NHL Playoffs: Eastern Conference Finals: Metro (#2) Pittsburgh Penguins vs Atlantic (#2) Tampa Bay Lightning

[sarsippius]

I love the game of hockey. But I hate the priks that run this league.....or I guess it's NBC that runs it

 

The NHL Threatened To Fine The Lightning If They Didn't Shut Down Their Watch Party 

http://deadspin.com/the-nhl-threatened-to-fine-the-lightning-if-they-didnt-1778925655

The Tampa Bay Lighting hosted a very well-attended viewing party on Sunday for Game 5 of their Eastern Conference Finals series with Pittsburgh. Thousands went to the public showing (around 8,000 attended an analogous event last year), and the team had planned another official party for tonight’s Game 7, only to cancel it yesterday afternoon and encourage fans to head to a different, unofficial event.

 

The NHL told Deadspin that the Lightning were only allowed to host one official event per series, and that they’d already used up their slot on the Game 5 party. But the Sharks and Blues have each hosted multipleparties during the Western Conference Finals, and sources tell us that the NHL and NBC pressured the team to cancel tonight’s event because of worries about low TV ratings.

 

[hf101]

Congrats Penguin Penguins fans!!!

 

Welcome to the Shark tank...

[Polaris922]

Stamkos... Bishop... Wouldn't matter.  Bishop could not have outplayed Vasilevskiy.   That kid was the best player in this series in my opinion.  What more could he realistically have done?  

 

As for Stamkos?  Great shot, sure, but a lot of his goals come from power play opportunities.  The officials just weren't calling anything they didn't have to.  Sure there were some very weak calls (i.e. Malkin interference last night) but overall you had to do something over the top obvious for them to bother.  Even then they let a LOT go that I felt was pretty blatant.   And the offense a world class player like Stamkos brings is offset sometimes by his shortcomings in defense.  Ultimately nobody will ever know if it would've mattered, but it was a one game series last night...  Would it matter if he were healthy and Daley and Crosby were also healthy? We'll never know...

 

In my eyes it wasn't the star players that mattered in this series.  It was depth.  Vasilevskiy and Murray, Rust and Boyle...  Guys like them.  Backup goalies and bottom six forwards.  

 

Congrats to to the Bolts on a great season.  Bring on the Sharks!  

[mojo1917]

2 hours ago, Polaris922 said:

 Bishop could not have outplayed Vasilevskiy.   That kid was the best player in this series in my opinion.  What more could he realistically have done?  

 

essentially the sole reason the series went 7.

 

[B21]

1 hour ago, mojo1917 said:

 

essentially the sole reason the series went 7.

 

 

This.  

[notfondajane]

On 5/11/2016 at 0:23 PM, JagerMeister said:

Just eliminate the penguins please.

Pen to the Stanley Cup Finals! I know you love them apples!

[notfondajane]

This was a excellent, well played and entertaining series! Good luck next year Bolts!