Re: NHL Playoffs and Quinn's gone

I believe that was the same year, yeah.

Yeah, Nolan did win the Jack Adams trophy, winning his division with a very mediocre Buffalo team. He got into trouble with Muckler and Hasek didn’t like him (he didn’t treat the Dominator like a prima donna, apparently) and word is Muckler got him blacklisted.

Nolan is now coaching Moncton and a few months ago had racial slurs and gestures aimed at him in a game at Rimouski. The morons even carried it outside, jeering him as he boarded the team bus. On behalf of their fans, Rimouski management apologized for the incident on their website but didn’t have the class to apologize to Nolan personally.

Ruff was the coach when they went to the finals.

Nolan might be a good fit in Vancouver, though he’s best with a younger team on the way up. Too many set attitudes in Vancouver right now.

Nolan also has to fight against that stigma of going behind the GM’s back in Buffalo, which is what apparently started all the bad blood between he and Muckler.

That being said though, he seemed to have been a pretty good coach back then and surely deserves a shot somewhere, somwhere that the Muckler tentacles don’t reach I guess.

The guy that might get the Vancouver job is Dave Lewis ex of the Wings, he’s not exactly Don Cherry in the self promotion dept but he seemed to know how to coach a team. He almost got them to the Cup, but goaltending let him down.

Hmm, goaltending… never been an issue in Vancouver has it?

As I remember it, Muckler and Nolan had their problems, but Hasek didn’t like either of them. The story was that Hasek, Buffalo’s only real star at the time, went to the owner and had Muckler fired. The team brought in Darcy Regier as the new GM. Knowing that Hasek was not fond of Nolan, but not wanting to look like the bad guy Regier lowballed Nolan during contract negotiations, opting to offer him a one year contract with no pay increase. Nolan walked away from it. Since that time, Nolan has been unfairly labeled as the reason for Muckler’s firing.

On a sidenote, the Canucks drafted Ted Nolan’s son in one of the later rounds of the 2003 Draft (I can’t remember the if it was the 4th or 5th round).

We’ll i dont know about how peoples opions are on the playoffs so far, but every year for the last few playoffs i’ve totally thought they have been rigged. like Flames vs Tampa. all the hype to make it go to 7 and then flames loose. trying to get more for US market. Meh maybe im wrong, probly. but so far this year in the west all bottom 4 seeds advanced, 8-Edmonton, 7-Colorado, 6, Ducks and 5- San Jose… Detriot, Dallas, Flames and Preds are all out.

and in the west, all 4 top seeds advanced. 1. Ottawa 2. Carolina 3. New Jersey and 4. Buffalo.  haha maybe its fluke, but a pattern yes…

predictions for 2nd round?

Edmonton vs San Jose -
Oilers in 6

Ducks Vs Colorado:
Av’s in 7.

EAST:
Ottawa Vs Buffalo
Sens in 6

New Jersey Vs Carolina:
Devils in 5 - goaltending will be the factor.

San Jose will prevail against Edmonton.

The other 3 series… Meh… only one im interested in, would be New Jersey, because I like Brodeur.

That is all.

San Jose in 6
Colorado in 6
Ottawa in 5
New Jersey in 6

CHEE-CHOOOOOO!!!

Chuggachuggachuggachugga

For the record and my never ending embarrassment should things once again go awry, here are the Second round picks.

OTTAWA SENATORS will prevail over the Buffalo Sabres in Six Games, just keep Domenic away from the bench, dressing room, city of Kanata etc, he’s becoming a bit of a distraction for a team that needs to stay focused on the job at hand. Buffalo is fast and so are the Sens so this should be quite the shoot out. Emery has been quite solid in the Sens net as has Miller in the Sabres end of the rink. But I think that Ottawa is on a mission now, they realize the stakes are quite high and to my way of thinking they shall rise up to the challenge.

NEW JERSEY DEVILS will settle down that Carolina Breeze, winning their series in six games. The Devils look masterful against the Rangers, now it’s a given that the Rangers were not a particularly challenging offering this time around, they seemed to have left it all in the regular season, but the Devils never seemed to break a sweat and so I think they’re more than ready to take on the Hurricanes. Their ace is Marty Brodeur, by far one of the best tenders in the game today; Cam Ward will be watching the master while he tries to hold off the Devils attack. Â

ANAHEIM MIGHTY DUCKS will continue their march deep into the 2006 playoffs, they’ve been on an upward swing since just after the Olympic break and both Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne are playing some pretty impressive shinny these days. Colorado for some reason controlled the Stars with relative ease, a puzzling thing for sure. Was Colorado that good, or were the Stars really that bad. The proof will be in round two when the Avs run into the Hot Ducks. Anaheim will move on with a 4-2 series victory.

SAN JOSE SHARKS perhaps the most impressive team of the playoffs thus far, with Marleau, Thornton and Cheechoo on the attack the goals come rather frequently now. They have hit their stride at just the right time, they were amazing down the stretch and made rather easy work of the Nashville Predators. The Oilers were pretty impressive with their defeat of the league leading Red Wings, but they had some serious lapses in that series that the Red Wings couldn’t seem to capitalize on, if they have same power failures against the Sharks it will be a different story. We’ll keep with our theme of six game series and award the Sharks an advance after six games.

To recap, our second series winners shall be.

OTTAWA SENATORS
NEW JERSEY DEVILS
ANAHEIM MIGHTY DUCKS
SAN JOSE SHARKS

We’ll reserve our third round picks until the second round is complete, sometimes you learn your lessons you know!   :neutral_face:    Â

There’s an interesting article on the MSNBC site today, Mark Starr a correspondent with Newsweek (which partners with MSNBC for internet content on the site) has come up with a novel approach to setting playoff match ups for both the NHL and the NBA.

Starr suggests that teams 1 through four be allowed to “pick” their playoff match up with the remaining four teams in each conference. Thus Detroit would have been able to try and avoid the Oilers who have given them trouble over the years and Dallass with a bit of foresight could have avoided the humiliation of losing to the Colorado Avalanche with nary a peep. The system probably wouldn’t have done Bob Clarke any good mind you, as the Sabres would probably have picked the Flyers time and time again such was their domination there.

But it does offer up some interesting ideas for those leagues with a lengthy regular season that leads to such early disappointment for many of the front runners. If nothing else it might make finishing first worthwhile again, considering the way the bottom feeders have had their way in the West, finishing first should have some benefit other than a one game home advantage if you have to go seven games.

It’s doubtful the idea will ever catch on, but it makes for great bar conversation in between games. Especially if your team is already joining you on the stool watching the game on tv instead of from a players bench.

Check out article here msnbc.msn.com/id/12631307/si … ek/page/2/Â and then offer up your opinions!

Honestly, I can’t see that ever happening.  For one, it seems a little, I don’t know gimick-y. 

On top of that, there are already problems with the current system (accusations that the LA Clippers threw games to move down to number 6, in order to play the weaker Denver Nuggets, or the fact that the #6 Clipper get homecourt advantage over #3 Denver due to a better record, or even the fact that in both leagues no matter how crappy a division winner is they are guaranteed a top 3 seeding).  Can you imagine the accusations  of back-room deals that could stem from this proposed system?  Team X trades first round pick and cash to Team Y for the right to not face them in the first round.  Or collusion based on more revenue at the gates based on a more favorable matchup (ie. Calgary picks Edmonton is the first round so that they can drive up the ticket prices).  Not that much of that could be proven, but it would just add to the already to much National Enquire-esque sports stories that are reported.

In the case of hockey, I see them moving to playoff expansion long before a system like that would be considered.