2007 Stanley Cup Finals

[Mike Schwartz]

NHL part 2 is past 1,000 posts, so this seems like good timing to start this one.

[Enforcer]

Good call, Mike. GO DUCKS!!

[Borat Pri Hagafen]

Mone forced me to root for the Senators because of our bet, so why stop now...

Daniel Alfredsson has played in every playoff game in Senators' history. That's pretty impressive.

[clinthopson]

One of my closest friends is an insane Duck fan. he's in hog heaven.

We finally watched a game last Sunday. I found out that with HD tv I could now see the puck.

Frankly, I find hockey about as interesting as soccer, only faster.

[moneyp]

Tell him to come out of the closet, Clint!

[patricia]

OK. Here's Mike's STANLEY CUP FINALS thread.
Monday is the beginning of the real test for the Ducks and the Senators.
Odd thing. Even way over here in Calgary there is much more coverage of the Senators' run-up to the finals than there is of the Ducks.
The reason seems to be that the team based in Ottawa is being touted as the Canadian team.
Makes no sense to me, since as far as I'm concerned the Ducks are the team representing the West.
As I've mentioned, it's not a Canada vs the U.S. contest, despite the Ducks being based in CA. The rosters on ALL the teams are heavy with sons of Canada.
Hell, the Ducks have Getzlaf from here in Calgary and Penner from a team in Central B.C. and Pronger from........I forget where. And so it goes. There is no all Canadian, or all American team, no matter where they're based.
So, Go Ducks!!!!

[moneyp]

Finally got to watch Game Six. Thirteen bullets for #13 (Teemu):

1. This game could easily have gone the way of Game Three. Jiggy was shaky early on, and Detroit wisely threw the puck on net. Any of those early shots get through, and we might have had a collapse of Cechmanekian proportions.

2. Totally even through the first period, despite the Ducks getting a lucky bounce off of Rob Niedermayer's skate and leading in shots 14-7. If I wasn't watching a replay, I would have thought this one was going down to the wire (which it did, but you know what I mean).

3. One of the linesmen is 6'9". 6'9"! In the third period, when Pronger had Bert in a headlock, he came over and was calmly telling Pronger to let Bert go. And he was TOWERING over Biff. Really disorienting.

4. Getzlaf officially made The Leap in this game, his best of the playoffs. I can't believe that I didn't know until now that he was leading our forwards in ice time. Then I thought about it, and asked myself if any other forward should be leading us in ice time. The answer: definitely not. Without looking, I determine that Sammy should be second. Sure enough, he is.

5. Teemu also played what I thought was his best game, very active. Six points over the final three games, I believe. I don't know if this is because the defensive attention has shifted to the PPG line, but I still have all three games saved on DVR, so I may fast forward and see who Lidstrom was getting matched up against.

6. Favorite random moments: On Kent Huskins' inadvertant breakaway, Emrick called him "Bobby Orr with a 4-0!" Tremendous. That's his new nickname from now on. The requisite "Sean O'Donnell's wearing the mic so someone from Versus reminded him to say something interesting" moment, and every shot of Robert Lang on the Detroit bench with a "should I vacation in the Bahamas or Cancun?" look on his face. I don't know how you stand it, Larry.

7. The third period wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was. There was one moment, right before Detroit's first goal, where it looked like Anaheim was consciously trying to slow the play down with predictable results. If I was the Ducks' Assistant Coach of Common Sense, I could have told Carlyle this was a bad idea. Detroit predictably dominated the play during that stretch, which led to the Marchant hooking penalty, which led to Zetterberg's goal. The Ducks' worst sequence of the game.

8. Another bad idea? Putting Dustin Penner out there to implement said slowdown. There was one point where Scotty hit him in stride, and he came to a complete stop before attempting a weak dump into the zone. Unless Dustin is in front of the opposing net, he should never ever EVER stop skating. In addition to many other facets of Bertuzzi's game, Penner apparently has his hockey sense. He was great most of the game, but should never be trusted to protect the lead.

9. Other than that sequence, and the final three minutes, I really thought the Ducks played well. Detroit scored two nice backdoor PP goals using some great passing (Lidstrom's fake shot/pass was particularly sweet). But overall I thought we played the third rather well. Yes, it was a "protect the lead" period, but the Ducks didn't retreat into a shell. It was excruciating listening to this game on the radio, because Steve Carroll made it sound like we were playing like shit, when we were actually playing really solid defensive hockey.

10. Moen got the hooking penalty on Chelios. Now from all I was reading online, I assumed this was a hook that Chelly subtly held on to to draw the call. Cagey veteran move and all that. Um, no. Watching Chelios skating around handling the puck with Moen's stick impaling him while Travis throws up his arms in exasperation was pretty hilarious, but it was a really idiotic call. Despite my policy of letting the refs slide, I think I would have been incensed watching that play. I don't have a problem with Moen getting called for the hook since his stick shouldn't have been up there to begin with, but they needed to call Chelios for either holding the stick or unsportsmanlike conduct. I mean, that's as good as a dive, right? How does Chelios not get called for something right there?

11. After the Moen penalty, the wheels really came off. Detroit's pressure was insane. I can't believe the puck didn't go in. I would have had a heart attack watching it live. Listening to it, I was just waiting for Steve Carroll's patented "they score!" (you can even here the single exclamation point when he says it). Just excruciating.

12. They just highlighted Anaheim's ending play where Sammy stays deep in the zone waiting for the dump in. Totally missed that. Fantastic idea!

13. The post-game celebration was very sweet to watch. This will be Teemu's first finals. And Scott Niedermayer's fifth. Wow.

Anyway, great game, probably my favorite of the playoffs so far, third period included. I'll definitely give it another look before the Finals start.

[patricia]

TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT, GUYS!!!

Game #1.
Winner of the series takes home all the marbles.
Be there.

[Slurpy]

Ducks in 6!

[Enforcer]

Go Ducks!

[Mike Schwartz]

Incredible!!

Every human being on Earth who knows about this event has contributed to this very thread (Larry...........I ain't removing the smileys since your guys are out)

[patricia]

AND for those who are reluctant to root for the Ducks and the West, perhaps knowing that the Ducks have more Canadian players on their roster than do the Sens might steer you away from the dark side.
Coach Carlyle reminded us of that this morning.

The Ducks are representin' for the West, from the Artic Circle to the Mexico border.
The Sens are representin' for the East, from the same geographical points.
More Canadians on the Ducks than on the Sens, so no nationalistic loyalties are involved, as far as I can see.
GO DUCKS!!

[Canuck Don]

[QUOTE=patricia;640496]AND for those who are reluctant to root for the Ducks and the West, perhaps knowing that the Ducks have more Canadian players on their roster than do the Sens might steer you away from the dark side. end QUOTE.



The rosters supplied Sat by the NHL headquarters show 20 of the 28 players on the anaheim roster were born in Canada in comparison, only 11 of the 20 players on Ottawa's roster list Canadian centres as their place of birth including Ray Emery who played his jr. B hockey for my town.

GO LEAFS GO...oooops forgot,,,they are at the golf course.

[patricia]

[QUOTE=Canuck Don;640538]

AND for those who are reluctant to root for the Ducks and the West, perhaps knowing that the Ducks have more Canadian players on their roster than do the Sens might steer you away from the dark side. end QUOTE.



The rosters supplied Sat by the NHL headquarters show 20 of the 28 players on the anaheim roster were born in Canada in comparison, only 11 of the 20 players on Ottawa's roster list Canadian centres as their place of birth including Ray Emery who played his jr. B hockey for my town.

GO LEAFS GO...oooops forgot,,,they are at the golf course.

Exactly, Don. My guys, the Flames are golfing as well as Larry's and Slurpy's and Mike's.
Mone', among all of us, is the only one with a dog in the fight.
Larry and Mike are, I'm assuming, rooting for the Ducks, as our side of the continent's entry into the fray.
But, if you are going to root for an Eastern team, being in Ontario and all, then you probably will be rooting for the Senators, even though there are more Canadian players on the Ducks.
To my mind it's an East/West rivalry.

[Canuck Don]

[QUOTE=patricia;640547]

But, if you are going to root for an Eastern team, being in Ontario and all, then you probably will be rooting for the Senators, even though there are more Canadian players on the Ducks.
To my mind it's an East/West rivalry.

Being from Ontario,,,I still will not pull for Ottawa....I dislike that team. Go Ducks.

[Enforcer]

Hehehehe. Toronto fans rooting for Ottawa... unlikely

[Borat Pri Hagafen]

Less than 2 weeks until Mone's new avatar (finally). Who's psyched?

[Enforcer]

I am!

[moneyp]

Being from Ontario,,,I still will not pull for Ottawa....I dislike that team. Go Ducks.

Bravo! I figured I could count on you, Don. We'll take fans any way we can get 'em.

Half an hour til' the puck drops. Except for my stomach doing flip-flops and a slightly nauseous feeling, I'm not nervous or anything.


Very proud of my boys. Let's get 'em tonight.

GO DUCKS!

[moneyp]

Well, that sucked.

[moneyp]

ANDY MAC!

And Drew Miller makes that play happen. SWEEET!

[moneyp]

Great shift from the fourth line! We can definitely use more of that.

[moneyp]

Rough start, but otherwise a great first period. Sens didn't get a shot on goal over the final eleven minutes of the period.

[patricia]

End of the first. One each. Nice action so far. Penalties to a minimum. Some pushing and shoving, nothing major.

[moneyp]

Yeah, I'm happy with the flow of the game. Lots of hitting. Duck hockey, baby!

[Enforcer]

Beautiful goal by Andy Mac. Ducks hitting hard. Let's see a donnybrook! Where's McGrattan???

[moneyp]

Crap.

[Enforcer]

Friggin' Redden. Giguere without a stick.

[moneyp]

Need the kill, here.

[Enforcer]

big kill of the 2 man advantage