Detroit Red Wings & the NHL

[Optimus Prime]

Officials royally fuck Chicago as they score the game winner then wave the goal off, lazy ref. He can call a delayed penalty anytime doesn't even watch the play develop as the winner was clearly scored in regulation.

[Optimus Prime]

Hawks win in OT, Wings had jump in 3rd but flat in overtime.

[Mike]

This blows for me on so many levels.

[Optimus Prime]

For just the second time in NHL history, the final four teams remaining in the playoffs are the four most recent Stanley Cup winners. Chicago captured the Cup in 2010.

Round 2 Prediction Results

Hannibal 4-0
Penguins in 7
Bruins in 7
Kings in 6
Blackhawks in 5

WingsFan 4-0
Penguins in 5
Bruins in 7
Kings in 5
Blackhawks in 6

Prime2-2
Pittsburgh Pens in 6
NYR in 6
Chicago BlackHawks in 5
San Jose Sharks in 7

[Hannibal]

Predictions getting tougher here. I'll go out on a limb and say Kings in 6. In the East, I say Pittsburgh in 6.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Spending the week in Chicago. Great win for the hawks last night. Dumbass ref tried to keep the Wings alive but to no avail. Horrible call.

[lineygoblue]

The call was spot on.

But the blackhawks still lucked one in to end it.

[Mike]

I predict Boston - LA SCF. If Chicago could barely solve Detroit's D, then LA and Quick will be a little too much. Nice to see the NHL still has it's eastern conference bias intact. Chicago and LA will play back-to-back Saturday and Sunday after both played 7 game series. Funny that the east starts AFTER the west when both teams cruised through the second round in 5 games.

[Optimus Prime]

Pens - Hawks SCF!

Quick is playing remarkably well, surrendering 10 goals in 7 games v. SJ but frankly the best record in hockey, Chicago, having survived a near upset with Detroit will not make the same mistake twice.

Like your conspiratorial mind Mike but its got no legs.

NHL policy the reason for Penguins' long break
Its pieces include broadcasters, effects of the lockout

By Sam Werner / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The longest layoff the Penguins got between games during this lockout-shortened regular season was a pair of three-day breaks in April.
When the puck drops in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals on Saturday night, eight days will have passed since the Penguins closed out their semifinal series against Ottawa.
A combination of NHL policy, television preferences and lingering effects of the lockout coalesced to give the Penguins and Boston Bruins, who have been off since Saturday, their longest breaks of the season before they take the ice to battle for the right to play for the Stanley Cup.
The primary -- and perhaps most simple -- explanation for the extended layoff has simply been the length of the respective series. The Penguins and Bruins both won their respective conference semifinals in five games, while both Western Conference semifinals went to the maximum seven games.
The NHL, unlike the NBA, has a long-standing policy of not starting a new round until the previous round has completely finished. The fear is that juggling two rounds at the same time could lead to an even more prolonged break before the Stanley Cup finals.
The NBA makes up for this inequity by creating prolonged breaks, sometimes as long as four days, within the series. The NHL, though, prefers to keep up sustained momentum once a series begins.
"What we're looking for from a television standpoint is to have continuity, to have hockey every single night," said Steve Hatze Petros, NHL vice president of scheduling and broadcast business. "When you're building the momentum as we've built in a series, the fan is engaged. ... Once the series begins, that's where you don't want to have two- or three-day gaps between games."
The second factor is the wishes of the NHL's national television broadcasters, NBC in the United States and CBC and TSN in Canada. The NHL has the final say on all scheduling, but it consults with all parties involved -- including local broadcasters in early rounds -- to try and make a schedule that appeases everyone.
The league faces the unique challenge of catering to two countries of fans, both with specific hockey viewing tastes. Canadian viewers for example, are largely opposed to daytime Saturday games, usually an NHL playoffs staple, to keep the tradition of Saturday night as "Hockey Night in Canada."
This year, the NHL has two prime time Saturday night slots for the conference finals on NBC, rather than NBC Sports Network. Those two slots factored heavily into the scheduling for these series. The national games will be Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals and Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals.
"When you have two Saturday prime time windows in a round, we almost have to ensure that that second window is covered by at the very least a Game 5," Mr. Hatze Petros said. "It would be very hard to stretch a Game 4 out there, because you'd leave too many gaps, so we try to get at least a Game 5."
The desire to broadcast the opener of the much-anticipated Penguins-Bruins series, as well as the ability to showcase Penguins star and Nova Scotia native Sidney Crosby to a Canadian audience in the country's most traditional viewing time slot, likely played a role in the Penguins starting their series Saturday night, rather than Friday.
"CBC, their biggest window is Saturday night," Mr. Hatze Petros said.
The final piece of the scheduling puzzle, and one that looms slightly larger this year than others, is the availability of arenas during the playoff season.
Because of the lockout that cost the NHL nearly half its season, the league is playing its playoff schedule roughly two weeks later than usual. That has caused the playoffs to conflict more significantly with major summer concerts, including the Rolling Stones.
"The Rolling Stones have been the bane of my playoff existence this year," Mr. Hatze Petros said. "They started off in L.A. in the first round and they're following us all over the place."
Mick Jagger and company are playing at Chicago's United Center on Friday night, which could push the start of the Western Conference Finals back a day, depending on whether the Blackhawks defeated Detroit Wednesday night for a berth in the conference finals against Los Angeles.
Also because of the lockout, the league wasn't even sure it would have a season, and had to tell venues that it could book concert dates and other events that could eventually conflict with playoff games.
"When you get these big shows, it's very difficult to tell the owner of a club or someone running that arena that they can't go and pick up a lucrative concert just because their team might be there," Mr. Hatze Petros said.
Consol Energy Center only has two concerts booked for June: New Kids on the Block on the 11th and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on the 20th. Two New Kids on the Block concerts in Boston next week are one reason the Penguins and Bruins couldn't start their series Thursday because there would be conflicts with Games 3 and 4.
Mr. Hatze Petros said he understands fan criticism that the league has waited too long to release schedules for the next round, but was adamant that internal discussions take place up until the last minute.
"Up until [Tuesday] night, contrary to popular belief, Saturday [for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals] was not set," Mr. Hatze Petros said. "We were still debating, we were taking all the information, all the suggestions.
"There's nothing worse than telling fans it's going to be Friday then have it Saturday. That's when people are upset. Until we feel we get it right, that's when we let it go."

[Mike]

The desire to broadcast the opener of the much-anticipated Penguins-Bruins series, as well as the ability to showcase Penguins star and Nova Scotia native Sidney Crosby to a Canadian audience in the country's most traditional viewing time slot, likely played a role in the Penguins starting their series Saturday night, rather than Friday.

Looks like my theory has been reinforced, OP. Not surprising he'd be linked to New Kids On the Block, however.

[Optimus Prime]

At the end of the day Mike someone MUST pay the bill...can't blame the US Networks for capitalizing on the Pens. Of course it's not Canada where 80%+ of all TV's in nation tuned in for the Gold Medal game. Please actually read the article in its entirety.

When NBC broadcasts "Sid the Kid" in the US viewership increases 40%+ across the board and he sells out arenas where they play....regionally they do better than the Steelers, Pirates.

"Are this year’s Pittsburgh Penguins about to join the ranks of the most-watched American sports teams?

Heading into their final regular-season games last week, the Penguins were on pace to post the highest average RSN rating for any U.S.-based MLB, NBA or NHL team since 2002. Penguins games on Root Sports were averaging a 12.56 Nielsen rating in the Pittsburgh market, a mark that would be the highest RSN rating for any U.S.-based NHL team on record.
Before this year, the highest RSN rating in the last five years came in San Antonio for the 2010-11 season, when Spurs games on FS Southwest averaged a 10.19 rating. Before that, the Boston Red Sox averaged a 12.20 average on NESN for the 2007 season, the year in which they won their second World Series title of the decade.
For comparison’s sake, during Michael Jordan’s final season with the Chicago Bulls in 1997-98, the Bulls finished the year with an 8.9 average local rating on FSN Chicago.

How big is the Penguins’ 12.56 rating? The team has nearly doubled its TV audience since the 2008-09 season......"


http://www.sportingnews.com/nhl/stor...-injury-root-s

[Hannibal]

I'm not surprised. When it comes to games that are fun to watch, absolutely no other team in the NHL is close. The NHL can't figure this out though, which is why an average game nowadays is a boring clutch-and-grab slog.

[Tony G]

TLDNR

[Optimus Prime]

Predictions getting tougher here. I'll go out on a limb and say Kings in 6. In the East, I say Pittsburgh in 6.

The Maple Leafs drew up an excellent plan to beat Boston, Pittsburgh has way more speed and skill to pressure their D. Vokoun is 16-2 over last 10 games of the regular season & Playoffs, he doesn't have to be perfect just good enough. Pens in 6 games.

LA has been riding Quick the whole playoffs, although extremely physical they are banged up and can't score goals! Chicago's home ice and the extra gear they found against Detroit over 3 sudden death games to win the series certainly gives them momentum in the Western final. Hawks in 7.

[Hannibal]

Chicago reminds me too much of the '96 Red Wings team that lost in the WCF. That team also won an inappropriately difficult second round series against a mediocre team (the Blues). This year, Chicago had trouble dispatching with a mediocre Red Wings team with a shoddy defense. They just don't look like a Stanley Cup team so far.