Posted on 05/29/2015 8:44:50 PM PDT by mkleesma
The Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the New York Rangers 2-0 in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final on Friday to advance to the Stanley Cup Final for the second time.
The Lightning, who won the best-of-7 series 4-3, either will host the Chicago Blackhawks, who have won the Stanley Cup twice in the past five seasons, or visit the Anaheim Ducks, who won it in 2007, in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; NBC).
Tampa Bay defeated the Calgary Flames in seven games to win the 2004 Stanley Cup.
(Excerpt) Read more at nhl.com ...
Way to ruin it for everyone who had it DVRd
I guess that Game 7 magic of the New York Rangers finally fizzled.
For the first time, I might just watch an NHL Finals!
Go Tampa!!
DARN!! Long time Rangers fan, but I gotta give credit where it’s due, the Bolts are a great team this season.
It’ll be a hoot driving through Tampa tomorrow. They’ll still be partying! Good on them!
If it Chicago, I might wear my Whalers Joel Quinneville jersey to the game.
That said, go Bolts...(until the Whalers come back, and they will, the Bolts are my team...I grew up with the Whalers.)
GO DUCKS!
Nothing makes me think about hockey more than winter in Tampa Bay or Anaheim.
The big groan you heard came from Rockefeller Center. Any chance of a decent rating just went out the window. The TV ratings are going to be awful, might be bellow the Premier League.
Well I am a huge Penguins, Capitals, Rangers fan. I guess you know how my season is going.
As a die-hard Red Wings fan, I can only re-iterate ... GO BOLTS!
Disclaimer: Stevie Y. is the Lightning GM after all, and the Wings are not close to winning a cup yet (for now), so we have to live vicariously through you. =)
If you are a Whalers fan why aren’t you a Carolina Hurricanes fan?
I was hoping for the Rangers.
I don’t care about Rockefeller Center; I’m more likely to watch the Bolts than the Rangers. Stamkos and Johnson are worth watching.
Now if the Hawks can pull off Game 7 in Anaheim tomorrow, the Stanley Cup will be a great matchup of speed and skill. I’ll watch every minute. The Ducks, not so much.
GO REDWINGS!!!
1. Coming into these playoffs, the Rangers were a heavy favorite to win the Stanley Cup. That was understandable, considering the way they played so well throughout the regular season. You had the sense that this season would be a complete disappointment if they didn't at least make it to the Finals and have a long series (win or lose) against the Western Conference champion.
2. The first sign of trouble for them, though, came way back in the first round against Pittsburgh. They won the series by a 4-1 margin, but they were mostly very close games and the Rangers had some troubling difficulty scoring goals against a team that barely made the playoffs and was playing with a depleted, injury-riddled group of defensemen.
3. Some of those troubles carried over into the Washington series, and the Rangers came within two minutes of losing that series in six games. They pulled out a phenomenal win at the end, mainly because they have so many gritty playoff performers on their roster.
4. The Lightning were really the only team the Rangers played all year that they didn't match up well against. I thought the Rangers were the fastest team in the NHL, but after the first three games of this series the Lightning were clearly able to negate that speed (and then some) with a superb group of forwards who could out-hustle a very strong New York defense corps. I don't think a lot of people respected the talent of that team coming into the playoffs (I wasn't sold on them when they had trouble putting the Canadiens away after being up 3-0), but after the first few games of this series one thing stood out to me: When Steve Stamkos -- one of the best goal-scorers in the NHL over the last few years -- is playing on your second line, you know you've got an exceptionally good group of forwards.
5. There was a lot of discussion about the Rangers' playoff experience coming into this series, especially before Game 7. But Tampa Bay had a few guys who brought their own playoff swagger to the ice -- most of them former Rangers themselves (Callahan, Boyle and Stralman).
6. Interestingly, I thought the Rangers were a better team last year but had a better chance to win the Cup this year because they would have matched up a bit better against top Western Conference teams. Their biggest flaws this year were that they really missed a solid role player at the center position like Brian Boyle, their defense corps was noticeably weaker defensively without Anton Stralman, and Lundqvist really couldn't play any better than he did last year (not that he was a problem this time around).
7. The Rangers' inability to get offensive production in the playoffs from some very talented forwards (Rick Nash in particular, but Hagelin had a quiet playoff season as well) was mystifying.
As a long-time Rangers fan, what do you think this team must do to even keep pace in the standings next year?
In a previous thread, you mentioned that you see lots of people sporting Whalers jerseys, tees, etc. The fans we see all the time at Hartford Wolf Pack games may be wearing Whalers jerseys, t-shirts and caps, but they're cheering for the Hartford Wolf Pack.
As far as NHL team preference, I would say most Wolf Pack fans are NY Rangers fans. Others (like my husband and me) are Boston Bruins fans... we do often cheer on the Providence Bruins as well.
BTW, much of that Whalers merchandise has been produced fairly recently because the logo is no longer patented. I've seen people wearing those shirts all over the US, often at baseball games.
We were at a Wolf Pack playoff game earlier this week when they did the usual, tired "40 years of hockey in Hartford" thing up on the jumbotron. Some guy yelled out: "The Whalers are GONE! GET OVER IT!!"
A big cheer went up, including from me.
I don't hate the Whalers... quite the contrary. But... they're GONE. Over and done with.
And former Whaler Kevin Dineen is Chicago's assistant coach (I realize you may already know this).
I always felt that the logo for their minor league team was one of the most creative, simple ways to modify an NHL logo for a minor league affiliate. This was the logo for the Binghamton Whalers way back in the day:
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