dat's sick

If he wasn't a hockey player he'd be a kickass purse-snatcher.

Looks similar but damn, Pavel does it sooooo much smoother.

Chicago is in the same situation the Wings were last year. They have some players that are underpaid and are going to get raises. While they will definitely be a great team next season and beyond, they're not gonna be as stacked as they are this year.

Because we only made it to the 2nd round and lost four 1-goal games to be eliminated, it's easy to see that this team is FAR, FAR away from having a chance at contending for the cup.

Watching Kopecky, Hossa and Leino sort of feels like watching the Wings a bit..

This will be a quick series, Flyers can't hang with the Hawks.

CHI/PHI: 4-0

Tampa is now my new favorite team in the East. Hopefully he can build a great team around the solid pieces they have, Stamkos, Hedman, St.Louis, Lecavalier etc. It will hurt to see him with another team though.. imagine a Tampa-Detroit SCF.. it feels unlikely now but in a few years maybe he has turned them into a winner.

The "curse" will be broken this year. Chicago will take the Cup in 4, maybe 5 games. They're so far ahead of Philly and Montreal it's not even funny. I find it funny that Hossa is repeating his playoff performance from last year though.. he only has 2 goals and 11 points, causing him to get some criticism, but at the same time just like he did for us he's playing good hockey. You can bet that if by some freak accident Chicago loses the final he will be just as hated as he is around here for not doing more.

It almost seems like a joke to say he isn't after seeing how Ovechkin, Malkin and Kovalchuk have played in the Olympics, NHL playoffs and the WHC compared to Pavel. But to some people regular season goals will always be the most important thing when you talk about who the best player is.

I guess he finally realized how invaluable he is to this team.. he really has been underpaid for what a key part he is to the team. It's true that now isn't the time to get greedy, but I hope I never have to see Homer on another NHL team...

Pasha is the one who has to do it.. he has played pretty much constantly the last couple of minutes, winning every faceoff, setting people up, and finally scored himself. edit: Czech win Gold. With all those goalscorers Russia had, Pavel was the only one who could put the puck in the net (twice) in the final. Russia took too many penalties in the 3rd, they couldn't get any real push until the last 2-3 minutes and then it was too late.

Ovechkin and Semin have been sad this tournament. Actually, they've both been horrible since the Olympics. Those two along with Kovalchuk and Malkin make for a few too many guys who refuse to pass the puck. Doesn't look like Russia will win this. Not really, Russia's been having the puck most of the time. They have a hard time getting to quality chances though, the Czech are defending well and have pretty much scored on the only chances they've had. Awesome, he's been the best player of the tournament imo.

Looked exactly like the Sedin goal that was disallowed earlier in the playoffs. That kind of goal should count though.

Love Homer but with his history of injuries and his age a multi-year deal is too risky.. unless like other mentioned he's willing to take less than 1m per year.

I'm not giving up hope of him becoming a top 4 d-man just because of his rookie season. But we probably shouldn't expect him to be the guy to carry his pairing, like Lidstrom who could form one of the best d-pairs in the league playing next to my kitchen table. Next season will be a better indication of what his potential is imo.. so many d-men struggle in their first year, and like you say the biggest issue is his consistancy. He has all the necessary tools to become great. ding ding ding In an interview right after the game when he was asked about the timeout (at the end of the bronze medal game) he said "without that timeout we probably wouldn't have won", an obvious reply to the media who said the timeout at the end of the semi-final made us lose the game.

I didn't mention him because he's a bit older than those other guys Apart from Nylander he probably has the most NHL experience of any player that was on the team. He was very solid for the most part. Made a lot of great plays, his outlet passes were fantastic.. sure every now and then he looked lost in the defensive zone but I still like what I saw from him in this tournament.

Bronze for Sweden. We were SO close to playing for the Gold, but I think Bronze is a success with the team we had. Very pleased with the performance of most of our young guys. Magnus Pääjärvi-Svensson will be a beast for the Oilers.. can't remember Sweden ever having a player like him. Blazing speed and shoot-first mentality. Needs to get a bit stronger on the puck along the boards but other than that he's already a top 6 NHL player. Sky's the limit for him. Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Linus Omark, Erik Karlsson, Johan Harju, Victor Hedman etc. all looked great for the most part.

Leino for Conn Smythe.

Hate to be the one to break it to you, but they beat us 4-1

If that is indicative of his play, I could easily see him scoring 30+ goals in the NHL. (j/k)

Great game played by Germany, they showed a ton of heart and if they had ANY scoring ability they would have won. They had enough chances but just couldn't bury the puck. As for Russia, Datsyuk is almost the only guy playing like a superstar. He was the only one making things happen it felt like, and it wasn't more than right that he got the winner.

1-0 Germany after being on the PP for what felt like 10 minutes straight. Can't believe Bykov refuses to use Datsyuk on the PK.. dude, he's the best defensive forward in the world!

Pavel is incredible, best player on Team Russia imo. Ovechkin looks terrible, Semin as well. This Canadian team has nothing on Russia though. Only Stamkos is making things happen. Well if you don't count Perry's stupid penalties as "making something happen".

He has looked great in the WHC next to Erik Karlsson. Those two have such great puck skills, it's really fun to watch them.