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The 2008 Stanley Cup Playoff Thread

#883
StanFan said:
That's awesome. I heard about it but never saw it. Still looked cheap even for a replica.
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That was our Spokane Chiefs. rjny36 and I had a little banter about that a few days ago. I was rolling when I saw the video. Mike Babcock used to coach the Chiefs.

Congrats go out to the Red Wings. I new they had too much experience to miss out this year. The Pens got a great learning opportunity and gained some valuable experience as did the Flyers and The Stars.

I'm looking forward to next year.
 
#884
...another on-ice celebration:
Back when we had an ECHL team, the Jr. Admirals would sometimes play between periods.
One time, after the horn sounded for them to get off the ice, they attacked the team's mascot (a dog in a hockey uniform).
Eventually, they rip the mascot's head off...the mascot is laying face down on the ice, in shame, covering his face...the kid with the head hoists it, then they proceed to skate around the rink, passing it off like Lord Stanley's Cup.
Maybe ya hadda be there or maybe it's me...thinking about it still cracks me up.
 
#886
MJ5150 said:
Alright....it took me all day to get the nerve to log in and check on you guys. This hit me hard. Did I cry? Just about. I can't stand it when my teams lose like this. I really, really felt like we were going to win last night. I dang near cried when that puck slid in the goal after Fleury landed on it. That is pretty much like the cheap goal we got of Kronwalls skate in the last game.

marcray.....man, that is totally cool for you to come full circly on Fleury. I about blew my lid when you bagged on him at the outset of the series. Quite honorable on your part to give the man, er kid, his due. He is only 23, and a stellar career is now laid out for him. What a way to kick it off.

Detroit is the best team in the NHL, hands down. Watching them pass was a treat. To me, that impressed me more than anything else. How do you guys say it......tape to tape passing? I'm sure I'll get to the point where I understand defensive and offensive schemes more and the finer points of the game that you guys can notice, but not yet. It was those little things that gave Detroit the advantage. That, and the pure passion and desire to win. I can recognize that in any athlete, and it was all over the ice in red and white. One of the guys mentioned how the Pens skate with their heads down sometimes, and said to watch and see how Detroit never does that. I paid attention, and the RW's really don't. They know where they are going, what they are doing, and what they are going to do. A finely tuned machine with surgically precise players is what I see.

As sad as I was at the end of the game......man it was AWESOME to see Chris Osgood win a Cup. I watched him play in the WHL back in the day. I like Zetterberg, so I am happy for him too. He seems like a nice man besides a stud hockey player.

So hey you Detroit guys........you beat us four times out of six in a hockey series....NO WAY in h-e-double-hockey-sticks you beat us four out of six times in football....NO WAY EVER!!!! :D :D

Time for me to go look at our roster to see who might be leaving us, and see who the FA's are on Detroit that we can lure away. Zetterberg would look good skating for us.

-Mike
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the amazing thing about Detroit to me, is, like you say, the passing. It is crisp and seemingly everyone knows where everyone else is, and is going to be, on the ice. Their angles on dump in's and breaking thru defensive lines, even when the opposition is clogging up the neutral zone, is incredible. I still can't figure out how they did it.

It seems the only explanation, and only a Wings fan can tell me if this is true, is that every single player in red has bought into the system. There is no doubt in their minds and in their bodies that the system works. At no point in a game, or during the series, did they deviate. Not even for a minute. Being a supporter of a team that suffers from game plan deviation quite a bit, this is staggering to me, the level of commitment to the system.

I can only applaud Babcock. Does Babcock have a temper or is he mild mannered? Rangers fans are divided in Tom Renney. He is respectful and mild mannered, where Rangers only cup in decades came with a hot head on the bench. That said, Tom Renney has brought the play offs back to the Rangers, but can he get to a cup. I say he can.
 
#887
burk48237 said:
Most cable packages in the D have CBC, and I watched most of the game on the CBC. I switched to NBC for the post game coverage, because our local NBC affiliate had Mickey Redmond on the coverage for the post game. I personally love the way Ken Kal and Redmond call the game on Radio better then any of them. Redmond is not a homer, if someone makes a mental error he'll call it and he really knows the game.

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Agreed on Redmond and Kal. I LOVE Kal's "SCORE!!". I was SO pissed when WJR lost the hockey contract. What ever cheezyassed station the Wings are on now doesn't reach here in NW Ohio. I used to listen to almost all the Wings games on WJR while I was at work.
 
#888
cheezewiz said:
Agreed on Redmond and Kal. I LOVE Kal's "SCORE!!". I was SO pissed when WJR lost the hockey contract. What ever cheezyassed station the Wings are on now doesn't reach here in NW Ohio. I used to listen to almost all the Wings games on WJR while I was at work.
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Agreed. I used to be able to get WJR here in Montrose, PA (about halfway between Scranton, PA and Binghamton, NY).
 
#889
marcray said:
It seems the only explanation, and only a Wings fan can tell me if this is true, is that every single player in red has bought into the system. There is no doubt in their minds and in their bodies that the system works.
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I saw the same. Credit for this goes to Babcock. When dealing with players at this skill level, there is seldom anything you are going to teach them about the sport they play. A good coach needs to get everyone on the same page. I don't know anything about Babcock prior to these Finals, but he looks to be good at what he does in getting these guys to all buy into his system. There are coaches in other sports just like him that come to my mind.

-Mike
 
#890
marcray said:
the amazing thing about Detroit to me, is, like you say, the passing. It is crisp and seemingly everyone knows where everyone else is, and is going to be, on the ice. Their angles on dump in's and breaking thru defensive lines, even when the opposition is clogging up the neutral zone, is incredible. I still can't figure out how they did it.

It seems the only explanation, and only a Wings fan can tell me if this is true, is that every single player in red has bought into the system. There is no doubt in their minds and in their bodies that the system works. At no point in a game, or during the series, did they deviate. Not even for a minute. Being a supporter of a team that suffers from game plan deviation quite a bit, this is staggering to me, the level of commitment to the system.

I can only applaud Babcock. Does Babcock have a temper or is he mild mannered? Rangers fans are divided in Tom Renney. He is respectful and mild mannered, where Rangers only cup in decades came with a hot head on the bench. That said, Tom Renney has brought the play offs back to the Rangers, but can he get to a cup. I say he can.
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The Wings most definitely bought into the system. It's really only a slightly modified version of whats brought them success over the last 15 years. The difference imho is a bigger emphasis on 5 man defensive responsibility and willingness to win the battles in the corners when needed. The core of the team has been through a lot, and the veteran leadership has done a heck of a job passing on the insight needed to buy in to the younger players. I think the crisp tape to tape passing is a direct result of the European presence in the locker room for years, dating back to the vaunted "Russian 5". That style of crisp passing and 5 man unit mentality was a big reason for the dominance of the Soviet teams in international play a couple of decades ago.

Babcock is a heck of a good coach - the fact that he holds himself accountable for losses as opposed to blaming the players likely carries a lot of weight, and I'm sure he can peel the paint off the locker room wall when needed, and from what I've heard the best way to describe him is "intense".
 
#892
TheXym said:
The Wings most definitely bought into the system. It's really only a slightly modified version of whats brought them success over the last 15 years. The difference imho is a bigger emphasis on 5 man defensive responsibility and willingness to win the battles in the corners when needed. The core of the team has been through a lot, and the veteran leadership has done a heck of a job passing on the insight needed to buy in to the younger players. I think the crisp tape to tape passing is a direct result of the European presence in the locker room for years, dating back to the vaunted "Russian 5". That style of crisp passing and 5 man unit mentality was a big reason for the dominance of the Soviet teams in international play a couple of decades ago.

Babcock is a heck of a good coach - the fact that he holds himself accountable for losses as opposed to blaming the players likely carries a lot of weight, and I'm sure he can peel the paint off the locker room wall when needed, and from what I've heard the best way to describe him is "intense".
Click to expand...

I see a lot of Bowman in Babcock, that confidence thing. The ability to make great adjustments. The biggest difference between Babcock and Bowman, is Bowman had a lot of veterans on the club so he would play a lot of mind games with them to keep them interested and guesing. As far as defense Bowman was the guy who sold them on all five guys working on both ends. When he first got here, he said they thought they could win by outscorring everyone like the old Oilers. After they lost to Colorado in the Conference finals (97), they finally started to buy in. And Yzerman will tell you thats why they started winning cups. HE went from being one of the greatest scorers ever to being perhaps the finest defensive forward in the game. The other change was they got rid of Paul Coffey and concentrated on getting defenseman who could play defense.

As far as why they play that way it's not all coaching. Ken Holland and the Wings scouts deserve a lot of credit for that too. They draft players who have puck skills and hockey instinct, because they feel the other stuff can be caught. Holland, might be the best GM in all of Sports. He has put together teams that won with unlimited payroll, a lot of other GM's spent as much or more and weren't even in contention. But he kept them competitive even when they lost Federov, Shannahan, Schnieder and others due to the cap. They haven't had a top TWENTY draft choice in fifteen years, and yet they continually find some of the best young players in the game.
 
#893
not being familiar with Babcock and Bowman through a season, it seems the biggest difference is that Babcock sticks to his lines, where as Bowman was constantly changing things up, during periods even.

I think it's right in saying that the Euro players are the reason for the crispness in passing. You only have to watch the last Olympics to see how well that worked for them. Sweden beating Finland 1-0 in the Final, Finland winning every game but that last one. Incredible hockey it was.

Like I've said many times, I hope my guys were watching! :hmm:
 
#894
marcray said:
the amazing thing about Detroit to me, is, like you say, the passing. It is crisp and seemingly everyone knows where everyone else is, and is going to be, on the ice. Their angles on dump in's and breaking thru defensive lines, even when the opposition is clogging up the neutral zone, is incredible. I still can't figure out how they did it.

It seems the only explanation, and only a Wings fan can tell me if this is true, is that every single player in red has bought into the system. There is no doubt in their minds and in their bodies that the system works. At no point in a game, or during the series, did they deviate. Not even for a minute. Being a supporter of a team that suffers from game plan deviation quite a bit, this is staggering to me, the level of commitment to the system.

I can only applaud Babcock. Does Babcock have a temper or is he mild mannered? Rangers fans are divided in Tom Renney. He is respectful and mild mannered, where Rangers only cup in decades came with a hot head on the bench. That said, Tom Renney has brought the play offs back to the Rangers, but can he get to a cup. I say he can.
Click to expand...

I think the level of talent and the system they run on the team has A LOT to do with the leadership of the team. What we see today in Lidstrom, Draper, Zetterburg, and Datsuyk is everything they learned from the Captain himself, Steve Yzerman. Yzerman was the epitome of what a captain is supposed to be. He not only taught young up and comers how to conduct themselves on the ice but off the ice as well. The system, as many have mentioned here already, had a lot to do from what they've learned from Bowman but even after he retired they still conducted themselves as true perfectionists and winners. It's kind of like an anointing that the Red Wings leaders have when they get the "C" on their jerseys. Everyone who has that from here on out knows what's expected of them and the kind of standard they have to live up to, set in place by the Captain himself, Stevie Y.


Another secret that Detroit has is their scouting. They have some of the best eyes out there to pick up talented players that most other teams overlook. I mean, Zetterburg, Datsuyk, even Fillpula, none of them were meant to be what they are today but somebody saw something in them when they were playing over in Europe and now they're Stanley Cup champs.
 
#895
Well, guys, I braved the Detroit heat and headed down for the Stanley Cup parade, today. It was 90+ degrees this morning. Approximately 1.4 million people in attendance.

Here are some photos I took at the parade. I was where 75 "intersects" Woodward, on that corner. I was behind a pretty big crowd, so all the photos had to be taken with the camera held above my head (where I couldn't really see what I was actually taking pictures of). Some of them turned out great, some of them are anything but...

In any case, here they are, if you're interested!

http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd158/rjny36/Stanley Cup Parade/
 
#897
Some people give me crap for my view on the issue, but it really is so much better when any original six team is involved with the Stanley Cup, win or lose.

When forgetable teams like Tampa Bay who really weren't any good but just happaned to get hot at the right time win the cup, it waters down the league even more.

Now, we really need to get the Red Wings in the Eastern Conference so we can play Pittsburg on a regular basis (and Boston, New York, Toronto, Montreal). That would be so much better than play frickin Columbus and Nashville 16 times a season. I'm glad they booed Gary Bettman in Pittsburg too.
 
#900
Bad Brains said:
Some people give me crap for my view on the issue, but it really is so much better when any original six team is involved with the Stanley Cup, win or lose.

When forgetable teams like Tampa Bay who really weren't any good but just happaned to get hot at the right time win the cup, it waters down the league even more.

Now, we really need to get the Red Wings in the Eastern Conference so we can play Pittsburg on a regular basis (and Boston, New York, Toronto, Montreal). That would be so much better than play frickin Columbus and Nashville 16 times a season. I'm glad they booed Gary Bettman in Pittsburg too.
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One of those rare occasions where I agree with every single word of a Bad Brains post. (OK, maybe not the part about Tampa not being "any good", but they are from Florida for chrissakes.)
 

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