LOL CHOKEZ (Consecutive Years Without a Workplace Choke: 0)
05-01-2014
, 01:21 AM
Lads, let ye settle in for a story. In the year 2005, the San Jose Sharks traded for a young lad by the name of Joe Thornton. Now, young Joe had only been to the second round of the playoffs one time, but the San Jose franchise was desperate for a scoring touch that would take them to the next level. While many thought the deal including Brad Stuart, Marco Sturm, and Wayne Primeau was a fleece for San Jose, history would tell another tale.
Years 1, 2, and 3: The San Jose Sharks fail to advance to the Conference Final, led by a Thornton captaincy during two out of three seasons.
Years 4, 5, and 6: The Sharks finally advance to the Western Conference Final during the latter season, but ultimately cannot get past eventual Cup Champion Chicago. Rather than recognizing a trend, General Manager Doug Wilson keeps a player on the roster who has led the team to a playoff loss in the second round or later during five out of six seasons.
Year 7: The Sharks choke in the first round, because the stress of keeping too long in the playoffs has been too heavy to maintain.
Year 8: The Sharks again reach the second round. Can you guess the result?
A. Win
B. Loss
And, finally, the Granddaddy of them all. Leading the Los Angeles Kings 3-0, the Sharks were sure to claim eventual victory on their quest to the Stanley Cup championship. The only problem being, Thornton was still on their roster.
Now, reading the following descriptions, it would be hard to believe that such a player could choke so often:
With that much WIM, character, and Hall of Fame credential, you'd have thunk the Sharks won game 7 with ease.
LOL CHOKEZ, forever and always.
s/t: El Rata
Years 1, 2, and 3: The San Jose Sharks fail to advance to the Conference Final, led by a Thornton captaincy during two out of three seasons.
Years 4, 5, and 6: The Sharks finally advance to the Western Conference Final during the latter season, but ultimately cannot get past eventual Cup Champion Chicago. Rather than recognizing a trend, General Manager Doug Wilson keeps a player on the roster who has led the team to a playoff loss in the second round or later during five out of six seasons.
Year 7: The Sharks choke in the first round, because the stress of keeping too long in the playoffs has been too heavy to maintain.
Year 8: The Sharks again reach the second round. Can you guess the result?
A. Win
B. Loss
Spoiler:
And, finally, the Granddaddy of them all. Leading the Los Angeles Kings 3-0, the Sharks were sure to claim eventual victory on their quest to the Stanley Cup championship. The only problem being, Thornton was still on their roster.
Now, reading the following descriptions, it would be hard to believe that such a player could choke so often:
Quote:
SRM,
Man I miss being at the TANK. Been way to long.
The awesome thing about this series, is that with a healthy hertl beating la is easier than getting laid at a cheap brothel. That thornton, hertl, burns line is just upstoppable. Hertl really couldn't have it any better. He's just an unbelievable talent, but it makes it easier to be on the receiving end of breakout passes and scoring chances when you keep getting really crisp passes right on the tape.
Man I miss being at the TANK. Been way to long.
The awesome thing about this series, is that with a healthy hertl beating la is easier than getting laid at a cheap brothel. That thornton, hertl, burns line is just upstoppable. Hertl really couldn't have it any better. He's just an unbelievable talent, but it makes it easier to be on the receiving end of breakout passes and scoring chances when you keep getting really crisp passes right on the tape.
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Its not a bad pick but the guy is perhaps a borderline hall of famer so he probably wasn't to UTR. He was good-great in the early 2000's decade for the sharks. Somewhat of a poormans joe thornton, without the massive size/leadership/strength/toughness, which is actually a huge compliment though considering thornton is an ldo first ballot hall of famer.
Quote:
hes not my favorite player, but ya, thorntons put up relatively great playoff stats. you can only affect the game so much when top players on forward usually play 20 mins or 1/3 of a game. its different from the nba which is more impacted by stars who can play a full game. his team perpetually lets him down, whether its through injuries of bad play. This year unfortunately the refs made a lot of consensus bad calls. There is also has much more variance in hockey. Its not like the nba where the heat open up at around 50% to title. Only the biggest of morons would label thornton with a wil or choke moniker. I dont blame most people though because they just dont know hockey. Dont have time to respond to more disingenuous or idiotic trolling tho, work calls.
edit: anyone agreeing with cvig can feel free to expose their similar, yet laughable ignorance. its not my problem.
edit: anyone agreeing with cvig can feel free to expose their similar, yet laughable ignorance. its not my problem.
Quote:
There are always divine tests for greatest world leaders in all facets of life, and hockey is no exception. Usually God himself doesn't test his son Jesus Christ, but i have a feeling Joe Thornton will put the team on his back in the third and carry them to victory. A once in a generation talent with the WIM of an alaskan salmon upstream never, NEVER gives up, and i have a feeling that the third period will showcase the truth i just iterated.
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ya and people who think that are massive morons and dont know anything about hockey. A lot of these same idiots think ovechkin is a choker, which is even worse considering hes put up sick numbers (albeit a smaller sample size).
Again hockey is a team game with a lot of variance. In basketball you have 8 players or so that get a majority of the minutes, and the star usually will play the whole game. In hockey most of the time a star forward will play 1/3 of the game at most. Its easy to over estimate how much a star player really has on the outcome of a game. It takes four lines to win in hockey. Its also easy to under estimate the variance involved, especially in small sample size like the playoffs where a team plays a maximum of 28 games. The differences of equity at the beginning of the playoffs between an 1-8 seed is less than you would think, thats why there are so many upsets in hockey.
The amount of "clutch" games or moments is even smaller and more subject to variance and to me the fact that so many casual fans are extremely results oriented and opinions of a player would be skewed so much just by a few moments is lol. lets say for instance alex ovechkin has a 15% shot percentage and dominates a game seven in the stanley cup game 7 this year. he does it with fenwick, makes great passes wise and puts up 10 shots, but doesnt record a goal or an assist. Technically he ran bad to not score a goal or record a point in this hypothetical game. Lets say hypothetically they lose that game. he played well, but ran on the bad size of variance and presumably his team mates for the most part played poorly. the fans your referring to would see a loss and say "o he cant win the big games, hes just a choker" even though its a team game that is full of variance.
All i can look at are the stats which show joe thornton is a pretty damn good playoff performer, and conclude that the team has lost despite of how good he has been due to negative variance or poor play from the supporting cast. The point is the sharks lose in the playoffs every year as a team and to place the blame on one player in this team game chalked full of variance is beyond lol.
Again hockey is a team game with a lot of variance. In basketball you have 8 players or so that get a majority of the minutes, and the star usually will play the whole game. In hockey most of the time a star forward will play 1/3 of the game at most. Its easy to over estimate how much a star player really has on the outcome of a game. It takes four lines to win in hockey. Its also easy to under estimate the variance involved, especially in small sample size like the playoffs where a team plays a maximum of 28 games. The differences of equity at the beginning of the playoffs between an 1-8 seed is less than you would think, thats why there are so many upsets in hockey.
The amount of "clutch" games or moments is even smaller and more subject to variance and to me the fact that so many casual fans are extremely results oriented and opinions of a player would be skewed so much just by a few moments is lol. lets say for instance alex ovechkin has a 15% shot percentage and dominates a game seven in the stanley cup game 7 this year. he does it with fenwick, makes great passes wise and puts up 10 shots, but doesnt record a goal or an assist. Technically he ran bad to not score a goal or record a point in this hypothetical game. Lets say hypothetically they lose that game. he played well, but ran on the bad size of variance and presumably his team mates for the most part played poorly. the fans your referring to would see a loss and say "o he cant win the big games, hes just a choker" even though its a team game that is full of variance.
All i can look at are the stats which show joe thornton is a pretty damn good playoff performer, and conclude that the team has lost despite of how good he has been due to negative variance or poor play from the supporting cast. The point is the sharks lose in the playoffs every year as a team and to place the blame on one player in this team game chalked full of variance is beyond lol.
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prob not much, but in context with everything else its sort of a cherry on top.
Thornton sacrificing his personal stats for team defense, his willingness to scrap with getzlaf and kesler, his wim playing with injuries is just insane. Just crazy to see such toughness, WIM, and leadership to accompany a huge talent. Thornton has proved through his career that hes a massive, no doubt about it winner. Anyone who says different is disingenuous, not well versed in hockey, or trolling.
Thornton sacrificing his personal stats for team defense, his willingness to scrap with getzlaf and kesler, his wim playing with injuries is just insane. Just crazy to see such toughness, WIM, and leadership to accompany a huge talent. Thornton has proved through his career that hes a massive, no doubt about it winner. Anyone who says different is disingenuous, not well versed in hockey, or trolling.
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look at the box score and then place all the blame or credit on the teams best players am i right? God, i can just see it now, all the mouth breathers are going to go wild with this "HERP DERP sharks lose 7-3 lol joe thornton is a choker HERP DERP." Thanks to jumbo joe ryan kesler has looked like an average guy the last two games and the person vancouver fans thought he was a few years ago. The fact of the matter is that joe thornton has had two dominant games and has even exceeded the vast, grandiose expectations attributed to a hall of famer, hes been nothing short of absolutely phenomenal. I mean seriously if the past two games are any indication of whats to come kesler should just endorse the back of his birth certificate and hand it over to jumbo joe, because hes owned kesler in every sense of the word.
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Youre better than this imo. thinking Thornton isnt clutch because the sharks had some dissapointing post seasons in lol casual fan logic and so is looking at the points per game because as pointed out theres a lot that joe does that doesnt show up on the score sheet. Also, Thorntons points a game have gone down a little in the playoffs but that makes sense considering your facing tougher competition than in the regular season. Even if you want to give him a lions share of the blame when a player can only affect a teams winning percentage so much, he has played at an elite level the last two post seasons and thats not debatable. hes been phenominal and I really dont get how anyone can argue otherwise or even that he deserved his rep to begin with/hasnt shed the misconception.
Honestly I cant to see the matchup with kesler as It seems like a huge key in this series obviously. Kesler is better, but well see what thornton is made of in this series and if he can perhaps neutralize kesler over a small sample.
Honestly I cant to see the matchup with kesler as It seems like a huge key in this series obviously. Kesler is better, but well see what thornton is made of in this series and if he can perhaps neutralize kesler over a small sample.
Spoiler:
LOL CHOKEZ, forever and always.
s/t: El Rata
Last edited by cwicemvp12; 05-01-2014 at 01:27 AM.
05-01-2014
, 01:25 AM
05-01-2014
, 01:26 AM
05-01-2014
, 01:27 AM
05-01-2014
, 01:33 AM
05-01-2014
, 01:34 AM
05-01-2014
, 01:40 AM
Can you really blame the Sharks? They were up against a DYNAMIC DUO with a HISTORY OF COMING BACK FROM DOWN 3-0.
05-01-2014
, 01:41 AM
05-01-2014
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05-01-2014
, 01:47 AM
05-01-2014
, 01:47 AM
I'm literally in tears reading AJ's drooling, this part is my favorite
Last edited by AdamSchwartz; 05-01-2014 at 01:48 AM.
Reason: may have to unblock AJ if he's posting all this gold
05-01-2014
, 01:49 AM
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