So, Sidney Crosby...

[Bathgate]

Sid even during the cup run was largely shutdown against Detroit and was overshadowed by Malkin in the Carolina series before that. When a team game plans to specifically take Sid out of games they don't seem to have a problem doing it, at least in the playoffs.

Patrick Kane, who is great, but not mentioned in the same breath as Crosby, has an overtime Cup winning goal on his resume. Tonight he just scored an overtime goal to win a semi-final series. I am jealous, because our guy has never scored a huge overtime goal in the big spotlight like that. Oh, that's right! He did it to win the Olympics, the only time I have ever rooted against Crosby. Sigh!

[bdevido]

what i can't figure out is why crosby didn't just come and say something along the lines of "i didn't play well all series, and i'll take the heat." he is the captain of this team where is the accountability? the same can be said for bylsma as well, its as if there is zero accountability or passion. watching both bylsma and crosby do post game interviews is almost painful anymore. they never say anything worthwhile, and never take even the least bit of the criticism on their shoulders. as the captain of the team step up and say something and show some fire once in awhile.

[Guinness]

Whatever. PGH were not blown out of any game other than game two, and could have just as easily won any one of them except for game two.

I don't know if you're trying to be the ultimate impartial fan or what, but if you think games 1, 3 or 4 weren't close, well... I don't know what to tell you. Games 3 and 4 came down to the last second - especially game 3, obviously. PGH carried the play in their fair share of those games.

Game 1 was close until the middle of period 2. Then the moment came when the Pens decided to shove the Bruins around and act like little school children. That was the last time this series was competitve.
If you watched as you claim you did then a blind person could see who had the majority of the quality chances. Matter of fact the Bruins had ALL of the GOOD chances. Notice the embossed words.....The Bruins had 99.9 percent of all the GOOD chances. That doesnt mean the Pens didn't have a single shot, but the ice in this series was so lopsided it is not even funny...but rather alarming that the coaching staff did NOTHING to counter what the Bruins were doing. NOTHINIG. Oh sorry...we did...we scratched Kennedy here and there and dressed Bennett here and there.

U seem mad

[Pitt87]

Sid even during the cup run was largely shutdown against Detroit and was overshadowed by Malkin in the Carolina series before that. When a team game plans to specifically take Sid out of games they don't seem to have a problem doing it, at least in the playoffs.

Patrick Kane, who is great, but not mentioned in the same breath as Crosby, has an overtime Cup winning goal on his resume. Tonight he just scored an overtime goal to win a semi-final series. I am jealous, because our guy has never scored a huge overtime goal in the big spotlight like that. Oh, that's right! He did it to win the Olympics, the only time I have ever rooted against Crosby. Sigh!

Hawks have been able to put their stars in the position as a result of a better orientation to system and team over the last two years, largely out of a need to stop relying on Toews/Kane/Hossa for everything. Snuck into the playoffs in 2011 after winning the Cup only to have their hearts broken in a game 7 OT to a pretty bitter rival in Vancouver, then lost to PHOENIX last year. This is why I can't understand the motivation to keep doing the same things over and over again. When it works, its great. When its not working, there is no plan B.

[offsides]

Starkey doesn't seem to be a big supporter of Sid.

"Just know that in his past three season-ending games — Game 7 against Montreal, Game 6 against Philly and Game 4 against Boston — his cumulative line reads like something out of Dennis Bonvie's bio: zero goals, zero assists, minus-5 rating."

http://triblive.com/sports/joestarkey/4 ... z2VjSKJL00

[Fire0nice228]

The playoffs are a different animal.. The top players on each team usually shut eachother down, leaving the "depth" guys to pick up the pieces and win the series. Thats why scrap playes like Paul Gaustad garner first round picks at the deadline

[offsides]

The playoffs are a different animal.. The top players on each team usually shut eachother down, leaving the "depth" guys to pick up the pieces and win the series. Thats why scrap playes like Paul Gaustad garner first round picks at the deadline

What about Kane scoring the HT to advance the Hawks to the finals? Nice to see a star excel at crunch time.

[bhaw]

The playoffs are a different animal.. The top players on each team usually shut eachother down, leaving the "depth" guys to pick up the pieces and win the series. Thats why scrap playes like Paul Gaustad garner first round picks at the deadline

What about Kane scoring the HT to advance the Hawks to the finals? Nice to see a star excel at crunch time.

Also nice to see a team play in a manner that actually gets players open instead of constantly trying to beat 4 defenders with one guy.

[Fire0nice228]

The playoffs are a different animal.. The top players on each team usually shut eachother down, leaving the "depth" guys to pick up the pieces and win the series. Thats why scrap playes like Paul Gaustad garner first round picks at the deadline

What about Kane scoring the HT to advance the Hawks to the finals? Nice to see a star excel at crunch time.

Yes he did. It's not a perfect analogy, I'll admit. Good for him. He also went the previous 7 games with no goals, which by the way is all those games the Hawks spent climbing back against Detroit. Toews also had one goal in the Detroit series. The depth matchup is huge. Alot of the time the stars arn't going to pile up the points, its going to be much more winning by committee. My point is that its obviously alot harder to score and find space to create in the playoffs for the top skill guys. Line matching is huge for most coaches not named Dan Bylsma.

[offsides]

The playoffs are a different animal.. The top players on each team usually shut eachother down, leaving the "depth" guys to pick up the pieces and win the series. Thats why scrap playes like Paul Gaustad garner first round picks at the deadline

What about Kane scoring the HT to advance the Hawks to the finals? Nice to see a star excel at crunch time.

Also nice to see a team play in a manner that actually gets players open instead of constantly trying to beat 4 defenders with one guy.

Yep, so why is it even a question to fire Bylsma?

[Fire0nice228]

Good point above about the Hawks too. They're depth is just as good, if not better (albeit not the flashy names) as the Pens..Difference is their system isn't basically "stretch pass to guy who recieves puck and enters zone 1 on 4 with no puck support" or "stretch pass tip into zone where 1 guy on the far side will try to beat 2 or 3 defensemen along the boards for the puck."

Same thing with the Bruins.. They roll 4 lines, they come in waves, they play a 5 man game, and their big guys are doing okay in the box score.

I just don't think the breakout was good all season. We all know "stretch pass." They never ever consistently tried to come up the ice as a 5 man unit with outlets and support all season. They always set the other teams defense up to key in on one player, engage that player in a battle and see if they win the puck.

[Sarcastic]

Boston wasn't aiming for lopsided scores. They knew they had to win low scoring games to have a chance in this series. It's not much of a moral victory to allow the other team to dictate how the series would play out. I mean...was half their team even trying to score?

Again, it's not a function of the scoreboard. PGH were in this series MORE than they were in the NYI series, which they were fortunate to win. They "deserve" to be 2-2 in the ECF. But, as Will Munny well commented, deserve's got nothin' to do with it.

I totally disagree. At no point did I think we were going to win any of the games. They seemed close, but when I watched the actual gameplay, it was clear to see who was better and who was going to win in the end. I was hoping Penguins would score a goal, but I also felt the whole time we'd would have to completely shut things down because there was no way we would score another. I think that if we were talking about a single game, I could agree with you, but we are talking 4 games of the same. That's not a case of bad luck, but a case of one team dominating the other.