2017 Stanley Cup Finals: Nashville Predators vs. Pittsburgh Penguins

[kliq 3,755]

I'm pretty exited for this finals, I like Nashville a lot this year and I hate Pittsburgh. Has all the makings of an entertaining series.

[kliq 3,755]

On 5/26/2017 at 10:21 AM, LeftWinger said:

What's not to believe? 3 teams have win 7 of the last 11 Cups. Possibly an 8th this year. That's not parity, which is what the cap was supposed to bring. All it did was take away from the elite franchises that were willing to do what it had to to win. It was meant to spread the wealth, but I'm sure Uncle Gary is not going to change things this time in the name of parity, the teams he wants winning are winning. 

The elite teams have been able to stay elite, there is doubting that, but dont kid yourself into thinking there is no parity in the NHL. Parity is not defined by ONLY who's wins the championship, but rather who contends for it.

Just look at the standings this year:

In the Atlantic the top 4 teams didn't even make the playoffs last year. In the Eastern Conference only 3 of the 8 playoff teams made the playoffs last year. Look at Ottawa, didnt make it last year, were 1 goal away from making the Stanley Cup finals this year.

Dallas was the #1 seed in the West last year, didnt make the playoffs this year.

The Pens keep winning because they have the best 2 centers in the world locked in long term, not because of some big conspiracy. 

There is no denying parity. You want to see a league with no parity, look at the NBA.

 

 

Edited May 29, 2017 by kliq

[NerveDamage 4,176]

Edited May 29, 2017 by NerveDamage

[kickazz 5,459]

I hope thug life wins.

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

Bullcrap call.  No convincing evidence that the skate was off the ice.  That call was obviously motivated by racism.

[krsmith17 7,191]

What a f***ing joke. The challenge rule was implemented to improve the game. It's had the opposite effect in m opinion. It should be used for obvious offside / goaltender interference, not when it's a fraction of an inch. Watch the game 7, double OT goal of this series be challenged and overturned...

[toby91_ca 620]

2 minutes ago, GMRwings1983 said:

Bullcrap call.  No convincing evidence that the skate was off the ice.  That call was obviously motivated by racism.

I seriously hope you are joking.  Complain all you want with the usual Pens stuff, but racism?  Skate looked conclusively off the ice to me, but I'm watching on CBC, not sure what you are seeing.

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

Just now, toby91_ca said:

I seriously hope you are joking.  Complain all you want with the usual Pens stuff, but racism?  Skate looked conclusively off the ice to me, but I'm watching on CBC, not sure what you are seeing.

Conclusively off the ice?  You must have seen an angle they didn't show.  There wasn't anything conclusive there. I'm calling Al Sharpton right now.  

[toby91_ca 620]

2 minutes ago, krsmith17 said:

What a f***ing joke. The challenge rule was implemented to improve the game. It's had the opposite effect in m opinion. It should be used for obvious offside / goaltender interference, not when it's a fraction of an inch. Watch the game 7, double OT goal of this series be challenged and overturned...

I agree that the challenge is slowing the game down, but at least they are getting the calls right.  There's no way you can limit it to "obvious" offsides though, if it's offside by and inch, it's offside by an inch...what difference does it make how much offside it is?  It's either all or nothing with that.

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

1 minute ago, toby91_ca said:

I agree that the challenge is slowing the game down, but at least they are getting the calls right.  There's no way you can limit it to "obvious" offsides though, if it's offside by and inch, it's offside by an inch...what difference does it make how much offside it is?  It's either all or nothing with that.

I agree with you, but I didn't see anything showing it was offside.  BTW, Hornqvist dove on that other penalty they just called. The fix is in. Maybe the Russians are behind this.

I may as well turn the channel and watch WWE Raw instead of this.  The officiating is better there than in this game.

[toby91_ca 620]

7 minutes ago, GMRwings1983 said:

I agree with you, but I didn't see anything showing it was offside.  BTW, Hornqvist dove on that other penalty they just called. The fix is in. Maybe the Russians are behind this.

I may as well turn the channel and watch WWE Raw instead of this.  The officiating is better there than in this game.

I imagine 50% of the penalty calls that Hornqvist draws are embellishments.  Not saying that because I see a lot of the calls or anything, I just think that's the type of guy he is...I suspect a lot are legitimate though as he spends a lot of time around the front of the net.

[shocky2002 36]

Mike Ilitch passes, Joe Louis arena closes, playoff streak over, not even the last team to repeat as champs anymore. Lmao

[toby91_ca 620]

It looks like experience is a real thing in terms of edge.  Preds looks rattled....question is how long it will last.

[wings_fanatic 677]

Preds were controlling the game until officials took over. The goal being overturned was ridiculous. Theres no way they had a clear enough angle to determine to change their call. The offside review is so inconsistent that there is no point in having it. Either have it be reviewed by one guy in toronto or no review at all. We cant continue to have all these different people making judgements becasue they all have different views, which is a huge problem.

On top of that, when is there ever 2 guys who get a penalty in the same shift to make it a 5 on 3 in the finals? And the cherry on top was crosby getting away with such obvious interference right before their first goal. Just disgraceful. I stopped watching. With any luck i check the score later to see a comeback.

[Jersey Wing 1,521]

First period:
"Welcome to the show, Meat"

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

The Penguins have 7 shots in this game, and you guys are saying the Preds can't handle the moment.  LOL.  Bad officiating, bad bounces, and James Neal being a double agent is why they're losing.  Otherwise, they've been pretty good at keeping pucks away from Rinne.

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

What a bizzarre game.  The Penguins got dominated in every way by Nashville.  There has to be some kind of record broken tonight for fewest shots on goal over a span of two periods.  Also, probably the record for fewest shots in a Cup Finals win.  

[krsmith17 7,191]

2 hours ago, toby91_ca said:

I agree that the challenge is slowing the game down, but at least they are getting the calls right.  There's no way you can limit it to "obvious" offsides though, if it's offside by and inch, it's offside by an inch...what difference does it make how much offside it is?  It's either all or nothing with that.

I disagree. I think you can limit it to obvious offside. The rule was put in place initially to prevent any more goals like the Matt Duchene goal a few years ago. I don't think every play should be taken under a microscope to determine whether or not the skate was a fraction of an inch off the ice, still on the right side of the blueline mind you... Why is it used for offside calls and not other rules? A guy can be clipped by a high stick by his own player and a penalty called on the opposing team. That can't be reviewed / overturned but that bulls*** that happened to Subban tonight can? It's a joke. I'm not a conspiracy theorist and I don't believe the league or refs want Pittsburgh to win, but there's no question in mind that call tonight, changed the outcome of the game and potentially the series and 2017 Stanley Cup winner...

[kylee 727]

Pens are going to repeat. 

[joesuffP 1,746]

Don't understand why everyone gasses Rinne so much he let in some awful goals against Anaheim and lost them games single handedly off great team performances. Now he makes 6 saves in an entire game. Huge wasted opportunity

7 minutes ago, krsmith17 said:

I disagree. I think you can limit it to obvious offside. The rule was put in place initially to prevent any more goals like the Matt Duchene goal a few years ago. I don't think every play should be taken under a microscope to determine whether or not the skate was a fraction of an inch off the ice, still on the right side of the blueline mind you... Why is it used for offside calls and not other rules? A guy can be clipped by a high stick by his own player and a penalty called on the opposing team. That can't be reviewed / overturned but that bulls*** that happened to Subban tonight can? It's a joke. I'm not a conspiracy theorist and I don't believe the league or refs want Pittsburgh to win, but there's no question in mind that call tonight, changed the outcome of the game and potentially the series and 2017 Stanley Cup winner...

Those kinds of offsides are so arbitrary too. There's no kind of advantage gained by picking up your skate by a fraction of an inch a millisecond before the puck fully crosses the blueline

Also how is that replay footage conclusive enough to call a goal back? That's just a bad call

[amato 3,210]

7 hours ago, joesuffP said:

Don't understand why everyone gasses Rinne so much he let in some awful goals against Anaheim and lost them games single handedly off great team performances. Now he makes 6 saves in an entire game. Huge wasted opportunity

Those kinds of offsides are so arbitrary too. There's no kind of advantage gained by picking up your skate by a fraction of an inch a millisecond before the puck fully crosses the blueline

Also how is that replay footage conclusive enough to call a goal back? That's just a bad call

 

Brutal game for Rinne for sure but he does still have a .934 s% and 1.83 gaa through 17 playoff games. He should bounce back. 

[krsmith17 7,191]

8 hours ago, joesuffP said:

Those kinds of offsides are so arbitrary too. There's no kind of advantage gained by picking up your skate by a fraction of an inch a millisecond before the puck fully crosses the blueline

Also how is that replay footage conclusive enough to call a goal back? That's just a bad call

Exactly this. Unless the "missed call" directly effects the play, such as the Duchene goal a few years ago, or the bulls*** goal scored by Anaheim against Edmonton when Kesler literally grabbed Talbot's pad while Rakell put the puck through the fivehole, which would have been covered had there not been goaltender interference... That was a play that was challenged and the call on the ice stood up, but this play was somehow overturned? What a joke...

We have the technology to eliminate some of the human error in the game. I'm okay with that, but when you're talking about a fraction of an inch in the fastest game in the world, I think it should be used more so for the obvious plays. I'd like for coaches to be able to challenge penalties and phantom calls rather than the bulls*** we witnessed last night.

[LeftWinger 4,953]

Just saw the overturned goal...not surprised that call went for Pitt. Should've been a good goal, preds got screwed by uncle Gary. This pampering Pitt is really turning my stomach to the point of no return. Clearly onside.

[xtrememachine1 795]

Well Nashville was definitely the better team last night.  That goal being disallowed really reversed the game and gave the Pens momentum that led to 3 of their goals.  *I* don't think it should have been overturned.  Unless there's some video angle that I haven't seen yet, I didn't see any conclusive evidence that showed his foot off the ice.  We can speculate that he probably DID have his foot off the ice based on the next couple seconds after that, however, speculation isn't enough to overturn anything, it has to be 100% conclusive aka you can clearly see his foot on or off the ice.  His skate blade, on the reviews I saw, was not visible, therefore it should have remained a goal.  

Nashville isn't in trouble until they lose a game at home and if they can split on the road and continue to play like they did last night, they'll be in good shape.  Rinne had an awful game, but I don't think the Pens will win many more games if they only get 11 shots on him.  This could end up being a better series than I anticipated.  

[brett 1,029]

Interesting game. After the penguins stopped getting help from the refs they got dominated. No shots on goal for almost 40mins crazy. Surprised Rinne s*** the bed. 

Going to be a weird series. I could totally see preds dominating and pens finding a way to win. Just like Last night  

at least it's not as lopsided as most people thought. Preds have a legitimate chance to win it.