NHL 2006/2007 Thread

[J]

Move to Canada. They showed every single playoff game in the last two days, and today we still got two games. They even broadcast the women's world championships, the juniors' championships, well, if it's hockey, we have it. Oh yeah, and Coach's Corner, Don Cherry will be having a real good rant about all the blatant cheapshots tomorrow, I'm betting he yells until he loses his voice.

[Medic]

Move to Canada. They showed every single playoff game in the last two days, and today we still got two games. They even broadcast the women's world championships, the juniors' championships, well, if it's hockey, we have it. Oh yeah, and Coach's Corner, Don Cherry will be having a real good rant about all the blatant cheapshots tomorrow, I'm betting he yells until he loses his voice.

*sigh* I'm stuck in Ft. Riley till at least 2008.

Furthermore: unless I move into on-post housing (in that case, I'd have to be married) or off-post, I can't get a different cable / internet provider. There is one option on post and I am 'locked in.'

*a single tear rolls down my cheek*

[Master of Ossus]

All kinds of penalties were called in the final moments of Game 2 Friday, but Predators coach Barry Trotz was searching for one that was not called: an instigator penalty. Trotz believed that San Jose forward Ryan Clowe should have been hit with an instigator penalty after he dropped his gloves and approached Scott Hartnell following a face-off with a minute left in the game.

You've gotta be kidding me. How can Trotz be upset about the Sharks instigating fights? Isn't his the team whose outright thuggery has sent two players to the hospital in two games? Isn't his coaching staff the one that didn't even think the Hartnell-on-Cheechoo hit deserved to be penalized?

And, btw, Barry, you've yet again shown your disdain for and ignorance of the rules of the game.

An instigator of an altercation shall be a player or goalkeeper who, by his actions or demeanor demonstrates any/some of the following criteria: [snip list]

But since Clowe wasn't even involved in an altercation with Hartnell (that was Tootoo he was beating the tar out of), he cannot be assessed an instigator penalty for it. Maybe this ignorance of the rules is how Trotz comes to the conclusions he does. Not to mention the Nashville announcing core.

Incidentally, Scott Hartnell has managed to pick up three game misconducts in the span of two games! Good to see the kind of clean, upstanding players that this developing market has attracted.

Even more hilarity from Barry Trotz:

He was just going in and hits, I think its Bernier, just on the inside of the number six. Bernier hit his head on the glass a little bit. Rads isn’t a dirty player, he had 26 penalty minutes. He’s a goal scorer. They were targeting him all night. Rad is probably the least dirty player we’ve got. You just try to finish a check and create a loose puck. The league will look at it and I trust all the judgments the league makes. They look at it, they make all those decisions, so whatever happens there, that’s where we’ll be at.

[Darth Fanboy]

My voice is completely shot from Ducks/Wild last night. Very proud of the defense. Getzlaf's shorty is the Playoff highlight so far for any of the series.

Pens and Ottawa aren't quite at the same level of nastiness that Sharks/Preds is at, but it is on its way to getting there. Crosby took a shot to the throat that nobody on Mr. Magoo's crew bothered to call. Meanwhile, the Senator players and fans are in an uproar as one of their players (Eaves I think) is injured after running into Talbot. Talbot isn't even looking anywhere towards Eaves, and pivots to head down the ice, when Eaves hurts himself trying to avoid the accidental collision. Of course everyone wearing Red in the building thinks its a cheap shot :p.

[aerius]

Pens and Ottawa aren't quite at the same level of nastiness that Sharks/Preds is at, but it is on its way to getting there. Crosby took a shot to the throat that nobody on Mr. Magoo's crew bothered to call.

What's Magoo doing reffing the play-offs anyway? Boggles my mind.

[Darth Fanboy]

One Word: Tenure.

This just in, Radulov suspended by the NHL for Game 3 for his hit on Bernier.

Have you ever seen the separated at birth comparison between Iginla and a Beluga Whale?

That was one of the staples of Canucks.com when I posted there. Bloody hilarious.

This I must see.

[muse]

What's Magoo doing reffing the play-offs anyway? Boggles my mind.

Unwritten rule of playoff hockey #436 There shall be at least one officiating screwup in each playoff series so the fans of the losing team shall have someone to scapegoat for the loss.

[Archon]

Have you ever seen the separated at birth comparison between Iginla and a Beluga Whale?

That was one of the staples of Canucks.com when I posted there. Bloody hilarious.

This I must see.

+++http://forum.canucks.com/index.php?show ... 6073&st=40

Link to the Canucks.com NHL lookalike thread. It is on the 3rd page near the bottom.

[Master of Ossus]

This is incredible!

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Ron Wilson has no idea what playoff series Barry Trotz has been watching. The San Jose Sharks coach is pretty sure his Nashville counterpart won't like what happens next, however.

After refusing to comment following the Sharks' fisticuff-filled 5-2 loss to the Predators on Friday night, Wilson reacted incredulously Saturday to Trotz's repeated attempts to blame the series' physical tone and vindictive episodes on the Sharks.

"The rhetoric coming (from Trotz) is that we went there to start a street brawl, which is comical," Wilson said after the Sharks' 4 a.m. return from splitting the first two games in Nashville. The best-of-seven Western Conference series resumes Monday.

"Our responses aren't about beating anybody up or any of that baloney. We took home ice from them. The pressure is on them now. We're still in the driver's seat. .. We'll win the game on the ice."

Wilson is an eloquent veteran coach who's no stranger to verbal sparring after taking three franchises to the playoffs on seven occasions. Yet he seems increasingly puzzled by Trotz, whose first playoff appearance ended with San Jose's five-game victory in last season's first round.



The series' first two games were filled with physical play by both sides, but Wilson believes two important numbers tell the story: Nashville delivered two dangerous hits that knocked San Jose players out of the game while racking up 115 penalty minutes.

Scott Hartnell sidelined Jonathan Cheechoo in Game 1, though Trotz and Hartnell claimed the knee-on-knee collision was unintentional. Alexander Radulov then sent Steve Bernier headfirst into the boards with a hit from behind in Game 2.

While Hartnell avoided suspension Saturday when the NHL rescinded two misconduct penalties against him in Game 2, Wilson thought Radulov deserved more than a one-game suspension for clobbering Bernier - and then Trotz mystified Wilson by claiming that Bernier saw the dangerous hit coming, and braced himself for it.

"If you want to watch the video with me, he never saw it coming - and even if he did, he got knocked out! And (Trotz thinks) we started that. Sure, Bernie put a sign on his back that said, 'Hit me. Knock me out."'

The Sharks haven't determined whether Bernier has a concussion, or whether he'll be available for Game 3. The rest of the Sharks agreed with Wilson's criticism of Trotz's remarks.

"Who cares about intent?" asked Bill Guerin, who is scoreless in his first two playoff games with San Jose. "It's the action, and the league handled it. Whether you mean to or not, that's what happens."

Wilson's only complaint about his club's effort in Game 2 was its inability to score during the resulting five-minute power play, including a brief two-man advantage, after Radulov's hit. Nashville even added a short-handed goal moments later, and the Sharks couldn't recover in a game that ended with three separate fights in the final minute.

Trotz also blamed those scuffles on San Jose, noting that forward Ryane Clowe asked Hartnell to fight, then pre-emptively dropped his gloves.

"A lot of things were said on San Jose's part about payback," Trotz said. "We had our backs against the wall a little bit (in Game 2). We didn't want to do anything to put ourselves down 2-0 in the series. We just want to play hockey, but they had different intentions."

Utter nonsense, Wilson countered. Trotz - who has the final line change in a home game - put Hartnell and agitator Jordin Tootoo on the ice in the final moments, fully knowing something could happen after what Hartnell did to Cheechoo. Tootoo received a one-sided pounding from Clowe, while Hartnell's jersey was pulled off during his fight with Mike Grier.

Though Wilson bristles at the notion, many observers are waiting to see how the Sharks respond to this physical challenge. Last season, the Edmonton Oilers thought they gained a mental edge on the Sharks in their second-round playoff series after Raffi Torres landed a momentum-changing hit on Milan Michalek on the way to four consecutive victories.

"(Nashville) loaded up on some big guys during the off-season to match up with us," said Cheechoo, who is stiff but ready to play Monday. "I thought there were a couple of cheap hits by them to force guys out of the game. .. It's totally different from (Edmonton). It's been fairly physical the whole way through."

WTF!

Many commentators are unhappy about Radulov's sentence.

Alan Muir, for example.

Also, the TSN team is really unhappy about the Predators' conduct through the series, so far.

[Darth Fanboy]

After the suspension that Cam Janssen got earlier, you'd think Campbell would want to at least have something comparable. Radulov deserves more. I predict that the fans at the Tank will be most unfriendly to the Predators the next two games, their only hope at the moment is strong goaltending and big penalty killing. Especially if they're going to be taking a lot of penalties.

[Darth Fanboy]

The Wings should have won by five or six goals, Calgary should have tied it a few different times. Congrats to Detroit for winning the series but after those first 6-10 minutes of gameplay there should have been no excuse to let the Flames back into it, and it sounds odd but they really should have been up at least 3-0 or 4-0 after the first period, and i'm sorry Archon but After Calgary made it 2-1 and stole the momentum back they had no excuse to no score any more.


EDIT:

And even though I favor the Penguins in their series. I just had to make this picture....

[Archon]

What are you apologizing to me for?

The bums deserve everything they get when they play like that. I will not be disappointed if they lose the series. They barely scraped into the playoffs to begin with.

[Darth Fanboy]

Yes but you are like, the only intelligent Calgary fan I ever met and I would be bummed out if I offended you.

EDIT: Holy shit. Pens ended up losing but did anyone see the hit Colby Armstrong laid out on Patrick Eaves? Knocked him out cold.

Ducks one win away from the second round...

[Archon]

Yes but you are like, the only intelligent Calgary fan I ever met and I would be bummed out if I offended you.

You are a gentleman and a scholar, sir.

At this point in the series I can't help but agree with any criticisms of the Flames. Remember, however, that the Flames were the best home team in the regular season. They still have a chance.

[aerius]

I'm starting to get pissed since Coach's Corner is no longer on a predictable schedule, I've missed 4 days worth of CC since they keep switching the times around. Whoever's doing the playoff scheduling is an assclown.

[General Trelane (Retired)]

At this point in the series I can't help but agree with any criticisms of the Flames. Remember, however, that the Flames were the best home team in the regular season. They still have a chance.

But they looked pretty vulnerable at home at the close of the regular season.

So far, sKippy is the only one carrying his weight, and while hot goaltending is vital in the playoffs, they're going nowhere fast if others don't pick up the slack. Game 3 will tell us how much the Shames really want to be there.

[Master of Ossus]

"I think it was a penalty but I don't know if it was a game misconduct," Radulov told the Predators' official Web site. "I don't think that I hit him from behind. I hit him for his shoulder. I watched the replay and I hit him in the shoulder."

You've gotta be kidding me. I hope to see several Predators carted off to the hospital in the next few games. I don't even care who they are, but I hope it's their skill players who go first.

[Master of Ossus]

Huzzah! We have taken another game from the dirty Predators, and it looks like Erat was shaken up! With more play like this, we could make it tough on Nashville going back to Tennessee.

[Archon]

And that, my friends, is FLAMES hockey.

3-2 Calgary Final. Lidstrom made bad decisions on 2 of the goals.

[Master of Ossus]

Sharks roll, again, though I didn't like how we made it interesting at the end. Not our best effort, but we prove to be better than the Central Division thugs, again.

[Master of Ossus]

Fuck the Predators. Today, yet another Predator picked up a game misconduct. This time, it was Scott Nichol for a vicious slash. Hordichuk also picked up a 5 minute major for spearing. Vokoun also slashed Steve Bernier in the groin, on yet another dirty play by the Nashville Predators. This is clearly a coached tactic, at this point. We've gotta win the series, now, so we don't have to worry about these thugs, anymore. Where the fuck is the League to handle their dirty tactics? What the fuck is the League going to do in order to cut down on these fuckers? Oh, that's right, they're too busy removing game-misconduct penalties from the Preds' most dirty players, and leveling measly 1-game suspensions out for horrifically dirty hits designed to injure the Preds.

Edit: Thank you, Patrick.

[Archon]

Good on the Aneroid Assassin and the San Jose Sharks for eliminating the hated Predators.

[Archon]

Oddly enough it is the special teams that are killing the Flames on this night.

[Darth Fanboy]

Damn, The Flames just lost everything resembling professionalism and composure at the end of that one. McLennan's suspension will keep him from playing in the rest of the playoffs, and for over 10 games next year at least. Game six might even get the nastiness up to Sharks/Preds levels, combined with the fact that its a competitive series still.

Tis is the first chance i've had to comment since the ANAHEIM DUCKS finished off the Wild to advance to the second round for the second season in a row, third in the last four seasons. Next up is either Calgary, OR Vancouver, or San Jose. It is impossible for the Ducks to match with the Stars in the second round.

The game was a blast, and it was nice to finish off Minnesota and be able to breathe during the last minute of the game and pick up that empty netter as opposed to having to fight brutally in the last minute like we've been doing.

[Archon]

Good finish boys, way to show some emotion. I mean every word of it too.

As for McLennan...2 game suspension tops.