The Western Conference representative in the Stanley Cup Finals will be St Louis, Phoenix, Nashville, or Los Angeles. A show of hands for those who would've predicted that in October. Wow
I like how he only mentioned Rinne 2 times, and it was the same thought. It's almost like he has nothing to do with it. That's good Barry.
When reading up about the Wings-Preds series, I've read many comments about how Nashville wasn't any better but they only won because of Rinne. I really don't understand this way of thinking, isn't Pekka just as much part of the team is Weber or any other player? People were acting like it was cheap in some way as if Detroit was better and deserved to advance but Nashville got away with having a better goalie and otherwise were inferior. I'm not the biggest hockey fan so maybe I'm missing something but wouldn't that be like saying OKC is only good because of Kevin Durant or Dallas sucks and I can't respect them because the only reason they win is due to Dirk Nowitski. My point is, Nashville invested in a good goalie, he's just as much a part of the team as a forward or defenseman.
If you don't have goaltending in the playoffs you don't have shit. He's the PG or the QB. You can get there with a weaker player at his position, but it's that much harder. Further, nothing can swing momentum like a huge save from your keeper. Pekka and Detroit's health issues (lack of depth) were the reason Nashville won, but far from dominated.
I agree it was Pekka and I don't think Nashville dominated either. I watched the games and both teams are pretty equal even after Detroit's health issues. The Wings are probably the better team if comparing both teams when healthy and at full strength. I just read a lot of comments on ESPN and Foxsports (probably my mistake and a waste of time) but a lot of Red Wing fans were acting like Preds fans shouldn't brag about winning since they only did so because of Rinne. I guess they would be more impressed if Nashville had average goaltending and had a guy like Ovechkin scoring a lot of goals. For the record, this isn't against Wings fans, several of the comments were congratulating Nashville and many of them said they would pull for the Preds. I was just curious because that same opinion came up several times and I didn't know if it was a hockey thing to not respect a team as much if they rely heavily on goalkeeping to win compared to a team with a better offense.
This is a thing in soccer too. People say that a team is better when they just mean the field players are better. I'm pretty sure the goalie is part of the team. As far as the Detroit/Nashville series goes, this is how I would (I think uncontroversially) describe it: [didn't see game one, can't comment] Game two: Detroit got an early goal, and Nashville carried the play late in a vain effort to tie the game Game three: Nashville got an early goal, and Detroit carried the play late in a vain effort to tie the game Game four: Detroit dominated possession, but Rinne stole a win Game five: Nashville dominated possession, and Howard's best game kept it close but could not steal a win
Nashville did finish with a better record this season. It's not like Detroit was some heavy favorite that suffered injuries late and fell to an inferior team with a hot goalie. The two teams were fairly even over the course of the season and played like it in the first round. Rinne stole one game. Nashville dominated one game. The rest were fairly even.
Nashville definitely outplayed Detroit for most of the playoffs. Helm being out really hurt Detroit and Renne being a monster didnt help either.
Pavel, Lidstrom and Helm all suffered injuries that set the team back. At one time they had the best record in the league and a 20+ game home winning streak. It wasn't until those guys went down that they started to suffer.
Certainly an impressive run, but some of it can be attributed to being a very good overtime team (4th best OT record in the league), which doesn't translate to playoff hockey at all.
If i set the over/under at 2.5 for the amount of games in the LA/StL series that end regulation at 0-0 or 1-1, how many takers would I get on the under?
I didnt think PHX would get past Chicago, so I dont know what to think. The whole series will rest on the shoulders of Rinne........if he plays like he did in the Detroit series, I think Nashville wins in 5. If he plays like a normal tender, then Nashville in 7
Interestingly, Rinne's performance in the Detroit series was good for the lowest save percentage of all remaining Western Conference goalies. Honestly, I think Phoenix is a poor man's Nashville. They'll muck things up enough to steal a couple games, but the Preds have more talent top to bottom. Preds in 6. Also, Boston fans on twitter last night. . . ugh. Stay classy
