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well that confirms detroit vs anaheim, ill be honest, im not excited for that matchup
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All you need to know when thinking of the NHL vs Madden series is the two people involved in making the games.
"rammer" and "cummings"
The NHL series is a giver, Madden takes the load.Comment
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CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPS TONIGHT
SHARKS FTL
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Flames flame out. Sounds like they got roundly out played, though they put a lot of rubber on Khabibulin. Good for the Hawks, they played a hell of a series.
Living in Calgary, I am surrounded by Flames fans and media. The big question going around now, is, what next? This time was widely thought to be the most talented Flames team since the Stanley Cup run of 03. The trades for Jokinen and Leopold were supposed to add offensive skill and defensive depth to a team lacking both. However, they were nearly invisible in this series. Save for Jokinen's two goals in Game 4, he produced nothing of note.
Even more worryingly, is the players that are supposed to be cornerstones for the Flames, were even more invisible. Iginla played terribly, failing to assert himself on any of the games. Yes, he went against the Hawks checking line, but a great player finds a way to produce regardless. Phaneuf, who is widely becoming a joke here, contributed nothing on either end except for breaking Ben Eaggers finger in Game 5. And Kiprusoff, the goalie who the team rode for 70 games, looks like he was feeling the effects of a heavy workload. He goes down far too early, and can't recover like he used to. In Game 5, I felt Chicago's opener was directly a result. He went down to cover the near post while the player was behind the net, leaving a huge space for (I want to say Duncan Keith) to fire a low slapshot home.
Does Keenan get another year? If he couldn't get the results this year, what is to say next year will be better? There are rumours of Brent Sutter coming in from NJ to team with his brother, but will he leave NJ? He still owns a farm near Viking and has all his family here, so it is a possibilty.
In the end, the Flames have to rue not getting third. Playing the Blues would likely been a different series, and home ice would have been a great boon. Still though, the Blues are another hungry young team, so we may still have been talking about the Flames going home after round one. AgainComment
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Honestly, the Flames were missing 3 key defencemen. I think it would have been a different series if they had their blue line.All you need to know when thinking of the NHL vs Madden series is the two people involved in making the games.
"rammer" and "cummings"
The NHL series is a giver, Madden takes the load.Comment
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Having Regher would have been a big help. Giordano to a lesser extent. Not sure who the third guy your referring to would beComment
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Well Dion for game 6.All you need to know when thinking of the NHL vs Madden series is the two people involved in making the games.
"rammer" and "cummings"
The NHL series is a giver, Madden takes the load.Comment
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I'd say he makes a big difference to the team, but he is an offensive defencemen, and what Calgary was missing was their defencsive defencemen. Dion can go up when he knows someone like Reghr and Sarich is behind him to back him up should he get caught.All you need to know when thinking of the NHL vs Madden series is the two people involved in making the games.
"rammer" and "cummings"
The NHL series is a giver, Madden takes the load.Comment
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Sharks flame out. Sounds like they got roundly out played, though they put a lot of rubber on Hiller. Good for the Ducks, they played a hell of a series.
Living in San Jose, I am surrounded by Sharks fans and media. The big question going around now, is, what next? This time was widely thought to be the most talented Sharks team ever. The trades for Boyle and Blake were supposed to add offensive skill and defensive depth to a team lacking both. However, they were nearly invisible in this series. Save for Boyle's two goals in Game 4, he produced nothing of note.
Even more worryingly, is the players that are supposed to be cornerstones for the Sharks, were even more invisible. Marleau & Thornton played terribly, failing to assert himself on any of the games. Yes, they went against the Ducks top line, but great players finds ways to produce regardless. Blake, who is widely becoming a joke here, contributed nothing on either end except for a dozen slapshots from the blue line every game. And Nabby, the goalie who the team rode for 70 games, looks like he was feeling the effects of a heavy workload. He goes down far too early, and can't recover like he used to. In Game 5, I felt Anaheim's opener was directly a result. He went down to cover the near post while the player was behind the net, leaving a huge space for (I want to say Bobby Ryan) to fire a low slapshot home.
Do Marleau & Thornton get another year? If they couldn't get the results this year, what is to say next year will be better?
In the end, the Sharks have to rue winning the President's trophy. Playing the Blues would likely been a different series. Still though, the Blues are another hungry young team, so we may still have been talking about the Sharks going home after round one. Again.Comment
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I should neg rep you for stealing all my work
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Sharks I must say, have to trade Throton or Marleau this off season. It just isn't working with those two, and how many more seasons do they have to go with them not showing up to the playoffs before they get that picture. Though I do say all this with some caution, because it is hard to sit here and say "just trade away the best two during the regular season", and I won't try and say they are not great player. There just has to be a change now more then ever, because they cannot win with these players in the playoffs. It goes to that age old question, would you rather be great in the regular season and get a top seed, or be great in the playoffs at seeds 4-8?
Hell it could be as simple as spliting Thorton and Marleau up on different lines and finding some new guys they can play with besides each other. I am surprised it didn't happen in this series when they were not producing together.All you need to know when thinking of the NHL vs Madden series is the two people involved in making the games.
"rammer" and "cummings"
The NHL series is a giver, Madden takes the load.Comment
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An opinion from someone who doesn't listen to Sharks Media...
Boyle was one of the few bright spots in that series. He generated offence when no offence was to be found, he's one of the best in the league skating with the puck and helped dig the team out of defensive holes with some slick little moves that no one else on the team is capable of. He moves the puck down the ice, something that isn't noted on the stat sheets......and is something we lacked with in the past. Yes you can argue the struggles the Sharks had entering the Ducks zone, HOWEVER considering the Sharks were attempting to crack the Ducks zone about twice as often as the other way around.....C'mon.
Blake wasn't all that bad either. He's got an uncanny ability of getting low hard shots through crowds.....but when there's 7+ guys in the slot.....it doesn't matter. That's not Rob's fault.
You can play the tired card on Nabokov, but really....he was average from start to finish this season. Using tired is nothing more than an excuse here, his play was simply average at best all season long IMO.
The most glaring thing I noticed in this series was the passing. Probably could say the nerves of the Sharks were nowhere near as calm as the Ducks....but go back and watch each and every game of that series. The Ducks pass tape to tape with very few bouncing pucks and made good on most of their opportunities. SO MANY times the Sharks would attempt that last pass and it would be a rolling or bouncing puck and the play would turn into dust. This was the most glaring in Game 6. I don't know the reason for it, but they just cannot control the puck calmly enough to make the plays when the opportunities arose.
I don't know what it is with the team. The problem here was no different than in years past. They develop a game plan and stubbornly stick to it.
For example. In years past, Wilson would always have the Thornton line setup with Joe on the half boards and they'd force the puck to him to make a play. Teams would adapt and the Sharks would not.
Look at this series. The Sharks continually put the puck to the point. The Ducks barely covered the point......why? Because you aren't getting many pucks through 5 Ducks and 2-3 Sharks in the slot. There's just NO ROOM to put a puck through 8 bodies......and even if it does crack through some of those bodies.......who the hell is going to get a stick on a puck inbetween so many legs?
Yet they continually forced the point shots over and over.
But hey, lets look back at Game 5.
Goal 1: Marleau DRIVES TO THE NET and Thornton scores off the rebound.
Goal 2: Setoguchi comes out from BEHIND THE NET and scores.
Goal 3: Thornton DRIVES TO THE NET, gets TWO GREAT chances to score, causing chaos in front of the net and Marleau scores the winner.
Why the fuck did they go back to the point? The Ducks were giving it to them because it wasn't working and the Sharks wouldn't do anything different. The times they cycled around and tried a cross ice pass through the high slot, it would be (As mentioned) a bouncing rolling puck that would waste a chance.
It doesn't matter who the Sharks would have played. Being stubborn and not seeing through the fact that the Ducks WANTED them to do what they were doing (because it wasn't fucking working) is the problem. It doesn't matter who was on the ice or who is on the team......if you play into the hands of your opponent, you are NOT going to win hockey games. Especially when your goaltending is not on his best.
Edit
To touch on the idea of trading Patty.
Since 02, nobody has scored more playoff goals than Patrick Marleau. NOBODY. Considering the Sharks have only once broke the 2nd round, that's somewhat of a key thing to note. The team stands behind him and he does produce although he's NEVER received any credit for what's he ever done. Period.
Lets make one thing clear, Patrick Marleau is not Alex Ovechkin, is not Sidney Crosby, etc. There are few players in the league that can simply say "Fuck this I'm taking over this game ALONE". Players need a supporting cast to be playing well around them and I don't think very many guys have played well around Marleau. Considering he's playing with Thornton, who only looked good in 1 game and a couple periods of that series....and Setoguchi who is new to the whole playoff thing (and struggled). How do you plant blame on his shoulders? He can't pass the puck to himself.
I think it would be a silly mistake to move him.
The player that is SUPPOSED to be the one guy that says "Fuck this I'm taking over this game ALONE" is Joe Thornton. He's the Superstar. He's the #1 pick. He's the 8 million dollar man.
He's not doing his job. In the last two games it seemed he finally got it though. Do the Sharks give him another chance? I don't know. I don't know if I want that. You could probably pull in a decent ransom for him from someone in the league that's trying to build a market....like Atlanta, NYI, Columbus, etc. But IMO, he's not doing his job consistently enough.Last edited by killgod; 04-28-2009, 03:41 PM.Comment
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