2020 Stanley Cup Dallas vs Tampa Bay Discussion
thisistheshow
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in Sports Talk
Anyone watching? 
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I haven't watched hockey since the Kings won the SC.
I'm rooting for Dallas.
Edit to add. If Seguin could actually start producing, it would go a long way.
So it's been less than a decade?
Still time to jump back in like you never left...
With Rob Blake at the helm, the life insurance tables tell me I won't be around to see another one.
I'll take the Stars! Modano and Zubov are pretty good players!
Stars take game 1.
Those tables can be skewed and misleading. And you have to remember, anything can happen. In the words of Jean-Jacques Taylor.... "Sports is fluid"
Not a real season, doesn’t really count
I thought Colorado was unstoppable this year, but Dallas is playing great team hockey.
Dallas was on a 6 game losing streak when the season stopped and scored a total of five goals in the three game round robin. When they gave up three goals in the first six minutes against Calgary in game 6 of that series, I thought their season was coming to an end soon. But at that point, the Stars (other than Seguin) woke from their slumber, Khudobin decided he was Martin Brodeur, and they have been playing as well as I've seen them play since they had five HOFers on the roster and won the Stanley Cup. A hat trick from Joel Kiviranta, a breakaway goal from the Big Rig - someone keeps stepping up to win the game, and it has been a blast to watch. If the Stars do win the Cup, it would almost be enough to salvage 2020.
I live in the Tampa area. I've watched this team underperform in the play-offs, year after year. The last time they were in the Stanley Cup Finals, they couldn't score a goal if the goalie from other team left the ice and didn't bother to stand in front of the net, let alone actively defend it.
Dallas will win, and it will be yet another year of choking when it counts.
Game 2 TB leading 3-0 half way through.
Lightning won game 3 to take a 2-1 series lead.
Lightning won last night in OT 5-4, scoring on the power play after a phantom tripping call against Dallas. Refs have been terrible, but so has the Stars ability to kill power plays. Tampa leads series 3-1.
you mean the 'phantom tripping call' where the 6'2 210 lb Benn planted his knee into 5'9 170 lb Tyler Johnson's thigh and then took his shoulder and swept him to the ice? Sorry, that's a penalty. You don't' have to kick out a player's skates to execute a slew-foot...and king meathead Jamie Benn just showed everyone how to do with with a knee and some torque.
I appreciate your point, but I disagree. The Stars need to be able to play physical hockey, and this penalty is an example of the refs neutering their ability to do that. Nonetheless, the Lightning have the Stars in a do or die scenario.
so the refs need to alter their calls because the Stars need to play "physical hockey"? I mean they're not really out-physical-ing the Bolts as it is, but[]
there's Dallas' problem. Their blueline isn't able to keep up with the Bolt's top 6 (even without Stamkos). They also didn't really keep up with Colorado, but the difference was that the Av's had a bunch of injuries so their depth scoring was muted, and Dallas was galatcially over their head on special teams play so A) Dallas could center on the MacKinnon line and B} Khudobin played over his head. Now Khudobin isn't playing over his head, and the Stars can't match TB's speed and possession ability.
Playing physical hockey isn't going to solve that disparity. Khudobin is going to have to channel J.S. Giguere circa 2003, and the Stars are going to have to A) come up with a better system to try to slow Kucherov/Point/Palat down, especially through the neutral zone B} Dallas' top 4 defensemen have to find a way to blow the zone much cleaner C) get anything from Seguin offensively and/or D) get some scoring from the bottom 6 to even make this interesting.
Touché 😬
The Stars are down in the series for many reasons of their own doing. The Seguin disappearance is the elephant in the room .
Yeah, I didn't understand the complaints about the call. Yeah, he didn't kick Johnson's feet out from under him but he still hauled him down. It was very obviously a penalty.
The Stars are down in this series because Tampa has outplayed them in 3 out of 4 games. Sure Dallas has taken dumb penalties, but dumb penalties are born from frustration...and in this case the frustration comes from either not being able to keep up with Tampa's forwards, or finding a way to slow them down without taking penalties.
@lanemyer85 by the way, great user name. That movie cracks me up to this day.
Any theories on Seguin?
Career
.86 points per game (regular season)
.48 points per game (post-season)
so this isn't new for Seguin. He only has 13 goals in 87 career playoff games (and a 5% shooting%). In the 2013 Cup run (as a Bruin) he had 8 points in 22 games. Right now he has 8 points in 25 games. So bit of a pattern when it comes to deep playoff runs.
for a guy who is supposed to be an elite offensive player, he's never really had a great shot IMO. He generates opportunities because he's a great skater, but the league average shooting% is 9.1%. Seguin's career shooting% is 10.8%. Above average, but not great. For comparison, Kucherov's career S% is 14.9%. Around 40% of his career goals have come on the power play. That's more than the average star player. Although there have been a decent amount of PP's called this series, generally there are 30-35% fewer power plays called in the post-season (in the salary cap era). So that's a factor in his career playoff numbers.
In the Boston days, he tended to be a perimeter player which means he wasn't getting to the higher scoring chance(s) areas ie the areas where a player will also take a greater beating. He appears to be around the net more now, but it's just not translating. He has a 3% shooting% in this year's playoffs, 8.2% last year in 13 games. So some of it is probably just bad luck, but to score zero goals in 6 games against Calgary in the first round against a mediocre defensive team should be worrying (for a Stars fan). Although that overtime run should be the most worrying factor for a Stars fan. Dallas was completely incapable of getting the puck out of their own end. I'm pretty sure they lost every board battle in that first overtime. I'm not exaggerating. That was brutal.
@lanemyer85 Thank you for taking the time to write out that breakdown of Seguin. I am a Massachusetts native, and a Bruins fan at heart, but have been living in the Dallas area for many years now. The Stars, like the Mavericks, have become my "Western Conference team".
should have also noted that there may be an injury there. If it comes out tomorrow that he has a shoulder issue, or needs wrist surgery, or has a broken bone in his hand I wouldn't be terribly surprised.
Always approved of and enjoyed the post game ceremony after the final game. The handshaking line and hoisting of the Cup.
I am a couple days late, wasn't here to comment, but congrats to the Lightning. They won the series 4-2.