Board 8 > NHL Playoff topic: OVERTIME. PLAYOFF. HOCKEY!

(+) Yeah! (+)

What an Edmonton way to lose.

Leafs argh.

Hell yeah Blues! I knew they could beat the Wild.

I have way less hope against Avalanche.

Binnington revival, who would've thought... but yeah, I still see Colorado tearing through them. Though you never know!

I knew he would pull through. After game 3 I was telling my buddies that they needed to give Binny a chance. Glad they listened to me!

For real though he was a huge part of our only Cup victory, regardless of his failures in this season I had hope that the playoff atmosphere would awaken something in him. Granted it was probably only for this series, I have very little faith in our chances against Colorado.

Leafs are going to lose another game 7 at home.

No idea why I took Tampa in 6, the Leafs always lose in 7.

Whoever wins Game 7 is winning the East. Damn, I want to believe!!!!

...at this point my worry is, I won the B8 fantasy league and the Lightning won the cup the prior two seasons, and I won it again this year. If the Lightning three-peat I'm gonna feel partly responsible <_<

Looks like the Penguins are quickly putting the Rangers in their place without Crosby.

I took Penguins in 6, but I did not expect this series to feel as lopsided as it has.

Honestly this series has shown exactly why I felt it was a mistake for the Rangers to go into "win now" mode at the trade deadline. They're not ready to be a "win now team".

And the Penguins take a retaliation penalty on an uncalled Rangers penalty and let them back in tsk tsk.

Anyhow I do agree with the people who think the winner of Toronto/Tampa game 7 goes to the final.

I had Tampa losing in the final when the playoffs started.

Also the Blues can beat Colorado if can they copy what Vegas did to them.

Unless Colorado has learned not to totally fold when they're physically pressured by the other team over a long series.

Pittsburgh has a long 5 on 3 I suspect the comeback is dead~

The beautiful 430-7-10pm EST tripleheader Game 7s on Saturday... now how many will we get (if any) on Sunday.

Crescent-Moon posted...

Honestly this series has shown exactly why I felt it was a mistake for the Rangers to go into "win now" mode at the trade deadline. They're not ready to be a "win now team".

Shesterkin's regular season stats though!! All you'd need is that to carry through the playoffs, defence/goaltending wins championships right? Uh.... I don't know any of their defencemen other than Fox and Trouba... but Shesterkin's a lock for Vezina.

Now they killed the 5 on 3 and got a PP goal of their own, Malkin scoring as I type this, hmm. Could be a nailbiter. I'm only invested in their series because IF (fuck the) Bruins beat the Canes I'm rooting for whichever team wins this series in the second round!!

The Rangers were considered a fringe playoff team entering the year.

They have a ~.500 record against other playoff teams (and were smashed by the Canes twice and Bruins once late in the season), and ate up weaker teams riding off of Igor being a brick.

They overachieved this year in the regular season. I had them as a 7 or 8 that went out in round 1. Nothing I saw convinced me this team was ready for the playoffs. They're young and very inconsistent. I was surprised to see them favored in this series.

Also Canes/Bruins has looked like an NBA series. 6 home team blowouts.

What's the Penguins record against other playoff teams, though?

I'd chalk the Rangers being favored (other than being the higher seed) due to - not wanting to sound like a broken record here - Casey DeSmith as series-starting goaltender.

Rangers also apparently won the regular season series 3-1 (the one loss being a 1-0 shutout from Jarry), not that that ultimately means anything come playoff time but their four games were Feb 26, March 25, March 29 and April 7 so about as recent a sample set as you can get.

Four game 7s.

Hype.

Fun facts:

The last time the Penguins lost a series from up 3-1 was 2014 against the Rangers.

It was also the last time a Rangers goaltender had an assist in a series.

After how bad they looked in game 5, I thought both Washington and Dallas would also be out today.

We have Game 7 #5.

Hype!

Predictions:

Bruins. The home team has won every game so far in a blowout, but the Bruins have more players I trust to get it done, while all the pressure is on the Hurricanes. I orginally had Hurricanes in 6, but this feels ripe for the upset knockout.

Lightning. Picking Toronto at home in game 7? Hahahahahahano.

Oilers. This is more of a gut feeling that they'll get a bit of the monkey off their back. They're drastically superior and the Kings let game 6 get away. I expect them to rampage over the Kings, and only an all-time game from Quick is going to stop them. I don't know if Quick still has what it's going to take to pull this win off.

Rangers. Pittsburgh took two more injuries in game 6 and I feel missed their chance to close it out. I expect an ugly game 7 where the Rangers do just enough to advance.

Flames. The reasoning is similar to the Oilers. When the Flames play at peak, they are significantly better than Dallas, as we saw late in game 4 and basically all of game 5. This feels like a low-scoring 1 goal victory in which Calgary controls most of the game, but can never quite put Dallas away until the clock runs out.

Feel bad because I should be rooting for Calgary but I mean... they're probably 5th out of 7 for Canadian teams for me, only Winnipeg and Vancouver are lower. Whereas I'm feeling more connected to the Stars due to having had a bunch of them in my pool, including season-salvaging Oettinger.

And Hintz being a bro on that empty net goal, leaving it for Seguin rather than just shooting himself... what a guy

I took Calgary in a sweep.

As unimpressive as they've been, I do think they get the job done.

First game 7 was a snoozefest in which Boston essentially did nothing but constantly make mistakes and I barely paid any attention to the third period.

Hopefully this doesn't become a trend.

Leafs and game 7.

Argh, hoping for the best.

neonreaper posted...

Go Bruins!

:(

rekt

Toronto went down fighting.

But history repeats itself.

being an Ottawa fan during the "4 series losses to the Leafs in 5 years" timeframe, now the Leafs playoff futility... you expect it, you brace yourself for it, but it never gets any easier.

(Edit: oh geez, the 4th of those is apparently the last series that the Leafs won, in 2004. That's probably the secret sauce here, we need the Sens to get back into the playoffs vs. the Leafs)

Well, we got a "Battle of Florida" in round 2 so that's neat, and maybe a Battle of Alberta if the other Canadian teams can actually win.

Fuck.

Comedy Option: Tampa Bay vs. New York ECF round 3.

I will be SHOCKED if Calgary wins this game 7

Just completely shocked. So many red flags going off here, there's just no chance.

The Oilers have completely taken over the game in the way I thought they would. There's such a difference between these teams.

Yet it's still only 1-0.... just need classic Mike Smith to show up one time, and then a lucky OT break...!

Your trust in playoff Quick does look pretty warranted, in any case

Kings aren't going to score.

Quick did what he needed to do. Keep the Oilers under 2.

But the Kings just did not show up at all.

My feeling after the second period this game would end 1-0, or possibly 2-0 with an empty netter.

Well, that's the game.

Quick did everything he could, but I suspected Edmonton would just dominate the hell out of this game and take it.

And I have Calgary winning 2-1 tomorrow in a similar game where they're just flat out better than Dallas but just can't ever really put them away.

Jacob Trouba mistakes have cost the Rangers an average of a goal a game this series.

Second period impression: Game is Pittsburgh's to lose.

The difference in experience is very very obvious. The Rangers are making a disastrous error about once every two-three minutes.

The first powerplay almost resulted in a shorthanded breakaway. The second just resulted in a shorthanded breakaway goal.

At some point the Rangers are going to turn the puck open to a wide open Rust, I can feel it.

Igor's going to have to bail them out.

This has been an even uglier game than I expected. Penguins again really should already have the KO here.

Game 7 OT hype

Game 7 Overtimmmme

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/3/4/AAC56kAADPFq.jpg

Wow quick goal by Dallas.

Lmaooooo

Maybe they're energized by the Mavs beating the ever loving hell out of the Suns in humiliating fashion~

1 shot 1 goal... you love to see it (or hate if you're on the other side)

Just saw Roope Hintz on the Stars scratch list for Game 7 though, damn. Big loss.

Almost had an OT penalty shot.

Rangers PP has been awful this game. Here's their shot.

Pittsburgh let this series get away.

Crescent-Moon posted...

Rangers. Pittsburgh took two more injuries in game 6 and I feel missed their chance to close it out. I expect an ugly game 7 where the Rangers do just enough to advance

The funny part is the Rangers were very close to that disastrous turnover to Rust I foretold.

First goal is now 4-0 in the game 7s

Sorry Calgary.

And if the stat I just heard is accurate, the Rangers became the first team in NHL history to win a series from down 3-1 in which they trailed in games 5, 6, and 7.

This really was a historic failure here by the Penguins, who were clearly the better team.

Igor also set a franchise record for saves in a playoff series, but still gave up tons of goals overall because of the lack of discipline from the rest of the team.

hmm.... sounds believable enough, to dig out of so many holes.

Down 2-0 in each of Game 5 and 6 too. That level of battling back from adversity... I just felt my first pang of fear for the Hurricanes

The issue I have with the Rangers was on full display the entire series. They're young, wildly inconsistent, and their inexperience really shows in their decision making at times.

They basically didn't even show up in game 6 until Rodrigues took that dumb retaliation penalty. Their offense only comes in bursts and they go through long stretches of lethargy where the Penguins would just beat them to every puck.

Carolina should be a rather large favorite. The Rangers played them twice at the end of the regular season at home, and got smashed both times. Any team with a disciplined defensive structure can frustrate the Rangers off their game.

In any case, this is fantastic for the Rangers future prospects. This kind of playoff experience will be very useful for a team whose window should be open for a few years.

Calgary outshooting Dallas 25 to 9 is in lines with what I expected..

..But Dallas is leading 2-1 anyway.

42-12 overall shots

26-4 in the second

Stars immediately turn the puck over the second anyone on their team touches it half the time.

..

And we're tied after 2 periods.

Dallas played significantly better in the third.

Still some really bad defensive zone turnovers though.

Dallas dominated the first 5 minutes of OT and held Calgary without a shot only to take an awful offensive zone penalty with all the momentum.

Will another home PP seal a series?

The constant godawful turnovers finally caught up to Dallas.

What kind of angle was that last shot on, damn...

Feels bad for Oettinger and his herculean effort but it's the right result. Now we get the Battle of Alberta which is always a good time!

....also means I went 33/36 on my confidence predictions only failing on +2 Minnesota (Binnington!) and +1 Toronto (minimally-confident hope), damn. Should've posted an official topic and claimed the early lead!

The Penguins have been knocked out in the first round 3 consecutive years by a team they are clearly better than.

It seems easy to blame the goaltending, but something feels like it's gone wrong with this core in recent years.