2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs

Freethinker

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And now the expansion Seattle Kraken beat the defending Stanley Cup champs on the road in Denver in Game 7! So the defending champion Avalanche are out in the first round, Boston the team that put up the most points ever in the regular season falls at home in Game 7, and the Lightning, who had been in three straight Stanley Cup finals, also fall in the first round, with the Devils and Rangers to decide their series in a Game 7 tomorrow. Amazing first round action and results this year with lots of very high quality hockey.
Pretty incredible that expansion teams are now able to compete very quickly as evidenced by Seattle and Las Vegas before them. I remember in decades past, in virtually all sports, the expansion teams were doormats for at least 5 seasons. When the accumulation of top draft picks each year finally started to contribute, then they’d pull themselves up to respectability. I sort of liked that the new franchises and fans had to “earn it”.
 

Don Wassall

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Pretty incredible that expansion teams are now able to compete very quickly as evidenced by Seattle and Las Vegas before them. I remember in decades past, in virtually all sports, the expansion teams were doormats for at least 5 seasons. When the accumulation of top draft picks each year finally started to contribute, then they’d pull themselves up to respectability. I sort of liked that the new franchises and fans had to “earn it”.
I don't think expansion teams should have to suck for a half dozen years, maybe a happy medium is needed between that and instant success as far as tweeking the rules, though all four of the pro sports leagues are now maxed out or close to it as far as number of teams. Seattle's ownership had to pay $650 million just to join the NHL, which is nothing but a pure windfall for the other teams (or maybe ransom is a better word), so for that price it wouldn't have been fair to essentially sentence them to be bottom feeders for x number of years by being stuck with only players that other teams didn't need.
 

SneakyQuick

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By the way is Emily Kaplan mildly retarded ? Seriously she sounds like something is wrong with her and she is worse than any of the women they have as interviewers?



Don’t know how she got this job. Oh wait. Emily KAPLAN. Nuff said


Let’s go devils!!!!
 

SneakyQuick

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Panthers keep bringing it. Sergei Bobrovsky was brilliant and the team never let up taking game one on the road in Toronto .


The Leafs have a ton of offensive talent but Florida out hustled them.

Let’s go Cats!
 

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Seattle puts up four goals in the first period against Dallas. Maybe it'll be the Kraken against the Panthers for the Cup, anything could happen in this wild playoff year. It does seem that lots of speed, discipline, youth and desire is having its way so far against more veteran teams with bigger name stars.

ESPN's analysts tonight consist of two Whites and two Blacks. Typical absurd over-representation of the supposedly oppressed race.
 

SneakyQuick

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Seattle puts up four goals in the first period against Dallas. Maybe it'll be the Kraken against the Panthers for the Cup, anything could happen in this wild playoff year. It does seem that lots of speed, discipline, youth and desire is having its way so far against more veteran teams with bigger name stars.

ESPN's analysts tonight consist of two Whites and two Blacks. Typical absurd over-representation of the supposedly oppressed race.
It’s truly ridiculous but at least PK Subban is tolerable and can speak English.

In comparison to basketball analysts it’s like watching an episode of Firing Line.
 

jphoss

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It’s truly ridiculous but at least PK Subban is tolerable and can speak English.

In comparison to basketball analysts it’s like watching an episode of Firing Line.
I can only think of 2 black announcers who sound professional and take their job seriously- Tireco and Gus Johnson. Maybe there are others i’m not aware of but the rest sound like they’re at the barbershop calling a game
 

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I can only think of 2 black announcers who sound professional and take their job seriously- Tireco and Gus Johnson. Maybe there are others i’m not aware of but the rest sound like they’re at the barbershop calling a game
Former goalie Kevin Weekes is very good at his job as an analyst for the NHL Network and for ESPN during the playoffs. Well-spoken, articulate, professional in every way, no questions about his qualifications which is as it should be. But everything's been weaponized and there's a lot of putatively White announcers who are also affirmative action hires because of their politics or because of their gender. Probably no one at ESPN would dare to answer the question of what a woman is, just like Comrade Joe's Supreme Court pick. It's all a beyond sick routine, but the product on the ice during the playoffs is anything but.
 

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Edmonton looked great in evening their series in Vegas tonight. Leon Draisaitl had two more goals, giving him six in the past two games and twelve in the playoffs. He finished second in the NHL in scoring in the regular season, behind only his teammate McDavid. That's a beastly one-two punch and there's a lot of other talent on the team as well.

I'm calling it now -- it'll be Edmonton vs. Carolina in the Stanley Cup final. Though the presence of uber-******* Evander Kane makes the Oilers hard to root for.
 

SneakyQuick

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Kane is horrible for sure but fortunately he’s a pretty unimportant part of the team.

He could be replaced and the team wouldn’t miss a beat.
 

Flint

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I can only think of 2 black announcers who sound professional and take their job seriously- Tireco and Gus Johnson. Maybe there are others i’m not aware of but the rest sound like they’re at the barbershop calling a game
Tirico is white. Both his parents are Italian.
 

Don Wassall

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There's conflicting stories about Tirico's father's ancestry. Most likely it was an encounter Mom had with the mailman or milkman. But there's no doubt he's not White. If he's "White," then anyone and everyone can claim to be White. And since men can now claim to be women and vice versa, why not?

Watching the games tonight, ESPN has John Buccigross and two Black analysts on set (Weekes and Subban), two out of three Black despite the minimal Black presence on NHL rosters, which is the excuse for the Black dominance of football and basketball TV sets. Hell, get it over with and just show nothing but Blacks all the time on TV.

In Edmonton just now the obligatory Black (female) just sang the anthems, and right before the anthems there's always an Indian chief of some kind wearing a headdress mumbling something about how the land, part or all of Alberta apparently, belongs to his tribe and that acknowledging it marks some kind of "reconciliation" between the native Indians and the new Indians (idiot White people).
 

Bucky

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There's conflicting stories about Tirico's father's ancestry. Most likely it was an encounter Mom had with the mailman or milkman. But there's no doubt he's not White. If he's "White," then anyone and everyone can claim to be White. And since men can now claim to be women and vice versa, why not?

Watching the games tonight, ESPN has John Buccigross and two Black analysts on set (Weekes and Subban), two out of three Black despite the minimal Black presence on NHL rosters, which is the excuse for the Black dominance of football and basketball TV sets. Hell, get it over with and just show nothing but Blacks all the time on TV.

In Edmonton just now the obligatory Black (female) just sang the anthems, and right before the anthems there's always an Indian chief of some kind wearing a headdress mumbling something about how the land, part or all of Alberta apparently, belongs to his tribe and that acknowledging marks some kind of "reconciliation" between the native Indians and the new Indians (idiot White people).
Bettman really going all in on Diversity. Sad. I tuned in for a game the other night and listened to a woman and a Jew announce a game before muting after 5mins.
 

Don Wassall

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There might be nothing more annoying in the world than female hockey commentary.
Women have weak announcing voices compared to men, which almost always is glaringly obvious when a female is one of the crew.
 

Flint

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Yeah the Tirico thing always makes me laugh. He insists he is not black but clearly Mom went behind the shed. He seems like a nice enough guy. Certainly “acts" white.
 

jphoss

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Women have weak announcing voices compared to men, which almost always is glaringly obvious when a female is one of the crew.
It sounds so out of place it’s tough to listen to. The only one i can tolerate, and i may be in the minority (heh) here, is Doris burke. She knows the game of basketball well and seems to genuinely enjoy watching good basketball when it’s played. I know women can be sly but i don’t get the feeling she has an agenda to push at least consciously. But then again i don’t watch too much nba besides our guys in the playoffs
 

SneakyQuick

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It sounds so out of place it’s tough to listen to. The only one i can tolerate, and i may be in the minority (heh) here, is Doris burke. She knows the game of basketball well and seems to genuinely enjoy watching good basketball when it’s played. I know women can be sly but i don’t get the feeling she has an agenda to push at least consciously. But then again i don’t watch too much nba besides our guys in the playoffs
Danica Patrick is painful in auto racing too. At least she was hot at one point. Now? Not so much
 

SneakyQuick

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Cats advance to the EC finals. Huge win over the leafs in Toronto. Bobrovsky stopped 51 shots in an overtime win. Truly amazing game to watch
 

Don Wassall

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Cats advance to the EC finals. Huge win over the leafs in Toronto. Bobrovsky stopped 51 shots in an overtime win. Truly amazing game to watch
They're for real, Toronto tried to hang on for dear life but couldn't. Taveras and Matthews were non-factors the whole series, especially Matthews who looked terrible tonight.

The Panthers won the President's Cup just last year. Looks like they morphed back into that team at the right time. Carolina-Florida should be a real doozy of a series. I'm still going with Carolina but the Panthers are playing great every game. They remind me of the Kings the first time they won the Cup in '12, started off as the 8th seed but steamrolled everyone on the way to victory.
 

SneakyQuick

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Here’s hoping we are peaking at the right time. I think the Cats have a real chance, but sure won’t be easy.

Carolina are a very tough and talented team
 

Gator Dad

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Unfortunately, Seattle ties their series against the Dallas Stars 3-3. Hopefully the Stars can finish the job in Game 7. When two teams are white I unapologetically root for the team with the less woke fanbase. Seattle fanbois, fangurls, and gender-neutral non-binary transfans can cry their libtard tears in their precious "Climate Pledge Arena." Such a woke, divisive, hateful name makes the Stars' corporate-named American Airlines Center seem refreshing.
 

Don Wassall

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The playoffs have been fascinating to watch this year. I picked Edmonton to go to the finals as it seemed like the natural progression of the team since they drafted Connor McDavid -- finally making the playoffs and then getting to the conference final last year, before bowing out at home in the second round last night to Vegas. McDavid will be going into his ninth season in '23-24 having still not reached a Stanley Cup final much less won one. It'll be a huge blow to his legacy if it remains that way the rest of his career.

But McDavid is only one player. Vegas, Florida and Carolina are showing very well this year that winning playoff series is even more about discipline, tenaciousness and extremely hard work than it is about just talent. Teams that are serious about raising the Cup have to be all in on paying the price, which is why there are so many upsets and why nothing beats the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Dallas-Seattle Game 7 tonight should be another great game. Seattle is another team that works like hell and never relents for even a second. Dallas plays hard too and I hope they win but the Kraken have been very impressive. If they win tonight, it'll be a second year expansion team against a very successful sixth year expansion team in the Western Conference final.

BTW, McDavid played superbly and with all out hustle throughout the two series the Oilers were in. He isn't to blame in the least for the team's playoff failures. McDavid is exponentially better than Auston Matthews, who played like a slug against the Panthers. Jack Eichel of the Golden Knights is also much better than Matthews when it comes to seeing the ice and setting up scoring plays.
 
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