Stars seem to have the ability to score on any team, almost at-will. When the Wild came back and cut it to a 1 goal lead the other night, you could see the Stars wake up and decide they were going to score again; which they immediately had decent scoring chance after scoring chance and eventually did score another goal to cushion the lead and win. They'll need to be a scoring machine to beat the Blues, I think. Blues may have taken the season series 4 games to 1; I think 3 of the 4 Blues wins were in OT.

Yeah, I think there was a Stars-Hawks game that was scoreless entering the third. Patrick Sharp scored right away and the dam burst, wound up being 5-0 or something.

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Anaheim Ducks are the Buffalo Bills of game 7's.

As for who I'm cheering for, I'm rooting for the Shakes Sweater Series, Islanders vs Sharks, 2 teams I own sweaters from. Was an Islanders fan as a kid and still have a mid 80s Isles sweater deep in the closet. And for some reason I really liked the Sharks uni's when they came out so I ordered a sweater their first year, still have it somewhere.

Also wouldn't mind seeing Washington cause that would give my high school teammate (Caps assistant coach Todd Reirdon) a ring.


Hate the Blues for obvious reasons. Fuck the Stars. Don't want Sharp to have more Cups than the Hawks core. Fuck Nashville, no team that bans fans from other teams deserves to lift the Cup. Also they are chock full of douchebags on that team with Neal, Jackman and Ribiero. Fuck Tampa for the same arena reasons as Nashville. Fuck Crosby and Pittsburg.

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I can deal with the Penguins now because after seeing all the little HFboards nerds be all like "yay, no Hawks, no Kings, I love you Blues, NEW TEAMS!!", the Pens core would win their second and keep it in the family, in a sense.

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Bruce Boudreau fired...http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/15427 ... e-boudreau

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Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

Well that was fast.

He should have been fired when he left the ice.

they should've Kiffin'd him:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/30/sport ... .html?_r=0

I wonder if John Candy has done enough to save his job in St. Louis?

Stars outplaying everyone on the Blues except Brian Elliott.

Tied 1-1

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Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

You mean Capt. Kangaroo?

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An unjust law is no law at all--St. Augustine of Hippo

Cause tried and true
I see the light in you
Oh, can you dig in my soul?
Could you smell my whole...
life?--Gener and Deaner

Blues focusing too much on hitting guys and not enough on shooting the puck at Dallas' weak goaltending.

Troy Brouwer's cheap-shotting so much the play-by-play guy on the radio feed called him out for it.

fuck the blues.

Go Stars

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Stars did their, "shit, we need a goal, ok, let's get one now!" thing late in the 3rd and won the game.

42 shots, 2 goals, ~ .96 save % and still Elliott takes the loss. Stars offense could disrupt the usual hot goalie wins in the playoffs storyline .

Obviously I'd prefer Stars over Blues; Blues started the game playing defensively and that didn't really slow down the Stars offense that much--Blues goalie kept the Stars off the scoreboard til late in the 2nd period.

Blues should come out and try to get an early goal. Get to Kari or Niemi early and they'll crumble.

But, yeah, victory Stars.

too bad the NHL screwed up the playoffs and this series will end up being the Western Conference Finals. Should've had either Chicago or the Blues or Stars in the other half of the western conference draw.

Stars handled both Preds and Sharks during the season, Niemi in goal for all the games against his old team.

Blues swept Nashville, but Sharks actually won the season series vs the Blues.

When we hit 32 teams in 2022 (the time it will take for Seattle or Houston to get its shit together), the league needs to go back to two sets of 1-8 seeds, or even just go 1-16. The crossover system sucks.

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That works too.

Did my eyes deceive me or was there like no one at that Sharks game. Say what you will about the United Library, at least they pack 'em in.

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I'm rooting for Sharks vs Islanders. Always been a Thornton fan, best playmaker of our generation. Tavares is Mr. Hockey to me.

aren't the Sharks kings of skating to the conference finals before crapping the bed?

I had the Sharks taking out the Kings first round. And the Preds look like just another shark-bite victim.

But if the Stars make it through and get a mostly healthy Seguin back for the conference finals?

Penguins might've lost game 1 but I'd still consider them favorites to rep the East in the SCF. And likely favorites to skate with the Cup
at the end of it all.

If the Blues could figure out how to generate some offense, Elliott's playing the best of any goalie left in the playoffs.

Caps will Cap and crater. Christ, Flyers were working their way back into that series until Holtby bailed out his teammates in game 6 and shut out Philly to end that series.

12 - goals scored by Capitals in games 1,2,3 vs Philly
2 - goals scored by Capitals in games 4,5,6 vs Phillly

Let me know when Tavares wins some hardware.

Draft lottery is in about 2 and a half hours. Top three picks are up for grabs now, like the NBA, not just first overall.

Toronto 20%
NO NOT AGAIN 13.5%
Vancouver 11.5%
Brandon, Sad 9.5%
Calgary 8.5%
Winnipeg 7.5%
Phoenix 6.5%
Buffalo 6%
Montreal 5%
Colorado 3.5%
New Jersey 3%
Ottawa 2.5%
Carolina 2%
Boston 1%

All 14 teams own their picks. Boston, Phoenix, Carolina, Winnipeg, and Toronto will get late firsts from San Jose, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Pittsburgh, respectively.

First overall is either Arizona native Auston Matthews out of Switzerland by way of Team USA NatDev (it's complicated) or Patrick Laine (that's LINE-uh, doesn't rhyme with Kane) of Finland. Look for the Coyotes to win it "fair and square" for the Arizona kid and the Leafs to go 2nd. Giving the near-dead Hurricanes a little more juice wouldn't surprise me either.

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islanders getting punished by the lightning. does that one PBP guy still do lightning games that has all those "cute" phrases when they score? cus he'd have a lot of calls today.

That was the Panthers, and he got demoted to Pierre duty. (Is going from solo pxp on the radio to 3rd-wheel analyst on TV a promotion or demotion? Oh, who gives a shit? No one's tuned in to either cast.)

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randy moller right? that's right i knew it was florida...but yeah panthers, not lightning.

Yeah, now that the Panthers intend on being good, they started taking their broadcasts seriously. They have an actual broadcaster doing radio now, they brought Denis Potvin down from Ottawa to do color on TV, and their TV play-by-play guy has always been surprisingly good. They stuck Randy Moller behind the glass and said it was his choice as "head of broadcasting." Probably all the right things to do, but no one watches Panthers games and god only knows what the radio ratings are like.

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This is the part where you declare your new team is dead, since they're down by that insurmountable 1-0 deficit.

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-- source

Isles-Bolts series is tied 1-1.

First overall pick will go to the Jets, Jackets, or Leafs. Best-case scenario for the NHL would be the Leafs, personally I'd like the Jets, no one cares about Columbus.

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Leafs win, Matthews "has mixed emotions," says "nothing is set in stone" and "a lot can change between now and the draft," and generally looks like someone shot his dog.

Congratulations Toronto on trading for Oliver Ekman-Larsson!

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