lets go pavel

During the regular season, Crosby wasn't the most outstanding player on his team (that's why Malkin is a finalist) ... why would he be voted most outstanding player in the league?

Why are you here? Can't you find a job pissing in Wheaties or raining on parades? I really think you missed your calling ... Way to go, Pavel ... well deserved!

How does the fact that he's missed one week mean that he has a 4-8 week injury? Wouldn't he still miss a week if he has a 1-2 week injury? If he were done for the season I think they probably would disclose that; the fact that they haven't made any such announcement seems to suggest they expect him back and subsequently don't want the injury to be a target.

I gotcha ... I agree, "intent to blow the whistle" is murky at best, and it's impossible to actually determine the timing of said intent. All I've seen is the replay posted earlier in the thread, and from there it's difficult to tell when the whistle happened compared to the puck going in. When I first watched, it seemed like the whistle went simultaneously, but again, hard to tell from there.

Thought about it some more ... What would happen if the NHL eliminates the entire "lose sight of the puck blow the whistle" rule, and instead makes blowing the whistle the last resort rather than the first response? The downside would be that goals would be scored when the goalie has possession of the puck and then it is knocked loose. However, these could then be reviewed and goals disallowed if the replay shows that the goalie clearly has possession of the puck. Is this reasonable, and would it prevent situations like last night from happening again?

Okay, but take this scenario ... Niedermayer is parked in front of Ozzie, Lidstrom's on his back, the puck comes in, Ozzie's diving around looking for it but it's loose. The ref loses sight of it, blows the whistle, and when he does Lidstrom stops defending Niedermayer. A split second later, Niedermayer taps the puck in the net. The goal is waved off. So now you review it. Is it a goal? The puck was in the goal, but after the whistle. When does it count, and when doesn't it? How do you decide? What are the determining factors? How do measure the effect that the whistle had on the play? I don't see how you establish any black-and-white criteria for doing this, and we sure as hell don't want to leave it up to the refs discretion. For the sake of consistency, the whistle has to be the end of the play.

On this particular goal, perhaps, but imagine the precedent it would set. Goals can be scored/allowed after the whistle blows? Does this mean players should keep skating/hitting/shooting when the whistle blows? What happens if they rule something a goal that the players might have prevented had they not stopped skating? Do you really want the refs deciding whether a goal scored after the whistle could have been prevented had the whistle not blown? It has to be balck and white ... the whistle blows, the play is dead, period.

I'm really hoping this inspires the boys to not leave the game in the hands of the refs tomorrow. Quit screwing around, no more come-from-behinds, let's just take care of business in the 1st period. A 4 goal lead sounds nice ... (knocking on wood) ...

Unless I'm mistaken, wasn't Anaheim one of the hottest teams in the league during the second half of the season? Everyone wrote them off, then they scratched their way back into it. They absolutely deserve to have a shot, and their play so far only confirms this. Apart from this, imagine what the regular season would be like if only eight teams made the playoffs? Many more teams would have nothing to play for by January ... it would be like baseball, occasionally you get a good down-to-the-wire race between 2 teams, but the majority of the teams are going through the motions by July.

You can't review a call when the whistle blows ... when the whistle blows, the play is dead, the players stop playing. You can't go back and award a goal that happened after the players stopped playing, that wouldn't be fair. It sucks because in this particular case the players stopping wouldn't have changed anything, the puck was in the net, but that is why the rule is what it is. The whistle blows, the play is over.

If they're down 3-1, they would only need to win 3 straight, which is why winning 4 straight is impossible. But since that hasn't happened, what's your point?

My name is Jonas I'm playing in goal Thanks for all you've shown us But this is how I feel Come sit next to me When Homer’s in my crease And Lidstrom fires pucks That I cannot see Things were better then Once but never again Then Hossa left the Pens Let me tell you 'bout it The Datsyuk pass left right on time A tic-tac-toe that blows your mind Mike Babcock said, 'Hey man, we go all the way' They’re not who we wanted to play My name is Hiller I think I’ve lost all my poise They're blowin’ us out of the series And the Joe’s still makin' noise (makin' noise) Tell me what to do Now the tank is dry Now this team is flat And you know what else? Guess what I received On the ice today Hordes of octopi And someone throws another The playing's not going as we planned Chris Osgood has made his stand And Pronger will not clear a path I think he fears Dan Cleary’s wrath The Ducks are going home The Ducks are going home The Ducks are going home The Ducks are going home Yeah! The Ducks are going home The Ducks are going home The Ducks are going home Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! My name is Jonas

Awesome awesome awesome! An interesting tidbit from NHL.com's article ... link

DET/ANA 4-2 VAN/CHI 4-2 BOS/CAR 4-2 WSH/PIT 4-2

Looks to me like they both knew it was coming. I believe it was a carryover from the game before, when Thornton challenged Getzlaf and he declined. Wouldn't expect a suspension ...

Well deserved ...

Fair enough, but most of the replies here saying "NO" to Crosby aren't addressing that either, they're just saying they don't want him here. That was really what my post was addressing. As for Crosby vs. Hossa, I think Hossa probably complements the existing roster better and cheaper than Crosby would, but if money were no issue Crosby's age would definitely make me think twice. If we're starting a team from scratch, with all bias aside, I would take Sid over Hossa without blinking.

I disagree ... Crosby is most definitely not better than Crosby. Statistically they are equals, and I'd take either one of them.

We're talking about a guy who has played 4 seasons, and his career stats are 290 games, 132 goals, 265 assists, 397 points. He plays the PP and PK, and is the captain of a team that went to the Stanley Cup Finals last year. And oh yeah, he's 21. Why would anyone even think twice? All of the complaints against him - cry baby, gets too much attention, etc. - are things we ***** about because he's the enemy. They don't affect his performance or contributions to his team. No one in Pittsburgh seem to be concerned with his leadership, or his attention, no one there is clamoring to get rid of him. Obviously the salary cap presents problems with adding him to the current roster, but if the question is simply "is he a guy you'd want on your team?" it should be a no-brainer.

Hey, here's a topic we haven't seen before! Ignoring the issue of whether they SHOULD add more grit (that tends to get ugly), I think there's actually a decent chance they will add more. We are going to be losing a decent number of forwards from our roster ... any of Hossa, Hudler, Sammy, Kopecky, Maltby and Draper (retirement?) could be gone next year, or others via trade. With our salary cap issues and raises to Z and Franzen we're going to need to fill some of those holes with inexpensive players. Leino and Helm will probably be here, but after that who knows? I'd guess if we need another cheap guy, there's a good chance he'll be more of a sandpaper guy ...

Well, if the Ducks are indeed who we get next, I think we have a couple guys who don't mind gracing opposing goalie's faces with the presence of their asses ...

I don't know if I'd throw Joey Mac on the dud pile yet ... he got 46 starts for the Islanders this year in place of DiPietro, and while his numbers weren't great, I seem to recall him having some pretty good games for them. That, and they're the freaking Islanders. Not saying he's the next Luongo, but he might have a future yet ...