Who will win The Cup?
Traded with a Canadian today and when I wished him fun watching the playoffs without any Canadian teams he did'nt even know who was playing. Steam really is the wrong place to talk sports :)
Besides that: Go Kings, go! Too bad every game starts at 4:30 am for me, gotta make the Stanley Cup Finals to be able to watch their games :)
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In live in Québec and don't care for hockey, so it's safe to assume that with the Habs out of the picture I care even less. :P
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Is there any european country where hockey is important? I'm asking because I'm clueless, no irony.
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Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic and Russia are major hockey countries
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Yes sorry, ice hockey of course :)
It's also significantly played in Slowakia, Latvia, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Norway and Denmark. The other countries all have leagues, but it's less popular there
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Wow, I had no idea. I knew it is important in North America but I assumed that here in europe soccer, basketball and handball would not letany space for other sports. Nice to know.
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Icehockey seems to be pretty big here in Sweden, but I don't care for the sport. I'm a Belgian, maybe that has something to do with it. :P
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Actually there are quite a lot of Europeans playing in the NHL, many of the best players.
Olympic ice hokey medals:
Games Gold Silver Bronze
1920 Canada (CAN) United States (USA) Czechoslovakia (TCH)
1924 Canada (CAN) United States (USA) Great Britain (GBR)
1928 Canada (CAN) Sweden (SWE) Switzerland (SUI)
1932 Canada (CAN) United States (USA) Germany (GER)
1936 Great Britain (GBR) Canada (CAN) United States (USA)
1948 Canada (CAN) Czechoslovakia (TCH) Switzerland (SUI)
1952 Canada (CAN) United States (USA) Sweden (SWE)
1956 Soviet Union (URS) United States (USA) Canada (CAN)
1960 United States (USA) Canada (CAN) Soviet Union (URS)
1964 Soviet Union (URS) Sweden (SWE) Czechoslovakia (TCH)
1968 Soviet Union (URS) Czechoslovakia (TCH) Canada (CAN)
1972 Soviet Union (URS) United States (USA) Czechoslovakia (TCH)
1976 Soviet Union (URS) Czechoslovakia (TCH) West Germany (FRG)
1980 United States (USA) Soviet Union (URS) Sweden (SWE)
1984 Soviet Union (URS) Czechoslovakia (TCH) Sweden (SWE)
1988 Soviet Union (URS) Finland (FIN) Sweden (SWE)
1992 Unified Team (EUN) Canada (CAN) Czechoslovakia (TCH)
1994 Sweden (SWE) Canada (CAN) Finland (FIN)
1998 Czech Republic (CZE) Russia (RUS) Finland (FIN)
2002 Canada (CAN) United States (USA) Russia (RUS)
2006 Sweden (SWE) Finland (FIN) Czech Republic (CZE)
2010 Canada (CAN) United States (USA) Finland (FIN)
2014 Canada (CAN) Sweden (SWE) Finland (FIN)
Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 Canada (CAN) 13 5 2 20
2 Soviet Union (URS) 7 0 2 9
3 United States (USA) 3 11 2 16
4 Sweden (SWE) 2 5 4 11
5 Czech Republic (CZE) 1 0 1 2
5 Great Britain (GBR) 1 0 1 2
7 Unified Team (EUN) 1 0 0 1
8 Czechoslovakia (TCH) 0 4 4 8
9 Finland (FIN) 0 2 6 8
10 Russia (RUS) 0 1 1 2
11 Switzerland (SUI) 0 0 3 3
12 Germany (GER) 0 0 1 1
12 West Germany (FRG) 0 0 1 1
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Started reading the list and thought to myself, "this must be a Canadian posting." ;-)
As a longtime Expos fan (and Habs fan by proxy), I'm happy to see it! I'm just glad I remember 1993. It's been too long!
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WOW that's a lot of information. It's kind of funny to see the Soviet Union, West Germany, I'm assuming Unified Team was Europe? in that ranking-
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I honestly have no memories of that Unified team, even though I probably watched the Olympics that year. But that was back when pro players could not participate however, so no NHLers.
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The Unified Team was basically the Soviet Union...minus the Baltics.
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depends on the country. Rugby is big in England, France and to a lesser degree Italy. Field Hockey is the second biggest sport in Netherlands. etc.
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What's an NHL and do I use a condom to prevent it?
I have to say: looking at that list I don't recognize many teams. Used to play NHL games (95 or 98 was the last one I played :p), always enjoyed the videogames even though I never watched a game or really knew much about the sports.
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as a coyotes fan, my excitement diminishes 4 weeks into the season!
wtb nhl 17 on stem
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Ahhh. Kinda crazy no Canadian teams in playoffs huh? I'm still shocked after habs had such a start.
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Yeah..it's sad. It looks like all the worst teams are canadian this year, it's unbelievable!
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I still remember when the final was Lightning vs Flames - the year no one watched. The local newspaper in Tampa actually printed a headline that Calgary won the cup. Tampa won
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Florida Panthers? Really?! (at the time of this post, it's got 4 votes and is the highest vote)
Don't make me laugh so hard.
#BlackAndRedUntilI'mDead
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<3 I'd whitelist you for that if you already weren't on it like forever.
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I work part-time security for the Icehogs, Michael Leighton's most recent team before he was recalled to the Hawks :X
Curious how someone from the west coast came to love the Hawks, though. O.o
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You... you... OMG.
O.
M.
G.
You live near my old stomping grounds. Well, a coupla hours away anyway. Grew up in the southern suburbs of Chicago.
And, holy shit. Shows how much I've been paying attention. I haven't had a chance to watch many games this season, and I had no idea that ex-Flyer was now with the Hawks.
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Yeah about 90 mins from Chi-town. :P
Well, that certainly explains why you love the Hawks, haha. Besides, everyone looks better in black and red. :D
All the current Hawks goalies come from my local team ;)
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Why do you hate great stories, mate? >:( Jágr getting a third ring would be a hell of a story. And cats are the likeable ex-underdogs (ha), hence the support, I guess.
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I love great stories, which is why back to back Stanley Cups for the Hawks would be fantastic. :D
(All in good fun... I just love hockey, so I'm glad we still have it.)
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Why does New York always have two teams? I'm not into hockey, but do they parallel New York's other teams where one sucks and the other is actually pretty good (or at least decent)?
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Pretty much. The Rangers are decent more than they suck, and the Islanders just suck across the board.
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Some would say yes if you include the Rangers being a playoff contender and Sabres being bottom tier consistently with the Islanders somewhere in between.
As for 3 teams, I'd imagine it's the population. California also has quite a few teams all near each other: Kings, Sharks, Ducks
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To be fair, the Ducks and Kings are within an hour or so of one another, and the Sharks are like 7 hours north of that.
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True, I was just referencing about him wondering why some states have more than one team :P
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You've had your reign, it's our time to shine :-P
Edit: Truly though, I'm glad we got first round again. I'd rather it be settled up front.
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Hockey is like the 4th biggest pro sport here at best, so not really. Personally, I'm an NBA Basketball guy.
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I know, right, IIHF World Championship is where it's at! No NHL, no Olympics, no World Cups! >:( Now let's hope all the good Canadian boys' teams exit soon enough for them to participate and the Gold is set.
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I still care, and I know many other people who care.
Hockey is not over!
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Local junior hockey team is #1 in their division.
Around here that's pretty much the only thing about hockey that still get people's attention.
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GO RANGERS!!!!
(probably we're not gonna win, but still)
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I've been a penguins fan for over 20 years, though I've never set foot in Pittsburgh
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Wrong sport, that's football, silly! :3
20 years, that's quite some time, by now you are an honourary Pittsburgh-er!
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a girl I liked was into hockey, got me to start watching. She was from pittsburgh.
That year, Super Mario won the cup, and did it again the next year. Got me hooked
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To the degree I follow the NHL, I am a Habs fan first, but I also root for my hometown Caps. The seeding system is so strange that the Caps will have to lose to the Pens in the second round instead of the Conference Championship... =(
But there's still hope!
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The NHL is all right.
MLB is my jam.
MLB > college softball > NBA > girls' high school volleyball / women's college volleyball > Little League baseball > NFL > NHL > women's tennis > college basketball > college football > men's tennis > WNBA > college baseball > college hockey > women's golf > men's golf > bowling > MLS > NWSL
Special recognition: Summer Olympics > Winter Olympics
However I will acknowledge that playoff hockey can crush it.
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I typically don't follow UNTIL the playoffs. The season is just too long. I'm the same way with NBA. Devils and Bruins both missed the playoffs this year though so I'm less interested than usual. Voted for the Blackhawks in the poll, they've always been my favorite Western Conference team.
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I'm going to utter two words that I guarantee have never been said together on SG.
Sandy Moger.
That is all.
Oh wait, yes, Edmonton will win the lottery because that's what they do and it would be hilarious to see the rest of the league melt down over it.
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As a red wings fan, probably blackhawks or rangers :(
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Rangers, Flyers, Red Wings, Blackhawks, Kings, Wild, Panthers all eliminated so far. A lot of people have had their predictions ruined already. :)
I'm still not used to the divisional playoff format. It seems unbalanced compared to how it used to be. In the second round we have the 4 teams with the best records in the league during the regular season all playing each other (WSH vs PIT & DAL vs STL).
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I rooted for Wings, Flyers and Panthers T_T Well. Now the only team left I kind of care for is Tampa and a tiny bit Sharks. Though I'm glad Hawks&Kings are out too, finally someone else will have fun with the cup!
I don't follow NHL closely for too long, what it was like before, then?
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Before last season, it used to be the top 8 from each conference go to the playoffs, and in the first round #1 plays #8, #2 plays #7 etc. There were 3 divisions per conference, but the divisions didn't matter at all to the playoff seeding.
Now the first 2 rounds are divisional playoffs and then the division winners will face off in round 3 for the conference championship. When one division has a lot more points than another, the new format can get unbalanced. For example, let's look at St Louis.
St. Louis had the #2 highest points in the Western conference this season. In the previous playoff format, they would have played #7 in round 1. Under the new format, they played #3 Chicago.
In round 2, #1 Dallas will face #2 St. Louis; under the old format St. Louis would face San Jose or Anaheim (depending who wins tonight between Nashville & Anaheim...)
Plus, the wild card teams are not assigned divisionally, so Nashville is playing in the Pacific division which kind of ruins the whole concept of divisional playoffs in my mind.
So there is not necessarily as much of an advantage for finishing the regular season with a lot of points as there used to be.
But in the end you either win or lose, and the champion has to beat everyone. :)
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It sure sounds better "the old" way. For the first round anyway. So nowadays you are playing just for the home ice advantage once you are clinched, right.
Thanks for the thorough post! <3
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Well, for example with the Blues again, despite having #2 best record in the conference, they do not have home ice advantage in round 2 because they are playing against Dallas. Meanwhile, Anaheim or San Jose will have home ice advantage in their series even though they had fewer points than St Louis in the regular season.
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No giveaways. YET! Show me some love for the game and maybe I will add a thing or two. Don't get overexcited, I've got only a few Hidden Object games keys lying around.
Tangential question: Who will win the draft lottery and why the Oilers?
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