M88K
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Series Discussion SCF | ★★★ STARS ★★★ vs. lame sky flashes | TBL leads 3-2
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BigG44
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Hot topic with little consensus. He's never been this unproductive, but he's also not exactly been great in the playoffs for Dallas in the past.
Some media speculation from outside Dallas is he has a wrist injury. That would be consistent with his inability to take or win faceoffs early in the playoffs. That's improved somewhat from what I can tell.
He looks slower than ever, but his skating fell off after an achillies injury in 2016. That could be another sign of injury or just he's lost a step.
I personally think it's mostly injury and that probably got in his head. The contract may have caused some yips as well. I think more people are believing he'll never be the same, but I think he'll bounce back ... maybe not in the Cup Finals though.
Some media speculation from outside Dallas is he has a wrist injury. That would be consistent with his inability to take or win faceoffs early in the playoffs. That's improved somewhat from what I can tell.
He looks slower than ever, but his skating fell off after an achillies injury in 2016. That could be another sign of injury or just he's lost a step.
I personally think it's mostly injury and that probably got in his head. The contract may have caused some yips as well. I think more people are believing he'll never be the same, but I think he'll bounce back ... maybe not in the Cup Finals though.
M88K
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He was good last year in the PO which is his only healthy PO in Dallas. Led the team in scoring too.
M88K
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serp
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Think that was the same season where he later got his achilles cut . So 2015/16 . That Kulikov hit looked bad but i don't think it did much damage.
BigG44
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I think Polak's season already started in Europe. I don't really expect him to say much, and if Monty says anything, it'll be complimentary.
His last interview again was nothing but praise of Nill. Nill's shielding Monty's family, especially kids, from whatever happened, and you can tell he's grateful.
His last interview again was nothing but praise of Nill. Nill's shielding Monty's family, especially kids, from whatever happened, and you can tell he's grateful.
serp
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Monty has been on TSN radio a couple of times from what i saw. Polak i think closed his NHL chapter. He's probably happy for his old teammates but he's moved on and IRC is already playing again in the Czech league.
man i love that about nill. winning is nice, but winning with class is the ultimate goal in my book. i teach my kids sportsmanship, bc at the end of the day, the relationships are more important than the scoreboard. rare and wonderful to see it played out in the professional ranks.
BigG44
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Man ... you'd love the story about Nill that Shapiro revealed in the 20/20 after the Game 4 win.
The short story is that was the game GM of the Year was announced, and Nill took 3rd place. Without going into great detail, Dallas Stars Assistant GM Mark Janko has a medical condition that impacts his esophagus, and occasionally food can get lodged. After the Game 3 loss against Colorado, food got lodged in Janko's esophagus, and he was in excruciating pain. Janko said it's the worst he'd ever had it and he was scared. Nill stayed with him in his room after that loss until 3 AM in the morning trying to comfort Janko and help him decide what to do. Ultimately, it was decided Janko would have to go to the hospital and have the food surgically removed.
Janko said he never would have told the story because he didn't want to distract from the team fighting in the playoffs, but he thought people should know what kind of Nill was. Instead of brooding over a big loss, Nill was by his side helping him through one of the worst moments in his life.
I don't think I heard a single hint of anything going on out of the bubble. Somehow Nill and the Stars have stuff on lockdown, and they protect the players/members of the organization. You never hear that if the person who was going through that doesn't decide to speak up. I'm not always a fan of how Lites behaved (and I still believe he was the mouthpiece for Gagalradi probably), but I do really appreciate the kind of man Nill is.
I think the loyalty can hurt occasionally when he may be slow to make a change because of how it affects the person. Sometimes the human stuff is more important though.
The short story is that was the game GM of the Year was announced, and Nill took 3rd place. Without going into great detail, Dallas Stars Assistant GM Mark Janko has a medical condition that impacts his esophagus, and occasionally food can get lodged. After the Game 3 loss against Colorado, food got lodged in Janko's esophagus, and he was in excruciating pain. Janko said it's the worst he'd ever had it and he was scared. Nill stayed with him in his room after that loss until 3 AM in the morning trying to comfort Janko and help him decide what to do. Ultimately, it was decided Janko would have to go to the hospital and have the food surgically removed.
Janko said he never would have told the story because he didn't want to distract from the team fighting in the playoffs, but he thought people should know what kind of Nill was. Instead of brooding over a big loss, Nill was by his side helping him through one of the worst moments in his life.
I don't think I heard a single hint of anything going on out of the bubble. Somehow Nill and the Stars have stuff on lockdown, and they protect the players/members of the organization. You never hear that if the person who was going through that doesn't decide to speak up. I'm not always a fan of how Lites behaved (and I still believe he was the mouthpiece for Gagalradi probably), but I do really appreciate the kind of man Nill is.
I think the loyalty can hurt occasionally when he may be slow to make a change because of how it affects the person. Sometimes the human stuff is more important though.
Here is an interview with Polak when the series was 3 - 1. It's in Czech but you can use google translate for reasonable results.
Prsten pro vítěze NHL bych si nezasloužil, říká Polák. Chce Stanley Cup na Ostravsku | Aktuálně.cz
He says that he's happy for the team's success but if they meet Tampa in the finals it's going to be a tough matchup. He doesn't regret leaving and says that with every passing day he's more sure that he made the right decision. The interviewer says that the team is doing great in his absence to which he replies that there are good young defensemen and that they are doing a good job.
serp
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Idk if Stamkos would be a big difference maker with how much time he missed . With a couple of more days off Faksas hand might be healed up enough. As much as i think Dickie is a fine checking line Center he's not as good as Faksa and man he's been getting killed on faceoffs throughout the playoff thats really not good when you start in the defensive zone a whole lot.
This is imho also why he almost never starts a penalty killing shift because he's almost guaranteed to lose the faceoff .
This is imho also why he almost never starts a penalty killing shift because he's almost guaranteed to lose the faceoff .
BigG44
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Not just that, and not trying to suck up to @M88K, Dallas is a better team with Dickinson on the wing that Cogliano. After they reunited the Benn line and he went full Beast Mode, I think Dickinson-Faksa-Comeau is the best version of that line.
I don't think it works because you turn a line into a pretty ineffective one ... but I wish they could figure out how to work out uniting Kiviranta-Hintz-Gurianov. They've been the most dangerous line most games they played together. That sort of wastes Pavelski between Janmark and Perry though, and that's not ideal. I get trying to spread out and make two somewhat strong lines instead of a strong line and a weak line.
I don't think it works because you turn a line into a pretty ineffective one ... but I wish they could figure out how to work out uniting Kiviranta-Hintz-Gurianov. They've been the most dangerous line most games they played together. That sort of wastes Pavelski between Janmark and Perry though, and that's not ideal. I get trying to spread out and make two somewhat strong lines instead of a strong line and a weak line.
M88K
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The better team won. Coming back from 2-0 down in the third against overconfident VGK to finish them off proved it. It's impressive that they can prevail in either a run and gun game or a tight checking lockdown game. That Kiviranta has looked good even when he wasn't scoring. He's responsible, smart, and tough. Assuming it's the Lightning, the Stars need to find a way to expose the Lightning D not named Hedman. And lines 2-4 will need to outplay their counterparts. Because Kuch and Point will most likely get theirs. Sekera seems to have got his game back as the playoffs have gone on. And Oleksiak had some hiccups but has looked better. I was very suprised that Oleksiak jumped up so often. I would expect it from Klingberg and Heiskanen. But Jamie does it quite a bit. They'll probably need some D scoring vs Lightning. Benn is captaining the way a captain is supposed to captain. If Khudobin keeps current form, they should have a good chance.
WhoahNow
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time for a username update.. here's some thought starters. (as if you don't have it planned already)
MakeKogsGo88
notMKwithCogs
NoCogs2020
CupSansCogs2021
BigG44
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For me it's fun at this point. I am not a Cogliano fan, but somehow you took the trophy.
M88K
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Great response, thank you. I hope these injuries are short term and he rebounds. Otherwise, thats a tough contract to swallow, especially in a flat cap world.
Kcb12345
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Not sure if anyone has posted this yet, but only 5 rookies in NHL history have scored more goals than Gurianov in a single postseason. Based on how the Finals go and if he has a big series, he could potentially finish with the 3rd highest total of all time. Important to note he didn't even score in the round robin. Somehow none of the goals came on a breakaway either or because of his speed. Of course most of them came against Calgary but still very impressive either way
17 points in 21 games ain't too bad either. Can't believe he is 1 assist away from matching his regular season total lol. Not the smartest player or best playmaker obviously but hes been crucial for our success. Also I believe he has 3 game winning goals this postseason
17 points in 21 games ain't too bad either. Can't believe he is 1 assist away from matching his regular season total lol. Not the smartest player or best playmaker obviously but hes been crucial for our success. Also I believe he has 3 game winning goals this postseason
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