2007/2008 Hockey Thread

[Evil Chase K]

So Franzen was in the right to act like a pussy and fall over and lay on the ice like Roberts just ripped his throat out?

Upon further review Roberts did punch him, and I know Lord Gary can kill a man with just his stare, but seriously Franzen? For real?

The dude is coming off of a concussion. Stop being such a damn homer.

Oh, wait, it's you.

Nevermind then.

Onto tonight's game...

Great move by Therrien to let Sydor play. For a guy who hasn't played since March he played one hell of a game.

The crowd was awesome as always and you can tell the team really feeds off of them. Hopefully we can win out at home and find a way to take one in Detroit.

Adam Hall is easily the Pens best faceoff man and one of my favorite players on the team.

It's gonna be sad to see Brooks "Free Candy" Orpik go somewhere else after this season.

I thought the refs let a lot go today on both sides. There were a few times when I thought the Wings were guilty of holds and obstruction that wasn't called but at the same time, the Pens could've been called some more too.

I'm just glad they didn't call Gary Roberts for leaving his feet on a check. They never called it on Kronwall so they shouldn't call it on Roberts. I think the officiating, while not great, was at least consistent and I can live with that...no matter who wins.

Tomas Holmstrom looks like Cliff Claven.

[TGWL]

I think both teams got away with a lot of slashing...I saw Crosby break his own stick slashing somebody.

I'll gotta give the penguins credit, they never quit in the first period and after 15 minutes, they finally came alive, and a big part of that was their physical play and their ability to keep the puck in detriots zone; The redwings defense looked tired and nervous.

I know the talk about tonight's game is Crosby, Crosby, Crosby, but I don't think Crosby carried the team tonight, he was just in the right place at the right time, Pittsburgh looked good because they worked as a team.

With that said, Detroit has to feel good about the way they played the 3rd period. As good as the penguins played, it felt like they barely escaped with a win.

[SeanDMan]

Pens played a good game from what I saw. Granted when I started watching it was already 2-0, but they did enough to keep the pressure on and not choke it away completely.

[Clawson]

Jesus....Luc Bourdon died today. Horrible loss for his family and the Canucks franchise. He was gonna be a good one.

[NobBe Nobbs]

I can't believe it. It might come out later on that he was drunk or high or something, but still, my God that's sad.

[Toe]

I remember seeing Bourdon in the World Juniors kicking ass. Just sucks that a young guy loses his life, especially such a promising one.

[Clawson]

Next time I hear somebody call Crosby "intense" after he whines at the other team after the buzzer again, I'll probably shoot the offender.

[Gabriel]

Pittsburgh needs to work on their special teams... most of their powerplays just seemed lazy to me. I mean, when your 4th line is better 5 on 5 than your powerhouse first PP unit is 5 on 4... then you've got some work to do.

Good game though. Tight all the way through, and I enjoyed it.

[Evil Chase K]

A lot of that has to do with the Invisible Man, Evgeni Malkin. I hope he's hurt or sick or something because he's been AWFUL.

But yeah...series is likely over. The Pens played like shit tonight. There were a lot of questionable calls and no-calls but that doesn't matter when you can't score on a 5-on-3. Hossa was wide open calling for the puck and Malkin fires it at the net. Great.

There's a chance the Pens can win, but it's obvious that they cannot afford to go down by even one goal for the rest of the series in order to do so.

It sucks because they're gonna lose Hossa (who's been amazing), Orpik, Malone, Roberts, and others. I'm sure they'll win a Cup eventually, but after the magical season they've had...this one is hard to take.

Blah.

[Evil Chase K]

Next time I hear somebody call Crosby "intense" after he whines at the other team after the buzzer again, I'll probably shoot the offender.

So he's not allowed to say anything back when people are talking to him?

[The Sultan of Swank]

Calm down Chase, you don't wanna poke someone's eye out with your Crosby boner.

Look yeah, he's a great player(despite what the NHL, TSN and CBC would have us believe, not the second coming of Gretzky, let alone the top player in the league.) But he's a total whiner, all he seems to do is piss and moan when something doesn't go his way... That and fake injuries.

[Clawson]

The best part of the game last night was when Pittsburgh got the 5 on 3, I had looked away for a second and I hear my mom go "wow that was a nice dive, I can't believe they'd call that a penalty." Now my mom never watches hockey so I was surprised to hear her call a player on a dive, wasn't surprised to look up and see Crosby being the player she was talking about though.

[Enter Blue Guy]

Fuck, with all the firepower Pittsburgh has, they can't even register more than like a single shot on a 5 on 3. I was depending on the Pens to do their part to make this series an interesting one at least.

[Guest Dr. Potato Head]

Um yeah, Basha? The current allegations is that HNIC is doing whatever they can to *not* shine the spotlight on Crosby.

[Evil Chase K]

Calm down Chase, you don't wanna poke someone's eye out with your Crosby boner.

Look yeah, he's a great player(despite what the NHL, TSN and CBC would have us believe, not the second coming of Gretzky, let alone the top player in the league.) But he's a total whiner, all he seems to do is piss and moan when something doesn't go his way... That and fake injuries.

What injury has he faked?

And besides, if someone from another team talks shit to him and he says something back he's immediately whining.

The best part of the game last night was when Pittsburgh got the 5 on 3, I had looked away for a second and I hear my mom go "wow that was a nice dive, I can't believe they'd call that a penalty." Now my mom never watches hockey so I was surprised to hear her call a player on a dive, wasn't surprised to look up and see Crosby being the player she was talking about though.

Fuck, with all the firepower Pittsburgh has, they can't even register more than like a single shot on a 5 on 3. I was depending on the Pens to do their part to make this series an interesting one at least.

Clearly Malkin should not have been on the point for the 5-on-3. I still don't know why he shot it directly at Osgood when Hossa was practically standing in the wide open net.

[The Sultan of Swank]

I believe that would be Feb 4, 2007. Pittsburgh at Montreal. Crosby sells the phantom butt end off the opening faceoff like a ton of bricks. Then later flops in the Montreal zone and waits for a penalty to be called, when no penalty is called he gets up and skates off magically "healed" 21,273 rain down merciless chants of faker. Yeah, he's a diver.

EDIT: Sorry I'm mistaken, the butt end was like 2 nights earlier in Pittsburgh.

Edited June 2, 2008 by The Sultan of Swank

[Clawson]

I remember when Crosby was a rookie in a game against Philly he fell down way too easily and Forsberg goes to the officials making the diving sign. Crosby immediately runs over and acts all offended and gets in Forsberg's face. Honestly, the guy barely takes any lumps and thinks he can fuck around with Peter Forsberg. He's lucky he didn't get dropped.

But yeah, Crosby is a constant diver as Basha said.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Now for the record, this is Clawson... and Basha.... agreeing on hockey.

[Clawson]

Your team is full of gays.

Phew....got scary for a moment there.

[Toe]

Ughhh.

This whole Mats Sundin business is bugging the shit out of me. He is my favourite player and I really want him to return to the Leafs. But I don't need to be bombarded every day with "will he, won't he" garbage. Let's wait until he makes his decision on retiring before saying he is going to Detroit or Ottawa or something.

Or wait for Steve Simmons to write an article saying Sundin's hip is fucked and he can't play ever again, like last summer.