Official Hockey discussion thread

It was a good deadline. You're right, the Habs probably won't resign Vanek, but a late 2nd round pick in a shallow year is a small price to pay, especially if he helps us towards the playoffs. We can probably move his signing rights for at least a 3rd back, anyway. Not much difference this year.

The Sabres have stockpiled a few picks though. Good on them.
 
St. Louis to the Rangers for Callahan, good for tampa, but why do the rangers continue to make stupid deals? St. Louis is 38, hardly in his prime. As for Luongo, I agree he is at least relieved, not to mention his family is based there.
 
Callahan had a gun to the Rangers' head on that one. He was going to walk at the end of the season and the Rangers weren't going to pay $7 million a year for a 50 point guy. Look how that worked out for the Leafs with Clarkson this year.
 
True, true. No matter, the Cup is going to Chicago again.

EDIT: Now here is something I'm excited about: Halak to Washington! Is he a Miller? a Quick? Well no, cuz he be Slovak not 'Murican, but as I previously sated, he is consistent, more importantly, consistantly good. So if anyting he stabilizes the position for the Caps enough to hope for a deep run, if anything finally cross the second round.
 
Last edited:
There have been some great games in the playoffs so far ... great win by the Hawks tonight. Hopefully they can wrap this up Sunday at home
 
And the Blues are done. I don't know that Halak could have done any better, but that's a shocking development in what was many people's #1 pick. I tend to believe that is a team breakdown, though, not just Miller...yet...it could be. There's your first real shocker of the playoffs, folks.
 
A loss in a series is always a team loss, but Miller did not play well at all ... especially compared to Crawford, who played great today keeping it 1-1 when St Louis fired off quality shot after quality shot.

The Hawks need to get something from the 4th line going forward ... or at least Versteeg, they cannot play the rest of the playoffs with 8 forwards.

Everyone seemed to pick the Blues after their deadline trades, but they really tanked at the end of the season and in the playoffs. If not for some last minute heroics in games 1 and 2, this could have been a sweep by Chicago.

Onto (probably) Colorado.
 
I didn't see more than one Blues-Chicago game, but the one I did see was very telling in that there were a lot more scoring chances for the Blackhawks than for the Blues. Both teams should have had a comparable defense, but the Blues were just giving it up. Halak, or another goalie, might have stolen some of those games, but I'm not entirely convinced it's just Miller - though he did let in some he should have saved.

I remain convinced that Crawford isn't a spectacular goalie. He is a very, very good goalie who is very, very good every night in front of a spectacular defense.
 
It was not entirely Miller, but for what they gave up for him, I have to think they were expecting Miller to be able to stand up an win a game or 2 in the series mainly due to his play. In this series you can say Crawford was the main reason Chicago won games 3 and 6. In game 6, the Blues outshot Chicago 17-3 in the second period getting good chance after good chance with no goals to show for it. In the 3rd period, Chicago got good chance after good chance and they put 4 in the net.

Perhaps the expectations were unfair, but Miller was supposed to lead them to the finals, not another first round exit and he was supposed to outplay good, but not great goalies like Crawford. But it ended up being Crawford who played great this series and Miller was on the lower end of good
 
Fair enough. I can appreciate the point. I hope they do not blame Miller too unfairly, though. He is (used to be?) a fantastic goalie.

Should be interesting to see how Chicago does in the next round. They're certainly turning into annual favourites. The Ducks are also through, and you have to expect they'll put up a hell of a fight should they meet Chicago in the third round.
 
Colorado, I am assuming they will beat Minnesota, is a tough test. The Hawks have had a hard time with them in the regular season the past 2 years. Beating them is no easy task, especially without home ice.

Miller is a free agent now ... I am not sure if St. Louis can bring him back with the cap. Which makes the trade even worse since it, and some of their other moves, were done as a one time shot to win the Cup.
 
Well, you can't blame them for pulling the trigger and trying, but you sure can suggest they made all the wrong moves. I definitely feel bad for the Blues GM, because, to be fair, they deserve better than that. Miller will land somewhere, but I don't know who the Blues have to work between their pipes so...
 
I don't blame them for making a run at the cup, on paper it looked like these moves made them a favorite to at least go deep in the playoffs. The problem generally is when you make these sort of short term moves, it sometimes puts the team behind the 8 ball with the cap and a depleted farm system.

I am sure they would have been happy to be like the Hawks were in 2000, win a cup and take a few years to reload. But now, they have no cup and might still need those few years to reload. I applaud them for taking a chance, they ended up with all the downside with none of the upside

What is eerie, last year they played the defending champs (Kings) in the first round, they year the defending champs (Hawks) in the first round

Results

Last postseason the Blues won Game 1 on a goal from Alex Steen (thanks to a horrid Jonathan Quick error). Game 1 this year? Steen scored in overtime (triple OT to be exact).

• In Game 2 last year the Blues won a one-goal game thanks to a game-winning goal from Barret Jackman. Game 2 this year? A one-goal game with the winning goal from none other than Jackman.

• For Game 3 the series shifted to the road and in each game the Blues were shut out. Just to make it a little weirder, each game the Blues outshot the opponent by nine.

• In Game 4 both years the Blues had a 3-2 lead in the third period only to wind up losing 4-3 in overtime. But it's OK, the Blues still have home-ice advantage.

• That brings us to Game 5. Last year the Kings took leads of 1-0 and 2-1 only to have Alex Pietrangelo score to send the game to overtime, assisted by Jaden Schwartz. In overtime the Kings scored for a 3-2 win. Sound familiar? On Friday night, the Blackhawks went up 1-0 and then later 2-1 before Pietrangelo scored to tie the game, assisted by Schwartz. The Blackhawks won in overtime, 3-2.



--- Game 6 is where it ended, this year a 5-1 loss, last year a 2-1 loss.
 
Yeah, I saw that on Twitter last night. Whaaaaaaaaaaaat. But lol.

Normally, I'm against rental players for the reason you suggest, unless it's a low-risk rental, such as Montreal's acquisition of Thomas Vanek this year (2nd rounder and a low-end prospect). But daaaaaaaaamn, some teams sell the farm for rentals.
 
Miller didn't do what they wanted him to, but the team asked him to change his style to better fit the Blues kind of game.
Bad idea in my opinion. You don't ask your goalie to master a new system in three weeks with that much on the line.
Makes you wonder if Hitchcock and the GM were on the same page.
 
Yes, they both will. Hitch has been the best coach the Blues have had in a very, very long time. I think they get one more year each.

Florida fired their coach today, so we've got three coaches down - Nashville finally let go of Barry Trotz, and Oates is outs in Washington.
 
I have to think one more one and done in the playoffs and they are both out. I am a little surprised about Trotz ... honestly who can name a forward on that team?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top