Lovin Jiri Fischer

Just heard it too!!! :banana: I'm listening now and a Pens fan is calling in saying Osgood has been streaky. Yawn.

To me, Bettman looked even more like a clown than he has in the past. He was fumbling his words all over the place, kept interrupting, and looked like he had no idea what he was talking about. He also seemed extra argumentative. If anyone missed it, he basically rambled on about how he's hell bent on keeping the team in Phoenix in spite of the fact that they are bankrupt, make no money, and have no fans...and that he doesn't want to relocate them to a place where they would be more successful. He would rather just pump money in for them. Apparently he doesn't understand how capitalism works. He also talked about how he didn't care that taxpayers have to support the building of these arenas, and that they shouldn't have any say in what happens. Another topic of discussion was about the cap, and how he doesn't care if a team has so many injuries and can't pull up any more players because they used up all their allowance. And the other topic was hits to the head (surprise surprise) and how he is doing everything possible to eliminate hits to the head and how he actually started to distribute DVD's about it. I can't wait to watch. Then he was asked about whether or not Havlat should have played after the Kronwall hit, and Bettman said that "he probably cleared all the tests so why not." How can anyone take this guy seriously? He looks like a cartoon character.

I say bring in a big red (band) wagon and block their desk with it

OMG you are just like me. I went right for the groin because that seems to be his favorite target when punching others. I was so disappointed.

I think if anything does come out about any corrupt officials it will be shortly after this series is over. I know conspiracies sound really crazy, but it sure makes it hard to not think there is one. The whole moving up the finals business, the inconsistent penalties, Pens being allowed to molest Hossa, this whole 6-on-5 incident. Looking back, does anyone remember a BJ player playing with two sticks in game 2 I believe? He didn't get called for it. Or how in game 7 against the Caps, the Pens had ZERO penalities? I know the Pens played clean in that game, but does anyone believe that an entire team can play complete angelic hockey 100% of the time, especially when they have Orpik? The officiating is showing either extreme incompetence or extreme bias. I'm not sure which one, but it could be a combination of both.

Drink every time they interview a Wings player/coach about what it's like to go against Crosby and/or Malkin

Some previous work

If this is true, than that will really piss me off because that is beyond incompetence. That is cheating. I hope to find out more.

Usually the trend is s***ty call in game 3 followed by Hossa explosion in game 4 if I recall correctly

Keep in mind that we won it in Pittsburgh last year so the majority of those fans were bitter Pens fans

No, I completely agree that it's the NHL's decision and not the courts to decide who moves. But the problem is why won't the NHL make the decision to let Phoenix move when they are failing? Bettman is pretty much taking after the US government by throwing money at the problem and hoping that fixes things.

:banana:

No Niedermayer???

To be honest, I think being somewhat crazy is the sign of a great goalie. Roy, Hasek, Brodeur, Belfour, Luongo, and Ozzie have all seemed to appear at least a little nutty. As far as meltdown goes, one game does not make a pattern.

This is exactly the point. Phoenix wasn't making money even before the economy got bad. I don't understand why Bettman wants to sit there and watch it happen.

Yeah I didn't think the penalty itself was too bad. I just think that it was "questionable" since that wasn't called before in any of the other games.

Since the NHL's officiating is so crappy, we have been on the end of some of the worst calls/non-calls that I can remember, just as other teams have. I think each series we have played so far has been defined by a memorable controversial call (except the too many men against the bjs in game 4 was actually correct). But I think this can be a good thing because the Wings seem to respond to this really well. Round 2-Game 3: Hossa tying goal waived off Round 2-Game 4: Wings destroy the Ducks Round 3-Game 3: Kronwall game misconduct plus major for a legal and clean hit/Havlat apparently okay enough to play in the next game Round 3-Game 4: Wings destroy Blackhawks. Round 4-Game 3: Terrible too many men non-call and questionable penalty on Ericsson leading to game winner Round 4-Game 4: ??? The Wings have shown that they get pissed off with these terrible calls and show it in the next game. So maybe we needed this to piss them off some more since they didn't look pissed enough for my liking in the first 2 games. NOTE: This isn't supposed to be complaining about the refs. It is supposed to be showing why it's not so bad that they suck all the time.

The 21 second too many men incident was so blatant though. It's not why we lost. The pp we deserved might not have led to a goal. But do any of you honestly think two refs and two linesmen had no idea there were 6 skaters for 21 seconds? Or that Bylsma didn't notice this either and call back a skater to avoid the penalty? None of the Pens skaters seemed to notice this either. It's not why we lost, but the terrible officiating is getting out of hand.

Okay so the game was very close. They won by 2 but the empty netter wouldn't have happened if we weren't already losing. We were missing our best two-way player and still came close. The Pens also got to keep Malkin after he should have been suspended and got away with too many men for 21 seconds. I'm mad about this non-call because it's not subjective. A hooking call or interference is kind of up to interpretation, but if you can count to 6 then you should know that is a penalty. It's black and white. And I don't believe that "the game was too fast and the refs are only human" because how can FOUR officials not be able to say "1...2...3...4...5...hey wait a minute..." for 21 seconds? There is no way they "missed" that. But I believe in karma and that this could be a blessing in disguise. It will fire them up for sure. And I'm not impressed with Leino.

I love how the Wings are bad guys every time

Why are Pens fans so mad about Hossa leaving? I thought all they needed was Malkin and Crosby

What do you mean the NHL regime was unhappy about the officiating? Aren't they the best officials in sports and correct 99% of the time?