Hockey Trash Talk & BS thread

Swap Ovi and Cindy do the pens still win?

 

Yes. The Pens won a key game without Sid even in the lineup. Pens are deeper, in general. Their D-core flies under the radar but they are pretty solid group. More impact players at forward and I'd even take their goalie tandem of the Caps duo (no disrespect to Holtby).

 

There was a good sportsnet article about it this morning. Pittsburgh has better center men as well. Its too bad Ovi gets all the blame.

 

For me it is all in how you view Ovi. I'm pretty sure head-to-head in the playoffs, he has more points than Sid does. And that is fine because that is all you really should ask of him. If people expect a supreme 200ft game, elevating everyone around him, fantastic leadership and single-handedly win the series against a (in my opinion) superior team, then you are surely setting up for disappointment. But if you just look at the big picture, then it is what it is. I can't place the blame on him completely because he is who he is, which is not a Crosby type. He does his part (especially as a threat on the PP) but his role isn't the same as Sid's even though they get compared as such. 1 of the Caps analysts was on XM the afternoon before game 7. He said they expected Backstrom to try to cancel out Sid's play, Kuznetsov to out-play Geno and Ovi to outplay Kessel. They felt Holtby was better thain either of our goalies, so that is a win, plus Oshie as the X-factor. Maybe in Capsland that makes sense, but to me it is total BS. Backstrom isn't in the same universe as Sid. Same goes for Kuznetsov compared to Malkin. Malkin wins that battle all day long, with ease. Ovi and Kessel is close, but you could say Kessel wins that (Phil can make his linemates better with his ability to set up - look at HBK last year, look at point totals this playoff between the 2 etc). I think Holtby is a little better than MAF (but not Murray) but MAF outplayed him over this series. Ya, Oshie is a player that we don't really have, but closest is Hornqvuist. But you add in the other pieces (Guentzal, Sheary, Rust etc) and how solid our D played and there you have it. You get Pens in 7 and Pens beating them again.

 

I love how whenever a team wins something we have to justify it and then preach it. This happened when the Kings won, "Oh now we need a bigger center, great goalie, and stingy D." Then the next year all of a sudden it was, "Oh you need four lines like the Blackhawks run, who cares about the goalie."

Point is the media and some people get way too caught up in what makes a team "better" than another team when there are more factors at play than the matchups or similar and dis similar pieces. Anyone who thinks if you played this series over 100 times you'd get the same result is on crack. Sure the Pens played better and their stars did what they needed to do. The Caps still won three games against them and in two of the games they lost the Caps still posted a better Corsi and procession numbers than the Pens. It wasn't a clear cut series.

 

Analytics go out the window when you are kept on the perimeter by design, have a team who has mastered shot-blocking and are talented / opportunistic enough to turn 1 mistake into a goal. Also, when you win 2 years in a row and 9 of 10 (granted I don't really count a lot of those in this conversation since it was not all with the same core) then I think it means something. Obviously if you play the series over and over it wouldn't be the same result, but what else do you have to see to prove that there is at least something that I was explaining previously?

Teams build their roster knowing what they are going up against. Not sure how you can discount that. Coaches and GMs say it all of the time. So I disagree with that post, for the most part.

 

I'm sure you do.

 

Bishops about to gets paid apparently. That's way too much dough though I guess the Stars need someone and they're just hoping this year was a fluke for Bishop:

http://www.tsn.ca/stars-closing-on-six-year-29-5m-contract-with-g-bishop-1.750023

 

Apparently Ovi was hurt on the Kadri hit in round one. He doesn't need surgery though so it was probably just a bruise or strain so I wouldn't say it was the Caps downfall.

 

From TSN.ca here are the Vegas odds after two rounds of playoffs for the Conn Smythe:

 

They missed terrible support in their home building.

 

About a thousand empty seats for game 1, yes - but sold out every other game. I mean yes, its a bit disappointing but things are tough in Ottawa right now with people still reeling from the Phoenix Pay system debacle, and its a government town without huge corporate support like the leafs have they will always be behind in sales. Geographically they were fucked from the start, but that doesn't mean they haven't been successful on the ice (best Canadian team in the last 20 years) and that the fans don't like them. Its a simple external money issue IMO, coupled with a shitty building location. Its legit in the middle of a field outside of the city.

 

Hopefully we will be rid of them in this upcoming series.

 

Absolutely agree on the first two points. I was born in the Ottawa river valley and most of my extended family still lives there. That Kanata building is brutal and the worst part is I don't see Ottawa throwing any money into a new building downtown for a while. After what they did for the Red Blacks that money is spent. It's not just because of Toronto though, look at Alberta. Corporate support even during a major recession here has been good. Ottawa's problem is that it is a white collar government town and that just isn't good for ticket sales. You need big business to buy into the team. Every place I've worked at in Alberta has either or both Flames and Oilers tickets. You'd think the Caps would have the same issues as Ottawa but the Caps have the large city of Baltimore right next door Ottawa just has the smaller Gatineau which is full of Habs fans from my experience.

The third point is debatable. They were knocked out by the Leafs several times in the middle of that run with two good spurts to get into the Eastern Conference finals one of which that made it to the finals. If you give points just for making the finals they'd be basically tied with every other Canadian team other than the Leafs in the Last 20 years. Ottawa is definitely a well run franchise for what they have to work, I'll give the Sens that. I do worry though that once that building in Kanata starts to really show its age that the team could end up in trouble. A shitty building in the middle of nowhere without corporate support is a recipe for disaster. Right now the Flames ownership is not so quietly hinting that they will leave if the city and province won't give them a similar deal to Edmonton and the Flames make money. I'd hate to see what a tighter franchise like Ottawa will go through if they end up in the same spot.

 

Don't feed the trolls.

 

Very likable team, from the outside. I wasn't a huge fan of the previous regime but I like their current GM, coach and a bunch of their players. I know nothing about the city or whatever but that is a bummer to not sell out a playoff game. Regardless, hopefully it is a good series. I obviously hope we win, but Sens are cool with me.

 

They crapped the bed pretty hard on how Alfie left but they did kind of save it by honoring him as big as they did once he retired. Standing back and looking at the team that black mark is the biggest thing that stands out to me and ownership hasn't changed since then so a similar fuck up could happen.

 

Yeah, but to be fair there were 2 parties to that scenario, and Alfie wanted to win the cup. Sens just werent in that position nor had the money for his last year.

Was paying him what he wanted the right thing to do? Given what he gave to the team, I think so. So yes, Id say that's a screw up.

But we cant forget that Alfie ultimately made the decision to go join his fellow swedes in detroit. He came back to the city to a hero's welcome and now has a job with the organization. Id say they salvaged an ugly situation into a decent one.