NHL 2010/2011 season thread

[skinrock]

Originally Posted by ragingclue

However, I don't see Detroit beating Phoenix unless Kronwall comes back 100% healthy and Zetterberg comes back as well.

Z is out for Game 1, but I'm not too worried. They finished strong, and I think Helm and Abdelkader are going to step up and do great things throughout the playoffs.

It should be a good series, like most...I think 6 out of the 8 matchups have teams that were tied this season.

[ragingclue]

Originally Posted by skinrock

Z is out for Game 1, but I'm not too worried. They finished strong, and I think Helm and Abdelkader are going to step up and do great things throughout the playoffs.

It should be a good series, like most...I think 6 out of the 8 matchups have teams that were tied this season.

I'm more worried about Kronwall, to be honest.... Our D has looked abysmal lately (how is Salei even getting ice time anymore with how shitty he's been playing???) and Kronwall also delivers some offensive punch and steps our checking game up to a whole new level. People don't want to skate around the neutral zone with their heads down (or up even) when they know Kronwall might be out there. He plays a much bigger role than his skills alone.

[skinrock]

Originally Posted by ragingclue

I'm more worried about Kronwall, to be honest.... Our D has looked abysmal lately (how is Salei even getting ice time anymore with how shitty he's been playing???) and Kronwall also delivers some offensive punch and steps our checking game up to a whole new level. People don't want to skate around the neutral zone with their heads down (or up even) when they know Kronwall might be out there. He plays a much bigger role than his skills alone.

We'll see, I guess. I missed the last few games due to lack of channel options and not being able to watch them all online, so I actually didn't know he was out for so long.

From what I read, he's fired up to start tonight, so hopefully that is good news. Looks like it's Babcock's call.

Bertuzzi is the one I'm tired of. Lots of penalties (and I specifically remember a few at some very stupid times to get one), -7 and gets more ice time than Helm and Abldekader.

[Cdnrockies]

Originally Posted by teamben158

I, for one, look forward to watching The Blackhawks knock Vancouver out of the playoffs for the third year in a row

Score one for the good guys tonight.

[skinrock]

Good games tonight. I missed the first period of the Wings due to being in California and working till 8pm eastern, but my heart was racing when I was watching the ice-tracker on nhl.com during the 5-3 penalty kill. Excellent comeback, very very pleasing to see Datsyuk and Franzen step up.

The Washington and NYR game was upsetting for me, I was rooting for NY. I just never cared for Ovechkin. New York played a strong game, it's too bad they let such a shitty goal in. The Vancouver and Chicago game was one-sided. Chicago looked very slow and confused. The Canucks were just walking all over them.

[ragingclue]

Umm well, let's see who Chicago let go without suitably replacing them....

Burish
Ladd
Byfuglien
Eager

...

Am I missing anyone? So, they let go just about everyone who could agitate and deliver the physical blows that alter momentum. That's very counterintuitive unless you've got a full three lines that can score enough to keep the other team's hitters honest.

Vancouver obviously keyed in on this fact and really physically beat the shit out of Chicago from the get-go. It was painful to watch really. And when you think about "well, who's going to hit back for Chicago?", there's no answer. Keith and Seabrook will be on the ice too long to really step up their physcial game. I guess Chicago has learned the painful lessons about today's NHL, in that it's really hard to keep an entire roster with all of the characters you need to be a strong playoff team. That being said, they did only lose by two goals, they did hit a few posts and get a couple bad bounces (although Vancouver did as well), and Crawford looked solid. It's only one game, and if they can score enough to get ahead of Vancouver's physical game, they might have a shot.

However, I don't think that's all that possible. Vancouver is a machine.

[Doctor J]

Originally Posted by ragingclue

Vancouver is a machine.

Go CANUCKS! Luongo's got his game face on ... finally!

[skinrock]

Who thinks Torres will/should be suspended again for that hit? It's pretty ridiculous that he pulls the same exact move the first game back from getting suspended for it previously.

JR took a nice jab at him "the Canucks are very deep, they won't miss him".

[Cdnrockies]

Originally Posted by skinrock

Who thinks Torres will/should be suspended again for that hit? It's pretty ridiculous that he pulls the same exact move the first game back from getting suspended for it previously.

JR took a nice jab at him "the Canucks are very deep, they won't miss him".

He should be done for the year. He's a complete retard.

The 'Nucks had all the momentum and then he takes a stupid penalty....for the second time in the game. If they lose this game, I'm guessing he won't play one way or the other.

[ragingclue]

Originally Posted by skinrock

Who thinks Torres will/should be suspended again for that hit? It's pretty ridiculous that he pulls the same exact move the first game back from getting suspended for it previously.

JR took a nice jab at him "the Canucks are very deep, they won't miss him".

Well, to be quite honest, his elbow was exactly where the NHL prefers it to be; flush against the body. If you look at the replay, you can see that the elbow shouldn't be the issue. It should have been a charge for leaving his feet, or maybe roughing, or maybe two minutes for inteference, as it was.... And c'mon now, Seabrook should know better than to go in to a contested puck behind the net with his head down. I'm floored that he put himself in that situation to begin with.

Between Seabrook's reaction, Torres' reputation, and the crowd's reaction, I think the play was blown out of proportion. The most I could see from that is a four minute double minor. Charging or roughing is the worst they can pin him with; elbowing just can't be called when the player makes initial contact the way he did.

Watch the hit again and look at where his elbow is.

I wish Buttman would be less obvious about which teams he would like to advance for the betterment of the NHL.... Watching most of the games in the playoffs so far, it's ridiculous how the officiating has turned out in a lot of these series.... However, I expect no different from that piece of shit.

Just be glad you don't have to listen to these homer CSN announcers. They're terrible. I have to turn off the volume to watch the Hawks games, else I have the overwhelming urge to stab myself in the ear. These guys are a joke.

[Cdnrockies]

Originally Posted by ragingclue

Well, to be quite honest, his elbow was exactly where the NHL prefers it to be; flush against the body. If you look at the replay, you can see that the elbow shouldn't be the issue. It should have been a charge for leaving his feet, or maybe roughing, or maybe two minutes for inteference, as it was.... And c'mon now, Seabrook should know better than to go in to a contested puck behind the net with his head down. I'm floored that he put himself in that situation to begin with.

Between Seabrook's reaction, Torres' reputation, and the crowd's reaction, I think the play was blown out of proportion. The most I could see from that is a four minute double minor. Charging or roughing is the worst they can pin him with; elbowing just can't be called when the player makes initial contact the way he did.

Watch the hit again and look at where his elbow is.

I wish Buttman would be less obvious about which teams he would like to advance for the betterment of the NHL.... Watching most of the games in the playoffs so far, it's ridiculous how the officiating has turned out in a lot of these series.... However, I expect no different from that piece of shit.

Just be glad you don't have to listen to these homer CSN announcers. They're terrible. I have to turn off the volume to watch the Hawks games, else I have the overwhelming urge to stab myself in the ear. These guys are a joke.

The elbow is irrelevant when talking about head shots. It is very clear that he made the initial contact directly to the head. It was his shoulder, directly to the head of an unsuspecting player that was blind sided. This is the exact kind of hit the NHL is trying to get rid of.

This is further compounded by the fact that he just came back from a 4 game suspension for another head shot...and had already been penalized in the first period for a head shot that just missed. He has a history of a blatantly disregarding the safety of other players throughout his career.

[ragingclue]

Yeah after watching the replay, it's clear the head is the main point of contact. Looks like if he wouldn't have provided that last pushoff with his skates, he would have avoided doing that. However, he didn't show proper restraint which separates the good tough hitters from the cheap shotters.

It doesn't matter how close it was to being a clean hit. His reputation will damn him anyway. In that particular instance, I'd look to the history of the player to see if a suspension was warranted, and in this case there's no doubt that we've got a habitual offender.

The reason why I was so pissed about the elbowing claims was because the CSN broadcasters and even the post game analysts kept using the "elbow to the head" description, and it just wasn't. It was definitely a hit to the head, but god damn it quit saying it was a fucking elbow already!

[ragingclue]

On a side note, what's up with the Vancouver radio station housed here in the Merchandise Mart Plaza for their stay and broadcast while here in Chicago, who are going on about "Shitcago" on the air? Kinda tasteless IMO.

[Cdnrockies]

Originally Posted by ragingclue

On a side note, what's up with the Vancouver radio station housed here in the Merchandise Mart Plaza for their stay and broadcast while here in Chicago, who are going on about "Shitcago" on the air? Kinda tasteless IMO.

No idea what asshats they sent down there, but that does sound completely lame.

Overall, Vancouver is a pretty classy organization. Not a true reflection of the team or the city.

[Cyrax91]

F*ck the Hawks ha! I love seeing the Canucks kick their ass.

GO WINGS!

[Doctor J]

100% Seabrook's fault .Seabrook skated behind the net looking backwards, thats just a dumb thing to do. People say Torres should have let up. This is playoff hockey -- you dont let up, you make him pay for his mistake. It is impossible for Torres to make contact without contacting the head. This was a clean hit to a guy that was chasing the puck who's body was facing him -- his head was just turned the other way . The refs got it right and so did the league.

[ragingclue]

Originally Posted by Doctor J

100% Seabrook's fault .Seabrook skated behind the net looking backwards, thats just a dumb thing to do. People say Torres should have let up. This is playoff hockey -- you dont let up, you make him pay for his mistake. It is impossible for Torres to make contact without contacting the head. This was a clean hit to a guy that was chasing the puck who's body was facing him -- his head was just turned the other way . The refs got it right and so did the league.

I agree that Seabrook was a dunce for going after that puck like that.

I honestly think Torres was surprised by the fact that Seabrook went in in such a vulnerable manner. Seabrook is always standing guys up who try to hit him and doesn't shy away from the opportunity to counter a hit. However, contact with the head specifically as a target is forbidden in the NHL. As I said before, when things move as fast as they do in the NHL, sometimes a hit will incidentally be made with a player's head but in this case it looked like Torres did have enough time to see that he wasn't going to contact Seabrook's body first.

As far as your claim that it was a "clean hit", I dunno about that. "Clean" would imply that it didn't violate any rules. Technically Seabrook hadn't played the puck and so interference was the right call (although I think interference in that case is bullshit, but that's the way the NHL calls it so....). His elbow was against his body and he didn't leave his feet to make the hit. It's all about whether or not the ruling body thinks Seabrook's head specifically was the target, and in this case I'm surprised they didn't suspend him, but they've spoken and that's that. Initially it may not have been, but IMO Torres probably was aware of the fact that he was going to hit Seabrook's head while he still had time to let up a bit.

In the end, I'm sure Chicago will retaliate. I'm disappointed in Toews' public response; it's not one of a mature captain.

[Cdnrockies]

Originally Posted by Doctor J

100% Seabrook's fault .Seabrook skated behind the net looking backwards, thats just a dumb thing to do. People say Torres should have let up. This is playoff hockey -- you dont let up, you make him pay for his mistake. It is impossible for Torres to make contact without contacting the head. This was a clean hit to a guy that was chasing the puck who's body was facing him -- his head was just turned the other way . The refs got it right and so did the league.

That is the most retarded statement regarding hockey that I have read in a while. Clearly you have not ever played hockey at a highly competitive level.

[TSXforme]

This ambiguity with "head shots" is analagous to the increased reinforcement of the hooking/interference rules about two to three years ago. Before this rule players like Kevin and Derian Hatcher (slow, big strong dmen) were considered to be all stars. With the way the games have no morphed, these d-men have all left the game because they could not keep up.

My point is...give this "rule 48"/blindside hit a few more years for the players to adapt. Pretty soon you will see the league without these types of head hunting players (Cooke, Torres, Tootoo, etc.).

At the same time...Seabrooke should have known better, but mind you we all have the benefit of seeing the hit many times. Seabrooke should have seen the play develop as the right winger rung the puck around the boards, and he felt the center pressuring him. When the puck is rung around the boards like that Seabrooke should suspect that the other winger should be within the vicinity to get the puck or make contact with him. I played D for most of my formative years and was taught that you should always keep you head up at that area behind the net (aka suicide valley).

[ragingclue]

Originally Posted by dvs8

I played D for most of my formative years and was taught that you should always keep you head up at that area behind the net (aka suicide valley).

As a goalie, I usually would call out the forecheck if I had a guy facing away from the play to grab the puck or playing it behind the net. I wonder if Crawford gave Seabrook any sort of heads up, or if that isn't SOP for them.

[TSXforme]

Originally Posted by ragingclue

As a goalie, I usually would call out the forecheck if I had a guy facing away from the play to grab the puck or playing it behind the net. I wonder if Crawford gave Seabrook any sort of heads up, or if that isn't SOP for them.

Good point...I heard on one of the local ex-players on a post game panel mention that point too. He had mentioned that he notices that many players in today's NHL do not yell the simple "HEADS UP" sentence anymore.

I was shocked when I heard that because I always remembered telling that to my team mates or vice versa.

[BTM]

Originally Posted by Cdnrockies

That is the most retarded statement regarding hockey that I have read in a while. Clearly you have not ever played hockey at a highly competitive level.

+1. Retarded post is retarded. The hit was obviously illegal...I guess maybe DrJ forgot to watch the puck