The Random Hockey Thoughts Thread

[leaffan]

Great to see omar is in the lead for worst fan of a team of all time.

[Krebs]

I'm not using this as an excuse for the series being where it is, but for the 2nd game in 3 the Wings got a gift from a missed call by the Ref.



Kronwall, who would get the primary assist just moments later, is coming on here for a guy in the middle of the ice during Detroit possession.


Here's the offside on the Bertuzzi goal in Game 4.






It's one thing to miss calls, but it's another to miss calls that are ending up in goals.

Officiating has been abysmal in most games these playoffs.

funny how you can bring this up but ignore the 8 men san jose had about a minute prior...for shame.

[Ravin]

It's not about talent. Most sports, but especially hockey, are never about talent.
As I've been saying since the start of the playoffs, you never know what Sharks team is going to hit the ice on any given night.

They can win without Clowe, but I doubt they will. He is their most physical, toughest, grittiest, and strongest forward by far. And he's skilled. He brings stuff that nobody else on the team can.

I believe they can and will win (if Clowe plays) because this team seems to put forth its best effort when their backs are up against the wall and there is nowhere else to go. I just hope Niemi brings his A game.

You just said it wasn't about talent, then said Clowe is skilled, which is basically another word for "he has talent."

Let's be honest here. This is just another soft showing by the Sharks. The same thing for the past how many seasons. They hit the playoffs, maybe they want it for awhile, then the weather turns really nice out in Cali and they want to hit the links so they just give up. :dontknow:

There isn't much you can say about this. Clowe is not going to make or break this series. Up and down the Sharks line up is depth in every position. They have a great top 6, and a hard to play against bottom 6. Their defence may be a little iffy, but most of those goals from last night came from bad forward play in their own zone. And Niemi is the teams lord jesus christ right now keeping them in it as long as they do.

Clowe coming in and putting some hits down is not going to make the Sharks wake up. Not in game 7 mind you. They better be wide awake because you know the Wings are. And if it honestly is going to take Ryan Clowe to show up in game 7 and start doing something to actually get this team over the hump, well I'll just say that is a scary scary idea for Sharks fans going forward.

And talent does have a factor in who wins and who doesn't. Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit...all very talented teams when they won. The better thing to say is you can't rely on just talent alone to win. But your talented players need to show up. Sharks have an issue with that come playoff time. Clowe isn't going to change that.

[1ke]

Fuckin San Jose...Lol

[Tailback U]

You just said it wasn't about talent, then said Clowe is skilled, which is basically another word for "he has talent."

Let's be honest here. This is just another soft showing by the Sharks. The same thing for the past how many seasons. They hit the playoffs, maybe they want it for awhile, then the weather turns really nice out in Cali and they want to hit the links so they just give up. :dontknow:

There isn't much you can say about this. Clowe is not going to make or break this series. Up and down the Sharks line up is depth in every position. They have a great top 6, and a hard to play against bottom 6. Their defence may be a little iffy, but most of those goals from last night came from bad forward play in their own zone. And Niemi is the teams lord jesus christ right now keeping them in it as long as they do.

Clowe coming in and putting some hits down is not going to make the Sharks wake up. Not in game 7 mind you. They better be wide awake because you know the Wings are. And if it honestly is going to take Ryan Clowe to show up in game 7 and start doing something to actually get this team over the hump, well I'll just say that is a scary scary idea for Sharks fans going forward.

And talent does have a factor in who wins and who doesn't. Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit...all very talented teams when they won. The better thing to say is you can't rely on just talent alone to win. But your talented players need to show up. Sharks have an issue with that come playoff time. Clowe isn't going to change that.

Clowe is the Sharks leading scorer in the playoffs. He is their toughest and most physical player as well. He is a grinder, a scorer, and a leader. He has been their best and most consistent player. He makes a huge difference. They can win without him, but they have a much better shot with him. No doubt about it.

Obviously talent matters, but talent was never a question for the Sharks. Effort is always the question. There is never any question about Clowe's effort. The team feeds off of him.

Every team still in the playoffs is loaded with talent. What separates them from each other is heart and execution.

Not to mention Marleau, a guy with all the talent in the world, has been a complete no show, which makes Clowe's presence even more important.

[leaffan]

Clowe is the Sharks leading scorer in the playoffs. He is their toughest and most physical player as well. He is a grinder, a scorer, and a leader. He has been their best and most consistent player. He makes a huge difference. They can win without him, but they have a much better shot with him. No doubt about it.

Obviously talent matters, but talent was never a question for the Sharks. Effort is always the question. There is never any question about Clowe's effort. The team feeds off of him.

Every team still in the playoffs is loaded with talent. What separates them from each other is heart and execution.

Not to mention Marleau, a guy with all the talent in the world, has been a complete no show, which makes Clowe's presence even more important.

Your best and most consistant player in this series has been Logan Couture easily.

I'll even admit Thornton has showed up and is playing an excellent series as well.

[Tailback U]

Your best and most consistant player in this series has been Logan Couture easily.

I'll even admit Thornton has showed up and is playing an excellent series as well.

Easily? Uh, no. Not "easily."

You can make a case for Couture (11pts, +3), but Clowe is the 3rd leading scorer (13pts) in the playoffs and a +6.

Clowe also brings a physical game that this team desperately needs, because as your brother said, this team is "soft."

Thornton has played well, also, but Clowe is just a beast of his own. The Sharks don't have somebody that can replace what he brings to the table.

Either way, who cares. They both play on the same line and they are both great together. Sharks need both to show up tonight, cuz who knows if Marleau will.

[Tailback U]

Heart > talent:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703864204576317593685159256.html

NHL
MAY 12, 2011

The NHL Playoffs Have Gone Nuts
As High Seeds Beat Low Ones, Home Teams Get Routed and Scrubs Beat Stars, We Search for Answers
By KEVIN CLARK

In a postseason that should be dominated by names like Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, the NHL's newest playoff star last week was a 24-year-old grinder named Steve Downie, who after scoring just 32 points all season for the Tampa Bay Lightning had tallied 12 in just 10 playoff games.

"I wouldn't read too much into it," Downie said of his success with a shrug. "It might be done tomorrow."

Steve Downie of the Lightning celebrates a goal against the Penguins in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.

This is what life is like in this year's NHL playoffs. Since this marathon began on April 13, the sport seems to have entered a new dimension where the traditional rhythms and traditions of a sports postseason seem to have been dipped in tequila.

In the NCAA men's basketball tournament, which is known for Cinderella stories, the higher seed has won 71% of the games in the last decade. In this year's NHL playoffs, the higher seeds have won just 52% of the time. Other sports constants have been zapped, too: home teams have won 45% of their games, compared with 70% in this year's NBA playoffs. And no lead, no matter how large, seems safe: In the first 71 years of the modern NHL playoffs, only five teams managed to erase a 3-0 series deficit to force a Game 7. Thursday night, when the surging Detroit Red Wings take on the San Jose Sharks, it will be the second such comeback this year.

Highly paid stars have given up the stage to an expanding gallery of regular Joes. Among the NHL's top 15 players in jersey sales, just six made it to the second round. That's a smaller number than the NBA has in the current series between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat.

Asked to sum up the action so far, former Bruins and Islanders coach and executive Mike Milbury settled on "wacky" and "out of control."

"There's a frenzy and a passion that defies all logical planning," he says.

Hockey insiders say there's no one single reason for this topsy-turvy situation. There are dozens. Former Detroit Red Wings legend Steve Yzerman, now the Lightning's general manager, theorizes that all the upsets stem from the NHL's relatively new salary cap, which restricts teams from becoming as dominant as they were in decades past. The result, he says, is that there's "very little difference between the No. 1 and No. 8 seed."

Yzerman also said the slew of new arenas built in the last 15 years, which tend to have fewer quirks, have reduced home-ice advantage. As a player, Yzerman remembered being bothered by the small ice surface at the old Boston Garden, which helped the purposely oversized Bruins clog the ice and disrupt faster teams.

Steven Stamkos, the Lightning's 21-year-old star, attributes the near lack of home-ice advantage to the fact that visiting teams can always control a game by hunkering down on defense. He points to Game 3 and Game 4 of the first-round series against Pittsburgh when the Lightning came out "all jacked up" in front of its home fans. This, he said, actually made them more vulnerable to defenders who played further back in the defensive zone and let the home team run itself out of position. "There's just a simplicity on the road," Stamkos said.

Others say the difference with the NHL playoffs is that players tend to do things they wouldn't do in ordinary games. The Lightning, for instance, took down Washington's vaunted offense by taking the rather extreme (and undoubtedly painful) approach of throwing their bodies in front of pucks. The team averaged 21 of these blocked shots a game in the playoffs, up from 14 in the regular season.

Milbury, now an NBC analyst, cites the case of Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Vancouver's high-scoring twins who shredded opposing defenses this season with their quick decision-making, great skating and near telepathy on the ice. When the pace picked up in the playoffs and the Sedins were pressured, he says, they found less time to make the instinctive decisions they'd thrived on before the playoffs.

Washington's Jason Arnott, a 17-year veteran, said the playoffs have been trending wacky since 2005, when new rules were instituted aimed at promoting flow and finesse. Since then, he said, "everyone plays out of their element. It's about blocked shots, face-offs." Luck can play a bigger role and a team's top stars have to make adjustments. "They have to realize they do the little things," he said.

"It's a different game," said Capitals defenseman Scott Hannan. "You have these long series and it comes down to things like bad bounces."

From a TV ratings standpoint, the NHL's unpredictability doesn't seem to be hurting. Coverage of playoff games so far this year on Versus are up 8% according to Nielsen. NBC's first-round coverage posted the highest numbers since 2004.

One group that hasn't welcomed this development: oddsmakers. Adam Young, the head oddsmaker at Bodog, an online sports book, said that hockey has become the hardest sport to set lines for, and that this has been doubly true lately.

This year, he said, after the Chicago Blackhawks went down 3-0 to Vancouver, the odds against them ballooned to 150-1, drawing an unexpected rush of wagers. The Blackhawks later came back to force a Game 7 and barely lost the game in overtime—nearly giving Young and other oddsmakers a collective heart attack. "It was nerve-wracking," he said.

Write to Kevin Clark at kevin.clark@wsj.com

[Berowsk]

Wow a line change behind the play for the Defense. That happens all the time. Anyways you want to talk about phantom calls? What about when they gave the Sharks the powerplay when the Red Wings got goalie interference lmao, then 10 minutes later Jimmy Howard got slashed in the mask and no call. Listen the referees in the NHL can be bad but give me a break dude.

I'm totally with KG on this one. Kronwall probably saw the play developing and got on the ice to get into the play. It's 1000000% illegal to have 6 guys on the ice. This does not happen all the time, when it does, the play is blown dead. Especially if the person changing is involved in the play.

[leaffan]

Easily? Uh, no. Not "easily."

You can make a case for Couture (11pts, +3), but Clowe is the 3rd leading scorer (13pts) in the playoffs and a +6.

Clowe also brings a physical game that this team desperately needs, because as your brother said, this team is "soft."

Thornton has played well, also, but Clowe is just a beast of his own. The Sharks don't have somebody that can replace what he brings to the table.

Either way, who cares. They both play on the same line and they are both great together. Sharks need both to show up tonight, cuz who knows if Marleau will.

In the detroit series like I said in my post yes couture has been the best player, easily.

[Tailback U]

Couture's been great this series and I'll agree that he's been the Sharks best and most consistent player. He's scored a goal in each of the last 3 games but the Sharks lost all 3 of those games. Still, he is just as important as anyone on the team.

I'm just a big fan of the way Clowe plays. That's all.

[leaffan]

Canada got eliminated in the IIHF world tourney by the russians today.

Thats what they get for not starting reimer.

[Ravin]

Very interesting tweet by James Duthie before the start of the Sharks game.

"Most telling Marleau stat of them all. 16 Game 6 and 7s in his career... 1 point. An assist off his foot in Gm 6 vs Kings this year."

[wr50l]

Marleau won't be the first elite player to fail to get it done for a complete series. It happens a lot. Toews did nothing against Vancouver, Crosby was completely silent in Pittsburgh's cup winning final. It's no secret that some players just lose their rhythm against a particular team and can be gone for a whole series. We should reserve the scathing criticism for a player who doesn't have 47-33 80pts in 118 games.

[Apocalypse]

Great game, even greater series, sad to see us knocked out but it was well worth watching.