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2016 NHL Playoffs Thread


dlbalr

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I'm rooting for San Jose too. First time ever. Big Joe is playing some great hockey right now.

Yeah, I hated Jumbo Joe when he was on the Bruins and loved it when Koivu would take him to the woodshed in the playoffs, but he's had a great career and has sort of matured into an all-around excellent player who has a bit of personality, unlike most of the NHL robots. Plus all those years of playoff humiliation mean he's suffered enough. Martin Jones is kind of a cool story too. Plus, San José in general is one of the few NHL teams that I really don't have any resentment towards. so, my mind's made up - GO SAN JOSE!!!

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The Sharks winning with ease was a combination of them playing well and the Kings clearly not being what they used to be. Lucic clearly hurts LA them more than he helps them out there, and Dustin Brown is a shell of his former self. Add to that a downgraded D corps, Toffoli and Gaborik not producing at all, and Quick not playing his best hockey; they made it easy for the Sharks.

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The defence was terrible. Doughty with Scuderi is worse than Emelin with Subban and they relied on that as their first pairing. Sutter played Lucic often with Lecavalier to create the slowest pairing in hockey. I don't remember their captain on the ice once. They laid everything on Kopitar, Gaborik, and Carter and it wasn't enough. I liked Pearson more than Toffoli in that series and that shouldn't happen ever.

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The Sharks winning with ease was a combination of them playing well and the Kings clearly not being what they used to be. Lucic clearly hurts LA them more than he helps them out there, and Dustin Brown is a shell of his former self. Add to that a downgraded D corps, Toffoli and Gaborik not producing at all, and Quick not playing his best hockey; they made it easy for the Sharks.

They lost...so must be bad coaching, no? Isnt that how it goes and someone should fire up the Fire Sutter thread.

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They lost...so must be bad coaching, no? Isnt that how it goes and someone should fire up the Fire Sutter thread.

Well, like MoLG said, he thought putting two of the slowest players in the league together was a good idea, and they were out last year and got dusted in five this year.

I can give him and Julien the benefit of the doubt for a couple disappointing seasons; its not like some people on here who are ready to build Therrien a statue because he had a couple 100 point years.

I can see it now:

"Da Process. Michel Therrien, President's Trophy Runner up 2014-2015"

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Guest Stogey24

They lost...so must be bad coaching, no? Isnt that how it goes and someone should fire up the Fire Sutter thread.

There was a Rumour Sutter was going to be fired last year. Apparently the players put garbage cans in front of the dressing room door so he couldn't get in... He may not be back next year.
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Would you care to elaborate on that?

Oh, it's a cheap shot, really, but that Cup-winning team was riddled with substance abuse and domestic violence issues:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/los-angeles-kings-announce-plans-to-curb-drugs-and-domestic-violence--hockey-044935543.html

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/as-voynov-leaves--la-kings-remain-tone-deaf-on-domestic-violence-061142528.html

I don't like 'em, and feel that they're a classic example of a team that benefits from the 'put away the whistles' double-standard of playoff refereeing, but they're done like dinner, so good riddance.

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It's probably a bit tough coaching a team of wife-beating drug addicts.

Sutter just consults with NBA and NFL coaches for that playbook.

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If anything, the Kings are proof you can be drunk, drug addict men of no ethics and still go all the way. Character is nice but it doesn't win games.

Game fixing in euro soccer is common and also a way to win.

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Indeed. Of course, societal norms have changed a great deal over the past 30-40 years and those changes are probably reflected in the NHL too. It just seems like the 'frat boy' locker room culture magnifies those ugly tendencies. E.g., the culture of binge-drinking (once commonplace in North America, now increasingly marginalized) seems to have been even more extreme in the NHL. Meanwhile, the culture of macho toughness and violence is probably more like to manifest away from the rink than it is (or was) for Joe Blow on the street.

The Kings seem an extreme example. But it's definitely true that in order to WIN you need a mix of personalities, including some SOBs; that's what Ronald Corey, who shipped players out of town whenever they failed to come across as wholesome 'family men,' never understood.

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Indeed. Of course, societal norms have changed a great deal over the past 30-40 years and those changes are probably reflected in the NHL too. It just seems like the 'frat boy' locker room culture magnifies those ugly tendencies. E.g., the culture of binge-drinking (once commonplace in North America, now increasingly marginalized) seems to have been even more extreme in the NHL. Meanwhile, the culture of macho toughness and violence is probably more like to manifest away from the rink than it is (or was) for Joe Blow on the street.

The Kings seem an extreme example. But it's definitely true that in order to WIN you need a mix of personalities, including some SOBs; that's what Ronald Corey, who shipped players out of town whenever they failed to come across as wholesome 'family men,' never understood.

Does Mark Down Mark? I think not.

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Famous wife beater Bobby Hull. Would you want him on your team. Another famous violence prone individual... Patrick Roy. Apparently everybody wanted him to stay, except Montreal management. Just saying.

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Does Mark Down Mark? I think not.

Hard to say. Kassian was a party animal with a track record of NOT delivering on the ice, so I'm not sure we should infer too much from that example. I can't think, off the top of my head, of any other obvious examples where Marky Marc seems to have prioritized wholesome family men per se.

We should remember that, unlike Corey, Bergevin had a long, long, and accomplished career as a blood-and-guts NHLer. He knows how teams work.

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Minnesota made a valiant effort to come back from a 4 goal third period deficit today to stave off elimination but fell just short. The Habs have the Wild's 2nd rounder this year; their loss locks them in at pick #45 (to go along with 39 in that round).

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