2 cups playing "penguins hockey" or 5 playing jacques lemaire trapping

[Speaking Moistly]

The right answer is no answer because there's some trickery going on here.

It is most certainly the only thing.

Why else is the game played, outside of money?

Yeah, but money is huge. Winning does help make money, though, as does actually being entertaining.

 

[Kristopher Letang]

I don't get this question at all. It's simple - 5 or 2? Ummmmm 5. No ****.


So now do tell me the real purpose for this thread?

This. Can someone answer ?

 

[Rectify]

I don't care if Sid and Geno have 50 point seasons, 5 cups all the way. Since you have gone to the extreme about Crosby's legacy TTEOT, would you care if Crosby was a 50pt player if they won the cup?

 

[Gold Diamond]

5>2.

/thread

 

[Greeneye]

Chose 2 cups, I'd rather be entertained.

 

[Coastal Kev]

there has been a fair bit of discussion recently that we are back in a clutch and grab era of hockey. i have heard several folks in the pittsburgh media and also on this board say that they much prefer playing a highly skilled, exciting brand of hockey, even at the expense of winning cups.

so i ask this hypothetical question. would you rather watch the penguins play a highly skilled game based on offensive talent winning 2 cups over the course of a decade (akin to the penguins of the early/mid 90s) or have the pens play like the lemaire-led devils/wild and win 5 cups over the course of a decade?

I watch sports to be entertained. The NHL isn't entertaining 90% of the time nowadays. I'm done after this year and will come back once major changes are made to the sport.

 

[Gooch]

If they played Lemaire like hockey I wouldnt be a fan. When I lived in CT in the 90's I couldve easily of chosen to be a Devils fan as they were winning back then. But the Penguins were a much more entertaining team and that is what caught my interest. I don't like that style of play whatsoever and I wish it'd be purged out of the NHL entirely so there's just no way whatseover that I could root for a team that utilizes it.

Winning isnt everything, just like I wouldnt tolerate my favorite team to cheat to win, I wont tolerate them to play a completely eye killing style of play.

 

[Gooch]

The problem with choosing "5 cups" is your team is absolutely abysmal to watch the entire bulk of the season, and if it's one of those seasons where they don't win the cup then it's a horrible watch in the playoffs as well. It's entirely an all or nothing approach. At least with the entertaining team you have something enjoyable to watch throughout the season and going into the playoffs you have a shot to do something.

This is an entertainment product and though the concept of winning is nice the penguins cup win some 5+ years ago does next to nothing for my current enjoyment of the team. The high from the win pretty much fades after a few days and when the next season starts it's effect is largely gone and it's the team's current performance that matters.

 

[Le Magnifique 66]

The 5 Cups, boring or not your team is Champion and that's the bottom line

 

[gopens66]

Just to play, dare I say it, devil's advocate, (he-he) those cup-winning Devils teams were actually near the top of the league in scoring goals.

 

[Ugene Magic]

You can play both ways to win cups, and it's a matter of knowing when to tighten your belt and get dirty.

 

[Frederick Stanley]

Is this a serious question?

5 Cups.

 

[Penguinator]

The 5 Cups, boring or not your team is Champion and that's the bottom line

As long as the cups are real and not a lame manipulator's 'argument' aimed (once again) at shoving virtual dirt at PFO...

 

[Freeptop]

It's an interesting question to me, because at different points in time, I'd have two different answers.

If the 2000 Winter Olympics had been officiated like the NHL of the time (or of today), I suspect I wouldn't have even gotten sucked into being a fan of hockey at all. In which case, winning the Cup 5 times with Jacques Lemaire hockey wouldn't have mattered to me one bit, since I wouldn't have cared about hockey at all.

These days? I'm now sucked in. I can appreciate the nuances of the trap. I don't even have a problem with the trap itself, just the officiating that allows blatant interference and penalties be let go in the name of whatever excuse the refs use this week in order to not do their job ("in order to reduce head injuries" seems to have recently replaced, "so that the game is determined by the players instead of the refs"). Since I'm now a "hardcore" fan, yes, I'd prefer the Penguins play the game the way it is, rather than the way they, or I, would prefer it to be, and go win the Stanley Cup as many times as possible.

But I still long for them to go back to the 05/06 standard for calling penalties. To me, not calling a penalty is a bigger case of the refs determining the games than not allowing players to break the rules is. And the whole thing about preventing injuries is transparently false, since they're allowing things like trips and hits from behind go again, not just subtle interference that slows things down.


Of course, just because a team plays Jacques Lemaire hockey doesn't mean they'll win the Cup even one time. After all, the Minnesota Wild don't show up on the Cup at all, despite many, many years of playing Jacques Lemaire hockey.

 

[Jaded-Fan]

Is this a serious question?

5 Cups.

I think that the OP was asking would you rather marry a frigid Victoria Secret's model who does not believe in sex before, during or after marriage, but believes in taking your money. Or an average kinda boring girl who is dynamite in the sack.

Let's call her Rathke.

On the one thing you have something nice to look at and walk around with, and all the other guys will whistle at you and be jealous. On the other you may be bored the rest of the time but you get the big prize nightly.

That was how I read it anyways.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

Trapping isn't unethical...

"Jacques Lemaire hockey" is more than just using a passive forecheck.

 

[Headshot77]

The question is stupid. If you can win the cup by playing a certain way, you do it. Every time.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

What if Sidney Crosby wins six Stanley Cups if the team moves to Kansas City? What do you DO?

 

[madinsomniac]

The devils played boring hockey from 1990's to now, they have 3 cups and 2 cup final losses. we played exciting, open ice hockey except a small period in the early 00's and have 3 cups and 1 cup final loss... we lastr won in 2009, they last won in 03... again Im not damning the NHL to skilless boring hockey because I want to try to win like a scrub team

 

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Just win, baby.

 

[madinsomniac]

It is most certainly the only thing.

Why else is the game played, outside of money?

Its sports entertainment, plain and simple... if you don't entertain you are out of business. there is a reason the AHL doesn't have a big time TV contract after all

 

[orby]

I see the appeal of high-firepower hockey and i agree that it's more entertaining than uber efficient, defense-centric hockey. But the Pens are my hometown team. i wanna see them win as many championships as they can because they're the team closest to my heart, even if it meant playing a totally predictable, robotic trap. Maybe if the Pens were only my second favorite team I'd rather see them play adventurous, risky hockey and miss out on some cups.

 

[Winger for Hire]

Its sports entertainment, plain and simple... if you don't entertain you are out of business. there is a reason the AHL doesn't have a big time TV contract after all

I don't necessarily equate winning with "Jacques Lemaire style" with not entertaining, but when you couple that with players freely able to water-ski, bear hug, freely mug players without the puck, and everything else that came with the "Garage League Era", then yeah, it's boring.

But the game, even as clutchy and grabby as it is right now, is not even close to the way it was back in the Clutch 'n Grab heydays. Now you can play a trap, but you also have to move your feet and skate. You can't just grab and hang on for dear life when someone is about to blow by you without fear of a penalty now.

With how much more open the game is currently from when the trap was made a dirty word, if done correctly with skilled players, trapping and counterattacking hockey can be an aesthetically pleasing style of hockey.

 

[madinsomniac]

I don't necessarily equate winning with "Jacques Lemaire style" with not entertaining, but when you couple that with players freely able to water-ski, bear hug, freely mug players without the puck, and everything else that came with the "Garage League Era", then yeah, it's boring.

But the game, even as clutchy and grabby as it is right now, is not even close to the way it was back in the Clutch 'n Grab heydays. Now you can play a trap, but you also have to move your feet and skate. You can't just grab and hang on for dear life when someone is about to blow by you without fear of a penalty now.

With how much more open the game is currently from when the trap was made a dirty word, if done correctly with skilled players, trapping and counterattacking hockey can be an aesthetically pleasing style of hockey.

Right now there is a lot of boring hockey out there, and the ratings reflect that. Its true that all teams play some trapping type hockey at times, and there can be exciting moments, and also very true that low scoring games can be thrilling, but neutral zone exclusive hockey is not in any way shape or form good for the game. Hockey recognized this when ESPN low bid them last time, which is why drastic changes were made to the game...

 

[TorstenFrings]

It's a stupid question, because who build a five cup dynasty playing trap hockey lately as popular and intermittenly succesful as it may be? Playing along with the stupid question, it is 5 cups > 2 cups every time though. DUH!

Edit: I am first and foremost a fan of a "we want to win, but we want to play the game the right way the most" football (soccer for you, if you are a blasphemic American) team, so maybe that bleeds into my secondary American sports loyalties. I admittedly have no principles if it's 5 championships guaranteed, but no one ever guarantees you stuff, and therefore I prefer my team to go into the season with the heart in the right place every time.