xtrememachine1

Agreed on both points. A couple of good shot blocking d-men will hit the market this summer too. Luke Schenn and Roman Polak. Nice change of pace from what we currently have. I'll agree that Thornton is better than Z at this moment, but the difference isn't that much. While Z has clearly declined, Thornton isn't anywhere close to the player he was either. Watching during this series was painful in comparison to the way he used to play. He still has SOME playmaking skills, but he's not strong on the puck, his shot, while never his best attribute anyways, isn't there anymore and some of his passes looked really sloppy at times. This was his chance to win it and unfortunately, for him, he did not.

Crosby has a much different personality now than he did then. No more whining or sucker punches (although him and Thornton went at it pretty good). No more acting like a petulant child. He's not perfect, but he's light years ahead of where he was when he played us, in terms of maturity, which is one of the reasons I was okay with them winning it this year. While the Sharks were getting good pressure on the Pens last night, I noticed that a lot of their offensive pressure was a result of good passing. That's one way to get around relentless forechecking. Pass that puck around and wear them out, they can't move as fast as a pass. Then I thought, about the '08 Wings and how ridiculously well they could control and pass the puck around. If the '08 Wings played the '16 Pens, it would still be a good series, but the Wings would take it. The Pens wouldn't be able to do what they did throughout these playoffs against that Red Wings team or really any Red Wings team for that matter. Hopefully everybody remembers this next year when they start complaining about how we have too many "soft players" and we need to get bigger. Bigger equals slower. Film? Y-You mean... that wasn't... real??

Yeah, I felt that series ending would have been better if they had just held on and won it at the Joe. That Rafalski goal is one of my favorite goals ever, it would have been nice if it was the GWG. Having said that though, it was special to me personally because a guy named Nick (which is also my name) picked up the Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh (my hometown) in the same season in which my son was born a half mile away from the arena. Nick Lidstrom receiving the Stanley Cup a half mile away from where I received my son (who is a HUGE Wings fan now) into this world in the same season was a sweet irony. So while clinching in Detroit would have been great, there was some good that came from winning it in Pittsburgh too.

Before this game, I thought of our Game 5 against Pittsburgh in 2008. Up 3-1 with a chance to win at the Joe. We had pretty much dominated the whole series, but we came out tight, gave up two goals early before catching fire and scoring goals. That's kind of how this game went too with a similar outcome. That pressure to clinch at home with a huge series lead and the other team desperate is tough. Martin Jones stole that game. There were so many times I thought that puck was in and he stoned them. As for the rest of the team, they were pretty pathetic. The final shot totals were 46-21. Now I know that stat can sometimes be misleading, but that's not the case here. After those goals, SJ couldn't get any kind of sustained pressure for the rest of the game, outside of a power play. It was all these "pass, pass, one timer from wherever that may or may not be close or hit the net, skate back into your own end" plays. The Sharks cannot win the Cup playing like this. I'm amazed they won 2 games.

I have a feeling the Pens will lose tonight. Either due to nerves or pressure to close it out at home, combined with the desperation from SJ, I could see the Sharks taking it back to SJ for a Game 6, but it won't go any further than that.

That is a possibility. This COULD be the worst team in 25 years, but then again, all of our young guys will improve as well. We did really well without Datsyuk in the lineup at the beginning of last year with our younger guys coming out of the gate on fire before they burned out by the end of the year. With a full year under their belts, they'll be less likely to burn out. Having said that, there is a chance we land Stamkos. If we don't, we might see Holland pull off a trade of some sort. I think there's enough discontent in the front office and in the locker room to force change, whether that be in the form of Stamkos or Radulov or someone else. This has the promise to be one of more interesting off seasons in awhile for us. We either take a step towards getting better and staying a contender or we continue down that path towards getting a lottery pick and doing a full blown rebuild.

Yes, they are, unfortunately. Murray was a beast in the AHL and he had a couple good games in the NHL before Fleury got injured. I was really hoping Murray would stay buried in the depth chart. Lots of young speedsters, superstars and a good strategy will keep them up there for awhile, I think. However, this is a copycat league and teams will see the Pens success and try to copy it by putting together a speedy team that applies tons of offensive pressure. If the Pens face someone like them or simply just anyone that can disrupt their constant flow of offensive pressure, they'll have a harder time winning games.

It's a shame, Tolliver was really on top of his game in that one too.

They have like $3 mil in cap space. They have a surprising amount of bigger contracts for long term on their team. http://www.generalfanager.com/teams/columbus-blue-jackets

I probably said this earlier in this thread, but Stamkos is the fun move I'd like to see. We'd have an elite all-star franchise center on our roster again for many many years. He'd score tons of highlight reel goals and generate excitement. Plus, I'd like to see us win something. Anything. Landing the big UFA would be fun. However, the "adult side" of me feels like using that money to build up the team as a whole would be better. Dumping $10 mil into one player, that's coming off of blood clot issues, will leave holes in other areas of the roster and based on how well we finished this year, we already have a ton of holes. Maybe Stamkos's goal production helps cover those holes (giving up 3-4 goals isn't a big deal, when you score 5) or maybe it just makes those holes bigger as they don't get addressed. Either way, the Wings management need to convince Stamkos that Detroit is serious about rebuilding a contender fast and that probably means signing someone else like a Radulov. For all the crap we give Holland on this forum, I don't envy this task of trying to lure Stamkos away from a warm weather championship caliber team (Bolts) or an up and coming team with loads of young talent, the first pick in the NHL draft and a great coach (Leafs).

Considering what was at stake last night, the Sharks seemed pretty out of sync. I don't know if it was the ice or nerves or what, but terrible passes, nobody was strong on the puck and so many unforced errors. Sharks d-man lines up for a one timer on the PP and Burns passes it behind him. Thornton gets the puck and immediately has trouble controlling it without anyone around him and then makes a bad pass. A Sharks defenseman passes it ahead to a forward and another forward reaches out for it and knocks it away from his own teammate. I would say it's the ice, but the Pens had no trouble moving the puck around and making good passes. This should be over on Thursday night, the Sharks simply are not good enough to win.

Jurco is still pretty young and it's still too early to say either way, how good his career will be. Markus Naslund didn't get good until he hit 25 and I see Jurco as a similar player to him. Having said that, if trading Jurco to get rid of Datsyuk's contract is what we need to do in order to improve our team, then we should do it. This could be a great move for Jurco's career too. We have a lot of young (and younger) forwards and he's going to be fighting for ice time. With another team, he might see the ice more or fit into their system better or click with his teammates better.

All of the goals except for the last one were either weak or fluky. I mean, I know its that time of year when you're not going to see many pretty goals, but these shots from the point that pinball off stuff isn't something you plan. Its more like, throw to the net from far away and hope we're luckier than them. That first goal wasn't even going to be on net and it takes a perfect bounce off a Sharks defenseman and into the net. Anyways, the Sharks need to play better. They won this game but they got out shot badly again and they're not winning 3 more games like that. The Pens don't need to change a thing right now, their strategy will eventually get them the Cup.

Agreed. This was the third year in a row they went deep into the playoffs, we traveled back and forth to Anaheim for 7 games, suffered a few key injuries in the conference finals, played in the Finals with basically no rest, the series played its first 4 games in 6 days, Datsyuk missed more than half of it and yet we lost by 1 in Game 7. That 09 team was pretty awesome and deserved a better end. Probably one of our best non-Cup teams along with 95, 96, and 99.

No disrespect to the 2008 team, but the 2002 team would have annihilated them. We went to a Game 7 with the defending Cup champs and a team that is far superior compared to any team in the 2008 season. We lost the first two games against VAN because Yzerman was out and everyone was rusty having purposely been rested due to the Olympics and Bowman wanted to make sure everyone was ready for the playoffs. A strategy that almost backfired, but I digress. The general consensus is that 2002 Wings are the greatest Red Wings team, if not the greatest NHL team, of all time. I watched that entire season as if I had knowledge from the future, knowing that it would end with us hoisting the Cup. I knew there was no way, no how, anyone was going to win 4 times in 7 games against us. It just wasn't going to happen.

I was actually just thinking about this yesterday. I was telling my son that just because the Pens won game 1 didn't mean they would automatically win the series, then I thought of that long stretch where all the Finals ended in sweeps. That is pretty incredible. Two of those four sweeps were won by the underdog that was expecting to get swept too (95, 97).

Of all the teams the Pens have played against, the Sharks look the weakest. I mean, even crippled Tampa looked better than this. The Sharks look like they're in way over their head and this series is a huge letdown IMO. The Pens defense isn't great, but they put on so much pressure on offense, you never really see it. Everyone is so afraid to get into a high scoring game with them, that they sit back, defend and hope to score off turnovers. That tactic simply isn't working. It just leads to a huge lopsided shot total and the Pens scoring more goals than you. If SJ doesn't figure out that the only defense against this team is a great offense, then this will be over in 4.

Probably. The Bolts blew their chance on Tuesday. Home ice and a trip to the Finals on the line and they get blown out. The Pens would have to beat themselves at this point.

I was surprised they went with Fleury in the last game. Murray has been great for them for the entire playoff run, he has one off game and he's benched before the biggest game of the year, in favor of a goalie that hasn't played in a full game in two months. I know there's still one more game to play if Pittsburgh wins, but tonight is basically Game 7. If the Bolts lose tonight, there's no way, they go back to Pittsburgh and win a THIRD time on the road in this series.

After the way they finished the last few months of the regular season, I doubt anyone was underestimating them. Its not even Crosby really, he did very little in this last series. It's not Malkin either, it's that second line of Kessel, Bonino, Hagelin and the goaltending of Murray. That second line gave them the depth they needed to compliment the stars and Murray is like the anti-Fleury. Murray has every reason in the world to meltdown and does not, while Fleury has a meltdown several times in a playoff season. Interesting little fact. The Stanley Cup champion in 1976 had a rookie goalie. The Stanley Cup champion in 1986 had a rookie goalie. The Stanley Cup champion in 2006 had a rookie goalie. Now it's 2016 and there's a rookie goalie that's on a huge hot streak. We need to start a rookie goalie in 2026.

Francis piled up a lot of points because he played for a long time and got a ton of assists. His points per game though is pretty low. Dionne's points per game are up there with Orr, Gretzky and Lemieux. If Ovechkin's points per game in this era are more impressive than Dionne's, using that logic, wouldn't that make him better than Gretzky and Lemieux too? Those two piled up a ton of points during an era when high scoring games were the norm. Ovie has more individual awards and nominations because Dionne played in a more talented league. It was the same way with guys like Yzerman, Stastny and Messier. Great players, but never were going to win individual awards with guys like Lemieux and Gretzky. Put Ovechkin in an era with Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr and he probably doesn't win very many MVP awards or scoring titles. Dionne gets the shaft a lot because he played out in LA for so long, everyone focused on Boston, Montreal and Philly and of course, he didn't win any titles. So he went pretty much unnoticed despite what he did during the 70's and early 80's. I mean, the numbers don't lie, he was one of the best of his era for sure. You're right Ovie only has Crosby to compete with for the best player in his era, showing how the league in this era has less talent than it did in the 70s.

Really? Dionne is 6th all time in points and 6th all time in points per game. Bobby Orr is the only other player from that era to have a ppg average higher than him. Dionne was higher than Esposito and LaFleur. I think people just forget how good Dionne was because he never won a championship.

This is why I'm watching hockey less and less. If it's not the Wings, it's two teams I hate or two teams I don't even care exist. In this case, it's the former. The Bolts beat the Pens all three times during the regular season, but right now I can't see the Pens losing to anyone that's left. Chicago, LA, Washington probably had the best chance to knock them off, now all are eliminated. TB is only this far because they played a dysfunctional Wings team and a soft Isles. Nothing they've faced has prepared them for this matchup.

Marcel Dionne says "Hi". I'm kind of shocked that the Caps lost this series, but not shocked at the same time. They did so well all year and then just lost. They put up a fight, but at the same time, I knew it was only because the Caps like to lose in an incredibly painful fashion like coming all the way back from a 3-0 deficit on the road only to lose in OT. Do the Caps make changes after this? I mean, they've been successful, just not in the playoffs. Kind of like the Wings in the mid 90s. What do they need? Better defense? More depth? I feel like if those were a problem they wouldn't be winning Presidents Trophies. At this point, I'm not sure what exactly they need to fix. Ovechkin isn't the problem at all.

Didn't he leave Detroit on bad terms after he was traded?