On May 18 2014 12:09 StarStruck wrote: To me Nash was always soft. -.-
I dont know why Nash was so popular. He was basically a shitty version of Taylor Hall drafted in 2002. He is Hall without the drive and will that makes Hall special.
It's the playoffs. Even your perfect Leafs team lies about injuries and has players play hurt. It's part of the "Hockey players are tough" mentality drilled into the players since they were kids.
It's the playoffs. Even your perfect Leafs team lies about injuries and has players play hurt. It's part of the "Hockey players are tough" mentality drilled into the players since they were kids.
dude, its sarcasm,
the leafs have hidden 3 Reimer concussions including the time Carlyle claimed Reimer hurt his shoulder and 2 minutes later the same reporter listen to Reimer complain about a headache and experiencing the "bell rung" feeling after getting hit in LA.
The Leafs' GM Pat Quinn invented the term "upper body injury" in 1999.
On May 17 2014 01:08 xDaunt wrote: For those who missed it, Sharks GM Doug Wilson held a conference call yesterday in which he very strongly signaled that he's going to trade Thornton, and maybe Marleau. Apparently there are some windows in their NMCs that will let him do it.
Strongly signaled, wut? All he said is that they're aiming for a younger team with Pavelski, Couture, Vlasic, Hertl being the core. Thornton and Marleau not being part of the core means that he's open for trades, but it doesn't mean that he will actively try to get rid of them. To me it sounded more like he's changed priorities, his main focus, from focusing on a present cup run to a future cup run (when Couture and Vlasic are semi-veterans, and Hertl has filled out his shoes).
That doesn't mean that he's going to trade them. It just means they're expendable. I sincerely hope that Burns's move back to D means that they realize that the team has a huge hole in terms of offensive capacity on the blueline, and with minor adjustments, the team will still be a decent contender, so there's no way that he would let those two guys go for almost nothing, unless cap space is really needed to land someone long term, which I can't see happening right now, since Havlat and Boyle should free up a lot of space, but that might change.
I really don't get why some ppl are treating Thornton and Marleau as if they were the plague, as if any two players of similar status would have given this team a cup.
Hopefully Nash scoring gets him finishing finally. He's been getting looks all playoffs, most shots on the team, playing 100%, but just hasn't been converting. The rest of the team seems on point. Kreider getting going is huge because when he is on he is probably the best forechecker and that's important for them. He makes his line way faster, and his ability to muck it up in the corners and hit the front of the net is big.
Brassard is supposedly day to day, which is also really important. That Pouliot-Brassard-Zuccarello line just absolutely dominates possession, and being able to roll three 1-a-b-c lines is huge. The Habs top 4 on defense is solid, but that 3rd pairing is a couple notches down, especially if that asswhooping causes therrien to have a brain fart and play Murray again. Having a third line that is a big time threat every time they hit the ice is gonna be the difference maker, especially in a series between two defensive orientated teams. Moore played great, but he obviously isn't gonna bring that every night and I'd much rather have him on the fourth with Boyle because they play well together and they're really solid together in their own end.
On May 18 2014 12:09 StarStruck wrote: To me Nash was always soft. -.-
I dont know why Nash was so popular. He was basically a shitty version of Taylor Hall drafted in 2002. He is Hall without the drive and will that makes Hall special.
On May 17 2014 01:08 xDaunt wrote: For those who missed it, Sharks GM Doug Wilson held a conference call yesterday in which he very strongly signaled that he's going to trade Thornton, and maybe Marleau. Apparently there are some windows in their NMCs that will let him do it.
Strongly signaled, wut? All he said is that they're aiming for a younger team with Pavelski, Couture, Vlasic, Hertl being the core. Thornton and Marleau not being part of the core means that he's open for trades, but it doesn't mean that he will actively try to get rid of them. To me it sounded more like he's changed priorities, his main focus, from focusing on a present cup run to a future cup run (when Couture and Vlasic are semi-veterans, and Hertl has filled out his shoes).
That doesn't mean that he's going to trade them. It just means they're expendable. I sincerely hope that Burns's move back to D means that they realize that the team has a huge hole in terms of offensive capacity on the blueline, and with minor adjustments, the team will still be a decent contender, so there's no way that he would let those two guys go for almost nothing, unless cap space is really needed to land someone long term, which I can't see happening right now, since Havlat and Boyle should free up a lot of space, but that might change.
I really don't get why some ppl are treating Thornton and Marleau as if they were the plague, as if any two players of similar status would have given this team a cup.
Because there is a perception of gutlessness that hounds them. Everytime there is a major game they appear to viewers as relatively invisible. I hope the Sharks dont do something as retarded as trade for Letang as some are speculating.
And yes, Nash was always overrated. Another wasted talent who spent his formative years on a badly run team, watch out Oiler's fans because that might be your future too.
this NBC broadcast is ok at best. Rogers will easily be able to improve on it next year. Its a shame TSN or CBC isn't doing this game.
Nice goal by LA taking advantage of some confusion on the Chicago bench. I wonder if QUenneville being super pissed about the disallowed goal contributed to the flubbed line change?
if we orthogonally diagonlize the matrix containing the corsi of each Black Hawks player and solve for the eigenvector we see that the eigenvalue predicts the Chicago BLack Hawks poor line change and this creates a positive ratio of LA players in front the Chicago net...
nice deflection by Stoll, and i can hear Cherry pontificating tomorrow night about .. "lay down and block it or get the fuck out of hte way"
On May 19 2014 03:42 Sub40APM wrote: Because there is a perception of gutlessness that hounds them. Everytime there is a major game they appear to viewers as relatively invisible. I hope the Sharks dont do something as retarded as trade for Letang as some are speculating.
I love this infographic that was put out after Roenick repeatedly calling out 'gutless' Patrick Marleau. It's all perception, I guess. Once the mob gets going, it's hard to reach them with logic =(
On May 17 2014 01:08 xDaunt wrote: For those who missed it, Sharks GM Doug Wilson held a conference call yesterday in which he very strongly signaled that he's going to trade Thornton, and maybe Marleau. Apparently there are some windows in their NMCs that will let him do it.
Strongly signaled, wut? All he said is that they're aiming for a younger team with Pavelski, Couture, Vlasic, Hertl being the core. Thornton and Marleau not being part of the core means that he's open for trades, but it doesn't mean that he will actively try to get rid of them. To me it sounded more like he's changed priorities, his main focus, from focusing on a present cup run to a future cup run (when Couture and Vlasic are semi-veterans, and Hertl has filled out his shoes).
That doesn't mean that he's going to trade them. It just means they're expendable. I sincerely hope that Burns's move back to D means that they realize that the team has a huge hole in terms of offensive capacity on the blueline, and with minor adjustments, the team will still be a decent contender, so there's no way that he would let those two guys go for almost nothing, unless cap space is really needed to land someone long term, which I can't see happening right now, since Havlat and Boyle should free up a lot of space, but that might change.
I really don't get why some ppl are treating Thornton and Marleau as if they were the plague, as if any two players of similar status would have given this team a cup.
Because there is a perception of gutlessness that hounds them. Everytime there is a major game they appear to viewers as relatively invisible. I hope the Sharks dont do something as retarded as trade for Letang as some are speculating.
And yes, Nash was always overrated. Another wasted talent who spent his formative years on a badly run team, watch out Oiler's fans because that might be your future too.
Marleau always performs in the playoffs and he was their best forward in this series. Marleau also has the most playoff goals among all the current NHL players, so he is certainly not a choker.
The thing about Thornton is that he's been carrying the team offensively for so long. This makes the team very predictable. The PP haven't really changed throughout the years. They still rely on Thornton holding the puck and setting up players in front of the net. They used to be a team that made the top 3 in PP every year, but it always dropped in the playoffs when they faced opponents who had scouted them thoroughly, and the last 2-3 years it has dropped significantly, even in the regular season. They are too predictable, and it's time that they get back to the basics. Other teams rely a lot more on blueline presence, and that's the direction I think they need to go. The reason why they haven't fixed this hole yet is probably because it never seemed necessary, because Thornton had that ability to create chances anyway. This may not be the case anymore, because many teams have studied their PP and they have fairly effective ways of dealing with it. LA just had to take out Pavelski and Marleau in front of the net, and it crippled the PP. What SJ had to do in response is to fire more shots, slap shots preferably. The problem is that the team doesn't have the tools for that kind of play. And it's not that the current style of making passes to players in front of the net is useless. The problem is that if you only play one way, you become predictable. Replacing Thornton with another forward on the PP will not save this teams PP, in fact it will make it worse. The real issue lies on the blueline.