<p>What a game. </p>
<p>I don’t care for either team, but I like good hockey.</p>
<p>Finally! Commiserations to LA, but so glad.</p>
<p>I won’t see any of the Final games, but you all know who I’m for.</p>
<p>Bye bye Kings. (But every time I hear Chelsea Dagger I hate it even more.)</p>
<p>One of my favorite songs, CF!</p>
<p>Congratulations to the Kings on a well played game. </p>
<p>NRE, sorry to disappoint. :p</p>
<p>Congrats to the Hawks, but LET’S GO BOSTON 
:p</p>
<p>On a tangent: I have a poster hanging on my wall signed by Jared Boll, James Neal, and a few other NHLers from their OHL days. I think I’ll put that away for safe keeping ;)</p>
<p>We are sad…</p>
<p>Sympathy, bevhills. It’s such an empty feeling to have your team’s season end in overtime.</p>
<p>I had to go to bed after the first overtime (stupid job), so I have just learned the sad, sad news. But, H is a life long Hawks fan, so there’s still joy in the house.</p>
<p>1st time in 34 years two O6 teams have met in the Finals.</p>
<p>Game 1 is Wednesday at 8:00 EDT.</p>
<p>GO BRUINS!</p>
<p>While we are rabid Trojans football fans we understand the there are big highs and lows in fan…dom. There is next year…and Ms. Ellebud will wear, hopefully, a ring. </p>
<p>I hope for a GREAT championship series.</p>
<p>Sympathies to the Kings’ fans, and congrats to the Hawks fans. Sorry you won’t get to see the final series, gloworm. </p>
<p>The Hawks better come out strong in the first two games on home ice before they head to Boston and the slush that exists in the TD Garden. Here’s hoping for a good, clean series with excellent officiating. One can always hope! ;)</p>
<p>The officiating has been, to put it kindly, inconsistent. They call the hot button plays, meaning if a stick comes near the face (or hits it) then players have already learned to throw the head back and act it out like a soccer player. And if the player doesn’t do that but actually gets hit across the face, no call. Some no-calls are more understandable, such as the no-tripping call that led to Chicago’s go ahead goal in the 3rd period. In slo-mo on my tivo, I couldn’t see clearly what caused the defenseman to go down. </p>
<p>As the playoffs have continued, they’ve called less and less interference which means more and more clutch and grab. In the regular season, a defenseman can’t step in front of a forward who has chipped the puck past him because that is textbook interference but it’s every play now. </p>
<p>I live in Boston. The Bruins games versus the Penguins reminded me a lot of the 90’s NJ Devils. </p>
<p>I expect a cleaner series than LA/Chicago was. Some of the periods in that one were excessively violent. Dustin Penner in particular crossed the line fairly often. But we saw players checked over the boards into the bench and shoved over each other and drilled into the side boards. People in Boston don’t seem to watch other teams, particularly not any Western conference games, and thus think their team is rough and tough. The Bruins series haven’t been particularly hard hitting or violent and they haven’t involved constant scrums in the corners and in front of the net. (Well, the Toronto series was fairly rough along the boards.) </p>
<p>My expectation in terms of strategy is a lot of working to control center ice, meaning each team will try to stop the other closer to the opposing blue line by attacking the puck carrier and shadowing (interfering with) the others. A lot of mucking violently for the puck around the boards. And the winners will be the ones who can block an outlet pass and reverse the flow. Clearing the puck will be key because both teams are capable of extended pressure in the attacking zone so you can’t blow your chance to get it out.</p>
<p>^ I would’t generalize…so you are saying Bruins fans don’t watch other teams so they think their team is tough and they really aren’t?..Well, they are tough…very tough.</p>
<p>Some don’t understand team defense and are used to their stars cherry picking, hanging out near the blue line and not getting back on defense. Bruins hockey is all about team defense and layers of help.it’s all about team.</p>
<p>The Bruins are tough. They are the same as the Kings, only bigger and better.</p>
<p>The Hawks are a great team. We’ve got depth at every level, and our 3rd and 4th lines are capable of winning games against the best teams in hockey, even when our 1st and 2nd are cold.</p>
<p>We have got the worst power play in hockey. We are better off 4 on 4, frankly.</p>
<p>But, the Bruins aren’t especially more of a “team” than the Hawks.</p>
<p>The Kings are larger than the Bruins. Bruins are better overall but there is a reason the Kings won the Cup last year. People tend to look at Chara and think the entire defense is huge but it isn’t. And the forwards aren’t particularly large either. </p>
<p>An advantage for the Hawks may be that their defense carries the puck much better. The Bruins have struggled all year with clearing the puck and having a defenseman bring up the puck. I was surprised the Penguins did such a terrible job of forechecking and, from what I could see, largely didn’t bother to mark the forwards at center ice. I give a ton of credit to the Bruins for that game plan and demerits to the Pens for sticking with a lousy plan. I honestly couldn’t understand why they kept trying to run the pretty plays when they needed to get in their and muck it up. It was like they wanted only to score in the nicest looking manner. And their forwards were not reliable coming back.</p>
<p>From what I saw of the Hawks/Kings, those teams had hard-nosed approaches. Everyone came back - sometimes too deep because that created some opportunities for the puck to come out to the blue line with all 5 defenders fighting below. They picked up the puck carrier as quickly as possible, so many of the chances came out of line changes leaving open space for just a few seconds. And they shot at the weaknesses in the butterfly style: the 5 hole and the upper corners. I read somewhere that the Pens shot over the net a lot but what I saw was mostly shots low and to the sides. And in the traditional style, the teams chipped to the corners, fought and fought and tried to put the puck to the net for a scrum. It was cross-check city in front of the nets. The Pens seemed to need to look for a guy with open ice for the big shot and constantly passed up opportunities to mix it up. Hockey sometimes boils down to having a guy who stands in front of the goalie despite the punishment.</p>
<p>I have no prediction. I doubt there will be as much free ice as in the Pens series. But I expect some weird things because the real advantage of the clog ice/interference style is that it creates turnovers that convert defense into offense quickly. One or two of these paying off could be the difference. You never know how that will happen: Bruins’ problems with offensive rushes or Hawks turnovers because they are better at offensive rushes.</p>
<p>What is Ms. Ellebud’s job with the Kings? I take it this is her permanent career, since she plans to remain on the job for next season.</p>
<p>Folks in Chicago, hang onto your hats. Apparently bad storms and tornados are in the area. In anticipation of a good game tonight, I thought I’d share this with my fellow CC hockey fans. </p>
<p>[The</a> Good 'Old Hockey Game by Stompin Tom Connors - YouTube](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube)</p>
<p>Here’s to a good game tonight!</p>
<p>Yep. Worst power play in hockey. No wonder the Kings fired the PP coach at the end of last year.</p>
<p>I’d give the edge to the Blackhawks so far, except for goalie.</p>
<p>our power play is awful.</p>
<p>I don’t know how we will win this way.</p>