The Hockey (NHL) thread

It comes down to this. Who would've thought eighth-seeded Edmonton Oilers would trump first-seeded Detroit Red Wings, shut down offensive-heavy, fifth-seeded San Jose Sharks, and finally, take down the red-hot, sixth-seeded Anaheim Mighty Ducks to take the Western Conference title, all on the blazing trail of veteran goalie Dwayne Roloson and veteran blueliner Chris Pronger?

Now they face-off against second-seeded Carolina Hurricanes, who rode the back of red-hot, rookie goalie Cam Ward and solid leadership of Eric Staal all the way from a 0-2 hole in Round 1 against the Montreal Canadiens, straight through the fire-backed New Jersey Devils, and squeaking through in seven against the stalwart balance of the Buffalo Sabres.

It comes down to this. Best of seven games. It takes four to etch your name in sports' most revered trophy of all. The Stanley Cup Finals begin tonight. Oilers vs. 'Canes. Game 1.

http://www.edmontonoilers.com/intera...dfour_1024.jpg

Let's hear it. Who are you guys rooting for? [Assuming ye watch the coolest game on Earth :oh]

My poor New York Rangers finally made it to the playoffs, only to drop four-straight to the New Jersey Devils. Oh well. At least my favorite Western Conference team made it to the top.

Well I saw that there was no one who has made this thread so I decided to make one so if you like hockey, post here.

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Well today, Ducks beat Red Wings to advance to the final match against Ottawa Senators.

I'm going for the Ducks to win the Stanley Cup and finally take it home.

Cool! We don't keep track of Hockey (We call it Ice Hockey in Australia) over here but I really like it, I got a Yahoo Widget yesterday (would have been the start of your today) to check it all out :D I picked my favourite teams based on their names, the Sabres are my favourite (oh yeah, we spell favourite with a 'u', colour too :) ...) the Ducks are my 2nd favourite team only 'coz of the movie 'Mighty Ducks', I could see they were having a match but it hadn't happened yet even though we were already at the end of the day it was meant to happen, it's a little confusing though, they had a match for the Ducks vs. Red Wings then another after it for Red Wings vs. Ducks O.o what does that mean? Will they have to verse each other again?

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Originally Posted by Jetter_Mars

Cool! We don't keep track of Hockey (We call it Ice Hockey in Australia) over here but I really like it, I got a Yahoo Widget yesterday (would have been the start of your today) to check it all out :D I picked my favourite teams based on their names, the Sabres are my favourite (oh yeah, we spell favourite with a 'u', colour too :) ...) the Ducks are my 2nd favourite team only 'coz of the movie 'Mighty Ducks', I could see they were having a match but it hadn't happened yet even though we were already at the end of the day it was meant to happen, it's a little confusing though, they had a match for the Ducks vs. Red Wings then another after it for Red Wings vs. Ducks O.o what does that mean? Will they have to verse each other again?

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No, the Ducks beat the Red wings by winning 4 of their matches in the series. Now they'll be playing Senators on the 28th

If you want to talk hockey, I recommend signing up here: http://www.forumice.com/

The board is mostly Canadiens fans, but there's a board for every team

Boy, oh boy... The Habs fans aren't happy with the draft picks.

My nick there is GGpX.

The rumor that the Bruins were supposed to get goalie Manny Fernandez from the Minnesota Wild didn't happen. Plus, the Bruins keep firing their coaches, even though management keeps making all the wrong calls on bringing in players. The new guy seems ok, but they should have brought back either Mike Milbury or Pat Burns.

Season starts in less than a month.

I can't wait.

Wow
I guess no one likes hockey :P
Go leafs! They're gonna make the playoffs this year

I love hockey. Hockey rocks.

Go Habs Go.

Btw, if you want a good hockey forum, register on http://www.forumice.com/ .

A lot of knowledgeable people go there and have a lot of good discussions.

Anyone here excited for the upcoming season, I know I am!

Me too. My Habs should be great this year.

Got rid of the crappy baggage players (Ryder, Smolinski, soon Dandenault) and in with great improvements (Tanguay, Laraque & Chipchura from the farm).

Btw, register on the link I put above. It's a great hockey forum.

Damn, I didn't know there were hockey fans on this forum :clap2! I thought I was the only one.

While I'm excited for the start of the season, I am super pissed that the Predators (that's my team, if screen name didn't give it away ;)) have done close to nothing but sign some two way players this year. And the worst news of all is Radulov probably won't being playing with the Preds this year. I am so pissed off at Rads :mad, trying to leave for the Russian leagues. He's our best young forward and lord knows we need some offense. Oh well. Here's hoping Nashville doesn't finish in last place this year (hehe, I'm not even hoping for the playoffs this year :darn).

I don't like that Radulov is leaving while he's still contracted. I'd understand if he went after his contract expired.

He'll be making more money than he ever would in the NHL and he'll be playing at home.

Russia is also keeping some of the Habs' prospects from coming over (Emelin & Korneev) Emelin is probably going to come over after next season, and I don't think Korneev is ever going to come over, unfortunately. He's good enough to be on Russia's top6, so he's probably good enough to be on an NHL roster's top6.

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Originally Posted by GGpX

I don't like that Radulov is leaving while he's still contracted. I'd understand if he went after his contract expired.

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Yep, that's the main part that gets me. He only had one year left on his contract. I would've assumed that there would be some sort of legal issue if he breaks the contract with Nashville that includes financial penalties (i.e. pay money back to Nashville ala Michael Vick to Atlanta) that would keep him from taking more money and leaving earlier. But I guess they can't really do much about it when he is in Russia. Anyway, this should all be resolved by Monday as the Predators have given him until September 1st otherwise he will be suspended for the year (like he'll care though, as he will be playing and making more money in Russia). I wouldn't mind so much but we really need some offense. I don't even know yet if Sullivan will be playing this year, lord knows we could use him. Who knows maybe Patric Hornqvist (our teams top prospect who has been playing in Sweden) will shine in his rookie year.

I don't really blame the Russian league though, because iirc, Malkin did the exact same thing to them a couple of years ago, but no one had a problem with it that I recall.

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He's good enough to be on Russia's top6, so he's probably good enough to be on an NHL roster's top6.

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Damn, dude that really does suck. Definitely if he is top 6 on the Russian team, he is more than likely top 6 anywhere (probably top 3 on a lot of teams *cough*Nashville*cough*).

I still can't believe my Habs drafted Cory Urqhart before Shea Weber and Patrice Bergeron in 2003... Man, talk about a colossal fuck-up.

Urqhart is a guy who had problems getting regular shifts in the AHL, and he's a second-rounder we drafted right before Bergeron & Weber... Sigh.