re: Official NHL regular season thread

After watching the Blues with Ryan Miller for three games, I think this team is going to be tough to beat in a 7 game series come play off time.

Vegas Stanley Cup odds (post trade deadline)

St. Louis Blues 5/1
Chicago Blackhawks 5/1
Anaheim Ducks 5/2
Pittsburgh Penguins 6/1
Boston Bruins 8/1
San Jose Sharks 9/1
Los Angeles Kings 15/1
Colorado Avalanche 18/1
New York Rangers 25/1
Tampa Bay Lightning 30/1
Philadelphia Flyers 30/1
Montreal Canadiens 30/1
Columbus Blue Jackets 40/1
Toronto Maple Leafs 40/1
Detroit Red Wings 40/1
Minnesota Wild 40/1
Washington Capitals 45/1
Vancouver Canucks 50/1
Phoenix Coyotes 75/1
New Jersey Devils 80/1
Dallas Stars 100/1
Carolina Hurricanes 100/1
Winnipeg Jets 100/1
Ottawa Senators 100/1
New York Islanders 250/1
Nashville Predators 300/1
Florida Panthers 1000/1
Edmonton Oilers 5000/1
Calgary Flames 5000/1
Buffalo Sabres 5000/1

Yea, I have been waiting for the Avs to fall off all year, they are for real though. The scary part is they have more coming down the pipe and will likely get better in the coming years.

Oprik giving a little "how do you do, nice to meet ya" to Demers

Crazy game

Well damn, let that one get away, had them down and out for 2 periods.

AHL goalie with a huge blunder to lose it.

Definitely better than the Sharks though, so I feel good about that.

Fear the Fin, the Sharks blog, have been ripping the crap out of Crosby. I think their line was "if we're going to selectively kill Overchkin for every defensive lapse, why do we let Crosby do it?" Crosby was on ice for every Sharks goal.

BTW- this is as statistical meaningful as Ovie being on the ice for Caps' goals against. When you log a ton if ice time, chances are good you'll be on ice when the defense lets up lots of goals.

This is amazing

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Fear the Fin, the Sharks blog, have been ripping the crap out of Crosby. I think their line was "if we're going to selectively kill Overchkin for every defensive lapse, why do we let Crosby do it?" Crosby was on ice for every Sharks goal.

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Because Crosby plays solid D and is on the Top PK unit in the NHL. Nor was it a defensive lapse at all.

That play was perfectly fine too, Pens were on the PP and Malkin is the D man on the point who had just stopped Marleau the play before in a 1 on 1 just like that one.

Crosby had a very very rare bad game as far as the -5 goes, it happens. He has an AHL player on his wing.

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Crosby skated hard and then trailed the play, allowing Evgeni Malkin to attempt to defend Marleau one-on-one and, well, you can see how well that went.

My first reaction was that this was unfairly maligning Crosby, who by all accounts is a better than average defensive player and is like the love child of Pavel Datsyuk and Patrice Bergeron when compared to Ovechkin.

But beyond that, what was his responsibility on this play? Backcheck Marleau at the risk of a penalty? Be ready to transition to offensive on what could be a 4-on-3 the other way? Stand there and do nothing?

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