ESPN Picks

[johnnyoski 0]

Looking at the Sharks record against us during the season and how quickly the Sharks eliminated the Prednecks why would any outside hockey analyst pick against San Jose?

IMO any series between the 4 remaining Western Conference teams is basically a coin flip ('Nucks only because of Luongo).

EDIT: Spelling

Edited April 24, 2007 by johnnyoski

[Star_Hunter 0]

Not like we had a hard time with the Predators during the season either(6-2), SJ should not be looking at their success vs Nashville and to think they will be just walking over us. Experts really don't know anything as for the last two seasons they thought we would have a hard time making the playoffs.

[akustyk 84]

They are not better on paper. If anything, they are equal or less than the Wings.

I like their youth and toughness. they are deeper up front because they have

stronger veterans and more skilled youth than us. and have size/weight advantage

I most certainly like our D more, though. we've been a string defensive team

all year and it's not about to change in playoffs. we were unfortunate to lose

Kronwall who added depth, but Pain Train has stepped up here. truth being

said, they are not that far behind. not many big names, but effective

now for goal... Nabokov/Toskala is a duo you should not underrate. they've not

been playoff monsters yet, but solid enough. still, I'd dare to say Hasek at his

B+ game (I don't expect him to play like he was at the age of 30) is better here

with a margin.

suming it up... I'd give them some advantage because of more skilled forward

corps.

other factor that come into play would be coaching, chemistry, discipline, experience

and hunger. oh yeah... and how teams match up against each other. let's go...

coaching - can't say. Wilson is not Playdirty but Babcock is pretty reasonable. tough call

chemistry - can't say for the Sharks. but I most certainly like Wings, except for maybe

Lang line which needs Bertuzzi to have a jump.

discipline - slight nod to Sharks. they managed to finish s***ty Nashville quick

staying out of the box. we had PK problem with Flames. sure, it was a Canadian

team so many of that were make-up or phantom calls. still...

experience - Wings all the way. Sharks are younger and pressumably more prone

to bad momentum. I guess Wings will also have more mental toughness later in the

series which will be extremely important as this is likely to be a close series

hunger - I do love what I see from Wings. can't say for Sharks here and will have

to watch them live

match up - unfortunately, they seemed to be doing very fine against us. how this

translates into postseason... we'll see. I'd give them an advantage here.

opinions?

Edited April 24, 2007 by akustyk

[GoWings1905 2,694]

There are plenty of people here on LGW that know more about hockey and have more credibility than hockey writers from ESPN. If the world thinks San Jose is going to beat the Red Wings, that's fine. I don't care what anyone says about the Red Wings, because I have faith they will prove the doubters wrong.

[betterREDthandead 58]

There are plenty of people here on LGW that know more about hockey and have more credibility than hockey writers from ESPN. If the world thinks San Jose is going to beat the Red Wings, that's fine. I don't care what anyone says about the Red Wings, because I have faith they will prove the doubters wrong.

OK. Lemme know when you've found an LGW member that's played, coached, or GM'ed in the NHL and I'll match 'em up with ESPN's crew.

Sheesh. This whole thread is because ESPN had the audacity to pick against the Wings. How dare they.

[johnnyoski 0]

I think the series comes down to special teams.

The Sharks P-Play murdered us during the season. Our penalty kill will have to perform as well as it did in games 5 & 6 or we need to just stay out of the box.

Our P-Play also has to click more consistently, especially when we're at the Shark Tank.

[Viperar 16]

I think the series comes down to special teams.

The Sharks P-Play murdered us during the season. Our penalty kill will have to perform as well as it did in games 5 & 6 or we need to just stay out of the box.

Our P-Play also has to click more consistently, especially when we're at the Shark Tank.

on that note our PK has been fantastic and really clicking lately, something to our benefit against the sharks PP for sure, i think the teams are too different to look at the reg season series.

[betterREDthandead 58]

I think the series comes down to special teams.

The Sharks P-Play murdered us during the season. Our penalty kill will have to perform as well as it did in games 5 & 6 or we need to just stay out of the box.

Our P-Play also has to click more consistently, especially when we're at the Shark Tank.

The Sharks were 2-for-30 on the power play against Nashville. That can only help us if that trend continues. Still, what that means is that they were terrific 5-on-5.

[Wings_Dynasty 267]

OK. Lemme know when you've found an LGW member that's played, coached, or GM'ed in the NHL and I'll match 'em up with ESPN's crew.

Sheesh. This whole thread is because ESPN had the audacity to pick against the Wings. How dare they.

I can guess with the best of them. I guessed all the winners in the first round in NFM25's game (my game totals were wrong and I put my ballot in a little late, but I did get all the winners). I think I could hold my own against them. Seeing as I have a better record than all of them just guessing who is going to win a series.

[EasyMark 8]

Divisions don't mean anything. On any given night, any team in the NHL can take down the best ranked team. Conversely, if the Sharks lose Thorton or Marleau in the 1st period with a broken orbital bone after a puck in the face, all this guess work goes down the pipes.

Detroit is the ONLY team in the NHL with less than 20 losses. That's good enough for me to believe that they won't lose 4 games of 7.

The Wings had 19 regulation losses and 13 OT losses for a total of 32 losses.

Still believe?

[betterREDthandead 58]

The Wings had 19 regulation losses and 13 OT losses for a total of 32 losses.

Still believe?

Yep. A pretty fair number of those OT losses are shootout losses.

[Dabura 12,207]

I may be in the minority here, but I'm happy everyone and his mom his betting against us, as it'll make winning the series that much sweeter.

[Hank 0]

They are not better on paper. If anything, they are equal or less than the Wings. They had the same goals against and only 4 more goals for. Their defense has zero big names and their offense is sloppy in their own zone (from watching the Preds series). If they bring the game they brought in the first round with their "B" at best goalie, they are looking at a 5 game series MAX.

They are better off rolling 3 mediocre lines instead of the 2 power lines they rolled against Trashville and hoping for the Wings to get into penalty trouble like they did in the regular season. Then they can send out their 2 power lines as PP and then maybe catch the Wings on the PK. But how many times will the Wings be in the box when they know it was their downfall during the season?

The Wings ran into penalty trouble against the Flames because they were forced to bring the game to Kipper and needed to be physical to get past the Flames D. Now that the Sharks are going to bring the game to the Wings, Detroit will have less physical play to contend with getting to Nabokov and will benfit with San Jose taking lots of penalties in a tightly called play-offs.

I think you seriously underestimate the Sharks. Nashville is a tremendous club itself that can make teams look bad at certain times.

While the Sharks don't have any 'big name' defenseman, they do have a great collection of dmen-by-committee. If there is one negative thing you can say about it, it's inexperience. But I'm pretty sure we're all going to get to know, and hate, Scott Hannon before this series is done.

And their 12 forwards are an excellent group. All can skate,most can grind, and a lot of them can score.

Remember, the Wings have been beaten by some teams while we were the ones with the 'big name' defenseman and forwards.

The Wings shouldn't be taken lightly either but if the Wings do beat them in 5 it won't be an easy 5. There won't be an easy game the rest of the way no matter how far we get.

[spaMgobLiN 0]

What else is new?

"what else is new".... get outta here, redwings are never the underdogs, you're not using THAT one against the sharks.

[Hank 0]

The Wings had 19 regulation losses and 13 OT losses for a total of 32 losses.

Still believe?

Not to mention that using that logic Atlanta should have beaten the Rangers.

And divisions do make a big difference. I'd much rather play Columbus, Chicago and St.Louis 24 times a year instead of Anaheim, Dallas, and Los Angeles.

[Drake_Marcus 890]

Burnside's Analysis and Prediction

Sharks in 7.

He also works for ESPN.

And what's so horrible about Sharks in 7? The difference between winning or losing the seventh game is usually pretty small, so I see that analysis as fairly encouraging given how our season series against SJ turned out.

We'll get 'em, but I think it'll take 7 games of hard fricken work. Whoever walks away from this series is going to have to work for the win.... and assuming the Ducks win their series (a fair assumption) it's not going to be a cake-walk to the SCF either.

Bring it.

[spaMgobLiN 0]

They are not better on paper. If anything, they are equal or less than the Wings. They had the same goals against and only 4 more goals for. Their defense has zero big names and their offense is sloppy in their own zone (from watching the Preds series). If they bring the game they brought in the first round with their "B" at best goalie, they are looking at a 5 game series MAX.

They are better off rolling 3 mediocre lines instead of the 2 power lines they rolled against Trashville and hoping for the Wings to get into penalty trouble like they did in the regular season. Then they can send out their 2 power lines as PP and then maybe catch the Wings on the PK. But how many times will the Wings be in the box when they know it was their downfall during the season?

The Wings ran into penalty trouble against the Flames because they were forced to bring the game to Kipper and needed to be physical to get past the Flames D. Now that the Sharks are going to bring the game to the Wings, Detroit will have less physical play to contend with getting to Nabokov and will benfit with San Jose taking lots of penalties in a tightly called play-offs.

It's posts like this that make me impatient for thursday, I can't wait until the Sharks silence your crowd.

Sharks still getting no respect and I love it, I have to say though they (sharks) have not really earned it (respect) yet........ They have something to prove and they have a chip on their shoulder, I have to say I've never seen this team so focused and this is their best team they've had in their franchise history. Here's to a hard hitting bone crunching series, hopefully the sharks silence tough guy's like that jackass I quoted.

Let the games speak for themselves, only prediction I will make is at some point your crowd WILL be silenced.

Edited April 24, 2007 by spaMgobLiN

[akustyk 84]

Here's to a hard hitting bone crunching series, hopefully the sharks silence tough guy's like that jackass I quoted.

oh my... that was just an personal opinion without even negativity towards Sharks team...

slow down, man...

[Viperar 16]

It's posts like this that make me impatient for thursday, I can't wait until the Sharks silence your crowd.

Sharks still getting no respect and I love it, I have to say though they (sharks) have not really earned it (respect) yet........ They have something to prove and they have a chip on their shoulder, I have to say I've never seen this team so focused and this is their best team they've had in their franchise history. Here's to a hard hitting bone crunching series, hopefully the sharks silence tough guy's like that jackass I quoted.

he's not a jackass and actually a good poster on these forums, he is stating his opinion and fact be it if you dont like it fine. provide us a counterargument. I think if you actually read around, its probably not fair to assume we dont respect the sharks, as id say theres a lot more concern on these forums now rather than against calgary. Intelligent posts get you intelligent responses

[GoWings1905 2,694]

OK. Lemme know when you've found an LGW member that's played, coached, or GM'ed in the NHL and I'll match 'em up with ESPN's crew.

Sheesh. This whole thread is because ESPN had the audacity to pick against the Wings. How dare they.

Actually, that was my point that I don't care who the ESPN writers pick. Them picking against the Red Wings does not concern me in the least. The only difference between any of them and us is they get paid to make their picks. If you hold ESPN hockey writers to such a high standard, that is the concerning part.

[Kp-Wings 3]

OK. Lemme know when you've found an LGW member that's played, coached, or GM'ed in the NHL and I'll match 'em up with ESPN's crew.

Sheesh. This whole thread is because ESPN had the audacity to pick against the Wings. How dare they.

Good point. Everyone is having a coronary over the fact that the guys at ESPN didn't pick the Wings. I don't get what the big deal is in really. Most hockey pundants almost never pick the Wings to win anything. Why is this situation so different?

[Hank 0]

It's posts like this that make me impatient for thursday, I can't wait until the Sharks silence your crowd.

Sharks still getting no respect and I love it, I have to say though they (sharks) have not really earned it (respect) yet........ They have something to prove and they have a chip on their shoulder, I have to say I've never seen this team so focused and this is their best team they've had in their franchise history. Here's to a hard hitting bone crunching series, hopefully the sharks silence tough guy's like that jackass I quoted.

Let the games speak for themselves, only prediction I will make is at some point your crowd WILL be silenced.

I find it humerous that you believe the Sharks aren't getting respect. Almost everyone and their dog (including Wings fans) are picking the Sharks to win this series.

While I agree that I don't share the same reasons for the Wings winning as Wings_Dynasty, most here don't feel that this series is a cake walk and we know how good the Sharks team is top-to-bottom.

[akustyk 84]

if this makes ESPN analysts better let me tell you that Woody Paige picks Avalanche to win the cup

no, I'm not serious. just a good ol' joke to relax the atmosphere

[Viperar 16]

Good point. Everyone is having a coronary over the fact that the guys at ESPN didn't pick the Wings. I don't get what the big deal is in really. Most hockey pundants almost never pick the Wings to win anything. Why is this situation so different?

i dont think its fair to assume my thread was a panic as to the espn analysts picking the sharks, if you actually read my posts, its actually very neutral almost dismissing the espn experts

[Kp-Wings 3]

i dont think its fair to assume my thread was a panic as to the espn analysts picking the sharks, if you actually read my posts, its actually very neutral almost dismissing the espn experts

I'm talking about the thread in general. Just look at some of the people posting in this thread. Their all calling the ESPN analysts a bunch of jackasses just because they didn't pick the Wings. I'm not saying you did, but most of the people in here are.