2009-10 NHL playoff thread

RT @DownGoesBrown -- Next up for the Mellon Arena: demolition. Next up for every building on St. Catherine in Montreal: same.

And -- Losing to the Habs in Game Seven: Yet another thing Sidney Crosby does more spectacularly than Alex Ovechkin.

 

Shit.

I think you're up to more than three.

All I know for sure is the goose egg in my score column. When will I learn? :-\

 

Gonchar should've been benched after the fourth Montreal goal, the shorthanded goal by Travis Moen. It was absolutely inexcusable how Gonchar just let Moen walk by without even waving at him. Fucking heartless bastard.

 

My favorite SI writer (and friend) Mike Farber wrote a glowing Sid Crosby piece. The Pens are now out of the playoffs. Just opened the mag today to encounter Mike's glowing Miroslav Satan piece. I think the curse's powers must be growing beyond the boundaries of the cover.

 

Luckily, the cover curse didn't extend to the Olympics, where Crosby was front and centre on the front of the preview edition along with a caption that promised Canada would win in men's hockey.

 

Halak is an RFA with arbitration rights, still he is going to get a considerable raise over the $775,000 he earned this year, especially considering Carey Price — who is also an RFA (no arbitration rights for him), earned $2.2 mil this past season.

 

Any reason why the NHL is dragging its feet on naming a starting date for the next round? It seems incredibly unfair to fans and players alike to keep them waiting. And me, yeah, I'd like to know so I can somehow squeeze their games in amidst the Section baseball and softball playoffs and regional track and swim meets.

 

There should be no reason after Wednesday night, given that whoever wins on Friday between Boston and Philly will be the home team for Game 1 of the ECF. That series can start on Monday.

The WCF should start on Sunday in San Jose. No reason at all why that can't be announced on Thursday.

 

I figured as much. I think the reason for the delay was NBC wanted to see if Pittsburgh would make the Eastern Conference Final. Now that the Pens are out, I suspect they will jump on Chicago-San Jose for their 2 p.m. ET broadcast window on Sunday.

Maybe Beef or Double J or JR will know this one....

What year did Wayne Gretzky become captain of the Edmonton Oilers? Was it before or after their first Cup in 1984?

 

The other note regarding scheduling is that I think the league wants to keep the two conference finals as close together as possible, in order to avoid a possible situation where one team starts 2-3 days earlier, sweeps and then has as much as 10-day layoff prior to the Final.

I know the NBA is contractually locked in to starting its Finals on Thursday, June 3 for ABC TV. So they'd rather make the Lakers and Suns wait a whole week NOW before starting the conference final rather than run the risk of an even longer layoff later on. I think the NHL has a little more flexibility, but not much.

If either conference final goes more than five games, expect the Final to start on Memorial Day night (May 31). If both conference finals go five games or less, they might move up the start date, although I suspect they'd prefer NOT to be playing on Memorial Day weekend with so many other events taking place and large numbers of people travelling.

 

I believe it was prior to the 1983-84 season when Lee Fogolin handed over the "C" to Gretzky, reportedly on his own initiative. I'll check on that.

EDIT: Yes, it was.

http://oilers.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=430034

 

What? NBC show a game involving a West Coast team and with no players named Crosby or Ovechkin? Be still my racing heart.

There might be a turnaround problem with the 2 p.m. ET window. There's a concert scheduled at the Tank Saturday night, which is likely why they are likely not playing Friday. Plus, you have to figure CBC will have first dibs on Montreal now that they're in.