The Hockey Thread

[Clawson]

Both were clean hits.

[SeanDMan]

On first glance the Richards hit looked dirty, but he didn't leave his feet, he slipped after delivering the hit. I dislike the Richards hit because I don't like blindsiding guys, but, it's a shoulder shot to the chin from the front, not a charge, not an elbow.

As much as I always like fanning the "Leafs are a goon squad, cheap hit specialists!" flames, I saw nothing cheap about the first hit.

[badotori]

I think both were examples of very blatant hits that were within the rules, but were followed by a fuckton of impact that made them look brutal. And, as you alluded to DMan, both the Leafs and Flyers have unsavoury reps for heavy-handed hockey - if a hit comes from Philly or Toronto, they can be regarded as being more cynical than unlucky.

Edited October 27, 2009 by badotori

[Reddaye]

After last night Tomas Kaberle passed Wendel Clark to become the 15th overall in Leafs scoring.

1. Mats Sundin - 981GP - 420g, 567a = 987 points

2. Darryl Sittler - 844GP - 389g, 527a = 916 points

3. Dave Keon - 1062GP - 365g, 493a = 858 points

4. Borje Salming - 1099GP - 148g, 620a = 768 points

5. George Armstrong - 1187GP - 296g, 417a = 713 points

6. Ron Ellis - 1034GP - 332g, 308a = 640 points

7. Frank Mahovlich - 720GP - 296g, 303a = 599 points

8. Bob Pulford - 947GP - 251g, 312a = 563 points

9. Ted Kennedy - 696GP - 231g, 329a = 560 points

10. Rick Vaive - 534GP - 299g, 238a = 537 points

11. Norm Ullman - 535GP - 166g, 305a = 471 points

12. Lanny McDonald - 477GP - 219g, 240a = 459 points

13. Tim Horton - 1185GP - 109g, 349a = 458 points

14. Doug Gilmour - 393GP - 131g, 321a = 452 points

15. Tomas Kaberle - 747GP - 74g, 369a = 443 points

16. Wendel Clark - 608GP - 260g, 181a = 441 points

Didn't catch the game last night (saw the highlights this morning). Nice to finally see a win. They've been putting some effort into the last two games...hopefully this trend continues.

[Gabriel]

I'm getting tired of people judging hits based on the outcome instead of the actual hit itself. Just because a guy gets hurt from it, doesn't make it a dirty hit. Say what you want about Mike Richards, but he did his job there. He saw a guy open to be hit, and he cleaned his clock. Now, it WAS interference, but he got penalized for that. It really just should have been two minutes though. A five minute reactionary call by the refs was a bit much.

That also pisses me off... reactionary calls. We've seen a boat load of them so far this year. A guy gets hurt, and it MUST be a penalty. Bullshit.

Another thing that really grinds my gears, is the fighting after a clean hit. I don't mind the fighting so much, but if Player A destroys Player B with a clean hit, and Player C comes in and forces a fight out of the situation... then Player C should receive 2 minutes for instigating. A clean hit should not lead to a fight, no matter who the player hits, and if it does, then the player who initiates the fight should receive an extra penalty for doing so.

Why does that bother me so much? Good question, and here's the answer: more often than not, the player who makes the hit is more important to his team than the player who comes in and reacts to it by forcing the issue with a fight. So right there, you've got two guys being taken off the ice for 5 minutes, and one of these guys probably plays 5 minutes a game, and the other guy is probably a team leader in points. It doesn't really balance out there. So tack on the extra two for the initiation of the fight, and at least the team who's losing the better player gets a powerplay out of the deal.

[Plubby]

I think I might pen "the ballad of mighty Anderson" while we're still winning.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Throw in a few verses about Halak while you're at it. GAA under 1.50 and Save% over .940 in his 4 game winning streak.

[Plubby]

bah, that's only four games. We'll talk when he gets to twelve

[Gabriel]

Game starts, and we get two good bounces to go up 2-0... outplay the Avalanche for a bit, give up two goals... outplay the Avs for the whole second period, but get stymied by a very on Craig Anderson. Third period comes around, and we're looking a little lackluster, but the play is even. Colorado scores, and then shuts us down completely. The only life that the Flames had in the third came with a couple minutes left, and by then it was just too little, too late.

In short, Anderson held them in the game until they got the lead, and then they went into shut down mode and did it exceptionally well. Tough loss to take for Calgary, but we'll bounce back.

[Plubby]

Two of our goals hit players in front too. Good luck on both sides, it seems.

[Cactus Drags]

Wolski's goal was beautiful. Top of the league!

[Hailtothechimp]

Tough game last night for any Maple Leaf fans. Stars really took it to them in the 3rd and finally manged to pull out a win in OT. Terrific for them (and me, seeing as I am a Stars Fan.)

Leafs looked okay though. Their bad record shouldn't stick around for too long. Stars need to start hammering out some points though.

[Toe]

Leafs have sent down Viktor Stalberg and Joey MacDonald to the Marlies and called up Jiri Tlusty. Vesa Toskala will be backing up Gustavsson tomorrow night.

[TGWL]

The rangers are playing pretty poorely right now. There's been a few games they shouldve at least gotten a point, if not a win. They have only 1 win in their last 5 games. And with Gaborik out, the team is a complete mess. It's like washington 2-3 years ago without ovechkin in the lineup.

Next week is going to be a really tough week for them and if they don't start playing better defense and give up less breakaways and 2 on 1's, they're most likely going to lose all 3 games out in the west - Van, Oilers, Flames.

Although I would like to see 3 straight wins. I think a good scenario would be for them to get a point out in Vancouver, a win against Edmonton, and play a strong game againt the flame, losing by a goal. But before next week starts, they have Minnesota tonight.

Tough loss for Boston last night. I didn't see the entire game but from what I did see, they out played the Devils, but a lucky break for the devils with about 2 mins to go, ended the game.

Edited October 30, 2009 by thisgamewelose

[Hailtothechimp]

Stars dump another fuckin' shootout! To Florida! 0-4 in shootouts.

I'm gonna go shoot some people. Brb.

[SeanDMan]

Need more Jussi Jokinen.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Wow, I know it went to Shootout. But Toronto got the shit kicked out of them tonight. Komisuckit ran away from Chipchura after a huge(but legal) hit on Metropolit. There were a ton of non calls, but it don't matter cause Montreal dominated most of the game and Toronto got lucky in the third. Once it went to OT it was no question that Montreal would win... and we did... cause Toskala is a joke, I don't see why Gustavsson wasn;t in nets.

Montreal shooters froze Toskala solid in the shoot out. The refs tried as hard as they could to give Toronto as many PP's as possible, T'ranna was pretty cheap as was to be expected, but it was still a great game to watch even if outcome was pretty much a given before the game even started.

Suck it on Komisarek for being a bitch tonight.

Funny event on RDS. When Toronto scored first, the color guy in french said "what a catastrophe, Toronto has scored the first goal of the game for the first time this season" I think it's funny that it's a catastrophe.

Edited November 1, 2009 by The Sultan of Swank

[Gabriel]

What game were you watching?

Habs dominated? I hope you are/were drunk.

Toskala looked good for most of the game. There were a couple of instances where he seemed to slip back into his old bad habits, but the Canadiens had something close to 40 shots, and at least two of those goals were re-directions. To be fair to Toskala, he's always been a terrible shootout goalie, so to expect anything different is just retarded.

In regards to Komisarek... you're just plain wrong. The guy made a clean hit. He has no reason to fight someone. He made a clean hit, that gets momentum for the Leafs. Why give that momentum back just because someone's chasing you? If you make a dirty hit and someone wants to fight, then yeah, it's your responsibility to own up to your actions and take the punishment... but on a CLEAN hit? To say that he ran away is ridiculous. He made a smart play. He made the hit, got chased, and didn't respond. You know what that got him? Props from his coach for being aggressive and drawing a penalty.

You want to talk about a bitch move? Cammalleri gets a high stick that doesn't get called, and yeah it was a high stick. Should have been called, but it wasn't. So what does he do? He skates 200 feet and plows into Rickard Wallin from behind. Not from the side, just a little behind... right into the god damn numbers. I like Cammy, and I like the fire he has in his game, but what the fuck was that?

[Toe]

Tough game for the Leafs to lose, but getting points in 4 straight is huge - even if 3 of those games were loses.

[TGWL]

I hate that players are forced to stand up for themselves after giving a clean hit. Yeah, there was force behind the hit, but it was completely clean and he didn't go out of his way to injure the player. He didn't run away....he made a smart decision and had no reason to defend himself.