Grypho

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Everything posted by Grypho

  1. Grypho

    Game 3 Officiating

    "They set a tight standard early on and they kept to that standard..." After reading that, there is no doubt in my mind now that the new crew of rotated refs are going to look hard for calls to make tonight, and that this entire series is going to get tightly called. The only difference now that I can see is that the Wings are painfully aware of it; that, and the refs are going to be much more vigilant at trying to spot and call diving penalties. Should be interesting to watch, to say the least.
  2. Grypho

    Red Wings morning skate streamed

    It's on now (I'm spying). What an oddly soothing sound to have in the background.
  3. Grypho

    OHL Player lays out opposing goalie

    Yeah? Just turn that around for a second, and imagine how you'd feel and what would happen if Murray pulled a freight train collision like that on Howard. I wouldn't even be asking for a penalty for the third, fourth, fifth man in, execution by dogpile, etc., I would throw Murray or anyone else under a bus, thinking, "You asked for it, moron." Owen Nolan did that once as a Shark. I was ******* livid, and happy to see that a lot of fans were too. In game 1 of this series I laughed when Howard got sprayed by Thornton. Then I thought about it afterward, putting Nabby in his place, with Zetterberg throwing out the spray. Not so funny then. Thornton took a punch to the left side of his face for that, and how could whoever threw that punch be faulted? I'm really old fashioned about that kind of stuff. Goaltenders are sacred cows. You don't spray them, rush them, ram them, deliberately aim for their masks...unless he's a complete ******* of course, and thinks it's OK to do in reverse.
  4. Alright, in the interest of fairness, here's what you've been up against in the faceoff circles.
  5. Grypho

    No Worries

    I hope not, but it is definitely possible, and if they do, I do want it to kick the pendulum hard to one side, big enough to humble the Sharks, and also big enough to give the Wings overconfidence going into Game 4. It's for that very reason that I'm glad the last two games were won by small enough margins to keep the Sharks focused, and also to possibly cause the Wings to believe that nothing on their part really needs to change, aside from officiating, a change of behavior on the other team's part, or something else outside themselves. Even that's an illusion. They know they have win more faceoffs, and they also know that they took several (too many) penalties that weren't the slightest bit controversial. At a minimum, I fully expect those adjustments have already been made.
  6. Grypho

    OHL Player lays out opposing goalie

    Oh man, if I saw something that deliberate, that nasty, anywhere in the NHL, I would want a league suspension, but only as a prelude to the offending player's face getting bitten off. In little pieces. With some fava beans and a nice chianti.
  7. Grypho

    I Respect-ED The Sharks

    DITTO. To steal a phrase from the great Yogi, this is deja vu all over again. Overconfident? That was then. And then before that. Not now.
  8. Grypho

    WCSF Game 2 GDT: Red Wings 3 at Sharks 4

    One thing I always watch for (and watch Malhotra for this, since he's #1 in the NHL by a longshot): Watch how low and WIDE he gets when he sets up over the puck. His skates are dug in with firm edges set in a V on both sides. The guy's a LOW squatting, spidering hunchback with total mechanical advantage, ready to lunge in any direction. If you watch closely, you'll see that Malhotra isn't necessarily quicker on the draw either. Even after losing at the first stab, the outcome isn't necessarily determined until the puck is actually dished away from the two fighters. Until that happens, he's not finished; he's still jockeying for position and stabbing at the puck. Plus, there's the advantage of actually getting to compete with/learn from him in practices. Every faceoff Shark is gunning for him on a regular basis in practices, which brings up all their games.
  9. Grypho

    Dan Boyle

    Yep, Kronwall could do a lot of serious damage if he started producing. For us it's Marleau and Thornton, in that order. Thornton not so much, because he's kind of the jumbo straw that stirs the entire drink. He wins faceoffs, plays great defensively, and and sets up a lot of plays. He reads the ice very well, and is almost better at dishing assists than scoring. On the other hand, we rely on Marleau for what he is known for in the past but not contributing now, and that's actual direct scoring chances and goal production. Marleau wore the C at one time, and it had about the same effect as when Owen Nolan wore the C when he was a Shark. We gained an inept leader and lost a lead scorer at the same time. Taking the C from Marleau, and even pairing him with the third line, was good for the team all the way around. Yeah, I think Marleau is probably our Kronwall.
  10. Grypho

    WCSF Game 2 GDT: Red Wings 3 at Sharks 4

    The Sharks have an ongoing internal faceoff competition between teammates. I don't know what the stakes are, but I've heard it's pretty intense. Game 2 faceoffs were unlike Game 1, which led me to believe that's how the Sharks spent a lot of their time in practice between games. Also, and I've mentioned this in another thread, have you EVER seen so many ejections from the faceoff circle? I think the Sharks are even using this to their advantage, deliberately trying to either a) get away with more aggressive moves, or b) get kicked out, and the positioning that they wanted and planned for anyway (not to mention an upset in pairing that might throw the other team's players off balance mentally).
  11. Grypho

    Dan Boyle

    We need OT for that to happen! LOL
  12. Grypho

    Did Bettman Say His Officials Actually Make Mistakes!

    Bettman has to use the word 'might', not so much to confer a cloak or illusion of infallibility onto the refs, but because fans from almost every team in the league would jump on it as vindication for their particular complaint, as if Bettman was specifically referring to them, and admitting something about their particular game grievances of choice.
  13. Grypho

    No Worries

    I don't know about the actual series game tally going back to SJ, but you are absolutely correct that the series is far, FAR from over. The Sharks know firsthand what it is like to completely blow a 2-0 lead, just four short years ago, to the lower seeded Oilers, who came back from a 2-0 deficit, and advanced to the WCF after winning four straight games in a row, winning that series at home in six. Tell me the Sharks team isn't aware of that little precedent/possibility. Many have said here that they will worry if the Wings lose one at home. I echo that in reverse. If they come back to SJ tied 2-2, I will be very, very worried for the Sharks, who really do have to steal at least one at the Joe.
  14. My post season Wings bandwagon tickets were bought and paid for years ago. If the Sharks get eliminated by the Wings, I will still have a solid team to root for. SHWINGGGGG!
  15. Grypho

    WCSF Game 2 GDT: Red Wings 3 at Sharks 4

    I already am a Wings fan! (second only to the Sharks)
  16. Grypho

    Game 3 Officiating

    I'm having trouble with that one, as I've seen too many games where those stats were lopsided as hell, and only because one team really was taking penalties, and/or otherwise gooning it up lot more than the other. But even if I believed that it's "just the way it's done", if anyone ever tried made that an official declaration, as if it's somehow a good thing, even to attempt, I'd denounce it for the dishonesty and unfairness, in principle, that it is. On its face. If really they wanted, as you suggest, to be able to say that things were done fairly, it wouldn't begin with the presumption that all teams basically execute the same number of penalties. Because they don't. Otherwise, there wouldn't even be a stat that say Detroit is "the second least penalized team" in the regular season (and not by a small margin either). In such a case that stat would be meaningless, and might as well have been a coin flip or random place ranking for each team.
  17. Grypho

    WCSF Game 2 GDT: Red Wings 3 at Sharks 4

    Yes, and if you go back and substitute the word "fair weather" everywhere bandwagon appears, it might make more sense, in light of the context in which the word was (mis?)used.
  18. Grypho

    Game 3 Officiating

    I think that's essentially right, but I wouldn't predict "a lot more". Some for sure. Officials normally loosen the grip gradually over a series anyway, and even more from series to series. But I also think that what might appear as more "let them play" situations on the officials' parts will actually be a product (in part at least) of more disciplined play all around (i.e., much less to call in the first place). If the number of actual penalties goes both ways ("about even"), then obviously the calls should be made accordingly. But if the refs were to deliberately make calls with the express aim of keeping the PP's "about even", just for the sake of staying even, then I would call that a form of insanity, not to mention incentive for one team to make real penalties wherever they count most. I actually don't have a problem with so-called "makeup calls", even though no official would ever officially admit to doing it. The idea there is to make up for a bad call, not to divvy up an even proportion of penalty minutes to each team. That would be ludicrous. After all, the rationale would go, your team could get the benefit of a penalty chosen to be taken in the moment, all the while safe and secure in the knowledge that the refs are just going to "even it all up" in the end, even if it means looking for an excuse to give the other team a penalty, one that perhaps shouldn't even count, or that they didn't choose to make. In other words, you're essentially encouraging refs to lie. To deliberately make bad/soft calls, at least some of the time. I predict an ever-so-slightly longer leash for Game 3, and woe to any player on either team that is caught flagrantly diving, as I do think there will be a new hypersensitivity to that (and so said my memo to Setoguchi this morning).
  19. Grypho

    I Respect-ED The Sharks

    Well, both games have certainly been criticized for that. The good news is that Game 3, just like Game 2, will have a completely new set of refs. Will there be a trend? I hope not, regardless of anyone's take on the officiating in this series so far. Incidentally, "Joe at Yahoo_", commenting on an article about the game Freep, gave the following assessment of the penalties that pretty much matched my own: Anybody see this in a substantially different way? EDIT: I know one call is missing, I'm too lazy to see which one and add it.
  20. Grypho

    I Respect-ED The Sharks

    I agree, and it's an extension of part of the Sharks' game play M.O. (drawing as many penalties as possible for better scoring chances) throughout the regular season. It didn't work that well against the Wings in the regular season, who beat us in three out of four games, but that also meant that there was no lesson learned by the Wings either in that regard. For the other teams, the ones against whom it did work, the strategy was simple. The Sharks would say damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, and crash the net. It didn't matter if they had a real scoring chance or not. They just had to get their opponents believing that they did, as they'd swarm in and position themselves just close and dangerous enough to put the other team into a defensive frenzy, which in turn disrupts team rhythm and communication, and causes them, individually, to make stupid mistakes, like slashing, hooking, holding, tripping, whatever. The Sharks would then draw a penalty, as desire/planned, and try to capitalize on that. And they were very effective at it, as they constantly traded the illusion of a scoring chance for a real one with a man advantage. It didn't work as well in our opening series against the Avs, because the Avs are very young, speedy, and were actually able to turn the tables from the start, getting the jump on the Sharks by doing essentially the same thing to the Sharks. What a rush that was. Scary. Fortunately for the Sharks, they were able to shake it off, acknowledge it, and adjust in time to turn it around. They even publicly announced that they had "solved" it, putting everyone on notice that they were going to be faster at everything, including speed through the neutral zone. And they were. But that same game plan pulled on us nearly killed us early on, because it really was starting to make us undisciplined. Enter Round 2, and SI's take on the last game: And he's absolutely right. Another issue, one that the Sharks were facing, had to do with face offs. Watching Game 1, I thought we were piss poor, wondering what the f*** happened to the team? We have no less than three of the top 15 faceoff guys in the NHL, with Malhotra at the top (training videos are made using him as the model). In this last game (as noted by many here at LGW), we absolutely dominated in faceoffs. The Wings couldn't buy one. There's no question in my mind that Mclellan used the team's warmup and rest time to force an increased focus on the internal faceoff competition already ongoing with the Sharks. And it shows in just how nervous the faceoff officials are, given how many players (from both teams) are hopped up and getting routinely kicked out of the faceoff circles -- circles more laden with testosterone than I have EVER seen before in the playoffs. Zetterberg was 0-7 in the first period, That...just...does..not...happen. Do I think that will play out the same way in Game 3? No. I'm sure the Wings are adjusting to that as well. Also, it's unavoidable that officiating is part of the game. It's true that the NHL has had a kind of unwritten tradition of looser calls in the playoffs, but usually not so much until the final two rounds, generally letting only the top teams bash their way to the Cup. BUT...IF the refs were NOT making calls, I am sure that the penalty-drawing-minded Sharks would sense that just quickly as well, as they would be forced to adjust accordingly there as well. But as we're seeing, that's not the case. The refs clearly are making calls, and for that the Wings do need to (and I am quite sure will), adjust.
  21. Grypho

    WCSF Game 2 GDT: Red Wings 3 at Sharks 4

    Rather than just a compilation of things that only appear to be in favor of a certain position, I would VERY much like to see a montage of footage behind each and every call that was made (or not made) on BOTH teams, including any footage that any fan from either teams felt should be included. It would make for a very interesting discussion, I think.
  22. Grypho

    I Respect-ED The Sharks

    I was going to wait until tomorrow, to let a lot of the understandable steam let off some, but I do want to chime in on this one now, because it is bothering me. There were a couple of bulls*** calls, and several highly questionable ones that I saw tonight -- more against the Wings, but certainly not all. Same with non-calls. Fans in general tend to focus ONLY on what hurts or helps their own team, habitually blanking out or rationalizing away most of the rest. It's the "my child is the darling who can do no wrong" syndrome, seen in all sports, and I don't think any team's fans are immune. If your team is being more heavily penalized, it's not because they are weighing in more heavily with penalties. It must be a combination of bad reffing and rat fink ******* who need to learn how to skate (and pay no attention to that twisting, pulling stick between his legs). My observations (more reactions to what I've seen posted) about the game: 1) In my view, Howard was stellar. I kept saying that aloud during the game, remarking on it as he stopped shot after shot of what I thought were going to be sure goals by the Sharks. So when I saw some here blaming Howard, even for the way the last two goals went in, I was more than a little stunned. Eyes wide in disbelief stunned, actually, because I thought Howard was better than Nabokov in game 2, all other things considered. 2) I'll start #2 by way of preface: For years I rooted for the Sharks when they had an ENORMOUS discipline problem. Not with just taking penalties, but with everything, from needless penalties to giveaways to constant off-sides and icing calls. Failure to shoot the puck and lack of discipline was something we just had to live with. AND acknowledge. For years. Many Wings fans, on the other hand, have become utterly spoiled, I think. You all have had the benefit of one of THE MOST DISCIPLINED TEAMS in the NHL. So disciplined, in fact, that it actually surprises many of you, shocks you even to the point of what appears to me to be outright denial, when your team is UNCHARACTERISTICALLY undisciplined -- as they were, not just this last game, but both games 1 & 2. I found it surprising that there were very few posters who would dare even bring up lack of discipline as a factor in either loss. But it did factor in! It wasn't, contrary to the mantra, "just a string of total bulls*** phantom calls". I watched your series against the Coyotes, and didn't really see a discipline breakdown by Detroit. The Wings were highly disciplined in that entire series, I thought, and in a way that they have not been thus far in this one. Why? There is only one area I see where the Wings, both regular season and now post season, have not been disciplined, and that's with too many men on the ice, the (very legitimate) call that was made numerous times in the regular season, and now one that cost your team badly needed strength on the last minute push in Game 2. Now before continuing, let me say that there is no doubt in my mind that Setoguchi embellished in game one, and that the non-call for what should have been a four minute high sticking call against him was very real, very serious, and did very possibly cost the Wings that game. I didn't see it at first, but in retrospect I can now see it clearly. Even then, I perceive that something much bigger than that particular non-call is now working against the Wings, to wit: It appeared to me, on the surface at least, that the Wings, for whatever reason, were playing with the mindset, one that says, in essence, "This is the playoffs, where things are rough and often ugly, and the refs should just put their whistles in their pockets and let the teams bash it all out with impunity." For whatever reason(s), that didn't happen, and it doesn't look as if it's going to happen either, given there were two completely different sets of refs for both games 1 & 2. But the Wings seemed to keep on playing as if that is what should happen. Almost as if they were insisting, by their play, that the refs just "get desensitized already, and put those ******* whistles away." In other words, it looked to me, very early on, like the Wings, not the Sharks, had put the refs on notice, in a way that said, "Notice us. Notice our penalties. Look for them and get used to them, the kind we don't think should be called on either team, because here they come." So tell me, am I totally out to lunch, imagining things that have no basis in reality? Because that is how it appeared to me.
  23. Grypho

    WCSF Game 2 GDT: Red Wings 3 at Sharks 4

    I see a frustratingly, aggravatingly hard fought, low scoring game ending in an overtime fluke wrister from one of the faceoffs. 2-1 (OT) flip a coin. GO SHARKS!