The NHL Thread

[Finnegan]

Tim Thomas is an absolute unit. They've got no answer.

[MC Prussian]

Tim Thomas is an absolute unit. They've got no answer.

They had answers in the first two games.

It'll all come good in the end.

[Jordan]

They had answers in the first two games.

It'll all come good in the end.

Well, not that many. Took them 59:42 to find an answer in Game 1.

Thomas is a very mobile goalie with an unorthodox style, and he loves to step in front of the crease. He comes out far enough to offer no glimpse of the net for outside shots. As quick as he moves laterally, sometimes--rarely--he can be beaten if the opposing team can move the puck across the zone quicker than Thomas can move (don't have many examples of this in the series besides Tories' GWG). Tough task.

Edited 10 June 2011 by Jordan

[Finnegan]

Was going to make a similar point, though somewhat less eloquently! Considering the sheer volume of shots they've taken I don't think they HAVE had the answer.

They've out-shot the Bruins in most games but the Tank has been an immovable object so far. If Boston can do this then he will draw huge plaudits.

[MC Prussian]

It's all about winning.

Oh, yes. 1-0 Vancouver in game five.

One more to go - GO 'NUCKS!!!

[Jordan]

As flukey as Vancouver's goal was, it did come after Thomas got himself into no-man's land tracking a puck that was moving across the width of the zone. And Vancouver's best chances in Game 5 came from cross-ice passes. I am a hockey genius.

Bring on Monday night.

[Finnegan]

Cracking. Right down to the wire now! Not overly confident though.

Henrik Sedin might need to stop jumping on the floor every two minutes for Boston to win.

[shen]

Cracking. Right down to the wire now! Not overly confident though.

Henrik Sedin might need to stop jumping on the floor every two minutes for Boston to win.

All wins have been at home, right? So the Bruins have to produce something special for this one...

[Finnegan]

I'd say that this is the closest final game possible, really. Boston have come far closer to getting an away result, they've just struggled to net on the road. Should be good.

I will, however, be stuck in Malta and probably won't know the result til next week.

[Jordan]

So, I uncovered Tim Thomas' secret (before Roberto Luongo made a few dick remarks about Thomas' style). But apparently, the secret to scoring against Luongo is to just fly him to Boston.

[shen]

I'd say that this is the closest final game possible, really. Boston have come far closer to getting an away result, they've just struggled to net on the road. Should be good.

I will, however, be stuck in Malta and probably won't know the result til next week.

Have they not heard of the internet in Malta?

[MC Prussian]

Say Hello to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie whilst you're over there, Finners - Pitt's supposed to start shooting World War Z on the island.

(A bit off-topic, I know)

But all the best and good luck to Vancouver, they've strained it a few times in this very tough series.

Hope the BC home bonus works one more time.

[Jordan]

Deep analysis of Game 6 would have to be provided by a psychologist, not a hockey pundit, because the Bruins beat up the Canucks last night and that's all there is to it. Don't ask me how the Canucks could play so passively and poorly in a clinching game, or wtf is going on in Roberto Luongo's head.

Johnny Boychuk set the tone 20 seconds in by driving a vulnerable Mason Raymond into the boards. No penalty was called, but I've seen cleaner hits than that draw a boarding major + game misconduct and now Raymond probably has several broken vertebrae.

Whether the Canucks were stunned by that hit, felt aggrieved due to the non-call, don't like the air in Boston, Luongo can't see well at the TD Garden, they got beaten by a better, hungrier team, etc. I don't know. But the Canucks absolutely imploded after that (and I don't think Tim Thomas had the gall to criticize Luongo's style as the thrice-humiliated Canucks goalie did to his Bruins counterpart following Game 5).

I dislike the Bruins; it's a matter of lifelong conviction and principle. But after the first 6 games of this series, I now want the Bruins--the better team thus far--to win Game 7. It would make the Canucks' players' cheap antics more quiet than the Sedins' play and spite the whole of the insufferable Canadian hockey media.

Edited 14 June 2011 by Jordan

[samjohnson]

Ive only recently got into ice hockey, at the beggining of the season, around the time I got the ESPN package.

I said I would follow the first team to score in the game I was about to turn on to. (Rather like the way I chose New York Giants in NFL)

Bruins it was!

Fantastic to see them all throughout the season into the final game of the SC Final!

Come on the Bruins! xD

[MC Prussian]

Well done Bruins! As much as it hurts to say this, but you were the more consistent team over this best-of-7 series.

I could only watch the first two periods and it was apparent that Boston were everything Vancouver wasn't. Solid, slick, effective, with a plan.

I'm massively disappointed with the cluelessness with which the Canucks presented themselves in front of their home audience.

They may had more shots on goal than Boston, but they could never generate enough pressure in front of Thomas' goal, it all seemed to be a product of chance.

And here's me thinking the league's leading offensive force during the regular season with the most wins of all teams (13 points more than Boston before the playoffs began) would present itself appropriately.

I couldn't be any more wrong. And I can see why, as a Canucks fan, you left the scene as disappointed as I was.

The biggest disappointment, however, is the behaviour of some so-called hockey fans in Vancouver:

Booing Tim Thomas during the Conn Smythe Trophy reception, boing the Bruins when they were given the Stanley Cup. What a bunch of sore losers Canucks fans are.

Instead of applauding the better team, they revert to mongoloid tactics.

And after the ensuing riots on the streets of Vancouver, and you have to call them riots, because everything that can be moved was moved and burned, innocent bystanders hit and hurt, I have lost all respect for Canucks fans:

Flash bangs from the riot squad echoed through the downtown core and acrid smoke from burning cars rolled down Georgia Street.

The images were broadcast live on the television and they'll live forever on YouTube much to this city's chagrin.

Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu maintained the Robson Street hockey riot of 1994 would not be repeated yet, in the dying moments of the Canucks' heartbreaking Stanley Cup loss, the anarchists proved him wrong.

As the final game was winding down — angry, perhaps inebriated young men surged towards the giant screen on Georgia Street.

A few bottles were hurled, there was jostling, a fistfight and an eruption outside the Canada Post building — Whoosh!

A car was consumed in flames, the hooligans rejoiced and a mob began to run amuck.

Before police could respond, the windows of the nearby Bank of Montreal shattered, a car rental office was ransacked, port-a-potties overturned...

Public order at Georgia and Homer vanished in the blink of an eye. Police who had been high-fiving subdued fans found themselves in pitched street fights with those running riot.

Shock waves of mayhem rolled between the high-rise towers. Cars in parkades were set ablaze, construction bins were ignited, diners were sent scattering as rocks flew through a restaurant's windows.

It was difficult to believe these enraged vandals were distraught hockey fans overcome by the home team's 4-0 collapse. Homer and Dunsmuir became a battle zone for the riot squad.

The ER and intensive care unit at Vancouver General Hospital declared a Code Orange as it was over-run. Staff set up triage in the parking lot.

No repeat of 1994? The massive crowd of some 70,000 who gathered all afternoon in the hope of celebrating the franchise's first Stanley Cup victory headed home with more than the tragic loss on their minds.

Embarrassing, disappointing, shocking … they struggled to find words not for a bad team effort but for the destruction and havoc unleashed.

We were supposed to wake today hung over from a Stanley Cup victory; instead the city opens its bloodshot eyes to the much sadder reality of a tarnished reputation.

More than 200 people were injured and there was $1 million in damages back in 1994. Last night's toll is still being tallied.

Hard questions need to be asked: Were police as prepared as they should have been? Or had they developed a false sense of security because of the quietude and good karma exhibited by the Olympic crowds and during previous games?

Why did this occur? Why were police unable to quickly quell it?<

"It's terrible," Canucks captain Henrik Sedin said, shaking his head. "This city and province has a lot to be proud of, the team we have and the guys we have in here. It's too bad."

On a night he should have been talking only about hockey and a bitter defeat, he wasn't. He was talking about the skirmishes.

An outstanding season and a phenomenal run for the cup, which came agonizingly close, had been eclipsed by last night's melee.

This city's Stanley Cup dream has soured into a nightmare.

[email protected]

http://www.vancouver...4315/story.html

People posing in front of burning cars, enjoying themselves, people hitting kids (!!) and injuring them badly in the process.

I've seen pictures that some some of my friends over there took. It's unbelievable. I never thought this would happen in Canada. Bunch of ****ing retards, really.

Edited 16 June 2011 by Prussian

[Kilworthfox]

Well done Bruins! As much as it hurts to say this, but you were the more consistent team over this best-of-7 series.

I could only watch the first two periods and it was apparent that Boston were everything Vancouver wasn't. Solid, slick, effective, with a plan.

I'm massively disappointed with the cluelessness with which the Canucks presented themselves in front of their home audience.

They may had more shots on goal than Boston, but they could never generate enough pressure in front of Thomas' goal, it all seemed to be a product of chance.

And here's me thinking the league's leading offensive force during the regular season with the most wins of all teams (13 points more than Boston before the playoffs began) would present itself appropriately.

I couldn't be any more wrong. And I can see why, as a Canucks fan, you left the scene as disappointed as I was.

The biggest disappointment, however, is the behaviour of some so-called hockey fans in Vancouver:

Booing Tim Thomas during the Conn Smythe Trophy reception, boing the Bruins when they were given the Stanley Cup. What a bunch of sore losers Canucks fans are.

Instead of applauding the better team, they revert to mongoloid tactics.

And after the ensuing riots on the streets of Vancouver, and you have to call them riots, because everything that can be moved was moved and burned, innocent bystanders hit and hurt, I have lost all respect for Canucks fans:

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/ANALYSIS+Canuck+hockey+dream+Vancouver+nightmare/4954315/story.html

People posing in front of burning cars, enjoying themselves, people hitting kids (!!) and injuring them badly in the process.

I've seen pictures that some some of my friends over there took. It's unbelievable. I never thought this would happen in Canada. Bunch of ****ing retards, really.

Thomas was awesome in the series & the whole playoffs definately MVP! Marchand looked like he had the magic touch infront of goal too.

Where did the Sedin's & Kessler go? & what a Turkey Luongo looked in game 6!

Well Done Bruins, Canucks really f'd up a series they should have won!

Edited 16 June 2011 by Kilworthfox

[Jordan]

I'm 99% sure the Canucks fans weren't booing Thomas and the Bruins, but were booing NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. That always happens in NHL arenas (even worse in he Canadian ones). They were also chanting, "Bettman sucks!"

Edit to add that there are some (TSN's Bob MacKenzie among them) that are suggesting the riot was initiated by opportunistic anarchists that saw the potential for mob behavior. Either way, though, people should know a whole lot better than to behave like that. Shame.

Edited 16 June 2011 by Jordan

[purpleronnie]

I remember it happening in the US but usually when their teams wins (weird). The police dont have a clue in America or it seems Canada too. No surveillance, no preparation, no intelligence gathering, in some ways thats a good thing we have enough of that in england to make the whole experience about going to games opressive, but you would think with history of problems after major finals they would have done more to stop it.

[Jordan]

I remember it happening in the US but usually when their teams wins (weird). The police dont have a clue in America or it seems Canada too. No surveillance, no preparation, no intelligence gathering, in some ways thats a good thing we have enough of that in england to make the whole experience about going to games opressive, but you would think with history of problems after major finals they would have done more to stop it.

It happened in Vancouver in 1994 after they lost the Cup final in 7 games to the Rangers.

I read a bunch of stuff about that riot before last night's game 7, and witnesses suggested that a distinct lack of police presence was a major factor in that riot (was in The Lyee, but I can't find the link). Vancouver became much more heavy-handed with policing after that and that tarnished its otherwise pleasant reputation. But often, just by having the riot squad present--either engaging with the crowd or just being observant--crowds will behave more peacefully and Vancouver seemed to have finally learned that in the 2010 Olympics. Although there were massive crowds in the city every day and night, things went off without a hitch (besides an anti-Olympics mini-riot by the anti-globalization, anti-capitalist fringe).

I honestly thought that enough had changed in 17 years (Christ, it's been that long since '94?) that there would be no repeat riot, but I guess I just can't understand what goes on in the mind of a pissed-off drunk Canucks fan.

[Finnegan]

Been in Malta all week, had no way to watch the game. On my way home to watch a recording now. Timmy you beast! He was immense this series, a defensive masterclass!

[danielpholt]

I'm 99% sure the Canucks fans weren't booing Thomas and the Bruins, but were booing NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. That always happens in NHL arenas (even worse in he Canadian ones). They were also chanting, "Bettman sucks!"

Edit to add that there are some (TSN's Bob MacKenzie among them) that are suggesting the riot was initiated by opportunistic anarchists that saw the potential for mob behavior. Either way, though, people should know a whole lot better than to behave like that. Shame.

Am i the only one getting bored of how everyone boo's Bettman? Its become a Cliche of itself.

Anyway. Fantastic series. I watched game 7 live and whilst it was a bit of a letdown i think we can all agree that the series as a whole was incredible. The right team won aswel.

[Jordan]

As a Rangers fan, I'm really looking forward to the new season. We desperately needed a top line center, there was only one elite center available in free agency--Brad Richards--and we got him (for less than Calgary and Toronto offered him, I should add). They let the soft Michael Del Zotto go after replacing him with Tim Erixon, a top-10 draft pick defenseman that moves the puck well, solving another problem (Erixon is expected to make the roster). All this while keeping virtually all of last season's squad (adding Mike Rupp to fill out the checking line) which is full of hard workers on all four lines, young, solid defensemen that now have another year of experience and Henrik Lundqvist in goal.

It's not often I say this, but GM Glen Sather did an excellent job this summer. I'm not about to etch their names on the Stanley Cup, but I think the Rangers will finally have hone ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs this season. Renovations at Madison Square Garden will force them to be on the road often early but if they get through that OK, they will settle down and be hard to beat.

[MC Prussian]

Gotta bring this one back.

Who said the game was dead?

Philadelphia and Winnipeg involved in the highest-scoring affair in 15 years:

Winnipeg 9, Philly 8.

On a sidenote, my dear Pens are doing quite well - even if they're still without Crosby, who's still suffering from a concussion.

I hope he'll be back soon - Malkin has made quite a progress and is now playing again.

Can't complain, Pittsburgh are putting in really good team efforts. Tend to win by scoring three or four goals rather often, though.

Getting Crosby back would add that special touch once more - and I'd love to see more high-scoring games.

[Jordan]

Oooooh yes, this thread needed a bump!

I've got the Rangers vs Senators game on now. We're.still waiting for Richards and Gaborik to click... But they'll have to click separately because Tortorella has broken up the top line. Tortorella? Changing lines? Big shocker there.

[MC Prussian]

Unbelievable tekkers from Crosby in his first NHL game in over 10 months, following suffering from a long-term concussion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9iCOMazj00

Scores his first goal in almost a year with his first shot in his first shift - a bit Lemieux-esque.

Ended up with 2 goals and 2 assists - as if nothing ever happened.

Edited 23 November 2011 by MC Prussian