Official 2013 NHL Playoff Thread

[B. Stinson]

By the way, on a more serious note, what exactly led to this situation? Is it simply that we signed him to one of those ridiculously long contracts, and Holmgren is just now realizing that that's not the best of ideas? I know I should know, but I've been losing interest in the NHL over the last couple of years, so I haven't been following too closely

[philou21]

Holmgren got the reputation of acting by panic a couple of times. When Bryz got on the UFA, he saw his chance to grab a #1 goalie and over-paid for him and got f......Bryz almost won the Vezina and he had a really great season in 09-10 before joining Philly so maybe that's what triggered Holmgren reaction. But I've heard that Bryzgalov is one hell of a weird guy. His attitude was starting to be a problem in the room it seems.

[getzlaf15]

Holmgren got the reputation of acting by panic a couple of times. When Bryz got on the UFA, he saw his chance to grab a #1 goalie and over-paid for him and got f......Bryz almost won the Vezina and he had a really great season in 09-10 before joining Philly so maybe that's what triggered Holmgren reaction. But I've heard that Bryzgalov is one hell of a weird guy. His attitude was starting to be a problem in the room it seems.

Isn't being "weird" a pre-requisite of being a goalie? To stand in front of pucks for a living it definitely helps to be a little odd.

[philou21]

Kunitz signed a 3 year deal worth 3.85 millions per season. That's one cheap deal right there, nice deal for the Pens!

Lecavalier has been buy out by Tampa Bay.

[archibalduk]

Yesterday I finally had the chance to watch Game 6. Exams and house-hunting have gotten in the way of things and so I ended up being a couple of days behind the games.

Congrats to the Hawks. I really thought we were in with a good chance of winning after Game 3 and even when we were up 2-1 in Game 6. What a crazy ending to weird season.

I didn't really enjoy this season so much. I don't think the compressed schedule helped. It's always a struggle to keep up with an 82 game schedule, but with the compressed schedule it felt almost impossible.

[Primis]

I didn't really enjoy this season so much. I don't think the compressed schedule helped. It's always a struggle to keep up with an 82 game schedule, but with the compressed schedule it felt almost impossible.

Agreed. Even with no Center Ice (which I haven't subscribed to for a few years now) I generally still watch a lot of non-Red Wing games throughout the season, and that did not happen this season, even in the playoffs. And I've seen others who normally watch whatever hockey they can get comment elsewhere about this season not feeling "right" or "good".

There's also still a lot of bad blood over the lockout. The NHL was very fortunate that they had the markets go deep enough in the playoffs that they did, to help the TV ratings. Otherwise it could have been quite different. Imagine a ANA instead of CHI or DET, or OTT instead of PIT or BOS, and I think there'd have been a pretty big ratings hit for the late rounds.

[nino33]

The season didn’t feel right/good to me either.

I’ve actually been a bit more aware of/watched more (NHL) hockey each year the last few years.
I think my enjoyment of my TBL involvement (things like helping with the TBL Rosters, Hockey Pools/Challenges, following user posts) is the primary reason I'm watching/following more again