NHL Season 08-09

[Brill Weave]

Honestly with the way that punch looked I wouldn't be surprised. He unloaded a bomb on him. Ward's a pretty good defenseman too, with him missing time I wonder who Boston is going to toss in.

[Gadritan]

Yeah. I'd almost feel bad if he can't play in the next game. Almost.

[Brill Weave]

Even if the Caps manage to win tonight, I may take my wife out to dinner during game 7 just to reward her for dealing with all the shouting and crying I've been doing in the last few weeks.

Jesus Christ truer words have never been spoken. It's amazing she even watches hockey with me.

[Gadritan]

Shit. My woman bought us the tickets for game 3 in the next series. She's as bad as I am when it comes to sports, lol.

[Bregor]

Shit. My woman bought us the tickets for game 3 in the next series. She's as bad as I am when it comes to sports, lol.

^ This. My girlfriend was always an avid baseball fan, but knew little to nothing about hockey as of a year ago. Between last year's series with the Flyers, and this season/postseason, she's now the proud owner of a Mike Green jersey and yells louder than I do. :D

[Absolutely Virtue]

My wife will get pretty fired up about the Redskins and Nationals, and she has a frightening crush on Caron Butler of the Wizards, but she just can't get into hockey, no matter how hard I try. I took her to a game, no dice. I bought a gigantic TV so she can actually see the puck, still nothing.

I think part of the problem is that hockey games are just more nerve-wracking than other games, especially in the playoffs. So I'm a fucking wreck all spring. I mean hell, the game doesn't start for three hours and I already have a stomach ache.

[Sepukku]

I need 12-24 hours to come down from this without breaking valuable electronics / living creatures bones, hold on.

[Ivaden]

With the exception of goaltending, we've outplayed the Capitals this entire series. Going into game seven, Capitals are going to think "all we need to do is play the same as Monday," while we think, "we're going to have to play better." Fleury usually bounces back from a shitty game with a huge game, so I'm not too concerned. This has been some of the best hockey I've watched ever, which isn't saying much since I started watching it last year, but I'm sure long time fans can agree.

Biggest factor in tonight's loss? Hal Gill. You don't get yourself stuck behind your goalie you big fucking retard. Believe me, I know, I've done it in NHL 09 a few times (lol @ bringing that up). Which makes me wonder what next year's defense is going to look like. I don't see Gill returning, and I see Goligoski up full-time.

Gonchar - Orpik
Scuderi - Eaton
Letang - Goligoski

?

I don't like the idea of Letang with Goligoski until one of them gets a tad better in their own end, but I don't really see them fitting anywhere else, either.

[KoalaTrap]

No suspension. Just a $2,500 fine.

Really surprised about no suspension. Tbh he shoulda got a 4-5 game one. Was cheap and dangerous and injured him.

All said, hope the 'Canes realize they still have to work to win in the playoffs against quality opponents and come back strong tomorrow night.

Tonight's games have both been good so far tonight. Caps stole it tonight with Fleury's off night and awesome deflect goal to win in OT!

btw I might have to get a Jokinen 'Canes jersey after this run. I can't be rocking my K. Primeau #55 Whaler Jersey to RBC.


Edit: this 3rd period in Chi/Van is absolutely crazy.. must be so fun to be a Chicago fan in house right now. Seven goals on Luongo is crazy. Kane's little fake on the 7th goal was so pretty.

[Gadritan]

All said, hope the 'Canes realize they still have to work to win in the playoffs against quality opponents and come back strong tomorrow night.

Canes have won 16 of the past 18 games at home. Tomorrow's game is at the RBC center.

[Rhinox]

Fuck yeah! blackhawks win 7-5

Patrick Kane with a Hat trick

Bring on Detroit

[Ishido]

Man Luongo is fucking clutch, 4.00 GAA in the series and .766 SV% in the last game.

[Selamis]

Fuck yeah! blackhawks win 7-5

Patrick Kane with a Hat trick

Bring on Detroit

Anaheim*

Though truthfully, no bigger test than if we get Detroit....if the Hawks can beat Detroit, not a single person can say that our success has been a fluke or say we got lucky.

[Ishido]

As a Wings fan who lived in Chicago for most of my life and have a lot of friends who are Hawks fans I don't think it's really a fluke. It's happening a season or few before I expected it, but Kane and Toews are great young players. With a supporting cast around them I think the Wings coasting to Central division titles will soon end.

If they end up facing the Wings I think it could be a very high scoring series and will likely be at least 6 games.

[Selamis]

I'm not saying it's a fluke by any means, but you know somewhere that someone is gonna say "Oh, the Hawks got lucky getting to the conference finals." If they can beat, or at the least get to 6/7 games against the Wings, people (in other markets) would have to respect everything they've done this year, in my opinion.

Being a person who can say that he was at Blackhawk games when the United Center had 7,000 or 8,000 as the max attendance years ago, and sticking with his team through thick and thin, I couldn't be any more proud than I am now for the effort that Dale Talon and Rocky Wirtz have put into this team, as well as the players. Even if the Hawks don't make it to the Cup Finals, getting to where they did this season after years of meaningless hockey is amazing. We missed the playoffs last year by 3 points but no way woulda made it past the first round had we gotten into the playoffs.

Hopefully we'll start seeing some good hockey in the Central in the next few seasons, where it won't be a given that Detroit is going to win it. At one point in time towards the end of the season, all five teams in the Central had playoff spots, I personally wished that it would have stayed that way but oh well.

Just realized too, Hawks were the first team to advance to the next round lol....hopefully there isn't too much of a layoff that could lead to some rust.

[Palin]

Khabibulin has been letting in a lot of really soft goals, but the Offense bail him out. He'll need to step it up if he wants to face Detroit; Hawks probably shouldn't be this far with how sloppy they've been playing.

[Brill Weave]

Good lord I was screaming about Hal Gill last night. Two horrible defensive plays resulting in two goals. Good job Hal. First you let Laich park his ass in front of the net on a powerplay and you don't even attempt to box him out. Then as if that wasn't bad enough you try to cut behind Fleury, impeding his progress. That's like fucking midget hockey. That's one of the first things they tell you, don't interfere with your own goalie. Terrible terrible plays by a veteran who should know better.

And holy shit did the zebras make a mockery of that game on both sides. It seems like the officiating has been slowly getting worse for everyone involved. Sigh. Now we wait until Wednesday and do it all over again.

[Bregor]

With the exception of goaltending, we've outplayed the Capitals this entire series. etc etc.

I agree with that in principle, especially since game three. But this is how the Caps play, they take risks and try to out-score and out-finesse everyone for the full 60 minutes. So when things are going bad, a la Green and Semin (before last night's game) they just seem lost. But when they're clicking, they're scary. It's been a recipe for success in the regular season, but obviously playoff hockey is a little different. Win or lose tomorrow, hopefully Boudreau learns from this series, like how to save his goalie from facing 30+ shots every night and protecting a lead.

Anyway, I was not looking forward to last night's game. I thought we were toast for sure, and after Letang's goal I pretty much assumed the fetal position. They could have easily just punted and gotten their golf clubs ready, but they really got after it in the Pens zone and gutted out the win. I expected Semin to play better but Kozlov coming alive surprised me. But he does this, he'll disappear for weeks on end and then unleash some really nasty goals. And what was Hal Gill doing? No one was driving the net to clear out, how do you get caught behind Fleury like that? Also, about one minute before the penalty on Laich at the end of regulation, there was a missed interference call on the Pens, but I didn't care since I figured they put the whistle away. Then after they got Laich, I broke my headphones. Oops.

The worst part of this series is, all the uninformed Caps fans, in their media hype-driven desire to hate Crosby, are missing the fact that he's an exceptional talent. They did it last year in the Flyers series with Briere, as if Caps fans really yearn to single out one player to hate, but obviously Crosby's just on another level. He's shown me more power and skill around the net than I thought possible of him, and while I figured Malkin would be the difference maker, it really has been Ovie vs. Crosby as the driving force of the series. While I don't much care for him personality-wise, there's no denying his talent and production. I really hope the NHL doesn't get carried away with this, I'm tired of this "feud" and I wish they could really mimic the Bird vs. Magic dynamic; fierce competitors on the court but respectful and eventually friendly off of it.

[Brill Weave]

I wonder if Semin still thinks he's overrated after seeing him play for the last six games lol. Talk about your all time idiotic comments. But now we must entertain ourselves until tomorrow night

[Abraxas]

With the exception of goaltending, we've outplayed the Capitals this entire series. etc etc.

this is exactly how it was for the flyers/pens series too. and the flyers still lost.

i didnt get to watch hardly any of either game =(. i abandoned the entertainment center and decided to put the grill together so i caught the last 3 goals of the vancouver/chicago game and that was it.

id like to see anaheim beat the wings, but seeing detroit vs chicago would be an awesome series