National Hockey League 2011-2012

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If it's Crosby, he deserves it. I started this series wanting the Penguins to win. No more!

*jumps on the Flyer's train*
 
Hewson said:
I'd think that Quick makes it more difficult for the Canucks to come back. So I'll say Pittsboig, but I think they're both toast.
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41 save shut out, I'd say Quick definitely making it difficult on Vancouver.

And indeed both Penguins and Canucks are toast.
 
I think I'm gonna have to root for the Panthers if the Nucks and Penguins don't make it out of this first round.

Ultra-disappointment if Vancouver's season ends with a sweep.
 
Judging the way their final regular season meeting went down, I expected nothing less.

I'm just shocked Pittsburgh can't win a game. As with Vancouver. Although the latter is hurting me.
 
PhilsFan said:
I hate Pittsburgh so much. Someone's going to get hurt in Game 4.
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Really doubt it - frankly not much at stake at this point. Game 3 was the one with the most potential for insanity.

Nice to see Vancouver flame out. Though I have a couple of their players in my pool, they really haven't added much value so I'm not sad to see them go.

Just picked up tix to Game 4 of Caps/Bruins.
 
For all athletes, until the series is over, there is always something at stake. Again, as I've said before, collectively, it's very hard for athletes to turn off their desire to win. Maybe some individuals might have given up, but not the entire team. I don't expect the Penguins or Canucks to capitulate that easily, and will try to make this a series one period at a time.
 
Also, I find that the way the Philly-Pitt series has gone is a complete disgrace, and represents an abject failure by the NHL to take control of the situation. That begins with Brendan Shanahan, who I don't think will be back next season in the same role.

The Shea Weber non-suspension is an example of this and sends the wrong message to players. You wouldn't see this happen in the NFL, for example, which, whether you agree with their methods or not, isn't afraid at throwing the book at players and takes their safety seriously.

I've seen a lot of tweets about the return of old-time hockey being a good thing. Hockey can be a physical game, but there's no need for the type of BS we're seeing so far. Take the Olympics, for example: you see beautiful, passionate, hard-nosed, intense hockey, like it's supposed to be played, but nary a fight or questionable hit. So why can't it be like that in the NHL? It's sickening to me, that's what it is.
 
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Cox: NHL playoffs veer wildly out of control

April 15, 2012
Damien Cox

c896411b4d7a998d2dba368b7e04.jpg

With star players being targeted as never before and woefully inadequate sanctions being handed out by the NHL, it's pretty clear that chief disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan has been told to back off when it comes to suspensions, says Damien Cox.
VINCE TALOTTA/TORONTO STAR



Welcome to the decaying orbit of Brendan Shanahan.

No one would have imagined it would happen this fast.
Less than a year after taking over from Colin Campbell and supposedly ushering in a new era of common sense justice for the NHL, it has become clear that Shanahan’s reign will be no more progressive and may in fact drag the NHL backwards.

Indeed, with the playoffs upon us, the stars of the game are being targetted as never before. It’s like Sean Payton has become a paid consultant for every NHL playoff team.

Not only has Sheriff Shanny been reduced to the proverbial traffic cop handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500, at times it has seemed like there’s no sheriff overseeing the chaos at all. The NHL’s “Department of Player Safety,” created to give Shanahan a grandiose title and business card, now sounds rather silly.

He’s a nice man, a well-meaning man. But he’s been neutered and now discredited.

It’s been a gradual progression to this point where many are, in the words of a New York Rangers press release, “perplexed by the inconsistencies” of his rulings.

What started months ago with Milan Lucic running Ryan Miller without sanction, continued with the insufficient suspension to Rene Bourque for concussing Nicklas Backstrom, moved along several weeks ago with the unpunished line brawl between the Rangers and Devils to open a game, continued with the inexplicable leniency shown Duncan Keith for the cheapest of cheap shots that may have ended former Hart Trophy winner Daniel Sedin’s season and hit a low with Shea Weber’s all-but-excused attack on Henrik Zetterberg, continued on a downwards trajectory over the weekend with scenes reminiscent from the thuggish days of the 1970s.

This, folks, was the NHL out of control. It would be impossible to report all of the weekend’s nonsense in a single column.

Three disciplinary hearings came out of Saturday’s games, with others possibly coming out of Sunday’s Pittsburgh-Philadelphia game, a contest that began with all forms of nonsense and ended up making the NHL look like a hillbilly beer league.

The hearings, of course, are all fine and good. It’s the next part, delivering forceful punishments, that appears to have been taken away from Shanahan. Anything more than insignificant fines or 1-3 game suspensions — bans that change nothing, most will acknowledge — are beyond his job classification, apparently.

Three games to Carl Hagelin of the Rangers for a blatant head shot on Daniel Alfredsson of the Senators might be noteworthy except it came just days after Weber got a $2,500 fine for his attack on Zetterberg and on the same day a variety of similar incidents went unpunished.

Then came the punctuation mark on Shanahan’s impotence; a one-game suspension on Sunday to Ottawa goon Matt Carkner for a brutal and unprovoked attack on New York’s Brian Boyle.

Shanahan’s credibility died with that pathetic decision. That is, if there was any left after he excused Weber.

Look, there’s some great hockey being played in these playoffs, make no mistake about it. Philly’s offence has been extraordinary, Nashville’s expanded arsenal impressive.

But the mayhem is overshadowing everything; we’re seeing ugly piled on top of ugly, with players seemingly having noticed Shanahan’s lax rulings and realizing there’s are no serious repercussions for violent and reckless play.

Carkner’s attack on Boyle, who didn’t drop his gloves or agree to fight, was the low moment of the weekend and included at least five cowardly punches with Boyle lying on the ice.

Honour? The code? Don’t think so.

Earlier this year, you may remember, Alfredsson was concussed by another Ranger lightweight, Wojtek Wolski, who got a minor penalty and no suspension.

See the pattern? See a star being targeted?

While that was going on, San Jose was delivering its own head shot message in St. Louis. First, Brent Burns elbowed Scott Nichol in the head, then in the third period, fringe player T.J. Galiardi launched himself in to the head of speedy Blues forward Andy McDonald.

McDonald’s helmet was cracked, but nonetheless, Galiardi received only a two-minute minor and not a single peep of protest from Shanahan. The worst part was that McDonald has courageously fought back from concussion problems for years.

In the wild circus that was the Philly-Penguin game, Asham cross-checked Brayden Schenn in the face and got the boot. He’ll sleep easy knowing there’s at worst a small suspension coming his way, or none at all.

As the rest of the hockey world moves progressively away from a style of game in which violence, intimidation and goonism takes a central role, the NHL moves closer to a grim, heartless place barely related to sport.

If Shanahan had simply upheld the standard set last spring when Mike Murphy banned Aaron Rome for the rest of the Stanley Cup final after a blatant head shot on Nathan Horton, we wouldn’t be having this discussion now.

But Shanahan didn’t, or wasn’t allowed to. He has allowed the league’s best players to become targets on his watch and let the perps walk with slaps on the wrist. He has been clearly told to mind his place and keep the discipline to a minimum.

Apparently, he is willing to go along with the farce.

He looks nice in the videos. But they should really come with a laugh track.
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My initial instinct during the last few scrums of Game 3 was the thought...

Watching two refs have to control one player... what the hell do they do if all 10 players on the ice are doing the same thing? Someone actually WILL get hurt. They can't restrain 10 players with 4 refs. So yeah, I don't think the NHL is doing such a swell job at protecting the players. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of letting em play and stuff... but it got waaaay too out of hand at the end of the game there.
 
^Agreed. There is a difference between letting them play and letting them get totally out of control. The Pittsburgh/Philly game was a disgrace. I hope Shanahan does something about yesterday's game, but I don't hold my breath.
 
BoMac said:
For all athletes, until the series is over, there is always something at stake. Again, as I've said before, collectively, it's very hard for athletes to turn off their desire to win. Maybe some individuals might have given up, but not the entire team. I don't expect the Penguins or Canucks to capitulate that easily, and will try to make this a series one period at a time.
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The reason that I said I doubt it is that if you are Philly you have no incentive to get into a situation where you could have a) key players hurt or b) suspended. And given that everybody and their brother is outraged right now about the NHL's handling of the playoffs - they either need to stop suspending people altogether since it doesn't mean anything or hand out suspensions properly, it very well could be that the league will be looking to hand out a few suspensions as an example. Why would Philly, a team which has proven over and over that they can win, which is playing against a goalie with no confidence and a team without a composed leader, risk any of that?

It could be that I'm just naively hopeful that we've seen the worst of it. But at the end of the day, while Pittsburgh has everything to gain/lose, I think that there is no upside for Philly at all to lose their composure as well.

As an aside, I lost a lot of respect for Crosby in this series.

:shrug:
 
Haha!

To be honest, I am not a Penguins fan, and I have not really followed Crosby's career very closely aside from Team Canada. It wouldn't surprise me if he was always this way, it's just that I didn't come face to face with it so blatantly until this series.
 
Thora said:
Agreed. I've always thought he was a punk-ass bitch, and he definitely proved that again yesterday.
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Thora, the language! :love:

I don't think I've ever heard you speak that way! :wink:

To me, Crosby has seemed even worse since his return from the concussion.
 
Some are saying that because Crosby sat for so long this season, he's had all this pent-up emotion that's just coming out now, albeit in the wrong fashion.

I don't buy it. He's always been a whiner and runs his mouth off at the wrong times. There's no denying his talent, if only he sticks to playing hockey.

For me, the worst possible outcome of the Vancouver Olympics was Crosby scoring the winning goal. When that game went to overtime, I wanted anyone to score, even Patrice Bergeron, from the hated Bruins. I literally didn't know how to react when that, as Sharon so eloquently said, punk-ass bitch scored.
 
ryancoke71 said:
Thora, the language! :love:

I don't think I've ever heard you speak that way! :wink:

To me, Crosby has seemed even worse since his return from the concussion.
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Haha, yeah I tend to curse like a sailor when it comes to hockey.

It's funny - a few years ago some co-workers and I were watching a playoff game together, and they were SO shocked at how much I was yelling and screaming. I'm normally very polite and quiet, but when I'm watching hockey I get VERY vocal. :wink:
 
BoMac said:
Some are saying that because Crosby sat for so long this season, he's had all this pent-up emotion that's just coming out now, albeit in the wrong fashion.

I don't buy it. He's always been a whiner and runs his mouth off at the wrong times. There's no denying his talent, if only he sticks to playing hockey.

For me, the worst possible outcome of the Vancouver Olympics was Crosby scoring the winning goal. When that game went to overtime, I wanted anyone to score, even Patrice Bergeron, from the hated Bruins. I literally didn't know how to react when that, as Sharon so eloquently said, punk-ass bitch scored.
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Seconded, especially the last paragraph. I was so mad when he got the game winning goal. A friend's nickname for him was something like Rat-face. I was obviously glad we'd won, but knew I'd never hear the end of him because he scored the bloody winner.
 
Thora said:
Haha, yeah I tend to curse like a sailor when it comes to hockey.

It's funny - a few years ago some co-workers and I were watching a playoff game together, and they were SO shocked at how much I was yelling and screaming. I'm normally very polite and quiet, but when I'm watching hockey I get VERY vocal. :wink:
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We must see a game together someday!!!

I felt kind of neutral about Crosby. I notice a difference since he has come back, and maybe that is because I didn't hate him before. He has always been a whiner, but it has gone so far beyond that now.

As for the Team Canada goal, I was so stressed out I really didn't care who scored the winner! I just wanted the game done!!!
 
The problem in Game 4 will be the same problem from Game 3: Pittsburgh will throw cheap shots and Philly will be forced to retaliate. And Sidney will wait for refs to get between him and someone and throw punches from behind a ref. He'll kick people's gloves away like a fucking little kid. And Bylsma will pretend that we asked for it.
 
Fuck him. Really enjoyed him grabbing Hartnell and holding on scared till Adams came to save the day. And then Adams fucking grabbed Hartnell's hair. That whole team should be deported.
 
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