OT: Stanley Cup Playoffs The Year of the Underdogs?!

Submitted by the_big_house 500th on

Let me first off say that this opening round in the Playoffs is turning out to be the most exciting quarterfinal action that I have seen in a long time! The underdogs are really impressing me right now and I have to take my hats off to teams like Montreal, Philly, Ottawa and Colorado my god! Talk about taking an impressive series lead! However its just that isnt it. One game. In a series out of 7 1 game sometimes can both be the start of an epic run or the beginning of the end. For teams like Detroit tonight game 2 could mean either 1-1 or 2-0 Phoenix. I was extremely upset about that high stick no call on Lidstrom during the 3rd period. He gets whacked in the face, bleeds and still the ref doesn't assess a freaking 4 minute major. Rediculous. With that said Detroit needs to stay out of the box tonight. The Coyotes power play looked incredible a few nights ago and I really do not want to see it that often and lose to a team by letting in goals that help teams go 3/3 or 4/4. We need to generate more shots on Bryzgolov too. He's a solid goalie but we had too many shots on him in game 1 to have only put in 2. Crash the goal, generate scoring opportunities and just play solid hockey. If Phoenix picks up the hitting, then hit them right back. Need to step it up here tonight because a Phoenix team up 2-0 in the series could play out to be deadly.

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Birdman

April 16th, 2010 at 10:00 AM ^

The refs have been missing a lot of High sticks. Last night for example, one Sedin had a kings stick stuck between his face and visor, like half way up the stick. The dude just let go and skated away quickly. No call.

Joined: 07/01/2008

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Baldbill

April 16th, 2010 at 10:08 AM ^

One of my complaints for years has been the difference in how the refs call things between the regular season and the playoffs. If it is a high stick/interference in regular season it should be in the playoffs too. I don't know why they change the tune of thier whistles, it really torques me off.

Joined: 04/09/2009

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Birdman

April 16th, 2010 at 10:45 AM ^

If there is a blow out they call everything, being all like, "see we still call penalties in the playoffs eennnnn!" What ever, as a Sens fan, years of getting screwed by the playoff rules change has flipped, now the sens are the team that is getting away with it. Screw skilled hockey, mash it up boys!

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Baldbill

April 16th, 2010 at 11:27 AM ^

I thought for years that Ottawa had a great team that was always left high and dry in the playoffs due to the differences between playoff and regular season. No good reason they shouldn't have had deeper runs other than the refs let the Toronto's of the world mash their way past them.

Joined: 04/09/2009

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AKMuskie

April 16th, 2010 at 10:30 AM ^

Yeah that was a horrible no call. At this point heading 1-1 into Detroit would be stellar. Hope the penalty kill is up to par tonight. Don't forget the Caps were down 3-1 to the Rangers in last year's first round series. I hate playing such a Cinderella story like Phoenix this round, but hopefully the Wings can pull it off in 6 or 7. Nice to see Abdelkader back in the 4th line!

Joined: 10/04/2009

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Clarence Beeks

April 16th, 2010 at 10:38 AM ^

"I was extremely upset about that high stick no call on Lidstrom during the 3rd period. He gets whacked in the face, bleeds and still the ref doesn't assess a freaking 4 minute major." There is no such thing as a 4 minute major...

Joined: 09/06/2008

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Clarence Beeks

April 16th, 2010 at 10:56 AM ^

It's hard to call something no one sees and the reality of it is, even with four officials who can call it, things still get missed. I have doubts, however, as to whether the Penguins would have "roasted" the Senators with a double minor. The Penguins were awful this year on double minor and major powerplays.

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Clarence Beeks

April 16th, 2010 at 10:45 AM ^

Yes, it is just one game. In 2002-2003 seven of the eight lower seeds won game one, but only two of them won the series. There's a long way to go. In my opinion, the ones with the most to worry about are the Devils and Capitals. They both have match up problems with the teams that they are playing and both played pretty decent first games, but still lost. Washington needed to come out and play physical on Montreal's smaller forwards from the first drop of the puck, but they didn't. Montreal brought to the Capitals with speed and physicality all game long.

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JustGoBlue

April 16th, 2010 at 11:28 AM ^

we have to talk about as of now, but as a few people have said, it's one game. That's why they play best of 7. I think there have been about 7 people that have talked to me and gone cukoo for cocoa puffs over the first game of these series, but it happens. Especially in hockey. Notice that EVERY GAME so far in these play-offs, has been won by one goal. It's not like the underdogs are dominating. If they all take 2 game leads, then things become much more interesting, but until/unless they do, I don't think you can't put too much stock into it.

Joined: 06/15/2009

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Clarence Beeks

April 16th, 2010 at 11:44 AM ^

I agree that you can't put too much stock in being up one game, but you can put stock in the way that those games were played. Every game revealed some glaring problems for the teams that lost, though, that are going to be issues moving forward in these series. The problem for a few teams (i.e. New Jersey, Washington, and Detroit) is that they played good games and lost. It's one thing for an underdog to play well, but lose the game, as compared to playing well and winning the game. That's a huge emotional boost that usually tends to carry through the series. Game one is just one game, but the reality is that the winner of game one wins the series about 70% of the time historically.

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