Wednesday, June 3, 2015

2015 Stanley Cup FInals

The Tampa Bay Lightning rallied from certain extinction to beat the Detroit Red Wings, trampled the Montreal Canadiens and went into Madison Square Garden and did what no one has ever done, won a game 7. So with all of that you’d think I’d pick them to win the Cup. No, I picked the Chicago Blackhawks to win the Stanley Cup in September so I’m not going to change my pick now. The reason the Hawks have not won 4 straight Stanley Cups is the Los Angeles Kings and their excellent goal tender Jonathan Quick. I knew the Kings wouldn’t repeat, no one does anymore so I picked the Hawks. The Hawks are a great team. They use the regular season to get ready for the playoffs and once they realized their nemesis Kings didn’t even make the playoffs the Hawks knew destiny is theirs.
Strategic notes –
If the Ducks couldn’t wear down the Hawks defense the Lightning won’t be able to. Runblad and Chumisky are enabling Hawks coach Joel Quenneville to even out some minutes on the back end.
 Ben Bishop has played very well but this is the very deep end of the pool and he’s never seen a team as gifted as the Blackhawks.
Both teams have 2 great star studded top lines but Chicago’s bottom 6 forwards  are much better than Tampa Bay’s.
BLACKHAWKS in 6

Conference Finals thoughts
Toews is the best leader in hockey. His name is now spoken in the same reverence as Messier and Yzerman. Stevie Y says Toews is a better player than he was, but that might be some Bob Dylan esque pre Finals mind game.
Kane was supposed to be out until the Finals. But instead he’s second in the playoffs in points. He and Toews are the best 1-2 in hockey.
Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry were the best 1-2 in the regular season but shrunk when it mattered most in games 6 &7 of the Western Conference Finals. Getzlaf was on the ice for the 6 of Chicago’s last 9 goals.
 Joel Quenneville outcoached BBQ Bruce Boudreau which is not hard. Putting Kane on Toews line and benching pitiful Kimmo Timonen changed the series.
Brandon Saad is already a great player.
Hossa plays like he was born in Canada.
Duncan Keith secured his place the Hall of Fame after this playoff season.
The Ducks have a great team and have a bright future, they are closer to Chicago and Los Angeles than St. Louis  and San Jose.
Steven Stamkos went from being a great player to being a great leader this season.
The Triplets- Tyler Johnson, Andrei Palat, Nikita Kucherov went from being the best second line in hockey to the best line in hockey ( when Toews and Kane don’t play together)
Victor Hedman is playing like the number 2 overall pick he was.
Ben Bishop does not look good in net but he is always in position, or just too big and the puck hits him but whatever the case he went into Madison Square Garden and won a game 7. Kudos to him.
Much like other past Ranger teams the Rangers relied too much on Henry Lundqvist.
Alain Vigneault was out coached by Jon Cooper. The Lightning took away the wall and the Rangers didn’t adjust.
Brassard and Steppan are nice number 2s but Rangers need a bona fide number 1 center.
The Rangers quit forechecking and played it too safe.
Hayes and Nash should have been on the same line and used their big bodies to wear on and slow down the Lightning.
The Rangers played their srubs too much. Glass was ineffective and Dominic Moore was a minus 2 in Tampa’s 2-0 game 7 victory.
One thought on Mike Babcock-
 Mike Babcock is not afraid of a challenge. He went to the only team that can ruin his legacy. Any other team and Babcock could end up on a network panel when it doesn’t go right and all would be forgiven, but not in Toronto. The Leafs got 6 million dollars worth of balls.


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