2011/2012 NHL Thread: Dood, you're the Kings!

[Pink Ranger]

Originally Posted by The Incredible Hulk

Islanders in the SCF!!!!!





http://deadspin.com/5914740/now-a-ne...ley-cup-finals

Obviously that's from an alternate reality where every other team in the Eastern Conference got abducted by aliens.

[Paroxysm]

Whoa, Otherworld.

[Immortalfire]

Kings!!

[WalkingDeadMike]

I really wanted to see Marty go out on top, but that's looking pretty farfetched right now,

[runawayboulder]

Originally Posted by WalkingDeadMike

I really wanted to see Marty go out on top, but that's looking pretty farfetched right now,

He's said he has no plans to retire.

Game 2 was insane. This has been a great series so far. I don't know if the Devils are going to make it out of LA but I'm expecting more close games.

[Themanofbat]

Kings have a good core of young players with an elite goalie and a great coach...
They should win the Cup for all the right reasons.

[WalkingDeadMike]

Originally Posted by runawayboulder

He's said he has no plans to retire.

Game 2 was insane. This has been a great series so far. I don't know if the Devils are going to make it out of LA but I'm expecting more close games.

I know, but if they won the cup I'm sure he would.

You're right the series has been great so far. I def see the Devils making it out of LA, though. The Kings have been better on the road than they have been at home throughout the playoffs. NJ will take at least one.

[Raiden]

Originally Posted by WalkingDeadMike

I know, but if they won the cup I'm sure he would.

You're right the series has been great so far. I def see the Devils making it out of LA, though. The Kings have been better on the road than they have been at home throughout the playoffs. NJ will take at least one.

As much as I would like to see Kings close out the series at home, it might be too hard to sweep the Devils. I think Kings will win the Stanley Cup in game 5 in NJ.

[WalkingDeadMike]

I think the Kings will win it at home in game 6.

[Shifty]

Bruins’ Tim Thomas confirms he’s taking a year away from hockey

David Shoalts

The Globe and Mail Published Sunday, Jun. 03 2012, 4:01 PM EDT
Last updated Sunday, Jun. 03 2012, 5:15 PM EDT

It would be nice to accept what Tim Thomas announced Sunday on Facebook as an admirable decision to step back from an all-consuming professional career and embrace his family and personal life.

Call me a cynic but that plug for a training system and an equipment company in the middle of his big announcement took the gosh, golly, gee whiz out of the whole thing. You can read Thomas’s entire statement here but it went kind of like this: "I've been blessed ... had to make sacrifices ... time to put energy into those areas and relationships I neglected ... Friends, Family, Faith ... Oh, and I'll also keep working out with my handy (insert plug here, including web site)."

I'm pretty sure I hung in until the end of Nicklas Lidstrom's gracious and eloquent retirement press conference last week. I could be wrong but I'm also pretty sure he didn't end it by yelling, "I'm going to Disney World!"

So forgive me if I take the news the Boston Bruins goaltender is going to take next season off with a grain of salt the size of the chip on Thomas's shoulder. The evidence screams otherwise.

On the face of it, it's a ridiculous decision. Thomas did not make the NHL for good until he was 31 years old. He has seven full seasons under his belt and now, at the age of 38, thinks he can afford to take a year off?

Not only that, but he seems to think he can come back from a year off from the best hockey league in the world and play for the United States at the 2014 Olympics. Presumably, that would be whether or not the NHL agrees to renew its participation in the Games.

As for the whole spending time with family thing, if Thomas neglected anyone it's his own fault. Players have many demands on their time, although Thomas does not appear to be unduly burdened by the endorsement life despite the commercial pitch in his announcement. But over the course of a year they have lots of time available for their families should they choose to use it.

From October to June, players have most of their afternoons and evenings free on days there are no home games. Workouts and practices are generally finished by early afternoon. Someone like Thomas, who plays for a team based in the northeast, rarely has a road trip longer than a week.

If your team has a good playoff run, the months of April and May admittedly do not leave much time for anything but hockey. But for most players, and that includes Thomas this spring, mid-April to mid-September are wide open.

No, this smells much more like a nasty play to force Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli to trade him to the team of his choosing.

Thomas is in the last year of a contract that pays an actual salary of $3-million (all currency U.S.) but carries a salary-cap hit of $5-million. Aside from it being nice of Thomas to pull this once he collected most of the money from the contract, it's a nice kick in the slats for Chiarelli and the Bruins.

NHL rules say Chiarelli has to count the $5-million against his cap whether Thomas plays or not. Chiarelli said he can put centre Marc Savard (concussion) on the long-term injured reserve list and get $4-million of that cap space back, but maybe he wanted to do that for other personnel moves before Thomas decided to exile himself. If you consider the Bruins have a 25-year-old goalie in Tuukka Rask who's already proved he is an excellent No. 1, then Thomas's move makes sense. Especially when, considering the evidence, his controversial decision to boycott the Bruins' appearance at the White House last winter, the fallout from it and his extreme political views drove a wedge between Thomas, his teammates and management.

Right now, Thomas managed to drive his trade value down to practically nothing. No NHL GM is going to offer much knowing Chiarelli is behind the eight-ball and not knowing Thomas's true intentions.

But Thomas's no-movement rights end July 1, which might give Chiarelli some room to bargain. The fact the cash owed to Thomas is $2-million less than his cap hit will appeal to some teams. But Chiarelli`s problem, according to one of his peers, is that Thomas is not universally seen as a positive presence in the dressing room.

Still, add it up and there could be another Facebook announcement that our man has reconsidered.

Playing for the States in 2014 after taking a year off? Yeah get behind Quick, Schneider, Miller and Howard. Maybe World Championship not the Olympics.

He'll be playing in the KHL or Europe soon enough.

[Poeman]

Nah...he is very American. He would probably retire instead of going overseas

[Shifty]

Originally Posted by Poeman

Nah...he is very American. He would probably retire instead of going overseas

That's where he was playing breaking into the NHL at age 31, but yeah he may retire and be a spokesperson. He also took down a Facebook post of his about how the economy is going to collapse soon and that hockey isn't important in times like this.

[Pink Ranger]

We have a gay hockey league here in Toronto that Thomas can play in.

[The Incredible Hulk]

Originally Posted by Shifty

That's where he was playing breaking into the NHL at age 31, but yeah he may retire and be a spokesperson. He also took down a Facebook post of his about how the economy is going to collapse soon and that hockey isn't important in times like this.

Tim Thomas is taking the year off so he can become a Doomsday Prepper

[Themanofbat]

The next time we see Tim Thomas, he'll be doing Sports for the Fox Network...

[Raiden]

Great win by the Kings! Now they need one more to win the Cup!

[Poeman]

One more win for a crazy run here for the Kings first Cup

[Raiden]

That Power Play advantage of the Devils where they couldn't score for a full minute despite the fact that they had 2 more players on ice than the Kings was incredible. If Kings win the Cup, then Jonathan Quick deserves MVP.

[The Incredible Hulk]

Was really hoping for a good series, but it appears this baby may be put to bed tonight.

TV Ratings have been terrible in the US apparently, which is shocking since you have teams form the two biggest media markets in the country competing.

http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2012/6/4...otion-by-stars

[runawayboulder]

The Kings don't seem as big a draw to me as the Red Wings or Vancouver would. The NY market has got to be controlled by the Ranger fan, so once they went, so did viewers.

[Poeman]

Nobody cares about the Devils...The Kings are playing in a market that is primarily known for basketball and baseball.

Hockey is extremely popular with the east coast and Canadian teams.

[Shifty]

The top four teams play a more defensive style of hockey than teams in years past and people find it boring. Last year Vancouver was in the final and it had it had higher ratings in the States. The Coyotes and Rangers played boring hockey that killed any growth of ratings plus the other factors in that article about stars being too nice and a lack of exposure.

That was a problem when the Senators made it to the final, all season long on CBC it was LEAFS! LEAFS! LEAFS! They showed a team that didn't make the playoffs on the national game while the Sens were on the CBC in their region when they should've flipped that format for the last 2.5 months of the season.

[Matt]

Interesting fact, if you went to Vegas and bet $100 on Los Angeles to win it all at the beginning of the season and they win the Stanley Cup (which seems like a certainty at this point), you would win $250,000.

[Poeman]

Originally Posted by Matt

Interesting fact, if you went to Vegas and bet $100 on Los Angeles to win it all at the beginning of the season and they win the Stanley Cup (which seems like a certainty at this point), you would win $250,000.

Thats surprising considering LA has a pretty good team

[The Incredible Hulk]

Originally Posted by Poeman

Nobody cares about the Devils...The Kings are playing in a market that is primarily known for basketball and baseball.

Hockey is extremely popular with the east coast and Canadian teams.

The Upper Midwest would like a word with you.