2016 NHL Playoffs, Rite of Spring: "You thought God was an architect"

[ninersdd]

Let's get this started!

[The_Admiral]

 

 

 

[SFGiants58]

I'm already getting prepared for Sharks playoff hockey!

 

[The_Admiral]

"You thought God was an architect" for song-based subtitle? My song of the year last year:

 

 

 

[Kramerica Industries]

Tyler Johnson suffered what might've been a bad injury last night in a meaningless game, which, if so, could leave the Lightning without their top-2 center's and half of their top defensive pairing.

 

jeezus.

[CS85]

Blackhawks/Blues in round one.  My genitals are not chuffed.

[Coast2CoastAM2006]

The cutesey thread titles is kinda played out. 

 

A question for Islander fans, which would be the more optimal match up Isles/Pens or Isles/Panthers? 

[DDR]

The Blues are a really tough (regular season) team. Let's see if they can finally put it together for the playoffs. I'm not convinced, and I think the Blackhawks take the series. But the Western Conference is gonna be a dogfight. 

[CS85]

36 minutes ago, Coast2CoastAM2006 said:

The cutesey thread titles is kinda played out.

 

 

This one isn't even formatted properly anyway. 

[RyanMcD29]

1 hour ago, Coast2CoastAM2006 said:

The cutesey thread titles is kinda played out. 

 

A question for Islander fans, which would be the more optimal match up Isles/Pens or Isles/Panthers? 

I would say Isles-Panthers, even though Florida's sneakily very good in their own right and, you know, 23 year playoff series win drought.

 

Which means the Islanders will still do the tank thing wrong like last night (granted, the Sabres more or less handed us the first game tying goal) and beat Philly tonight.

[The_Admiral]

Isles just lulling the East into a false sense of security by being really injured and Tavares having a down year.

 

Blackhawks/Blues in round one.  My genitals are not chuffed.

 

Rape Culture versus No Culture!

[JayMac]

First the first time ever, I'm actually just happy that the Flyers got in. I dthought they would be eliminated by the middle to the end of March. However, Washington is a good matchup for them. Plus the Flyers are playing with house money. I give the series to Washington in the 6th game. 

[Sodboy13]

Can't quite decide yet whether the Hawks will lose in 6 to St. Louis or to Dallas.

[JayMac]

Out of curiosity, has anyone done a custom NHL 94 style playoff bracket? I think that would be really cool.

[AHcreative]

Here we go again...

 

 

[The_Admiral]

1 hour ago, Sodboy13 said:

Can't quite decide yet whether the Hawks will lose in 6 to St. Louis or to Dallas.

 

Beat St. Louis, beat Minnesota, lose to Anaheim.

 

Not only do I think the Stars lose to the Wild, I want them to. Stars fans have gotten far too mouthy for a team that hasn't won a series since George W. Bush was president.

[AHcreative]

3 hours ago, the admiral said:

 

Beat St. Louis, beat Minnesota, lose to Anaheim.

 

Not only do I think the Stars lose to the Wild, I want them to. Stars fans have gotten far too mouthy for a team that hasn't won a series since George W. Bush was president.

I say Stars beat Wild, win next round, lose Conference Final.

 

I'm too lazy to figure out the seedings, but I say the Stars' eventual loss will come at the hands of St. Louis or Chicago, whichever team survives the first round, IMO, will make it to the Conference Final. 

 

 

Due to my momentary lapse in judgement on the basis of how a simple bracket works...

 

I still say Dallas beats Minnesota, and I still think that the winner of the CHI/STL series will make it to the Conference Final.

[BBTV]

2 hours ago, jmac11281 said:

First the first time ever, I'm actually just happy that the Flyers got in. I dthought they would be eliminated by the middle to the end of March. However, Washington is a good matchup for them. Plus the Flyers are playing with house money. I give the series to Washington in the 6th game. 

 

I'm not a big hockey fan anymore, but I live in the city and have friends that are and I'm just generally pretty observant and sensitive to the "pulse" so to speak.  That being said, things just "feel" different now with the Flyers.  There's a sense of optimism that simply hasn't been there for years, and people have rallied around the team like I haven't seen since that series against Pittsburgh a few years ago when there was all the fights.  In years past, this would be a disaster and people would be calling for blood for just making the playoffs.  But now, like you said, people are genuinely happy and "proud" of the team.

 

I think it was the retread coaches and the sense that they would never change from the Carke / Holmgren era that really dragged everyone down.  Hextall has come in and changed all of that, and while people were very skeptical of the coaching decision, I think that they're really coming around and seeing why they went with a guy with a college background. 

[Magnus]

[AHcreative]

This is how I see it playing out: 

 

Quarter Finals

Minnesota at Dallas

Chicago at St. Louis

Nashville at Anaheim

San Jose at Los Angeles

Philadelphia at Washington

New York Rangers at Pittsburgh

New York Islanders at Florida

Detroit at Tampa Bay 

 

Semi Finals

Chicago at Dallas

Los Angeles at Anaheim

Pittsburgh at Washington

Detroit at Florida

 

Conference Finals

Chicago at Anaheim

Florida at Washington

 

Stanley Cup

Anaheim at Washington

 

I had a tough time deciding between Anaheim and Washington, but it's hard to bet against the Caps here. With superb goal tending and offense all year round, they'll be tough to beat.

 

By the way, I saw on the NHL Bracket Challenge that someone started a CCSLC group. What's the password? I'd love to join. I've already tried MonicaBisordi but didn't have any luck.