Originally posted by kobayashi:
just got back from the game wanderer(yes i came home to use my dads tix and play golf )
anyway here was my percepion from about 20 rows up:
first of all we loudly cheered the american anthem but my american mom was watching(i think) so maybe that's why i was 'good'
leafs open 2 to 0 lead. playing very well, hitting everyhing in sigh, no o much tomfoolery going on. isles started the rough play. webb et al saw they were already down by two and looked for a spark, fair enough any team would do it in the situation but expect reciprocal action. and reciprocal action came:
the roberts hit: gary knew what he was doing. BUT it happens every 10 minutes in the NHL and there was nothing exceptional about his hit in particular, it was a boarding call, in my opinion only deserving of 2 minutes, but i have not seen the replay. certainly no criticism is due on roberts part. he did something wholly not irregular in the nhl, if jonsson is susceptible to concussions he should second guess his decision to be out there. roberts hit was nothing outside of the regular course of a game.
from this point on, naturally, the game is pretty chippy. exchange goals and then the tucker hit:
tucker's hit was legal. last time i checked there wasn't anything against a hip check and that's all it was, however, tucker knew he was going in there with the intent of damaging peca. once again nothing extraordinary in the hit, just playoff action and peca lands funny, unfortunate for the game: most definetely, good for the leafs: most definetely. but you know what peca had his stick hacking away at mccabe all night. he could have easily broken somebodies wrist and everyone in toronto would have been complaining.
in my opinion alls fair is fair. if peca is gonna skate around dishing it out, he had better be ready to take it, i for one hope he is back cause he is great to watch. as for jonnson, the penalty that roberts got was what he deserved, 5 minutes for boarding, nothing more. such is the way of playoff hockey.
imo
You sound like a biased Leafs fan. Even worse, you sound like that neanderthal coach, Pat Quinn. Let me put this in caps to get the point across.
ROBERTS HIT JONSSON FROM BEHIND WITH FULL FORCE UTILIZING HIS HANDS AND ARMS WHICH IS ILLEGAL. HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN THROWN OUT OF THE GAME, ACCORDING TO THE RULES. PERIOD. JONSSON'S SUSEPTIBILITY TO CONCUSSIONS HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO W/THE FACT THAT ROBERTS WENT IN FAST, HARD AND FROM BEHIND. A CHECK IS LEGALLY DELIVERED WITH THE SHOULDERS FIRST, NOT THE ARMS. ALTHOUGH JONSSON PUT HIMSELF IN AN AWKWARD POSITION, ROBERTS SHOULD HAVE BEEN THROWN OUT OF THE GAME. END OF STORY.
AS FOR THE TUCKER HIT: TO BE HONEST, IT WAS A LITTLE LOW, BUT NOT THE WORST THING IN THE WORLD. DARIUS KASPARITUS USED TO GET CHEERED ALL THE TIME BY ISLES FANS WHEN HE DELIVERED SIMILAR HITS SO I DONT WANT TO BE HYPOCRITICAL. PECA ALSO MUST EXPECT HITS SINCE HE ALWAYS DISHES IT OUT AND SINCE HE ANTAGONIZED TUCKER IN THE PAPERS.
With that said, it is rather pathetic that the Leafs had to resort to taking out the Isles best players in order to win. We could argue about the hits all day and not get anywhere. However, the leaf knew what they were doing when they hit the Isles most best 2-way player in Peca and their best defensive player in Jonsson.
To be fair, Steve Webb has left his skates when making hits all series long and should have been penalized.
McCabe used his stick to spear Cairs at the end of the game, Corson constantly takes runs at Osgood and punched Yashin in the face last night. It is for these reasons and more why the leafs are known as the dirtiest team in the NHL.
As for the anthem: I have been to both gamesTat the Nassau Coliseum(and will be at game 6 on Sunday) and some people booed the Canadian National Anthem. That is unacceptable and I condem it. Canada is America's biggest ally and I just hope(and optimistically think) that many of the booing fans were booing the Leafs and not Canada. Lets face it: many people in the world are ignorant and many NHL fans(especially when drunk) are even more ignorant. The only way to resolve this is to not act in such an ignorant manner.
To clarify, I want to acknowledge that the Isles have only themselves to blame for the loss. They came out playing well and then let up when Peca went down. Losing stinks and the leafs were expected to win b/c they are slightly better. However, losing to a team that resorts to dirty play b/c they are frustrated b/c Sundin is out and losing w/out my(Isles) best players is very sad.
And people wonder why(in the US) hockey is and probably always will be a fourth-rate sport.
[This message has been edited by MBH (edited 04-27-2002).]
[This message has been edited by MBH (edited 04-27-2002).]
