Re: The NHL Thread
 

Holy shit Ed Snider died

Re: The NHL Thread
 

I am at a lost for words. I did not always agree with what Mr. Snider did, but without him the Flyers are not the Flyers. I am assuming he is one of, if not the, longest owners of a sports franchise, excluding families

Re: The NHL Thread
 

He's the reason the Flyers are the Flyers. A few days after the facetime national anthem too... RIP to him. Sad day for Philly fans I'm sure.

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:lol That's the way to do it.

Sorry about your loss, Flyers fans.

And Tim, Sarah already started a bracket challenge, but I'll sign up for yours, too.

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Fuck...oh well.

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RIP Ed Snider. You had a vision 50 years ago and brought the best fucking sport to this city. Goddammit, if this doesn't light a fire under this team's ass then nothing will. Snider was the type of owner who had an almost cult-like love from his players because of that intensity and fire of his.

On Saturday when the Flyers were playing to clinch a playoff spot, Lauren Hart, our anthemist, FaceTimed with Snider during the anthem. I didn't even think of the possibility that was probably the last time he watched a Flyers game.

On a side note, the Snider's Youth Hockey Foundation was his baby. I may make a donation to it later but here's the link: http://www.sniderhockey.org/support-...ey/make-a-gift

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Woah. That's a shame.

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RIP Ed Snider

Islanders had NO interest in playing the Pens, clearly :lol

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another hefty quarrel set to happen between h2p and I

:popcorn

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not gonna matter if it's Lundqvist vs. Zatkoff

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you now Hank ze goalieeee has been yanked in like 4/10 right?

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it's still a 3rd stringer vs. a top 5 goalie in the league

don't act like it's not a huge advantage

and i know McDonough is out but Pens still have Maatta, Rust, Malkin and top 2 goalies possibly all out

not good

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home ice cures all ills, allegedly

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Ha my email from the NHL: "Playoff Spots and Seedings are Set! Will You Pick the Red Wings to Win the Cup?" Fuck no I won't...lol

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Alright I'll start. Let's see em

Caps in 6
Pens in 5
Isles in 6
Wings in 7

Stars in 5
Hawks in 6
Ducks in 7
Kings in 6

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:lol :lol

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Caps in 5
Rangers in 7
Panthers in 6
Wings in 7

Ducks in 6
Kings in 6
Stars in 6
Hawks in 7

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:lol i guess you're not familiar with the Penguins' history of game 7's at home

Caps in 5
Pens in 6 (if one of our goalies comes back)
Panthers in 7
Lightning in 7

Stars in 6
Hawks in 7
Ducks in 5
Kings in 6

Re: The NHL Thread
 

I'm so tempted to pick the Flyers over the Caps. They are playing well and confident and...it's the Caps. Depending on health issues of the Rangers and Pens, Flyers actually might be their toughest test. Always gotta worry about the team that gets into the playoffs late on a big run.

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Stars in 5
Hawks in 6
Preds in 7
Kings in 6

Flyers in 7
Rangers in 7
Panthers in 6
Red Wings in 5

Re: The NHL Thread
 

My thought as well. Still can't quite pick them over the Caps.

Caps in 6
Pens in 6 (depending on health)
Panthers in 5
Red Wings in 7

Stars in 5
Hawks in 7
Ducks in 5
Kings in 6

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Yeah, I agree there is a lot of talent in the league, we have all seen it displayed by various teams and players over say the last decade. Thing with the Hawks and the Kings is they both have shown a way to play a team game and kick it into another gear come playoff time.

Well yeah, that was certainly the easy answer. I was just overtired and thinking too much last night plus I really didn't want to rub it in Barbs face!

That Seguin trade did result in a Cup for them so I would not be too critical of that move.

My bad, I did not see that one. Still room?

That is a tough blow to both the city of Phillie and the league as a whole. May he rest in peace.

Never really bought into that mindset. It is helpful for sure but any team who can't win on the road isn't going to get a Cup IMO - especially against teams with a national following where they see plenty of their fans in the stands or a geographic rival game where the crowd is almost 50/50 in either arena.

Close to what I was thinking:

Caps in 6
Pens in 6
Isles in 5
Wings in 7

Stars in 6
Hawks in 6
Ducks in 7
Kings in 6

Going to be some great hockey for the next month+ - I fully expect upsets, comebacks, lots of OT, chokes, etc, etc. Regardless of who advances all those series will be fun to watch!

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What? No it didn't. Seguin left after the 2012-13 season, they won the Cup in 2011.

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Sarah already started one, hombre. Why are you trying to step on her toes?

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:lol:lol

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I don't trust her hairy legs...and I had done it in the past I think...and I didn't see her post. lol

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unreal
#stateofhockey

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i'm rooting for the Wild in my heart but picking with my head

sorry dude, Stars can score in bunches.

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Honesty I could see the Wild winning that series

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Congrats to Anderson and Gibson for winning the Jennings
Congrats to Ovechkin for hitting 50 goals to lead the league and winning the Maurice 'Rocket' Richards Trophy
Congrats to Kane for winning the Art Ross
Congrats to Toffoli for taking home the plus minus award
Congrats to Elliot for winning the Roger Crozier Award
Congrats to Holtby for tying the record for wins - he is my odds on favorite for the Vezina too
Congrats to Crawford for leading the league in shutouts
Congrats to the Caps for bring home another Presidents trophy
Congrats to Panarin for winning his bonus

Rest of the awards are going to be tough calls because so many races are damn close. Should be interesting to see what the writers think!

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Agreed, Dallas is not a solid defense, their goaltending is hit or miss and they are dealing with some injuries. If the Wild can shut down Benn and Spezza they have a good shot at winning.

You also have to wonder how much Seguin can bring to the table if he comes back during the series.

It will surely be a tough series but I could see Minnesota winning out in the end. Unfortunately they will have to beat either the Hawks or the Blues to advance any further and both of those teams are a tough challenge with the overrated home ice advantage!!

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Fleury is practicing today. Pens in 3. ;) (I keed, I keed.)

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i just hope they don't rush him back

i'd love to know Murray's status too

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I doubt they will. I'd rather have Zatkoff than a concussed Fleury.

I'm very curious about Murray's status as well.

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I could not. I guess Dubs could steal something but they have been so bad lately. First sub 90 point team to make the playoffs since 2010.

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Yeah, same with Seguin for his own sake, like to see him be 100% (or somewhere near there) when he comes back. Does not mean a thing to me though since the Hawks are busy with the Blues but if he returns quickly it could either help or harm Dallas's chance to advance!

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the penguins should be practicing 1 thing and 1 thing only this week

power play power play power play

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Just want the Hawks to get healthy and hitting on all cylinders for the playoffs. Be nice to steal a win in game one at St. Louis while Keith serves the last game of his suspension, it would really shake up the dynamic of that series and give Chicago some more motivation moving on in the series.

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Wings need to practice at 7pm every day so practice starting the fucking game on time.

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Stars in 6
Hawks in 5
Ducks in 4
Kings in 5

Flyers in 6
Pens in 7
Panthers in 6
Lightning in 4

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Been awhile, but I'm back baby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9q7...&nohtml5=False

Here's what gonna happen

Caps in 7
Pens in 5
Cats in 7
Wings in 7

Stars in 4
Hawks in 5
Ducks in 7
Kings in 5

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Trebek thinks it's the Caps

http://www.russianmachineneverbreaks...als-bandwagon/

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Caps in 5
Rangers in 7
Panthers in 5
Lighting in 6

Stars in 6
Hawks in 5
Ducks in 6
Kings in 6

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:lol sorry timmy

I joined yours too if it makes you feel any better.

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back when indoor youth soccer had (still does?) blue cards, our coach made us practice 5v3 for the PK. helped our ability to play zone, get in lanes, and stay home more relatable.

/cool story

:lol

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Seeing as I don't shave my playoff beard is already in effect :lol

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He's probably gone. he'll get another job in 10min.

the bruins collapsed the last two seasons. it's really not a surprise if you've followed them even a little bit over the last couple of years. to top it off, they had a guy in net that hadn't played in over a month

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Played indoor and outdoor soccer for almost 20 years and have never heard of a blue card, is it something new? Saw plenty of guys (myself included) get red and yellow cards but never even heard of a blue one.

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same thing as a yellow but it's usually just used in indoor soccer and initiates a "power play"

some leagues use blue, some use yellow

https://www.google.com/#q=blue+card+in+soccer

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we had them for like 3-4 years when I was in the 10-15 range. instead of a yellow you got a blue, sat out for 2 min. 2 blues were a yellow, that yellow followed you to the next game, 2 yellows a red (suspension, etc.).

maybe it was just our league....

promoted increased scoring. I dug it.

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Got to do my first round playoff picks!!

WEST:

1. Dallas-4
WC. Minnesota-2

2. St. Louis-4
3. Chicago-3

1. Anaheim-4
WC. Nashville-2

2. Los Angeles-4
3. San Jose-1


EAST:

1. Florida-4
WC. Brooklyn-3

2. Tampa Bay-4
3. Detroit-2

1. Washington-4
WC. Philadelphia-3

2. Pittsburgh-4
3. New York-2

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If you watched any Bruins hockey you wold agree with this. Bruins were fucking awful all year. And would beat good teams sometimes because they sold out on D.

Strangely, B's were insanely good on the road, and a sub .500 team at home. Same as the Sharks I believe. Don't know how that happens but Bruins offense was lethal on the road.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Caps in 6
Pens in 7
Lightning in 7
Panthers in 6

Ducks in 5
Kings in 6
Stars in 6
Blues in 7

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yeah, not sure what claude is supposed to do when 3/4 of the team has no trade clause and is either overpaid, old, or always hurt.

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Weird, first I have ever heard of it. When I played if you got a yellow you didn't even have to leave the field, the other team just got a free kick but if you got a second yellow or a straight red you would have to leave the game and you team played a man down for the remainder of the game and worse you were ineligible for the next game. I only got one red in entire life and it was for getting two yellows in one game - one of which they gave me for yelling at one defenders who fell for the same exact trick every time and as our sweeper I'd have to pick up the slack for him!

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new page bump

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Not a fan of that logo.

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Also changing my picks little:

Caps in 5
Pens in 6
Panthers in 5
Lighting in 6

Stars in 6
Hawks in 5
Ducks in 7
Kings in 6

Re: The NHL Thread
 

you never played indoor soccer with power plays? i didn't like it nearly as much as full-field outdoor but the power play element was super fun

if you had a competent team, you could get some creative, artful passing going on

and as mostly a goalie, i absolutely feared killing a PP :lol

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how about now?

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what were your playoff OT rules for indoor?

we did 5v5 for 5 minutes and then every minute after that you took a player off the field. shit got down to goalie v goalie sometimes :lol

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Better I guess. Because of the password, maybe the winter classic champs banner? lol jk

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can't remember if they were any different than the regular season but i don't think it was anything like that lol

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does game center/center ice run through the 1st round of the playoffs?

Re: The NHL Thread
 

It's playoff time in the NHL Thread. The regular playoff fans come in and chirp a bit, then are gone right after. Buncha cuties.


Agreed. Roster-wise, they simply have not been able to sustainably ice a solid team. Really weird front-office decisions in terms of personnel. Definitely not all on Julien, who absolutely is a great coach.

It's the common thing we talk about all the time in here - the NHL coaching carousel. After a while, a coach's message just gets stale and it's time for new blood. When Peter Laviolette got let go in Philly (and Carolina), does that mean he was a bad coach? Hell no, it was just time for something fresh. When Trotz got let go in Nashville, did that make him a bad coach? No response required. Boston probably just needs a new face preaching a new message, and Julien - if he wants to - will easily land on his feet somewhere else.
Signing up for both because Lord knows I can't pick between you two. :hug

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No, today is the first I have even heard of the concept. For our indoor we actually had a dedicated gym with turf that was large enough for 11 v 11 games. Growing up each county in CT had a team and we'd battle indoor, our only real fear was sliding on the turf and a handful of us from each county were on the same team to compete against other states from PA to ME.

Closest thing I can recall to what you are talking about was if it was raining for a grade, middle, or high school gym class where we'd play on the basketball court but none of the actual soccer players every took it very serious because we didn't want to risk injury during some stupid gym class game! I never could figure out why our HS didn't allow those of us who played one or more sports to avoid gym classes. :lol

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There. Now it is completely unbiased!!

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to the bolded: that's not really true indoor soccer

the way i grew up knowing it was a 5 v 5 game on a small, hard surface with small, lacrosse sized nets. there was no out-of-bounds on the sidelines, you could use the walls to your advantage (kinda like the boards in hockey)

and you played with an indoor ball which was basically a large tennis ball (and it fucking hurt when you got hit with it)

something like this:

http://www.soccer.com/guide/wp-conte.../180863731.jpg

played with this:

http://www.rhombus-sports.com/rh33.gif

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this looks awful...

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what does?

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the field and ball.

we had astroturf, a normal ball, and goals built in to the boards. turf got replaced by the rubber stuff when I was like 13-15

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i've played on turf fields too, but they were always tiny, like the size of a bball court

i liked the hard surface and ball though because it was a super fast game

it was like a hybrid of soccer and hockey

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Yeah, I remember those balls from HS gym class - still feel guilty because I broke the nose and glasses of some girl they stuffed in goal. I didn't mean it at all, was all reaction, I took a pass, turned and fired at the net just like I had been taught (didn't even look to see who was in goal) and the poor girl just got laid out.

That 'field' looks dangerous as hell to me. Way too small for wide open play, the basketball nets would negate any chance of a cross and the lines look like someone out of a kids coloring book! :lol

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i mean that was just the first pic i found that resembled what i was talking about

i didn't play on a surface with basketball hoops hanging down like that

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Gotcha, makes sense. Still the whole concept of 5 v 5 soccer and blue cards sounds like it comes from Mars or something! :)

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our turf fields were a little smaller than hokey rinks.
though I had played on ones the size of a b-bal court when we were smaller.

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So, hockey playoffs! (I know, I know, not much to talk about until tomorrow. And I remember those green, tennis-ball-like indoor soccer balls from gym class.)

Many of the injured Pens are practicing or at least skating around. Fleury has been symptom free for the past few days and hopefully will stay that way. Murray's status is still questionable. Malkin is everybody's favorite classification: "day-to-day." Olli Matta might see some first-round action. Ryan McDonagh definitely out for Game 1 and will be day-to-day after that.

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:lol that avatar & user title :lol

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You have no idea how happy I was to find that picture. I had to use it. :lol

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busting out the beard trimmer tonight

Pens are doing a "Gold Rush" (finally) instead of the usual white out, plus the Pens will be wearing Gold sweaters at home during the playoffs

should be fucking sweet looking tomorrow night at the Consol

http://www.wtae.com/sports/penguins-...yoffs/38967292

not sure why the pic in that article is of the black jerseys, but i think they're wearing these bad boys:

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/227541/82Gold.jpg

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Wow, lot of group think at ESPN in their first round predictions:

All ten of them picked the Stars, Ducks, Caps and Panthers to advance
7 out of the 10 picked the Pens, Lightening, Hawks and Kings to advance

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/15...nd-predictions

I agree with most of them but I could see either the Islanders or the Wings pull off a series win

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Fantastic :thumbsup

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it's amazing

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Generally I'm not a fan of overly yellow sweaters but those are pretty cool, as irritating as it is to say that

Really hope the Caps primarily rock the throwback. It's such a beautiful sweater. They should just abandon the current logo all together imo

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Sounds about right to me though. I'd put the odds in all of those. Wild stink and Parise is hurt. Preds I don't think are good enough, Caps will have a tough matchup but should win. Isles aren't very good right now and have major goalie questions.

As for the others Rangers could win but odds are low, Wings could if they show up. Play like they did against Philly and they can beat a team with no Stammer, possibly no Johnson and other guys banged up. But they actually have to show up. Blues are a team that is good enough but can never close the deal. Sharks will be thinking about blowing that 3-0 lead the entire series.

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There's something about that Wild/Stars series. Tim makes a completely good case why Dallas should obliterate them. I'm just not so sure. God forbid their offense goes cold. That's mostly what gives me pause. I know first hand what happens to teams that rely on solely offense in the playoffs. Their goaltending is weak, their defense is virtually non existent. I know Minny limped hard into the playoffs, but I have hesitation about the Stars.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

I think I actually prefer the black ones, as those are the throwbacks to the early '90's teams (and frankly they should have stayed. Stupid Howard Baldwin changing the logo around.) Though the gold ones are pretty sweet, too.

I don't trust anyone outside of Buccigross to have any good hockey knowledge at ESPN. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them forgot Steven Stamkos is injured. And it's hard to pick against the Caps, but well, you know...http://grantland.com/the-triangle/th...als-collapses/

The Isles might be too banged up to survive the Panthers. The Panthers have been kind of sneaky good this whole season. Thomas Greiss never impressed me when he was with the Pens, and I can't see him carrying them through a series. Plus Jagr!

Glad you enjoy it! :thumbsup

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agreed :thumbsup

the black ones are probably the better overall hockey sweater but i think it's going to look really cool in the arena with everyone in the building wearing gold & having gold towels

i've been wanting them to do a gold rush for a while now

Re: The NHL Thread
 

There's others that at least know what they're talking about. Burnside, LeBrun, Levy. And Bucci obviously. Everyone else, sure go ahead and ignore

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Pretty much agree with all of that though I think the Islanders could pull off an upset if they can shut down Jagr and Barkov.

Regarding individual awards I think there is going to be a 3 man race for the Norris between Burns, Doughty and Karlsson. Personally I think Burns barely edges out Doughty with Karlsson a close third - having his team not make the playoffs is not going to help Karlsson.

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I think they'd have to get shutout almost every game for Minny to win. Not that I expect Dallas to run the table or anything, I'd probably pick them to lose to the Blues or Hawks in round 2 but too much wrong with the Wild right now.
Custance and Lebrun I respect a lot. Burnside is ok.

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Yeah, I have been thinking along the same line. If Spezza goes cold and Seguin is not quite ready to contribute much then Benn and Sharp are going to have to carry that offense - that is a tall order. I agree their D is awful and their goaltending is not all that great either. I could see them being upset by the Wild as well.

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You're probably right, but if I had to pick a major first round upset I think I'd pick that one

Though picking Flyers over Caps is a fairly reasonable thought. That's not just the Caps doubter in me saying that either

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I forgot about LeBrun. He's good, too. Burnside I can take or leave.

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I fucking love Steve Levy. Always have, always will

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sucks that he's stuck at such a shit network

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Dave Cameron fired as Ottawa head coach

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Agreed. If Dallas does win that series I expect either the Hawks or Blues to beat them quite handily because both St. Louis and Chicago have more depth in every area.

Not saying the Caps will make a deep run but barring a complete fuck up the Caps win that series easily in 5 or 6 games.

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In my inability to read I missed his name. He's great, too. :thumbup. I just haven't paid much attention to ESPN lately, particularly for hockey news and analysis.

Re: The NHL Thread
 

Senators cleaned house

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/o...-rick-wamsley/