The Official 2010-11 Stanley Cup Playoffs Talk Thread

[Whitesox]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Stanley Cup Playoffs Talk Thread

This is hanging by a thread if I've ever seen it.

[IlliniM1ke]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Stanley Cup Playoffs Talk Thread

I disagree. But if Ben Smith is the only one that can score goals that will not get them wins. The Captain has to get it going and fast or this series will be short.

Pretty much the entire team needs to step up or we have no chance, Vancouver is out playing us big time, Ben Smith has been in the right place at the right time twice and that is all thats keeping us alive.

Need Toews, Kane, Hossa, Sharp, Frolik, etc to start doing more offensively.

[yougo1000]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Stanley Cup Playoffs Talk Thread

I hate the Canucks. Lets go Hawks

[IlliniM1ke]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Stanley Cup Playoffs Talk Thread

I disagree about your Niemi statement

Not sure why really, I'm not knocking Niemi but the situation he was in last year was a far better one than Crawford finds himself in this year.

Put Niemi in goal for this years Hawks team and he wouldn't look as dominant as he did last year, not knocking him more or less knocking the fact this years team isn't nearly as good so his job would be much harder.

I'm not worried about Crawford at all, I'm worried about the lack of production from our big names on offense and our defense has had some bad breakdowns as well.

[Whitesox]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Stanley Cup Playoffs Talk Thread

Very close.

At the least we've given them something to think about. But that's just an optimistic notion at this point.

[Evan_OS]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Stanley Cup Playoffs Talk Thread

Those final 15 seconds was about the most exciting thing I've seen in awhile.

[BleacherBum2310]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Stanley Cup Playoffs Talk Thread

The Last 3 Minutes was some amazing Hockey. Great game.

[Scottdau]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Stanley Cup Playoffs Talk Thread

Not sure why really, I'm not knocking Niemi but the situation he was in last year was a far better one than Crawford finds himself in this year.

Put Niemi in goal for this years Hawks team and he wouldn't look as dominant as he did last year, not knocking him more or less knocking the fact this years team isn't nearly as good so his job would be much harder.

I'm not worried about Crawford at all, I'm worried about the lack of production from our big names on offense and our defense has had some bad breakdowns as well.

I just disagree. If Hawks kept him I think they would be a better team as a Sharks fan I don't know what to think about Niemi yet, but the players and coaches really say he is an excellent goalie, so we shall see. The Hawks were not really in this game in my opinion. Every time they score the Canucks score right after. That in my opinion is not good. Still the Hawks still have a chance, but it will be tough.

[Evan_OS]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Stanley Cup Playoffs Talk Thread

The Last 3 Minutes was some amazing Hockey. Great game.

I couldn't agree more, I'm not a fan of either team and I was on the edge of my seat.

[BleacherBum2310]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Stanley Cup Playoffs Talk Thread

I couldn't agree more, I'm not a fan of either team and I was on the edge of my seat.

Yeah, same. I'm not a huge hockey fan, but I love playoff Hockey. every year it seems to get better IMO.

[IlliniM1ke]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Stanley Cup Playoffs Talk Thread

I just disagree. If Hawks kept him I think they would be a better team as a Sharks fan I don't know what to think about Niemi yet, but the players and coaches really say he is an excellent goalie, so we shall see. The Hawks were not really in this game in my opinion. Every time they score the Canucks score right after. That in my opinion is not good. Still the Hawks still have a chance, but it will be tough.

I don't think we'd really be any better with Niemi than we are with Crawford, honestly their statlines are practically identical.

The problem is we are not nearly as good a team as we were last year, making Crawford's life a lot more difficult than Niemi's where he had the best Hawks team I've seen in my lifetime playing in front of him.

[SidVish]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Stanley Cup Playoffs Talk Thread

I just disagree. If Hawks kept him I think they would be a better team as a Sharks fan I don't know what to think about Niemi yet, but the players and coaches really say he is an excellent goalie, so we shall see. The Hawks were not really in this game in my opinion. Every time they score the Canucks score right after. That in my opinion is not good. Still the Hawks still have a chance, but it will be tough.

The goaltending is not the Hawks problem. The stars aren't playing like stars and if the best player on the ice is #57 they're in trouble. Also, the defense is atrocious. They gave up 54 shots!

Campbell and Duncan were horrible. They had way too many turnovers and bad decisions. I don't think I've ever seen a decline in performance as I have with Duncan. He went from winning the Norris trophy to being absolute trash this year. I have no idea what happened to him.

These teams look like they reversed roles from last year.

Hopefully they can win the next game and play much better Sunday at home. I'm not holding my breath though.

[Evan_OS]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Stanley Cup Playoffs Talk Thread

Nashville mounting a comeback from being down 4-1, now 4-3!

[Scottdau]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Stanley Cup Playoffs Talk Thread

Can get down by 3 goals. It is tough to come back. Nash did what they needed to do. They got one game. Now they come back home.

[IlliniM1ke]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Stanley Cup Playoffs Talk Thread

The goaltending is not the Hawks problem. The stars aren't playing like stars and if the best player on the ice is #57 they're in trouble. Also, the defense is atrocious. They gave up 54 shots!

Campbell and Duncan were horrible. They had way too many turnovers and bad decisions. I don't think I've ever seen a decline in performance as I have with Duncan. He went from winning the Norris trophy to being absolute trash this year. I have no idea what happened to him.

These teams look like they reversed roles from last year.

Hopefully they can win the next game and play much better Sunday at home. I'm not holding my breath though.

Agreed, but overall the Hawks have looked like they've been sleepwalking through a good portion of the season, the loss to Edmonton jumps out to me, the game against Dallas with a 3-0 lead entering the 3rd and losing, many more examples I'm sure but those two have stuck with me.

I think we'll be much improved next year, Stanley Cup hangover is what I hope our problem is this year because like you said there have been some big declines in play that I see no other logical reason for.

Next year hopefully everyone comes back hungry after getting spanked by the Canucks (it isn't over but they look great so I'm just going hypothetical here), and play hard not taking any games for granted, we have some young guys getting valuable experience and we won't have the bonuses triggered by winning the Cup and various other awards taking up cap space so it'll be easier for us to keep guys who will be FA's this year (Crawford, Brouwer, Frolik, etc).

Back on the topic of Crawford for a minute though I think he will benefit next year with having a better backup, Turco wasn't very effective this year and due to that Crawford hasn't had a day off since St. Patrick's day, 16 consecutive starts entering the playoffs is a lot for a rookie goalie, Salak sounds like he has some good upside and I look forward to seeing how he does next year as our backup.