NHL Thread

[MattA75]

Fear not Blues fans, you've now come up against the one guy/team more likely to choke than your own (Jumbo Joe)

Thornton has been to the playoffs 15 times. He's had poor performances... what? Three times? Four?

It was 3-4 times in Boston alone, nevermind his time in San Jose (where he captained a team to a 3-0 gag job against the Kings two years ago). He's a good player but his playoff record leaves a lot to be desired, especially given the caliber of some of the teams he was a part of.

[philpritchard]

i feel bad for kessel. im not sure how the media up there could question his work ethic. every shot of him on the bench after a shift he is huffing and puffing about to stroke out

That's part of what leads people to question it: he skates like the wind during a game, but the huffing and puffing makes people think he doesn't put in the work to get in better shape so he's NOT huffing and puffing. There are plenty of reasons to question his dedication to staying in shape.

To me, the stupid thing is that people can't accept that this is just who he is. Instead of embracing one of the elite players in the league during his time in Toronto, people blamed him for the team's failure and tried to run him out of town.

[philpritchard]

Fear not Blues fans, you've now come up against the one guy/team more likely to choke than your own (Jumbo Joe)

Thornton has been to the playoffs 15 times. He's had poor performances... what? Three times? Four?

It was 3-4 times in Boston alone, nevermind his time in San Jose (where he captained a team to a 3-0 gag job against the Kings two years ago). He's a good player but his playoff record leaves a lot to be desired, especially given the caliber of some of the teams he was a part of.

He was completely shut out twice in Boston, which is awful. Other than that, he had 9 points in 11 games as a 19-year-old, and his other point totals of 3 and 6 both lead the team those years.

He's lead his team in playoff scoring seven times. Sometimes, other players need to step it up too.

The difference between his career point-per-game rates in the regular season and playoffs is the exact same as Steve Yzerman's.

[chuck taylor]

Fear not Blues fans, you've now come up against the one guy/team more likely to choke than your own (Jumbo Joe)

Thornton has been to the playoffs 15 times. He's had poor performances... what? Three times? Four?

It was 3-4 times in Boston alone, nevermind his time in San Jose (where he captained a team to a 3-0 gag job against the Kings two years ago). He's a good player but his playoff record leaves a lot to be desired, especially given the caliber of some of the teams he was a part of.

He was completely shut out twice in Boston, which is awful. Other than that, he had 9 points in 11 games as a 19-year-old, and his other point totals of 3 and 6 both lead the team those years.

He's lead his team in playoff scoring seven times. Sometimes, other players need to step it up too.

The difference between his career point-per-game rates in the regular season and playoffs is the exact same as Steve Yzerman's.

Joe does get way more heat than he should. Unfortunately the easy targets always remain the easy targets. He could change that by winning a Cup this year.

[philpritchard]

Fear not Blues fans, you've now come up against the one guy/team more likely to choke than your own (Jumbo Joe)

Thornton has been to the playoffs 15 times. He's had poor performances... what? Three times? Four?

It was 3-4 times in Boston alone, nevermind his time in San Jose (where he captained a team to a 3-0 gag job against the Kings two years ago). He's a good player but his playoff record leaves a lot to be desired, especially given the caliber of some of the teams he was a part of.

He was completely shut out twice in Boston, which is awful. Other than that, he had 9 points in 11 games as a 19-year-old, and his other point totals of 3 and 6 both lead the team those years.

He's lead his team in playoff scoring seven times. Sometimes, other players need to step it up too.

The difference between his career point-per-game rates in the regular season and playoffs is the exact same as Steve Yzerman's.

Joe does get way more heat than he should. Unfortunately the easy targets always remain the easy targets. He could change that by winning a Cup this year.

That would be awesome to see.

Just looking through some career playoff stats, you know who else is a big-time choker? Even worse than Thornton?

Pavel Datsyuk. He's been a no-show even more frequently and has the same number of points in ten more games.

[surfndestroy]

i feel bad for kessel. im not sure how the media up there could question his work ethic. every shot of him on the bench after a shift he is huffing and puffing about to stroke out

That's part of what leads people to question it: he skates like the wind during a game, but the huffing and puffing makes people think he doesn't put in the work to get in better shape so he's NOT huffing and puffing. There are plenty of reasons to question his dedication to staying in shape.

To me, the stupid thing is that people can't accept that this is just who he is. Instead of embracing one of the elite players in the league during his time in Toronto, people blamed him for the team's failure and tried to run him out of town.

Kessel is a lot like Patrick Kane. A great player but he's no leader. Chicago would be in big trouble if Kane was supposed to lead that team. I feel like that's why Kessel was a poor fit in Toronto. I know they tried putting Phaneuf in that leader role but Phaneuf is no Toews.

Kessel is in a perfect place to achieve. On the second or third line with power play time. The compete deficiencies that recur in his game that get eaten up by the opposition's number one line are not so much an issue when going against the other team's third line.

[philpritchard]

i feel bad for kessel. im not sure how the media up there could question his work ethic. every shot of him on the bench after a shift he is huffing and puffing about to stroke out

That's part of what leads people to question it: he skates like the wind during a game, but the huffing and puffing makes people think he doesn't put in the work to get in better shape so he's NOT huffing and puffing. There are plenty of reasons to question his dedication to staying in shape.

To me, the stupid thing is that people can't accept that this is just who he is. Instead of embracing one of the elite players in the league during his time in Toronto, people blamed him for the team's failure and tried to run him out of town.

Kessel is a lot like Patrick Kane. A great player but he's no leader. Chicago would be in big trouble if Kane was supposed to lead that team. I feel like that's why Kessel was a poor fit in Toronto. I know they tried putting Phaneuf in that leader role but Phaneuf is no Toews.

Kessel is in a perfect place to achieve. On the second or third line with power play time. The compete deficiencies that recur in his game that get eaten up by the opposition's number one line are not so much an issue when going against the other team's third line.

To me, he even makes sense as a first line player if he's with a guy like Crosby or Malkin so the opposition can't just specifically target him.

[chuck taylor]

Fear not Blues fans, you've now come up against the one guy/team more likely to choke than your own (Jumbo Joe)

Thornton has been to the playoffs 15 times. He's had poor performances... what? Three times? Four?

It was 3-4 times in Boston alone, nevermind his time in San Jose (where he captained a team to a 3-0 gag job against the Kings two years ago). He's a good player but his playoff record leaves a lot to be desired, especially given the caliber of some of the teams he was a part of.

He was completely shut out twice in Boston, which is awful. Other than that, he had 9 points in 11 games as a 19-year-old, and his other point totals of 3 and 6 both lead the team those years.

He's lead his team in playoff scoring seven times. Sometimes, other players need to step it up too.

The difference between his career point-per-game rates in the regular season and playoffs is the exact same as Steve Yzerman's.

Joe does get way more heat than he should. Unfortunately the easy targets always remain the easy targets. He could change that by winning a Cup this year.

That would be awesome to see.

Just looking through some career playoff stats, you know who else is a big-time choker? Even worse than Thornton?

Pavel Datsyuk. He's been a no-show even more frequently and has the same number of points in ten more games.

Yea, Datsyuk did very little in his first few playoff seasons. He was good in his peak though.

[E.H. Ruddock]

Well that was a game

[MattA75]

Fear not Blues fans, you've now come up against the one guy/team more likely to choke than your own (Jumbo Joe)

Thornton has been to the playoffs 15 times. He's had poor performances... what? Three times? Four?

It was 3-4 times in Boston alone, nevermind his time in San Jose (where he captained a team to a 3-0 gag job against the Kings two years ago). He's a good player but his playoff record leaves a lot to be desired, especially given the caliber of some of the teams he was a part of.

He was completely shut out twice in Boston, which is awful. Other than that, he had 9 points in 11 games as a 19-year-old, and his other point totals of 3 and 6 both lead the team those years.

He's lead his team in playoff scoring seven times. Sometimes, other players need to step it up too.

The difference between his career point-per-game rates in the regular season and playoffs is the exact same as Steve Yzerman's.

Joe does get way more heat than he should. Unfortunately the easy targets always remain the easy targets. He could change that by winning a Cup this year.

That would be awesome to see.

Just looking through some career playoff stats, you know who else is a big-time choker? Even worse than Thornton?

Pavel Datsyuk. He's been a no-show even more frequently and has the same number of points in ten more games.

You know what else he has? A Cup...a cup that he was a HUGE part of winning...I also think that until the last 3-4 years, that Datsyuk could contribute on the ice way more than just scoring, whereas Thornton didn't really develop the 3 zone game he has now until he started to hit the latter part of his early 30s

Thornton's a good player...but there's just something about him (Henrik Sedin too) where I just don't buy they'll ever win a Cup...maybe in a Mark Recchi 2011 role but not in a prominent the team is depending on them role...like I honestly think Thornton's goofy demeanor kind of hurts him...to me he lacks that killer instinct of stepping on a team's throat when they're down

[philpritchard]

He now has six assists in the last three games of the Conference Finals. That sure feels pretty clutch.

[MattA75]

He now has six assists in the last three games of the Conference Finals. That sure feels pretty clutch.

Let's see if he can finish the job...winning at home and doing that stepping on the throat thing in game 6 would go a long way to convincing me they're for real...

[Peeps]

whew....

[MattA75]

Pittsburgh making it to game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals is proof in the pudding that the East REALLY sucked this year

[Peeps]

i hope that is sarcasm

46-1 when leading after 2 periods
92.3 save %
245 goals for 3rd in the league
203 goals against 7th best in league

beats the rangers and caps (two of the better teams in the east) and 104 pts for the year for third best in the east

yea, its a fluke

[Electromatic]

The Pens played much much better defense last night than they have of late. Hope to see more of that in game 7.

Tampa has been very good in this series though. Fun to watch when they are both playing well.

[Peeps]

tampas chances have been great and that offsides last night really changed things to the pens favor i think.

if they had stamkos i think the series would be over by now

[MattA75]

i hope that is sarcasm

46-1 when leading after 2 periods
92.3 save %
245 goals for 3rd in the league
203 goals against 7th best in league

beats the rangers and caps (two of the better teams in the east) and 104 pts for the year for third best in the east

yea, its a fluke

Correct me if I'm wrong, but basically before the Penguins became the hottest team in the league over the last month of the regular season, weren't they barely in the playoffs (and on a day or two here or there out of the playoffs at times) up until that point?

To be fair, the whole league feels down this year, but the east was especially a dumpster fire of mediocre teams. Great, they beat the Rangers and their 101 points that scared absolutely NO ONE. They beat a Washington team that pukes on itself every year in the playoffs even faster than Marc Andre Fleury normally does. And they've now taken a Stamkos-less Lightning team to 7 games. It's a great little run and if it were my team I'd be thrilled, so I get the excitement. Sorry if I'm just not buying in on them, and probably wouldn't until Crosby was putting the Cup over his head. Then again, the Lightning feel like the only team I can buy into at this point, and even that's more because they were just there last year than any feeling I get that they're truly a great team.

[Peeps]

3 teams had more points than the pens, the stars, the blues and the caps 7 other teams had 100 pts but less than the pens (104)


only the caps had a better goal differential

while the pens started slugish from december on they lost 17 games

if they were in the west they would have romped through it. it shows how competitive the east was, not how piss poor it was

[MattA75]

3 teams had more points than the pens, the stars, the blues and the caps 7 other teams had 100 pts but less than the pens (104)


only the caps had a better goal differential

while the pens started slugish from december on they lost 17 games

if they were in the west they would have romped through it. it shows how competitive the east was, not how piss poor it was

I think it shows more that the East was competitive because none of the teams were all that great (aside from Washington, who were great in the regular season if nothing else)...every team was flawed in some major way to my eyes aside from Washington, who only seems to become flawed come playoff time

The bottom half of the east on the whole is much better than the bottom half of the west, but I still think the iron of the west (Chicago/LA/Anaheim/St Louis/San Jose) is far greater than the top 4-5 teams in the east