dw185

Interesting video considering they are on the same team now!

Exactly. I made the point in the "anaheim responds" thread, and i just want to touch on it really quick in this one. Brian Burke used to be the one to enforce these things and i think his attitude right now is an example of why everyone was shocked when the NHL actually laid down the law. Everyone was used to how it was handled when Burke was around, and i'm sure he's not the only guy, but he never helped. The fact that Burke can say that was a clean hit proves to me that he was incompetent at doing his job while being the NHL "Disciplinarian". Not to mention with someone like Burke in the management in Anaheim, I think in a sense he enabled Pronger to make that hit. They put Pronger on a pedastal as a shining example of how to play and obviously at the least were unsuccessful at removing the dirtiness from his game. The fact that Pronger is a leader on this team and Brian Burke is a manager with their attitudes speaks volumes to me about the type of hockey team Anaheim is.

In Brian Burke's comments, and the fact that he used to be the NHL "Disciplinarian" and he even points out that he was, I think that Burke perfectly illustrates what the problem with the NHL has been. If Burke was in his old position, no suspension would have been given. Everyone was shocked that the NHL "grew a pair" and is now handing out suspensions. I say good for the NHL that Burke isn't the one making those decisions and good for the game that he isn't making decisions. It is apperent he did a poor job of it when he was doing it the first time around and would still be doing a poor job. Thankfully Brian Burke is not the decision maker on this and Colin Campbell is. It should also be illustrative that the entire panel was unanimous yet Burke still had the gall to come out and say that this was not a dirty hit. He points out if you look at the hit from an angle where you can't see prongers arms push holmstroms face in the boards, it doesn't look that bad, so thats the angle they should have used... Because you can't see Pronger's arms!! How about look at the angle that shows his arms and you can clearly see how he made a punching of shoving motion with his arms, hands and elbows in order to blast holmstrom's face into the boards. I'll say it again, Thank god that Burke isn't in a position to make these decisions.

Anyone know where to find a video of that? i seem to be fuzzy in recalling that... might have been a game i missed or something... and if pronger makes himself look like a fool in it, all the better

Maybe you aren't dumb, ignorant or any of those things, but if a wings player used two elbows to crush a ducks player into the boards the same way pronger did (don't give me the 45 degree angle bullcrap, it still did the damage) i am going to assume that by your comments you wouldn't support a suspension. Now what could be demonstrated is that you are so terribly biased that you have different rules for your team than other teams, or you would like to watch a more dangerous brand of hockey. A brand where it is ok for players to lift their elbows up to help use an amazingly strong upper body of force upon the back of a players head, whereby a players face can get nailed at a high force into any object on the ice. If thats the kind of game you're looking for, maybe hockey isn't the right sport for you. The vast majority of hockey players and fans have enough respect for each other to where that kind of game shouldn't be tolerated.

I said it in a different thread. Although it was pronger that made the hit, he IS wearing a Ducks jersey and he DOES have an A on that jersey. What does it say about the management and the higher ups in Anaheim that they would appoint someone who obviously has an issue with play like this and would intentionally drive someones face into a steel girder with intent to injure? It says a lot about the character of this team if they have to try to injure people to win. Everyone knew it was going to start getting nasty because everyone knows how these games get when the scoring gets out of hand. Your Anaheim Ducks were responsible for not keeping Prongers temper in check and essentially enabling him in a leadership position to do what he did. Not to mention that the argument about "not punishing the team, just punish pronger" is an absurd argument. He is on the team and he represents the team. How about next time pronger scores a goal it doesn't count for Anaheim, rather it counts just for pronger. The point of playing on a team is to contribute to the team. If someone on the team makes a boneheaded move, by definition of the word team, the whole team is going to suffer. So punishing Pronger should make the team suffer as well so there might be more locker room discouragement from Anaheim.

Seems to me that whenever the Ducks take a shot, the announcers on VS get a hard on and start screaming and cheering. When the wings shoot, if it's not a goal it's a disappointment and isn't very good hockey etc.. etc.. I'm curious as to how they will try to spin the pronger suspension...

How is macdonald a respectable player after he was laying on top of hasek and smacking him in the face in game 1? Thats not very professional or respectable. When i think respectable i think Yzerman or Lidstrom, Not someone that takes cheao shots and swings his fist at everything that can't see it coming... For the most part, i think that Anaheim is just as nasty as the Flames were, they just haven't been pushed up against a wall yet. We've only seen a taste of the nastiness this team can project. Also a good point made above that both people involved in that play had A's on their sweaters. What kind of example (at least on Prongers part) is that setting? I think Niedermayer was going in for a clean hit, as holmstrom fully expected a hit from Niedermayer. Homer had no way of seeing Pronger, not to mention Pronger intentionally lifted his arms up and used the full force of his upper body to slam Homers head into the glass. He actually hit a steel bar instead of glass... For someone to make the conscious decision to use that kind of force and make one of the dirtiest kinds of hits displays something about his character. And for him to be wearing an A on his jersey says something about the kind of hockey team that would appoint that level of leadership to a goon who has no respect for the other players, or the game of hockey itself.

here is the video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=s7ZMRZCW9Xc Pronger is a punk. He should have gotten more for that cheap hit. He obviously was trying to injure holmstrom. At least he got one game though.

Not when their "Best Players" are dangerous because they blindside people and ram their heads into a metal post on the boards. I'd rather not see someone like that out there at least for a game or two after said hit.

NOTICE!! Compare pad sizes as jigger skates away and as breezegaaaalllllofffff skates towards... RESUME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the officiating wasn't entirely horrible tonight other than snagging niedermyer instead of pronger. other than that, the game was damn clean and i'm suprised anaheim didn't try to start taking cheap shots toward the end of the game like calgary did. excellent game and i love how right after michelin man left, breezegaloff (intentional misspelling) got scored on!

niedermayer didn't do anything other than cut holmstrom off, and thats fine. The refs made a reactive call, and it was a dumb call. Typical refs. Pronger should have been removed from the game. Homer couldn't see him, not to mention pronger used both elbows to drill his face into the boards... At least the refs mad A call. This game seems to be a little bit better FOR calls, not the RIGHT calls. At least we have improvement. I hope like hell that Homer is alright... Pronger shoulda been removed instead of niedermayer on that. Niedermayer did nothing wrong... Pronger had the elbows up...

Silly canadians.

i think it will be a good series if the wings make it to the finals. As far as my point about the western conference, It is a much more competitive conference once you get away from the riff raff like st. louis, chicago etc... that make for easy wins. The top 8 to 10 teams in the west are all very good teams and there is no team that can just run away with it all. The east on the other hand usually has a team or two that are good enough to run away with it all. The bottom of the list for playoff contention was real tight as far as points and it did get competitive, but most of those teams didn't make the playoffs, nor did they deserve to,

Why the Canadian Sens hatred? i thought that was reserved for the Red Wings?

And Chris Pronger's Stanley Cups x Any number still = 0

So far the overall calls in the playoffs are ridiculous. Either call the bullcrap stick calls or don't call them at all. Apply the rules consistently. Roughing is not a little shove to the head. According to the OFFICIAL NHL Rulebook: Roughing is a punching motion with the hand or fist, with or without the glove on the hand, normally directed at the head or face of an opponent. Lilja was not roughing in the last game when they called it. his arm was up, but it was NOT a punching motion. A punching motion was more like when McDonald was on top of Hasek in Game one throwing his fist at Hasek's face and instead Lebda got called for something. Or how about roughing in the case of Phaneuf (i think it was anyways) Punching Lebda in the face and then Lebda gets a clipping penalty. The refs need to re-read through their rulebook and start calling penalties when there are penalties and stop calling them when there are no penalties. I would rather see a strict enforcement of the rules and have them applied equally than what is going on here in the playoffs so far...

don't forget the last 3 years the western conference team that made it to the finals was a low seed. 8th seed in at least 2 of those cases. That alone tells me that the West let weak teams get to the finals the last 3 years. This year it's actually going to be a 1 or 2 seed against a number 4 seed in the east. Regular season performance isn't as entirely irrellevant as you might think when it comes to the playoffs. Some teams can get a good streak going and blow it when faced with a challenge, ala flames, ducks, oilers of the the last 3 west conference winners.

i think i posted it a few days ago, and then right after posing it, someone else posted it and i found out it had been posted a million times before that! crazy...

Maybe they are just sick of seeing the wings at the top of the standings year in and year out as well as winning the cup 3 times in the last 10 years. As a biased wings fan i tend to enjoy that sort of thing. As far as many of these commentators are concerned, the wings should have won their first cup and gone away. Even on VS, the way they talk about the wings, they act like they haven't earned anything and they are only in WCF cause of Hasek. Then they trash on Hasek saying he is the worst puck handler ever. Hasek can handle the puck well, he just takes risks sometimes that maybe he shouldn't. When he pulls it off, he looks amazing, when he doesn't he looks horrible. It also seems like they are rooting for the ducks because doc whatshisface starts screaming and freaking out everytime the ducks get a shot on net. The wings are a bunch of rag tag, bought and paid for losers in the minds of most of these commentators.

Bert is only going to play better as he continues to mesh with the team. He hasn't played as well as i would like, but he keeps showing through little things that he is getting better.

Good pics guys. I liked the mattress pad giguere one haha

I actually live in Davison which is just east of Flint. I haven't watched TV all day so i didn't check until i saw this post and about s*** a brick. Typical Charter though...

i was trying to find a decent pic of his beard, but i wanted one of him with the blackeye too since it makes him look homeless!