Official 2013 NHL Playoff Thread

[XenHL]

Well I honestly wasn't expecting the Wings to win. I like Kronwall, but when he's your top defenceman...?

I do remember when the Wings were pretty bad, but that was loooong ago...

Round 2? Chicago. Ouch. I'm going to hope otherwise, but I expect Hawks in 5.

[philou21]

I think the Wings can give a great opposition to the Hawks. Though, I'm still freaking mad that they passed the first round I hate this team so much!!!!!!!!!!!


I'm not sure if I want the Leafs to win, I don't like the team but I'm curious at the same to see where they could end up.

[Primis]

Well I honestly wasn't expecting the Wings to win. I like Kronwall, but when he's your top defenceman...?

Round 2? Chicago. Ouch. I'm going to hope otherwise, but I expect Hawks in 5.

Kronwall is fine as a top pairing guy. Back when he and Stuart were DET's 2nd pairing it was said they would have been a good 1st pairing on many teams. Big problem is that there is nobody legitimately that can claim they are top pairing with him. Ericsson has been, and... he's a 2nd pairing guy at best. DET has a glut of 3-6 d-men at the moment.

I don't even know. Literally ANYTHING could happen in the CHI-DET series. CHI should theoretically roll over an inexperienced team that turns the puck over and can't score reliably. But they played each other 4 times this season, they whacked DET once real good, then went to OT/SO what, 3 other times? And DET had no real business bouncing ANA either so.... *shrug*... your guess is as good as mine or anyone else's.

[philou21]

Well Bruins are likely done now except if a miracle happen. I should stop speaking that fast haha That miracle happened.

Rags are leading 2-0 in the beginning of the second. Doesn't look like the Caps can do something, Lundqvist seems on fire.

3-0.

[philou21]

Wow what a dramatic win by Boston! I think the experience in playoffs helped the Bruins over the Leafs in the last minutes of the game. Leafs are still young and inexperienced but hats off to them, they gave a nice opposition. They're gonna be a team to watch next year sure.

Rags are leading 4-0 now. Don't think the Caps can pull out something like Boston did.

[Danny]

Another 2 years off of my lifetime expectation.
Can I sue the NHL ?

Bs are gonna get eaten by Rags if they play like in the first round.

[XenHL]

darn you, Leafs, darn you. You get a Habs fan rooting for you, and you do this to her? Grr, back to the dislike list with you!

That "performance" in blowing a 3 goal lead late in the game reminded me of some of my EHM teams, heh...

Ah well, I've still got the Wings!

[philou21]

Bs are gonna get eaten by Rags if they play like in the first round.

Rangers didn't played that well too, Lundqvist did. Their big cannons don't do a darn thing so far, Richards on the fourth line..sounds like Gabo a little bit. Nash two assists. Stepan only 2 goals no assists. Del Zotto 2 pts and I can go on and on about them. At least Boston have some players that did the job like Krejci and Bergeron. Deceptions so far are Seguin and Marchand. The last one did well on the run for the cup two years ago. Yesterday he was trying to annoy the Leafs like he always do but offensively it was....ordinary I would say. Rask was really good, even yesterday IMO. Most of the goals were impossible saves to do. I expect a thight series and I hope both goalies will deliver it.

That "performance" in blowing a 3 goal lead late in the game reminded me of some of my EHM teams, heh...

Ha ha, that would be too easy to joke about that since it's the Leafs but seriously....They did really well overall in 7 games, what killed them yesterday was their lack of experience in playoffs IMO. Which is something the Bruins have. They stayed calm even if they were losing 4-1 and when they scored to make it 4-2, the Leafs panicked. 4-2 is still a good lead but the Leafs looked like they got nervous and forgot how to play. Then the Bruins took the advantage of that. I hope in Toronto that the fans will not start bashing only on Reimer though, the guy has been awesome in most of the games, he just lack experience like most of the team.

[Danny]

Man, the Hawks seems unbeatable.

[philou21]

They played a freaking good game yesterday. They are impressive to watch!

[Danny]

They played a freaking good game yesterday. They are impressive to watch!

That's the thing though, do you think they were even close to 100% ? Because I don't think so. Still room for improvement left, and they pretty much outclassed the Wings in every aspect of the game, first 12-15 minutes aside. They're like the Pens with competent D and G. But nowhere near as annoying to watch as the Pens.

[XenHL]

If the Wings don't manage to upset the Hawks (and I'd give up a kidney to see that happen!), Chicago will win the cup.

[Danny]

So Raffi is gone for the remainder of the series, which will be 3-6 games. Not too sure about that one, and I hate Torres.

[XenHL]

I detest that guy. I hated having to share a city with him.

[philou21]

So Raffi is gone for the remainder of the series, which will be 3-6 games. Not too sure about that one, and I hate Torres.

The fact he did this before wanted or not probably didn't helped him. Can't say I'm mad though I hate him too.

[nino33]

Really enjoyed watching game 1 of the Rangers-Bruins series tonight...good game!

[CeeBee]

I don't really hate Raffi tho I don't like him either but it was a totally bogus suspension.... If it was Lucic, Marchand, Nash, Dustin Brown etc. it would not have been any suspension at all. For a repeat gut 2 games would have probably been too much. There have been way worse hits in this years playoffs that got no penalty or suspension..... Sorta like the O.T. penalty to Sedin. There probably were 10 hits like Sedins in the Boston-Toronto series that didn't get any penalty at all. The reffing and league discipline committee are absolutely terrible but I'm guessing that Bettman is really liking the way things are going. Bos, NY, LA, CHI..... yup, life is good in NY(head office)

[philou21]

Torres is a recedivist, so that doesn't help him at all. Also, after watching the replay, we can clearly see him lift his shoulder at the last second to hit Stoll. His feet still touch the ground BUT he clearly tried to hit him hard by doing that. To me this is well deserved.

[jesusrocks150]

After the first round headache the Isles gave the Pens, I was a little worried about the series with the Sens. I watched game 1 the other night and at times the Pens looked great - then at other times they looked lost. I think the game was actually a lot closer than the score led on...Hopefully the Pens can play a little more solid D tonight in game 2.

Looks like the Sharks are already toast in the West semis...maybe not though...

[philou21]

Gald to see you back after a 1 year and 8 months break.

[XenHL]

Re: Torres the suspension does kinda irk me because what did Gryba or what's his name get for Eller, 2 games? Should've been much more.

[philou21]

Gryba hit wasn't intentional IMO. Well at least the headshot wasn't. Eller got a suicide pass in the middle of the rink, Gryba was coming full speed to stop him and Eller had is head down. It would've been a big hit normally but it was more serious unfortunately. Two games is alright I think.

[XenHL]

Woot, go Wings! That goal by Filppula was niiiiiice.

[philou21]

That was just a lucky game, they're gonna go down soon enough.

[Primis]

That was just a lucky game, they're gonna go down soon enough.

So you think DET will drop both back in MI? I figure they'll maybe come out of Game 4 tied 2-2 and then it's a 3-game series, similar to how ANA played out. Them winning one in CHI was very important to it not being a short series. DET doesn't seem to view the series as a series, they just view it as individual games so they don't get too much momentum from a big win, but don't get too down after a big loss either. Maybe it's because of the younger guys this time around. That can be both good and bad.

DET's in Toews' head though, we know that now after the game with his comments and looking like he was about to cry.