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Round 2: Stars (C1) vs. Blues (C2)

CarltonTheBear

CarltonTheBear

Administrator
Staff member
Another instance where the top-2 teams in a conference (by points at least) are facing off against each other in just the 2nd round.

Fri 4/29, 8pm: STL @ DAL | NBCSN, CBC, TVA Sports
Sun 5/1, 3pm: STL @ DAL | NBC, Sportsnet, TVA Sports
Tue 5/3, 9:30pm: DAL @ STL | USA, Sportsnet, TVA Sports
Thu 5/5, 8pm: DAL @ STL | NBCSN, Sportsnet, TVA Sports
*Sat 5/7, TBD:  STL @ DAL | TBD
*Mon 5/9, TBD:  DAL @ STL | TBD
*Wed 5/11, TBD:  STL @ DAL | TBD
 
I still don't get this playoff format.  Under the old playoff format (1 through 8) it would have been:

Dallas vs. Minnesota
St. Louis vs. Nashville
Chicago vs. San Jose
Anaheim vs. Los Angeles

How would that have been worse from a "rivalry" setup.

Instead you had #2 vs. #3 in the first round when St. Louis beat Chicago.  Now you have #1 vs. #2 this time.  Meanwhile if Nashville can beat Anaheim you will have #6 vs. #7 or #4 vs. #7 if Anaheim wins.

The NHL recognizes that wins in regulation mean more than shootouts.  Somehow they are missing that whole concept that points in the conference should mean more than points in a division.
 
L K said:
Instead you had #2 vs. #3 in the first round when St. Louis beat Chicago.  Now you have #1 vs. #2 this time.  Meanwhile if Nashville can beat Anaheim you will have #6 vs. #7 or #4 vs. #7 if Anaheim wins.
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The whole 2nd round is pretty messed up right now. Both conferences have #1 vs. #2 in the 2nd round. Like you said there's potentially a #6 vs. #7 in the West and the East has a series where the team with more regular season points DOESN'T have home-ice advantage.

I'd like to see some sort of compromise, because a) I don't actually hate the idea of a rivalry set-up and b) I don't see the NHL scrapping it entirely. So keep it for the first round, but just re-seed based on points after that. That would have given us WSH vs. TB and PIT vs. NYI in the East and DAL vs. SJ/NSH and STL vs. ANA/SJ in the West.
 
L K said:
The NHL recognizes that wins in regulation mean more than shootouts.  Somehow they are missing that whole concept that points in the conference should mean more than points in a division.
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I don't think they're missing it. I think they're flat-out ignoring it in favour of a playoff format that's a modified version of what they ran with throughout the 80s and into the early 90s.
 
L K said:
I still don't get this playoff format.  Under the old playoff format (1 through 8) it would have been:

Dallas vs. Minnesota
St. Louis vs. Nashville
Chicago vs. San Jose
Anaheim vs. Los Angeles

How would that have been worse from a "rivalry" setup.
Click to expand...

I know you're asking that rhetorically but to be fair when looking at a question like that you can't be too focused on any one year's results. This year, because of the format, three of the West's first round series could be billed as meaningful from a rivalry perspective: Dallas-Minnesota, LA-SJ and Chicago-St. Louis. In your above format two would be, LA-Anaheim and Dallas-Minnesota.

But it only looks that way in large part due to the fact that it was a year where one division sent 5 teams. If you take 8 random teams and just seed them 1 through 8 the odds of a meaningful 1st round series is pretty low.

More to the point, this isn't just about servicing established rivalries, it's also about creating new ones. The best rivalries over the years came about because of repeated match-ups in the playoffs. So an attempt to tilt the scales towards familiar playoff opponents is going to result in more repeat match-ups.

I get why that could be seen as artificially pushing something that happens naturally and I get why a purer points based system makes sense but with parity the way it is....does it really matter? It's not like the 2 or 3 seeds are miles better than the 6 or 7 seeds anyway. 
 
This is going to be a very good series. Glad the games aren't at 10pm. Backes and Benn have been at each other all period.
 
St. Louis  4  Dallas 3  OT  Series tied at 1 game apiece.

St. Louis' David Backes was the hero, as his overtime goal gave the Blues the victory.  Thanks in part to Dallas' Antoine Roussel, whose penalty in that OT gave St. Louis the power play and the opportunity to score.

St. Louis goaltender Brian Elliot, who finished with 31 saves on the game, was excellent in the OT, making several key saves giving the Blues a ohance to stay alive. 

On the other side of the fence, Dallas starter Kari Lehtonen wasn't so sharp after allowing three goals on five shots early in the game and was replaced by backup Antii Niemi.

Game 3 is Tuesday in St. Louis.


Source!    CBCsports,  TSN
 
Series update:

St. Louis  4 Dallas  1.  Blues oead series 3 games to 2.


http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/dallas-stars-st-louis-blues-1.3571908
 
St. Louis wins 6-1 to advance to the Conference Finals.  I think they are the team that makes it out of the West.
 
CarltonTheBear said:
L K said:
St. Louis wins 6-1 to advance to the Conference Finals.  I think they are the team that makes it out of the West.
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Pittsburgh-St. Louis should be pretty good.
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As long as St Louis doesn't win. If I'm not mistaken they're the only team other than the Leafs that have been around since '67 and not won.

Don't need another wave of Leaf mocking from the non Leaf fans I know.
 
Crake said:
As long as St Louis doesn't win. If I'm not mistaken they're the only team other than the Leafs that have been around since '67 and not won.

Don't need another wave of Leaf mocking from the non Leaf fans I know.
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I sort of lean the other way. Provided it's not a particularly obnoxious/annoying fanbase I like to see fans get out of the situation Leafs fans are in and Blues fans are alright.
 
Nik the Trik said:
Crake said:
As long as St Louis doesn't win. If I'm not mistaken they're the only team other than the Leafs that have been around since '67 and not won.

Don't need another wave of Leaf mocking from the non Leaf fans I know.
Click to expand...

I sort of lean the other way. Provided it's not a particularly obnoxious/annoying fanbase I like to see fans get out of the situation Leafs fans are in and Blues fans are alright.
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Not only that, but when the Leafs win the Cup in 3-5 years it'll leave Buffalo and Vancouver at the bottom of that list and that's much funner to laugh at.
 
Nik the Trik said:
I sort of lean the other way. Provided it's not a particularly obnoxious/annoying fanbase I like to see fans get out of the situation Leafs fans are in and Blues fans are alright.
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Agreed. I have a ton of respect for the Blues organization, and I would be happy to see them finally win a Cup. Honestly, if it came down to Pittsburgh/St Louis, I'd be happy either way. Neither fanbase is all that annoying. I'd lean in favour of the Blues solely because the Pens won not that long ago.
 
bustaheims said:
Agreed. I have a ton of respect for the Blues organization, and I would be happy to see them finally win a Cup.
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I have a lot of respect toward them for not panicking and blowing up their team after 4-straight early playoff exits. That takes a lot of guts. The fact that they even held onto Hitchcock during all that is pretty unheard of in the NHL. They've always been one of the best teams in the league, and instead of making a trade for the sake of making a trade they've just kept focusing on their plan and making smart improvements. Sometimes great teams/players just don't win championships. I'd be happy to see them finally rewarded.
 
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