Is there anybody outside of the fans of the three remaining teams or Canada that isn't rooting for the Preds here?

I suppose Sid may have some diehards. Habs fans with sour grapes over PK. Tv execs have to be praying for the Pens.

I'm a habs fan. Obv rooting for PK. Even got a PK jersey in fall 2010

I was worried about the pens since they'd been running super hot with goal tending and conversion rates. Feel better after g7 where they finally made correct tactical adjustments and thoroughly outplayed Washington. Ability to seamlessly slot in randoms and have them perform well covers up many of their injury issues.

Pens in 5 Nash in 6.

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Lol DS, ever the analyst

ya i'm not sure what supposed adjustments the Pens made in g7, seemed like they got outplayed again, but Flower was perfect, while Holtby was not. off the top of my head they were probably outplayed in 4-5 of the games in that series, at least. they mostly won because "hey what are the odds of the defending champs playing 3 completely lifeless games in a row?".

but yes, what they've been able to do with the WBS team is impressive. no-name kids get called up and are very useful players, and not just because they're playing with Sid/Geno. i look forward to being annoyed at how effective this Aston-Reese kid will probably be...

and i feel like noting that i thought Sid had a very nice g7 there, seemed to create a half dozen good scoring chances.

edit: looked at the g7 $tat$, guess the Pens weren't that badly outplayed, but the Caps were the better team

and what's wrong with this picture btw?

5 shots against in the 3rd... someone was outplaying someone and it wasn't the Caps. Throw all the game 7 stats out you want, the Caps had very few chances that game. The rest of the series was a different story but if you think the Sens can put up anywhere near the forward pressure that the Caps put up you are going to be sorely mistaken.

This comes down to Sid and Geno (and to some extent Phil), all these players are better than the best player on the Rags and by a margin. This is too much to contain. I think 60/40 Pens is more than fair. Neither of these teams are Corsi monsters but the Pens are better at Corsi and have the finishers.




It also shows me that Brandon Montour is as effective as I thought he was being.

not hard to root for the most deserving team after 2 rounds

Here is a cliff notes on pens changes in g7.



[ ] Caps Dominating

All that being said, caps were really good this series and pens ran super hot early. Maybe they make the adjustments earlier if the series is 2-2 going into g5, and its less lopsided in terms of the overall series, but we'll never know. I do get some satisfaction of seeing the caps fans really start to believe they'd win after g6 only to get their soul crushed in an absolutely gutless g7 performance on home ice. It's the hope that kills you as a fan.

I'm not going to act like I know everything about hockey, but I thought there were some visible game 7 changes. They dumped the puck into Washington's zone more and they chased after it-something they did much more last year instead of that stupid enter the zone, drop the puck to a trailing player and get trapped. They also attacked Washington's defenseman more when they were trying to get it out of their own zone, which, as stated, caused more turnovers. They looked much more like last years team and I thought they dominated for long stretches, something they hadn't done all series

[ ] i said anything about anyone dominating

anyone have the scoring chances for that game?
that information seems to be missing on hockeystats.ca

who is this Marcus guy and why should i care what he says?
and how does a 1-2-2 trap cause what he says? 1-2-2 seems passive, and not making the D the pressure point*
what is modified about it?
most teams seem to play some kind of 1-3-1, and i think a "modified" 1-2-2 is kind of that
(the 1 F pushes the breakout, the 1 D steps up with the other forwards to trap and force a decision, and the other D sweeps up)

* - i guess i see it now, depending on your breakout
but lol if you're letting an Orpik be in that spot
if it's a D, it has to be a Shattenkrik/Carlson/Niskanen, and you're fine with that
if he ****s up *shrug*

actually on both goals Ovechkin was pressured and ****ed up
(1st one was bad, 2nd kind of unlucky)

so ... *shrug*

Washingtons zone exits largely consisted of passing up the board then immediately playing the puck centrally and having that player transition out of the zone. Early in the series that second man who would come to assist the player on the boards wasn't getting pressured at all, and they were able to exit their defensive zone really easily.

In G7 the pens committed to pressuring the central player, and left themselves more open in the back if their forecheck would get beaten.

ya that's the ABC breakout

basically the only one we used when i was a kid

so just backing off and trapping in the neutral zone then?

No they were aggressively pressing in the caps zone as opposed to being more passive early in the series.

.

I guess we do have A duck fan.


Only way for the Ducks to compete is to go full bully agro right from the start. Make the waterbug Preds forwards pay to touch the puck every time.


Oh and just give the puck to Montour. Things will happen, sometimes bad but mostly amazing.

How hard is it to get into the building?

Jesus look at all the empty seats in Anaheim.

is it ok to be salty about all these warm places in the playoffs?

Lol came to post exactly this.

California traffic and Homeland Security are a *****.

preds are owning

Predators!