Hockey Ping!
(let me know if you want on or off the ping list)
Boston vs. Vancouver
Thomas vs. Luongo
Thelma & Louise
Posted on 04/10/2011 8:34:00 PM PDT by airborne
OTOH the Jets never should have left Winnipeg in the first place. I’m not even a hardcore NHL fan, but had some work to do that was impacted by the Jets’ move to Phoenix... It was an eyebrow-raiser to be sure! One city is cold, an obvious fit for the NHL... The other is blazingly hot. “One of these things is not like the other, one of these things does not belong...”
Boston is awesome 5 on 5, but have had trouble scoring or even getting a lot of quality chances on special teams (their pp is pathetic this playoffs). Tonight they didn’t have trouble getting good chances, but Luongo played great.
Vancouver is usually killer on the power play, but they didn’t seem up to it tonight and I thought had few great chances on the PP, but did have some excellent chances early on and in the 3rd period.
Goaltending is a strength for both teams, I think it will come down to their 3rd or 4th liners.
As far as great games, IMO this wasn’t it, regardless of the outcome. Tampa beat us a few times, and despite not being happy about it, they were excellent games.
The fans been very hard on Luongo in Vancouver. During the Nashville series, the Predators seemed to get a cheap goal every game - including one that was shot upward from behind(!) the net which hit Roberto in the back and slid on in for the goal. :-/
Both he and Thomas had the net well-covered this evening, however.
Well, here's to what I expect will be a hard-fought 7-gamer...
I think it will be a long series. Some of my Canadian friends were predicting blow-out after blow-out and a max of 5 games (for Vancouver of course).
; }
Hockey scores are deceptive. Even though this was a 1-0 game there were 70 shots on goal, that’s actually quite a bit of offense, it just mostly got stopped by the goalies. It can’t really get much more exciting than a shot every 54 seconds, and with the goalies standing on their heads like that it becomes a one mistake game, which means any of the shots could win.
Not to mention all of the other shots that were broken up on their way to the goal.
It was an exciting game. There were multiple instances of one team controlling the puck on offense and getting several chances at the goal. Luongo and Thomas both played incredibly well. If they didn't, it could have easily have been a 6-5 game.
Games like this last one have a tense feeling.
Boston has a strong third line. They're big, not fast, hard-hitting, seem very strong defensively. Both teams have their hands full with the other. Can't wait until Saturday!
If hockey was played outdoors you’d have a point but indoor arenas make the weather a moot point (hence why there’s hockey in Vancouver).
The real problem I see with retrenching to Canada has nothing to do with climate. It’s the deepening demographic winter. The northern tier countries that breed hockey players are getting old and sterile. The same can be said for the northern tier US. My area of Pennsylvania is churning out hockey instead of football players now. That will help but there are many fewer kids here than there were 30 years ago.
Regarding Winnipeg, it's my opinion that this move is a repudiation of Bettman's Southern Strategy, hence his less-than-enthusiastic comments about the move. That, too, is actually a culturally-derived viewpoint, as notwithstanding the indoor issue, it hearkens to a region's local cultural history and development. One of my concerns is the plastic commercialization of all things to the point that we've all but lost our sense of local flavor, a sense of our own historical context. IOW if everything were available everywhere... what is to distinguish one place from another culturally?
I don't know if that makes sense or not. I also see your point, however, about the future of the game from a demographic standpoint... It's hard to imagine the NHL 20 years from now dominated by African American and Latin players like our national pastime, but hey, nothing wrong with that either...
As I remain a loyal Atlanta Thrashers fan, I am hurting right now. So please remove me from the hockey ping list for now. I need to take time off from the game and revive my interest when my perspective on recent events has evolved. Thank you.
Were you there when the Flames left?
Please see the above post.
“Were you there when the Flames left?”
Yep. Was just starting to really enjoy and learn the game back then and they got sold off, too.
I bet you must really hate Canada now.
I’ll remove your name from the list. Hope you find your way back.
I think the decision to move the Thrashers is pure BS!
The Jets won’t be able to fill their arena for long. A few bad years and they’ll fold. AGAIN!
Bettman sucks!
Hockey Ping!
(let me know if you want on or off the ping list)
Boston vs. Vancouver
Thomas vs. Luongo
Thelma & Louise
-------------------------------------------------------------
I’m a Hartford Whalers fan since the time I was 5. I understand.
They left after the 97 season and I didn’t start watching NHL hockey again until ~2004 and even then it was sporadic.
I’m now a confirmed Bruins fan, and sometimes follow the NYR. I refused to watch the 2006 SC finals because my former team was in it, and they are now my most hated team in pro sports.
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