SCF: Boston Bruins (A2) vs. St. Louis Blues (C3) — BLUES WIN SERIES 4-3! CHAMPS!

[crapshoot]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

Can the NHL just give Boston the cup tonight and call it a season? I've never been so uninterested in a cup final before.

I was just talking about this yesterday with a good friend of mine who is even more of a hardcore NHL fan than me. None of us really care one bit about this final, I mean there's barely even any interesting storylines within the matchup to follow, except for maybe David Backes and the St. Louis connection, but he's incredibly old, bad and boring so it doesn't really do anything. Can't wait for this charade to be over and for the interesting stuff to get back on track.

[Itse]

Yup, this is probably an all time low in just how much I don't care what goes on in the finals.

I'd rather St. Louis won, but I haven't even watched the highlights.

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by getbak

You have a poor memory then.

This year's Finals schedule is pretty consistent with what we've seen for years in non-Olympic/Lockout seasons. In fact, this is the fourth straight year that the Final has had the exact same schedule:

1. Final Monday of May
2. Wednesday
3. Saturday
4. Monday
5. Thursday
6. Sunday
7. Wednesday

It's been like this for that long? Huh, weird I didn't remember that.

Perhaps because there was such a long layover from the conference finals this year.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by getbak

You have a poor memory then.

This year's Finals schedule is pretty consistent with what we've seen for years in non-Olympic/Lockout seasons. In fact, this is the fourth straight year that the Final has had the exact same schedule:

1. Final Monday of May
2. Wednesday
3. Saturday
4. Monday
5. Thursday
6. Sunday
7. Wednesday

I assume they have this set up for NBC as for Canada it kind of blows. Canadians are trying to enjoy their short summers this time of year and it's easy to just move on to outdoor activities and forget about a final like this that may not move the needle for a lot of Canadians. The Raptors success this season is probably going to ensure this is the lowest rated cup final in Canada in some time.

[Corral]

In relation to the Cup final schedule, the only surprise to me is that game 6 isn't scheduled for a saturday night - but that would disrupt the 2 days rest break between games later in the series. I suspect alternating the finals with the NBA maybe helps with viewing interest in the USA?

I don't see why the NHL would care much about viewership in Canada for the Cup final. They know Canadians are very forgiving when it comes to this stuff.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by crapshoot

I was just talking about this yesterday with a good friend of mine who is even more of a hardcore NHL fan than me. None of us really care one bit about this final, I mean there's barely even any interesting storylines within the matchup to follow, except for maybe David Backes and the St. Louis connection, but he's incredibly old, bad and boring so it doesn't really do anything. Can't wait for this charade to be over and for the interesting stuff to get back on track.

Which is a shame because its been fun to watch as a neutral.

[Heavy Jack]

Historically this series has lots of great storylines and then on top of that you have Chara who could be cup one of the oldest captains in modern history to hoist the cup, you have Perron in back to back cup finals on different teams, you have a tale of two teams with St. Louis and you have Rask putting up numbers that rival Thomas’ run from 2011. Lots of
Exciting things to follow IMO!

[jayswin]

I don't know, storylines are a funny thing. The media calls anything they can think of a storyline but ultimately viewers aren't actually getting much out of most "storylines".

Real storylines are things like the Marion Hossa story, a superstar ending up on different teams in the finals over and over, etc. I mean do you think anyone is like "OMG David Perron made it back to the finals on a different team, got to tune in to game 1!!!!!!!!!".

[Locke]

I dont even care about storylines, its just been fun to watch.

These two teams inexplicably hate each other. Granted, the Bruins are easy to hate.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by jayswin

...Real storylines are things like the Marion Hossa story, a superstar ending up on different teams in the finals over and over, etc. I mean do you think anyone is like "OMG David Perron made it back to the finals on a different team, got to tune in to game 1!!!!!!!!!".

Did anyone say this prior to tuning in to the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals? ...

"OMG Marion Hossa made it back to the finals on a different team, got to tune in to game 1!!!!!!!!!"

"Real storylines" are essentially whatever we want them to be.

[Toonage]

Hossa in the Cup final for the 3rd time on his 3rd team trying to win was absolutely a real storyline.

One example

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/09/s...lackhawks.html

When the Flames signed Neal a bunch of us here even likened him to being our Hossa - purely based off that storyline

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Toonage

Hossa in the Cup final for the 3rd time on his 3rd team trying to win was absolutely a real storyline.

One example

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/09/s...lackhawks.html

When the Flames signed Neal a bunch of us here even likened him to being our Hossa - purely based off that storyline

Right, but that is not exactly the point—your article is from Summer 2010 when Hossa made the Finals for the third time with the Blackhawks. If we are comparing the David Perron storyline as somehow not as interesting as Hossa's, then we need to revisit 2009 when Hossa was playing in his second consecutive SC Finals, like Perron is doing now; like what James Neal did last year.

*EDIT* My point has less to do with Hossa than it does with somehow attempting to judge the significance of David Perron's similar storyline as arbitrarily less interesting or meaningful.

[Toonage]

Sorry, misunderstood

[timbit]

Should the Blues come back with a “statement game” and win tonight, I suspect that viewer interest will be substantially whetted .

[hwy19man]

Game four preview links
http://sportsstats.cbc.ca/hockey/nhl...summary_3.html
http://sportsstats.cbc.ca/hockey/nhl...preview_3.html
https://scores.nbcsports.com/nhl/pre...&home=19&vis=1
https://www.siriusxm.com/servlet/Sat...=SXM%2FWrapper

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by jayswin

I don't know, storylines are a funny thing. The media calls anything they can think of a storyline but ultimately viewers aren't actually getting much out of most "storylines".

Real storylines are things like the Marion Hossa story, a superstar ending up on different teams in the finals over and over, etc. I mean do you think anyone is like "OMG David Perron made it back to the finals on a different team, got to tune in to game 1!!!!!!!!!".

I think it's compelling in that the Blues haven't been to the finals since the 70's and the Bruins are original six and pretty popular team. That said the problem with all the days between games is that any momentum you have from a good game is lost after going multiple days between games this time of year where it's sunny and there's lots of things to do outside or around the house. To me the first round was must watch hockey but the finals have been more about watching when I can if I'm not busy doing something else. Wait, when's the next game again?

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Did anyone say this prior to tuning in to the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals? ...

"OMG Marion Hossa made it back to the finals on a different team, got to tune in to game 1!!!!!!!!!"

"Real storylines" are essentially whatever we want them to be.

I think you're misremembering. Hossa was one of the bigger individual storylines in the last 15 years when it comes to the Stanley Cup finals. It was being talked about by almost everyone.

The combination of being a huge star and picking his team to hopefully win a cup and then actually continually making it and eventually winning it all.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Right, but that is not exactly the point—your article is from Summer 2010 when Hossa made the Finals for the third time with the Blackhawks. If we are comparing the David Perron storyline as somehow not as interesting as Hossa's, then we need to revisit 2009 when Hossa was playing in his second consecutive SC Finals, like Perron is doing now; like what James Neal did last year.

*EDIT* My point has less to do with Hossa than it does with somehow attempting to judge the significance of David Perron's similar storyline as arbitrarily less interesting or meaningful.

But David Perron isn't on the same level no matter what happens in multiple appearances because he's not a star. That was my point.

[Rando]

We're missing the best part about the Hossa story. Played for the Penguins in 2008 and lost to the Wings, played for the Wings in 2009 and lost to the Penguins. Signed with the Hawks and finally won.

The losing back-to-back, on the opposite team both times, is hilarious. Can't make that crap up.

[Engine09]

Gary Clark Jr., so much better than that ####house rap in Boston.