GDT: 2013/14 Out of Town PLAYOFFS - Part 14

[Minny Shinny]

Coyle took some damage to the grill from a Suter shot to the face, IIRC.

No cute vine with a kid to go with that one tho.

 

[David Krejci*]

Mike O'Connell made some dumb decisions and he probably never would have done what Chiarelli did, but publicly saying after the trade that he was building around Patrice Bergeron and not Joe Thornton was dead on. Despite the crap return on a marketable player, he can hold his head high on his philosophy.
Thornton is just a huge disappointment. I have no enmity towards him but I am glad the Bruins went with Bergeron/Chara as core leaders.

Yup.

 

[C77]

The 3-0 series lead turning into a defeat isn't that big of a deal to me these days.

There isn't a great difference in the quality of teams in the playoffs like in the past....so the big comeback isn't as rare....In the past a team that went up 3 games to 0 was generally a good deal better than the opponent.

Nowadays, like we see it's more of a tossup who wins each game because the teams are evenly matched....so you have the coin toss and sometimes it comes up heads 4 times in a row.

It says something that this happened to Boston in 2010....then almost to Vancouver against Chicago....3-0 to 3 games a piece and Chicago came "this close" to winning...and now happened again to San Jose all in the period of 3-4 years.

 

[TCL40]

Honestly, I don't think we really do. It's one thing to blow a 3-0 lead when your team was struggling all season and when they didn't have a rep as playoff chokers yet (while we lost as favorites to Carolina, they still came back from down 3-1 to force a game 7 OT), but what the Sharks did is pretty remarkable. The Bruins actually used that as motivation, but the Sharks just seem to be a lost cause TBH.

With the Sharks, they've had a rep as playoff chokers for about a decade now, have consistently started strong and then completely blown it, and now this. And they lost by 3 or more goals in all 4 games, whereas we only had one game that wasn't a 1-goal loss. Despite being in a similar situation nearly every year, they either got complacent or just flat out gave up. Either way, it's happened before and it will probably happen again with that core.

Bruins have a long and legitimate list for why they lost that Flyers series-injuries depleted their team and by game 7 they had career AHLers and bottom 6 players trying to move to the conference championship.

I don't know what happened to the Sharks but they just fell apart. That match up was never going to be an easy one for either team but the Sharks couldn't close the deal. I suspect they will make some changes-not really a rebuild but more of a reshuffling and perhaps shedding some older players for some youth.

I feel bad for their fans though-I think it's tough to see your team get that close and then fail. It stings a lot and I think I struggled more with the game 7 Flyers loss than the game 6 cup loss.

Jumbo Joe didn't get it done.

Kind of sad the Avs lost-I wanted them to move on.

 

[KrejciMVP]

I'm going for the Rags, for some reason I just can`t ever root for Philly. Picking Minny and LA as well.

do I get a cookie?

 

[Terrier]

Sad thing is that I think we all know how Sharks fans feel right now.

At least Boston rebounded to win the Cup and temporarily erase that nightmare, with the Kings now taking us off the hook for the time being. As for Jumbo Joe and (soon to be parted?) company, I don't know. I'm sure fans around the NHL are revisiting The Trade in 2005 and going "hmmm".

 

[RedBruin]

I'm satisfied that SJ lost and Jumbo choked the last 4 games. I don't feel sorry for them and their fans at all.
*runs away*

 

[Terrier]

i don't feel so bad about 2010. see? happens all the time

Two or three other times in the last few years, a team has forced a Game 7 but lost(i.e., the Hawks in 2011 against the 'Nucks). It's official: no series lead is safe.

 

[skullguise]

As someone posted earlier, I'm angry that Cooke gets to play again in the finals. I have a heck of a lot of respect for Minny, especially overcoming their goalie issues to get this far. But I just can't root for them at all because of that piece of trash....

Watch out Chicago, protect your players well....

 

[LFG19]

So close.

 

[MaCam]

Feel bad for Sharks fans, but not for Thornton due to the idiotic comments he made a few years ago about the Bruins:

"It's just something with Boston," Thornton said. "It just seems like they have a horseshoe. We've seen the [Milan]Lucic cross-check to the head [of Dominic Moore]earlier, and there's no disciplinary thing.

"It's just something about Boston and the disciplinary [process]is on their side. I'm not sure why that is. I'm not assuming that Colin's kid is on the team and that's why, but it's really bizarre."

 

[qc]

 

[Fire Sweeney]

I can see Toronto going hard after a gutless player like Marleau in the offseason.

 

[patty59]

Good thing they got Marleau and Tin Man locked up early

Those guys are such losers.

 

[Joe Zanussi]

If there is anybody left who doesn't appreciate/worship Ryan Suter, I hope they watched last night. He's a machine.

 

[ODAAT]

If there is anybody left who doesn't appreciate/worship Ryan Suter, I hope they watched last night. He's a machine.

Worship??? Um, nope, appreciate and respect? Yep

 

[JRull86]

So close.

Wanted the Wild to bury them after this display. Maxim Talbot is such a pansy.

 

[ODAAT]

Wanted the Wild to bury them after this display. Maxim Talbot is such a pansy.

wonder where he learned this

 

[BoyntBergie]

Just saw the clip of Joe Thornton. Made me feel absolutely terrible. Poor guy.

I can't help but feel for the guy too. He gets a bit of a bad rap around here but I don't know why, I thought he was a pretty good soldier as a Bruin.

He's just not a leader. He's an excellent passenger, but he's not going to drive a team to the Cup. He needs to get out of SJ. Put him somewhere like Tampa or Minny, where there's already a strong player leadership structure in place, and he'd be fine I think. He just doesn't have the fire to be the guy everyone else in the locker room is looking to for inspiration when the chips are down.

 

[Joe Zanussi]

Worship??? Um, nope, appreciate and respect? Yep

I think you gather my meaning, but I apologize if I crossed secular/non-secular lines.

He gets EVERY SINGLE loose puck and wins EVERY SINGLE battle.

 

[RussellmaniaKW]

I can't help but feel for the guy too. He gets a bit of a bad rap around here but I don't know why, I thought he was a pretty good soldier as a Bruin.

He's just not a leader. He's an excellent passenger, but he's not going to drive a team to the Cup. He needs to get out of SJ. Put him somewhere like Tampa or Minny, where there's already a strong player leadership structure in place, and he'd be fine I think. He just doesn't have the fire to be the guy everyone else in the locker room is looking to for inspiration when the chips are down.

Stamkos would score 70 with Joe feeding him.

And I totally agree with you. Joe would be a perfect 2nd line center for a lot of teams.

 

[Hali33]

I'm not going to pretend that our 2010 collapse was anything other than a soul crushing disaster. Injuries/AHL players or not that was devastating as a fan. But at least that was it. The Bruins rebounded in the ultimate way and won it all the next year and have never looked back. Actually makes a good story now.
With SJ fans it's the same story over and over.

Mentally, it's just got to be difficult to muster up any sort of excitement or positivity about your team when the end result is always failure when it matters most. I feel pretty bad for their fans.

 

[jgatie]

As someone posted earlier, I'm angry that Cooke gets to play again in the finals. I have a heck of a lot of respect for Minny, especially overcoming their goalie issues to get this far. But I just can't root for them at all because of that piece of trash....

Watch out Chicago, protect your players well....

I have to root for Minny, Charlie Coyle is from my hometown and is friends with two of my nephews. He's a good kid and a great hockey player who plays the right way. So I hold my nose and root for him to do well, and Cooke to get his own.

 

[BMC]

Wanted the Wild to bury them after this display. Maxim Talbot is such a pansy.

Well he used to play for the Habs, what do you expect?

 

[BMC]

I've said this before but I'll say it again- Joe Thornton has all the tools to be a Hall of Fame hockey player except he lacks the passion/drive to excel & to win. He's been in the league for what, 16 seasons now. ZERO Stanley Cups and only one [1] Hart Trophy.

I'm not saying he is the only reason the Sharks have perpetually underachieved in the time he's been there. I'm saying he is definitely one of the reasons.