Detroit Red Wings & the NHL

[madootra]

If Chicago didn't have Toews, and Kane......I could work up some effort to pull for them. Lots of guys on that team I really like. Seabrook, Keith, Bickell......who BTW is an unrestricted FA after this season. I'm hoping Illitch ponies up, and brings him over. At least make the Hawks over-pay for him.

[Mike]

I can't stand Kane but I respect Toews. He's been out of sorts at times this postseason but I find him to be (usually) a stand-up guy and a good captain.

Beware of the huge contract Bickell is about to sign. Anyone remember Ryan Malone and Dustin Byfuglien? I don't want to over pay for a flash in the pan.

[madootra]

Hawks win Game 1......in the 3rd OT. Great game. Chicago overcomes 2 too many men on the ice penalties (got away with one that wasn't called on their 2nd goal), and dominated Boston for most of the 2nd and 3rd periods. Some tired boys tonight.

[Optimus Prime]

Glad to see Rask's horseshoe finally fall out of his ass, Bruins 4 game hot streak comes to an end, Chicago catches most of the breaks as Bruins "vaunted" Defense blows a 2 goal lead in 3rd.

Game winner, point shot, careens off 2 Blackhawk players as Rask is screened, beauty!
[youtube]JTCXwsvQOng[/youtube]

[madootra]

Chicago had 6 guys on the ice for their 2nd goal. I'm sure boston bitched mightily about it, because the refs sure watched the line changes in the rest of the game. That was a great hockey game to watch.

[Optimus Prime]

It's best to always have more than less men on the ice, screw Boston.

Take a look at the 10 longest overtime games in NHL history. Notice a pattern? The winners of those games captured the series nine times out of 10.

[madootra]

You're just mad because your Man-Crush was eliminated. And, moreover, Boston has a bench of names that would not be recognized on the streets of West-Greenland regularly....especially if Don Cherry was Mayor. Lucic, Krejci, Jagr, Chara. I just hope for 7. :-)

[geo weidl]

[madootra]

LOL. Boston wins game 2, Ovie named MVP.......

[Rob F]

After two great OT games, Bruins win a split, and now control home-ice advantage.

Ain't Stanley Cup Hockey great!?!

[WingsFan]

The hockey Gods didn't cheat Boston tonight, what a dominating OT that was by the Bruins. Seriously look like a power play, Jagr at 41 is a beast, so strong on the puck - how many time did he set it up on a tee for his teammates? - Only to be stopped by Crawford. Nathan Horton hasn't been the same since he got hurt in game one, he was the B's best player in these playoffs till then.

[Rob F]

Agree, especially regarding Jagr. The man seems to have found the fountain of youth in the playoffs; I knew he was still around, but don't follow the NHL regular season (especially the Eastern Conference) closely enough to have known he's still a major factor.

Not a Bruins fans, but I'm rooting for them right now---I just can't stomach rooting for any Chicago team.

[Optimus Prime]

Really George?

Crosby won the Ted Lindsay is is League MVP as voted on by the actual players themselves and not by sports writers who have never taken a shift in the NHL.

Ovie won the Hart which goes tot he player "most valuable to their team" which is funny because the Capitals are really bad under his Captaincy can't imagine how bad they would be like without him.

Hart would have gone to Crosby but although missing an entire 1/4 season with a broken jaw, the Pens only lost 2 games. Washington barely made the playoffs and as usual were bounced in the 1st round, boy that Ovie is difference maker!

[Optimus Prime]

The hockey Gods didn't cheat Boston tonight, what a dominating OT that was by the Bruins. Seriously look like a power play, Jagr at 41 is a beast, so strong on the puck - how many time did he set it up on a tee for his teammates? - Only to be stopped by Crawford. Nathan Horton hasn't been the same since he got hurt in game one, he was the B's best player in these playoffs till then.

Not sure what game you guys were watching, Jagr is a 41 year old disaster. He was washed up 6 years ago when he left for Europe, Pittsburgh was smart to pass on him and in the first period, he turned the puck over so many times, lost every battle, the score should have been 3-0.

Sure he had a flash of former greatness in OT & hit the post but still has not scored a single goal in the playoffs and can no longer skate. Bruins quietly dump him in the offseason.

"NBC Sports NHL analyst Mike Milbury is known for his negative commentary, and he went after Jaromir Jagr during the first intermission of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals on Saturday while the Boston Bruins were down 1-0 to the Chicago Blackhawks.

Jagr, who was acquired by the Bruins during the regular season, has been a postseason disappointment. Though he registered nine points in 11 regular-season games with the B’s, Jagr has failed to score a goal in 17 playoff games. He does have seven assists, three of which came during the Eastern Conference Finals sweep of the Pittsburgh Penguins. But the 41-year-old has been noticeably slow on the ice, which is something Milbury focused on in his analysis.

“He can’t skate in this series. They gotta get him off of this line. If he can do something when he gets the puck standing still, fine. But he can’t forecheck, he can’t participate with this line. He turned the puck over repeatedly. He can’t get anything going here. They can’t sustain anything with him on this line.

“Absolutely lazy in a Stanley Cup Finals … that to me is a guy that is too tired to play in this final. That is a guy that has to be replaced.”

People may not like Milbury’s confrontational style, but it’s hard to disagree with him. Fans have been waiting for Jagr to score in the playoffs and he just hasn’t done it. He is 41, was given the morning skate off, and you can tell he is slower. That doesn’t mean he’s useless, it just means he’s not “Jaromir Jagr” anymore."

NBC video evidence, 1st intermission, Jagr is simply lost, sad.

http://larrybrownsports.com/hockey/m...t-skate/191995

[Optimus Prime]

You're just mad because your Man-Crush was eliminated. And, moreover, Boston has a bench of names that would not be recognized on the streets of West-Greenland regularly....especially if Don Cherry was Mayor. Lucic, Krejci, Jagr, Chara. I just hope for 7. :-)

I've never seen a #1 seed fall apart like that, 16-post & outs over 4 games, another 40 blocked shots. Rask was unbeatable. Crosby played his worst game in G2 that I have ever seen. 3 NHL Captains, (Morrow, Iginla, Crosby) there was plenty of veteran leadership, tough breaks, no bounces. Fleury (1st overall draft choice 2003) at 5M a year, is 14-16 in the playoffs after winning the Cup watches from the bench?

LA was riding a hot goalie too, Jon Quick (best goalie in NHL) in the playoffs but it didn't quit workout that way.

Milan Lucic is actually from Vancouver, which is technically falls outside the the rule of the Danish Crown, Geopolitical facts be damned.

As for Chara that 6 foot 9 inch CzechaPollockian is a beast! It will be a pleasure to take him and the Czech Republic apart, piece by piece in the Sochi Olympics 2014 (true world championship) as Canada defends its Gold medal....as for Rask, I doubt team Finland wins a game and certainly will not qualify for the tournament medal round.

Last, as for Jigger (see above).

Looks like we have a series now at 1-1, Chicago missed its opportunity to bury Boston after an incredible 1st period...couldn't close them out. Toews or Hossa? got screwed on the 2nd goal of the game...it's the SCF, the Ref must stop blowing the whistle too quickly, especially on pucks that miraculously end up in the net, clearly a goal.

Very, very last, 18 Canadians on Chicago roster, 17 on Boston's, same old, same old:

"...this NHL League, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that NHL League of the Canucks, by the Canucks, for the Canucks (& Others), shall not perish from the earth."