GDT: 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs & Bandwagon Thread

[Stormbreaker]

Bish deserved a better fate.

 

[Hoek]

Feel so bad for him.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Rooting for every team except Boston. Colorado meh.

 

[Maelmoor]

Either Canes, Colorado or Blues.

Definitely not Boston and unlike most people I really dislike Joe Thornton, So not Sharks either.

 

[DrMartinVanNostrand]

Bishop was always a complete gamer. As clutch as they come in net. More than anything else, that's what we've missed since he left.

 

[TeslaCoilFan]

Anyone but the Bruins now.

Would prefer Blues or Sharks because they haven't won a Cup yet, but I do like the Canes too.

Besides, a Canes Cup would drive Don Cherry absolutely insane.

 

[StaySalty]

Anyone think we have a cup or two if we kept Bishop? Hindsight is always 20-20

 

[Five Alarm Fire]

Anyone think we have a cup or two if we kept Bishop? Hindsight is always 20-20

We would have still lost to Columbus. Bishop might have stolen a game or two, but he's not fixing our lack of offense or forecheck. He MAYBE bails out our penalty kill and defensive breakdowns.

If anything he masked a lot of our problems over the years.

 

[CupsOverCash]

Anyone think we have a cup or two if we kept Bishop? Hindsight is always 20-20

I think we may have 1-2 if he stayed healthy in the cup runs with him. 15 and 16 his injuries were arguably a big reason we lost those series.

 

[God King Fudge]

Bishop was never healthy for us when it mattered the most. Seems to be a theme with this team.

 

[DrMartinVanNostrand]

We would have still lost to Columbus. Bishop might have stolen a game or two, but he's not fixing our lack of offense or forecheck. He MAYBE bails out our penalty kill and defensive breakdowns.

If anything he masked a lot of our problems over the years.

If his time in Tampa and now this past season in Dallas are any indication, he's about the only person who can make Rick Bowness an acceptable assistant coach in the league these days. We kept Bowness for one year after Bishop left and was a big reason why we fell short of expectations.

 

[Nautica54]

And a couple years ago people thought I was crazy for considering trading Vasy instead of Bishop. In hindsight I'm still glad we went the way we did with Vasy and acquiring Cernak.

However like I said in '17...Bishop definately covered up some weaknesses we had with his ability to manage the puck. Just a shame he couldn't stay healthy.

 

[God King Fudge]

Man the people taking a dump on Vasy have really interesting takes. He wasn't at his best, but no one was.

The kid is 24. 24. He's been in the league 5 years already, so it's hard not to think of him as a vet. Bishop was 26 when we got him. Khabibulin was 31 or something when he won a cup with us.

Vasy is the youngest player in the top 15 for GAA that played more than 2 games. Top 5 in SO. Top 10 in SV%. #1 in wins. Look at any category, and he's one of the best in the league while also being the youngest.

He's already better than almost every other goalie in the league and he's not even hit his peak.

There is plenty of blame to pass around for what happened this season, and Vasy does share a piece of that. No question. But sitting here saying we should have traded him over Bishop or thinking this season would have gone any differently with Bishop is just absolutely wild.

 

[BeingTheThunder]

No doubt in my mind that trading Bish was the right move. The time was right to get Vasy off of the bench and onto the ice and moving Bishop was the only way to make that happen. And look, we got what seems like what will be a rock-solid D-man in Cernak out of the deal. No regrets on making the move from me.

I don't have any reservations about our goalie situation moving forward. Vasy is Vezina material year in and year out and he is pretty much a baby. I'm confident he'll continue to grow and mature into being capable of maintaining his focus into and throughout the playoffs in the future. He just happened to screw the pooch this year. A lot of the guys on the team did. Sucks that we had to suffer through Vasy's growing pains this year but we did. He will recover and the team will be back, better than ever because of it.

 

[Five Alarm Fire]

If his time in Tampa and now this past season in Dallas are any indication, he's about the only person who can make Rick Bowness an acceptable assistant coach in the league these days. We kept Bowness for one year after Bishop left and was a big reason why we fell short of expectations.

You have to wonder: if Bishop didn't bail us out against Detroit in 2015, what would this team look like now? Back-to-back 1st round exits with no other tangible success would have surely led to changes.

 

[TampaJay]

I said at the time we moved Bishop we were going to miss his puck moving skills. One way to beat a neutral zone trap like CBJ employed is to get the puck started out before it gets a chance to set up. I’m not saying we should have kept Bishop but I blame the coaching staff and GM for not adjusting to the loss of those skills. Puck handling was the knock on Vasi in the pre-draft scouting reports and even under Bishop’s tutelage, he hasn’t improved much. It is what it is. You have to have a system and personnel to make up for it. If you know Vasi is the long term future, you don’t bring in a Girardi type Dman, you find a puck mover even if he is small like Torey Krug, and you don’t draft a Cal Foote when there are some good puck moving Dmen still on the board.

 

[DrMartinVanNostrand]

You have to wonder: if Bishop didn't bail us out against Detroit in 2015, what would this team look like now? Back-to-back 1st round exits with no other tangible success would have surely led to changes.

And we were on the verge of that as well. We were about five minutes away from a 3-1 series deficit, and the series may have ended in Tampa in Game 5 if that had happened. Bishop really wasn't all that stellar for much of that series, but he stepped up in Game 7 (where we got badly outplayed) and that's what is remembered.

But I agree. 2013-'14 was a bit of a write-off for coming to age earlier than expected and then the injury to Bishop right before the playoffs, but I felt we were the best team in the East the entire season in 2014-'15 and would've been disappointed if we didn't reach the Final. If that postseason went up in flames as well, with legit expectations that time, I wonder what the butterfly effect may have ended up being.

 

[Maelmoor]

Can't believe the luck Sharks have with the refs, almost as if the hockey god's wants them to win

 

[Hoek]

Well considering their luck before this run, they pretty much deserve it.

 

[Maelmoor]

Well considering their luck before this run, they pretty much deserve it.

True and to win the cup you need luck, that's for sure!

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

 

[Stormbreaker]

Think he got more on his shirt then he did his mouth.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

 

[DrMartinVanNostrand]

I'll be shocked if this isn't a sweep. The Hurricanes are completely overmatched.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Bruins came to play