OT: Stanley Cup playoffs / Friday night drinking thread
Tovarishchi...
Zach Werenski has a Gordie Howe hat trick tonight in Tampa, and the Blue Jackets have scored seven (!) unanswered goals against the "best" team in hockey.
Isles-Pens still scoreless. Jets-Blues and Vegas-San Jose on tap. Lagunitas Maximus in my glass.
Now that every series is underway, who's your way-too-early pick to claim the greatest trophy in sports?
Or at the very least, what fills your chalice tonight?
All depends, is this the year a youth team finally breaks through or do we get another year of crafty veterans holding off the inevitable changing of the guard.
Vets: San Jose
Youth: Winnipeg
Fermented Potatoes from Poland
And the Pens break through!
I think Nashville and the Naussau Coliseum are the two best places to watch a playoff game. Atmosphere in both places is electric!
Don’t sleep on Winnipeg! That building and the fans that pack it every night are incredible!
April 12th, 2019 at 10:56 PM ^
Definitely agree on both arenas. Would also be nice to see playoff hockey at LCA.
Go Islanders! Sweet goal. Screw Pittsburg
What Trotz has accomplished this year with this group is nothing short of amazing.
Isles goaltending has been incredible all season long. Lehner and the defensive play in front of him have been solid.
And Lehner actually wanted to come to Detroit, but Holland chose Bernier instead.
Woof.
Decided to give Henry mckenna another shot since it just won whisky of the year. Sorry, just not as good as wild turkey 101.
I can't get enough of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Isles and Penguins game is really good right now.
Playoffs don't exist for the last few years. It sucks as I used to love it
I miss the excitement of the Wings being relevant. The playoffs are still a must watch for me. I try to pick a team that hasn't pissed me off in the past to adopt. Watching Ovechkin win last year was a lot of fun.
April 13th, 2019 at 12:05 AM ^
Way less stressful watching it this way though. Pure entertainment.
LGRW 2019-20
Still can’t believe what the Jackets are doing to Tampa. Torts has his team playing excellent hockey, taking advantage of every chance they’re getting so far in the first two of this series.
April 12th, 2019 at 11:55 PM ^
I’m pretty sure I posted this on the blashill extension post but Tampa’s players are very overrated. As individuals, none of them save for point and maybe sergachev can create chances for themselves or others on their own. They need cooper’s system. Yzerman and that front office have built a team that plays his system perfectly. Drouin is far superior talent wise than anyone on that team, but he doesn’t fit the system. It’s a game reliant on constant movement and puck support. Drawing defenders to the first player moving into a lane to leave a chance for the late guy. Most teams do this on odd man rushes but Tampa does it everywhere on the ice. What can also happen is the opposing team will cover both players but the first player or the decoy keeps his feet moving to another open area while the defenders are still puck watching after shutting down the initial attempt. Defenders are so scared they’ll get beat one on one if they press up too much on the puck carrier but you have to do the opposite. No player on that team will beat you one on one, they always make a bad decision when pressured, especially kucherov. Put as much pressure on them as you can if your closest to the puck carrier and everyone else find a man and stay with him, you won’t have to for long because there’s a huge chance your team just got possession after your teammate pressured the puck carrier and he had no open teammate. Most teams have players that can beat other guys one on one like Athanasiou does routinely with speed and his hands so defenders have to play conservative and back so they don’t give up an even better chance. Tampa doesn’t have anyone like that since they traded drouin. He was by far their best player. Especially when I went to the playoff games in person. He was the only guy creating chances. Stamkos is a hard worker with a great shot, but he’s not a star, not even close. If Hedman were 6’3 or 6’4 he wouldn’t even be in the nhl. The only reason he made it is because he’s 6’7. And kucherov is incredibly overrated. Not a smart player, easily rattled, good on his edges but below average speed and acceleration, ok passer, good deceptive release on his shot but also has the whole offense/powerplay run through him so he’s getting the best chances. On any other team on any other line that doesn’t have Crosby or mcdavid, kucherov is a 45-60 point guy.
April 13th, 2019 at 12:06 AM ^
Lol yes Kucherov stinks. Get out of here.
April 13th, 2019 at 10:02 AM ^
Nice rebuttal. Lots of evidence. Actually watch him. I also guarantee that if you had GMs make a list of players they would take for their team in order, kucherov wouldn’t be in the top 20.
Crosby, mcdavid, Kane, doughty, burns, Benn, barzal, pettersson, Barkov, Keller, gaudreau, boeser, panarin, kuznetsov, backstrom, giroux, hall, Matthews, eichel, dahlin, malkin, mackinnon. There are others I would take easily over him. But those are for sure guys that would get taken over him. He doesn’t create for himself.
I would also take ehlers, scheifiele(?), drouin, Larkin, athanasiou, draisitl, Dubois, debrincat, Nylander, marner, kapanen, kopitar, chabot, seguin, rantanen, tarasenko, schenn, o’reilly, krejci, point, svechnikov, ovi.
Wow, the presidents trophy really is a curse.
Lightning are getting jailsexed by a team that barely made the playoffs. After they tied the best regular season points total in NHL history.
The Blue Jackets could seriously sweep them.
Jackets blew a 2-0 lead heading home a few years ago. That said, this is impressive. End of this game is going to be interesting to see what Tampa does in terms of physical play.
Edit: and they did nothing, went out with a whimper. Gonna be real interesting if Kucherov gets a game or two after that hit!
April 13th, 2019 at 10:03 AM ^
Both of the first two games in that series they got outplayed by the caps and they both went to OT. Took an all world goal by panarin to win one of them. Not the same thing.
April 13th, 2019 at 11:42 AM ^
No, not at all but it has happened. Also the fact that it has happened and it was last year, you’d think that most of the team which was there last year can use that experience. Tampa is going to come strong in Game 3 but I feel Torts will have them ready.
I say they go back to Tampa, up 3-1.
edit: Oh boy! Kucherov gets a game, which is fair, but yikes!
That shot by Eberle!
April 12th, 2019 at 11:45 PM ^
Utter filth
April 12th, 2019 at 10:01 PM ^
I hate to admit but the Islanders... wow. The Coliseum is a great playoff building, gonna be interesting to see how the Barclays Center is if the Isles move to the Metro Division Finals.
April 12th, 2019 at 10:17 PM ^
Nice... the classic Crosby Sucks chant at the end
April 12th, 2019 at 11:00 PM ^
A few shock tops after a stressful week.
April 12th, 2019 at 11:16 PM ^
Flames and Jets will play the conference final and whoever prevails will win the Cup.
Drinking lots of gin and homebrewed beer from a hockey themed tap.
April 12th, 2019 at 11:20 PM ^
Flames and *Blues
*FIFY
April 13th, 2019 at 12:22 AM ^
Damn it is looking that way unfortunately. Love me some Jets (pizza and puck)
April 13th, 2019 at 10:04 AM ^
Cup winner is coming from the east.
April 12th, 2019 at 11:22 PM ^
Having said that, Jets Blues looks like a great series
April 12th, 2019 at 11:48 PM ^
I'm really rooting for the Jets this playoff. Hellebuyck is killing them though. They need a goalie change.
April 13th, 2019 at 12:12 AM ^
He had a Vezina-esque year last year and took em to conference finals. Stick with him. Also he was a metro Detroit high school hockey player btw!
April 13th, 2019 at 10:04 AM ^
Maple Leafs fan here. We play today at 8. Hop on the bandwagon if you want! We are a good young team trying to avenge 2 out of last 3 playoff series losses to Boston. Plus former Michigan man Zach Hyman
April 13th, 2019 at 10:47 AM ^
You guys feel free to beat the Bruins into clam chowder, especially that marchant puke.
April 13th, 2019 at 11:13 AM ^
I would fucking love that. A win tonight would be clutch to take 2 in their barn
April 13th, 2019 at 11:39 AM ^
It's nice to have an Original 6 fan base to laugh at since the Wings are down in the dumps. Thankfully, the Leafs exist to fill that void! 50+ years and counting since that last Cup
April 13th, 2019 at 11:40 AM ^
Though I will say I am jealous of the rabid support enjoyed by all of the teams north of the border (except Ottawa I guess). I know Toronto is the most valuable brand in hockey. And watching those western Canada teams playoff games in their home barns just gives you chills.