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Counting The Chickens In The Hockey Hotbed of NoCal
by IwoCPO on 04/24/07 at 01:25 AM ET
Comments (65)
Oh, they’re frothing in California at the prospect of an Anaheim/San Jose Conference Final.
All 8 people, combined, who care about hockey out there, that is. I present to you Shaved Ice, a blog I’d never heard of until tonite. I’m sure it’s because I’m so isolated.
The Sharks need to play Detroit next. The Red Wings have been beaten down, bruised and frustrated by a physical Calgary team. They are poised for their annual postseason collapse, which would have happened in Round One if Calgary could have mounted any sort of offensive attack. We need the Wings now because tackling the Ducks in Round Two will be too emotional. If...wait, I mean when we beat the Ducks, and we will beat the Ducks, it will be a huge accomplishment. I fear our guard could be down and a hungry Dallas/Detroit winner will take advantage.
The Ducks have to be the final step before we play for Lord Stanley. It is hockey destiny. GO CANUCKS!
I’m not going to pick on this guy too much because I think he might be 11 and that would make me an ass. But I will, for the education of his readers, pick apart his post like Bubba with an Easter muskrat.
“The Red Wings have been beaten down, bruised and frustrated by a physical Calgary team.”
Did you watch the Wing/Flame series young man? If you had, you’d see that just the opposite is true. Holmstrom has a cut eye, Lebda a concussion or ankle or both; but he’ll most likely be back. And if he isn’t? We’re pretty comfortable with the deepest D in the league. Zetterberg, Bertuzzi, Hasek, Lidstrom, Cleary: all healthier than they were when they started the series.
Frustrated? Frustrated by what?
“They are poised for their annual postseason collapse, which would have happened in Round One if Calgary could have mounted any sort of offensive attack.”
Yeah. Good point. Calgary’s offense is inept compared to big, bad San Jose’s. I know that for a fact because I just looked it up. Your Sharks scored 256 goals this year. The Flames? Far behind.
With 255.
So that offensive attack Calgary couldn’t mount? You might have a little trouble mounting it yourself, although in Northern California....it might come a little more naturally. Sorry kiddo. Mess with the bull…
“We need the Wings now because tackling the Ducks in Round Two will be too emotional.”
Ok, maybe an 11 year old girl. Emotional? Ummm. What?
Maybe it was an off night for Shaved Ice. Perhaps not. Regardless, you’ll find them linked on the port side along with other Sharks bloggers and newspapers under the heading of, ironically, Round 2: Sharks. If any of you San Jose bloggers know of sites I’ve missed please feel free to list them in the comment section.
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“Last time I checked we have the reigning Hart and Richard trophy winners and you guys have the Lady Byng. Who’s the sissy now?”
What do those trophies have to do with being (or not being) a sissy?
The Wings have, what, 33 Stanley Cup rings on the team, multiple Vezinas, multiple Selkes, multiple Pearsons, multiple multiple multiple.
Oh, and uh. home ice advantage. Did any of you Sharks fans watch any of the Wings home games in the first round? Notice anything? Can you say BLOWOUT?
Posted by Paul on 04/24/07 at 11:39 PM ET
Paul - it is hard for me to argue with a man who used “poo poo” in a serious context, but I will attempt to lower myself....
Give the trophy talk a rest. We are talking about THIS YEAR now. I could care less about your multiple Vezinas, Pearsons and personalities.
Posted by Can'tStoptheGrier on 04/24/07 at 11:54 PM ET
Now, what exactly did the Sharks win before the lockout?
God, I don’t even really know what I’m doing here, being a Ducks fan and all. I really need to save some trashtalk for Alanah, but you asked the set-up question, so link.
Posted by Earl Sleek from Los Angeles, CA on 04/25/07 at 12:13 AM ET
“Give the trophy talk a rest. We are talking about THIS YEAR now. I could care less about your multiple Vezinas, Pearsons and personalities.”
The fact that the Sharks have no experience is why you don’t understand what such experience means to a team in the playoffs.
“Now, what exactly did the Sharks win before the lockout?
God, I don’t even really know what I’m doing here, being a Ducks fan and all. I really need to save some trashtalk for Alanah, but you asked the set-up question, so link. “
LOL
they won a few games in the regular season, when both teams were not what they are now?
wow. this is bordering on comical - the Californians not having a clue what the playoffs are about or how valuable experience is.
Posted by Paul on 04/25/07 at 12:16 AM ET
the Californians not having a clue what the playoffs are about or how valuable experience is.
Because we don’t delude ourselves into thinking our worn 2001 Stanley Cup t-shirt means we have an edge?
The Wings playoff experience yielded precisely no dividends in 2002. Or 2003. Or 2005.
And didn’t yield dividends for the Devils in 2000. Or 2001. Or 2003. Or 2005.
Shall I go on? This is absolute nonsense. Good teams win. Well managed good teams generally stay good. Therefore lots of teams that win continue to win. Therefore lots of teams that win have winning experience.
But teams can get good too. Having ‘winning experience’ predicts nothing. If the Wings lose, it’s because they played badly, or the Sharks played well. Or Chelios had a stroke, or whatever. If they win, it’s ‘playoff experience’. There no way to disprove this bs hypothesis, and there’s definitely no predictive value at all.
I take it back. It does predict one thing. It predicts their fans will grasp onto ‘knowing how to win’ tightly like a life raft, when practically every single expert is predicting them to lose.
Posted by Mike on 04/25/07 at 12:48 AM ET
The Wings playoff experience yielded precisely no dividends in 2002. Or 2003. Or 2005.
And didn’t yield dividends for the Devils in 2000. Or 2001. Or 2003. Or 2005.
God, I hope you are referring to these years as when the season started ("2000" actually means “2000-2001”, etc.), because otherwise, this starts to get REALLY inaccurate.
One might say that there were significant yields to the Devils in 2000, the Wings in 2002, and the Devils in 2003, but that would just be look at the year in which the cup was actually won. 
My hint, actually, was the double reference to “2005”, in which nobody won the cup.
Posted by Earl Sleek from Los Angeles, CA on 04/25/07 at 01:32 AM ET
“The Wings playoff experience yielded precisely no dividends in 2002. Or 2003. Or 2005.
And didn’t yield dividends for the Devils in 2000. Or 2001. Or 2003. Or 2005. “
You can’t win it with just playoff experience, but it’s hard to win it without playoff experience. Get it?
I would say the experience did pay dividends for the Wings in 1997, 1998, and 2002. And it did pay dividends for the Devils in 1995, 2000, and 2003. And it did pay dividends for the Avalanche in 1996 and 2001.
This is now comical. The Californians have no idea wtf they’re talking about.
Posted by Paul on 04/25/07 at 02:57 AM ET
wow. this is bordering on comical - the Californians not having a clue what the playoffs are about or how valuable experience is.
This is now comical. The Californians have no idea wtf they’re talking about.
Nice defense mechanism you’re developing there. Better slap yourself--I think you’re starting to skip.
Let me guess where this goes next: This is now beyond comical, bordering on hilarious. The Californians don’t understand how experience blah blah blah matters.
Let’s just put this damn thing on the ice and get it over with. Stay classy, Detroit.
Posted by Earl Sleek from Los Angeles, CA on 04/25/07 at 08:14 AM ET
Oh, and uh. home ice advantage. Did any of you Sharks fans watch any of the Wings home games in the first round? Notice anything? Can you say BLOWOUT?
Paul, let’s be honest. Detroit was playing Calgary. Not exactly the best road team in the league. And by “not exactly” I mean the absolute worse road team in the league.
And Detroit’s no slacker at the Joe anyway. It’s not like the Wings overcame any great odds to triumphantly defeat a resurgent Calgary, playing their hearts out. The Flames didn’t bother to show up at all for four games out of six, especially the ones in Detroit.
Just sayin’.
Posted by Dear Lord Stanley on 04/25/07 at 08:16 AM ET
“You guys playin’ cards?” —Flounder
Posted by O-Joe on 04/25/07 at 08:35 AM ET
Best thread, ever?
Just a lonely CBJ fan enjoying the view. wow…
Posted by Drew from Columbus, OH on 04/25/07 at 09:37 AM ET
You can’t win it with just playoff experience, but it’s hard to win it without playoff experience. Get it?
I understand the words you are typing. But they mean nothing. They predict nothing. They are neither provable nor disprovable. It’s like praying to the hockey gods.
I think we’ve played this discussion out. I look forward to checking back here again, and hope you guys check out our blog.
Posted by Mike on 04/25/07 at 10:39 AM ET
“I understand the words you are typing. But they mean nothing. They predict nothing.”
I haven’t made any predictions. I’m just saying that experience is important, and the Wings clearly have an enormous advantage in that respect. Playoff series are frequently about intangibles, and experience is one of them.
“They are neither provable nor disprovable. “
Um, it’s time-tested and proven that in all things experience is important. In hockey it can overcome things like, oh I don’t know, a team that has certain advantages over you (like size). If the Wings counter the Sharks’ size, do the Sharks players have the experience to know how to adjust?
“I think we’ve played this discussion out. I look forward to checking back here again, and hope you guys check out our blog. “
Run and hide!
Posted by Paul on 04/25/07 at 11:31 AM ET
Danny “five teams in five years” Markov? Kyle Quincey? Andreas Lilja? I have major respect for your top two D, they are the best around but then there is a major drop off in my Motown my friends.
Posted by Lohairss from Europe on 04/02/08 at 08:24 AM ET
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Last time I checked we have the reigning Hart and Richard trophy winners and you guys have the Lady Byng. Who’s the sissy now?
If you want to compare which division is tougher, fine - let’s go. Detroit had to play Nashville eight times. The Sharks had to tangle with Anahiem and Dallas sixteen times. Would you rather play Dallas eight times or St. Louis? There is no comparison. The Sharks had the tougher schedule. End of story.
Now if you’ll excuse me....I hear my mommy calling me for bed. She is reading me “The Old Man and the Sea” tonight. I didn’t know they wrote a story about Chris Chelios and the Sharks? Tee-hee-hee.
Posted by Can'tStoptheGrier on 04/24/07 at 11:28 PM ET