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HO

LY

F***!

Vancouver is going to round 2! I'm glad to see the refs pretty much stayed out of everything but blatant penalties right in front of them. Let emotion, rather than rules, play the game without letting it overpower good gameplay.

Just found this thread. To update everyone: apparently Canucks don't totally suck.

Lets hope Vancouver can roll over the Preds...since they beat the 'hawks, they're my favorite team in the play-offs!

AHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I'm from Chicago, and I don't care at all about Hockey, but I made THE most hillarious joke at a bar which had the game on.

"Damn...they probably wish they would've lost earlier, huh?"

The whole room silences, looks at me, I leave.

Karon wrote:AHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I'm from Chicago, and I don't care at all about Hockey, but I made THE most hillarious joke at a bar which had the game on.

"Damn...they probably wish they would've lost earlier, huh?"

The whole room silences, looks at me, I leave.

Karon wrote:AHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I'm from Chicago, and I don't care at all about Hockey, but I made THE most hillarious joke at a bar which had the game on.

"Damn...they probably wish they would've lost earlier, huh?"

The whole room silences, looks at me, I leave.

That's supposed to be a joke?

He cracks himself up.

I do, I laughed the whole drive home.

mega_bassist wrote:Lets hope Vancouver can roll over the Preds...since they beat the 'hawks, they're my favorite team in the play-offs!

As numerous sportswriters have joked...

The only way Nashville could win is if they form a committee to discuss scoring

Vancouver tries to make things as difficult for themselves as possible. Don't be surprised if its another 7 game series.

The Bs knocked out the Habs. In OT. After coming back 2-0 in the seires. Awesome. Now the Bs are on their own without my significant cheering power behind them. Farewell in the second round, Bs. Farewell.

The Lightning in the second round might be a team to watch. They do have some super awesome amazing players. Like Rolly the Goalie.

I figure the teams that'll come out of the 2nd round are - Philly (that series between them and Buffalo was brutally awesome- I think the Bs revenge skills might not be up to the test.) Tampa- I want to say Washington, but Tampa has too many good players who know how to get the job done. Preds - wishful schadenfreude thinking here. Hopefully in 4. Sharks- Like Philly, I think the hard first series will give them a boost in teamwork over Detroit.

I expect to get only half right.

Karma for Montreal being a bunch of whiners about the Chara hit.

Khornholio wrote:The Bs knocked out the Habs. In OT. After coming back 2-0 in the seires. Awesome. Now the Bs are on their own without my significant cheering power behind them. Farewell in the second round, Bs. Farewell.

The Lightning in the second round might be a team to watch. They do have some super awesome amazing players. Like Rolly the Goalie.

I figure the teams that'll come out of the 2nd round are - Philly (that series between them and Buffalo was brutally awesome- I think the Bs revenge skills might not be up to the test.)

The Bruins are gonna take it if:

1. Thomas maintains

2. Lucic can actually show up: You can't have a 30 goal scorer invisible for an entire series like he was against the habs

3. Chara is truly back to 100% which he seemed to be.

4. They can at least accidentally score a power play goal once in a while (they are what 0-20 on the power play so far in the playoffs)

5. Thornton can be reminded to throw his weight around

6. We don't get stuck with the horrible official that blew multiple calls and let multiple Habs dives go last night... I havent seen that much diving since the summer olympics...

KamikazeCanuck wrote:Vancouver tries to make things as difficult for themselves as possible. Don't be surprised if its another 7 game series.

7? I'm going to go with 6. I know a lot of guys that're saying 5 games, but here's how I look at it - Nashville is a well rounded team - they don't have many superstars, and compared to Van, they lack an identifiable scoring line. That said, they finished the season with 99 points for a 4th place spot in the West. They're by no means a team to be ignored. They're just not a team that you find in the spotlight either.

Make no doubt, Nashville still has some fight in them, and they're well rounded. But they just don't excel anywhere. Watching them play, you get a feeling of a team who's motto is 'Jack of all trades, master of none'. Chicago had speed, experience, and a good offense on their side.

That's why I'm going to go with Van in 6. The Nucks have strong offense. They have a very organized playing style, but they aren't afraid to deviate from the plan if they need to. They have some strong D, but it can give out from time to time. Schneider has also secured Vigneault's confidence, and I'm sure we'll be seeing him again in round 2. Having a backup goalie you know you can count on is a HUGE strength in the playoffs.

Here's my prediction for Van in 6:

VAN
VAN
NSH
VAN
NSH
VAN

I enjoyed watching the Bs - games 4 and 5 were so sweet. I think all the stuff you say about them is true, but true for anyteam. Your 30 goal scorer guys have to pick up the pace and you need the nobodys to pot a few. I think Philly will do well in this area as Briere has been mashing the points. He has like almost 100 points in 94 playoff games. That's beast. They didn't really need Pronger either. Their goal tending is a bit meh and they went through the two goalies quite a bit. I think Boston has the better goal tending. But Defense, I don't know. In the Habs series it looked like the Bs would let the Habs walk in and take shots from point blank while all standing around watching. If they let Philly do that, then they might have to put Rask in net. Whoa. Not good.

Nashville excels at defense which is key in playoffs. They'll try to trap Van most likely.

Rask has a thin layer of dust on him at this point. I would be worried about that as well...

KamikazeCanuck wrote:Nashville excels at defense which is key in playoffs. They'll try to trap Van most likely.

Problem is, Nashville has one D line that I can see slowing the Nucks' down and that's Pekka Rinne's crew.

That's not enough though, when even the Canucks' 4th line has the ability to land goals against top D-teams.

Like I said, Van in 6. Nashville just doesn't have the offensive power they need, and they just don't excel at anything. Put enough pressure on Nashville's defense and it'll fall. And that's something Van does well, so long as their heads are in the game, and we don't get a chance replay of games 4 and 5.

metallifan wrote:

KamikazeCanuck wrote:Nashville excels at defense which is key in playoffs. They'll try to trap Van most likely.

Problem is, Nashville has one D line that I can see slowing the Nucks' down and that's Pekka Rinne's crew.

That's not enough though, when even the Canucks' 4th line has the ability to land goals against top D-teams.

Like I said, Van in 6. Nashville just doesn't have the offensive power they need, and they just don't excel at anything. Put enough pressure on Nashville's defense and it'll fall. And that's something Van does well, so long as their heads are in the game, and we don't get a chance replay of games 4 and 5.

Logic may be on your side but logic doesn't apply to the Canucks. I've learned being pessimistic about the Canucks is usually the way to go.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:

metallifan wrote:

KamikazeCanuck wrote:Nashville excels at defense which is key in playoffs. They'll try to trap Van most likely.

Problem is, Nashville has one D line that I can see slowing the Nucks' down and that's Pekka Rinne's crew.

That's not enough though, when even the Canucks' 4th line has the ability to land goals against top D-teams.

Like I said, Van in 6. Nashville just doesn't have the offensive power they need, and they just don't excel at anything. Put enough pressure on Nashville's defense and it'll fall. And that's something Van does well, so long as their heads are in the game, and we don't get a chance replay of games 4 and 5.

Logic may be on your side but logic doesn't apply to the Canucks. I've learned being pessimistic about the Canucks is usually the way to go.

In. 6. Games.

There's no reason to believe they'll be done sooner (And we hope not - Idleness leads to Heresy after all ), and Nashville just doesn't have the offensive strength needed to do any more than harass them a couple times until the obvious finish. Games 4 and 5 were obviously bad for the Canucks because they let themselves get confident - they weren't ready for a desperate Chicago to come back swinging. I think they'll make the same mistake in game 3 with Nashville because that's what they do.

Unlike Chicago though, the Canucks will have been there already. They'll catch themselves after game 3 for game 4 because they've already dealt with the consequences of getting comfy with a lead. Plus, as I said, Alain Vigneault is well aware of Schneider's ability to close the net up tighter than... well you get where I'm going there. The fact that the team can be comfortable with Schneider in net, even in a more intense environment, is really going to give them that boost they need to get by round 2.

Pessimist or not, it's hard to deny that their chances against Nashville are higher than they were against Chicago.

metallifan wrote:
Chicago had speed, experience, and a good offense on their side.

I thought Crawford was a good goalie, much more reliable than Luongo imo.

Cheesecat wrote:

metallifan wrote:
Chicago had speed, experience, and a good offense on their side.

I thought Crawford was a good goalie, much more reliable than Luongo imo.

There's that too. Mark Crawford looked like he was all there, every game. And it showed. With Louie, you could see when he was focused, and when he wasn't. But he came back strong in the end of game 6 and he had a solid performance in 7, and managed to wrap things up for the Canucks. But again, Vigneault didn't play Schneider until game 6. If Lou really flunks hard against Nashville, then they can put Schneider in net on the following game, and the Canucks can still play, confident that the guy in the back is ready and able to do his job too. As I've said a couple times now, confidence in both your starting goalie and your backup has a huge influence on whether your team is going on that ice ready to play mentally, or whether they're stepping out distracted by the question of whether or not the guy in net can hold his own if your opponent gets a breakaway.

metallifan wrote:

Cheesecat wrote:

metallifan wrote:
Chicago had speed, experience, and a good offense on their side.

I thought Crawford was a good goalie, much more reliable than Luongo imo.

There's that too. Mark Crawford looked like he was all there, every game. And it showed. With Louie, you could see when he was focused, and when he wasn't. But he came back strong in the end of game 6 and he had a solid performance in 7, and managed to wrap things up for the Canucks. But again, Vigneault didn't play Schneider until game 6. If Lou really flunks hard against Nashville, then they can put Schneider in net on the following game, and the Canucks can still play, confident that the guy in the back is ready and able to do his job too. As I've said a couple times now, confidence in both your starting goalie and your backup has a huge influence on whether your team is going on that ice ready to play mentally, or whether they're stepping out distracted by the question of whether or not the guy in net can hold his own if your opponent gets a breakaway.

In all fairness, Luongo had a lot less shots to block than Crawford in game 6 and 7 so it's a bit of an unfair comparison. Also, I'm not surprised to be seeing a lot of Canadian flags on this thread.

Maybe it's just me, but I thought having fewer shots to stop was a good thing

Again, it's why I think that's why it'll be Canucks in 6. Nashville will be hard pressed to be dropping shots on either Luongo -or- Schneider. Pekka Rinne on the other hand will be answering a lot of shots from the Sedins, Burrows, and Kesler. How many actually get past is another thing, because he's a solid goalie himself (And he's Finnish - we know how well they do fighting in ice and snow, right Russia? ). He's also, as I said, Nashville's strongest D-line because he's able to communicate well with the actual D line itself and tell them exactly where he wants them when the opposing team comes down the ice. A goalie that can co-ordinate like that is going to be tough to get through, but not impossible. Not when you have big offensive power like Vancouver.

metallifan wrote:Maybe it's just me, but I thought having fewer shots to stop was a good thing

Totally agree, there's a reason why hockey teams have a defense position.

@metallifan CORY Crawford! Pretty sure if mark was in net it would've been over in 4. Ah, who am I kidding still would have taken 7.

Yea I just realised I did that, but I'm really just too drunk to care

During the Vancouver intermission. Don Cherry talked about football.

Ok.. Semis prediction.... Flyers over the Caps in 6.

helgrenze wrote:Ok.. Semis prediction.... Flyers over the Caps in 6.

sorry, the Flyers arent playing Ovechkin this round.. I'm picking Boston over the Flyers, because those unis are piss ugly.

Like Mettalifan, I'm a Nucks fan, and while I hope its over in 4-5, I think it could realistically take 6.