Stanley Cup 2013

I was thinking about that myself last night...they should have played 6 periods...and they have played into the 10th...but about 9 actual periods...

early night tonight...

all knotted up.
quite a flurry of goals for a SC final...

Entertaining game. It seems the Hawks finally showed up.
I like it because it promises 7 games

Boston gave them a great fight...stinks that Boston never lead...so we could have seen if they would hold the lead...or not...and teams who go up 3-1 have won 30 out of 31 times I believe...will be difficult because they now have to win in Chicago again...but I think the Bruins can do it...Go Bruins!

I'd love to see a 7-game series. For the hockey fans, this SC is shaping up to be one for the ages!

Old-time hockey! Toe Blake! Dick Clapper! Eddie Shore!

great stuff!

Gawd, I loved that movie.

(Pssst...Pardon my nit 'but it was Dit clapper not Dick! "Clapper was the first NHL player to play twenty seasons, and one of only two to be an All-Star at both forward and defense". He was a player coach of 'dem Broonz '27-'47.)

Clarifying, further: he was first a player (fwd)... then, on Defense, at the end of his career ...player-coach.

My apologies to Dit and all the Dit-o-heads out there who revere his memory.

You think the Bruins are gonna target Crawford's glove side?
All five goals went through that side.

Crawford - glove side
Rask - stick side

I don't think either goaltender is all that great. I watched the final game of the regular season between Boston and Ottawa, and Rask looked sloppy. Crawford, on the other hand, has benefited all year from Chicago's offense, which has kept the puck out of the defensive end. Last night demonstrated that both goalies are merely mortal.

ahahah! Ditto-heads. very good!

Not that great? They were the 2 best goalies in NHL this year. Clearly both teams, as well as goalies, had some spells of streakiness. Broonz finished the regular season in a definite downward streak (last 10 games were 3-5-2).

Plus with their Defense, Broonz had Chara, the tallest hockey player in history with the hardest slapshot in NHL. Kinda helped matters a bit.

The difference in the skill levels between the worst and best goalies in the NHL is far smaller than, say, the difference in the skill levels between the worst and best pitchers in the major leagues. It may just be that there are fewer goalies, or it may have something to do with the enormous amount of padding that goalies are now allowed to wear. In any event, only one goalie (Miikka Kiprusoff) who started more than 20 games this year had a save percentage below .900. Rask ranked seventh (.929) and Crawford ranked tenth (.926) during the regular season. If we figure that a goalie faces an average of about 30 shots a game, that made them better than Kiprusoff (.882) by about one goal per game - not a particularly huge difference.

FWIW, various criteria can be used to rate goalies. Shots percentage is one metric.

Another:
Total goals against (relying on Defense as well as goalie skills)
#1 Chicago
#2 Boston

My point is that they're at the top of the league...not in the middle..or lower.
I'd take either goalie based on what I've seen in the playoffs and SC (exclusive of the aberration...in this last game).

Oddly, when I compare different NHL eras, such as up until around '80s to '85, let's say, there was a hell of a lot more scoring. The league has gotten softer again in the last few years. There's a bout a goal per game less than there used to be.

"For the fourth straight year, the NHL saw a decline in goal scoring in 2013 with an average of 5.44 goals per game.

The league hasn't quite dropped down to the level that it was in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a period in league history that is infamously referred to as "the dead puck era." But it's something that keeps going down, even if only slightly, and the 2013 season is still one of the lowest scoring campaigns in history.

Why the continued drop? There are a couple of reasons and possibilities. For one, goaltending seems to be better across the league than it maybe has ever been. The decline also coincides with a decrease in the number of power-play opportunities that teams are getting..."

That all may be true Rags...but either way it still backs up what Joe has been saying (in my own opinions) goal-tending can be getting better and better, but the info you posted still supports that goal-tending is pretty even across, and there are no real stand out guys...like Joe had said...

You have Lundqvist, Quick, Pekka Rinne...after that...it is pretty even, going from above average-average-to a bit below with not much to differentiate...other than stats that the goalie can not really control such as how many goals his team gives him in support, so that somewhat includes wins...how good his D is, or offense is...the only other stat is really Goals against...and that is kinda the same thing as save percentage just in different terms...

And Lundqvist did not play as well as many thought he would, but still near the top...and Quick played bad...

I do think you are correct about Tuukka having a great year, and so did Crawford...but I still look at Tuukka as a top second echelon guy...and Crawford probably had the best season he ever had...since his team won like 24 in a row, so Crawford was probably undefeated the first month plus...

I understand your point Rags...but I would agree with Joe that there are not huge differences between the top going lower...with a minimum of starts...and I would also agree with Joe it has to with the amount of goalies, and possibly the equipment...or just the nature of the game in general...

Even if goal tending is going up across...then that would mean that Tuukka, and Crawford were not much better than their contemporaries, even if they both were at the top...

As was stated in the article about scoring and goaltending:

"For one, goaltending seems to be better across the league than it maybe has ever been. "

Actually, Boston was number 3 (Ottawa was second). But Save Pct. is a somewhat better measure of a goalie's skill because GAA also measures what the goalie is doing when nobody is shooting a puck at him. As a result, GAA also measures team defense to a greater extent than Save Pct.

In that respect, Chicago goalies benefited more from their defense than Boston goalies did during the regular season, facing 26.2 shots per game (4th in the NHL) as opposed to Boston's 28.6 shots per game (13th).


My point is that it almost doesn't matter what goalie is in net, especially in the playoffs, where the teams always adopt a more defensive style of play.