Echolalia

Not so much the "we can win the Cup" attitude as much as the "we can win the cup without any special tricks" and "we don't need to worry about our horrible power play, I'm sure it'll fix itself when we verse Detroit" attitude.

http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=205416&hubname=nhl After reading that I'm under the strong assumption that the Sharks are going to underestimate us. "''We feel like we've got a team that can win the Stanley Cup without any tricks or special (things),'' captain Patrick Marleau said. ''We're just going to keep working hard, play our game and get everybody to make a contribution.' Wilson plans no major changes to that struggling power play, preferring to believe his club can recapture its dominance from the regular season."

I've been thinking the same exact thing. Anyway, their toughness we already know isn't going to be a problem, because we just outhit Calgary and even Datsyuk was laying the body out. So expect a good physical series with no intimidation from either side. Speed can be countered with good positioning, and Lidstrom is #1 in the league with positioning,. Chelios and Schneider are also pretty smart in our zone, and the way some of our forwards have been playing defensively (ie Datsyuk, Draper, etc) we should be able to take them. Just be careful with the sloppy line changes. Skill is pretty even. We both have talented offense with 4 solid lines. They have good defense, but its young and generally inexperienced in the post season. Thats not to say they aren't solid, but if we get in their head early and rush the puck, we can force them to make mistakes.

Dreger got everyone right for the first round, so heres hoping that trend continues

Holy s*** thats insane

Interesting tidbit of information: Besides Hasek's off night, every loss was with Mcdonald or Osgood playing in net. The win came with Hasek.

Very nice argument. Kudos all around

Dear Sharks fans: Feel free to post in the "why I shouldn't be worried about this series" thread or whatever. We could always go for hearing your team's weaknesses

On paper we're pretty even but every team has an Achilles heel First let me point out their defense- the majority of them are for the most part inexperienced rookies to 3rd yrs. If we can apply pressure like we have been they're bound to make mistakes, take penalties and cost their team a goal or two. They do have their veterans, but every team does. Their offense (much like ours) has been coming from more than just one line, which means Lidstrom will have to work a bit more than last series. We're going to have to play tight d in our end and keep the turnovers to a minimum. They have a solid goalie, but hes no Kippursoft, and more importantly, hes no Hasek. We need to fire shots on him as often as possible, get into his head early and crowd the net every chance we can (which is no real problem), and let Hasek handle the shots from the perimeter. If this series comes down to goaltending (which it very well might) Hasek will win 10 out of 10. In terms of physical play, they're bigger than us, and probably faster than us, which is why we need to use experience to take this series. We have more veterans and generally a more playoff experienced team, especially our defense. Their speed can be matched with our positioning, and with veterans like Lidstrom, Chelios and Scheider we can handle what they throw. It might even get under their skin and cause them to be careless. In addition to that- during the regular season, they didn't play us with Bertuzzi and Calder- two power forwards that are sure to get under their skin, and the way Clearys been playing, they're going to have to put a shadow on him. I'll be honest, this series is very evenly matched, but like I said before the playoffs begin- this cup is going to be won more with hunger than it is with skill. We just need to want it bad enough.

They never played us with Bertuzzi, and the 9-3 was against Osgood (I believe). We have grit and depth, but they do too. It may come straight down to goal tending for this one.

Bring on the Sharks

These arent even penalties- this is hockey I have to say this is one of the most ridiculously reffed games ive ever seen

Jesus these refs are so much worse than in the Detroit series... somehow

Actually I just realized that its a rock-paper-scissors scenario between the three of us (in terms of the regular season at least) We fared much better against Anaheim than San Hose, but San Hose did much better than Anaheim against us. Lastly, Anaheim beat San Hose much more than we did.

Actually at the LGW homepage theres an team affiliates tab or something that has links to almost every teams forum, and the feeder is in there, so incidentally I already knew. Having said that, if I we're a sharks fan I would prefer versing the wings also, having whooped us all over the ice throughout the regular season. Their battles against Anaheim we're pretty back and forth, so clearly they see an advantage through our recent history. But for those of you who think they're underrating us (and maybe they are a bit), 90% of them know very well they have probably the toughest route to the finals. No matter how you look at it, odds are heavily stacked that they end up versing Nashville, Detroit and Anaheim: the three top Western Conference teams. Its a pick-your-poison type scenario for them.

Speaking of referees, Mickeyisms, and phantom interference calls, did anyone catch Mickey's mickeyism? "Kippersoft could sell ice cubes to Eskimos!"

shoot, it looked like he was clipped in the forehead on the slow motion replay. That really sucks. Alteast its not another Yzerman puck to the eye incident...

Vlady. No argument. I can't believe Kariya is beating Vlady out

Unfortunately hockey isn't an American sport, and thats the only logical conclusion I can come up with as to why they give only negative attention to it. Baseball = THE American sport Basketball = another good ol' American sport Football = The American version of a British sport Soccer = Not American, no coverage but bad head-butting coverage. I have thought this over for so long and thats honestly the best thing I can come up with

So if Homer had to stay at the hospital for whatever reason and the team returned home without him, wound a second plane take the trip to Calgary just to pick him up or what? How does that work out

Unless theres a penalty on the play or it was put in illegally (high stick, kicking/gloving motion) the shot would be a goal. If the refs blew the whistle before he shot the puck in, it would be no goal as the play would already be dead, but the refs can only whistle a play down if they lose sight of the puck (Hasek has it covered), or someone is injured.

Draper? You mean Holmstrom? He's the one who got cut. We picked him up just before the deadline. He played in most of the playoff games as a power forward, mainly just crashing the corners and fighting off checks. He didn't play in game 4 though; replaced by Hudler.

Ken Holland has some work to do in filling his shoes for a captain and a top defenseman.

Ehhhhhhhh, Dom didn't face an average of 40+ shots a game, which definitely helped