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Let go Pens!!

Pens eliminated Columbus, but a real surprise is Blackhawks are down 3-0. This hockey thread will soon be quiet lol.
Go Leafs!

Pens win 5-2 Fleury with 49 saves out of 51 SOG. Wow!

Have the Hawks managed to score a goal yet??


The Pens are so dangerous, at times CBJ would be pounding them and you look up and The Pens are up by three

That Pens-CBJ series was weird the whole time. I think it was game 2(?) where the Pens were just getting manhandled but were up by 1 goal. I think midway through the period, the Pens managed 1 shot on goal... which they scored. It took them a couple more minutes to register their next shot.

For something like 2/3 of that period, the CBJ goalie did not have a single save.

Blue Jackets will be good for awhile. Bright future for them, IMO. Good foundation on D, good goaltender, good coach.

Since I am a Monsters fan and most of my Monster fan friends are Jackets fans , because of the affiliation I get to spend a lot of time talking about the Jackets. Werenski, Anderson, Bjorkstrand, and Milano were all a huge part of our Calder Cup team last season.

IMO CBJ has built a very big, strong team. They have the big power forward types and some Monster Defenders, very solid foundation. But now they need some speed guys, skill guys, maybe little bit smaller type Centers or wingman. I think Bjorkstrand can develop into that for them, and I think in a couple years Sonny Milano will be a star for them.

They need to develop some discipline, too many hot head, dumb mistakes at bad times. Like we just scored so Anderson is pissed and crosschecks Malkin durin stoppage. So not only did we get a goal, we also got a power play and scored off that too.

Columbus will come back stronger next year. That series kinda reminded me of the Hawks/Red Wings series in '09 when Detroit really put them down. It had a pretty ugly finish, but the Blackhawks won the cup the next year.

I'm not saying the Blue Jackets are winning the cup next year, or going on to win 3 in 6 seasons or whatever, but I think they can use the experience to come back stronger.

I also believe they got screwed by this ridiculous playoff format, but that's a whole different conversation.

Sad to see the Wild go down. Just seems like they can't get it together during the playoffs.

Go Preds!

I agree that CBJ got a bad matchup with this playoff format, but I think the Pens got a bad matchup as well. These 2 teams should have been possibly playing in a later rounds.

why not take the top 8 teams by record for each conference, then rank them by wins/losses and seed it that way. With that seeding the Pens would have been 2 and CBJ would have been 3.

eastern final standings

aweome series for The Preds. I believe they are the only 8 seed to ever sweep the 1 seed . What a choke job by the Hawks

Just take the top 16 teams across the board period. No East/ West crap. 1v16 etc. then reseed every round. You'll get your great matchups that you'd NEVER see in this crap format! Too many good teams get left out and garbage gets in. Bettmans a moron...

Agreed. They've built something that should last for a little while. Good for them. I dunno if Torts is the guy to lead them to the promised land, (I can't stand the guy).

Round 2 Pens vs Capitals - should be a great series!

link

1. Sidney Crosby vs. Alex Ovechkin, Round 3

And so they meet again, Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin headline the marquee matchup of the second round. Game 1 is at Verizon Center in Washington on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, TVA Sports 2).

It's the third time the Penguins and Capitals have played in the postseason with Crosby and Ovechkin taking center stage. The good news for Crosby and the Penguins is they won the previous two series each time en route to winning the Stanley Cup in 2009 and 2016.

Ovechkin hardly is to blame for the Capitals' struggles against Pittsburgh. He has 21 points (10 goals, 11 assists) in 13 playoff games against the Penguins, including seven points (two goals, five assists) in six games last season.

The Penguins have been the better team each time, as evidenced by them winning the series last year despite Crosby being held to two assists. He had 13 points (eight goals, five assists) in the seven-game series in 2009.

I'm down about the playoffs since the Leafs were eliminated by Washington.
I lost a lot of respect for Ovechkin with what I consider to be a turtle/fake move to con the refs in Game 5. Acting like he'd been shot on the ice to draw a penalty.They have a great D though, right now they're the Cup favourite IMO.

Caps in 6.
Oilers in 7.
Rangers in 6.
Blues in 7.

You mean like the way it used to be? lol it was perfectly fine.

The NHL does not get it with certain things. They're trying to hard to be like the NFL where they implement new things every year.

They are pushing rivalries on everyone by doing this inter-divisional first round stuff. It's not working. Columbus and Pittsburgh should have been a second round matchup, not a first round. Possibly even a conference final. Instead it was a first round waste.

With that said, the first round was still decent. The Capitals/Leafs series was really fun to watch. I love the direction Toronto is going. They look like a perennial playoff team. They have the right guy on the bench too. Really happy for the fans up there that they finally can feel good about the team.

The Blues/Wild series was enjoyable too. Sad to see Minnesota go down. I always pull for them because they have great fans up there. They just can't put it together. They seem like they are one really good blue line player away from that next step.

I'm excited for the Ducks/Edmonton series. I'm playing in a tournament starting Wednesday night through Sunday, so I'll be able to catch them since the games will likely be late starts. I don't know if Edmonton is ready for this kind of battle, but I'm so interested to see it unfold.

Obviously Capitals and Penguins will be great. Penguins look really good. Capitals were very sloppy against the Leafs and will have to clean up a lot if they are finally going to beat the Penguins.

Adjusted predictions since my Chicago/Columbus final was bad:

Rangers over Senators in 5

Penguins over Capitals in 7

Ducks over Edmonton in 6

Blues over Predators in 7

The Caps and Pens should be meeting the conference final, not the semifinal.
This bracketing BS doesn't work in the the NHL playoffs. Should be Caps/Rangers, Pens/Senators.
Bettman is such an arse.

I completely agree with this! Unfair to the Caps and the Pens to be playing each other this round.

Pens go up 2-0 with a 6-2 win over the Caps tonight!

So much for The Caps being the Cup favorites

I kind of think the Pens are like the Cavs, kind of coast in the regular season and then turn it on come playoffs

The Pens are so deep in the Captials heads....it makes for bad TV. It's like a Titans fan were to turn on a Browns and Steelers game. They know the Browns are going to lose, so there's no tension.

Oh, Pageau had a nice game. 4 goals in a double OT win, including the game-tying goal with 1 min remaining and of course the OT winner. Damn.

When the Penguins clean up their sloppiness, they are a brutal team to play.

The Capitals are pretty much the team that races out every year to a great record and has nothing to offer in the playoffs. Like some of Peyton Manning's old Colts teams.. The Atlanta Hawks a few times.

I don't think Holtby is as good as everyone makes him out to be. He's still a very good goalie, and easily top ten, but there are quite a few I'd take above him.

That move. That shot.

Connor McDavid is good at hockey.

Yeah not bad lol.

Anyone see this from last night? Anthem singer had a microphone glitch so the Edmonton fans sang Star Spangled Banner....

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kNBp68jquiA

That was great. I doubt the average American hockey fan could sing the Canadian anthem.

wow - Pens tie it up in the last 2 minutes of the 3rd period. They were trailing 2-0, now at 2-2.

I actually turned it off after they tied it. I assumed the Pens would win easily. I guess I was wrong.

...not having Crosby on the ice helped the Caps too.

That was a brutal hit, but I don't think it was dirty. It looked like he was bracing himself and cross checking Crosby at the same time, but didn't anticipate him dropping that low. Wrong place, wrong time.

Oh well, hope he's okay (especially with his history).

Nah it wasn't dirty. League office felt same way, no further disciplinary action.

so scary Sidney Crosby's concussion given his concussion history. I hope this isn't as bad as what happened several years ago. concussion history


i hope he can recover from this.

Supposedly he skated with the team earlier today. That might be a positive sign...?

Why even play him against the Caps? No way the Caps can win three straight. Just sit him.

You spelled Cavs wrong.

I agree, I say for sure sit him for the next game in Washington. No reason to rush him back

There were. The things about the Pres is they had early injuries. The team that finished the season was way better than their record. They could have been a 2 seed.

The Preds are winning it. They are skating fast and hitting hard. Welcome to Smashville!

Nice!
Yeah they could win three straight, don't count on that not happening.
As for Crosby, if there's any doubt I'd sit him for game 5.

It is.
if it is a minor concussion, he can be be cleared to skate. Playing an actual game is another matter. But he did skate off without help, didn't he?

I believe so, yes.

on to game 6. Hopefully the Pens can close out this series. Glad Sidney Crosby was healthy enough to play yesterday.

not looking very good for the Pens right now.... Hopefully they can come back and win.

LET'S GO PENS!!!!

This comment proves why I don't bet on sports. Geez, that wasn't good for the Pens.