2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs

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The Brown Knight
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Re: 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs

Post by The Brown Knight »

Island Nucklehead wrote:You mean the 2009 Hawks team that featured Marty Havlat as its leading scorer? That had 20-year olds Kane and Toews taking them to the conference finals and losing to the defending cup champs and the highest scoring team in the league that finished 3rd overall? A team that had 4 30-goal scorers? Yeah... 3 fewer regular season points and a 1-goal game-7 loss in the cup finals sure indicates those Wings were a "shell" of their former selves. Do you believe half the shit you post?
Fair enough Isle Nuck. I wasn't aware that the Wings of 09' were only three points shy of the 08' performance and so I stand corrected here. Having said that, is it really necessary to get your estrogen levels up so much? (I.e. "Do you believe half the shit you post, lol").
I'll make this simple and list the players who didn't play on both 2010 and 2013 Cup teams, and you tell me which group of guys you'd rather have:

(2013) Saad, Stalberg, Leddy, Shaw, Kruger, Rozsival, Frolik, Handzus, Hayes, Carcillo, Morin, Meyers, Brookbank, Smith, Bollig, Crawford and Emery

OR

(2010) Byfuglien, Versteeg, Brouwer, Kopecky, Ladd, Sopel, Campbell, Eager, Madden, Boynton, Burish, Fraser, Hendry, Niemi and Huet.

Take your pick, I know which team I'd choose and it's not even close.
It's not just about individual players though. It's about the team, style of play, leadership, maturity, and as it relates to the playoffs, commitment to team defense.

2010 Chicago was a terrific team without question, but they gave up a LOT of goals in many of the games against what was essentially, very mediocre competiton (relatively speaking) against Nashville, Vancouver, or the Flyers in the finals ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Stanley_Cup_playoffs). If we're being completely honest, those Predator, Canuck, Shark, and Flyers teams weren't anywhere near as good as some of the teams that the 2013 and 2014 Hawk teams had to face (I.e. Boston, LA, St.Louis).

If that 2010 Chicago team played against a defensive stalwart like the 2011/2013 Bruins or the 2012/2014 Kings, do you think their offense would have been as prolific? I don't. And as my link shows, Chicago had some noticeable holes and question marks when it came to their defensive play during those playoffs.........against teams that weren't exactly world beaters. Teams like Boston 11/13 and LA 12/14 would've neutralized Chicago's high octane offense, which would have done one or some of the following:

1) Get certain Hawk players frustrated resulting in taking dumb penalties (I.e. Eager, Burrish, Byfuglien)
2) Force Chicago to tighten up and play a style that they weren't really used to playing.......OR
3) Force Chicago to take more chances offensively, which would further expose Niemi for being the mediocre goalie that he truly was, and very likely always will be.

We all saw what Boston did to Pittsburgh in the 2013 Eastern Conference finals (I.e. Nullify their ridiculously high octane offense........force the Pens to play a style they weren't at all comfortable with.........exposed the Pens' mediocre team defensive play and goaltending).

You talk about individual players on the 2010 and 2013 team, but one key difference is Niemi and Crawford. Niemi is a very average goalie in my opinion, whereas Crawford, while not Top 3, has become one of the best goalies in the league.

I mean really. If it was all about assessing individual players without taking into consideration other important factors such as the style of play of a team, then perhaps by your logic, the Pittsburgh Penguins should be the best team in the league at current.
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