The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

Who wins?

Course I'm picking the Blackhawks.

The way the Bruins made such quick work of what looked like a juggernaut Pittsburgh squad...I'm not sure I can pick against Boston here. Both squads are tough...I expect a monster of a series for the Cup.

Great series, as rivals, I hate the Bruins.  I strongly dislike the Blackhawks.

I'll be rooting for the Hawks, but I foresee the Bruins taking a hard-fought series in 7 games.  I think the Hawks have more weaknesses.

i hate hate hate the B's but I thought they were gonna roll over the hawks.  I think the Hawks got lucky last night and that they can't hang with Boston in a 7 game series.  Bruins in 6.

If Game 1 was any indication of this series, its going to be a barn burner.  Those two goalies basically played almost 3 periods of shutout hockey against the best teams in the league.  It took a double-deflection to finally beat Rask.  Amazing.

You could tell everyone was gassed by the end.  The players, the refs, even the announcers.  The only penalties they called in the final 4 periods was "too many men".  Hell even the fans weren't chanting as loudly as they were. 

I'm rooting for the Bruins, tough loss last night.  Exciting game last night, I fell asleep between the 2nd and 3rd overtime periods.  Probably the two best defensive teams in the league.

I don't know, Boston had a 2 goal lead twice in the game and ended up losing. This game might come back to haunt Boston.

^^Getting a split in the Madhouse was huge, no matter how you get it.

I would like to say this - I LOVE the environment in Chicago, right down to the song they play when Chicago takes the ice ("Stranglehold").  The place is amazing.  Never been for a hockey game.  I've been to plenty of B's games, which are insane...this seems to rival those.

Crawford and Rask are both monsters.  Boston's PK seems too tough for Chicago to handle, but that could end with one bad bounce.  Flip a coin on this one.  This one easily goes 7.

I am surprised at the lack of success Chicago has had on the power play.  I saw last night they are something like 0 for 19 or something sad.  I don't understand why, but sure that some of it has to do with Boston's PK unit.

I am pretty upset that I'm likely going to be on a plane during game 7.  I'm flying to Toronto Wednesday night so, if there's a game 7, I probably won't be the only one annoyed at missing it.  Hope it ends in 6.

The power play has not been a strength of Chicago all year. Most of their goals they get 5 on 5. Against a good D like Boston and LA, just  makes it even worse.

Last night I thought Chicago looked particularly tired. They had played 3 straight overtime games and it showed last night. They didn't look in the game from the opening drop.

Admittedly I haven't watched hardly any Western Conference hockey prior to the playoffs.  With the shortened season, I was mostly interested in eastern conference.  So I don't really claim to be an expert on Chicago's strengths.  It just surprises me that a team with so many wins and such strength can be so awful with a man advantage.  They play their power plays like the Panthers - lots of passing on the perimeter, almost no shooting.

Both teams kind of sucked on the PP this year.  PP success is a little misleading anyway.  If you look at teams who have the best success each year (% wise) on PP, it's usually the worst teams (record wise) in the league.

Chicago and Boston are both built the same way:  Strangle you with defense and come at you with four waves of very good lines.  Once the other team gets on the PP, both teams have amazing PKs.  Last night's game was freaking epic.  It doesn't seem like it from the score, both goalies stood on their heads.  The defenses for both teams let the squads down, they both faced shooting galleries last night.  That game could have been 13-12.

What does this mean?

Referring to a hockey goalie as standing on his head basically means he played lights out. He made incredible saves. If you can picture a goalie getting barraged and making several saves that is a good example.

Goalie play is my favorite part of hockey, and while I agree that both netminders are outstanding talents, I have a really hard time lauding the goaltenders in a 6-5 hockey game. ;)

Actually, this is not what it means.  Wayyyyy long ago goalie rules were changed to allow them more freedom (they used to be very limited in what they could do).  The NHL official who was explaining them said something along the lines of "they can do whatever they want, hell, they can even stand on their heads if they want"

^^^ That may be the origin of the phrase (and I don't doubt that it is), but when hockey announcers, analysts and pundits "now" say a goaltender was standing on his head, they reeeeeally do mean that he played outstanding between the pipes.

yeah, i know.  i guesss i didn't word my post properly....

Just goes to show you that both goalies got a LOT of help from their defense during the year which made them better goalies. Both teams seemed to forgo their defensive stances in this game for offense and it showed. There was a lot of pinching going on which allowed offensive players to get behind the D.

I'm really pissed that I wasn't home to watch the best game of the playoffs.  I was out Wednesday and couldn't find the game on TV.

^^^ What kind of place were you in? I'm never afraid to ask someone to put a TV onto a game I want to watch. Especially when it is the finals of a sport.

I was playing basketball.  There was a TV in the place but it had some weird channel system and I couldn't find NBC Sports on it.

Take Rask, just as an example, from Wednesday night:

He faced 47 shots, including 12 minutes of those coming on the PP.

12 minutes of PP.  That is over half a period.

The guy made 41 saves.  His defense let him down.  Seqguin had an awful turnover, which lead to a short handed goal while Boston was on a PP.  Seidenberg, normally a very good defender, couldn't clear two pucks and pinched one, leading to two goals (including the game winner).  In the third period Rask went to make a lateral move to make a generic stop and couldn't.  Because Mount Chara skated into his net and the puck, moving about three inches per year, bounced right by.

Rask stood on his head Wednesday night, I don't know what game you were watching. 

Equal truths can be said for Crawford.  He didn't face the same amount of goals, but Chicago sold out their defense for this game.  They skated the entire game with FIVE D-linemen and expected everyone else to go both ways.  It showed in his play.  Crawford is suspect on the glove side, he needs SOME help and didn't get it.

If you have a problem with Rask, you have a problem with yourself.   ;D

(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-bJlwiTVGLsg/TwcMtA05wPI/AAAAAAAAHy0/rseQLpN0HpY/s560/Rask-BeastMode.jpg)

I think we can all agree, both goalies and defenses acquitted themselves nicely in game 5.  Yes?

Boston just reported Bergy will go tonight.  Still very tight lipped on his injury, as is Chicago on Toews.  Rumor is Toews had a head injury and refused to go to "quiet" room, stayed on the bench. Chicago has stated he is ready to go tonight.

I would prefer to see both teams at full strength tonight. 

The ice is going to be a mess, Boston is close to 100 degrees today.

As a B's fan, clearly I don't want to season to end tonight.  As a hockey fan I NEVER want the Cup Final to go less than 7, ever.  Let's hope it gets back to Chi-town for one more.  Not feeling great, though.  Chicago has really found something with the Toews / Kane line.  Boston is having fits slowing them down through the zone.

We will see!

Congrats Chicago Blackhawks! 2013 Stanley Cup Champions!

Unbelievable finish to a great finals!!!!  My Blackhawks prevailed....time to change my Avatar to the Indian head!!

What an amazing final 3-4 minutes... Blackhawks with the great comeback to win the NHL crown.  Props to Boston for putting up a hell of a fight, despite injuries to key players.  Next season can't get here soon enough!

stopped watching with around 3 minutes left, could not have picked a worse time to do something else.

It was a fun series to watch,I'm happy for Chicago!

(I wouldn't have been too upset if Boston won,as don't follow hockey closely anymore)

I thought it interesting seeing the effect of of the Blackhawks in the playoffs,and how it rubbed off on the White Sox,and Cubs ...

Congrats to the Hawks, unfortuneately.  It was a great series though, hopefully the NHL acquired a couple new fans for next season.

Very exciting Final.  Chicago had way too much for Boston.  The injuries were piling up, too.  Boston relies on rolling four, Campbell is a huge cog on the fourth line.  Losing him was too much.  He also is really big on the PK.  You can only plug so many holes for so long. 

Horton was playing with one arm.  Krejci was a beast in the earlier rounds, easily Boston's best or second best player...but he relied so much on Horton.  Once Horton got hurt, David's play vanished too.  I suspect we will hear soon that Chara is hurt, he didn't look right.  Bergy was out there last night playing with God only knows what.  I guess we will find out.

Know what would have been grand?  If Marchand, Peverley, Paille or Seguin could have done something in the finals.  All four were missing men.  Seguin had a couple assists.  Marshand, for the most part, didn't do a lot the whole run.

I can't, or shouldn't, complain too much.  Boston's season should have ended at the hands of Toronto in round 1.  They got a taste of that magic last night, only in reverse.

Congrats to Chicago, a worthy Champion.  Even healthy, I'm not sure Boston would have had enough to beat them in game 7.  But man, I really wanted to see it.

I was happy about the way the series ended.  Mostly because I will be on a plane on Wednesday night and would have completely missed Game 7.  But moreso because I dislike the Bruins for numerous reasons.  Not to discount what they did.  They had a great season and a great series, but the Hawks were something else this season.

But the epic comeback, Boston winning at home with 2 minutes to go...  Just wow!  I don't know how you can not love NHL hockey after watching this series.

When Chicago pulled their goalie and tied it up, I just knew that they would end up winning the game. I figured it would happen in overtime, but I knew it would happen. That was just a huge momentum boost for Chicago and letdown for Boston.