2017 Stanley Cup Finals: Nashville Predators vs. Pittsburgh Penguins

[Dan Bylsma 27]

8 minutes ago, GMRwings1983 said:

Nice suit Mario.  Too bad the 70's ended like thirty years ago.  

I remember the forum here made the same remark about his suit last year, must be a superstitious thing on his part... 

8 minutes ago, GMRwings1983 said:

 

Undeservedly, though.  You can't tell me he should have won it last year.  This year was more of a toss up between him and Malkin.

 

[toby91_ca 620]

1 minute ago, GMRwings1983 said:

If not for Donald Trump, Malkin would have won it.  Clear Russian bias.  Also, Crosby hates black people, as evidenced in the last game.

If you believe Subban's father, apparently Crosby was Subban's best friend at the Olympics and vice versa.

[kickazz 5,459]

1 minute ago, toby91_ca said:

If you believe Subban's father, apparently Crosby was Subban's best friend at the Olympics and vice versa.

Best friends cross check to the head 10 times. What kind of abusive friendship is that? 

[chaps80 1,591]

7 minutes ago, GMRwings1983 said:

 

Look at my post on the last page.  We still have something to hold on to.

True. Those back to back sweeps won't happen again. Plus the Wings had tougher roads on the way. Still like the scare Ottawa gave the Pens though. Pretty much as far as you can take a series. 

[shocky2002 36]

I truly think that Sidney Crosby is the greatest talent of all time because of evolution of sports and humans. He may not have dominated the league the way that Gretzky and Mario did, but I think he's better than both on a pure talent level. So, he likely won't be considered the GOAT when it's all said and done, but top 3. He's LeBron James of the NHL.

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

5 minutes ago, shocky2002 said:

I truly think that Sidney Crosby is the greatest talent of all time because of evolution of sports and humans. He may not have dominated the league the way that Gretzky and Mario did, but I think he's better than both on a pure talent level. So, he likely won't be considered the GOAT when it's all said and done, but top 3. He's LeBron James of the NHL.

LOL.  His talent is way below that of Lemieux or Bobby Orr.  Based on your theory of evolution, Gustav Nyquist is more talented than any player in the NHL in the 50's.  You have to judge players based on the era they play in, not based on time machine transformation.  

Actually, in Orr and Lemieux's case, they're more talented than Crosby, even disregarding the era.  If those guys were physically transported to today's NHL from their primes, they would dominate.

7 minutes ago, chaps80 said:

True. Those back to back sweeps won't happen again. Plus the Wings had tougher roads on the way. Still like the scare Ottawa gave the Pens though. Pretty much as far as you can take a series. 

Yeah, they came close to losing on several occasions, which is what makes this disappointing.  It's very similar to Chicago's last run in 2015, where I was rooting for them to lose and they eked out so many series.  That's what happens when you root for underdogs, though.  More often than not, they will lose.  

Edited June 12, 2017 by GMRwings1983

[toby91_ca 620]

Interesting stat....Matt Murray....a rookie, has 2 cups now.  Although, MAF did win 9 of the 16 this year.

[kickazz 5,459]

Yay Red Wings!!

[chaps80 1,591]

36 minutes ago, toby91_ca said:

.

Does anyone really care much about this though? Wings being the last to win 2 in a row?  Doesn't mean much to me.  I doubt anyone thinks about the Islanders holding on to the last team to win 4 in a row.

Oh, if you read the comments on the NHL's top ten greatest teams of all time, people still care about what the Isles did., the four-peat (nearly five) Islanders with their crazy playoff games won in a row streak..19 or so? Ended up 7th, while a few Oilers teams were in there, including one at 1st, and the '92 Pens 2nd. The Oilers won five Cups, and the Pens two (then), but a streak like the Isles will never be equalled. Should be at least top two

Fan voting though....

[DickieDunn 2,571]

Without these brave men, the Pittsburgh Penguins wouldn't have repeated.  The REAL Conn Smythe winners!

Excellent, my plan went perfectly

[chaps80 1,591]

11 minutes ago, toby91_ca said:

Interesting stat....Matt Murray....a rookie, has 2 cups now.  Although, MAF did win 9 of the 16 this year.

Yep. Not the youngest rookie goalie to win a Cup though. That was Patrick Roy in '86.

[DickieDunn 2,571]

Want to fix hockey?

[kylee 727]

this season truly couldn't have ended worse. Now we're just in the dustbin of hockey history 

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

Jake Guentzel should have won the Conn Smythe. 

[xault 272]

2 hours ago, shocky2002 said:

I truly think that Sidney Crosby is the greatest talent of all time because of evolution of sports and humans. He may not have dominated the league the way that Gretzky and Mario did, but I think he's better than both on a pure talent level. So, he likely won't be considered the GOAT when it's all said and done, but top 3. He's LeBron James of the NHL.

Sorry, Mario would of ran circles around Crosby. Saying Crosby is NHL LeBron is silly also. LeBron on a another level if not a few levels higher just comparing careers and as pure athlete. If anything compared to the NBA, Crosby matches up somewhere between Bird and Kobe at the moment. Which is still pretty good.

[kliq 3,755]

13 minutes ago, xault said:

Sorry, Mario would of ran circles around Crosby. Saying Crosby is NHL LeBron is silly also. LeBron on a another level if not a few levels higher just comparing careers and as pure athlete. If anything compared to the NBA, Crosby matches up somewhere between Bird and Kobe at the moment. Which is still pretty good.

I don't agree with shocky, but I think Crosby is a bit better then what you are describing him as. Crosby has been the best player in the NHL for over a decade. As far as I know Bird never did that, and Kobe didn't either. I think Malkin and Ovie would be closer comparisons to those two. 

Not to mention, playing in an era where scoring is down, Crosby still has managed to put himself 6th in points per game at 1.313 PPG, the guy is a generational player, and LaBron is a good comparison. Both have dominated since they came into their respective leagues.

[xault 272]

1 hour ago, kliq said:

I don't agree with shocky, but I think Crosby is a bit better then what you are describing him as. Crosby has been the best player in the NHL for over a decade. As far as I know Bird never did that, and Kobe didn't either. I think Malkin and Ovie would be closer comparisons to those two. 

Not to mention, playing in an era where scoring is down, Crosby still has managed to put himself 6th in points per game at 1.313 PPG, the guy is a generational player, and LaBron is a good comparison. Both have dominated since they came into their respective leagues.

I disagree, if you want to just looking at scoring, I guess. But Lebron even compared to Crosby scoring, Lebron is still on another level. In the playoffs alone, LeBron is rank#1 right now. At the age of 32 and not slowing down.

I honestly think Crosby matches up much closer to somewhere between Kobe and Bird. Bird 3 NBA titles with 3 MVP finals, during the golden age of baseball with Magic on the other side. Now add Kobe scoring and scoring titles. Both Kobe and Bird are also know for not being all that great of athletes (at least in basketball standards), just like Crosby. Just like Crosby, are gritty and super clutch and great leaders. Bird, aka Mr.Clutch. Kobe is a Jordan lite, as Crosby is a Gretyzk lite in my opinion.

Unlike Crosby, Lebron has a real chance of passing Jordan *Gretzyk* as the all time greatest and will be at the very least the 2nd greatest of all time. Lebron has already passed Jordan in all time NBA playoff scoring and will regular season scoring. I only bring up scoring because you did, comparing scoring and scoring titles between the two sports is not something I like to really do because they are very different sports. In my opinion, the NHL has never seen the likes of a Lebron in terms of a athlete to boot. It would also be very easy to argue that Kessel should of won the smythe last year, Malkin this year or a joint between Furry and Murray. Lebron always been the clear MVP of his championship teams and at times even should of been the MVP when losing in the finals.

Yes Crosby is a generational player. So was Kobe and Bird wasn't far off. Kobe dominated the NBA for a very long time, from 1999-00 to 2010. Winning NBA  champion in 2010 and MVP of the finals, without Shaq. Let's see Crosby win a cup without Malkin.

Agree to disagree I guess.

 

Edited June 12, 2017 by xault

[LeftWinger 4,953]

Another s*** stain on the world of hockey and a another taint on the Cup. Got to love all the lockouts for league parity!

[kickazz 5,459]

Crosby isn't like Lebron. Lebron is one of the best two way players in the NBA, the guy can play any position. He's like the Sergei Fedorov except much better and closer to Wayne Gretzky in terms of individual abilities, playing in a modern era. He's passed Michael Jordan in all time NBA scoring in playoffs already. And defensively he's been ranked top 3 like 6 times in his career. 

The only thing is Lebron isn't as successful as Jordan in the playoffs in terms of winning, and Lebron's a cocky little twerp (much better with age though) that team hops to try and win championships and makes sure to play in a weak conference, which is unlike Crosby.

 

Edited June 12, 2017 by kickazz

[Dabura 12,207]

Mike Sullivan > Mike Babcock

[xtrememachine1 795]

7 hours ago, toby91_ca said:

Interesting stat....Matt Murray....a rookie, has 2 cups now.  Although, MAF did win 9 of the 16 this year.

The Pens wouldn't have gone all the way with Fleury in there.  The Pens were stacked for years between 2009 and 2016 and Fleury melted down in the playoffs over and over again.  The only time they made it beyond the 2nd round was when Vokoun came in after Fleury nearly blew it against the Islanders in the 1st round.  They get Murray in there and he wins two Cups in a row, not to mention back to back shutouts after Nashville tied the series.  Murray is an elite goaltender for sure.

5 hours ago, kylee said:

this season truly couldn't have ended worse. Now we're just in the dustbin of hockey history 

It was a bad season, but the "dustbin of hockey history" is a bit much.  The Wings were an elite team for way longer than anyone else could have possibly imagined and eventually they need to rebuild.  I'm looking forward to seeing the new championship we produce in the near future.

7 hours ago, chaps80 said:

Anddd '97-'98 stands no more. The Pens have taken the current repeat title. Awesome.

Not sure why people care about this.  It stood for almost 20 years and it was bound to change hands eventually.  The Pens repeating today doesn't erase what we did then, nor does it make it less impressive.

[LeftWinger 4,953]

Pens do have a dubious honor....3 Cups they didn't earn. Tonight Crosby is giving his uncle Gary a mighty mouth hug. 

[xtrememachine1 795]

6 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

Pens do have a dubious honor....3 Cups they didn't earn. Tonight Crosby is giving his uncle Gary a mighty mouth hug. 

Come on now, they earned those championships.  Even the one against us, as much as I hate to say that.  You can blame Bettman all you want, but there are several reasons why they went back to back: 

1. They replaced meltdown Fleury with an elite goalie in Murray.
2. Sullivan knows his players and knows how to get the most out of them.  Letang got injured, didn't matter, they just plugged in another guy and kept going.
3. Crosby's not the immature player he was 5 years ago.  He's always been talented, but now that he's acting more like a leader and less like a spoiled brat, its contributing to the teams recent success.
4. The Eastern conference is actually pretty weak right now.  The Caps are the closest team to being considered elite besides the Pens and they haven't gotten past the 2nd round since they lost to us in the Finals.  No fault of their own, but Pittsburgh really doesn't have much competition to get to the Finals.  Then to boot, in the Finals they played the Sharks (11th best team in the playoffs last year) and then the Predators (worst team to qualify for the playoffs this year).  They're taking advantage of a good situation right now.

[LeftWinger 4,953]

I never thought I'd say this, but thank goodness for NBA Finals game 6 coverage. I don't have to listen to who the Stanley Cup Convfefe Reciepiants are.

[kliq 3,755]

7 hours ago, xault said:

I disagree, if you want to just looking at scoring, I guess. But Lebron even compared to Crosby scoring, Lebron is still on another level. In the playoffs alone, LeBron is rank#1 right now. At the age of 32 and not slowing down.

I honestly think Crosby matches up much closer to somewhere between Kobe and Bird. Bird 3 NBA titles with 3 MVP finals, during the golden age of baseball with Magic on the other side. Now add Kobe scoring and scoring titles. Both Kobe and Bird are also know for not being all that great of athletes (at least in basketball standards), just like Crosby. Just like Crosby, are gritty and super clutch and great leaders. Bird, aka Mr.Clutch. Kobe is a Jordan lite, as Crosby is a Gretyzk lite in my opinion.

Unlike Crosby, Lebron has a real chance of passing Jordan *Gretzyk* as the all time greatest and will be at the very least the 2nd greatest of all time. Lebron has already passed Jordan in all time NBA playoff scoring and will regular season scoring. I only bring up scoring because you did, comparing scoring and scoring titles between the two sports is not something I like to really do because they are very different sports. In my opinion, the NHL has never seen the likes of a Lebron in terms of a athlete to boot. It would also be very easy to argue that Kessel should of won the smythe last year, Malkin this year or a joint between Furry and Murray. Lebron always been the clear MVP of his championship teams and at times even should of been the MVP when losing in the finals.

Yes Crosby is a generational player. So was Kobe and Bird wasn't far off. Kobe dominated the NBA for a very long time, from 1999-00 to 2010. Winning NBA  champion in 2010 and MVP of the finals, without Shaq. Let's see Crosby win a cup without Malkin.

Agree to disagree I guess.

I see where our differences come from, I don't have the same level of admiration towards LaBron James that you do. 

He is now #1 in scoring in the playoffs, but it took him 216 games (compared to 179 games of Jordan), and playing in a weak conference on stacked teams ensuring going to the finals every year to do so. IMO he is nowhere near the level of a Michael Jordan and never will be. But this is not the place for this argument. Also, my argument with Crosby was PPG not total points.

Based on what you think of LaBron, I would agree with what you are saying. Since I dont agree with your opinion of LaBron, I obviously dont agree with your opinion. I agree to agree to disagree lol.