FLYLine4LIFE said:
:lol :lol :lol Yup thats it....those darn pads and that illegal defense is what got them the cup. Nothing else.
For one, EYE didn't say the runner up teams got "them the cup" with the goalies pads and illegal defense. I think a valid arguement can be made that both Anaheim & Calgary rode to the finals on enormously hot goaltending (Kipper & Giggy), while Minnesota was able to make it to the Conference Finals due to their defensive abilities as well as hot streaks by both Rolosson & Fernandez. No doubt in my mind if the NHL would have sooner restricted the size of goalie equipment and made attempts to shutdown the defensive game played that you would not have seen some of these teams advance as far as they have.
Talent doesn't win alone, but Colorado went 7 games against Minnesota that year, and then Minnesota went on to beat another talented team in Vancouver. Granted, Gaborik was probably the Wild's playoff MVP, but that was just because he was
one of the only guys who was scoring for the team. Had the defensive game been addressed sooner, I don't think you would have seen Minnesota leap past VAN & COL that year.
I'll give some more credit to ANA & CGY, because it takes a lot of things going your way to make it to the finals, and game 7 for the Cup no less. Calgary also had a strong playoff from Iginla, among others, but Anaheim was almost entirely carried by Giguere.
IF goaltending equipment was more limited in size, I don't know if you could have expected the same performances from Kiprusoff & Giguere the past two playoffs, and that may have allowed teams like San Jose, Dallas, or Detroit to advance further than they did.
I've long said that the NHL has compensated for the disparity in payrolls/incomes by allowing the cheaper game be played. That's why we've seen the clutching and grabbing and everything else. It made it so a team with 1/3 the payroll, like NSH vs. DET last year, could be competitive in some regard. You get a hot goalie or drag the other team down to your level, rather than playing up to their level, and you could win. You
won't see that when the NHL returns, and if you do, the CBA is the last of their worries.