NHL Playoffs 2009 (FINALS!)

[redxblack]

Kronwall missed a game for his hit on Havlat, and that was clean. Malkin attacked Zetterberg with his stick, had some help from Satan for a few seconds and got assessed the instigator penalty. The NHL head office had to waive an automatic one game suspension.

The pens are showing how if they can't win, they'll do whatever it takes. It's ugly and demeans the sport.

I had a pens fan tell me that Hossa's slash on Talbot was the game changer, that the slash wasn't called so the wings won. Crazy.

Watching this slow-motion replay...the non-call on the ice was good. Dupuis stick was broken by himself (upon striking the ice or Hossa's skate), while battling for the puck. The wings are playing a clean series. Pittsburgh CANNOT say the same.

[Ducatiloo]

Nice post redxblack 

[corey]

Kronwall missed a game for his hit on Havlat, and that was clean. Malkin attacked Zetterberg with his stick, had some help from Satan for a few seconds and got assessed the instigator penalty. The NHL head office had to waive an automatic one game suspension.

The pens are showing how if they can't win, they'll do whatever it takes. It's ugly and demeans the sport.

I had a pens fan tell me that Hossa's slash on Talbot was the game changer, that the slash wasn't called so the wings won. Crazy.

Watching this slow-motion replay...the non-call on the ice was good. Dupuis stick was broken by himself (upon striking the ice or Hossa's skate), while battling for the puck. The wings are playing a clean series. Pittsburgh CANNOT say the same.

What the slow-motion replay doesn't show is the gigantic, blatant, undeniable HOOK on Dupuis BEFORE his stick breaks. It was a no-call, just like the Giant hook on Helm during his breakaway. Officiating has been lax in all respects, going both ways. However, there is no denying that the Redwings run interference every chance they get, and are being allowed to tiptoe on the wrong side of the line between good defense and interference penalties, and have been allowed to do so for about 10 years now.


And as for #2, the U.S.S. Hal Gill, cut the guy some slack, he's churning those treetrunks as fast as he can 
Met him at a local bar once... He's a good guy, but a slow walker too!

[Kopfjäger]

 On a lighter note. 

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/nhl_tries_to_woo_fans_by

[corey]

On a lighter note. 

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/nhl_tries_to_woo_fans_by

hysterical!
i love the onion.

[redxblack]

the pens got really lucky tonight that the zebras couldn't count to six.

[Magnus]

On a lighter note. 

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/nhl_tries_to_woo_fans_by

 

[redxblack]

Sidney Crosby

[redxblack]

so much for a sweep. Oh well. Maybe if we could find refs who can count to 6, the series will end in 5.

[Dannyboy]

so much for a sweep. Oh well. Maybe if we could find refs who can count to 6, the series will end in 5.

I don't think anyone really thought there would be a sweep.  The 6 guys on the ice thing didn't bother me half as much as the intereference call that gave the Pens the winner.  How the hell can you go 50 minutes without calling that either way and then make the call in the last ten minutes of a tie game?  If I hear another Pens fan cry about the refs I am gonna lose my mind.  I can think of 5 missed or bad calls off the top of my head that went the Pens' way.

On another note, is it me or did it look like Letang's goal might have deflected a bit off of Lidstrom's right skate?  The way Osgood has been playing, it would have had to.  I can't imagine him being beaten 5-hole from that far out.

[corey]

so much for a sweep. Oh well. Maybe if we could find refs who can count to 6, the series will end in 5.

absolutely absurd... i was staring at my TV scratching my head for 30 seconds...
eaton didn't have much to do with the on-ice play, so i don't think it really hurt the wings that much, but it just goes to show that the black&whites have some brushing up to do.
it's tough for the players to play when the officials are so inconsistent with their calls. the safe thing to do would be to play by the rules, that way you don't risk getting called on something, whether it's BS or not... Rather than constantly pushing the limits on things like interference.

[swampduc]

Disclaimer: I am an Avs fan, and therefore loathe the Red Wings and everything about them.  
That said, I've seen plenty of whining from Wings fans, too. Look at the last few pgs of this thread, for example. This forum is obviously a biased sample given that there are many more Wings fans than Pens fans or any other fans. Add in to that the fact that the Wings are like the Cowboys, Yankees, or Red Sox, who have legions of bandwagon fans who have "been with them forever" in virtually every city.
But over the last 10 yrs, the Wings have had one of the most talented, disciplined, veteran organizations ever. And yet, they cheat just as much as any other team. It's HOCKEY, for cryin' out loud, and it's the playoffs on top of that - there wasn't a team out there that wasn't cheating. Holmstrom, Kronwall, Stuart, Rafalski, Draper - you're gonna tell me all those guys are totally clean? Even the clean players on both teams are really pushing the limits on interference.
I wish both teams and their fans would quit worrying about the refs so much. These are 2 great teams, both with future hall-of-famers, and they are fun to watch.

[redxblack]

as a die-hard wings fan, I can tell you we're spoiled. We're used to winning after losing for four decades. The wings played for crap last night, but even playing poorly the game could have gone either way. the stripes made two critical decisions (or blew them) that swung the game.

The 6 skaters didn't bother me as much as the Kunitz crosscheck to Franzen's head. Those need to be called for safety. There were several lesser head shots and so much boarding that wasn't called - it was frustrating. Franzen missed a series last year in the playoffs due to concussion - head injuries are nothing to take lightly.

It's also kinda humerous that Malkin's status after an instigator penalty was controversial and he had a point on all 3 pens goals that meant anything. But it's over now, so moving on...


But Datsyuk will be back for game 4 (and the wings lost game 3 last year), so here we go again!

[corey]

as a die-hard wings fan, I can tell you we're spoiled. We're used to winning after losing for four decades. The wings played for crap last night, but even playing poorly the game could have gone either way. the stripes made two critical decisions (or blew them) that swung the game.

The 6 skaters didn't bother me as much as the Kunitz crosscheck to Franzen's head. Those need to be called for safety. There were several lesser head shots and so much boarding that wasn't called - it was frustrating. Franzen missed a series last year in the playoffs due to concussion - head injuries are nothing to take lightly.

It's also kinda humerous that Malkin's status after an instigator penalty was controversial and he had a point on all 3 pens goals that meant anything. But it's over now, so moving on...


But Datsyuk will be back for game 4 (and the wings lost game 3 last year), so here we go again!

i thought the wings played particularly well last night. i think osgood was off his game a bit for sure.
not once in that game did i feel like the pens were outplaying the redwings. it was a 60 minute heart-wrenching struggle for us here in the burgh. the skill level of most of the wings players is a notch above MOST of our guys. our defense has trouble dealing with the stickhanlding ability of guys like hossa and zetterberg.

pens need to pick it up even more in game 4, we'll see what happens.
all in all though, this is another great year of playoffs i won't soon forget.
<3 hockey.

[redxblack]

the wings are usually laser-like with tape to tape passes and have no problems evading defenders in gaining the zone. The fact the refs let almost every interference from both teams go uncalled basically unhinged Detroit's game and without Datsyuk they couldn't really get Plan B going as they did with the Ducks series.

Holy run-on sentence.