Out of curiosity, how many rings does Kevin Bieksa have? Olympic medals? Conn Smythe awards? World Junior Golds? Anything? Yeah I didn't think so. If playing 25 minutes a game is enough of an accomplishment for you, then more power to you I suppose.

Sorry, but if you took  Bieksa and Toews out out that series, Vancouver would suffer the most by far. Toews didn't exactly produce in the playoffs. 
And by your logic (your only logic it seems), if Toews is so great, why didn't he challenge Orestovich to a fight for absolutely no reason? Actually, why didn't he challenge Torres to a fight after he hit Seabrook?   

Bieksa is still playing........Toews is not.
OH.....and the Cup (officially) left Chicago a few weeks ago.  However real hockey fans knew the cup left Chicago back in July when the Hawks did not sign/replace BIGG BUFF.

Just to put things into perspective.  Phanuef played 25 minutes a game, and scored a lot of goals for the other team in the process.

Posted by peter_puck on 5/12/2011 5:56:00 PM (view original):
Sorry, but if you took  Bieksa and Toews out out that series, Vancouver would suffer the most by far. Toews didn't exactly produce in the playoffs. 
And by your logic (your only logic it seems), if Toews is so great, why didn't he challenge Orestovich to a fight for absolutely no reason? Actually, why didn't he challenge Torres to a fight after he hit Seabrook?   

To say Toews didn't produce shows me one of two things...

1...you don't know shot about hockey.  Toews owned Ryan Kesler that series and shut him down.  Kesler demolished the Preds all by himself.  I'm not even gonna point out the other facets of his game.

2...you're talking crap.

Posted by holer on 5/12/2011 6:20:00 PM (view original):
Just to put things into perspective.  Phanuef played 25 minutes a game, and scored a lot of goals for the other team in the process.

I'm going to take a wild guess though that when you play the most minutes on the best team in the NHL that you have a positive influence (oops forgot about Luongo, might end up taking that back  ).

Hey muddy......Maybe just Maybe, Kesler shut down Toews???  Either way, I would want both players on my team.  Both players add key ingredients to a "Championship" team.  And since TOEWS is the only one of the two with a CHAMPIONSHIP, I give the nod to Toews.

Kesler also did an amazing job on Toews, but to say Toews didn't produce is the apex of idiocy. 

Chicago focused on Kesler and Burrows.....and both Canuck's were shut down.  Sedins were OK against Chicago.
Preds focused on the Sedins....and shut them down however that left Kesler open and he owned the Preds and Burrows was very good too.  So the Sharks can pick their POISON.  Maybe have Torrey Mitchell check Kesler??  Boyle on one of the Sedin's??  BUT the Sharks can't shut down every Canuck.....They don't have the defensive players that Chicago, Nashville and Detroit have...................SO GO SHARKS GO!!!!!.........Thornton do something...........................lol


My reason why I am cheering for the SHARKS........

Bring on Sunday.

 Why are Andru and Muddy even here talking crap? their team only made it in because Dallas choked..and they folded  because Vancouver took them lightly and looked ahead to some real competition..NHL took the cup back to be awarded to a deserving team ..not some fluke a$$ joke that comes along every 50 years..I see Andru wont justify Bieksa's stats but i bet  anybody that he would use those same +/- stats to his favour any overated Hawk D man....those same Hawk Dmen that are shopping at Home Depot and planning reno's at the summer cabin...just haters ..i cant take anything the fans of the 20th place team have to say ..Dallas chokes ..u get in ? oh you must be so proud?...

Posted by andru2797 on 5/12/2011 5:05:00 PM (view original):
Out of curiosity, how many rings does Kevin Bieksa have? Olympic medals? Conn Smythe awards? World Junior Golds? Anything? Yeah I didn't think so. If playing 25 minutes a game is enough of an accomplishment for you, then more power to you I suppose.

 How many of those does Byfuglien have? and he won you the cup singlehandedly...??? didnt think so   No Buff and you  have to pray that Dallas craps the bed to even make the playoffs ..how lame is your franchise?

You know I find it interesting how hypocritical Canuck fans come across.

1. Last summer some of you guys made fun of any Hawk fan you could for over-valuing their players. At least the Hawks fans who were in fact guilty of that only did so AFTER winning the Cup. For any hockey fan, let alone Canuck fan, to claim that Kevin Bieksa is more valuable to his team than Jonathan Toews is simply just trying to get a rise out of Chicago fans and gets some weird satisfaction out of believing he's getting under their skin. There's no other logical reason.

2. Dustin Byfuglien was a HUGE part of the team winning it all last season. No one in their right mind would deny that. But to say he was the ONLY reason is a gross understatement of MANY other performances. Chicago doesn't get past Nashville if it's not for Brent Sopel's excellent penalty killing and shot blocking and Antti Niemi's solid play. They don't beat the Canucks without Dustin Byfuglien's net presence and Dave Bolland's excellent job shutting down the Sedins. San Jose would have made it a series if it wasn't for Niemi stealing 2 games. And they wouldn't have won the Cup if Pat Kane hadn't scored the winning goal in OT, if Byfuglien hadn't imposed himself physically and if Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith hadn't done such a great job in their own end. Patrick Sharp was also huge tying Byfuglien for the team lead in goals with 11. All that being said, Jonathan Toews led the team in assists points while scoring 3 game winners and won the Conn Smythe trophy for being a great captain, doing all the little things his team needed like winning faceoffs and killing penalties and was their most consistent player throughout the playoffs. So tell me where my assessment of last year's Cup run is wrong...An interesting little fact by the way is that "BIG BUFF" went scoreless in 14 of the team's 22 playoff games. His undoing in Chicago was his issues with consistency, which he once again proved this season.

3. Chicago played 82 games. Dallas played 82 games. In that time frame, Chicago earned more points than Dallas and thus deserved to be there more than Dallas. Where does this not make any sense? Chicago earned 8th place, Dallas earned 9th. Case closed.

4. Randle, I'm not talking crap. I'm rooting for the Canucks at this point and I think I've given them (Ryan Kesler especially) quite a lot of praise since round 1. But even you have to admit that anyone saying Kevin Bieksa is a more valuable player than Jonathan Toews is nonsensical.

Posted by mudbone1969 on 5/12/2011 9:53:00 PM (view original):
Kesler also did an amazing job on Toews, but to say Toews didn't produce is the apex of idiocy. 

Toews did not produce... period.

 Bieksa was one of the top +/- Defenseman in the league this year ,he plays on the canucks first d pair , he is Valiuable to the Canucks  just as Valuable as Toews ,who did nothing for the Hawks this year..its a insult to a great player like Bieksa to be compared to Toews,who did squat this year except watch his team fail in rd 1  after Dallas choked and they were left praying to get into the playoffs to start with..you would think that the reigning champs would win their way into the playoffs,not having to fall in after some hasbeen team Chokes!  Bieksa for the Norris