Official NHL playoffs thread.

[xSauronx]

Funny thing is they cut him after the Flyers shelled him with a 6-goal game. But once we got Laviolette I guess he saw talent in the guy and brought him over as a back-up. The rest is history... gonna be Cup history soon!

2 things about leighton and the canes:
1 - he barely got to play. the management has a hardon for cam ward (despite his flakiness) , part of this deals with the next issue:
2 - when leighton did play, he was WORTHLESS.

so, given that they already had a thing for ward, if it was between an iffy, tired or injured cam ward, and a worthless leighton...they picked cam ward. leighton was truly a horrible backup for the hurricanes. i half wonder if leighton held back; he was great *immediately* for philly and even though he played little for the canes, he NEVER did what he did in the first couple of flyers games. he had poor form and bad reflexes....then goes on to pull some shutouts.

i heard someone say a flyers player heard that leighton didnt "want to play in cams shadow" and i kinda dont blame him. /anecdote

as it is, ward is great sometimes and meh sometimes. im looking forward to seeing who they pick as the new backup next season, the two replacements we had were pretty good.

 

[sjwaste]

Leighton has told the Philly media that Jeff Reese, the goalies coach in Philly, has changed a few small things about his technique that allow him to get in front of more shots. Basically, he's been coached to use his size a little more to his advantage.

If you notice, he very rarely throws his body at the puck. He plays square to the puck, cuts down the angle, but even in the butterfly he's still using his size to block the upper half of the net. It's not flashy, which leads a lot of people to say he's making pretty ordinary saves, but he has almost ALWAYS been square to the puck and in position to block the shot.

He also has very good rebound control. He and the D are in sync about where the puck is going to come off his body. That has to do with playing the angle and not flopping around.

Coaching is a wonderful thing. So is realizing you're on the wrong side of 30 and playing out of your mind.

 

[xSauronx]

Leighton has told the Philly media that Jeff Reese, the goalies coach in Philly, has changed a few small things about his technique that allow him to get in front of more shots. Basically, he's been coached to use his size a little more to his advantage.

Yeah now that you mention it, I think I actually caught a bit about that during one of the flyers games in the last week or two. Like I said, i knew he had some seriously poor form on the hurricanes, and perhaps their coaching staff didnt attend to that *Shrug* Anyway, he definitely has something figured out now.

 

[sjwaste]

Yeah now that you mention it, I think I actually caught a bit about that during one of the flyers games in the last week or two. Like I said, i knew he had some seriously poor form on the hurricanes, and perhaps their coaching staff didnt attend to that *Shrug* Anyway, he definitely has something figured out now.

He's a big guy. When they were skating in line to shake hands, it was pretty obvious that he's the 2nd biggest guy on the team, next to Pronger. He doesn't need to flop around to make saves. He just needs to play a technical game - take the right angle, move up in the crease when necessary, and always, always know where the shooter is. Even when he goes down in the butterfly, he's big enough to cover post to post and still be able to block/glove shots that aren't right to the corners.

It does help that the defense has had to worry less about stopping the initial shot to him, and instead just being responsible for the rebound. He's not a sponge, but the puck comes off of him and goes where it should. Whatever happened, I'm hoping Leighton gets a contract and is our #1 next year. There's no (realistic) better option, unless we want to be the next team that Carey Price melts down on.

A big part of why Cammalleri didn't do much this past series is due to the rebound control. He was scoring a lot of second chance goals on badly placed rebounds against the Caps and Penguins, two teams that coincidentally, play poor defense. The Flyers D was playing about 5-10 feet off the crease, knowing that the rebound would be in the right place.

The finals are a really good matchup. I know everyone is already engraving the Hawks' names on the cup now, but this is a really, really even matchup.

 

[meltdown75]

go team go...

here's hoping for a 7-game series. cheers

 

[FallenHero]

go team go...

here's hoping for a 7-game series. cheers

Hawks in 5, only so that they can win at home!

 

[MotF Bane]

Hawks, so the Flyers lose! :awe:

 

[Dominato3r]

All the big guns gonna shoot out the lights! The place will be rockin cause its Saturday night

 

[SP33Demon]

Wow, 3-2 after the first! Flyers were down 2-1 and started scrapping down low, Niemi just letting too many rebounds go and the Flyers will make you pay.

 

[FallenHero]

Wow, 3-2 after the first! Flyers were down 2-1 and started scrapping down low, Niemi just letting too many rebounds go and the Flyers will make you pay.

Stupid penalties, dumb passes and lazy play hurt the hawks more then anything right now.

 

[Dominato3r]

Richard has got the whole package. Gritty and skilled.

 

[SP33Demon]

Yep, the Flyers are way more composed... that was a totally unnecessary hit from behind for the last penalty. Tie game still, Flyers need to keep going top shelf on Niemi because he can't stop it.

 

[SP33Demon]

5-4, Boucher in goal even though the last goal was van reimsdyk and asham's fault.

 

[Dominato3r]

this game

 

[FallenHero]

Great game to watch as a hockey fan. Killin me as a Hawks fan though

 

[SP33Demon]

Yeah I hate high scoring games... much better fan of grind it out hockey. Oh well. 5-5 here we go

 

[sjwaste]

This game has featured a bunch of turds on both teams. Neither deserves to win, but I think the Flyers have played a little worse.

Niemi needs to get his fucking mask on. That is absolute horse shit.

 

[SP33Demon]

Kane and Toews are -3 rofl. How the fck is Chicago's 3rd line kicking that much ass?

And yeah, Niemi and his mask off = horse shit.

 

[Dominato3r]

Kane and Toews are -3 rofl. How the fck is Chicago's 3rd line kicking that much ass?

And yeah, Niemi and his mask off = horse shit.

Pronger is keeping Buff out of the net

 

[SP33Demon]

Pronger is keeping Buff out of the net

Yep, Pronger has been great... and taking sniper shots on the PP as well. Ugly game though.

 

[Via]

The refs not calling a single penalty on the Flyers...

Now THAT'S horseshit.

Niemi took a shot to the face. That shit's gonna happen.

 

[MotF Bane]

The refs were bullshit. Fuck the Flyers.

 

[FallenHero]

The refs were bullshit. Fuck the Flyers.

maybe 2-3 missed calls, but that could be said for both sides. 4 power plays to 0 is odd, but I'm not about to come out and start calling the refs for BS. Some of the penalty's for the hawks were very stupid ones.

 

[Dominato3r]

The penalties are no where as near bad as the 1st and 2nd round.

 

[Via]

There were definitely more than two or three missed calls.

Replays showed Pronger grabbing and holding Buff's stick several times in the first period alone.

I saw at least 3 holding penalties (that I can remember) not called on Philly. I'm sure there were more.

Seabrook got decked in the chops by a high stick.

Utter bullshit.