NHL Playoffs Thread...

[godsshoeshine]

bump

[sweetcell]

so is a network going to pick up the finals, or will it be Versus all the way til the end?
 
 2007-08 Stanley Cup playoffs -- Cup finals schedule
 
 The complete schedule for the 2008 Stanley Cup finals (all times ET; * -- if necessary):
 
 No. 1 Detroit Red Wings vs. No. 2 Pittsburgh Penguins
 Game 1, May 24 (Sat) - Pittsburgh at Detroit, 8 p.m.
 Game 2, May 26 (Mon) - Pittsburgh at Detroit, 8 p.m.
 Game 3, May 28 (Wed) - Detroit at Pittsburgh, 8 p.m.
 Game 4, May 31 (Sat) - Detroit at Pittsburgh, 8 p.m.
 *-Game 5, June 2 (Mon) - Pittsburgh at Detroit, 8 p.m.
 *-Game 6, June 4 (Wed) - Detroit at Pittsburgh, 8 p.m.
 *-Game 7, June 7 (Sun) - Pittsburgh at Detroit, 8 p.m.

[godsshoeshine]

game 1 and 2 are on vs, the balance is on nbc
 
 is julian going to watch?

[sonickteam2]

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:
  game 1 and 2 are on vs, the balance is on nbc
 
 is julian going to watch?

why wouldnt he want to? if i was him i would not be able to contain myself.
 
 Wings in 6. (and i'm being generous)

[Julian, Alleged Computer F**kface]

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:
 is julian going to watch?

I hope to get tickets to 4 and 5. Obviously I'm going to watch all of it.

[godsshoeshine]

because its over. they shouldnt even play the games
 
 im going to a wedding in pittsburgh during game 4. the bride is not going to be happy

[Julian, Alleged Computer F**kface]

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:
  because its over. they shouldnt even play the games
 

Nah, Pittsburgh will get a win... then their team will be obliterated by free agency like the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said this morning.

[godsshoeshine]

oh yeah right
 
 except they said the opposite

[Julian, Alleged Computer F**kface]

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:
  oh yeah right
 
 except they said the opposite

Oh yeah right.
 
 Except they said exactly what I've been saying for a while.
 
 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08141/883238-61.stm
 

The truth is that this team, as currently constituted, has a limited shelf life. Seven more games, max.
 
 Not just because NHL rosters are almost constantly in a state of flux, with pieces being added or removed. The Penguins aren't facing the usual offseason personnel changes all teams experience; they're facing the possibility of something more like a seismic upheaval.
 
 Of the 26 players on their NHL roster at the moment, 12 will qualify for unrestricted free agency July 1.
 
 They are forwards Marian Hossa, Ryan Malone, Jarkko Ruutu, Gary Roberts, Pascal Dupuis, Adam Hall, Georges Laraque, Jeff Taffe and Kris Beech, defensemen Brooks Orpik and Mark Eaton and goalie Ty Conklin.
 
 Include goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who is eligible for restricted free agency -- that means the Penguins can retain him by matching any offer he receives from another team or receive compensation if they would opt against doing so -- and it's easy to see why it's almost inconceivable that general manager Ray Shero will be able to keep the core of his team intact.
 
 Not because ownership lacks the resources -- upper management has made it clear that Shero will be allowed to spend as much as he deems necessary, even if it means operating at a loss next season -- but because the Penguins won't have the salary-cap space.

[godsshoeshine]

what you said was the hossa trade was stupid, but that sure sounds like a great argument to do it
 
 the pg also take the opposite stance: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08141/883233-87.stm
 

I don't buy the argument that the Penguins won't be as good as they are now because of the players they are going to lose. If Shero can get deals done with Fleury, Malkin and Staal, it will be a tremendous offseason. All three, along with Crosby, are going to get better and better. And it's not as if Shero won't be able to lure more reasonably priced free agents here to play with that nucleus. There are other Petr Sykoras out there. It was Sykora who said "it took me about two minutes to decide this is where I wanted to be" when he was a free agent last summer.
 
 Losing Hossa, Orpik and especially Malone would hurt, but it would not doom the Penguins as a Cup contender.
 

besides youve been dismissing whats in the pg for months

[Julian, Alleged Computer F**kface]

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:
  what you said was the hossa trade was stupid, but that sure sounds like a great argument to do it
 

No, you've been missing the entire contention of my argument for months: the Hossa trade is stupid NOT PRIMARILY because Hossa wasn't going to resign, but because they traded away viable, cheap under-contract 2nd and 3rd line players for him when  anyone who's ever looked at nhlnumbers.com knew the Penguins were going to have an impending free agent crush EVEN WITHOUT Hossa.
 
 Regardless of Hossa, they were going to have to sign Malkin, MAF, and Staal to long-term deals over the next 14 months, which anyone with a calculator and a general sense of what players go for nowadays knew was going to cause them to have to lose some of their secondary guys like Malone, Roberts, Ruutu, etc. So what does the franchise do in anticipation of this? Keep cheap, viable NHL talent to softwn the blow? No, they trade it away for a rental player in a season in which the East was so limp they likely could have won it without said rental player. Slappy keeps going, "Oh, those players aren't as good as who we already have" never taking a second to look 14 months into the future and realize they're alot better then who you very likely will turn up having. That's why the Hossa trade is stupid, imo. It's a Carolina Hurricanes or Tampa Bay Lightning trade, and we've seen what happens after those teams got their one cup run in.

[godsshoeshine]

but armstrong and christensen are restricted free agents after next season anyway. if they are valuable players on a conference championship team, they will be overvalued just like malone, ruutu, orpik ect will be next year. go for broke this year, then resign malkin/staal/maf.
 
 its kind of hard to see how the future of the cap will shake out, but it looks like teams in the nhl are going to spend big on stars, and role players will get screwed. role players will come to teams that they will look good on so they can get robbie brown/john cullen contracts

[Julian, Alleged Computer F**kface]

Originally posted by god's shoeshine:
  but armstrong and christensen are restricted free agents after next season anyway. if they are valuable players on a conference championship team, they will be overvalued just like malone, ruutu, orpik ect will be next year. go for broke this year, then resign malkin/staal/maf.
 

The bidding is never as furious for RFAs as UFAs. If someone would, hypothetically, sign Armstrong or Christensen away for 3+ million deals, you realize the draft picks the Pens would get back in return? At least you're getting something back then.

[godsshoeshine]

of course they would get something. i cant see those guys getting long deals and the other free agents they have other than the big 3 not getting deals. plus the hossa trade kept him off of the habs, which at the time looked important. i agree that its a pretty dangerous trade, but if they cant win a cup with hossa and malone, i cant see them winning one with armstrong and christensen, even if they could have kept them

[Frank Gallagher]

LETS GO REDWANKS...LETS GO REDWANKS...LETS GO REDWANKS!!!