The Definitive NHL 2012-2013 Season Thread - Page 17

Sohel · #**401** Yesterday, 03:54 AM

Let's just take a moment to applaud the US' 8-3 rout of Russia at the World Championship in Helsinki. Understandably not our best team but into the semis nonetheless.

LINK

Beamer · #**402** Yesterday, 07:23 AM

US routed Russia. Ovechkin still complaining about refs ! Did you see the knee on knee by Edler on E. Staal? Brutal.

I have utmost respect for Hossa's game. Only saw him for a few months with us the year we lost the SCF. But, boy was he special with Crsoby. He had 24 pts in playoffs. And, something like 12 goals after trade deadline, leading up to playoffs. He has an incredibly quick release, as Sohel mentioned, and it stay low to the ground. Goalies have no chance unless by chance. I would say only Crosby has a quick release like that. It was on display last night. The shots were in before Anderson could react. Hossa is a brilliant take away guy too. Great overall player. I always wish we could have kept him. But, it came down between him and Brooks Orpik. But, Orpik is a icon player here. Been here since the 2002 bankruptcy dark days and stayed with it..

Vokoun looked shaky for the first time. Our goalie situation is far from ideal. We are scoring 4 goals a game and thats saving us right now. Crosby fifth fastest to 100 playoffs pts, and first in this era. Malkin four pts away from 100, and when he does that, he will be the sixth fastest. Playoff performers those two.

Sohel · #**403** Yesterday, 12:51 PM

Trailing 0-1 after 1 but we played well, MashAllah. Good defense, lots of successful hustle, strong puck possession and good shots on goal. Pasha's on a mission today and Smith seems to have rebounded from his horrific failures in game 1 somewhat. Sharp put a veteran move on him to create that Kane goal almost against the run of play, and then he was late covering the passing lane to Kane.

We can make good things happen if we continue to play well in the second and the third. Good to have Miller back and Bert benched. Need that extra speed on that grind line. Filppula's not doing well AGAIN, but Franzen seems to be moving around like a sober person.

Sohel · #**404** Yesterday, 01:05 PM

Filppula forechecks like a straight girl. BOY has he regressed after the contract!

Sohel · #**405** Yesterday, 01:08 PM

KIndl fires and Brunner deflects it in! The Griffin line does it again!!! Tied at 1.

Sohel · #**406** Yesterday, 01:15 PM

PP and momentum to Chicago. NHL needs to take a look at that rule and find a way to determine intent.

Sohel · #**407** Yesterday, 01:34 PM

Smith scores! What a pass from Hank. 2-1 Detroit!

Sohel · #**408** Yesterday, 01:41 PM

Two strong periods and we lead 2-1. Gotta keep it going in the third.

Sohel · #**409** Yesterday, 02:22 PM

The Mule scores! 3-1 Detroit in the 3rd.

Sohel · #**410** Yesterday, 02:23 PM

Filppula scores, 4-1 Detroit. What a game to start playing our best hockey of the season MashAllah!

Sohel · #**411** Yesterday, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sohel
Trailing 0-1 after 1 but we played well, MashAllah. Good defense, lots of successful hustle, strong puck possession and good shots on goal. Pasha's on a mission today and Smith seems to have rebounded from his horrific failures in game 1 somewhat. Sharp put a veteran move on him to create that Kane goal almost against the run of play, and then he was late covering the passing lane to Kane.

We can make good things happen if we continue to play well in the second and the third. Good to have Miller back and Bert benched. Need that extra speed on that grind line. Filppula's not doing well AGAIN, but Franzen seems to be moving around like a sober person.

AND THEY DID IT, thank GOD! The series is even as we head to the Joe. What a performance! We play like this, we keep winning InshAllah. Hank totally owned Toews today.

Here's what Malik has to say about this critical win on the road:

Quote:

The Detroit Red Wings elevated just about every aspect of their game during their 4-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday, but while Henrik Zetterberg told the Chicago Sun-Times' Mark Lazerus that his somewhat personal battle with Jonathan Toews (and more than a few Blackhawks who tried to take the heads off of Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Valtteri Filppula, among others) was just the way things go come playoff time...

“It’s part of playoffs,” said Zetterberg, who pointed out that the Hawks had control of who matched up against whom, not the Red Wings. “I think he plays better when it’s a little physical and I think I play better when it’s a little more physical. So there’s a lot of give and take.”

Toews complained loudly about the officiating, or the perceived lack thereof:

“I’m not going to go off and complain about some calls that I thought should have been called or whatever,” Toews said, before essentially doing just that. “If that’s the way they’re going to play, we need to play the same way. There’s a lot of clutch and grab, a lot of interference, and if [the refs] are going to let that go, that’s something we need to know and maybe do to them a little bit. It’s just tough to understand sometimes why we get roughing penalties and hooking penalties, whatever it is, [and] doesn’t go both ways. It is what it is. If that’s the way it’s going to be, we need to understand that and play more physical and be tougher on them. We’ll know that going into the next one.”

Toews said that doesn’t mean the Hawks will abandon their team game and their puck-possession style of play to run around taking unnecessary penalties, or retaliate after particularly physical episodes. Walking that fine line between physical and foolish will be key.

“It’s not out of frustration, it’s trying to frustrate their team,” he said. “That’s something we need to do a little more. They’re trying to do it to our top couple of lines, and we can do a little more of it. We’re letting them skate around with the puck a little too much.”

Hmm, as Corey Perry might say, they're "gonna get it" in Detroit?

In other words, the Hawks want to frustrate Pavel Datsyuk’s line with the same aggressive, suffocating defense. In other words, the Hawks want to fight fire with fire, and bring the same kind of intensity at both ends of the rink that they had in Game 1, and Detroit had in Game 2. In other words, the longest-running blood feud in NHL history has gotten serious again.

In other words, “Series on.”

Wings coach Mike Babcock wasn't sure if it was possible to frustrate Toews, as he told ESPN Chicago's Scott Powers...

“I don’t know about frustrate,” Babcock said of his team’s impact on Toews. “That guy doesn’t get very frustrated. He just competes. I don’t concern myself with that. We try to give him no space. They got four elite, elite forwards. They got lots of depth, but they got four guys who are all world, and you can’t give them much room.”

READ MORE

Sohel · #**412** Yesterday, 11:16 PM

Couture buries the PP winner in OT and the Sharks win the first of two must-win games at the Tank. Quick almost stole this one.

Sohel · #**413** Today, 01:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beamer
Crosby

There's a lot to smile about once he plays for your team. Gotta comment on that hat-trick. The fact that anyone scores a playoff hat-trick against a quality D in front of a quality goalie is memorable, but the way Crosby scored his 3 is the stuff of legend. 3 goals, 3 different ways, all deliberate and clinical.

The first one was a masterclass in lethal acceleration, deft stickhandling at high speed and a super accurate shot past a helpless goalie. As good as Fedorov's triple Cup-winning best when he wore #91 for us.

The second was vintage Yzerman vision, patience and audacity. He waited and waited until even his own teammates were thinking pass, before banking it in off of Anderson's butt. Watching the replay, it is a perfect example of design and execution. He saw the whole thing happen in his head before executing perfectly.

The third was classic power and placement a-la Shanahan at his best. It's amazing just how much his slap shot has improved in such a short and injury-plagued time. Though he may not have a the heaviest slap shot in the league, he certainly has one of the most lethal. You give him that kind of time and space and he WILL score on you 9 out of 10 times. Acquiring new skills is something he seems to do every season. Amazing how good he has become in the face-off circle of late.

So we're talking about a goalscorer who's a combination of Fedorov, Yzerman and Shanahan as goalscorers at their best from the greatest Red Wings team ever. Add that to the unique genius for creating goals with his Gretzsky/Mario-like vision and you have perhaps the most lethal and definitely the most multi-faceted offensive machine in the history of modern hockey. Other top scorers in the league specialize in one thing or another, but Crosby can do it all offensively. Only Malkin comes close, he plays for the same team, with Kane and Hossa a good distant 3rd and 4th. Tavares can also come close if he continues to develop like he has been. Ovechkin and Stamkos are snipers with Stamkos offering more in his game. So Crosby is qualitatively alone up there, as are Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Toews as HOF-type two-way forwards.

The only downside to Crosby is injury. Injuries would plague him forever because he's such a threat and also because he's not a perimeter player. He mixes it up. I just hope he stays healthy as much as possible so that we can continue to marvel at his hockey.

Sohel · #**414** Today, 01:13 AM

Quote:

“They had the puck a lot tonight,” Kane said. “Took a page out of our game. I felt like we were chasing the puck all the time.”

That was Detroit’s game before it was the Hawks’. The Wings never stopped playing that way; they simply haven’t been as good at it over the past few years. Saturday showed they can still bring it, if their seven-game series win over the Ducks didn’t.

“They have the momentum right now. We need to get it back somehow,” Kane said.

Series. On.

READ MORE

They're in shock to see THIS Red Wings team remind them of the bad old days with such authority.

Loving the panic in Cawks media and blogs. Outcoached and schooled with lesser players, a brutal reminder of the fact that Quenneville has never won a series against us in the playoffs and he has tried with 3 different teams. Brutal reminder of the way things usually were before they became great not so long ago, and it's THIS depleted team that bounced back to dominate them in their own building. Try greatness for 22 straight years guys and shove that post game 1 arrogance and the broom where the sun don't shine!

I sure hope we keep on playing like this. We can't lose too many once we do. It would be a miraculous thing if we win the Cup with these guys. With DeKeyser and Helm (there's a chance that we haven't seen the end of Draper 2.0) returning next year and a basket full of talent from the Griffins moving up, can't wait to see Jurco make his debut, we'll be ready to take the East by the horns InshAllah from the second half of next season. Great to see the pipeline delivering for us when needed the most. GOD willing, we'll be awesome again from the 2014-2015 season.

Sohel · #**415** Today, 01:45 AM

The Swiss beat us 3-0 to advance to the final against Sweden. What a time for the USA to play the most half-@$$ed hockey of the tournament! The hungrier and more organized team won in the end.

Sohel · #**416** Today, 02:14 AM

Hank:

Babcock:

Sohel · #**417** Today, 03:46 AM

"Wings beat Hawks at THEIR own game?"

Really, Chicago? Here's what we had to say about that:

Quote:

"The headline is erroneous. This has been the Red Wings style since the early 90's. The Hawks are playing the Wings game, and they've only started doing it since Scotty Bowman joined the Hawks organization."

"Exactly. I've had to read Kane's asinine quotation about the Wings "taking a page out of the Blackhawks' playbook" on three different articles. What a clown."

"Well that's because hockey has only been around for 5 years -- just ask any "diehard" Hawks fan.

The Hawks invented the left wing lock and were the first team to cycle the puck down low. Before the Hawks came along, everyone used flat bladed sticks and no goalie had ever heard of 'butterfly'.

Wayne Gretzky is just a folklore hero based on Patrick Kane... once again, if you doubt me, just ask any Hawks fan."

Looks like the gloves are off. I understand Crosby and Ovechkin got a lot of new folks blissfully ignorant of the recent past interested in hockey but didn't figure Kane to be one of them. This'll get the crowd going at the Joe.

Detroit is an American tragedy. It is a dying city with major issues and nobody has to deal with those issues worse than the folks still braving it within the 8 mile metro area. Although kicking a dog while it's down may be the way to celebrate success down in Chicago, such bullying and insult (calling the city "Detoilet") will backfire bigtime. Hockey is one of the very few things still going right in Detroit and once an uppity bunch of neophytes try to expropriate that, there is bound to be trouble. Getting our guys to play for the proud city with a chip of their shoulders won't make things easier for the Cawks.

Also dissing Michigan is downright stupid. Michigan, especially western Michigan is still a drop dead gorgeous place.

Beamer · #**418** Today, 08:12 AM

Incredible dissection there Sohel on Crosby. Very educative and keen observation on your part. He is everything that a modern hockey player is and perhaps more. We just hope he doesn't lose any more games. He has missed almost 200 games now ( injury, playoffs, lock out ). If it wasn't for a no name dip **** like Steckel who decided to shove his elbow in the back of his neck, who knows, where he would have gone by now. But whats done is done. On the bright side, he is turning only 25 in summer. So, perhaps lot of better days ahead. That said, Anderson is a great goalie and his pride must be hurt for getting pulled. I think he is gonna show up big time tonight. Goal is to steal one up in OTT. I am worried about Vokoun. He seems to be getting a bit tired. I don't think we have seen the last of Fleury yet..

Sharks just avoided getting swept. Down 0-3 to LA would have been monumental to rise out off. LA still can steal one. Detroit did what it always does. Watched a lot of the game in the afternoon. It reminded me of the 08 playoffs when we chased pucks all day without any success. Chicago is in for a fight. As I have said a million times, Detroit is no ordinary no.7. Franzen scored a nice goal. You are so tough on him ! I like how Brunner skates. Of course, Pens wanted to sign him in summer. They talked to his agent a few times. But, he chose Detroit. It all worked out in the end for all parties.

Beamer · #**419** Today, 08:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sohel
The Swiss beat us 3-0 to advance to the final against Sweden. What a time for the USA to play the most half-@$$ed hockey of the tournament! The hungrier and more organized team won in the end.

I was shocked.

Sohel · #**420** Today, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beamer
I am worried about Vokoun. He seems to be getting a bit tired. I don't think we have seen the last of Fleury yet..

Saw a lot of Vokoun when he was with Nashville. He was at the wrong end of a famous DATSUKIYAN DEKE (click and watch) and a FILPPULA BREAKAWAY (click and watch), and never quite recovered from that humiliation in Nashville. But he's a decent conventional goalie with solid and calming presence in the crease. His positional play is good and he will stop the puck if he sees it coming. He won't give up soft goals. Not too strong in 1 on 1 situations or elevated pucks stickside. His reflexes are slower than Fleury's and he doesn't adjust well behind the screen. So, as long as the Pens play solid defense in front of him, he'll do the job. If that defense is disrupted as it surely will be against any of the 4 Western Conference semifinalists, he will be exposed. I don't think you guys have much to worry about from either Boston or the Rangers because their skaters as a unit simply cannot keep up with your speed for a sustained period of time. Don't wanna jinx it for you guys, but I think the Sens are done, pretty much.

Having said all that, I'm not sure if he's Cup winning material. Fleury at his best certainly is.

BTW, everyone from Franzen's teammates to the fans are tough on him. That's has proven to be the only way to get him pi$$ed off and switch into the Mule Mode in the playoffs. He had to pay for team dinner the night before game 2, something that still catches him by surprise, and that did the trick for us

BTW, here's DATSYUK'S TOP 10 'TIL 2006 (click and watch). He's in that kind of form right now.