Stanley Cup Final set and a few Habs links
by Kevin van Steendelaar on May 27, 2011 11:10 PM EDT
in Opinions and other Habs links
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PrintSo I guess the world has at least four more games of hearing Jack Edwards' nauseating remarks this season.
Congratulations go out though to the Boston Bruins, who survived a pair of seven-game series that could have gone either way, and are off to face the Vancouver Canucks for the Stanley Cup.
Equal props to Guy Boucher, who felt he was ready to coach in the NHL, and took the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Eastern Conference Final. Steve Yzerman took notes from his time in the Detroit Red Wings office, to quickly build a contending team in the east. They'll be back next year.
The lone goal of the game, from Nathan Horton with 7:33 remaining, was all that separated a trip to the west coast from a trip home.
The Bruins and Lightning played Game Seven without a single penalty, the first penalty-free playoff game in 21 years.
Do the Bruins have enough gas to handle a well-rested Canucks team? Does Tim Thomas have another series left in him? Of note, the Boston netminder has allowed one goal in 3 career starts vs. Vancouver (3-0, 0.33 GAA, .990 SvPct).
We'll get our answers starting next Wednesday night.
In the meantime, here's a few links to catch up on for the Montreal faithful.
Well I had heard rumors of a remake of Top Gun, but had no idea that Josh Gorges auditioned for a roll.
Traditionally, the Snowbirds will guarantee that their "rookies" will toss their lunch during the flight. P.J. Stock went on the ride on Heritage Classic weekend, and confessed to the barf bag.
Eric Engels feels the playoffs have masked the head shot issue.
Cogeco Diffusion will carry Habs games through 2014.
Former Habs tough guy Donald Brashear will meet up with Steve Begin (no, not that one) in in his first MMA match.
Too Many Men on the Site takes Joseph Morrow as their mock draft pick for Montreal.
What the off-season means for the Hamilton Bulldogs
Fred Poulin makes his argument that hockey players are the toughest athletes.
Chris Nilan and Max Pacioretty are teeing up on the course in support of ALS research.
Robin Flynn has her checklist for Habs withdrawal.
Kyle Roussel on Colin Campbell
OK so Claude Giroux is not on the Canadiens roster, but he hails from Hearst, ON. That happens to be the hometown of EOTP's Francis Bouchard, Francis is now writing on Giroux's official site. Congrats, buddy.
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Goaltending will decide the SCF.
Boston wins if Luongo melts down and Thomas steals it. I don’t think one of those will be enough.
The SCF strikes me as a complete mismatch. Every quantitative measure we have shows Boston’s skaters being dominated by Tampa’s, and Vancouver is significantly better than Tampa. Boston is shallow at F and very shallow on D; Vancouver has much more depth in all areas, and with the possible exception of Chara their top guys are better than the Bruins’.
Basically, if Vancouver’s goaltending holds up, it’s hard to imagine them dropping this. They defeated far better clubs just to get there.
That said, the B’s ability to beat teams that outplay them is starting to make me superstitious. Rationally, though, I can’t see the Canucks being very likely to lose.
OTOH, if the Bruins do win by some miracle, I’m not sure I can tolerate living through six months of ridiculous and largely unjustified hype followed by three months of all the analysts wondering why Boston isn’t living up to the ridiculous expectations it will have generated and simply does not have the horses to fulfill.
A great game
I hope that fans from Montreal can recognize a great game . What a classic. Go Bruins!!!
Your sentence is nonsense. If you want to argue, bring arguments.
Heck, it’s not like I’m the one doing the quantitative measuring. Head over to coppernblue.com and look at the scoring chances counts. They`re very keen on their analysis, and if you’re the type to doubt the objectivity of statheads (heh) it’s an Oilers site so clearly they shouldn’t have had a horse in this race.
Tampa outchanced Boston by at least three to two four times; two-to-one three times. Conversely, until Game 7, Boston’s best game had them outchancing 11-9.
The story of the ECF is that Roloson’s meltdown allowed an overmatched Boston club to hang around until Game 7.
Dancing in the NHL offices today.
NBA mail-room cast off Gary Bettman got the match up he wanted in the finals. Just who could have imagined that Tampa’s potent power-play would have never see the ice in a crucial game 7? Just an amazing coincidence don’t you think? 21 years of playoff hockey & it had not happened before last night. Hmmmmmm.
Nothing Is Fool proof if you have the right fools.
To be fair, Tampa had dominated 5-on-5 for the duration of the series too — around three-to-two over the series. Boston were pretty badly overmatched overall over the six games.
Still, no penalties in game 7 does illustrate the lack of quality in NHL officiating and how the rules change from game to game. Very, very bush league.
Should be an excellent SCF
At least both conferences have sent their best teams. Should make for some good hockey.
I dispute the notion that Boston is truely the best team in the East. They are a good team riding transient percentages, much like how last year’s Montreal, a bad team, was in the playoffs.
This should be Vancouver’s for the taking unless Thomas severly outplays Luongo.
by Stephan Cooper on May 28, 2011 3:35 PM EDT up reply actions
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