@sparky64 said:
Pierre made the Ottawa series almost unwatchable.
So obviously bias and one sided it was too much to take.
The mute button got quite a workout.
Didn't notice him as bad in game 1 but I'll admit I didn't watch much of it.
The better the opposing team does, the quieter he is.
If not for the goal taken away and the flukey own goal, the Preds had that game.
Hope they get they road win tonight. I'll be watching.
I watched most of that series and he was terrible. I would pretty much stop watching once the Pens had a lead because it just got even worse.
NHL is doing a much better job of the finals. 2 days apartnot 3 or 4 , none of these 9 oclock or 920 starts which are just stupid . No massive week off before the finals , no 2 different series going on simultaneously nonsense either .
The crowd in Nashville seems fired up its pretty impressive considering 10 years ago no one in Tennessee knew hockey existed.
@bronco2078 said:
NHL is doing a much better job of the finals. 2 days apartnot 3 or 4 , none of these 9 oclock or 920 starts which are just stupid . No massive week off before the finals , no 2 different series going on simultaneously nonsense either .
that's not always on the NHL, though. If it's a two team building..ie a building that houses both an NBA and NHL team and both teams are in the playoffs, that's a factor. As it was often for the Hawks and Bulls for the last 7 or so years. And the NHL will always concede to the NBA because they know they'll take the loss in the national ratings.
That there is no team in the west is a factor in the time starts this year. No Kings or Sharks or Ducks or formerly Vancouver in 2011 means no 9 pm starts. But there would have been 9pm or 9:30pm starts had the Oil gotten past the Ducks and Preds, or the Ducks had beaten the Preds. There will always be various booking conflicts if a building had scheduled a concert months beforehand too. I'm pretty certain both the NBA and NHL would prefer to never have more than one day off between games.
The Preds are one of only like 2 or 3 teams that don't have some ownership stake in their arena. As such, the city pays a company to run it. Some years ago, there was a date booked for a Garth Brooks show, or some similar popular country star, and the bookers/arena wouldn't move his date so the Preds had to wait a day longer to start their series. This was back when the Preds would make the playoffs but lose in the first round every year, and the team was losing money. Back when Captain Blackberry, Jim Balsillie, was trying to buy the team to move them to Hamilton, ONT. Even back then the average Preds game was alleged to bring in $1 million in revenue to the local hotels, restaurants, and bars. I'm guessing that number is more like $2-$2.5 mill right now.
@sparky64 said: @lanemyer85 , it's a sin by omission that you aren't contributing more fantastic NHL analysis on a regular basis. Good stuff!
Honestly, I thought I'd be more into this series than I have been. Heading in I was very much pro-Preds, but along with the lack of close games, I'm just not a fan of the way the Preds have been playing. They're reminding me so much of those awful 2009-2014 era Bruins teams. When that Bergeron line left the ice it was just a constant stream of cross-checks from behind from all those defenders, and that's exactly what the Preds are doing. They're running a heavy-trap which I don't understand because the Preds are one of the few teams that can match speed with the Penguins, particularly from the back-end. You kind of wonder how different the series would look if you had Letang wheeling through that mess. I know many would say with Johansen out, it's a wash, but I don't think so. Letang is way more valuable and I've never seen Johansen as a true first line center anyway. Just isn't defensively aware enough to garner the Kopitar comparisons that I've seen some dopey Preds fans toss around this post-season. Kopitar is a lockdown perennial Selke candidate. Johansen isn't anywhere near his zip code. Offensively maybe, all-around, no chance.
That the Preds are only tied is sort of an upset to begin with. One can make a pretty convincing argument that outside of Brian Dumoulin, the Pens don't have another top 4 defender. Certainly not Daley who has always been a complete fire-drill in his own end. Schultz is a good skater and has some good puck-skills, so he has some offensive value, but defensively Nathan Gerbe could knock him off the puck on the regular. Olli Maatta looked like he was going to be a certain top 4 d-men three years ago, but he's been a walking concussion since. So that is a team of 3rd pair defensemen, save for Dumoulin, and yet, because they have home-ice advantage in 2 of the next 3, they're a slight favorite. And it's probably because the Preds continue to refuse to open it up at least when they're not behind. They should be putting constant offensive pressure on that collective fire-drill of defenders from Pittsburgh. Yet there they are, stapled to the walls until they fall behind or until the 3rd period when ol' Peter suddenly realizes that scoring is a thing of some importance. In the end, his system may end up working. But the Preds should easily be up 3-1 right now.
It also doesn't help that there are actually a wealth of Preds fans that think the refs are in the Pens' pockets. That kind of boggles the mind considering all of the boarding and cross-checking infractions they've gotten away with. Ekholm in particular is very fortunate that the Preds got the Pens as opposed to the Sens. He'd already be out of this series with a concussion after the fish-faced Chris Neil introduced him to the same right cross that felled Chara a couple years ago. I'd also venture to say Mark Borowiecki would have already had a hearing from the Dept of Player Safety after bouncing Subban's melon off of his elbow.
I can also do without that whole college football atmosphere. Those Euro soccer-adjace chants, or Canadian hockey fan-esque chants. The goalie chants, the stupid other chants they do adding "suck" to everything regarding a PA announcement of an opposing player. It's already waaay tired. First round, Preds fans were doing the (Corey) Craaafforrd thing...... when there was no score. And once when the Preds were behind. That's the type of dumb that's difficult to overcome. If you need a gimmick to get invested in a hockey game, then you're probably better off waiting for the WWE to roll through town.
So yeah, they've done the unthinkable which is almost motivating me to root for the Fighting Kessels, and it's making me look more forward to the expansion and amateur drafts. I'm already very much looking forward to the expansion draft more than this series........unless there is a Game 7. Then I'll probably be all in again.
^^^ Excellent observations and gives me things to keep an eye on.
Very much enjoyed reading that, thanks.
The many chants, etc. are not anything I've heard at an NHL game before and reminded me of the games I've been to at PSU.
But then there was this:
"So yeah, they've done the unthinkable which is almost motivating me to root for the Fighting Kessels......"
Good God man, get ahold of yourself and snap out of it!
I'm also going to give you extra credit for the Borowiecki reference.
My son is a big fan.
He's the ONE fan who has his sweater.
This pic was taken in Ottawa before game 4 against the Pens.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
The goalie chant thing was always a Canadian thing that they adopted from Euro soccer...and I hate that American team fanbases have adopted it in various markets. I don't know when it got down here, maybe as a take-off from when Red Wing fans used to chant Ozzy Ozzy Ozzy when Osgood made a notable save. I do remember those. Kings fans really adopted the goalie chants over their last 5 years. But that's usually where it ended....with stupid goalie chants. Preds fans have taken various chants to an insufferable college-sports-esque tribal level.
If it weren't for the masses' overall hatred of Crosby, Pierre Maguire's infatuation for him, his much maligned whining (every player who dominates the puck whines about calls), or how they think the league has shoved him down people's throats for a decade, Pittsburgh wouldn't be that difficult of a team to root for. I mean if you're a fan of American hockey, Pittsburgh has 9 starting American-born players. That's a lot...and good ones with Kessel, Guentzel, Sheary, Bonino etc too. If you're the type of guy who rooted for Ray Bourque to get a Cup, then you should also have similar desire for Ron Hainsey to get one too. Yeah, he's certainly not Bourque on the ice, but at 35 years old he's not only playing for his first Cup, but he's also seeing his first career playoff action, period, having been in playoff hockey quarantine with teams like Atlanta/Winnipeg, Carolina and Columbus over his career.
So you have Hainsey and Matt Cullen who fill the old, great guy quotient chasing a Cup...and then you have Marc Andre Fleury who you always hear about him being one the most genuinely good guys in the league. You have Patric Hornqvist who fills the Swede-warrior quotient seeing a smallish guy hang around the net playing the Dave Andreychuk role and take a beating night in and night out. I mean that guy has grounds for a potential lawsuit for assault against Ekholm for all those cross-checking no-calls he's absorbed this series. So you add in a bunch of very like-able players along with a very pleasing style of hockey to watch, and it's really not that difficult to pull for them if you can erase the Crosby-hatred stuff and you truly think about it. Since the NHL is a copycat league, it's also always better for other teams to build their squads in the mold of the Penguins or Hawks as opposed to a more heavily defensively over-coached/trapping team which is the style that the Preds are running out there and frankly shouldn't be given their talent. There is a part of me that wants to see the Preds fail so that their decision to gum up the works gets more criticism, along with their decision to dress the useless Cody McLeod against a Pens team that doesn't run out a goon or a rat for two games. That also made no logical sense.
Great post lanemeyer85. I can't get by my hatred for Crosby. I hate him less as the years go by. If he plays 50 more years and I stay in good health I may just dislike him at that point.
mark
Walker Proof Digital Album Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
I used to like Sid, and I love the Mario-era Penguins but the Pens lost me when the league & refs bent over backwards in 2009 to hand Pittsburgh the series against Detriot (like overturning a mandatory 1-game suspension for Malkin). Sid lost me this year with chopping the guy's finger off and spearing dudes in the nuts and not getting penalized for it.
Pittsburgh has a guy from my hometown (Pontiac, MI) and I'm still rooting against them. That should tell ya something.
@Tabe said:
I used to like Sid, and I love the Mario-era Penguins but the Pens lost me when the league & refs bent over backwards in 2009 to hand Pittsburgh the series against Detriot (like overturning a mandatory 1-game suspension for Malkin). Sid lost me this year with chopping the guy's finger off and spearing dudes in the nuts and not getting penalized for it.
Pittsburgh has a guy from my hometown (Pontiac, MI) and I'm still rooting against them. That should tell ya something.
Crosby can spear nuts and its not a problem Brad Marchand has been suspended about 5 times for the same move.
RE: Pierre Maguire - so you may have noticed the Pekka Rinne glove-side/goals allowed highlight vid Pierre MC'd over pointing out all the glove-side goals Rinne has allowed this series. Just watched the clips of the Preds goals on Murray and you'll never guess where the last 5 were scored.....glove-side. Anyone see a Matt Murray glove-side goals allowed video? Weird that the guy who interviewed for, and desperately wanted the Pens' GM opening a couple years didn't put one of those together.
@sparky64 said:
That ridiculous quick whistle, goal taken away from Nashville is the elephant in the room.
Yes that sucked
mark
Walker Proof Digital Album Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
@sparky64 said:
That ridiculous quick whistle, goal taken away from Nashville is the elephant in the room.
The refs did everything they could to give the Preds a shot, though, including a 5 on 3. Preds were given 4 power-plays, Pens had zero. No doubt that had to do with the disallowed goal. The building had a weird atmosphere and I think a lot of that had to do with fans thinking even if we win tonight, there's zero chance Rinne wasn't going to bite it back in Pittsburgh again. But hey, unlike last year when the Canadian media failed to get over their historical bias for non-Canadians and their collective erection for Sid, and bestow the Conn Smythe to the more deserving Phil Kessel, at least Crosby may have actually earned it this year.....even though I still think Malkin was a little better...but he's Russian so he's not getting anything.
Comments
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That was disheartening.
Nashville better win the next two home games.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
The stress and pressure is getting to the Preds/Rinne. They need to play it one game at a time. Here's hoping being back home will get them some luck.
Let's be honest though, they want to do a reverse sweep. They want to win the Cup and see Pierre so traumatized that he never returns to the airwaves.
I watched most of that series and he was terrible. I would pretty much stop watching once the Pens had a lead because it just got even worse.
@lanemyer85 , it's a sin by omission that you aren't contributing more fantastic NHL analysis on a regular basis. Good stuff!
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
I haven't stopped by this thread in a few days and I can't stop laughing.
MIke Milbury is a covert Pens fan? That's where we are at now?
Sending some mojo towards the Preds and counting on them to tie up this series tonight.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
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NHL is doing a much better job of the finals. 2 days apartnot 3 or 4 , none of these 9 oclock or 920 starts which are just stupid . No massive week off before the finals , no 2 different series going on simultaneously nonsense either .
The crowd in Nashville seems fired up its pretty impressive considering 10 years ago no one in Tennessee knew hockey existed.
that's not always on the NHL, though. If it's a two team building..ie a building that houses both an NBA and NHL team and both teams are in the playoffs, that's a factor. As it was often for the Hawks and Bulls for the last 7 or so years. And the NHL will always concede to the NBA because they know they'll take the loss in the national ratings.
That there is no team in the west is a factor in the time starts this year. No Kings or Sharks or Ducks or formerly Vancouver in 2011 means no 9 pm starts. But there would have been 9pm or 9:30pm starts had the Oil gotten past the Ducks and Preds, or the Ducks had beaten the Preds. There will always be various booking conflicts if a building had scheduled a concert months beforehand too. I'm pretty certain both the NBA and NHL would prefer to never have more than one day off between games.
The Preds are one of only like 2 or 3 teams that don't have some ownership stake in their arena. As such, the city pays a company to run it. Some years ago, there was a date booked for a Garth Brooks show, or some similar popular country star, and the bookers/arena wouldn't move his date so the Preds had to wait a day longer to start their series. This was back when the Preds would make the playoffs but lose in the first round every year, and the team was losing money. Back when Captain Blackberry, Jim Balsillie, was trying to buy the team to move them to Hamilton, ONT. Even back then the average Preds game was alleged to bring in $1 million in revenue to the local hotels, restaurants, and bars. I'm guessing that number is more like $2-$2.5 mill right now.
Honestly, I thought I'd be more into this series than I have been. Heading in I was very much pro-Preds, but along with the lack of close games, I'm just not a fan of the way the Preds have been playing. They're reminding me so much of those awful 2009-2014 era Bruins teams. When that Bergeron line left the ice it was just a constant stream of cross-checks from behind from all those defenders, and that's exactly what the Preds are doing. They're running a heavy-trap which I don't understand because the Preds are one of the few teams that can match speed with the Penguins, particularly from the back-end. You kind of wonder how different the series would look if you had Letang wheeling through that mess. I know many would say with Johansen out, it's a wash, but I don't think so. Letang is way more valuable and I've never seen Johansen as a true first line center anyway. Just isn't defensively aware enough to garner the Kopitar comparisons that I've seen some dopey Preds fans toss around this post-season. Kopitar is a lockdown perennial Selke candidate. Johansen isn't anywhere near his zip code. Offensively maybe, all-around, no chance.
That the Preds are only tied is sort of an upset to begin with. One can make a pretty convincing argument that outside of Brian Dumoulin, the Pens don't have another top 4 defender. Certainly not Daley who has always been a complete fire-drill in his own end. Schultz is a good skater and has some good puck-skills, so he has some offensive value, but defensively Nathan Gerbe could knock him off the puck on the regular. Olli Maatta looked like he was going to be a certain top 4 d-men three years ago, but he's been a walking concussion since. So that is a team of 3rd pair defensemen, save for Dumoulin, and yet, because they have home-ice advantage in 2 of the next 3, they're a slight favorite. And it's probably because the Preds continue to refuse to open it up at least when they're not behind. They should be putting constant offensive pressure on that collective fire-drill of defenders from Pittsburgh. Yet there they are, stapled to the walls until they fall behind or until the 3rd period when ol' Peter suddenly realizes that scoring is a thing of some importance. In the end, his system may end up working. But the Preds should easily be up 3-1 right now.
It also doesn't help that there are actually a wealth of Preds fans that think the refs are in the Pens' pockets. That kind of boggles the mind considering all of the boarding and cross-checking infractions they've gotten away with. Ekholm in particular is very fortunate that the Preds got the Pens as opposed to the Sens. He'd already be out of this series with a concussion after the fish-faced Chris Neil introduced him to the same right cross that felled Chara a couple years ago. I'd also venture to say Mark Borowiecki would have already had a hearing from the Dept of Player Safety after bouncing Subban's melon off of his elbow.
I can also do without that whole college football atmosphere. Those Euro soccer-adjace chants, or Canadian hockey fan-esque chants. The goalie chants, the stupid other chants they do adding "suck" to everything regarding a PA announcement of an opposing player. It's already waaay tired. First round, Preds fans were doing the (Corey) Craaafforrd thing...... when there was no score. And once when the Preds were behind. That's the type of dumb that's difficult to overcome. If you need a gimmick to get invested in a hockey game, then you're probably better off waiting for the WWE to roll through town.
So yeah, they've done the unthinkable which is almost motivating me to root for the Fighting Kessels, and it's making me look more forward to the expansion and amateur drafts. I'm already very much looking forward to the expansion draft more than this series........unless there is a Game 7. Then I'll probably be all in again.
^^^ Excellent observations and gives me things to keep an eye on.
Very much enjoyed reading that, thanks.
The many chants, etc. are not anything I've heard at an NHL game before and reminded me of the games I've been to at PSU.
But then there was this:
"So yeah, they've done the unthinkable which is almost motivating me to root for the Fighting Kessels......"
Good God man, get ahold of yourself and snap out of it!
I'm also going to give you extra credit for the Borowiecki reference.
My son is a big fan.
He's the ONE fan who has his sweater.
This pic was taken in Ottawa before game 4 against the Pens.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
The goalie chant thing was always a Canadian thing that they adopted from Euro soccer...and I hate that American team fanbases have adopted it in various markets. I don't know when it got down here, maybe as a take-off from when Red Wing fans used to chant Ozzy Ozzy Ozzy when Osgood made a notable save. I do remember those. Kings fans really adopted the goalie chants over their last 5 years. But that's usually where it ended....with stupid goalie chants. Preds fans have taken various chants to an insufferable college-sports-esque tribal level.
If it weren't for the masses' overall hatred of Crosby, Pierre Maguire's infatuation for him, his much maligned whining (every player who dominates the puck whines about calls), or how they think the league has shoved him down people's throats for a decade, Pittsburgh wouldn't be that difficult of a team to root for. I mean if you're a fan of American hockey, Pittsburgh has 9 starting American-born players. That's a lot...and good ones with Kessel, Guentzel, Sheary, Bonino etc too. If you're the type of guy who rooted for Ray Bourque to get a Cup, then you should also have similar desire for Ron Hainsey to get one too. Yeah, he's certainly not Bourque on the ice, but at 35 years old he's not only playing for his first Cup, but he's also seeing his first career playoff action, period, having been in playoff hockey quarantine with teams like Atlanta/Winnipeg, Carolina and Columbus over his career.
So you have Hainsey and Matt Cullen who fill the old, great guy quotient chasing a Cup...and then you have Marc Andre Fleury who you always hear about him being one the most genuinely good guys in the league. You have Patric Hornqvist who fills the Swede-warrior quotient seeing a smallish guy hang around the net playing the Dave Andreychuk role and take a beating night in and night out. I mean that guy has grounds for a potential lawsuit for assault against Ekholm for all those cross-checking no-calls he's absorbed this series. So you add in a bunch of very like-able players along with a very pleasing style of hockey to watch, and it's really not that difficult to pull for them if you can erase the Crosby-hatred stuff and you truly think about it. Since the NHL is a copycat league, it's also always better for other teams to build their squads in the mold of the Penguins or Hawks as opposed to a more heavily defensively over-coached/trapping team which is the style that the Preds are running out there and frankly shouldn't be given their talent. There is a part of me that wants to see the Preds fail so that their decision to gum up the works gets more criticism, along with their decision to dress the useless Cody McLeod against a Pens team that doesn't run out a goon or a rat for two games. That also made no logical sense.
Great post lanemeyer85. I can't get by my hatred for Crosby. I hate him less as the years go by. If he plays 50 more years and I stay in good health I may just dislike him at that point.
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
I used to like Sid, and I love the Mario-era Penguins but the Pens lost me when the league & refs bent over backwards in 2009 to hand Pittsburgh the series against Detriot (like overturning a mandatory 1-game suspension for Malkin). Sid lost me this year with chopping the guy's finger off and spearing dudes in the nuts and not getting penalized for it.
Pittsburgh has a guy from my hometown (Pontiac, MI) and I'm still rooting against them. That should tell ya something.
Crosby can spear nuts and its not a problem Brad Marchand has been suspended about 5 times for the same move.
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RE: Pierre Maguire - so you may have noticed the Pekka Rinne glove-side/goals allowed highlight vid Pierre MC'd over pointing out all the glove-side goals Rinne has allowed this series. Just watched the clips of the Preds goals on Murray and you'll never guess where the last 5 were scored.....glove-side. Anyone see a Matt Murray glove-side goals allowed video? Weird that the guy who interviewed for, and desperately wanted the Pens' GM opening a couple years didn't put one of those together.
These games pretty much suck, unfortunately.
They're all decided by the end of the 2nd period.
Can't believe home ice is such a factor.
The conference finals round was outstanding.
Hopefully these last one or two games go to the wire.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
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That ridiculous quick whistle, goal taken away from Nashville is the elephant in the room.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
.
Yes that sucked
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Wow. What a game. Definitely deflated on the Preds loss. But this town is all about the Preds. I hope next year is as strong.
Thanks,
David (LD_Ferg)
1985 Topps Football (starting in psa 8) - #9 - started 05/21/06
The refs did everything they could to give the Preds a shot, though, including a 5 on 3. Preds were given 4 power-plays, Pens had zero. No doubt that had to do with the disallowed goal. The building had a weird atmosphere and I think a lot of that had to do with fans thinking even if we win tonight, there's zero chance Rinne wasn't going to bite it back in Pittsburgh again. But hey, unlike last year when the Canadian media failed to get over their historical bias for non-Canadians and their collective erection for Sid, and bestow the Conn Smythe to the more deserving Phil Kessel, at least Crosby may have actually earned it this year.....even though I still think Malkin was a little better...but he's Russian so he's not getting anything.