It's not the losses themselves, it's the manner in which they happen. They led Montreal 3-2, they led Tampa 3-1, they were embarrassed by the Flyers and totally lost their heads, and they were totally pantsed by the Bruins in every way, shape, or form. Those are all embarrassing, or at least should be, and show a pattern of continuing underachievement.
Eastern Conference Quarterfinals Gamethread
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Who's this hack murdering the anthem at MSG; he should be wearing a butchers smock, not a sportcoat.
Nice rug too by the way.
Nice rug too by the way.
Greg29fan said:
That's true for just about every team though. You're seriously overlooking what the rest of the Eastern Conference teams have done in recent times. The Bruins are one of the most successful and best run franchises of recent times. And they blew a 3-0 series lead (and 3-0 game 7 lead, too, right?) to the Flyers in embarrassing fashion. They also lost to the Capitals and their third string goalie in the first round at home.
A look at the traditional Eastern Conference teams of recent:
NJD: missed playoff 3 of last 4 seasons, only won a series in 1 of the past 7 seasons (2012 Cup run).
NYI: haven't won a playoff series since 1993.
NYR: only made Conference Finals once in past 15 seasons despite Lundqvist. Didn't make it past the first round in 3 of the past 5 seasons (including a playoff miss).
PHI: missed playoffs last year, had the Cup run in 2010, and been pretty successful despite no Cup.
BOS: very successful, but still the aforementioned heartbreak to Philly and Washington.
BUF: haven't won a playoff series since 2007.
MON: made one conference finals in the past 19 seasons.
OTT: in the past 7 years they've won one series and missed the playoffs three times.
TOR: missed playoffs 8 of last 9 years, losing their only series to the Bruins in their famous collapse.
ATL/WPG: have made the playoffs once in franchise history and never won a series.
CAR: missed playoffs in 7 of their last 8 seasons.
FLA: haven't won a playoff series since 1996.
TBL: missed playoffs 5 of last 7 years.
WSH: missed playoffs this year after streak of 6 straight playoffs. Haven't won more than one round since 1998, and regularly lost in excruciating fashion to teams such as Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York. and Montreal.
Almost every team would kill for Pittsburgh's recent "failures." Missing the playoffs consistently, not winning a series in years, being a top team and failing to advance past the second round, and such are all way more embarrassing than Pittsburgh's losses.
Correction. 3-0 Game 7 lead.
Edit: Also, the Rags have made it out of the first round twice in the last five years. First was the ECF loss to the Fightin' Mikefords and then they lost to the B's in the 2nd round last year. Move it to 6 years and that one is correct.
Edit: Also, the Rags have made it out of the first round twice in the last five years. First was the ECF loss to the Fightin' Mikefords and then they lost to the B's in the 2nd round last year. Move it to 6 years and that one is correct.
kenneycb said:
Yeah, I caught game 4/7 mistake before I saw this after I googled when it didn't seem right on a re-read. As for the Rangers mistake, you're absolutely correct. They've only advanced twice in the past five years.
Boyle is such a phony. He's like a 300lb tub of cool whip...only softer.
Also the Flyers are due a power play.
The Flyers need to keep taking the body on their D. McDonough doesn't look near 100%. He's a gamer toughing it out, but he's having a rough time.
Also the Flyers are due a power play.
The Flyers need to keep taking the body on their D. McDonough doesn't look near 100%. He's a gamer toughing it out, but he's having a rough time.
Nik Lidstrom in front of a mediocre goalie was a cup formula.
Kris Letang in front of a mediocre goalie, not so much.
Kris Letang in front of a mediocre goalie, not so much.
Akeson takes a 4 min high sticking: while checking, stick swinging wildly up toward Hagelins face. Richards scores 2 min+ in...Stepan adds another soon after.
Edit: context, 2nd G
Edit: context, 2nd G
That Akeson high-stick was bad luck. He was falling after he checked Haeglin and he got him. Clearly worthy of a double-minor. Too bad for Akeson, who played a strong game. He had more chances than any other Flyer, which admittedly, isn't saying much. Rags have them figured out. Whenever there's a puck battle, the third or fifth guy there to support the puck is a Ranger.
Fred in Lynn said:
The Rags have a lot of guns on that PP. It's too bad the game turned that way; as much as NY was dominating it was tied at that point, good chance to steal a game at MSG.
Berube needs to figure something out here. They started out being really aggressive on the forecheck and I think that's the way to go, but that disappeared after the first period.
Gotta love that Tampa Bay is supposed to be having a "whiteout" game. Half the people in the seats are in red.
As for the team, good lord are they outmatched by Montreal.
As for the team, good lord are they outmatched by Montreal.
It could be a really quick exit for Tampa without Bishop. If Montreal can even just split at home, I like their chances at winning at least one of the (potential) final three.
It's funny about Lindback, against the Flyers he always looks like the love child of Pekka Rinne and Ben Bishop, against everybody else he looks like Hal Gill in goalie gear.
I feel like Tampa should be good enough to beat the Habs, but going up there down 2-0 they're probably toast.
I feel like Tampa should be good enough to beat the Habs, but going up there down 2-0 they're probably toast.
Lindback looks shaky as hell. Lots of juicy rebounds, lots of net to shoot at because he's not covering enough of the net. The third goal by Gallagher was goaltending 101, keep your arms to your body and hug the net. He didn't and Gallagher's wrister to the crest squeaked through under his arm.
Gudlevskis didn't look much better in his brief cameo, though I groaned when Hughson and Healy bigged him up after his first star performance against Canada, only for Healy to talk about how he's terrible and overmatched when Gudlevskis immediately gave up a goal to Bourque after being way out of position. Most anglo Habs fans are watching in French now, the rest are hoping that Hughson and Healy get the flu and Bob Cole and Garry Galley get to do the games.
In terms of the first two games overall, shut down Stamkos (easier said than done), shut down Tampa Bay. He was quiet last night and the Bolts did nothing. Subban was much better too. His assist for Deshernais's goal was a great pass, waited for the Tampa defender to skate out of the lane and then hit it on a line to DD's stick. Bourque's goal was a peach too. Gudas was running at somebody - might have been Prust himself - and Prust got him into a fight. Nothing much, took a few pops at him, but Gudas was quiet the rest of the night. Cedric Paquette, who has been publicly moaning in the media about the Habs not drafting him (Quebecer), took a run at Vanek and got a couple good shoves from the Austrian himself.
The track meet nature of the first two games means the Habs are playing a lot more attacking hockey than they did during the season, when Therrien coached them into defensive sludge. Bonger happy.
Gudlevskis didn't look much better in his brief cameo, though I groaned when Hughson and Healy bigged him up after his first star performance against Canada, only for Healy to talk about how he's terrible and overmatched when Gudlevskis immediately gave up a goal to Bourque after being way out of position. Most anglo Habs fans are watching in French now, the rest are hoping that Hughson and Healy get the flu and Bob Cole and Garry Galley get to do the games.
In terms of the first two games overall, shut down Stamkos (easier said than done), shut down Tampa Bay. He was quiet last night and the Bolts did nothing. Subban was much better too. His assist for Deshernais's goal was a great pass, waited for the Tampa defender to skate out of the lane and then hit it on a line to DD's stick. Bourque's goal was a peach too. Gudas was running at somebody - might have been Prust himself - and Prust got him into a fight. Nothing much, took a few pops at him, but Gudas was quiet the rest of the night. Cedric Paquette, who has been publicly moaning in the media about the Habs not drafting him (Quebecer), took a run at Vanek and got a couple good shoves from the Austrian himself.
The track meet nature of the first two games means the Habs are playing a lot more attacking hockey than they did during the season, when Therrien coached them into defensive sludge. Bonger happy.
It's not at all as if the last three times they've been up 2-0 they've lost the series.MiracleOfO2704 said:
I see NBCSN has a live look-in for the MIN-COL game, but are they airing it on an alternate channel until the CBJ-PIT game ends? I've tried MSNBC and CNBC with no luck.
EDIT - Ahhh, never mind. It's on NHLN. Wild just scored to go up 1-0. Weymouth's Charlie Coyle lights the lamp.
EDIT - Ahhh, never mind. It's on NHLN. Wild just scored to go up 1-0. Weymouth's Charlie Coyle lights the lamp.
Frenzied final minute of the first OT as CBJ played a man down, but they kept the puck out of the neck despite steady pressure by the Pens.
