NHL 2017 -Official Discussion Thread

[Smitty-48]

The thing about West v. East, is that there more good teams in the West, but it's spread around, there's more concentration of talent on the best teams in the East, there is no Sidney Crosby in the West, and there is no team in the West, which has both a Crosby and a Malkin, the only team in the West which is, on paper at least, as stocked up with franchise players as the Pens, is the Hawks, but they're out, so the way is open, you look at Anahiem, St. Louis, Nashville, and Edmonton, they all rely on one guy, Getzlaf, Tarasenko, Forsberg, and McDavid, but if you shut that guy down, you've shut them all down. Against Pittsburg in the finals, the Western teams would all have trouble scoring, same as San Jose did, they're deep, with defense, but not with scoring, they all rely on one guy to score in a pinch, whereas Pittsburg has three guys who can do that.

There's parity, the teams are all very close, so the deciding factor is your franchise players, see; how far the Leafs got on the back of Auston Matthews, without Auston Matthews, the Leafs would have gone nowhere, wouldn't have even got a sniff, they would have finished near the bottom rather than all the way to six games against the President's Trophy Winners.

Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, there's nobody in the West who can match that.

[SilverEagle]

The thing about West v. East, is that there more good teams in the West, but it's spread around, there's more concentration of talent on the best teams in the East, there is no Sidney Crosby in the West, and there is no team in the West, which has both a Crosby and a Malkin, the only team in the West which is, on paper at least, as stocked up with franchise players as the Pens, is the Hawks, but they're out, so the way is open, you look at Anahiem, St. Louis, Nashville, and Edmonton, they all rely on one guy, Getzlaf, Tarasenko, Forsberg, and McDavid, but if you shut that guy down, you've shut them all down. Against Pittsburg in the finals, the Western teams would all have trouble scoring, same as San Jose did, they're deep, with defense, but not with scoring, they all rely on one guy to score in a pinch, whereas Pittsburg has three guys who can do that.

There's parity, the teams are all very close, so the deciding factor is your franchise players, see; how far the Leafs got on the back of Auston Matthews, without Auston Matthews, the Leafs would have gone nowhere, wouldn't have even got a sniff, they would have finished near the bottom rather than all the way to six games against the President's Trophy Winners.

Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, there's nobody in the West who can match that.

+10

[StCapps]

The thing about West v. East, is that there more good teams in the West, but it's spread around, there's more concentration of talent on the best teams in the East, there is no Sidney Crosby in the West, and there is no team in the West, which has both a Crosby and a Malkin, the only team in the West which is, on paper at least, as stocked up with franchise players as the Pens, is the Hawks, but they're out, so the way is open, you look at Anahiem, St. Louis, Nashville, and Edmonton, they all rely on one guy, Getzlaf, Tarasenko, Forsberg, and McDavid, but if you shut that guy down, you've shut them all down. Against Pittsburg in the finals, the Western teams would all have trouble scoring, same as San Jose did, they're deep, with defense, but not with scoring, they all rely on one guy to score in a pinch, whereas Pittsburg has three guys who can do that.

There's parity, the teams are all very close, so the deciding factor is your franchise players, see; how far the Leafs got on the back of Auston Matthews, without Auston Matthews, the Leafs would have gone nowhere, wouldn't have even got a sniff, they would have finished near the bottom rather than all the way to six games against the President's Trophy Winners.

Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, there's nobody in the West who can match that.

A low scoring series exacerbates the importance of goaltending which is a death knell with Marc Andre Fleury in net. It only worked last year in the finals because Fleury wasn't in net, the defense and Murray were overperforming at the right time and they were facing the choke ass Sharks. The Western Teams doesn't need to match superstar for superstar to beat the Pens, you overrate the importance of Franchise players in winning the cup, and underrate depth.

The Pens franchise players have gone cold for large stretches in the playoffs before and in order to win they can ill afford that with a much weaker defense and worse goaltending on top of what brought them down in the past.

[Smitty-48]

No, the low scoring series means the depth scoring is not scoring, no secondary scoring, which is where you need the Wunderwaffen to put you over the top, Crosby alone could put a team on his back and win a series, but so could Malkin, and then Kessel is just gravy, those three guys, will get to any goaltender, there is no goaltender who will be able to shut them out, whereas the other team, with all the depth, won't be able to get the goals going the other way, the Penguins are a team, which is capable of outscoring their deifiencies, even when it gets tight, there's nobody in the West, who has that at their disposal.

[StCapps]

No, the low scoring series means the depth scoring is not scoring, no secondary scoring, which is where you need the Wunderwaffen to put you over the top, Crosby alone could put a team on his back and win a series, but so could Malkin, and then Kessel is just gravy, those three guys, will get to any goaltender, there is no goaltender who will be able to shut them out, whereas the other team, with all the depth, won't be able to get the goals going the other way, the Penguins are a team, which is capable of outscoring their deifiencies, even when it gets tight, there's nobody in the West, who has that at their disposal.

The Wunderwaffen slow down in the playoffs, and the depth step up. You have the playoffs backwards. Stacked offenses routinely slow down and without a defense and goaltending to pick up the slack for them when they do, they inevitably lose to teams who do have the defense and goaltending to pick up the slack when their best players slow down.

You clearly don't watch the playoffs when the Leafs aren't in it then, or you would know this.

[Smitty-48]

I mean, the "depth scorer" on the Penguins, is Phill the Thrill, and I've seen Phill Kessel put a team on his back before, the Leafs got to game seven against the Bruins, when they had no business even being in the playoffs, came back from down 3-1, and that was all Phill Kessel, and on the Penguins, he's a third liner.

[StCapps]

I mean, the "depth scorer" on the Penguins, is Phill the Thrill, and I've seen Phill Kessel put a team on his back before, the Leafs got to game seven against the Bruins, when they had no business even being in the playoffs, and that was all Phill Kessel, and on the Penguins, he's a third liner.

Rarely does a Franchise player putting his team on his back result in a cup being won. That shit doesn't happen, especially when the Pens have won the cup under Crosby, it hasn't been him and Malkin carrying the team, it was the depth, defense, and goaltending stepping up when they actually did win. It always comes down to depth, defense and goaltending. The Franchise Players firing on all cylinders is a cherry on top, it's not what drives the Pens to win Stanley Cups.

[Smitty-48]

The power of the Penguins is the same thing the Leafs had, just on steroids, three lines which can kill you, a Crosby line, a Malkin line, and a Kessel line, there's nobody in the West who has three lines which can match that, and they only have one checking line, which cannot shut down all three lines on Pitt, this is how the Leafs punched above their weight class, a Matthews line, a Marner line, and a Kadri line, but the Penguins, are in a much havier wieght class to start off with.

[StCapps]

The power of the Penguins is the same thing the Leafs had, just on steroids, three lines which can kill you, a Crosby line, a Malkin line, and a Kessel line, there's nobody in the West who has three lines which can match that, and they only have one checking line, which cannot shut down all three lines on Pitt, this is how the Leafs punched above their weight class, a Matthews line, a Marner line, and a Kadri line, but the Penguins, are in a much havier wieght class to start off with.

Three lines are harder to shut down then one, but you can still shut them down enough to win a seven game series, especially with Fleury in net and Letang injured. This unstoppable bullshit is in your mind. It's a good way to cover their deficiencies on the defense and in net, but the Pens are just not anywhere near as good as you think they are.

[SilverEagle]

I mean, the "depth scorer" on the Penguins, is Phill the Thrill, and I've seen Phill Kessel put a team on his back before, the Leafs got to game seven against the Bruins, when they had no business even being in the playoffs, and that was all Phill Kessel, and on the Penguins, he's a third liner.

Rarely does a Franchise player putting his team on his back result in a cup being won. That shit doesn't happen, especially when the Pens have won the cup under Crosby, it hasn't been him and Malkin carrying the team, it was the depth, defense, and goaltending stepping up when they actually did win. It always comes down to depth, defense and goaltending. The Franchise Players firing on all cylinders is a cherry on top, it's not what drives the Pens to win Stanley Cups.

The Pens have depth, the remaining teams in the West don't.