Eastern Conference Quarterfinals Gamethread
- Thread starter TFP
- Start date
Since Columbus was down 3-1 in this one, I'm going with them to pull it out and have things stay true to form in this series
MAF wired some money to NBC to prevent the studio guys from assessing the tying goal.Ed Hillel said:
If someone could just post the video of the guy singing lolololol on a loop, it would save everyone here a lot of keystrokes. K thx
54thMA said:
Never saw that one coming, especially how brilliant Fleury looked in the OT; wow does he suck when the going gets tough.
Skates of clay.
Reports coming out of Columbus of happy Blue Jackets fans rioting in the streets, so far four covered wagons have been flipped over and set on fire; Andy Taylor and Barney Fife are overwhelmed trying to contain the fans celebrating the first home playoff win in team history.
Good times in Columbus.
Good times in Columbus.
Whatever you need to feel better after a loss like that, but seems to me like a goalie reboot is more what's needed rather than the whole team.
Yea, I have to agree. While Pittsburgh could definitely use another defender or two, their big problem is goalie
cromulence said:
It's a horribly coached (Bylsma fired) team with a horribly constructed (Shero fired) roster. Their superstars are paper champions. Nobody in the organization should feel safe. Safe is death.
And yeah you can shit on Fleury all you want, but they had ample opportunity to put that game away several times before it ever got to that point and refused to do it - instead they went into undisciplined stupid mode (another Bylsma/Shero masterpiece) and thought the Blue Jackets would just die down 3-0 to the mighty Penguins. A more arrogant and spoiled franchise does not exist.
I'm convinced the team quit on Bylsma after watching what he did in the Olympics.
Pittsburgh has plenty of offense for the most part, although the Bruins shut hem down last year. I don't think there's any denying their big problem is goalie and their defense.
Andrew Ference on NBCSN. Cool cool cool.
And just watched the game winner in Columbus. Holy crap.
And just watched the game winner in Columbus. Holy crap.
Ed Hillel said:
If he got the hand I fully agree it should be a call. I just dislike penalties that are questionable getting called in the playoffs and this is on that edge IMHO. The offensive zone ref called the penalty and I'm not sure he had a great angle on it given the traffic between him and the puck.
Ference doing commentary was great. If he ever wants to take over for ANYONE on NESN short of Jack or Brick, I'd be for it. Also, MAF is not a good goaltender. Short of a total brainectomy, he's the reason the Penguins will not come out of the East.
AMcGhie said:
This is complete fallacy. The Penguins as a group are not playing nearly well enough to maybe advance past one round, let alone come out of the Eastern Conference. They are not good enough defensively and their two best players are on milk cartons.
Yes, ultimately what happened happened, but Fleury was the only reason it wasn't about 6-3 Blue Jackets with 20 some seconds left. The Penguins had zero jump after the 3-0 mark (CBJ outshot them 38-16) and were completely on the ropes.
Mason definitely gives them a better chance. The Rangers like to make those seam passes that give Emery and his hips a lot of trouble. And the Flyers' D gets a lot of help from Mason's ability to get out and handle the puck.
I'm wondering if we'll see Gustafsson in for Grossmann on Sunday. That might be a positive for the Flyers; Nik isn't too mobile to begin with, and he's banged up. Gus is a lot more mobile and can handle the puck.
I'm wondering if we'll see Gustafsson in for Grossmann on Sunday. That might be a positive for the Flyers; Nik isn't too mobile to begin with, and he's banged up. Gus is a lot more mobile and can handle the puck.
Now that every series has gone at least four games, it's fun to see who the current playoff leaders are. Any idea who the current points leader is?
Paul Martin
- With 8 points in just 4 games, Paul Martin tops the playoff points chart. Stastny, Marleau, Getzlaf, and MacKinnon all have 7 points in 4 games.
- Benn and Tarasenko lead the way with 4 goals each.
- Martin's 8 assists obviously lead the way, while MacKinnon has 6 and Dubinsky, Subban, and Parise all have 5 helpers.
- Maroon has a playoff high 34 PIMs. Clifford has 30, Roussel 27, Mike Brown 26, Fiddler/Allen 24, and Garbutt 23. Matthieu Perreault has a surprising 16 PIMs already despite the fact that his 36 PIMs all regular season were a career high.
- The hit leaders are Bickell (31), D. Brown/Dubinsky (29), and Cracknell/Ott/Wingels (24). Again, Mathieu Perreault is way higher on the leaderboards than expected as he's thrown 18 hits in 5 games. He had just 73 hits in 69 regular season games.
- In shots on goal, Hossa (28), Nash/Seguin (23), Bourque (22), and Sharp (21) are the only guys over 20 thus far.
- Hjalmarsson has 24 blocked shots in 5 games, and Pietrangelo has 20. Jack Johnson (18) and Emelin (16) are the only others with 15+ blocked shots. Handzus' 11 blocked shots lead all forwards.
- Pietrangelo leads in TOI/G at 31 minutes even. Keith, Seabrook, and Suter are the only other players over 30 minutes. Jack Johnson is over 29, Hjalmarsson and Goligoski over 28, Martin, Wisniewski, Markov, and Erik Johnson are over 27.
- The highest forwards in TOI/G are Steen (26:15), Oshie (25:19), Backes (24:50), and Toews (24:39). No other forward is within even a minute and a half of Toews. It's no surprise that the top-3 defensemen and top-4 forwards are all Blues and Blackhawks after their triple OT series opener. Backes, Steen, and Toews all played over 32:30 a piece in game one. However, Oshie did not play that game and is thus not the beneficiary of an inflated TOI from that triple OT. His lowest TOI in a game so far is 23:28, which is pretty insane for a forward.
- Toews, Crosby, Koivu, Stastny, and Bergeron lead the way in faceoffs taken. Letestu has won 70.7% in limited draws (29-for-41). Fiddler's 65.8% (54-for-82) is also excellent. Koivu leads the way at 64.4% among the guys taking the lion's share of faceoffs with Toews (63.4%) not far behind.
- Kuemper has been great since taking over the net for Minnesota. He has a 0.40 GAA and .979 SV%, translating to just one goal allowed in over 150 minutes now. Rask has the best numbers among goalies to play in every game for his team, with a 0.96 GAA and .966 SV%. Quick's 5.04 GAA and .871 fall at the wrong end of the spectrum.
1-0 Columbus in the 1st. Cluster fuck in front of the net on a power play. Fleury should've covered it.