Official 2015 NHL Playoff Thread

[philou21]

I wanted to see a Wings/Habs serie dammit! Still going to be interesting against the Lightning. Just like Ottawa, MTL lost all their games this season vs them. Both have a good goalie and both team their offense was bad in the first round (except Johnson).

[batdad]

Here we...go

Round 1 from me

Montreal over Ottawa in 6
Rangers over Penguins in 7. This really could go either way if the old time Pens show up.
Capitals over Islanders in 6
Red Wings over Lightning in 7. Sorry Stevie Y...not ready to beat your old boys yet.


Vancouver over Calgary in 7 (in OT as always)
Minnesota over St Louis in 6 (Not a believer STL not a believer...same old same old Hitch)
Chicago over Nashville in 5. Preds just are not ready yet.
Winnipeg over Anaheim in 6 (Just for fun)


GO JETS< GO SENS GO DEAD THINGS GO WILD AND GO CANUCK. Love me some fun

Well lets see..

Montreal ...yes in right number of games too.
Rangers ... yes wrong on games
Caps ... yes wrong on games
Red Wings--so close, but so far.

Canucks--LOL
Wild--oh yeah baby, Blues suck
Hawks--Oh yeah baby
Jets--well if you don't gamble, don't gamble.

Not bad....5-3 plus bonus points for a few series and their # of games


Round two

Tampa over Montreal in 6. Price steals one game and that is all.
Washington over NY Rangers in 6....I dunno, just for some reason see Trotz making it happen over AV

Hawks over Wild in 7
Ducks over Flames in 5

[Peter_Doherty]

Reports are saying that Zuke is most probably out for the whole round 2, big hit for us...

[steviewhy]

I'm still boggled by TB having 2 guys 6-8 feet offsides and the officials all missing it though. Thank God nothing came of that.[

I thought my mind was playing tricks on me when I saw that until NBC acknowledged it happened ten minutes later. All in all though I thought they overachieved big time again, considering the roster (stars too old, young talent not ready). Babcock's probably gone, can't say I'm thrilled about it but it might be time for a new voice in the room.

[Peter_Doherty]

Absolutely brutal non-call by the refs there when Bäckis smashes Boyle from behind, horrible reffing that decides a great game, im so widdled right now.

[ForNever]

6-1, what a beating!

[Satyr]

Absolutely brutal non-call by the refs there when Bäckis smashes Boyle from behind, horrible reffing that decides a great game, im so widdled right now.

The moment I saw that hit, I knew mr Doherty would be crying here in this very topic

I still hope you lose game 7 of the Final, so good luck anyway.

[Peter_Doherty]

Absolutely brutal non-call by the refs there when Bäckis smashes Boyle from behind, horrible reffing that decides a great game, im so widdled right now.

The moment I saw that hit, I knew mr Doherty would be crying here in this very topic

I still hope you lose game 7 of the Final, so good luck anyway.

Well, i clearly have a point.

[nino33]

Absolutely brutal non-call by the refs there when Bäckis smashes Boyle from behind, horrible reffing that decides a great game, im so widdled right now.

The moment I saw that hit, I knew mr Doherty would be crying here in this very topic

I still hope you lose game 7 of the Final, so good luck anyway.

Well, i clearly have a point.

You have an opinion. On the post game coverage I saw the commentators stated they thought the hit was OK. In the bit of reading I just did no one called it a penalty/dirty hit that wasn't a Ranger or (in the comments) Ranger fan.

IMO if Boyle hadn't turned his back, lowered his head and (most importantly) quit playing he wouldn't have gotten hit like he did (and maybe the Rangers wouldn't have lost).

I miss hockey where such forechecking was the norm, and because players expected/accepted it as part of the game they played in such a way as to minimize the potential for turning the puck over/getting hurt...part of my dislike of modern hockey is how turning your back/lowering your head has become a tactic (I don't want defending in hockey to be like defending in basketball)

[CeeBee]

Nothing wrong with the hit IMO. Boyle was trying to kill the clock instead of moving the puck. He looked up and saw the guy coming but kept himself crouched over. Backstrom was hardly moving and just kind of backed into him.

[batdad]

Great hit. Boyle gave up on the play thinking could kill clock. Guess who did not? And it won his team the game.

[Primis]

Some locker room clean-out notes on the Red Wings:

* It sounds bad for Marek Zidlicky. He is concussed and has not decided if he will play next year, or any more period.
* Johan Franzen wants to play, but is having setbacks from his concussion. It doesn't sound too good there either.
* Abdelkader had broken finger. Ericsson had broken toe (ow). Glendening played w/ torn tendon in his hand. Datsyuk had a bad ankle. Pretty standard playoff stuff...
* Erik Cole's future is unknown, completely.
* Jimmy Howard will not request a trade, and Petr Mrazek has not been handed the starting job. There will be a competition in camp next season.

[philou21]

The offside yesterday that gave the win to Tampa, oh god! The refs in the playoffs are just horrible.

[Peter_Doherty]

At the same time the goal they waved off for Kucherov was questionable to say the least, 2 wrongs made 1 right?

[Peter_Doherty]

Great period by Rangers, outshooting Caps 15-4 and leading with 2-0... Hags+Hayes is a nightmare out there.

[steviewhy]

Some locker room clean-out notes on the Red Wings:

* It sounds bad for Marek Zidlicky. He is concussed and has not decided if he will play next year, or any more period.
* Johan Franzen wants to play, but is having setbacks from his concussion. It doesn't sound too good there either.
* Abdelkader had broken finger. Ericsson had broken toe (ow). Glendening played w/ torn tendon in his hand. Datsyuk had a bad ankle. Pretty standard playoff stuff...
* Erik Cole's future is unknown, completely.
* Jimmy Howard will not request a trade, and Petr Mrazek has not been handed the starting job. There will be a competition in camp next season.

I don't expect Zidlicky, Cole or Franzen to ever play again. Zidlicky is starting to remind me of Rafalski when he couldn't get it done any more add concussion problems and he needs to hang it up for the sake of his health. Ditto for Franzen and Cole, apparently Cole's spinal contusion is a side effect of getting his neck broken almost ten years ago, and Franzen's concussion issues have put him in a dark place, he said he can't get out of bed some days. It's not worth it to play one, two more years when the quality of the rest of their whole lives are at stake.

Less importantly so on Franzen, he's under contract forever so I don't know how much of that cap the Wings have to eat now.

[steviewhy]

Holtby looked leaky there.

[Peter_Doherty]

What a game, great goaltending, our first period held us through.

[Peter_Doherty]

I wonder if Orpik will get a hearing for his knee-on-knee today, not saying he should be suspended but i do think they should look at it. To balance out the bias i expect Yandle to get a fine for selling that high-stick late in the 3rd, it hit him but boy did he sell it

[philou21]

Haven't watched the game but one thing's for sure, stay away from the penalty box MTL! 4/8 for Tampa on the PP tonight. At this rythm it's going to be over in 2 games.

[CJ]

Ray Shero replaces Lamoriello in Devils?! How's that even possible to replace Lou?

[philou21]

About time that Lou steps down. Just curious to see if he's going to stuff his nose in Shero's stuff anyway.

[batdad]

For what 2 - 3 decades Lou Lamoreillo has been the GM in New Jersey. He has been not only one of the smartest GM's in NHL history, he has also been one of the luckiest (MARTIN BRODEUR)....but darn this guy is one sharp hockey mind. He will not be all that missed once the Devils forget that he wants them to play one of the best systems in the history of hockey, that he and Jacques Lemaire did not invent, but certainly perfected.

Lou brought us Brian Rafalski, and several other ridiculous undrafted NHL players, and he sure as heck knew what he was doing. However....I will not miss his style/brand of hockey.


Bring on the firewagon Devils. yeah right.

HHOF---Lou you are sure to be a member. Congratulations. You brought over coaching and over preparation to the game.

[Peter_Doherty]

I wonder if Lou can keep his fingers out of the cookie jar, or if he will be behind almost everything like Burke in Calgary?

[batdad]

He will. Difference is Shero is experienced, Treliving is not.