Detroit Red Wings & the NHL

[Prime2]

Early Conn Smythe predictions:

There are a lot of early candidates, but in the Western Conference we’ve got Dallas Stars captain Jamie Benn and his playoff-leading 14 points. The Stars are without Tyler Seguin but still deadlocked at 2-2 with the St. Louis Blues. Benn has produced and led his squad. This isn't outlying production, of course, as Benn's 176 points over the last two regular seasons ranks as most league-wide.

In the Eastern Conference we’ll take upstart Penguins goalie Matt Murray. He has six wins courtesy of a .944 save percentage and has stolen the starting job from Marc-Andre Fleury.

Hard to upstage Bobby Orr, not but 21 or 22-years old in this pic.

[WingsFan]

[Prime2]

Just remeber one thing Packfan, someone always has it worse than you do.

[froot loops]

Crosby was a no show.

[Prime2]

Most fans that actually understand the game, realize how difficult it is to close out a Series, on the road, in sudden death against a dangerous opponent that is down 3-1.

Pens held Washington to a single PP goal in the series but the Caps went 2-5 on the PP in game #5. The Pens Brian Domulion's defensive cough-up of the puck, gave the Caps a lucky break and I am sure Murray wants that one back.

Pens leading playoff scorer and Hart Trophy finalist (NHL League MVP) Crosby, setup a beautiful powerplay goal but they still need more from him. Expect a huge game 6 at home & Malkin needs to get going.

Holtby finally played his best game and the Caps have not lost 3 -games in a row all season.
Pens have the next two games to close out the series and are clearly in command.

Officiating remains a total mystery, as I understand it, when you tackle the Greatest Player in the World (from behind) in front of your goalie, you usually end up in the Penalty box?

[Prime2]

Oh yeah, I seriously doubt there is a team left in the playoffs that can hang with San Jose, they are a BEAST!

[Hannibal]

There are a myriad of factors. Cutting down goalie equipment will help, but goalies are still much better. Blame PatRoy, before him it wasn't common to see big goalies.

Blame video.

Blame the 80s it was really the only era in hockey where the goals were out of control like that. It's never going back.

The 80s wasn't the only era where goal scoring was higher than it is now. It was higher than it is now in the 60s and 70s too, and for about the first half of the 90s. For that matter, it was higher the first year after the lockout. The scoring right now is at the level where it was when the league had six teams.

The league needs to:

1. Massively open up the neutral zone. One way to do this would be to not allow the goaltender to handle the puck behind the nets. I have been screaming for this for about 15 years. The goaltender acts as an extra defenseman on dump ins. Take that away and suddenly the defense can't play as tight in the neutral zone. You could also double the width of the blue line to make life easier for the offenses.

2. Make the goalie equpiment much, much smaller. The goalie equipment should be for protecting the goaltender, and nothing else. Make the goaltenders use regular sticks. Make the catching glove smaller or just replace it with another blocker. Make the blocker smaller and make the shin pads narrower. Have you ever seen video of Patrick Roy's first Stanley Cup? (From 1986). You can tell how much smaller the pads were back then and they worked perfectly fine. If you're not going to make the pads smaller, then make the nets about an inch or two wider and an inch taller.

3. Make goals scored the first tie breaker in the standings. Get organizations out of the defense first, defense second, defense third mentality. Encourage teams to take more chances and to develop the offensive abilities of young players as much as the defensive abilities. Let purely offensive players flourish again like they used to (e.g. Brett Hull). Stop glorifying boring hockey. Get rid of the Selke trophy. It's totally outdated. Every forward is a defensive forward nowadays.

[Hannibal]

Red Wings advanced stats:

Total takeaways: 415
Total giveaways: 568

Net: -153

The Red Wings' puck management was terrible this year. 107 of those giveaways came off of the sticks of Zetterberg (46) and Ericsson (61).

Datsyuk was the team leader in takeaways with 48. In 2008, he had 144.

[Prime2]

Dallas on the brink of elimination in Game #6 and still no Tyler Seguin?!?

To put this in perspective, TS scored more points in the NHL than Ovechkin this season.

Seguin, 24, has only suited up once in the past 21 games for Dallas after suffering a 15 percent cut of his Achilles tendon less than a month before the start of the post-season. Seguin’s one game, which came almost a month to the day after his March 17 injury, saw him skate 15:40 against the Minnesota Wild in Game 2 of the first-round series. He hasn’t been back in the lineup since.

Not only is Seguin’s loss difficult for the Stars because he potted 33 goals and 73 points in the regular season, but also because he has the playoff experience that would be incredibly important in a situation such as this. Seguin has seven goals and 21 points in 49 career playoff games. That’s the third-most playoff points of any Stars forward behind only Sharp and Spezza.

[WingsFan]

After yesterdays snoozefes, looking forward to tonights games though they're criss-crossing. Blues and Sharks looking strong, but not good history - anything could happen.

[Mike]

Let's go Blues!!

[Prime2]

Dallas v. Blues and San Jose v. Nashville, both series knotted at 3 apiece, if you can't enjoy these games you must be dead already.

[Mike]

If the Caps win tonight, there will be 3 game 7s on the same day. That would be epic.

[Prime2]

I wouldn't say we need to go that far , Mike.

Crosby pulled down 12M this season, Malkin 9.5M....time to earn those bucks!

Game 6 in Pittsburgh, you sure as hell don't want Game 7 back in Washington!

[Prime2]

Hope this puts a Hex on those sons of bitches.
History not on Capitals' side in series comeback attempt vs. Penguins
Ian McLaren May 10, 2016 6:33 PM
The Washington Capitals remain in a hole few in their position have climbed out of.

Thanks to a Game 5 win that pushed their second-round series with the Pittsburgh Penguins to at least six games, Washington still has the chance to become the third Presidents' Trophy-winning club to come all the way back from a 3-1 series deficit.

The only two clubs to pull off the feat were the New York Rangers last season (vs. Washington) and the 2013 Chicago Blackhawks (vs. Detroit).

Nine other first-place teams have failed to erase the 3-1 series deficit.

Game 6 is set for 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday in Pittsburgh.