[Captain Sam]

Oh man, a lot of big trades at the deadline.

Paul Holmgren should be fired. He's done nothing but fumble since the off-season.

[Magnetonium]

Ken Holland hasn't made any moves at the trade deadline, yet again. I guess finishing in the 7th-10th place bracket is fine with him! Even the Blue Jackets did a few moves. Minnesota Wild looks REALLY dangerous now, that in my opinion was the best trade deadline move (sad that Buffalo trades their best player). Minnesota is gradually becoming a powerhouse in the West, Fletcher has many some good signings in the past few months (don't forget Parise and Suter).

[Captain Sam]

CBJ needs to make the playoffs. They need the fans and the money.

Parise and Suter have ridiculous contracts and will become an issue with the new salary cap. They're also in the same boat as Luongo in that they're untradable.

[Demosthenes]

Holmgren has missed, but its not from lack of trying.

Still, I wouldn't mind real new blood at the helm. Homey is still a Broad Street Bully, and that style of play is 40 years old now and only getting older. Flyers weren't expected to do much at the deadline anyway. The off-season and Bryz will see the biggest moves they will make.

As for Minnesota, they may be doing some buying out themselves. Ditto Nashville and that monster Homey made them swallow to keep Webber.

[Captain Sam]

He let Jagr and Carle go in the off-season hoping to sign players like Parise. He also traded away Bobrovsky (who's hot this season) to Columbus only to later trade for Mason (who's doing just as bad as Bryzgalov). He really screwed Philadelphia over.

[Demosthenes]

Jagr and Carle are not that great, sorry to say. Our problems go far beyond an old forward, and a D-man who was a turnover machine. You're just repeating what you've read elsewhere.

The Bobrovski trade, in hindsight, was bad... but we've absolutely larcenied Columbus in the past (Vorachek isn't bad, Couterier is a promising young forward). You can't just fire a GM over one season's missing on minor transactions.

You can do so however, when a conclusive five year review seems to indicate little change from the Bobby Clark era.

[Magnetonium]

Jagr and Carle are not that great, sorry to say. Our problems go far beyond an old forward, and a D-man who was a turnover machine. You're just repeating what you've read elsewhere.

The Bobrovski trade, in hindsight, was bad... but we've absolutely larcenied Columbus in the past (Vorachek isn't bad, Couterier is a promising young forward). You can't just fire a GM over one season's missing on minor transactions.

You can do so however, when a conclusive five year review seems to indicate little change from the Bobby Clark era.

Yeah, I'd rank that goaltender swap/signing in the TOP 3 goaltending flops of the past decade. Along with Leafs trading away Rask for the old guy (whatever the name), and Islanders signing DiPietro to a long-term contract. You just don't sign UNPROVEN goaltenders to long-term contracts, period. Marty Brodeur types are rare indeed.

[Demosthenes]

C'mon, Bob's only been really good for one season. For that to make top three worst he would have to win a cup or two and constantly be a vezina candidate.

Right now he's keeping Columbus in the thick of it, which is more than I can say for our goaltender.

So, Sam, I guess I'm agreeing with you about Homer on some level, just for different reasons.

[Magnetonium]

The problem with Bobrovsky is that he's been in the league for a short period of time, he was still learning while Flyers pretty much decided that he was crap. How many years did he play, a couple? Maybe the goaltending coach sucked, who knows (it appears so).

Overall I have little faith in Russian goaltenders, most of them had uneven careers in the hockey world, with some good years and some bad years. Canadian keepers are the best, followed by American and Suomi/Swedish. Not trying to be stereotypical as I have Russian heritage, just looking at things as they happened.

Now about dem Capitals! Maybe this is the year they make it to the Finals? I consider Boston and Montreal to be the Eastern Conference favourites at this point, with Capitals and Pens just behind them.

Also - Red Wings' streak of 22 years in playoffs may come to an end this year - they have a tough stretch left and teams behind them are gaining, quickly. I am feeling like a Leafs fan to a certain degree - usually the Leafs get overly excited every year about making the (8th) playoff spot, just falling short in the last few years.

[Demosthenes]

The Czechs and Finns have also produced some memorable goalies.

I do agree about Philly giving up on Bob too soon, but it was more complicated than that. Last year Bob put up a real challenge to Bryz, and basically managment choose to go with the big money guy. Our goalie coach is relatively new to us, Jeff Reese, who was billed as one of the best in the game... but I don't really know that much about that so I can't say either way.

The problem in Philly is poor defense, has been for about five or six years now, but REALLY has been for about as long as I've been watching them. They've never invested heavily in more than one high quality defenseman at a time since I've been a fan (Starting around '93), and its only gotten worse in the last six or so, minus the year we had Pronger with Timmonen still in his prime. (When we went to the finals).

So I'm afraid any goalie, even the legends would be treated like shite, and kicked out the door here.

I go back to the issue of living in the '70s with a system that worked well for a few years but was outdated in a decade.

[Magnetonium]

So Red Wings have not missed the playoffs since 1990. I was in kindergarten in the now-defunct Soviet Union that year! Haha.

Regular season comes to a close. Its highly unfortunate that neither Columbus or Winnipeg made the playoffs. Let the playoff excitement begin! Is there anyone running a playoff pool, or can I start one? The one where you pick all at once which teams will win round by round all the way to the finals.

[Demosthenes]

We don't seem to have as many hockey fans around this year, but yes, you can start a play-off pool.

We usually do 1 pt for the 1st round, and 1 pt for guessing the winner in the correct number of games.

For round 2, its 2 pts for the winner but still 1 pt for the correct number of games.

This continues to rd 4. with 4 and 1 pts respectively.

Of course, if you have some other preference, and you are going to keep score, you are free to modify within reason.

Be warned, lots of people drop out after the 1st round.

[Magnetonium]

We don't seem to have as many hockey fans around this year, but yes, you can start a play-off pool.

We usually do 1 pt for the 1st round, and 1 pt for guessing the winner in the correct number of games.

For round 2, its 2 pts for the winner but still 1 pt for the correct number of games.

This continues to rd 4. with 4 and 1 pts respectively.

Of course, if you have some other preference, and you are going to keep score, you are free to modify within reason.

Be warned, lots of people drop out after the 1st round.

I'd love to run a hockey pool (with my excel sheet programmed in advance for easy and accurate score keeping), as I do with couple other sites and Facebook. However, I prefer the pick-all-at-once style of hockey pool. Its more accurate, so to say, way of picking the playoff winners.

POINTS FORMAT:

Quarterfinals: 2 points for every game won by teams you chose to advance to the next round. 1 Point for correctly predicting the number of games the series will be won by the team you picked to advance (for each series).



Semi-Finals: 3 points for every game won by teams you chose to advance to the next round. 1 Point for every runner-up win (a team you picked to advance to this round but did not pick to advance to the next round of playoffs).



Conference Finals: 5 points for each win of every team you chose to advance to the next round. 2 points for every runner-up win (a team you picked to advance to this round but did not pick to advance to the next round of playoffs).



Stanley Cup Finals: 7 points for every win by the team you picked to win the Stanley Cup. 4 points for every runner-up win (a team you picked to advance to this round but did not pick to win it).

---------------------------------------------------------------

Tie-breaks will be based on higher standings in previous round(s). If by some miraculous coincidence any players remain tied at the end of the tournament, then the earlier submission will be judged as higher rank. Make sure you pick matchups properly in every round with top ranked team facing the bottom ranked team.

For example:

WEST.
Vancouver Over LA in 5
San Jose Over STL in 7
Phoenix over Chicago in 7
Nashville over Detroit in 6
_______________________________
EAST
Rangers Over Sens in 6
Washington Over Boston in 6
NJ Over Florida in 4
Pitt over Philly in 6
_______________________________
WEST SEMI
Vancouver Over SJ in 5
Nashville Over Phoenix in 6
_______________________________
EAST SEMI
Rangers Over Washington in 7
Pitt Over NJ in 5
_______________________________

WEST FINAL
Vancouver Over Nashville in 7
EAST FINAL
Pitt over Rangers in 6

STANLEY CUP FINAL!
VANCOUVER OVER PITT IN 7.

[Demosthenes]

Huh. Well, I'm not personally a fan of the picking the whole bracket all at once, like the NCAA basketball tournament, but that's fine. Good Luck!

[Magnetonium]

This is the most lackluster sports forum yet, no offense ... not even NHL playoffs pool this year? I got couple other playoff pool running elsewhere as I do every year for the past decade, but I didn't think people would be so bitter about the shortened season. Oh well.

[Magnetonium]

Game 1, St. Louis vs. Los Angeles. What a great way to end the game, hilarious! Jonathan Quick, after making so making great saves, gives up a puck behind his net for an easy empty netter OT winner. A shorthanded goal, for that matter. What's worse, Kings were on a 4-minute powerplay, and just 30 seconds elapsed in it when the puck was iced down and Quick made his fateful decision to fuck it up for the highlight reel of the week so far.

[Demosthenes]

Its not really the shortened season. Sports are just not as big a thing on this board, and naturally this means the Hockey crowd is limited as well.

This year several of the regulars have just not been as active...

...and...

well, your format just isn't going to be popular here.

Sorry man.

[Travesty]

So I flipped the channel when I saw that the Leafs where winning four to one against Boston with six minutes left. I was rather surprised when that shit even managed to find itself in the playoffs but, imagine my surprise this morning! Such epic justice was done! Wow, the Leafs have cemented their legacy.

[Captain Sam]

I felt sick after that game.

[Travesty]

I felt sick after that game.

Glorious was it not? Toronto should not be allowed to win under any circumstance. I want to see how much shit Canadians can actually take. When St. Louis failed miserably in a similar situation last year the fans declared a boycott on the team and forced management to fire and re-arrange everything. But, how many people in St.Louis are hockey fans? Or Pittsburgh or Washington? Not that many but in Toronto and Ontario by extension millions of people are hockey fans and millions support the Maple Leafs.

So the mindless sheep will continue buying their merchandise and over priced tickets making it the richest franchise by far. Why win the playoffs when you make twice as much selling t-shirts and other shit?