GDT: 2024 Playoff Bandwagon Thread

[Machinehead]

I was on the Lightning bandwagon three years in a row. Even after they beat the Rangers, I was here for the SCF. You guys always made me feel welcome and it was awesome watching those two Cups with you guys.

I saw @OurlordAndSaviorKuch in our GDT and I was like f*** yeah we're gonna win.

I need your energy. I need your vibes for one last game.

You want the Rangers to lose? That's fine. Next round. I wouldn't ask you for that.

Don't let me moderate a forum after losing a 3-0 lead.

 

[JoVel]

I was on the Lightning bandwagon three years in a row. Even after they beat the Rangers, I was here for the SCF. You guys always made me feel welcome and it was awesome watching those two Cups with you guys.

I saw @OurlordAndSaviorKuch in our GDT and I was like f*** yeah we're gonna win.

I need your energy. I need your vibes for one last game.

You want the Rangers to lose? That's fine. Next round. I wouldn't ask you for that.

Don't let me moderate a forum after losing a 3-0 lead.

I would root for you but I'm not sure I want to see EdJovanovski's posts after Rangers win the cup.

 

[Machinehead]

I would root for you but I'm not sure I want to see EdJovanovski's posts after Rangers win the cup.

Same tbh.

Just this round. I wouldn't ask you to spirit bomb the Cup for me.

 

[The Macho King]

It's funny what watching the playoffs reveals about your true feelings. I know for a fact that the Leafs are my least favorite team. As an aside - I guess I also hate the Panthers and kinda like the Bruins? I also hate the Canes apparently - pretty ambivalent toward the Rangers. Dislike the Avs and the Oilers too, but some of that is probably just because of their fanbases on here.

 

[Renopucker]

I think the Rags have the best shot at the Turds, if they crap their way past the B's. Rangers have a complete team, along with a Shesterkin.

 

[Machinehead]

It's funny what watching the playoffs reveals about your true feelings. I know for a fact that the Leafs are my least favorite team. As an aside - I guess I also hate the Panthers and kinda like the Bruins? I also hate the Canes apparently - pretty ambivalent toward the Rangers. Dislike the Avs and the Oilers too, but some of that is probably just because of their fanbases on here.

I never had this experience. I wake up, check to see if the Devils still exist, and I'm good to go.

 

[These Are The Days]

I was on the Lightning bandwagon three years in a row. Even after they beat the Rangers, I was here for the SCF. You guys always made me feel welcome and it was awesome watching those two Cups with you guys.

I saw @OurlordAndSaviorKuch in our GDT and I was like f*** yeah we're gonna win.

I need your energy. I need your vibes for one last game.

You want the Rangers to lose? That's fine. Next round. I wouldn't ask you for that.

Don't let me moderate a forum after losing a 3-0 lead.

Some of the Canuck moderators from 2010 may still be around and have advice. Had Burrows not scored that OT goal, there might not be an HF Canucks today

 

[DrMartinVanNostrand]

I was on the Lightning bandwagon three years in a row. Even after they beat the Rangers, I was here for the SCF. You guys always made me feel welcome and it was awesome watching those two Cups with you guys.

I saw @OurlordAndSaviorKuch in our GDT and I was like f*** yeah we're gonna win.

I need your energy. I need your vibes for one last game.

You want the Rangers to lose? That's fine. Next round. I wouldn't ask you for that.

Don't let me moderate a forum after losing a 3-0 lead.

Going back all the way to when you guys had Brad Richards (except for when you had St. Louis; it wasn't personal to you, I just couldn't root for his success at the time), the Rangers have always been my "team I hope wins if the Lightning aren't in the playoffs" team.

Don't f*cking dare put another 0-3 collapse on the name of New York sports.

If I'm home and watching the game tomorrow night live, I'll hop over to HFRangers. I think I've only seen two games live, I was busy playing tennis during the other three and watched them later.

 

[Machinehead]

Going back all the way to when you guys had Brad Richards (except for when you had St. Louis; it wasn't personal to you, I just couldn't root for his success at the time), the Rangers have always been my "team I hope wins if the Lightning aren't in the playoffs" team.

Don't f*cking dare put another 0-3 collapse on the name of New York sports.

If I'm home and watching the game tomorrow night live, I'll hop over to HFRangers. I think I've only seen two games live, I was busy playing tennis during the other three and watched them later.

Hell yeah

 

[DrMartinVanNostrand]

Real talk for all of the f***ing hype this team has gotten since like... 2020 or so, their postseason results are middling as f***. A healthy Brayden Point and they don't have anything to show for all of it.

It's kind of post-lockout Red Wings for me. They should have won *way* more than one Cup. MacKinnon really gets quiet against tighter checking teams, but he can absolutely blow up a team that wants to get in a footrace.

This isn't really my favorite argument because injuries to key players are just part of the game. Kadri played the last three games with a broken finger. Nichushkin might've developed a life-long drug addiction. Landeskog's career probably ended playing through a debilitating knee injury.

Where the Avs got fortunate - although even this is more a case of earning their path through their regular season success - is that they came into the SCF with less wear-and-tear. We played 17 games in the East playoffs. The Avs played 14 in the West. Two series ended in sweeps. Their first round matchup was basically a complete warm-up, their opponent couldn't have been more overmatched. Having three fewer games of wear-and-tear had to have helped them a bit. And even then, we lost that series because of special teams and losing both OT games, we actually outscored them at 5v5.

I mean, given the kinds of rosters we had between 2015-'22, and given the kind of situations we found ourselves in - 2-1 lead in the '15 SCF, 3-2 leads in the '16 and '18 ECF's in years we would've been favorites to beat the Western team in the Final - I could just as easily argue that this core ending up with "only" two Cups was also disappointing. We could've been a Blackhawks-like dynasty, but you can't be a dynasty with only two championships. People always like to meme us about 2019, but 2019 was a plain embarrassment and nothing else, we came nowhere near winning anything in the playoffs. We didn't even win a single game. Rip the Band-Aid off and move on. Those other years were always the ones that hurt me.

 

[These Are The Days]

This isn't really my favorite argument because injuries to key players are just part of the game. Kadri played the last three games with a broken finger. Nichushkin might've developed a life-long drug addiction. Landeskog's career probably ended playing through a debilitating knee injury.

Where the Avs got fortunate - although even this is more a case of earning their path through their regular season success - is that they came into the SCF with less wear-and-tear. We played 17 games in the East playoffs. The Avs played 14 in the West. Two series ended in sweeps. Their first round matchup was basically a complete warm-up, their opponent couldn't have been more overmatched. Having three fewer games of wear-and-tear had to have helped them a bit. And even then, we lost that series because of special teams and losing both OT games, we actually outscored them at 5v5.

I mean, given the kinds of rosters we had between 2015-'22, and given the kind of situations we found ourselves in - 2-1 lead in the '15 SCF, 3-2 leads in the '16 and '18 ECF's in years we would've been favorites to beat the Western team in the Final - I could just as easily argue that this core ending up with "only" two Cups was also disappointing. We could've been a Blackhawks-like dynasty, but you can't be a dynasty with only two championships. People always like to meme us about 2019, but 2019 was a plain embarrassment and nothing else, we came nowhere near winning anything in the playoffs. We didn't even win a single game. Rip the Band-Aid off and move on. Those other years were always the ones that hurt me.

Our strength of schedule during that Cup run is 1-2-3-4 as in the top 4 teams in the ENTIRE LEAGUE if the Canes don't crap the bed in that series vs NYR. For whatever failure we take away in our tenure like getting swept vs the CBJ or choking vs the Caps, losing the Cup to Colorado makes up for it. It was the end to what was arguably the single hardest attempt at a Cup in NHL history and to get that close with the injuries we had is like you and me teaming up to beat one of those Russian chess wizards

 

[JoVel]

Machinehead might get a little sad but it would be incredibly funny if the Rangers lose this series.

 

[JoVel]

I am really impressed by this Canes team. They were already dead in the series, but they still managed to come back just so they can choke one more time.

 

[Machinehead]

Multiple Lightning people showed out in our GDT.

@OurlordAndSaviorKuch was the MVP.

Listen, I've lived in New York City my whole life and people say we're mean. I never believed that. We just take a lot of public transit and don't have any f***ing patience.

But I'll tell you one thing, we don't forget. If any of you are ever up here, you know where to find me. You're my guest.

Any time the Bolts need help and it doesn't involve the Rangers, just call my name.

 

[Renopucker]

Kreider did what leaders, like Messier, do: show up BIG when it counts. Good on 'em.

 

[Stammertime91]

JT Miller with the GWG with 31 seconds to go.

 

[Sky04]

Keeping Miller over Horvat despite one being "younger" is one the best decisions Vancouver has made.

 

[LightningStrikes]

JT Miller with the golden goal!

 

[Hockeyville USA]

Need Dallas to close it out tonight. Rooting for Boston to pull off a miracle

 

[DFC]

Need Dallas to close it out tonight. Rooting for Boston to pull off a miracle

Feels like a Dallas/Florida final to me.

 

[JTBF81]

'94 rematch perhaps of what was a pretty good SCF, Rangers-Canucks part two 30 years later lol.

 

[Felonious Python]

'94 rematch perhaps of what was a pretty good SCF, Rangers-Canucks part two 30 years later lol.

Kreider just getting the hat trick last night made me exhausted from all the non-stop Messier guarantee game references.

 

[DrMartinVanNostrand]

Need Dallas to close it out tonight. Rooting for Boston to pull off a miracle

I'll give you the first half of that. I know it's Florida on the other side but I'll never in my life root for a Boston team. Let the Rangers dispatch of the Cats.

 

[Felonious Python]

Kreider did what leaders, like Messier, do: show up BIG when it counts. Good on 'em.

Messier's leadership ability is kind of mid, IMO.

 

[Renopucker]

Messier's leadership ability is kind of mid, IMO.

OK, but I've heard 99 talk about it and that's good enough for me.