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******2022 NHL Playoffs IN GAME & Discussion******

Negative


Barry Melrose had a stroke or something. It’s sad to watch.
Ya I saw him with chelios I think thursday during the games, hes not well

Hope for his sake this was just a nostalgia year with it being first year back on espn, and they let him, rest now
 
Ya I saw him with chelios I think thursday during the games, hes not well

Hope for his sake this was just a nostalgia year with it being first year back on espn, and they let him, rest now
Cheli just isn’t good. His daughter is better.

ESPN is weird.
 
FS2tZ6dWIAAKx2v

FS2tWYBXEAETcX1
 
I haven’t paid a ton of attention to NHL this year, but do follow it somewhat closely. However, I’m puzzled by how big of favs Colorado is vs the Blues. I know the Avs have been great this year, but it’s not like StL are frauds. Can anyone explain why such a big line
 
I haven’t paid a ton of attention to NHL this year, but do follow it somewhat closely. However, I’m puzzled by how big of favs Colorado is vs the Blues. I know the Avs have been great this year, but it’s not like StL are frauds. Can anyone explain why such a big line
Edit: stupid internet that article was 2021. They played 3 times, 2-1. Not that it matters a lot but they got swept by the Avs last year in the playoffs.

It's also a huge mismatch. You need speed to keep up with the Avs.
The Golden Knights of last year were the perfect example of how to beat the Avs + they are the public team.
 
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Speaking of the devil, I don't see anyone stopping the Avs except maybe the Hurricanes? I'm thinking about laying the +200ish on them to win it all and let the chips fall. Anyone see the Avs having any problems? The flames or oilers will be a sweep.
 
I played St Louis last night at +140 to win series.
Also, I saw Carolina is now -110 most likely due to Anderson injury. That is now a play as this is a big over reaction. Carolina led the league in goals against, and Ranta is certainly capable. I know they kinda limped down the stretch losing to teams like Buffalo and Islanders earlier this month, but they won their last 6, only lost 8 games at home all year and now are a pickem. Boston certainly good enough, I'll go with the better team all year though.

Rangers -105
Blues +140
Carolina -110

*official plays
Only 3-0 in series bets first round. Hot takes went 7-1. Will have a new write up here probably later when I get full series price lines.
So far I see the Rangers are at +160 currently. Surely this line will go up as all this square money comes piling in on Carolina. I will undoubtedly be playing the Rangers to advance again with full rationale. I'd say news of Anderson returning to net will get me close to +200.
Florida -150 is a bit steep, but I'm going to be on the Panthers for sure. Team was built to beat TB. TB defense and goaltending definitely top notch, but Panthers are going to be putting lots of pressure on them. Point may be hurt as well.
Colorado probably should steam roll St Louis. Leaning playing them -1.5 games, but really just may play totals all series long.
Calgary/Edmonton, oh baby. Cannot fucking wait for this one.
 
Rangers now at +175 and I'll be out of town for a week, so I'll mark this as my official play.

Playoff hockey starts at the net and radiates outward. Rangers have best goalie in the league. Goalies can absolutely win series/stanley cups, and why would I have any reason to doubt one of the of the best of recent memory? In 1985-86, the Rangers had a solid, not great team, but they were going up in the Eastern conference finals against a mediocre Canadians team, with this rookie goalie. He had a really so-so regular season, 3.36 gaa, 875 save percentage, really unremarkable. I really really thought this was going to be the Rangers year, but oh no. This goalie stood on his absolute head and although the Rangers lost 4-1, they really should have WON this series 4-1, or at least been ahead 3-2. This goalie was Patrick Roy and he won the Cup for the Habs that year.
On defense, the Rangers are have the better of it again. If I'm picking a team from the defenseman, Only Slavin makes the top 4 in my view. Smith and Deangelo were castoffs from the Rangers. Skjei's a nice player but frankly, I'm good with all of the Rangers defenseman, and they roll them out very consistently, no one is really overworked. That said, the Canes defensemen do do a few things very well. First, they are super aggressive and smart with their pinches and they are also very good working special teams. But, you pinch sometimes you get caught. And the Rangers are certainly no slouches on the power play, but they do rely heavily on their #1 unit for sure.
That's the good for the Rangers.
The not so good is that the Canes have a very good rotation of forwards, possibly second deepest in the league (behind Florida). They are good on both ends of the ice, and really can control the game 5v5. This is going to be an issue for the Rangers as they are not good 5v5 for the most part. But, this has been the case all year long and they still won a lot more games than they lost. They have been great coming from behind (so have the Canes). They do roll 4 lines quite a bit, and IF Goodrow returns, and Motte is already back, that does give them quite a bit of depth, and can sit the likes of Reeves, Hunt, etc... Possibly bump up a Goodrow to the top line, and have a 4th line of Motte, Rooney, Vatrano which honestly would be a very good, grinding and fast line. Either way, the Rangers certainly aren't terrible at forward and have some quality options.
The narrative as to how they win though is Carolina didn't play great down the stretch. And they barely beat Boston, who for the most part are a one line team. Boston is honestly not that great, and the home side won every game there. Whos to say the Rangers can't steal a game at Carolina behind Shesterkin? The one game they beat CArolina was Georgiev with a shut out standing on his head. That would put an immense amount of pressure on Carolina, imho.
Are Carolina better than the Rangers? Probably. But, I think the Rangers are good enough to win this series 4x out of 10 at least, maybe closer to 50/50 simply due to Igor.
IF the Rangers get better production of the kid line, and IF the Rangers get Goodrow back and IF the Rangers learn to win a faceoff, they win this series handily. I think this one goes another 7 games.
 
The Rangers can win this series if and only if Shesterkin steals it as the Rangers will more than likely be dominated in possession at even strength as they were against a lesser team in Pittsburgh. Carolina is clearly the better team with the far superior coach but the Rangers have a huge edge in goal which gives them a decent chance.
 
Another wasted season with Crosby, Malkin, and Letang.... :bigcry:
The era is ending. Might be time to follow Mario and exit the scene quietly. 66 was the canary in the coal mine this year with his decision to cash it in. Consecutive sellout streak is already over, when the playoff streak ends the big question the next 5 years might be whether they move to Houston, KC or the west coast.
 
Round 2, using the same factors as Round 1 except for last 25 game stat:

Tampa in 6 over Florida - Better shooting, goaltending, PK, close in PP opportunities, Panthers have edge in defensive scoring, but Hedman can basically do it all.
New York in 7 over Carolina - Rangers slight edges in goal, defensive scoring, Canes better shooting % and PK. The edge is Carolina allowing a lot of PP opportunities.
Calgary in 6 over Edmonton - Flames superior in shooting, goaltending, PK, close numbers from defensemen and PP opportunities. Could end in 5 but McDavid wills another win.
Colorado in 7 over St. Louis - Blues a much better shooting and PK team, while Avs draw penalties better and have better defensemen scoring. Tight in goal but slight edge to the Avs. An upset would not surprise me.
 
Hot takes post
As noted previously, went 7-1 first round, 3-0 on action bets.
Already on Rangers +175 in round 2.

Florida -150 is my second official play.
Florida had a very tough first round opponent in the Caps, but got off a bit lucky as Wilson got hurt early. They still struggled a bit for space, but in the end, class prevailed. They benefit from a few extra days off here and it doesn't appear that they have any injury issues to deal with. Again, this team was built with the Lightning in particular in mind and they get a chance to show off what they have. I believe that the Panthers have the best forward depth in the league. They scored the most gpg by a wide margin and had the best record in the league. And they have home ice.
BUT, as I mentioned in the Rangers preview, come playoff time it starts in your own net and circles out. Vassy is the premier playoff goalie in the world, and who is going to bet against him? TB has the best defensemen depth in the league, so it very much sounds like I'm contradicting my earlier thesis above. But, here's the thing. Florida has a former vezina winner in goal. They have a pretty solid defense - Ekblad was playing at top 5-7 level in the league before he got hurt, Chiarot and Gudas play pretty good stay at home defense, and Montour and especially Weegar been good. So, it's not like the cupboards are bare in Florida. And the Florida forwards are all really good two-way players and they can roll out more good players than TB can right now. ESPECIALLY if Point is hurt, and I believe he will be out at least a few games and if he comes back, nowhere near as effective.
I watched a lot of the Toronto/Bolts series, and for the most part, Toronto took the play to the Lightning. I think Florida takes this up a level more. Sure, they don't have the Matthews/Marner line. But that makes them even more dangerous in that you can't line match this team at all. TB is going to struggle to get high quality chances 5v5 and Florida is going to get a shit ton of shots every game.
Can Vassy win this series by himself? Oh no doubt, but I just think the end is nigh for the Lightning and the Panthers are really the best team in the east. Panthers kind coasted into the playoffs as they had clinched everything early - lost 10-2 last game vs the Canadians, lost game 1 vs the Caps at home, got crushed game 3 vs. the Caps. But I am thinking that they have started to re-click now and playing with more confidence.
Wouldn't fault anyone for fading this one, TB gonna be hard to kill.

I am not playing either Western series. I'm very looking forward to the Flames/Oilers series. We've seen the Flames can absolutely dominate games, and the oilers are meh other than McDavid/Draisatl at times. But this is a rivalry and much closer to a coin flip than the prices current offered. I would lean small to the Oilers at +odds, but I think I'd wait after 2 games and if the series is 1-1, you may get a better price on the Flames.

Colorado should handle the Blues, but I wouldn't lay that kind of chalk on a series against a playoff tested team. Blues are definitely a playoff type team, but I think their defense is banged up a bit too much to stay competitive here. I thought the Blues matched up well vs the wild, but not quite as well against the Avs. Goalie play could definitely be the difference and I'd side with the Blues there.
 
Another wasted season with Crosby, Malkin, and Letang.... :bigcry:
I don't quite understand your logic. The Pens with those guy went to 4 Stanley Cup finals and won 3 cups. They won more cups than Lemieux's pens did. Gretzky only won 4 cups. They have the most cup wins of any franchise in the last 20 years, tied with the hawks. They have been a complete success, except for Letang, he sucks
 
I dont think tampa can match florida over 7 games, if point is out it's a huge mismatch up front, Vasilevski is the one position where they have a big gap vs bob. Whomever wins this wins the East imo

Blues cant skate with the Avs imo, they will win a game or two based off their special teams, but I cant see them beating this Avs team

Carolina is too deep for the rangers. Pesce and Skjei are going to be on panarin all series and based on how they did vs boston they should expect to slow him down, which opens up every other matchup as a positive for the canes. Igor played better as series went on in round 1, that's a huge advantage for the rangers, but it may be their only one here. Team is over achieving right now, they are built for long term and planned out the rebuild when they sent that letter to fans a few years ago, so I think they are a year or two away from really pushing for the ECF

Calgary is the deeper team, csnt dispute that, I think they would be a tougher matchup for the Avs too, and they deserve to be favoried. McDavid is the great equalizer though, he won game 7 on his own. The tanev injury for Calgary is one to watch, flames are deep in d, but tanev is their shutdown guy and if he not at full strength it's going to be an issue.

I do expect the flames to have the advantage in the run of play, sportsnet panel after the game last night pointed out they had something like 130 sog more than dallas in r1, almost 20 a game, but this Edmonton team since woodcraft took over has had an advantage in high danger chances, and I think they will do that again in this series.


This was my confidence levels in r1

Carolina++
St. Louis+
Toronto+++
Edmonton+++++

Pittsburgh++
Florida++++
Calgary+++++++++
Colorado+++++++++

I dont see any having as big a level in r1 except colorado

Florida+++
Carolina++++
Edmonton+
Colorado+++++++++

two tossups in boa and bof, but points injury pushes my thinking to a florida win, decent amount of confidence in hurricanes, avs should roll
 
Will likely be on Panthers g1 in someway

Oilers at +140 I already took, would chase if they lose, dont see them down 0-2
 
I don't quite understand your logic. The Pens with those guy went to 4 Stanley Cup finals and won 3 cups. They won more cups than Lemieux's pens did. Gretzky only won 4 cups. They have the most cup wins of any franchise in the last 20 years, tied with the hawks. They have been a complete success, except for Letang, he sucks
Anything short of playing in the conference finals is a failure of a season for this squad.

Three 1st round and one 2nd round exit are wasted seasons on what are the tail end of their careers.
 
Anything short of playing in the conference finals is a failure of a season for this squad.

Three 1st round and one 2nd round exit are wasted seasons on what are the tail end of their careers.
you forget about those back to back cups on the tailend?

Unrealistic expectations for a team playing most of the series with a AAA goalie and really overall. Malkin looks like Jagr in 2010. They’re a one line team that hates playing defense. Once they traded Kessel it was over. Letang should've been shown the door years ago.

I think making the playoffs for this team is about as good as it’s going to get. They dont adapt to playoff hockey and got swept by any team that played defense first hockey.
 
Ill give the penguins and the GM rutherford credit for building a powerhouse team during the cup run. Those 3 lines, especially Kessel’s, were unbelievable and it matched their style perfectly. Kessel trade was genius and he should’ve won the conn smythe the sharks finals year. He put that team from flameout to powerhouse.
 
I dont think tampa can match florida over 7 games, if point is out it's a huge mismatch up front, Vasilevski is the one position where they have a big gap vs bob. Whomever wins this wins the East imo

Blues cant skate with the Avs imo, they will win a game or two based off their special teams, but I cant see them beating this Avs team

Carolina is too deep for the rangers. Pesce and Skjei are going to be on panarin all series and based on how they did vs boston they should expect to slow him down, which opens up every other matchup as a positive for the canes. Igor played better as series went on in round 1, that's a huge advantage for the rangers, but it may be their only one here. Team is over achieving right now, they are built for long term and planned out the rebuild when they sent that letter to fans a few years ago, so I think they are a year or two away from really pushing for the ECF

Calgary is the deeper team, csnt dispute that, I think they would be a tougher matchup for the Avs too, and they deserve to be favoried. McDavid is the great equalizer though, he won game 7 on his own. The tanev injury for Calgary is one to watch, flames are deep in d, but tanev is their shutdown guy and if he not at full strength it's going to be an issue.

I do expect the flames to have the advantage in the run of play, sportsnet panel after the game last night pointed out they had something like 130 sog more than dallas in r1, almost 20 a game, but this Edmonton team since woodcraft took over has had an advantage in high danger chances, and I think they will do that again in this series.


This was my confidence levels in r1

Carolina++
St. Louis+
Toronto+++
Edmonton+++++

Pittsburgh++
Florida++++
Calgary+++++++++
Colorado+++++++++

I dont see any having as big a level in r1 except colorado

Florida+++
Carolina++++
Edmonton+
Colorado+++++++++

two tossups in boa and bof, but points injury pushes my thinking to a florida win, decent amount of confidence in hurricanes, avs should roll
After having big problems with the pens in 5v5, i dont see how the rangers win this series without the rangers goalie playing like hasek. The Panthers & Canes were 1/2 in 5v5 puck possession. I smell a mismatch and I’m bullish on the hurricanes to begin with.
 
I don't forget, I just never expected the drop-off from two cups to then 1st rd exits to become the norm so quickly.

IMG-20220516-WA0009.jpg
 
Rossi also said the doctors cleared Crosby to play in game 6 and Hextall said no. After days of railing against the Trouba hit now it looks like the fanbase is finding a new scapegoat.
 
After having big problems with the pens in 5v5, i dont see how the rangers win this series without the rangers goalie playing like hasek. The Panthers & Canes were 1/2 in 5v5 puck possession. I smell a mismatch and I’m bullish on the hurricanes to begin with.
Yep, its igor playing out of his mind or bust

Canes just so deep, and brindamour is a really good coach at getting the matchups he wants

Canes can create too, not just about possession, their xg this season was 2nd in league, rangers were 28th, canes were 3rd in xg allowed, rangers were
 
I do love the old expected goals numbers.
This is why they play the actual game. I certainly understand the reasoning why the Canes are favored, I just simply think they are favored by too much. It also now appears that Anderson will not be able to play in round 2, so more Ranta - this is a large advantage for the Rangers.
Canes barely beat Boston who were without a number of key players as well. This is not an open and shut case.
So much can hinge on a puck bounce here, or an injury there, or a errant high stick.
Was so disappointed that there was no hockey last night, seemed like the first time in weeks.
And as luck would have it, I'll be in New York this week, but of course, the Rangers are playing Sunday and I'm flying out Sunday afternoon. Was totally going to go to one of the games while in town, but the stars did not align so well.
Looking forward to tonights games already. :siren:
 
I had a quick epiphany. We all know that last year the lightning beat the panthers. The panthers have improved to some extent. Are they really that much improved to flip the series loss? Point is D2D for game 2. Really when it comes down to it, are the lightning really that tired from the Cups? They had a cup win with no playoff travel at all. Another cup win with a reduced travel schedule during the regular season. Im thinking could be some value with Tampa. I’ll have to do some more research.
 
I had a quick epiphany. We all know that last year the lightning beat the panthers. The panthers have improved to some extent. Are they really that much improved to flip the series loss? Point is D2D for game 2. Really when it comes down to it, are the lightning really that tired from the Cups? They had a cup win with no playoff travel at all. Another cup win with a reduced travel schedule during the regular season. Im thinking could be some value with Tampa. I’ll have to do some more research.
I think panthers are better

Reinhart, Giroux, Weeger has taken a huge step up on d to the point that hes a legit top pairing guy now. Their goaltending was a mess at times last year as well

Tampa has gotten a but worse, just due to the cap casualties, their depth isnt as good.

I dont buy the Tampa is tired stuff, especially now, maybe early in season, but they know better than anyone what it takes to win in playoffs
 
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