The official NHL thread

[alecjonsludge]

I want Boston to win,just so Neely will be stuck with Julien for awhile longer.You can tell he has an Ulf Samuelsson size hatred towards the guy.

[WOLF]

I want Boston to win,just so Neely will be stuck with Julien for awhile longer.You can tell he has an Ulf Samuelsson size hatred towards the guy.

Win or lose Julien has his job guaranteed for the start of next season. However, if the B's show the slightest sign of a Stanley Cup hangover next year, Julien will be gone. There's no way he and Neely can co-exist for long.

[pieceofme]

I don't see the Bruins winning with that power play. If the games get physical and players get sent to the box there are going to be power plays. The refs might swallow their whistles for a game 7 but not for an entire series, and if any games are going to be highly penalized it's usually the first 3 or 4 to set the tone. 8% isn't going to cut it in the finals. The one thing they do have going for them is a goalie that has the potential to steal a game. If they can get the power play to the point where it will keep Vancouver honest and take one of the 1st two games then it could be a fun series.

I hope you are positive for the Bruins, cause when you are negative they seemed to do alright!

Blah, blah, blah the Boston coach sucks. Blah, blah, blah why isn't he doing this! Man he has got your team to the Stanley Cup finals! He can't be that bad!

Go Canucks go!

[LetUsPrey]

Crawling out of my fucking skin. Is it 8 oclock yet?

[chungasrevenge]

Burrows should be suspended for biting. What a fucking pussy.

[NeverSurrender]

OMG. how does that happen?

[SkyDog112046]

Boychuck coughs up another one.

[pieceofme]

AWESOME GOAL. TORRES IS THE SHIT. GO CANUCKS GO!

[LetUsPrey]

Boychuck coughs up another one.

This I'll agree with.

[SkyDog112046]

Boychuk coughs up another one.

This I'll agree with.

Boychuck was on the ice for every single goal in the last series. And he was directly responsible for about half of them. Ferrence had to take a penalty last night because Boychuk missed his man on a change. And I've never seen a hockey player drop as many sticks. There are times when he is out of position simply because he had to stop and pick up his stick.

Chara was gassed towards the end from playing so much last night. He had an excellent game but needed some rest with 3 minutes or so left. Where was the timeout?

Good games:
Thomas
Chara
Ferrence
Peverley
Paille
Krejci
Kaberle
Recchi
Seidenberg

Bad games:
McQuaid
Kelly
Lucic
Bergeron

Should be benched:
Boychuk

Time to play:
Hnidy - replace Boysuck
Thornton - needed for his toughness and to stop guys from roughing up Thomas

[WOLF]

Burrows should be suspended for biting. What a fucking pussy.

I've played ball hockey vs Burrows, so I'll atest to the fact that he can be a 1st class douche.

Having said that, what are Bergeron's fingers doing in Burrows' mouth? You can be sure his defence will be along the lines of: "I didn't bite him, I closed my mouth and his fingers were there"!

[Anne_Thrax]

The NHL is dead to me.

[chungasrevenge]

Burrows should be suspended for biting. What a fucking pussy.

I've played ball hockey vs Burrows, so I'll atest to the fact that he can be a 1st class douche.

Having said that, what are Bergeron's fingers doing in Burrows' mouth? You can be sure his defence will be along the lines of: "I didn't bite him, I closed my mouth and his fingers were there"!

That's exactly what his line of defence was. Not looking like a suspension is coming. I figured there would be as biting isn't the best representation of the sport in the finals.

Some rating info:
BEST STANLEY CUP GAME 1 OVERNIGHT IN 12 YEARS
Game 1 Up 14% Over Last Year’s Philadelphia-Chicago Game 1

Boston Leads All Metered Markets with a 25.5 Rating & 39 Share

NEW YORK – June 2, 2011 — Last night’s Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, which featured the Vancouver Canucks defeating the Boston Bruins, 1-0, produced the best overnight rating for a Game 1 in 12 years. The broadcast generated a 3.2 overnight rating and 6 share up 14 percent compared to last year’s Game 1 (Philadelphia-Chicago, 2.8/6) and the best overnight for a Game 1 since 1999 (Buffalo vs. Dallas, 3.7 on Fox).

Boston was the top-rated market on the night with a 25.5/39, the highest-rated NHL game in Boston dating back to at least 1995, and topping the Boston rating for last year’s NBA Finals Game 1 featuring the Celtics-Lakers (19.1/34).
This is the first Stanley Cup Final featuring a Canadian team since the Ottawa Senators faced the Anaheim Ducks in 2007. The 3.2 overnight for last night’s game is 113 percent higher than the first network broadcast of that series (1.5/3 for Game 3).
Top Metered Markets For Game 1

1. Boston, 25.5/39
2. Providence, 16.7/24
3. Buffalo, 7.2/11
4. Hartford, 5.5/8
5. Pittsburgh, 4.3/7

[WOLF]

The NHL is dead to me.

I feel bad for you Anne, but I don't know if you can blame the NHL. You have to blame the local businesses, and people of affluence, who didn't want to step up and buy and/or support the team.

There's no way Gary Betteman wanted to have to publicly admit he failed. If he could have found a buyer willing to own and operate the team in Atlanta, despite the lack of fan support, he would have stuck with it. Nobody stepped up.

[Royal Dudeness]

3 more baby, just 3 more!

Burrows should not have been suspended, the evidence wasn't clear on film. Bergeron's a fucking baby.

GO CANUCKS GO!

[NeverSurrender]

3 more baby, just 3 more!

Burrows should not have been suspended, the evidence wasn't clear on film. Bergeron's a fucking baby.

GO CANUCKS GO!

you sound like a homer pussy bitch. like usual.

You're also the kind of asshole who i would expect to think it's okay to bite somebody.

[SkyDog112046]

The NHL is dead to me.

I feel bad for you Anne, but I don't know if you can blame the NHL. You have to blame the local businesses, and people of affluence, who didn't want to step up and buy and/or support the team.

There's no way Gary Betteman wanted to have to publicly admit he failed. If he could have found a buyer willing to own and operate the team in Atlanta, despite the lack of fan support, he would have stuck with it. Nobody stepped up.

I usually feel bad for the fans when a team leaves a city that had supported it, or when a team leaves because bad ownership made it so fans couldn't support it. A couple of examples would be when the Browns left Cleveland and when the Expos left Montreal. If anyone remembers New England came very close to losing the Patriots in the early 90's and look what good ownership did for that franchise.

But in this case Atlanta simply didn't support it's team. Not really surprising since most kids in Georgia didn't grow up playing hockey and Atlanta is more of a college town as evidenced by the Braves getting minimal support while they were perpetual contenders. I feel bad for the couple thousand fans(being generous there) that will miss the team, but hockey just doesn't belong there.

Betteman really screwed up with expansion to places in the south and southwest. What he should have done was have the northern teams take a couple games off the schedule and rotate the teams through those cities as special events, much the same way the NFL plays in Europe. Transplants to those cities would have gone nuts to see their home teams come through once or twice a year.

[chungasrevenge]

Those green idiots are coming to Boston. That should go over well with the southie crowd.

[chungasrevenge]

3 more baby, just 3 more!

Burrows should not have been suspended, the evidence wasn't clear on film. Bergeron's a fucking baby.

GO CANUCKS GO!

Bergeron is one of the most respected players in the league and doesn't embellish. That's a concept you obviously can't understand as a Canucks follower.

[Kid-Wicked]

3.

burrows didn't get suspended because horton could have gotten a game for squirting water on hamuis when he got injured.

i doubt the DAY a guy gets told he's in charge of the series he suspends 2 top line players for stupidity where there were not injuries.

anyone want to wager some chowder against some smoked sockeye?

[Kid-Wicked]

EDMONTON - Edmonton Oiler Gilbert Brule and his girlfriend picked up an unusual hitchhiker in West Vancouver on Tuesday — U2 frontman Bono.

Brule and girlfriend Kelsey Nichols were driving to a park to walk Bella, their German shepherd, on Tuesday afternoon near the West Vancouver Yacht club when they spotted a couple of hitchhikers on the side of the road.

Brule, watching out the window, was sure one of them was Bono.

Nichols, who was driving, didn’t believe him, because, really, why would Bono be hitchhiking in West Van?

“I didn’t want to stop, but they waved and G yelled ‘that’s Bono’,” Nichols said Wednesday night at Commonwealth Stadium. “I didn’t believe him so I kept driving.”

The couple went on, a short distance anyway, all the while Brule trying to convince Nichols to turn around. Eventually, she agreed.

The hitchhikers were still there when they drove up, so they yelled out: “Bono!”

He waved and walked over to their truck.

The Irishman, who indeed was Bono, asked if they could give him and his assistant a lift to Horseshoe Bay. Of course, Brule and Nichols obliged.

Turns out, he and his assistant had gone out for a walk when it started to rain, just before Brule and Nichols happened upon them.

On the drive to Horseshoe Bay, Bono and his assistant sat in the back with the couple’s dog. The four chatted about Brule’s hockey career, about Dublin and Bono’s apparent love for Vancouver.

Bono mentioned that his band was playing a show in Edmonton on Wednesday and asked if they’d like to go.

So Brule and Nichols sold their tickets for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals, bought plane tickets (three, so Brule’s mom could come too) and flew back to Edmonton, where Brule is a forward for the Oilers.

Bono got them backstage passes to say thanks for the ride.

On Nichols’s pass, he wrote: “Thanks for the ride.”

On Brule’s pass, he wrote: “My hero Gilbert.”

It was the strangest thing.

“We go to walk our dog and Bono ends up in our car,” Brule said.

Bono paid tribute to the favour onstage during Wednesday’s concert.

“I like ice hockey because people who play ice hockey are the kind of people who pick up hitchhikers,” Bono told the crowd.

“I’m ever so grateful. I’ve decided that I want to be Gilbert Brule.”

[chungasrevenge]

Those green idiots are coming to Boston. That should go over well with the southie crowd.

They're hilarious. When they held up those signs referencing Dumb and Dumber/Cam Neely in the last game. "NEXTS ONES ON SEABASS." "MAKE IT 4 BOILERMAKERS!"

They just had them on local sports radio, and I guess Marchand threw a water bottle at them the other night. I'm glad the video evidence was inconclusive on that one as well

Speaking of water bottles, Seguin takes out Hamhuis with one squirt:

[NeverSurrender]

If an Islander did either of those things, it would be a suspension, easily. Gotta' love the dartboard o justice. You would think they would do something about the bite, seeing they are trying to 'clean up the game for new fans.' Yet they let this happen without punishment the one time non-diehards are watching. Way to go bufoons.

[WOLF]

Burrows scores two, including the winner in OT! That really bites if you're a Bruins fan!

[Kid-Wicked]

2

quite a party downtown. city is electric. line ups at bars started at 2 this afternoon.

this rules.

i like this stat: teams that go down 2-0 in the series are 4-42.

chara's over rated.

[alecjonsludge]

Nice fake by Burrows,reminded me of Sittler vs. Dzurilla in the '76 Canada Cup.

[Royal Dudeness]

Me during the game last night...coincidence?:

[chungasrevenge]

Yeah, real good now.

[NeverSurrender]

I so want to visit Vancouver one day. I almost took a job there years ago.

[Anne_Thrax]

Yeah, real good now.

lol
Hey when was the last time a Canadian team won the cup? I'm not talking trash, I really am wondering.