The Official Neowin NHL Playoff Thread

[youm0nt Veteran]

has anyone heard of bruce driver?he lives in my town.i looked for his name in google and said "new jersey devil legend" was he really a legend?my younger brother knows his son ;)

[-Clark-]

I didn't know they were kansas city originally....I knew they came from Colorado...but I'm not old enough to have known the kansas city one... :whistle:

[DeathLace]

<Edit : You were warned about this, this time it will be official. >

<Edit 2 : Don't do it again, that would be a very, very bad idea. >

2 things:

1. Detroit lost because they feel they are the "super-power" of the NHL, which any team, on any given night can beat them.

2. GO LEAFS

Edited April 18, 2003 by Cara

[-Clark-]

hmm, detroit lost because cujo blows. and federov cant score with a decent shot. you need players that can get it in the net and not off the defenseman, anyone can get it off some guy and in the net. ;)

[Cara Veteran]

I'm sure Detroit is extremely flattered that some of you people are so threatened by them that you have to keep insulting them even AFTER they are out of the playoffs. ;)

Kicking people when they are down, rates up there with pulling the legs off flys. ;)

Anyhow, hope the Leafs can take their series, I really don't want to have to search out ANOTHER wallpaper. ;)

[-Clark-]

you should just get a flyers one, and you'll be set. :woot:

[Cara Veteran]

Flyers, Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love isn't it? ;)

No thanks, I prefer Detroit (Where we eat the weak) or Toronto (That Maple Leaf is too damn nice). ;)

[DeathLace]

hmm, detroit lost because cujo blows. and federov cant score with a decent shot. you need players that can get it in the net and not off the defenseman, anyone can get it off some guy and in the net. ;)

they didn't loose cause cujo sucks.... he's one of the best goalies of all time. people that feel that the goalie loses the game are usually 99% wrong and know nothing about hockey. People even saw belfour lost the triple OT for the leafs... that's hilarious and REALLY stupid. He was the only reason they were there still. They lost because they thought they would walk all over the ducks, and by the time it hit them that they were wrong, it was to late.

[-Clark-]

you mean detroit is where you get eaten by the weak..;)

[Cara Veteran]

The reason, truly, why the Wings lost to the Ducks was in-fact superior goaltending.

The Wings had an Avalanche (No pun intended) of shots on goal by comparison to the shots produced by the Ducks, given the requirement for a shot to be a 'Shot on Goal' it just cements the fact that the Ducks had a brick wall in net.

Cujo wasn't the looser in this series, though I would have given Legacy a chance personally. I find more fault in the Coach (Dave Lewis) for not working harder in the first games of the series to adapt his lines to provide a superior fore-check and faster return defense. Playing a 4 box, 1 point defense against the ducks was murder.

[-Clark-]

i seriously would have loved to see legace play, and i believe they would have had a better chance with legace in net, but they didnt get the good side of luck, since we all know that the ducks won by luck. also the wings always tried really long passes through the neutral zone for a quick break, but would never work because the ducks would get to it first, or they wouldnt get it at the net fast enough for a good scoring chance. the game winning goal that the ducks got wasnt the best goal of the series, but they were set up in front to score and got the puck on net. you cant always think you can get a breakaway and score because i doubt the goalies will fall for the same dekes and shots everytime unless they seriously are terrible.

[Cara Veteran]

For once we entirely agree ace.

Detroit, when in a pinch, relies on cross-ice and line to line passes. Against a team which plays their D hard (Ducks) those will be blocked, redirected, interfered with about 70% of the time. :p

When they started playing Dump and Chase they started to screw up the goalie and got some of (if not the) best scoring chances of their series. Then you count in the times when *I* could have scored (Open Net, puck on the stick...hrm...lets PASS!) and it is no wonder why Detroit failed.

They outplayed the Ducks about 80% of the time, the other 20% they truly were 100% flat footed....

[CatnipOligarchy]

goaltending can often decide a game or a series...for example the detroit series...detroit lost because of anaheim's superior goaltending...that doesnt mean that cujo lost the series for detroit...cujo played fairly well and the blame should not be put on him...

and anyone who says belfour is the reason toronto lost last night must have never watched hockey outside of the minute long highlights on espn....belfour stopped 72 of 75 shots...96 percent...his team didnt even take 40 shots...belfour kept toronto in the game...if not for belfour the game probably wouldnt have even gone to overtime...goalies are crucial to the playoffs, but people are too quick to blame a loss on the goalie...

[gigapixels Veteran]

but, ya know, when your goalie has matrix skills then what can ya do?

lol jk but a goalie's also an important part because if he's doing well and stoping a lot, if not all, of the shots, then the team will have higher spirits and want to play a lot better. the mental part of hockey is the same as any sport - you do well and you get high spirits, you do bad and you feel like you really suck and can't do much better, but you'll try. that's a big part of hockey games, or any sport for that matter.

[bayrider]

Anaheims strategy, as far as i noticed was to just sit back, put a lot on JF's shoulders and when the opportunity arrived, they took advantage. Mind you, detroit wasn't playing as good as they could have, i don't think so at least.

[-Clark-]

goaltending can often decide a game or a series...for example the detroit series...detroit lost because of anaheim's superior goaltending...that doesnt mean that cujo lost the series for detroit...cujo played fairly well and the blame should not be put on him...

and anyone who says belfour is the reason toronto lost last night must have never watched hockey outside of the minute long highlights on espn....belfour stopped 72 of 75 shots...96 percent...his team didnt even take 40 shots...belfour kept toronto in the game...if not for belfour the game probably wouldnt have even gone to overtime...goalies are crucial to the playoffs, but people are too quick to blame a loss on the goalie...

who said belfour was the reason the leafs lost? i would love to beat the crap out of them :yes:

im a flyers fan and im glad they won, but belfour was great, the flyers just got a good shot on net and it got by barely. it wasnt really anyones fault though, just a quick break into the offensive zone and they got a quick shot. :)

[gigapixels Veteran]

i dunno who said it and i'm too lazy to check (i've got an excuse...56k!), but somebody did...

[Slayer]

I think the reason that shot got in was because he was too damn tired to close his legs in time.... The game started at 7PM EST and ended at 11:30 PM EST. Can you blame him for not being as alert as he should have been? The game must have been 30% as fast as it was in the first period because everyone's muscles were seizing up... Haha... Belfour was amazing that night, though.

He's second to the best goalie ever (Roy) in all-time games won by active goaltenders.

Curtis Joseph sucks.

GO TORONTO!

[cjbeckwith]

Sweep..... Ha Ha!  wings suck.

Belfour is horrible. Toronto should start using their backup goalie.

Belfour may have let a soft one in but the guy made 72 saves in the game before that! Where was your defense? You can't hang that game on Belfour alone, he had no support.

From CNNSI.com

Most Playoff Saves

73 K. Hrudey NYI vs Wash 4/18/87

72 E. Belfour Tor vs Phi 4/16/03

ace135cc, is this what you were talking about? Hills420 is nuts if he thinks Belfour is the reason Toronto lost that game. How much more do you want out of the guy in the pipes?

[Steven]

Sweep..... Ha Ha!? wings suck.

Belfour is horrible. Toronto should start using their backup goalie.

Belfour may have let a soft one in but the guy made 72 saves in the game before that! Where was your defense? You can't hang that game on Belfour alone, he had no support.

From CNNSI.com

Most Playoff Saves

73 K. Hrudey NYI vs Wash 4/18/87

72 E. Belfour Tor vs Phi 4/16/03

ace135cc, is this what you were talking about? Hills420 is nuts if he thinks Belfour is the reason Toronto lost that game. How much more do you want out of the guy in the pipes?

Hey look another New York Islander Record.:shifty::

[cjbeckwith]

As for the Blues, I almost could not believe it Wednesday night when all the fans started chanting Ozzie! In the past, we have chanted several other things for him (most of which would not be mentionable). With Osgoods play of late and our defense playing so well, things are looking up! Now that the Wings are out we may have a better shot.

GO BLUES!

[JohnMarsten]

Anyone who thinks Belfour is the problem doesn't know hockey and its time for you to plain shut up ... 72 saves .. what are you thinking .. when does this become "crappy" goaltending .. how about you name a goalie that has played 2 games in one night (6 periods) and not let in a soft one .. its the 6th period!!!

as for Cujo being the problem in Detriot, think again Cujo didn't lose the series the team did, if they didn't run into J.S. Gigure the series would have been different Cujo didn't match up with him so they lost, but can anyone match up against a playoff performance like that I doubt it, he was standing on his head he single handly won that series (although i would like to blame Cujo :p) .. so far in most of the series .. and all the series I have been watching (Vancouver, Ottawa, Edmonton, Detroit and of course Toronto) goaltending has not been a problem at all, except for the Vancouver series the goaltending has been amazing, these guys are putting on a show, as for the Van City one, the goaltending as been decent, not bad & none of the goalies (Cloutz) can be blamed for losing the series .. that would be the fault of the lack of a team showing up and playing..

Toronto in 6 like i said before, GO LEAFS GO!!!

(P.S. 72 saves, YOU DA MAN BELFOUR!!!!!!!) :cool:

[Cara Veteran]

<Sarcastic>Belfour lost the game for Tonoto! He couldn't make 73 saves! What a poser!</Sarcastic>

;)

Come on Leafs, I need at least one team to support into the second round. ;)

[BroChaos Veteran]

http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation...ng?event_id=230

go and vote for hockey!

pro basketball blows, and those guys couldn't land a punch if they tried! playoff hockey 0wns all! :)

[youm0nt Veteran]

http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation...ng?event_id=230

go and vote for hockey!

pro basketball blows, and those guys couldn't land a punch if they tried! playoff hockey 0wns all! :)

voted :) hockey 0wnz all ;) :p