time. Let's see how it goes.

Interesting that Julien is poor at in game adjustments. VIgneault and Bowness are amazing at it. They juggle lines, juggle d pairs and change systems to get things that will work for that particular moment. The number of times one of those things can be credited with changing a negative outcome to a positive one is amazing. Just switching out one guy off a line has proved miraculous at times.

It will be one hell of a series. But it is not going to go 7. Boston either beats up Van and wins in 6 or Vancouver just totally outskates Boston. There is no in between.
Boston is going to need Chara to play 35 minutes with the Sedins and Kesler rolling.

Danny--so right on the forward depth. Canucks 3rd line has been outstanding since the Nashville series. Torres has figured things out and Hansen is unreal. You wait...you probably have not seen much of the Danish Dash. This kid is unreal with the hustle and desire. You will hate him because of it being the final, but man you would love to have him. Then if the Nucks do get Malhotra back from the injury the advantage will be minimal on 3-4 lines. And the Canucks only use 3. 4th line gets about 4 minutes. 2 shifts in P 1 and 1 in P2, Occasionally 1 in P3. That is all. So...don't expect the depth to matter. Normally I would be worried about a 3 line team in the Stanley Cup final, but with 5 games in 25 days..this team is not tired.

Boston has the best dman in the series, Canucks have the best group of D. Chara. Bieksa is right now the Canucks top dman. Been outstanding. Again you will hate him in this series but love him as a player.
Canucks have the top 2 forwards in the series, maybe top 3. Sedin, Sedin, Kesler are better than anything Boston has.
In goal--Luongo is technically better obviously..interesting to watch how things go down though here. Both are inconsistent.
Coaching-CAnucks hands down.
Special teams-Canucks hands down (The idea that the special teams thing can change when you are playing against the #1 PP in the league and the #3 PK in the league...hard to really stomach Danny--in small samples strange things happen though.) TRAFFIC TO LUONGO...only way.

Yes I'd say top 3 forwards in this series goes to the Nucks. I'm aware of Hansen and Torres. Still think the Briuins have got the advantage in bottom six forwards. We agree pretty much on special teams, one series is such a small sample size, who knows. More worried about the PK than the PP to be honest. Bruins have proven to be able to score in bunches 5 on 5. They would be able to win this series scoring at a 5% rate on the PP. But not if they're gonna kill at 75%.
Don't agree with B72 about Julien, and I'm not exactly a Julien guy, I think he's actually broken out of his shell this post season. I can't compare him to Vigneault though, I don't know enough about his coaching.

[Círyatan]

It's hockey night tonight!

Wooo!

Go Canucks Go!

[philou21]

[batdad]

BUrrows is an idiot. Boston may have lost the game, but now may win the series. He should be gone rest of year. Trust me I will be happy if he is not, but he should be. Biting, Hair pulling. Jesus.

All season long the Canucks have stopped the garbage stuff..no yapping, no stupidity. Tonight...Boston had them back at it. ONly Kesler stayed out of it. Burrows back to idiocy. Daniel and Henrik getting in scrums. All stuff they know better than to do. God, Lapierre was calm compared to those two.

Daniel and Henrik could not get their cycle going, the direction reverse along boards and in end zone not working against Chara. His reach too long. Tap backs not working because of it. That and Burrows impending suspension spells trouble. No Samuelsson to come in and play with them. Hansen is the only option. But he plays much better when has the puck and uses speed. Like tonight. Not in the cycle game. It will hurt the Canucks to play him with the twins. Higgins maybe. None are a good option though.

Boston D--Soooooooo slow. Backing in all night because Hansen, Raymond, Kesler, Lapierre, Tambellini (on his two shifts) scared the rubbish out of them. Burrows too. Too fast for them. This backing in let the Canucks in to set up. It was ALL NIGHT LONG. Seidenberg on that Kesler play looked like a novice hockey player. Stood and watched him.

Thomas--UNBELEIVABLE.
Luongo--Add him to the Canucks Conn Smythe candidates.

Boston PP-You guys are screwed. Chara in front of the net is hideous. He has no clue what to do or how to do it. CBC was all over him. He should be on hte point. But Cam Neely is loving having him in front of the net and said as much in 2nd intermission. He has to go to the point and blast away. Blow up Kesler, Burrows, Hansen, Raymond, Higgins, Lapierre. That will slow them down. A bad leg from blocking a 120 mile per hour shot. Horrible strategy.....ESPECIALLY SINCE BOSTON HAS MILAN FREAKING LUCIC. Since when is he not good enough to play the front of the net on the FIRST UNIT. Why the hell is he not on it? Wow. And Bergeron too. If on the point...why is he not taking the draws? Recchi did until the last one. Get Bergeron on the 1st unit with Krecji, Horton, Lucic and on the point Bergeron and Chara. Bergeron takes draw then switches with Krecji to wall. Lucic in front, Horton high slot or down low. Freaking dumb what they are doing now. Kaberle is hideous.

all this talk about Boston and 5x5 being better than Van. What a load of rubbish. Canucks were at least as good 5x5 tonight. Both PPs sucked. Both PKs were average but up against PPs that looked slow and thought slow tonight.

I have no idea how..but some how it was actually a fun game to watch. Lots of mistakes follwed by great saves.

My 3 stars without including goalies who were obviously 1-2.

Hansen
Bergeron
Kesler

[Danny]

It was a weird game. I pretty much agree with that post. Chara infront of the net has never worked, ever. Burrows being an idiot is nothing new, I'm not sure I'd even suspend him for one game though. I'd fine the hell out of him but that's that. Of course the CBA won't allow higher fines than 2500 $ without a suspension.
At this point I'd like to see Kampfer in the line up. Can't be any worse than Kaberle, and he's their best D skater.

[philou21]

That was a nice game! Good goalie matchup. If it wasn't from Thomas the Nucks would have scored 3 goals in the first 5 minutes and when Batdad was saying the Nucks are quick, holy cow this is true. Some good hits too, that was a nice playoffs game. I agree with Batdad though, what the hell Burrows was thinking?

[batdad]

Saying here that Burrows should get 1 game. I totally disagree. Although he has been real good this season...no agitating, no diving, no chirping, no stupidity...he has a history. Pulling Duncan Keith's hair, all kinds of stuff. I think he should get at least 4. Even though it was mild at best, and I mean...what do you do when someone sticks their hand in your mouth? But Alex has to know better. Really does.

Danny-Unfortunately for you and Boston fans, Cam Neely was pretty high on Chara in front of the net. I think he is out to lunch on it, but if the brass wants it...the brass gets it. Going to hurt the B's.

Can I just say again...Jannik Hansen...freaking outstanding. WOndering if that last 30 seconds was finally a sign from AV that he is sick and tired of Raymond not getting the job done with Kesler. Finally. Higgins-Kesler-Raymond not working. I hope we see Torres-Kesler-Hansen in game two. Or maybe Higgins-Kesler-Hansen. Raymond does not belong there. Nor does he belong with the twins. He has not yet figured out that he has to go hard to the net, and battle...not just skate fast up and down the wing. Great for a 3 line or 4 line guy. But not so good for a 2nd liner.

[Danny]

Bruins PP strategy was mind boggling at times during the season. They also tried Recchi on the point for a while. Seguin and Marchand need more PP time, and Recchi needs more pressbox time. Call up Caron.

[Loosie]

No suspension for Burrows. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=367657. Probably due to the fact that the ref said that Bergeron put his finger in Burrows mouth.

[batdad]

Stupid. NHL. Cheering for Nucks but the lil biter should have been suspended. I admire Burr for the accomplishments he has had. He is a never give up guy. But dang...now I am back to thinking about hair pulling, slew footing, whining to refs, and stupidity. All stuff I thought was pretty much gone from the Nucks room. They have 3 more wins to get. I hope to god they can control themselves. This city was so much fun last February and it will be at least as fun if the Nucks pull it off. I look forward to happy Vancouverites, and don't want idjit actions like Burrows biting to spoil it.

[racicot]

I do think Burrows can be a bit of a puke, however, I feel if that warrants a suspension then the NHL has it's priorities all wrong.

Hits to the head, clipping, slashes, shooting the puck directly at a player with no time on the clock (re 2007 Stanley Cup final); these are all things that deserve a second look. They are plays where player safety is a serious concern and require an inquiry for supplemental discipline.

A bite through a glove that was shoved in a guy's face? Sure it's a weasel move, but let's be honest, little kids do that in the playground and they don't even get a slap on the wrist. I repeat, it was through a glove, so there is absolutely no way that could hurt in the least.

[Danny]

Bergie day to day with rabies
I agree racicot, if headshots get you two games it would seem a travesty to suspend guys for stuff like that, as stupid as it is.

[bruins72]

Blah! Too busy at work to get on TBL and talk about this until today.

Despite the Bruins loss, I enjoyed the game. It had me on the edge of my seat. Great performance by both goalies. I think Vancouver had the better scoring chances though. Of course, the Bruins PP was in effective. Early on in the first PP of the game I thought they moved the puck well but they couldn't score on the double minor (4 minutes of PP time) or the 5-3 they had later. You need to score in those situations! I totally hear you guys on Chara up front but I they're throwing him up there because nothing else seems to have worked. Honestly, I think they need to put Chara back on the point on the PP but they shouldn't pair him with Kaberle like they did in the earlier series. It became too predictable. Puck goes back to Kaberle and he passes it to Chara for a slap shot. EVERY TIME! Teams knew how to play against it! Another problem with the PP is the personnel up front. They've given Recchi too much PP time. I like Recchi but he's just not that effective right now. He's showing his age. Seguin should be out there instead.

I thought Burrows biting Bergeron was bush-league but I'm not going to whine about it and I'm not too upset that they didn't suspend him. He's a punk and everyone knows it. Hopefully it will get the Bruins fired up instead. I'm just excited for tomorrow's game.

[Loosie]

Honestly, I think they need to put Chara back on the point on the PP but they shouldn't pair him with Kaberle like they did in the earlier series. It became too predictable. Puck goes back to Kaberle and he passes it to Chara for a slap shot. EVERY TIME! Teams knew how to play against it!

See: PP pairing of Kaberle/McCabe that worked for half a season back in 05/06. Exact same thing. It worked for a while. was in fact the hotest pairing until teams realized it 'Kaberle to McCabe, one-timer by McCabe GOAL!' either directly in or rebound/tip-in. Then teams started to get someone in between the two and the PP fizzled as did the Leafs.

[Círyatan]

Despite the Bruins loss, I enjoyed the game. It had me on the edge of my seat.

Same here! I probably woke my neighbours when they finally scored, it was 5am around here already. There were maybe too many penalties to really allow the play to flow, but it was an enjoyable game nevertheless.

Yeah, Burrows should have known better than that, I really thought he's grown up and got rid of those antics... The guys need to stay focused, no need for this kind of Kasparaitis. I really do hope Hamhuis will be back for game 2 though, would be a shame if he didn't.

[bruins72]

There were maybe too many penalties to really allow the play to flow, but it was an enjoyable game nevertheless.

I agree! This was a big change from game 7 of the Bruins/Lightning series where there weren't any penalties called.

[batdad]

Difference between that game and this one. Game 7 vs Game 1. Players always have to be told where the line is. The line was drawn by a good set of referees. I mean really...were any of those not penalties? The boys made it really obvious where the line is. I actually thought the striped ones did a very good job. Usually I can say "What the Dickens? THat wasn't a penalty. Or What the Dickens? Why was that not called?" In this game...I never really did, save maybe the Timmeh Thomas dive.
EVerything that was called was a clear, very clear violation of the rules, and in a game 1...you call it. Show the boys the line. Game 2-3-4-5-6 and maybe 7 will be that much the better for it.

For 2 teams who have only played 3 times in the last 4 years they sure got a hate-on fast. Must have something to do with Lapierre.

This is going to be a fun hard played series.

Burrows better quickly get back to the way he played this season. He just added another 2 years to his reputation of being a punk a$$ beeyotch. It will take him forever to get rid of it any way.


OH and since nobody seems to hear me:: WATCH JANNIK HANSEN! WOW!!!!

[archibalduk]

I totally missed the second half of the season and indeed most of the Playoffs this season - I've simply not had the spare time to watch the games for various reasons (and I hate watching the basic goal highlights online - I wish there were an extended highlights show online). I managed to catch some of the Tampa Bay series, but mostly it's been a case of reading the game summaries over the past few months.

I can't purport to be a die-hard Bruins fan, but they have been "my team" for a decade or so and I'll be gutted if they don't make it all the way. My gut feeling however is that the Canucks are going to edge this one. Game 1 was a close contest but I feel that the Bruins' PP is going to be one of the decisive factors in the series.