2008 NHL Playoffs

Seek, and ye shall find ... annoy, and ye shall receive. [;)]

congrats detroit on winning the stanley cup

^ I would tend to agree.

I am not even looking forward to watching ... but still, I must.

everyone knew detroit was going to win the cup
it was a no-brainer. they are a young team with tremendous amount of skill and some veteran experience. they were the powerhouse from the beginning.

im for the fly guys and the wings all the way....my two favorite teams.

Originally posted by Robmillzy

they are a young team with tremendous amount of skill and some veteran experience.

are you on crack? honestly, i'm not joking. 'young', 'some', seriously? are you high?

most of their top players except lindstrom are all young

Isn't their average age over 30 or something?

ya but their best players are all young
(once again except for lindstrom)

statisctally, you are correct. they are being carried by their under 30s. but 27, 29 and 28 isn't 20, or 19, like pittsburgh. detroit's top guys have 10 years on pen's top guys. anywho, break down on detroit's roster below:


Henrik Zetterberg #40
Position: Left Wing (Age 27) Njurunda, Sweden (12,11,23)

Pavel Datsyuk #13
Position: Center (Age 29) Sverdlovsk, Russia (9,11,20)

Johan Franzen #93
Position: Center (Age 28) Vetlanda, Sweden (13,4,17)

Jiri Hudler #26
Position: Center (Age 24) Olomouc, Czech Republic (5,9,14)

Nicklas Lidstrom #5
Position: Defenseman (Age 38) Vasteras, Sweden (3,10,13)

Niklas Kronwall #55
Position: Defenseman (Age 27) Stockholm, Sweden (0,13,13)

Tomas Holmstrom #96
Position: Left Wing (Age 35) Pieta, Sweden (4,8,12)

Mikael Samuelsson #37
Position: Right Wing (Age 31) Mariefred, Sweden (5,7,12)

Brian Rafalski #28
Position: Defenseman (Age 34) Dearborn, MI, United States (2,9,11)

Valtteri Filppula #51
Position: Center (Age 24) Vantaa, Finland (4,6,10)

Brad Stuart #23
Position: Defenseman (Age 28) Rocky Mountain House, Canada (1,6,7)

Kris Draper #33
Position: Center (Age 37) Toronto, ON, Canada (3,1,4)

Dallas Drake #17
Position: Right Wing (Age 39) Trail, BC, Canada (1,3,4)

Dan Cleary #11
Position: Right Wing (Age 29) Carbonear, NL, Canada (2,1,3)

Darren Helm
Position: Center (Age 21) Winnipeg, MB, Canada (1,2,3)

Darren McCarty #25
Position: Right Wing (Age 36) Burnaby, BC, Canada (1,1,2)

Brett Lebda #22
Position: Defenseman (Age 26) Buffalo Grove, IL, United States (0,2,2)

Andreas Lilja #3
Position: Defenseman (Age 32) Helsin, Sweden (0,1,1)

Mark Hartigan #44
Position: Center (Age 30) Fort St. John, BC, Canada (0,1,1)

Chris Chelios #24
Position: Defenseman (Age 46) Chicago, IL, United States (0,0,0)

Kirk Maltby #18
Position: Left Wing (Age 35) Guelph, ON, Canada (0,0,0)

Chris Osgood #30
Position: Goaltender (Age 35) Peace River, AB, Canada (13-3, 1.45 GAA)

Dominik Hasek #39
Position: Goaltender (Age 43) Pardubice, Czech Republic (2-2, 2.91 GAA)


following players have not played in playoffs:
Justin Abdelkader #8
Position: Left Wing (Age 21) Muskegon, MI, United States
Aaron Downey #20
Position: Right Wing (Age 33) Shelburne, ON, Canada
Jonathan Ericsson #52
Position: Defenseman (Age 24) Karlskrona, Sweden
Jakub Kindl
Position: Defenseman (Age 21) Sumperk, Czech Republic
Tomas Kopecky #82
Position: Right Wing (Age 26) Ilava, Slovak Republic
Derek Meech #14
Position: Defenseman (Age 24) Winnipeg, MB, Canada
Mattias Ritola
Position: Center (Age 21) Borlange, Sweden


detroit's roster comes down to the following: import european's, play a unique style of game, shut down other team's offense, become stanley cup champions. honestly, that is f&@king ridiculous. top 8 statistical players are from europe? jesus christ. this isn't fair at all. since detroit has always had a thing for euros, free agent's from europe will want to go there to be more at home, and the cycle repeats itself. over half the team is from europe, while the remaining 10 players are from canada/USA. maybe the NHL should impliment a rule where over half of your team has to be from north america? boston has a total of 5 players from europe. if you add the 11 detroit has on their active roster, and add the other 4 players, they have 15. 15 to 5. that's a big difference.

pittsburgh's roster is as follows:

24 Kris Beech (Age 27) Salmon Arm, BC, CAN
87 Sidney Crosby (Age 20) Cole Harbour, NS, CAN
9 Pascal Dupuis (Age 29) Laval, QC, CAN
28 Adam Hall (Age 27) Kalamazoo, MI, USA
18 Marian Hossa (Age 29) Stara Lubovna, SVK
48 Tyler Kennedy (Age 21) Sault Ste. Marie, ON, CAN
27 Georges Laraque (Age 31) Montreal, QC, CAN
71 Evgeni Malkin (Age 21) Magnitogorsk, RUS
12 Ryan Malone (Age 28) Pittsburgh, PA, USA
10 Gary Roberts (Age 42) North York, ON, CAN
37 Jarkko Ruutu (Age 32) Helsinki, FIN
11 Jordan Staal (Age 19) Thunder Bay, ON, CAN
17 Petr Sykora (Age 31) Plzen, CZE
38 Jeff Taffe (Age 27) Hastings, MN, USA
25 Maxime Talbot (Age 24) Lemoyne, QC, CAN

Defensemen
3 Mark Eaton (Age 31) Wilmington, DE, USA
2 Hal Gill (Age 33) Concord, MA, USA
55 Sergei Gonchar (Age 34) Chelyabinsk, RUS
58 Kris Letang (Age 21) Montreal, QC, CAN
44 Brooks Orpik (Age 27) San Francisco, CA, USA
4 Rob Scuderi (Age 29) Syosset, NY, USA
5 Darryl Sydor (Age 36) Edmonton, AB, CAN
19 Ryan Whitney (Age 25) Boston, MA, USA

Goalies
35 Ty Conklin (Age 32) Anchorage, AK, USA
29 Marc-Andre Fleury (Age 23) Sorel, QC, CAN
30 Dany Sabourin (Age 27) Val D'or, QC, CAN

As boston, pittsburgh has 5 players from europe, the rest Canadian/american. pittsburgh top 8 stats people? (crosby, hossa, malkin, malone, gonchar, sykora, talbot, staal) (CAN, SVK, RUS, USA, RUS, CZE, CAN, CAN) half from europe, half from canada. not as severe as detroit with all 8 from europe, but close enough.

anyways, long story short, NHL has a problem with the league's superstars being european's, which isn't good. we're taking the best players from europe and training them here, while there league's diminish, and our home grown player's don't have the chance to play because the NHL is full of euros.

fcuk detroit. [:D][pdie][r]

Not being a fan of either team, I totally agree that Detroit is going to take it tonight.

They just have everything in their favour; experience, confidence, hotter goalie, home ice etc.

With that said, I am happy to announce that I am starting a small ball hockey league, starting tonight. I'm so happy I don't even care that I will miss the final game. [:D]

Rob, I do believe the word of the day is: OWNED.

Young team ... young team my arse! Pittsburgh is the young team ... Detroit are all old guys who are just about over their prime. The Captain of the Penguins is 20. So, I would guess then, by your standards, that the Detroit players are all like ... what ... 13ish? Good grief, before you speak man, at least know what you are saying.

Well done ragan ... well done indeed. Young team ... good grief ... [r]

Originally posted by Robmillzy

im for the fly guys and the wings all the way....my two favorite teams.

The fly guys? WTH??? I know several Philly die-hard fans who would just a soon slit your throat than allow you to call them that. Anyway, many congrats on successfully riding the fence ... be sure that you don't hurt your scrotes sitting up there on those peaks.

Pick a team and dance with the one who brought you or

2-0? pens are playing like it is an elimination game. IF, and it is a big IF, IF pittsburgh can play like they did that period, and detroit plays like that that period, than the pens can come back and win this thing. but only if they play that hot and detroit plays that not.

I agree. They are playing possessed and if you noticed -- one of the comments at the front of the net during a stoppage was, "... we don't have anything to lose." Proper man ... just proper.

Yea they dont. Its not like they have won as many cups as Detroit has in the past decade. Or at least been to as many Finals as they have.

Obviously this brings out the crazy man in Tcon. Very, very strong words. Hey, sports do that to ya

He'll live ... so will anyone else.

Prayerfully, the injuries do not hamper forward progress.

horrible end to the period though. 2 of the handful of leaders the team has down. hopefully they come back in the third.

malone gonchar = uber big balls.

taking a puck to the face like that and i'm out for the game. and gonchar's hit looked really bad. but when you're facing elimination...

i need heart pills! :O

what's funny is, the game would probably be over if the refs called that slash on staal's stick where the red wing broke it. give pitt the PP, slow the game down, but nope, hooking 2 minutes later, 2-2 game, and momentum to detroit.

OT, HELLZ YEAH! (as long as it ends in an away team goal :p)

OMG .... It's BONUS HOCKEY time!!!

Man, call the cardiologist ... I am dying here!

Go Wings......

I hate being in a house full of hockey fans.

Double bonus time ...

I actually went home early from work and am off tomorrow since I was diagnosed with a severe viral infection. Man, I need to take some medicine and get some rest!!! COME ON PENS!

detroit definitely owned that period. fluery is why we're still playing hockey. next detroit PP should win them the game, if they don't win it before hand. the league is probably praying to god that crosby scores mid-way in the second. long enough to catch fans interest, but not too long to bore them away. they have a AWESOME thing right now with local news starting 30 minutes ago (or at least, it was supposed to). if crosby can score by midnight EST, big goodness for league.

Mark-Andre is DA MAN! Talk about a clinic on goaltending!

They should have left it on Versus, then all that would have been bumped is Cage Fighting.

period marked by bad calls. this needs to stop, as no one wants to see the series ended on a BS call.

:D

PENS WIN BABY!

Best game of the year. HELLZ YAH! HAHA DETROIT!

now if only the pens could have scored on that 5-3 in game 4, than pens could win this puppy.