question...

right now chi is like -150ish to win the series and Tb like +130ish (give or take depending what site you use)

What do you think the odds will change to if TB wins game 1?

TB around -180 / -190 maybe?

isnt that extreme?

Probably something like T.B. -120, Chi even

meh

bolts have to be pretty damn near 60% to win the cup after winning the first game.

maybe closer to -150-160 but I dunno

The Chokez will always be #1, but damn, The Dux are quickly building a resume that even Da Chokez might envy.

Looking forward to playing the Bolts. Didn't catch any or their games during the season but they impressed me during the postseason. That being said, keep ripping on Crawford, keep saying the D is thin, blah blah blah. Da Hawks will hoist Da Cup in Six. Book it.

quick & dirty finals preview boils down to this basically:





Tampa has 2 lines that score, and 2 lines that don't, we all know this.
unfortunately this plays right into the hands of Chicago:





they only have 4 D, and they only need 4 D to play against 2 lines.

even at home it'll be tough for Cooper to get his scoring lines against that weak 3rd D pair because the big-4 guys hardly ever come off the ice. he should be able to do it by throwing his top guys out there more when the opportunity arises, which is something i'd definitely do. and when the series moves to Chicago they'll be in complete control of the matchups with last change. if the Hawks get a split in the opening pair it could be real bad news.

so what to do? well i've made no secret of the fact that i think Morrow is finished as an effective hockey player, and they Cooper has a great option rotting in the press box in Drouin. i mean seriously, he was 4th on the team in 5v5 offense this year, while Morrow was last by some distance. this series could be won and lost on trying to create offense in the ~10 minutes/game against that weak 3rd pairing of Chicago. Drouin has been effective with a bunch of their bottom-6 forwards (Pacquette, Boyle, Namestnikov & Brown). he can create goals at evens with these players. Morrow has 0 points and 11 minor penalties in the playoffs. this doesn't seem hard.

but i'm guessing that Coach Coop will stick with the "grit" & "experience" of Morrow, and only turn to Drouin if they go down in the series and get desperate. taking a risk and trying to match the Blackhawks' skill might be their only shot here. cause guess what, all 4 of the Chicago lines can score goals.

the Blackhawks seem like pretty big favourites in this. Tampa needs some combination of their stars playing out of the minds, Bishop significantly outplaying Crawford, and an injury to one of Chicago's top-4 D to win this thing. probably not their year just yet, and the Blackhawks have been here and done that before.

Andersen definitely is average at best. The Ducks are so flippant with goalies that they got what was coming to them.

Since the year 2000:

Team A
Division Championships: 6
President's Trophies: 1
Conference Finals Appearances: 3
Conference Championships: 0
Stanley Cups: 0

Team B
7
2
1
1
0

Team C
3
1
1
0
0

Team D
4
0
4
2
1


How do they say it...one of these things is not like the others?

A Chokez, B Canucks, C Caps, D Ducks?

and in other news, Black Weise gettin' the hater$ FURIOUS
(in fairness they probably think he's Pernell Karl)

related: apparently the Ducks have fans!

I didn't include Caps because LOL Eastern Conferense but...

7
1
0
0
0

Yeah, that is some good choking.

oh, Blues were C then?

also, NHL doing some good ratings

Hawks/Ducks G7 was the best non-SCF ratings game (but how many non-SCF games have been on NBC?)
Boltz/Rag$ G7 was the 2nd best NBCSN non-SCF rated game

so yeah maybe Hawks/Rag$ would have done a 4+, but what we got certainly has potential too

Is C dallas?

Edit - blues makes sense too.

Edit 2 - dallas made the finals in 2000 so obv wrong.

As I said, The Chokez will always be number one, but losing three 3-2 series leads in a row is pretty much the definition of choking. Losing three games at home last year to the Kangz including the 6-2 Game 7 thrashing is inexcuseable. And the Dux performance in Games 6/7 this year were not much better.

The list of Ranger injuries they were playing through is quite impressive. Yeah, everyone has injurious this time of year, but to get to game 7 of the semis with so many stars totally hobbled is something.

Mcdonaugh: broken foot
Stall: fractured ankle
Girardi: MCL sprain

Most scary was Zucc. Fractured skull and could not speak for 3 days. Holy crap!

TB has taken another step into douchery. You now aren't able to by tickets online with an out of state credit/debit card. I'm sure this will piss off a small percentage of their own fans who happen to have CCs with an out of state billing address.

Pretty much just spite rooting against Tampa for this crap. Have a better fan base and you won't have to worry about stuff like this. I hope next year some teams/arena just start kicking anybody out wearing TBL gear next year just out of spite.

Kinda useless since they don't have fans outside tampa but agree with the rest of your post.

They did this in every series they've been in

Lolz. Just read an article. Assumed that wasn't the case with so many NYR fans in the building during home games.

could it be they're trying to prevent out of town brokers from snatching up a bunch of tix n selling them at a huge markup?

I don't really have any idea how that industry works so I'm completely speculating.

It's possible. But they also don't allow opposing fans to sit in certain sections, so I'm assuming the two are somewhat related.

ya that's super gay.

You can also tweet the Tampa Lightning during a game to request a fan be removed

http://fulltilthockeynetwork.com/201...position-fans/

Most sports stadiums I've been to have something like that I thought. IME it's usually a number you text instead of a tweet, but the same purpose.

why should those good Tampa Bay fans be forced to endure never ending stupidity from the drunken idiot Blackhawk fans? I (polite golf clap) applaud the Tampa Bay policy!