One of the main reasons why there is nobody else up with them is because Hartley has not found anyone who can stick at C on the top two lines other than Rucchin who has had a weak year.
Horcroff also took a foolish 4 minute penalty today.
Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't you guys run into a whole heap of backup goalies in the playoffs last year.....you also had some pretty big dude wearing #44 on the blueline.
Blah blah blah. He has heart and he puts his heat on the ice. Much more than I saw from your team who is going to get swept on a western run. You will NOT beat Calgary at home.
Backup goalies? Who? You don't have a clue what you are talking about. There was not ONE backup goalie, we chased one in anaheim.
What the hell does pat quinn have to do with team toughness?
A few others have already established a suitable list of players that were on the leafs - oh yeah Pat Quinn had a nice reputation of how he coached his players....
Anyway I'm done with this now, can we have our own thread back now so we can talk about the actual game - thanks.
Boulton gets run into Roloson by Bergeron..we score a goal on the play, yet WE get the penalty? refs are so biased to Canadian teams. I say this as a Canucks fan as well, calls usually go their way too.
usually they get jonzed so badly, the NHL calls a news conference to appologize and that has happend 3 times in the last year
rarely do the oilers get the calls
Thrashers are on the tail of a trip and a little tired
from what I gathered tonight
the Thrashers just need a little toughness
their core is good and young and they will get experience in the playoffs and this wil go a long way to developing the thrashers into a regular playoffs contender
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He had a few collisions with Torres and by my estimation may have come out on top on the majority, which is surprising to anyone who has watched much of Torres.
Also, noticed in the beginning of the thread that you were all over Sutton.
He had 2 CLEAN bone crushing hits tonight.
Was not impressed with Boulton's game tonight, I thought he ran our goalie twice.
If you could get someone to play with Kovalchuk (maybe Forsberg?) and a decent dman you could make a run, because I belief you do have the team toughness to wear down a team in a series.
He had a few collisions with Torres and by my estimation may have come out on top on the majority, which is surprising to anyone who has watched much of Torres.
Also, noticed in the beginning of the thread that you were all over Sutton.
He had 2 CLEAN bone crushing hits tonight.
Was not impressed with Boulton's game tonight, I thought he ran our goalie twice.
If you could get someone to play with Kovalchuk (maybe Forsberg?) and a decent dman you could make a run, because I belief you do have the team toughness to wear down a team in a series.
Exelby is one of the biggest hitters in the league and has been decent defensively since returning from injury.
Sutton is usually pretty bad but occasionally will show some odd stroke of brilliance. Last year he was pretty useful down the stretch with some offense and at the beginning of this year he was doing great at blocking shots. He's gone back to being the bad Andy Sutton since coming back from his injury. He is a big guy and can lay people out but he won't fight and stand up for his actions, so it does more harm than good sometimes (against the captials vishnevski was bloodied up by brashear because of a Sutton hit at the end of the game).
Boulton doesn't play very often but he's the only guy willing to drop the gloves.
Am I the only one who's been very surprised by the Exelby-deVries pairing? We all know the story with Exelby, he puts in a ton of effort, he'll throw the big hit, and IMO, is one of our best dmen. But deVries has shocked me. When paired with Vish he was horrible, but in these past two games, I've thought he's played pretty well.
I have to defend the SE here... weak division? Current Southeast Division teams have been in 5 of the last 10 Stanley Cup Finals.
Florida - 1996
Washington - 1998
Carolina - 2002 and 2006*
Tampa Bay - 2004*
The other eastern teams in the same span
Philadelphia - 1997
Buffalo - 1999
New Jersey - 2000*, 2001, 2003*
And the SE has 2 of the 4 Cup wins by the east in the last 10 years. Only NJ has the other two. You can also say that since the division was created in 1998... we are 2-1 in the finals.
I think the SE division is considered weak because of popular misconception. Fact is, it's a good division. The only way it can be considered "weak" is because there always seems to be at least one team that is really bad, which can be said of most divisions. But whatever. I think it's a strong division with several good teams. It's not like there are one or two powerhouse teams railroading three horrible teams (reference to the Central division).
Was not impressed with Boulton's game tonight, I thought he ran our goalie twice.
Boulton's more of a tough guy than a finesse player for sure. He was a healthy scratch for most of the games on our last homestand. That being said, I have to disagree with your statement. While he may have run Roloson the first time, the second time it seemed to me that he was driving hard to the net with possession of the puck and the Dman drove him into Roli. IMO, he certainly didn't deserve a double minor, but as someone on another board mentioned, that may have been the ref just getting him off the ice to control things.
I have to defend the SE here... weak division? Current Southeast Division teams have been in 5 of the last 10 Stanley Cup Finals.
Florida - 1996
Washington - 1998
Carolina - 2002 and 2006*
Tampa Bay - 2004*
The other eastern teams in the same span
Philadelphia - 1997
Buffalo - 1999
New Jersey - 2000*, 2001, 2003*
And the SE has 2 of the 4 Cup wins by the east in the last 10 years. Only NJ has the other two. You can also say that since the division was created in 1998... we are 2-1 in the finals.
The one thing you fail to consider is this.
In 2004, Tampa Bay coasted through the regular season and easily won the division. They had virtually no injuries or anything throughout the regular season, and were able to take advantage of the home-ice advantage they got by playing a pretty soft schedule.
Granted, you still have to dance when you get to the party, and they did. But while every team faced some sort of adversity, the Lightning pretty much caught all the breaks along the way. Not only that, But Calgary travelled twice as much as Tampa Bay did during the playoffs.
Carolina last year had much of the same. They had a relatively easy time in their division and coasted to home-ice advantage. Yes they lost Erik Cole for a big chunk, but look at what they gained.
They beat Montreal after taking out Saku Koivu, they beat a Buffalo team who was basically pulling people off the street to play defence for them, and then they got the benefit of the Oilers losing their starting goaltender in the first game. And again, the Oilers faced Detroit, San Jose, and Anaheim... Carolina faced Montreal, New Jersey and Buffalo. Again the travel schedule for the West was brutal.
Again, you have to perform on centre stage when you get up there, but there's little doubt that the East has a much better travel schedule (both regular season and playoffs), and the SE teams (possibly up until this year), had a pretty easy division which they could use to get home ice advantage with in the playoffs.
The simple way of looking at it is that yeah, the last 2 cup winners have been from the southeast, but you have to consider what the last two finalists had to deal with in order to even make it to the finals, and compare that with the road the SE teams had to take.
Again, full value to them when they got there... it's one thing to have an opportunity and it's another to actually take it. No one can take away the 2 cups, but I also wouldn't use them as proof about the SE being a tough division.
Boulton's more of a tough guy than a finesse player for sure. He was a healthy scratch for most of the games on our last homestand. That being said, I have to disagree with your statement. While he may have run Roloson the first time, the second time it seemed to me that he was driving hard to the net with possession of the puck and the Dman drove him into Roli. IMO, he certainly didn't deserve a double minor, but as someone on another board mentioned, that may have been the ref just getting him off the ice to control things.
Even with possession of the puck, you still cannot run into the goaltender. Bergeron forced him wide, and the only path to the front of the net that he gave him was through Roloson. It is up to the player to not take that path.
Now, had Bergeron given up position and had to push Boulton into Roloson, that would be different (i.e. like he did to Ladd in the SCF last year). Boulton took a lane that wasn't big enough and got penalized. It's alot like Smyth does when he's fighting for position in front of the net and going to the loose puck... even if it's not intentional, you still have to be responsible for it.
The dman you are speaking of was Marc-Andre Bergeron, who would be 5'9 and 175 lbs soaking wet with his gear on. If you watch the play again Boulton does have possesion, but outside the post and Bergeron is angling him around the outside post. Boulton decided to crash the crease. If that would have been his goalie interference penalty, I would have had less an issue with the play.
Even with possession of the puck, you still cannot run into the goaltender. Bergeron forced him wide, and the only path to the front of the net that he gave him was through Roloson. It is up to the player to not take that path.
Boulton's two leaps at the goal were foolish. However, it looked like he barely touched Rolie on the 2nd one, and Rolie fell as if he had taken a gunshot in the gut.
I suspect Boulton heard Hartley say, "lets get some traffic in front of Rolie" and since he has been out of the lineup so long he went a bit too far to impress him.
Hey guys.. dissapointed you guys couldn't play better, maybe a little exausted from the game before? But just want to say that I brought my Kovy army shirt with me to represent lol, but I didn't wear it because I had my other jersey on Wish I got some tv time so I could flash it!
Oh yeah I was sitting behind some guy who looked like lil john haha.. He had the dreads and shades and everything.. probably just an impersonator.. funny though
In 2004, Tampa Bay coasted through the regular season and easily won the division. No one can take away the 2 cups, but I also wouldn't use them as proof about the SE being a tough division.
I cannot speak for 2006 Carolina stats but, no matter how a division is perceived, divisional play is never easy. To respect ATL,WSH,FLA, and CAR...we play each other TOUGH.
How did TB do in 2004...
ATL - 3-2-0-1
CAR - 3-1-2
WSH - 4-2-0
FLA - 3-2-1
Total within the SE - 13-8-3 .... Thats just OK, not great. Certainly not a record for a team coasting through a division. Outside the Southeast...TB had better record and got more points against the Atlantic division with fewer games (16-4-0) 32pts- than the Southeast (13-8-3) 29pts.
SE Division - 13-8-3
Outside the SE- 23-12-3
Conf Record - 38-21-5*
*Only had losing record against Ottawa (0-4-0-1), and Islanders (1-3), however, they did sweep Philadelphia (4-0) and New Jersey (4-0).
(Sorry ATL Fans... just trying to defend our division, not talk up TB on your board)
Last edited by TBLightningFan: 02-12-2007 at 03:59 PM.
Reason: Clean up Formatting
Standings points per game against the Atlantic: 1.45 (13-4-3)
Standings points per game against the North East: 1.45 (14-5-1)
Standings points per game against the South East: 1.22 (18-11-3)
The one thing these South East detractors "fail to consider" is reality.
I have absolutely no respect for Craig MacTavish. Did anyone else hear him going on about how Sutton was purposely trying to injure Stortini and Pisani?
Wish I got some tv time so I could flash it!
