SCF: (5) New York Rangers vs (6) Los Angeles Kings

[KellyHrudey]

Kings GM Dean Lombardi on Marian Gaborik: “We want him back. It all depends on what he wants.”

Kings GM Dean Lombardi on Mike Richards: “We’ve got to prepare for July 1st in a hurry. Everything is up in air right now.”

Richards is the type of player tha Canucks needed in 2011, not now though. They've got the Sedins to provide leadership/mentoring for the young guys from here on out. The rest needs to be blown up and shipped out. Making the playoffs next year should NOT be a goal of management, as the West is just too good right now and the best we could hope for is a 7th/8th place finish and another early first round exit.

Tank for a few years, stockpile the draft picks, (and fire the current scouting staff before that takes place, hopefully).

Also, not sure we should be putting so much faith in Benning's background in the scouting field - remember, this is one of the guy's that prominantly voiced his opinion that Seguin needed to be shipped out of Boston. That trade alone is going to haunt the Bruins for years, and automatically boosts Dallas from an also-ran, into a competitive playoff threat.

Wouldn't be surprised if in 10-15 years, the Bruins look back at the Seguin trade as their own, homegrown version of the Cam Neely debacle coming back to bite them in the ass.

[Robongo]

Kreider, Richards, Zuccarello, Brassard, St. Louis, Nash, Hagelin and Stepan all capable of 50+ points

I'm almost certain they will make the eastern conference finals next year while our Canucks dwindle into obscurity.

Kreider , Zuccarello, St Louis, Stepan and Nash will crack 50 points next year, sure. But Richards will be gone, Hagelin has never even come close to 50 points and Brassard has never broken 50 either.

[poetica]

Kinda disagree with all that - while Quick had lapses early on in games, he pretty much had to play perfect in more pressure situations than any goalie in the playoffs this year. All those game 7's and overtimes and elimination games - it was Grant Fuhr-esque, where he made the saves he had to make.

And if you wanna pick and choose between games, Luongo's run is a horrible comparison considering the extreme highs and lows between his home and away games. There probably hasn't been a more hot/cold performance in the cup finals in its entire history.

Overall though, goalie stats just aren't advanced enough to measure/compare accurately. A 930% save percentave against the Oilers versus a 930% against the Hawks can't really be compared equally. They should introduce advanced goalie stats that take into account the level of competition, and perhaps save %'s when the game is tied/close or in the third period.

I disagree with the assertion that a goalie's performance in a Game 7 is more important than any other game. In the playoffs, you need 4 wins in every series, be it in 4 games or 7 so every game counts equally. A goalie shouldn't be given extra credit for needing 7 games to win a series over a goalie who got it done in fewer games. The fact that Luo had a series SV% above .930 in the 2nd and 3rd rounds, helping the team to win those series in fewer than 7 games isn't something to be held against him. Plus, I don't see why Quick's .902 SV% in Game 7 of the 3rd round gets him more brownie points than Luo's .969 SV% in Game 7 of the 1st round. (Though, to be fair Quick was great in the previous rounds' Game 7s.)

Sadly, I can't argue that you're wrong about Luo's extreme highs and lows in home versus away games in the SCF. But, if that's all you remember you must be suffering an unfortunate case of amnesia regarding the team's play overall, Rome's suspension and the subsequent reffing issues starting in that first game in Boston. You're also ignoring the fact that Boston also played differently when at home. For example, by my count, in our 4 home games we had 13 PPs while Boston had 14. In our 3 away games, we had 20 PPs (and deserved probably twice that number) while Boston had 13. Boston played much more physically at home than they did in our building. The same can not be said of the New York Rangers.

I'm not saying Quick played badly overall at all, in fact rather the opposite. I'm simply pointing out yet another example of a team winning even when their goalie isn't the best in the playoffs to illustrate, yet again, that just because a goalie isn't near perfect doesn't mean if the team loses it's because of him.

And yes, Quick's overall performance this year was rather comparable to Luo's in 2011.

Similarities and Comparisons

• Overall Playoff Stats:

  Quick ended the post season with a .911 SV% (7th out of 11) and a 2.58 GAA (6th out of 11). In 2011, Luo ended the post season with a .914 SV% (7th out of 13) and a 2.56 GAA (8th out of 13). In both years, 6 teams had a G/G of 3.0 or higher. LA was one of those this year but Vancouver was not in 2011.

• Bad series:

  Both goalies had 1 series with a SV% under .900.

  In his worst series, Quick allowed 23 goals in 7 starts and 443 minutes of playing time. In his second worst series, Quick allowed 21 goals in 7 starts and 405 minutes of playing time. In 2011, in Luo's worst series he allowed 20 goals in 7 starts and 351 minutes of playing time. In his second worst series, Luo allowed 17 goals in 6 starts (7 GPI) and 343 minutes of playing time.

• Goals Against:

  Quick gave up 3+ goals in 12 of his 26 starts. (In fairness, we should also note that Quick was also pulled in a game against Anaheim after 2 goals on 11 shots.) In 2011, Luo gave up 3+ goals in 11 of his 24 starts.

  According to my rough math, Quick allowed a goal for every 23.26 minutes of ice time this year. In 2011, Luo allowed a goal for every 23.39 minutes of ice time.

• Good Games:

  Quick allowed only 1 goal in 4 games and got 2 shutouts. In 2011, Luo allowed only 1 goal in 2 of his starts and got 4 shutouts.

• Bad Games:

  Quick's game SV% was below .900 in 11 of his 26 games and above .950 in 6 games. Luo's game SV% was below .900 in 9 of his 24 starts (25 GPI) and above .950 in 8 games.

• In Wins:

  In his 16 wins, Quick allowed 30 goals. In his 15 wins, Luo allowed 22 goals.

• In Losses:

  In his 10 losses, Quick gave up 39 goals and was pulled twice. In 2011, Luo also gave up 39 goals in his 10 losses and was pulled twice. (Note: One of these losses was the game Schneider started but left due to cramping. The loss is on Luo's record because he allowed exactly one goal in his almost 33 minutes of ice time, which happened to be the OT game winner.)

• Clutch Performances:

  This year, 13 of Quick's 26 games were decided by a single goal margin. He won 7 of them (including 3 in the SCF) and lost 6. In 2011, 15 of Luo's 25 GPI (24 starts) were deiced by a single goal margin. He won 11 of them (including 3 in the SCF) and lost only 4.

That's a lot of similarities. Not that there aren't differences, of course. This year LA was 4th for GA/G, with a 2.69, whereas we were middle of pack at 8th with a 2.76. The biggest difference, though, was in G/G. The Kings were the highest scoring team in these playoffs, with a 3.38 G/G. In 2011 we were a pathetic 14th with a 2.32 G/G.

And therein lies the crux of my entire point: More times than not, the difference between winning and losing is the team's play and that knowledge is what this team needs to take to heart going forward if we ever hope to have our own Cup win.

But I absolutely agree that goalie stats can be misleading and we need more advanced stats that take into account multiple other factors not currently considered, especially quality of chances since currently easy saves count the same as "OMG! How did that NOT go in?!" saves do.

[Coconuts]

Drew Doughty has broken the record for most time on ice in a single Stanley Cup playoff run with 747 minutes beating 2006 Edmonton Oilers Chris Pronger's 743 minutes.

That's incredible. Holy crap.

[-Vintage Canuck-]

2014 Cup final ranks fifth in average viewers since 1994:

The Los Angeles Kings’ five-game victory over the New York Rangers in the 2014 Stanley Cup Final was just the fifth Cup final since 1994 to eclipse an average of 5 million TV viewers in the United States, according to NBC Sports Group.

2013: Chicago/Boston, 6 games (5.753 million)

1997: Detroit/Philly, 4 games (5.289)

2010: Chicago/Philly, 6 games (5.167)

2002: Detroit/Carolina, 5 games (5.113)

2014: New York/Los Angeles, 5 games (5.001)

There’s more information in the release. For example, here are the top 10 markets across the country for Game 5:

1 Los Angeles 12.4

2 New York 10.4

3 Buffalo 9.2

4 Boston 6.3

4 Minneapolis-St. Paul 6.3

6 Pittsburgh 5.5

7 Chicago 5.4

7 Providence 5.4

9 West Palm Beach 5.2

9 Las Vegas 5.2

The bottom two are kind of interesting. Assume lots of retired Rangers fans in West Palm Beach, and a good number of Kings fans in Vegas (which just so happens to be a candidate for an expansion team.)

http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2014/06/16/2014-cup-final-ranks-fifth-in-average-viewers-since-1994/

[poetica]

More reason to suspect that the NHL has an invested interest less in the integrity of the game than ensuring big TV market teams make it to the SCF?

[-Vintage Canuck-]

AV thinks 2014 Rangers were closer than 2011 Canucks:

From The Record’s Andrew Gross, after Rangers coach Alain Vigneault spoke to reporters today:

@AGrossRecord

AV says 2014 #NYR closer to winning Cup than his 2011 Canucks, who took Bruins to Game 7 of Cup Final.

@AGrossRecord

Vigneault also adds that loss to Kings will "haunt" the Rangers.

On the one hand, it’s a bit odd to say the 2014 Rangers came closer than the 2011 Canucks, given Vancouver went into the Stanley Cup Final versus the Bruins as the heavy favorite and had two chances to clinch, losing both Game 6 in Boston and Game 7 at home. New York was also outshot by a combined margin of 194-146 in the five games against the Kings, so it’s not like the Rangers were done in by a hot goalie or anything.

On the other hand, the Rangers lost three games in overtime at Staples Center, and they had leads in all three, twice by a score of 2-0. The Canucks, in contrast, were outscored by a remarkable 18 goals (21-3) in their four losses to the Bruins. So we can see Vigneault’s point.

“I think we really put our best foot forward,” said Vigneault about this year’s Rangers squad, per Blueshirts United. “We left it all out on the ice, tried our best, lost in five. It’s a tough loss, one that will haunt me and my group for some time now, but I’m hoping we’re going to learn from this. Every year is different. Next year’s team is going to be different. We have a good young foundation, though. We have some real good people in that dressing room.”

http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2014/06/16/av-2014-rangers-were-closer-than-2011-canucks/

[hockeyville88]

^ At least we took the series to 7 games! And we dominated the league that season. What'll determine NYR's fate is if they fade like we did or if they continue to push towards a cup for a few more years.

Man we were so good...and so close...and look at us now...now i'm sad

[-Vintage Canuck-]

The Stanley Cup made a stop at Dodgers Stadium with the LA Kings.

[-Vintage Canuck-]

Congrats to Jeff Carter and Girlfriend Megan Keffer on getting engaged today.

[-Vintage Canuck-]

Matt Greene cruisin' with the Stanley Cup.

[SNACanuck]

This thread has more info on the post-SCF win celebrations than tonights LA local news did...

[-Vintage Canuck-]

This thread has more info on the post-SCF win celebrations than tonights LA local news did...

Haha. So, did you go to the Kings Parade?

[-Vintage Canuck-]

[TOMapleLaughs]

Talked to a Rangers fan in NY. Said he figured his team had no chance vs. LA. Just too big. 'They couldn't get in the hashmarks.'

Boston would've had a better shot, but only marginally better. imho they've dipped a bit since 2011.

Pittsburgh if they had Kesler and a healthy Dupuis would've done well too imho.

[-Vintage Canuck-]

An MLB player holding the Holy Grail AKA Stanley Cup.

[BanTSN]

LOLWUT?

[-Vintage Canuck-]

LOLWUT?

This year.

I wonder if he's the first player in the NHL history to finish second place in both the Stanley Cup Finals and the Olympic Gold Medal game in the same year?

[Gross-Misconduct]

This thread is still going?

[-Vintage Canuck-]

Jonathan Quick hoisted the Stanley Cup last Monday at the team's celebratory parade. If you saw him wincing, there's a reason why.

Quick had emergency surgery on Tuesday, after injuring his wrist during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Kings confirmed the procedure, but couldn't specify which wrist was injured.