SDavis35

This was the first time in years that I've actually supported Canada winning, but I feel bad for the Russians right now, goalies aren't getting the job done. Edit: I take it back, this game is now interesting.

What did the USA do to the referees? 5 penalties in the quarterfinal vs. Russia already and it's just the 1st.

3 wins in 21 games... I cannot imagine what that would feel like as a fan. Need to blow up the whole organization, not just the coach.

Just the D? It was a bad game all around, even Howard looked just okay, not bad but not as good as he has been. I'll just take it as an off night and move on to the next game.

Personally, I didn't understand why there were any penalties on that play in particular. Feels like the refs get worse every game. Bad first period, but we came back. That's how you face adversity, head on without quit.

I'm not sure we are as desperate for more scoring as some would say. Yes, I will be concerned when our goal scorers now go on slumps, but as of today we are 11th in the league offensively and I don't think we've had a game where we scored more than 5 goals. If the opportunity presents itself, I would be all for a trade, but I don't think it's something we're desperate for. We have a good team, but we're not offensive minded because our D isn't great (on paper at least, we're overachieving in that regard). Getting someone better for our top 6 would likely mean we have to sacrifice an important piece to our team - it may not make us better.

Of course they do, they have more wins than any other officials, except maybe the NBA.

Cleary looking average is fine with me. That's better than he has been. Kindl on the other hand is showing us why he deserves his 2.4M, at least in the past two games specifically. I think he's been solid all season and I'm glad he hasn't been the weak link that's beating us. As for referees tonight... I think they let go some obvious calls and had questionable penalty calls. As winners there wasn't much to complain about. As a hockey fan, the refs need a lot of work before I'll watch other teams again.

It's funny, I was thinking about how poor we were playing early in the game, yet we finished strong and our captain was a big part of that. But even when we played bad the Leafs couldn't seem to get anything going either, so I'm quite happy with tonight's game.

Same. I missed the first two period of the game, so coming back and seeing cleary jam that puck in made my night. One of many exciting moments in the past 5 years for me. (Many better before then haha)

I only hope he brings scoring to the team; imo it's the offense from our defense which is a reason we couldn't score most of last season.

I feel more entertained by Tatar's, which is why I voted for him, but I'm pretty sure that has significant bias. I won't be disappointed if Oshie wins this round, I'm all in for Nyquist though.

Tokarski is no Price, but I think he did a great job for a rookie, I'm not sure Price would have won it though. You had Montreal trying to come back all series long, and Lundqvist would have competed on a different level vs. Price, not sure that 7-4 game would have existed. Tokarski gave Montreal a chance, and that's all you can ask of him.

Hamilton AND two Toronto teams? I'm not so sure about that...

Doesn't matter if Nyquist wins by vote or not, he definitely had the play of the year as far as I recall.

Couldn't finish the article, but I found this ironic... http://turtleboysports.com/2014/05/04/habs-fans-continue-to-say-really-stupid-things-on-internet-after-montreal-canadiens-emasculating-5-3-comeback-loss-to-boston-bruins/ Whines about Habs fans yet imo he's far worse!

It's kind of disappointing, Hawks had their toughest challenge in the first round, now Minnesota just can't keep up, regardless of how well they seem to play. Hawks are just that good, flying high on confidence. I'm still rooting against them though, would hate them to be the first back-to-back since the Wings.

Biggest thing I see is experience. They also have one of the best rivalries in hockey (if not the best). These two teams just hate each other, Wings don't have that in the East yet. And then there's the fact that Montreal is to Rask what Detroit was to Turco.

I think this is an example where it really should be up to the ref to make the call. IMO Price initiated contact so that he would get the call. Alternatively, Price gives Killorn a little push as he attempts to get into position, as a result he loses balance and then when trying to get himself set up again, he no longer can due to the previous action. It's a call the Lightning have to live with, but this is at least the 4th team that appears to be getting jobbed by the refs vs. Montreal. (I've seen Leafs, Bruins and Wings fans complain already during the season.)

I never noticed Franzen was actually tying up the Bruins player's stick so Datsyuk could grab that... I thought he had just flubbed the pass and Datsyuk made the most of it. Took all three forwards of that line to put that puck in, awesome!

Obviously just one opinion, but at least Babcock is getting consideration for it this year. I think Babcock deserves it for dealing with constant injuries and not even knowing who will be in or out on any given day. http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=713046&navid=DL|NHL|home

From Bruins facebook page:

Solid end to a tough regular season. Mrzaek only seems to win if he's getting a shutout (2-4-0 on the season). Thought our newbie Dmen looked solid, still looked like rookies but they won't be far off. Bertuzzi looked real good, but I don't see a future for him on this team, I still think he retires after the playoffs. Nice to see Datsyuk playing at game level, didn't look 100%, more like 85% but looks like he'll be a real threat in the playoffs. Now to take on the Big Bad Bruins!

I'm with you on this one... Crosby from 5 years ago I hated because he was diving and whining and acting like an entitled brat. He's matured, he is a far better player now than he was then, and since that concussion took him off the radar, I've cooled off about him. Now, he's just a very good player who is embellishing just as much as the next guy. He's just a better person than he was, that doesn't mean he's in the league of class like Zetterberg, Yzerman and co. Crosby is just another player in the league who is really good, and I just don't get bent out of shape by his antics anymore. Although, I assume over the next three weeks though, I will be hating him all over again.

To me it's not just injuries, but the success of the guys who replaced them. Every game on NBC this year (and CBC too I think) has been about how good a job of coaching Babcock has done this year. He's had to actually coach more this year etc. The difference between Penguins injuries and ours comes down to the fact they still had their top line of Crosby and Malkin for most of the year. (Crosby has missed 1 game) As well they have 7 players with 71+ GP vs. our 4 (Quincey, Miller, Kronwall and Lashoff) We have lost to injury a lot of our leadership, we've practically gone through a rebuild while the season was still going and yet we found a way to (almost) make the playoffs. We have players exceeding their potential, all the young guys are chipping in and we are better now than when we started. This is a testament to a good coach, getting the most out of his players. As a fan base here, we didn't think we would make the playoffs because of all these injuries, and yet Babcock kept this team believing, pushing his players to be better, to learn and compete with the best of teams. Pittsburgh didn't suffer that kind of loss, yes they lost Letang and Vokoun for practically the entire season, but they still had Fleury (and defence doesn't matter to them anyway). That's why I think Babcock deserves recognition as the best coach this year. Roy and Cooper did great jobs with their teams too, but I think Babcock had more responsibility for his team's successes and failures than the others.