haroldsnepsts

Agree that this will likely be long and low scoring. As for Elliot being better than Quick "all year long," Quick has one fewer wins than Elliot even has starts. So you're comparing a goalie who started 69 games to one who started 36. Don't get me wrong, St. Louis has strong goaltending and a great tandem but it's a little misleading to claim Elliott has been better than Quick when there's a 33 game difference in sample size. Like both Detroit and St. Louis learned with Manny Legace, there's a big difference between putting up good numbers as a backup and actually carrying the load as the starter. As for LA's chances, I have no idea. They're so inexperienced, but so are the Blues. The Kings are better than their 8th seed shows. They finally started getting it together under Sutter and improved offensively. But the big deadline move to bring in Carter has yet to pay off. In the first round it was Quick and Brown who got them through. Quick will need to be great again, but they're going to need more scoring from more places to make it past St. Louis. They're not going to give up the shorties or breakaways like Vancouver did. It's too bad these teams couldn't meet in the conference finals, because of the teams left if it's not the Kings coming out of the west, St. Louis would be my second choice.

But that doesn't negate my point. As you point out he was scouted, drafted and developed as a defensive forward, though they also hoped he could contribute somewhat offensively. Then he had a breakout goal-scoring year in 08, and had another great year in 09. That doesn't mean necessarily that he can or will keep that up. There's also the chance that he really is more of a defensive forward than someone to be relied upon as one of the big goal scorers on the team and that he won't match those totals again. With the contract the Wings gave him, obviously they're banking that he can. Honestly I think he could, but not with the inconsistent effort he puts out. As for the shorthanded duties I'm guessing it's just because the Wings had so many other players who could fulfill that role but didn't have an equal scoring touch to Mule's.

Why shouldn't his first two playoffs count? He was "just coming into the league" for two whole years? In 07 Franzen got more TOI per game (16:47) in the postseason than he did the last two playoffs. It's not like he was a 4th liner playing six minutes a game. Yes for some players there can be a learning curve. Others come into the league blazing right out of the gate. I don't see why that gives him a mulligan for the first two seasons. Datsyuk was pretty terrible for his first four playoffs, but it's become pretty clear since then that he's at or near a PPG player in the postseason. Throw out Mule's first season if you want since then he actually was just coming into the league, but then he's still had three awesome postseasons and three very average ones for what he's paid. Like I said, it remains to be seen if he's just had a couple down postseasons, or if the beast years were really the anomaly.

So now Franzen has had three amazing postseasons and four mediocre to bad ones. In the next season or two we'll know for sure if he really has a beast mode for the playoffs or if those few years were an aberration and now he's gone back to his normal level.

Franzen managing to say the absolute wrong thing for how he's viewed here. Winning is fun. Scoring goals is fun. Try working harder every day, every game, every shift, and you'll probably win more games and score more goals and have more fun.

It's disappointing that they nominate Lundqvist for the Hart and not Quick. A little East coast bias maybe? Quick had 35 wins to Henrik's 39, 10 shutouts to his 8, and a .929 save percentage to Henrik's .930. Quick started all but 13 games this season for the Kings and is by far the biggest reason the Kings are in the playoffs. Los Angeles finished 29th out of 30 teams in Goals For. He got little to no goal support most of the season. The Rangers had a great season but also had more support, like Gaborik scoring 41 goals. To me, Quick was such a bigger factor in the Kings success than Lundqvist was for the Rangers. Without Quick, the Kings have been golfing since the regular season ended.

Kopecky did what he does best, fall down. Brodeur has been under attack all night. Kopecky alone has full on run him a few times. Upshall whacking him in the chest when there wasn't even a puck in the area. If they hadn't already called one back, I'd have to guess that one's coming back.

I want Florida to win but man that looked like goalie interference by Kopecky. If that's Homer doing that the goal is waived off and it's a 2 minute penalty.

I still don't understand how you slam into your own player like that when he's the one carrying the puck. Usually that happens with guys circling behind the play.

You guys are really late to the party with the Ericsson bashing. He was good all season and one of our best D-men in the playoffs.

So based on your experience with what, twenty, thirty people? Let's say one hundred people, you call all Boston fans trash. And now you're calling the whole city racist. makes sense. And I'm not messing with anybody. If you don't like the responses your posts get then you don't have to post in the thread. Thanks for calling me cute though.

But talking to refs and the media is part of the job.

Kopecky with a devastating hit. Unfortunately it's on his teammate Madden. Madden has his head down stickhandling through center ice and Kopecky inexplicably slams right into him. Madden sprawled on the ice dripping blood from his face.

so you're saying that almost all Boston sports fans are trash because they make hate-filled statements based on generalizations about a group of people that is actually large and diverse?

Yes, it probably does. With aging comes a decrease in your max heart rate and heart output, your lung capacity, muscle mass, flexibility, testosterone. Those are known issues. Your body just doesn't recover as well as it used to, whether it's recover time from a workout or from injury. Genetics and staying fit can certainly lessen the impact of aging, but can't erase them. The reality is that Lidstrom at 25 is going to recover much faster than an injury than he does at 41. And in general he is more prone to injury now that he's older.

I think that's just Helen St. James looking for an angle for the story. There's no quote from Lidstrom that implies that, just the one from Babs that asks the question. And from the mlive article about roughly the same topic, there's this quote from Lidstrom regarding Homer's retirement. http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2012/04/tomas_holmstroms_future_with_r.html

Islanders? Bad contracts are kind of their wheelhouse.

Historically we probably remember the epic OT's a lot more than we do the ones that end after a couple minutes, so it could seem like there were more of them. But it's only the first round. Based on the teams left in the West and the caliber of goaltending they have, I have a feeling we could be in for some long ones.

Except penalty killing. Karlsson had an amazing season and looks like a promising young defensemen. But he was 7th among defensemen on his team in terms of PK minutes with 33 seconds SHTOI/G (5th on his team in the postseason with :51 SHTOI/G). That's not to say he isn't good on the PK, he just didn't perform that function. For me it's less about Karlsson specifically and more about keeping with the spirit of the award, which is for showing best all-round abilities over the course of a season. Karlsson's role wasn't well rounded. And while he put up huge numbers for a D-man, they weren't Coffey-like levels that are worth exempting the other roles (thought Coffey actually did perform those functions he just wasn't known for them). I'm still pissed at Weber for the head slam but he's a more worthy candidate to me. I don't want the Norris to go the way of the Selke and have it become another award that's mostly about points.

AGreed. It feels like Lundqvist will win it, but it's hard to go wrong. And he won't win this one either, but Quick deserves the Hart. If not for him the LA Kings are not even close to the playoffs. Most of the season they were dead last in goals scored, and I think finished at 29.

If I didn't think Ovechkin were such a d-bag these days, I'd be a lot more excited about this.

Luongo was playing well this postseason and still got the hook from his coach. That's a pretty clear message. I'm not surprised he asked for the trade. He's a good but not great goalie with an awful contract. Vancouver fans over on hfboards always yell "It's a great cap hit!" But the reality is you have to sign a 33 year old goaltender (with questionable mental toughness) for the next 10 years.

Honestly I think it's time for a changing of the guard. Homer has been awesome for the wings and gives his all every shift but his role has become too limited. Knowing how Holland does things though I kind of expect homer back on a one-year contract.

Honestly I just love that Babcock is being outspoken already about what Detroit needs to do in the offseason. Holland's comments seem measured as usual but Babs is pretty clear. The ball is in your court Kenny.

Luongo should definitely be picking teams he's willing to be traded to. He played well ( minus one bad goal) and still got the hook. That's not "to change things up" when you don't get the start for the rest of the series. it's because the coach thinks the team has a better chance with Schneider. It'll just be interesting to see who will take on that ridiculous contract. Want to sign a good but mentally fragile goalie for the next 10 years? We've got your man. Once he got out of Vancouver and all that baggage though, there's a decent chance Luongo could get it together.