NHL

[SerenityNigh]

Are Florida Panthers the best or something? Seem to just know how to win

they're good and got better by adding Marchand. and they won the Stanley Cup last year so there's that. but a series can change with a few small adjustments and most go the distance. And all the teams remaining are good. but, yes, Florida is a good team.

Also, this has been mentioned before but worth repeating: Lord Stanley's Cup is named after Lord Stanely of Preston, who in addition to being Governor of Canada at one point, was also Mayor of Liverpool, has a few parks (1, 2, 3) and other things not to mention streets and towns in both Canada and Australia named after him (although the names of which escape me), and is entombed in the Anglican under his title Earl of Derby.

 

[Efcjake]

Are Florida Panthers the best or something? Seem to just know how to win

They're gritty and won it last year.

Take the leafs out of any assessment. They always lose, it's a by.

They beat a Tampa that's on the decline now.

I do fancy them to beat the Canes though.

I'm a little bit shocked at the Canes walking through the Capitals.

 

[Efcjake]

My guess is Florida will win the Eastern Conference but lose the finals to whoever wins out of Dallas and Edmonton.

Both of those teams in the west are scary and Edmonton will want revenge for last year if they make it.

 

[SerenityNigh]

Very good 3rd period comeback and win tonight but it’s going to be tough to get a win in Edmonton when they can pick matchups.

 

[Bwana]

You wanna win? Hire a Finn.

Granlund starts to resemble poor man's Laine, only this dude whacks 'em in from the right wall... A bit of a laser beam again. The series has been opened, looking good.

The Stars is actually the team with all time most representation of hometown heroes from our HPK in NHL. 3. Kapanen, Miettinen & Varvio.

 

[SerenityNigh]

You wanna win? Hire a Finn.

Granlund starts to resemble poor man's Laine, only this dude whacks 'em in from the right wall... A bit of a laser beam again. The series has been opened, looking good.

The Stars is actually the team with all time most representation of hometown heroes from our HPK in NHL. 3. Kapanen, Miettinen & Varvio.

Read a piece the other day about the history of Finns in the Stars franchise, something like 30 players in total. Not sure how many got NHL ice time, but it's clearly been a focus. It doesn't hurt that their head of European scouting is Kari Takko.

 

[SerenityNigh]

Don't know if they'll keep Granlund but it's been fun to watch an entirely Finn line skate around the ice.

Hasn't been possible yet because Miro's been out, but would be fabulous to see all 5 Finn skaters on the ice at once as well. Not sure if that happened in Gm 4 but if so I didn't notice.

Missed this in real time but here it is for the Lindell empty net. Not sure how much it happened because I think Harley and Heiskanen were primarily paired together last night and Lindell was rolling with Ceci.

 

[marsh]

Florida Panthers do it again. And to think Leafs was 2-0 in the series and 3-1 up in the 3rd game too

 

[Bwana]

I'm all in for McDavid to get his cup now

That would bring Marchand and Perry together. I'm in for that too.

 

[Bwana]

First of all: That was a fiver on Hintz. De Boer was spot on when saying if it'd been on McJesus, hanging-drawing-quartering would've been on the menu.

The rest: Stars had their chances but didn't take 'em. It went difficult now.

 

[mmmmsnouts]

Hintz or no Hintz, the Stars have 7 goals in 4 games and five of them were in one period. I don’t know how many more pieces DeBoer needs to get past this round but they look even worse against the Oilers than last year.

 

[notrevE5]

Go Oilers, burning it up right now!

 

[SerenityNigh]

Not great from the Stars. Missed watching last night and maybe that was for the best. Maybe getting some bad treatment from the refs but primarily can’t score and the defense is bad. Their best RHD may be Petrovic and that’s no good and all the good Jim Nill has done is exposed not being able to fix the defense. But then we had Tanev last year and also got worked by Edmonton. I can see them winning at home and losing in 6, but mostly just getting beat by a better team.

 

[Efcjake]

Not great from the Stars. Missed watching last night and maybe that was for the best. Maybe getting some bad treatment from the refs but primarily can’t score and the defense is bad. Their best RHD may be Petrovic and that’s no good and all the good Jim Nill has done is exposed not being able to fix the defense. But then we had Tanev last year and also got worked by Edmonton. I can see them winning at home and losing in 6, but mostly just getting beat by a better team.

There's no shame in losing to two of the best players in the league if it goes that way.

 

[SerenityNigh]

There's no shame in losing to two of the best players in the league if it goes that way.

No shame in losing, the shame is in constructing the roster so poorly. Playoff minutes for Dallas defensemen are:

Harley, LHD, 17g, 441mins
Lindell, LHD, 17g, 401m
Ceci, RHD, 17g, 361m
Lyubushkin, RHD, 14g, 238m
Petrovic, RHD, 16g, 205m
Bischel, LHD, 17g, 201m
Heiskanen, LHD, 7g, 149m
Dumba, RHD, 0g
Lundkvist, RHD, 0g (Injured)
Smith, RHD, 0g

Smith was only ever a roster filler. Petrovic has been the same, playing in AHL almost all of the last 2 years, but he's eaten up a lot of valuable playoff minutes in that same span of time. He has 6 season appearances and 23 playoff appearances the last 2 years. Petrovic getting playoff minutes is a damning indictment on the entire roster but specifically a few, maybe just one, very hated player(s).

Lundkvist being injured is a shame, but he was yanked in the playoffs last year and Petrovic was given minutes instead. Lyubushkin has been ok, but healthy scratch in a few games this playoffs because really he's a 3rd choice at best. Cody Ceci has been really good but asked to do too much since the trade. He should be a 3rd choice RHD but has been needed to do more. I can't blame him for not being good enough, he should be good enough to skate 10-12 minutes per game but he's logging 21:30 ATOI and that's too much.

I can't really say how bad Dumba has been except that he played 63g during the season and 0g this playoffs. He has zero trust from DeBoer and it's entirely warranted. He was a terrible FA signing by Nill and should have never joined the team at all. And we've got 1 more year of his trash/contract to endure.

The Miro injury was unfortunate but those things happen, except that it was a really dirty play from Mark Stone. Miro can play RHD, he's played that half his career, and the Stars can be really good with him putting minutes there. Bischel is young and still makes a lot of mistakes but he has a future as an NHL defenseman and can eat playoff minutes. Biggest problem with Bischel is who to partner him with. You don't want to put him out there with Ceci because that's too much liability, but then do you partner Ceci with Harley or Lindell instead?

Possible pairings:

Lindell - Heiskanen
Harley - Competent NHL RHD
Bischel - Ceci

That group is still getting exposed on the road but at home you can protect the 3rd pair. Or you can roll Ceci with Lindell or Harley and roll Bischel with Competent NHL RHD and have 3 solid lines, but you still need someone capable to mark McDavid, which is an impossible task to begin. It's all a frustrating clustermess and fan anger is warranted because this is actually a good team. You can handle dry spells from Johnston and Robertson if the defense is capable, but this adds too much stress to everyone.