Octopus Overlords

Moat_Man wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 11:13 pm The only team left in the playoffs that I don't want to win is Boston. Therefore they are a stone cold lock.

The people of Boston thank you.

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2019 10:29 am
All that said, quit yer whinin', Vegas.

Or, welcome to NHL playoff hockey.

Last year no doubt made the fans soft.

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2019 11:08 am

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2019 10:29 am
All that said, quit yer whinin', Vegas.

Or, welcome to NHL playoff hockey.

Last year no doubt made the fans soft.

How can you say that about such a storied franchise with a deep history?

I think both sides are correct on this one. If Vegas wanted to win the seven-game series, they have to overcome adversity, and some of that adversity is not giving up four power play goals on the same major. (And it's not like the high-sticked goal from earlier in the game was a lot of adversity, either. Seven games — shit happens both ways.) But I also agree that you don't call a penalty based on the repercussions of the action, you call it based on the act itself. And that face off happens hundreds of times per season, and I don't think too many of them are called as five minute majors. I also don't think coaches are told they have no time outs only to find out in OT that whoopsie, our bad, you had a TO left after all. Black eye for both on-ice and off-ice officials in my book.

The Meal wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2019 2:00 pm I think both sides are correct on this one. If Vegas wanted to win the seven-game series, they have to overcome adversity, and some of that adversity is not giving up four power play goals on the same major. (And it's not like the high-sticked goal from earlier in the game was a lot of adversity, either. Seven games — shit happens both ways.) But I also agree that you don't call a penalty based on the repercussions of the action, you call it based on the act itself. And that face off happens hundreds of times per season, and I don't think too many of them are called as five minute majors. I also don't think coaches are told they have no time outs only to find out in OT that whoopsie, our bad, you had a TO left after all. Black eye for both on-ice and off-ice officials in my book.

So to sum up, you think that there are fine people on both sides of this?

That call was absolute horse crap. I have no love/hate for either team. That play happens after plenty of faceoffs. These refs are brutal.

If he didn't bleed, highly doubt that would have been called.

stimpy wrote:If he didn't bleed, highly doubt that would have been called.

The thing is that checks which result in injury are part of the criteria for calling a major penalty.

Bruins-Blues would free up some of my evenings.

Pyperkub wrote:

stimpy wrote:If he didn't bleed, highly doubt that would have been called.

The thing is that checks which result in injury are part of the criteria for calling a major penalty.

Except the check did not injure him. Another player contacted him and that caused the injury.

No penalty was called on the play. They saw blood and thought oh crap, we better do something. And they did. NHL refereeing.

Even Massenhoven's explanation was utterly crap.

And yeah Vegas let in 4 but they never should have been put in that position.

Moat_Man wrote: ↑Sun Apr 21, 2019 1:39 pm Both #1 seeds gone. Of the other two division leaders, only Washington is leading. Could have 3 of the four top teams out in the first round. Wow.

All four division top seeds eliminated in the first round. That has to be a first. To put it another way, all the wild card teams won their first round match-ups. Crazy.

Moat_Man wrote: ↑Thu Apr 25, 2019 1:38 am

Moat_Man wrote: ↑Sun Apr 21, 2019 1:39 pm Both #1 seeds gone. Of the other two division leaders, only Washington is leading. Could have 3 of the four top teams out in the first round. Wow.

All four division top seeds eliminated in the first round. That has to be a first. To put it another way, all the wild card teams won their first round match-ups. Crazy.

Having the two conference winners bumped was a first. Getting rid of the other two division winners was just icing on the cake.

From another site, here are my picks to date for your amusement.
First up Round 1 recap:
BZZT! Tampa Bay Lightning/Columbus Blue Jackets - TBL (5) Way too strong a roster to get bounced early.
DING! Boston Bruins/Toronto Maple Leafs - BOS (6) Everyone is picking BOS which makes me rethink my choice, but I just don’t see TOR matching up favorably here. The post-season is a different beast than the regular season, but I don’t see it as a tonic for the Maple Leafs.
DING DING DING! Washington Capitals/Carolina Hurricanes - CAR (7) WAS returns to earth and Brind’Amour pushes his squad even harder.
DING! New York Islanders/Pittsburgh Penguins - NYI (7) on the backs of their netminding.
BZZT! Calgary Flames/Colorado Avalanche - CGY (6) Tough to pick this series as its so goaltender dependent.
BZZT! San Jose Sharks/Vegas Golden Knights - VGK (7) Fleury > Jones
DING DING DING! Nashville Predators/Dallas Stars - DAL (6) Stars seem built to make a run, and I think NSH is vulnerable
BZZT! Winnipeg Jets/St. Louis Blues - WIN (7) Toss-up 7th game here. I don’t like Winnipeg going deep this year, but I think they’ve got enough to beat a team that’s got to have a bit of a let-down now that they’re in the post-season.

4 for 8.

Round 2
CLB 7 over BOS By far the hardest series for me to pick. I don’t love going with the BJ’s, but call it a hunch.
NYI in 5 over CAR Islanders on a roll, and I think that CAR is going to play satisfied after their Round 1 win
DAL in 7 over STL Team defense is superior to a netminder playing well
COL in 6 over SJS Last year I picked against the VGK in every round until the Finals, and I got them wrong each time. San Jose is shaping up to be that team for me this time around.

stupid game 7 2ot games taking away my sleep on a work night...

#nocaps

tjg_marantz wrote: ↑Thu Apr 25, 2019 1:19 am

Pyperkub wrote:

stimpy wrote:If he didn't bleed, highly doubt that would have been called.

The thing is that checks which result in injury are part of the criteria for calling a major penalty.

Except the check did not injure him. Another player contacted him and that caused the injury.

No penalty was called on the play. They saw blood and thought oh crap, we better do something. And they did. NHL refereeing.

Even Massenhoven's explanation was utterly crap.

And yeah Vegas let in 4 but they never should have been put in that position.

IMHO, it should have been 2 for cross checking and a 4 minute major (or 5 minutes major) to the second player. It is even possible to make the case for 2 majors, especially as 'ski *didn't have the puck* for either hit.

It probably came out about right. After the 4 goal flurry and the end of the penalty (because they certainly didn't kill it), the Knights outplayed the Sharks, and got the equalizer. Fleury was on fire while Jonesie looked really shaky, and the Knights were doing much better with the forecheck, etc.

Then Fleury got beat by a pretty much unstoppable goal.

tjg_marantz wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2019 3:33 pm That call was absolute horse crap. I have no love/hate for either team. That play happens after plenty of faceoffs. These refs are brutal.

Yep. That was awful. NHL even apologized to Vegas today and those refs won't be in any more playoff games this year. And didn't they also screw up the timeout thing too? Just terrible.

BUT....4 goals.

Don't really agree with the quote but I'll use it here bc it supports my position: life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond.

GungHo wrote:. That was awful. NHL even apologized to Vegas today and those refs won't be in any more playoff games this year.

Vegas apologized to their fans today and their PK won't be in any more playoff games this year.

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Thu Apr 25, 2019 10:43 pm

GungHo wrote:. That was awful. NHL even apologized to Vegas today and those refs won't be in any more playoff games this year.

Vegas apologized to their fans today and their PK won't be in any more playoff games this year.

Yeah, I totally agree. You still have to play the game in front of you. I just dont think it's an either/or situation; it can be an awful call AND Vegas didnt play well enough to win. I was mostly interested by the league office response which was refreshing to see; not only did they acknowledge the error, they disciplined the refs. As opposed to the NFL for example, who never publicly admitted the officials blew the PI call in the New Orleans game (except in passing in a friggin' legal brief in response to a lawsuit (though I do think the head official or possibly Head of Officiating called Sean Peyton to admit the mistake, it wasnt done publicly)).

The Meal wrote: ↑Thu Apr 25, 2019 9:12 am DAL in 7 over STL Team defense is superior to a netminder playing well

Jinx!

Not a lot of good team defense from the Stars tonight; multiple odd man rushes, shaky goal tending and an unstoppable Tarashenko wore them out. Not a lot of good team offense either, tbh, at least not until the 3rd. Think they only had 12 shots on Binnington thru the first 2. Not good enough.

Ouch.

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Sat Apr 27, 2019 6:17 am

Ouch.

Hahahaha. Brutal. That's the kind of nasty that really adds to a budding rivalry though(that and an epic comeback in a Game 7 probably helps too). Makes hockey that much more fun when you have someone to hate. I'm jealous. The Stars have been mostly irrelevant in the league for a decade(or more ) and our old rivalries have kind of faded.

As the Stars GM might say 'fucking horseshit'. Absolutely brutal play by the Stars their last 2 games and this is the result that deserved to happen. Bishop was great but there was just nothing in front of him. Kind of the refrain for the year for this team. Shooting at the opposing goalie also helps; hopefully they work that into the game plan for next year.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2019 10:31 am

Moat_Man wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 11:13 pm The only team left in the playoffs that I don't want to win is Boston. Therefore they are a stone cold lock.

The people of Boston thank you.

I wanted to come in here and say, "See it's working!", just to jinx myself so that Boston won't really win.

GungHo wrote: ↑Wed May 08, 2019 2:12 am As the Stars GM might say 'fucking horseshit'. Absolutely brutal play by the Stars their last 2 games and this is the result that deserved to happen. Bishop was great but there was just nothing in front of him. Kind of the refrain for the year for this team. Shooting at the opposing goalie also helps; hopefully they work that into the game plan for next year.

The Meal wrote: ↑Thu Apr 25, 2019 9:12 am

Moat_Man wrote: ↑Thu Apr 25, 2019 1:38 am

Moat_Man wrote: ↑Sun Apr 21, 2019 1:39 pm Both #1 seeds gone. Of the other two division leaders, only Washington is leading. Could have 3 of the four top teams out in the first round. Wow.

All four division top seeds eliminated in the first round. That has to be a first. To put it another way, all the wild card teams won their first round match-ups. Crazy.

Having the two conference winners bumped was a first. Getting rid of the other two division winners was just icing on the cake.

From another site, here are my picks to date for your amusement.
First up Round 1 recap:
BZZT! Tampa Bay Lightning/Columbus Blue Jackets - TBL (5) Way too strong a roster to get bounced early.
DING! Boston Bruins/Toronto Maple Leafs - BOS (6) Everyone is picking BOS which makes me rethink my choice, but I just don’t see TOR matching up favorably here. The post-season is a different beast than the regular season, but I don’t see it as a tonic for the Maple Leafs.
DING DING DING! Washington Capitals/Carolina Hurricanes - CAR (7) WAS returns to earth and Brind’Amour pushes his squad even harder.
DING! New York Islanders/Pittsburgh Penguins - NYI (7) on the backs of their netminding.
BZZT! Calgary Flames/Colorado Avalanche - CGY (6) Tough to pick this series as its so goaltender dependent.
BZZT! San Jose Sharks/Vegas Golden Knights - VGK (7) Fleury > Jones
DING DING DING! Nashville Predators/Dallas Stars - DAL (6) Stars seem built to make a run, and I think NSH is vulnerable
BZZT! Winnipeg Jets/St. Louis Blues - WIN (7) Toss-up 7th game here. I don’t like Winnipeg going deep this year, but I think they’ve got enough to beat a team that’s got to have a bit of a let-down now that they’re in the post-season.

4 for 8.

Round 2
CLB 7 over BOS By far the hardest series for me to pick. I don’t love going with the BJ’s, but call it a hunch.
NYI in 5 over CAR Islanders on a roll, and I think that CAR is going to play satisfied after their Round 1 win
DAL in 7 over STL Team defense is superior to a netminder playing well
COL in 6 over SJS Last year I picked against the VGK in every round until the Finals, and I got them wrong each time. San Jose is shaping up to be that team for me this time around.

And let's see how I did for Round 2.

Oh, fuckit.

So...is NHL going to be apologizing to another team that lost to the SJ Sharks in game 7?

I'd be calling St. Louis Blues to win the conference finals now, unless the refs figure out a way to screw them over too.

Hurricane bandwagon it is.

gilraen wrote: ↑Wed May 08, 2019 11:46 pm So...is NHL going to be apologizing to another team that lost to the SJ Sharks in game 7?

I'd be calling St. Louis Blues to win the conference finals now, unless the refs figure out a way to screw them over too.

I think it was on Deadspin but they had a good article on this one; wasnt so much that it was a bad call as a bad rule. And they point out in the article how players in that position are routinely not counted as in the play dozens of times per game on most line changes. And it asks if you're going to call the Avs offsides there don't you have to call them for too many men on the ice in the same breath? Seems like rule book needs a look over before next season..or at least they need consistency in how they apply it.
And screw the Blues..they got like 5x the amount of PP time as the Stars last series. Their season of gift getting is over. And yes I am still bitter, thank you for asking.

The NHL is going to be going in an awfully weird direction regarding replays before they eventually get it right.

Just brutal.

Gabriel Landeskog is not amused.

I hope I have the luck of the SJS when playing in the WSOP Big 50 in a few weeks...

Moat_Man wrote: ↑Wed May 08, 2019 3:19 am

El Guapo wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2019 10:31 am

Moat_Man wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 11:13 pm The only team left in the playoffs that I don't want to win is Boston. Therefore they are a stone cold lock.

The people of Boston thank you.

I wanted to come in here and say, "See it's working!", just to jinx myself so that Boston won't really win.

One... step... closer. Apparently I can't even jinx myself. Whatever I want the opposite happens.

That just means that they'll get swept by the Sharks.

Islanders sweep Penguins, Hurricanes sweep Islanders (although that's usually in a different thread), and Bruins sweep Hurricanes.

Moat_Man wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 11:56 pm

Moat_Man wrote: ↑Wed May 08, 2019 3:19 am

El Guapo wrote: ↑Wed Apr 24, 2019 10:31 am

Moat_Man wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 11:13 pm The only team left in the playoffs that I don't want to win is Boston. Therefore they are a stone cold lock.

The people of Boston thank you.

I wanted to come in here and say, "See it's working!", just to jinx myself so that Boston won't really win.

One... step... closer. Apparently I can't even jinx myself. Whatever I want the opposite happens.

I think the challenge is that you truly have to believe it. Like you really have to want the Bruins to win, in your heart.

tjg_marantz wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 12:17 am The NHL is going to be going in an awfully weird direction regarding replays before they eventually get it right.

Just brutal.

Yeah the league needs some work. Not only are the rules squirrely but the refs suck on the regular. The game is goofy/random enough and the 'best' team almost never wins the Cup. 'Muricans don't much care for sports like that to begin with; you add in shit officiating that makes results even more wonky and you risk losing even more of us.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2019 10:03 am Hurricane bandwagon it is.

When I don't have a prticular horse in the race I go back to my roots. That's old Norris division so I'll be rooting for the Blues. SJS wouldn't kill me either though.

A former board member has ensured that I will always say, "Fuck the Blues." That, and Dallas being a division opponent for the past 26 years.

GungHo wrote: ↑Fri May 17, 2019 11:43 am

tjg_marantz wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 12:17 am The NHL is going to be going in an awfully weird direction regarding replays before they eventually get it right.

Just brutal.

Yeah the league needs some work. Not only are the rules squirrely but the refs suck on the regular. The game is goofy/random enough and the 'best' team almost never wins the Cup. 'Muricans don't much care for sports like that to begin with; you add in shit officiating that makes results even more wonky and you risk losing even more of us.

Not sure whether people are still watching, but another badly blown call helped decide Game 5 of the finals.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri Jun 07, 2019 10:05 am

GungHo wrote: ↑Fri May 17, 2019 11:43 am

tjg_marantz wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 12:17 am The NHL is going to be going in an awfully weird direction regarding replays before they eventually get it right.

Just brutal.

Yeah the league needs some work. Not only are the rules squirrely but the refs suck on the regular. The game is goofy/random enough and the 'best' team almost never wins the Cup. 'Muricans don't much care for sports like that to begin with; you add in shit officiating that makes results even more wonky and you risk losing even more of us.

Not sure whether people are still watching, but another badly blown call helped decide Game 5 of the finals.

I want the Blues to win but that was a horrible miss by the officials. Near slewfoot right in front of them. Fortunate the Bruins player did not get injured or slam his head on the ice.

It's been a terrible year for officiating this post-season. Obviously things need to change.

I wasn't able to watch either of the last two games very closely as I had other things going on, but Game 6 should be viewable for me. I have been able to catch the highlights.

Remus West wrote: ↑Fri Jun 07, 2019 10:57 am

El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri Jun 07, 2019 10:05 am

GungHo wrote: ↑Fri May 17, 2019 11:43 am

tjg_marantz wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 12:17 am The NHL is going to be going in an awfully weird direction regarding replays before they eventually get it right.

Just brutal.

Yeah the league needs some work. Not only are the rules squirrely but the refs suck on the regular. The game is goofy/random enough and the 'best' team almost never wins the Cup. 'Muricans don't much care for sports like that to begin with; you add in shit officiating that makes results even more wonky and you risk losing even more of us.

Not sure whether people are still watching, but another badly blown call helped decide Game 5 of the finals.

I want the Blues to win but that was a horrible miss by the officials. Near slewfoot right in front of them. Fortunate the Bruins player did not get injured or slam his head on the ice.

He did hit his head on the ice, though - went through concussion protocol afterwards, apparently.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri Jun 07, 2019 11:05 am

Remus West wrote: ↑Fri Jun 07, 2019 10:57 am

El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri Jun 07, 2019 10:05 am

GungHo wrote: ↑Fri May 17, 2019 11:43 am

tjg_marantz wrote: ↑Thu May 16, 2019 12:17 am The NHL is going to be going in an awfully weird direction regarding replays before they eventually get it right.

Just brutal.

Yeah the league needs some work. Not only are the rules squirrely but the refs suck on the regular. The game is goofy/random enough and the 'best' team almost never wins the Cup. 'Muricans don't much care for sports like that to begin with; you add in shit officiating that makes results even more wonky and you risk losing even more of us.

Not sure whether people are still watching, but another badly blown call helped decide Game 5 of the finals.

I want the Blues to win but that was a horrible miss by the officials. Near slewfoot right in front of them. Fortunate the Bruins player did not get injured or slam his head on the ice.

He did hit his head on the ice, though - went through concussion protocol afterwards, apparently.

Didn't look like it during the play but I haven't seen replays. Also have zero doubts I simply missed him doing that as it was a nasty play.