T1B

I'm gonna say the Oil will continue to roll hard and fast.

The good guys in 5.

The Oilers speed was on full display tonight...Toskala kept it from being a blowout. I can see Edmonton taking Game 1 on Friday just because they'll be in a rhythm from just ending their series tonight. I don't see too many differences between these teams. Each have superstar RWs...Smyth and Selanne. Each have world class d-men anchoring their blueline...Pronger and Niedermayer. Each have goalies playing their best hockey of their careers...Roloson and Bryzgalov. I'd lean towards the Oilers in terms of depth on defense and their role players. The play of guys like Spacek and Pisani have been huge for them getting this far. I'm looking forward to a lot of skating and hitting...should be epic.

Oilers in 6

For Sabres-Hurricanes...I take Buffalo because I feel they have the edge in goal.

Sabres in 6

I think they will be a little bit weary after the last series but will come through in another six games.

Shoalzie wrote: The play of guys like Spacek and Pisani

Pisani yes but Spacek? Are you on glue?

The guy has been a walking talking pilon for the last 3 games. I haven't checked his +/- but it may be the lowest on the team. Forwards are skating all over his ass as of late.

OK, I just checked. He DOES have the worst rating with -3 in 12 games.

He played decent in the Wings series but like a brick in this last one.


All that said I was hoping that the refs would keep calling the calls the way they did in the other games but no dice. Quite a few questionable ones and many they missed. Up until this game I would say they did a pretty decent job.

Also....RACK! the Oiler fans for showing huge amounts of class for not booing the American anthem but rather SINGING it loudly. The fact that the Canadian anthem was booed in SJ was sad when all I heard time and time again was that the SJ fans were the friendliest anywhere. Take that fuckers.

Also....RACK! the Oiler fans for showing huge amounts of class for not booing the American anthem but rather SINGING it loudly. The fact that the Canadian anthem was booed in SJ was sad when all I heard time and time again was that the SJ fans were the friendliest anywhere. Take that fuckers.

RACK!!!!!

When I went to Kings games, O'Canada was sung along in the crowd (although there would be confusion if the hybrid English/French version was sung) alot more than the Star Spangled Banner.

I think you're seriously underrating the Ducks.

That is a solid team that will beat you in any number of ways, and now they'll be healthy too.

The Oilers are playing outstanding hockey as well, though, so it will be a good series.

My take is that the Oilers will win a game in Anaheim off the bat, since the Ducks will take a couple games to get their feet back under them, while the Oilers will carry their momentum.

As the series wears on, the Greasers' weariness will begin to show and the Ducks will take over, to eventually win in 6, perhaps 7.

And I'll probably watch little, if any, of it. Summer is upon us, and it's a lot easier on the psyche to not watch the Oilers succeed.

Cicatrix wrote:

Shoalzie wrote: The play of guys like Spacek and Pisani

Pisani yes but Spacek? Are you on glue?

I'm thinking more of the Wings series...he scored some big goals for the Oilers. He wasn't nearly as clutch in the Sharks series. Pisani has been great throughout though.

Anaheim in 5

Cicatrix wrote:Also....RACK! the Oiler fans for showing huge amounts of class for not booing the American anthem but rather SINGING it loudly. The fact that the Canadian anthem was booed in SJ was sad when all I heard time and time again was that the SJ fans were the friendliest anywhere. Take that fuckers.

So f*ing weak. Bravo, Shark fans. The American anthem has been booed north of the border before but this is the first time I've heard of the Canadian anthem getting that classless treatment. Don't these idiots realize that hmmmmm, a good percentage of Sharks are from......uh.......CANADA??!?!?!?!?! Morons. The vast majority of American hockey fans associate that song with hockey and therefore dig it. Most love it when a Canadian team plays in their building because you get two anthems for the price of one. And nowhere was it better than in the old Chicago Stadium...huge pipe organ, big lunged Wayne Messmer singing...by the time the American was over, you couldn't hear him. Chilling.

I love how the Canadian media jumped all over the booing. It's funny how they never got all upset when it's the other way around.

The reason Don Cherry despises the city of Ottawa is because of their disgraceful booing during the World Championship in '96. Quote: "It's disgusting. You should be ashamed of yourselves. I'm embarassed...act like you've been there before" Back in '96,for the love of Hapday!

I can't remember a game played in Montreal where they didn't boo the anthem.

Boo-birds on both sides can eat an ass. It's sad & pathetic. I noticed that San Jose went into the tank the moment the started the jeering. It looks good on them.

Ducks in 7 in a hard fought series....

Edmonton VS Anaheim - Anaheim in 7

Buffalo VS Carolina - Buffalo in 7

I tell you, this two series are tough to pick and can go either way.

Edmonton/Anaheim should be good. Edmonton seemed to have Anaheim's number all season winning all 4 games, but these are the playoffs so....

But anyways both teams have great goaltending at the moment. The one advantage Anaheim may have is all the extra time off, but that could also cause rust too so anyways I predict most if not all the games in this series will be low scoring and close. Even 3 or 4 games going into OT in this series would not surprise me either.

Buffalo/Carolina will be another close series but will be higher scoring than the western final series.

It would be nice for Buffalo to win the Cup or make it to the finals again at least. Their fans have been suffering as long as us in Vancouver but Buffalo has had a few lean years since they lost the final to Dallas a few years back.

Both these teams making it this far has surprised me, but this is the new NHL.

Oil looked tired in game one. Good thing Ducks looked rusty. Nice to steal that game.

Cicatrix wrote:Oil looked tired in game one. Good thing Ducks looked rusty. Nice to steal that game.

You guys got the lucky bounce with the usually sure-handed Bryzgalov fumbled couldn't handle that shot clearly and Hemsky was 'Johnny-on-the-spot'. It was a fairly even game throughout. I'd imagine both teams will be more like themselves on Sunday.

The Pronger vs. Selanne battle should be interesting to watch in this series. The Ducks have been able to get contributions from other lines than the Kunitz-McDonald-Selanne line. I was very impressed with Kunitz effort...skating hard, playing the body.

http://www2.sportsnet.ca/blogs/hockeyce ... _fall_ill/

Three Edmonton players did not skate Sunday morning due to sickness. All will likely be gametime decisions.

Oilers Jason Smith, Andre Bergeron and Raffi Torres didn't skate Sunday morning, instead the trio stayed at the hotel.

Yeesh, gonna be hard to win without those guys. I don't think a little sickness would keep tough guys like Torres or Smith out of a playoff game though. They'd pretty have to be missing an arm or a leg for them not to play. Both guys are gamers and can play on my team anytime.

I think Edmontons schedule has kinda caught up to them a bit. With how hard theve been playing and now that the ducks have thier skating legs back i think tonights game will go to the ducks, sadly. Edmonton will probably play fairly tight and try not to run themselves down so they can be a little more rested at home. Then again they could go hard and all have heart attacks or something, what do i know.

It sounds like it's the flu or food posioning. Hemsky also didn't skate because of dizziness.

Things don't look good for game 2, but if we can pull off a miracle win witout these 4 guys, Anahiem will have no confidence heading to Rexall where they haven't won since '99. (That's a huge if)

I think the Oil will be happy coming back home with a split.

Carneliat wrote:I think the Oil will be happy coming back home with a split.

I was happy with making he playoffs, then I was happy with winning one round, then two rounds, then all I wanted was the split, and now I want to go back to Edmonton 2-0. it's all I want until I get it, then I want more.I'm starting to sound like my wife...

Joey Moss wrote:I was happy with making he playoffs, then I was happy with winning one round, then two rounds, then all I wanted was the split, and now I want to go back to Edmonton 2-0. it's all I want until I get it, then I want more.I'm starting to sound like my wife...

Actually, you sound like me in 2004.

It's amazing how similar the Oilers' run this season is to the Flames' run of '04.

It's like the hockey gods felt bad that southern Alberta got to experience that euphoria, so they decided to let northern Alberta have a turn too.

I hate you Oilerfans, but I can appreciate how much fun you're having right now.

Regarding the Oilers running out of gas, it definitely looks like it, and it wouldn't be all that surprising, but.... The Flames of '04 were said to be out of gas when the Sharks came back to win 2 straight games at the Saddledome to tie the Western Conference series at 2 games each. But lo and behold, the Flames found something somewhere and proceeded to close out the series and still have enough to get through 6 games of the Finals.

At any rate, both series' going on right now look to be very entertaining. Too bad the weather is so kick-ass that I can't justify staying in to watch them.

And the Oil pull it off again!! Don't know how but i like going home with two games under the belt!

Considering the Ducks haven't won at Rexall Place/Northlands Coliseum in quite a while, the last thing they'd want to have happen was drop the first two at the Pond. It's been a perfect start to the series for the Oilers. They've gone from being giant killers to becoming just a damn good hockey team that has proven they belong at this point in the playoffs. I don't think it'll be a sweep but Anaheim put themselves in a tough spot by giving away home ice to Edmonton. Could be the second consecutive season with a team from Alberta in the Cup Finals...not to jinx the Oilers or anything. :wink:

Schmucks haven't won in Rexall since 1999. Its going to be insanely loud there tomorrow. Loved watching Selanne get his pocket picked that led to the second Oiler goal.

HUGE sigh of relief over here.

Jebus.

My wife's fucking stepdad's fucking mother is in town from fucking Vancouver and they figure the fucking 3rd period is a good time to come fucking visit. Had to sit in our fucking living room and listen for the roar or the Edmonton crowd on the fucking TV I turnned up and then make an excuse to leave to see the fucking highlight.

FUCK!
Assholes.

PS- the FUCKING server was down when I hit submit, sorry if this is a double post but I don't fucking care.

Cicatrix wrote:HUGE sigh of relief over here.

Jebus.

What kind of a team blows a big third period lead?

Wow I was way out to lunch on my prediction for this series. But I am glad nevertheless that the oilers are going to win it.

I think a Buffalo/Edmonton final would be a lot more entertaining and better than Carolina/Edmonton.

this fucking game is killing me! 4-3 ducks!

Worst Officiating Ever!


I hope in the offseason they re-evaluate what they call a penalty and not a penalty.

I like the new NHL, but too many times an innocent stick is called when obvious calls are missed. That missed call on the charge that resulted in the Laraque goal in inexcusable. A 14 year old refereeing tyke games knows thats a charge. There's a picture of that hit beside the definition in the rulebook.



brutal

the only time CBC announcers have got anything right is when they said "the officials are giving penalties for breathing"

The Ducks scored only once on the power play. The penalties had an impact on the game but they weren't the deciding factor.

Shoalzie wrote:The Ducks scored only once on the power play. The penalties had an impact on the game but they weren't the deciding factor.

Exactly.

the Oilers deserved most of the penalties. They were not commited to winning at any cost. Case in point, how many shots did they block? Hell, the shots in the first period were 25-3.

I missed it all. I was in prenatal class watching geeks write down EVERYTHING the instructor said.

Cicatrix wrote:I missed it all. I was in prenatal class watching geeks write down EVERYTHING the instructor said.

You're reproducing now???

Good God!!!

:wink:

JD wrote:

Cicatrix wrote:I missed it all. I was in prenatal class watching geeks write down EVERYTHING the instructor said.

You're reproducing now???

Maybe I was just there for the chicks.

It's a great place to see gals with big knockers that know how to get down and dirty.

Shoalzie wrote:The Ducks scored only once on the power play. The penalties had an impact on the game but they weren't the deciding factor.

I'm not saying it was any factor. It was fukking stupid. They were halfway through the second before they played 5-on-5, and the penalties were chintz, phantom calls, with little to do with the play in most cases.....both sides. I still don't know how you can hook somebody with one hand.

Then to not call; and that's what it was was a non-call because it caused the puck to come loose, one ref if not both saw it, the charge. He (Murray, I think) took 4 steps crossed his arms and launched himself into the air and into the boards. Never mind that it impacted the play and the game, the victimized player could have been hurt.......it's what penalties were for.

Clearly charging, maybe boarding, non-call that resulted in a goal v. 7 chintz hooking calls in a row.

That part of the new NHL is getting old fast.

al? wrote:That part of the new NHL is getting old fast.

I was digging through some old Wings playoff tapes from a few years back. The refs let so much crap go. The clutching-and-grabbing was out of control in the Wings-Avs conference finals series in '02. So much use of the free hand to grab attacking forwards and sticks were constantly in the mid-section. The pace of play was still pretty good considering the skill level on both teams but that could've been so much better if the obstruction stuff was called. I'm at least pleased that the league is making an effort to get that style of play out of the game. I don't want to watch speed and skill to be cancelled out by obstruction. Some nights the refs call more stuff than others but the fact is they are making the calls aren't letting them go and giving us a more exciting game to watch.

Cicatrix wrote:I'm gonna say the Oil will continue to roll hard and fast.

The good guys in 5.

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D


YEAH BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats OilerFan!