Deke

He's got quite the salary contract. Who would you cut to pay for him? Me? Nobody. Hossa > Shanny.

No, it pretty much is blatantly wrong. By your logic, it'd be perfectly OK to for a ref to call interference on someone for staring at the goalie menacingly. It's the ref's digression, right? If the interference didn't happen, then it's not digression, it's imagination. There was no contact that the rulebook says is interference because, as you've pointed out, there is no clear definition for interference outside of the goal crease when the goalie initiates contact. Put down the pipe pal, there is really very little to argue about.

Wait a second, so first you're arguing that the rules are clear and it was interference. Now you're saying that the rules are ambiguous. Interference is actually pretty simple. Don't make contact with the goalie INSIDE THE CREASE that impedes his ability to play his position. Which includes making saves, deflecting passes, and playing the puck. Inside the crease, the goalie has default authority. Outside the crease, the rules are less clear, but the heart of the rule remains the same: No contact that impedes his movement our ability to make saves. Fluery kicked his skate out to STOP his movement well before homer's stick was on the ice. This movement alone means his movement was not impeded. Furthermore, a man can skate through a stick. Had the stick actually impeded the goalie's movement, you would have seen the stick flex. There was no stick flex or movement in homer's arm indicating any type of resistance. Your argument's are changing as they are shot down.

You're right, that's very sad to say. And also wrong. 2 completely false calls in the stanley cup finals. The video evidence is proof that homer was not in the wrong, so why should homer change? The refs, and the way refs make the ultimate call is what should change. Any other outcome means that the league is willing to compromise on getting it right. If they are willing to compromise on getting it right, then they are essentially allowing refs to play favorites. The calls should be black and white.

Agreed, the butt end of the stuck would hurt someone's face. Osgood didn't come anywhere near his face. Hit his arm at most, and it was a tap. If he actually butted him Riberio would have smacked into the boards and fell down.

Osgood definitely did it on purpose, he was looking straight at him as he skating by. But it was just a little tap. Everyone saying it was a butt of the stick hasn't seen someone actually get butted or speared apparently. What Ribeiro did was inexcusable though, even if it was on purpose. You don't respond to a "Hey, slow down TAP" by 2hand swinging your stick like you are Mel Gibson in Braveheart at someone's neck. Go get in his face if you want to be a tough guy. Both incidents are pretty stupid and I'm glad they both got fined. Screw all this suspension talk, no one got hurt, let them play.

I say yes, and give the job to Bowman.

Since I can't go to any of the games (unless they play Dallas), I need someone to do this for me. You'll be a hero. Get an Octopus. Get a catfish. Cut head off of catfish, stick catfish in octupus and wrap a couple of the legs around it like it's being eaten. Throw it on the ice. Bonus points: If detroit sweeps Nashville, Wrap one of the other legs around a minature broom. Rinse and repeat as neccesary with a duck, or a shark. Don't run into any peta people though.

Guess that tells you something about the Nashville fans who keep them under their hats. Or maybe they bring a bucket full of live critters n catfish, in case they get hungry during the game.

You guys could debate the line up until your blue in the face. But you guys are forgetting one key thing. It's Nashville, mmmkay? Yes I know anything can happen in the playoffs. I know that's what we thought about Edmonton a couple of years ago. But, it's Nashville. Tootoo is really nothing to be afraid of. You don't need Downey out there for Nashville. It's better to get McCarty back up to playoff shape so you can play them both when you need to. Downey has got a good attitude and while he'd love to play, he's just happy to be part of the wings organization. He's probably got one of the best tough guy gigs around. He's nothing but "Yes Sir Coach, No Sir Coach, Jump Coach? How high Coach?". Not to suggest he's a blooming idiot, quite the contrary. That's why Downey is good for the team, he does what he's told, and he's not going to go stomping on people to vent frusteration if he doesn't get ice time. By the way, it's Nashville. I'm already ashamed I spent this long writing a post about Nashville.

You will never complete anything in your life that even remotely compares to what Beflour has done. But you win, afterall, you made fun of him on the intrawebz!

As far as individual effort goes, he's been the best player in the NHL this year. What is wrong with recognizing and praising Ovechkin for his accomplishments? Few players reach that mark, one is hardly a fan boy for recognizing that.

McCarty in his heyday would have taken King on. King is a beast, but I doubt McCarty is scared of him.

Facing Luongo in the play offs would be great. It's like putting a donut on a baseball bat. After the wings are done lighting up one of the best individual effort goalies in the league, they will be warmed up to score on anyone. Don't be afraid of Luongo, he might be beast, but he has no team to be afraid of.

hahaha I've never seen that one before.

New icing rule: The forechecker has to beat the ref to the puck. The defense has to pass the puck to the ref before icing is done. Talk about excitement.

We'll just have to make losing your balance a penalty. As far as getting a stick in someone's skates, then that's probably a tripping call depending on the circumstances. Seriously though, why does losing your balance have anything to do with it? If there was a no-touch rule, and 2 guys go racing in for the puck that the ref's waved off the icing, you still have the same exact danger. I don't agree with the hypothetical injury you are talking about because the same injury can happen on a race where the icing was waved off. Pretty soon the refs are going to be out there with radar guns clocking Gaborik and giving him a speeding ticket for skating too fast because he might have lost his balance and hurt himself. Can we agree that all of the injuries that can happen on a touch up race can happen on a waved off race? Because it's the same race, only one can end up in a whistle if the back checker arrives first. Compared to the other way which there is no whistle despite the outcome of the race. You're calling it a meaningless play. If the fore checker gets there first, it is not a meaningless play. It went from a meaningless play to a potential play. But with no touch icing, all of those will be meaningless because there is a point of no return where the icing is automatic. A point of no return means the fore checker has to give up. Giving up is not in my hockey lexicon.

Exactly. If the refs just start calling illegal contact on puck races, the injuries will be decreased. It's like hooking. After the lockout, the refs called everything that remotely resembled a hook. They did it so much, they called plays that weren't hooks. But hooking was majorly decreased now to a more acceptable level.

The entry has been removed from ESPN's website, for all the late comers to the thread who are wondering what is happening. It was either a mistake or an early april fools joke, either way the entry is gone now.

More than that. ESPN is set to report 4-1-08 that Steve Yzerman has successfully cloned himself and will be playing all forward and defensive positions. Osgood will still be in net, with genetically enhanced eyes.

I'll reserve judgement until another news source picks it up. ESPN is notorious for making mistakes, wasn't it just the other day that they confused the red wings for the avs in a picture caption?

Wow, just wow, after showing you the definition of the words you resort to 3rd grade insults? I guess it matches the math level. Big baby? Are you being serious? Edit my post, ok there Cindy, I edited it to fix spelling. What is this, CSI-LETSGOWINGS? I think your posts provide too much entertainment value to put you on ignore. I'm getting a huge kick out of this. Go write about it in your blog, there Mr. internet tough guy. You want to get back on to talking about hockey or diagram sentences some more? Wow, what kind of hockey fan are you that you go to this much length to feel important on an internet forum?

I say Franzen already has replaced him on the PP and is doing a fantastic job at it. If Homer came back tomorrow, which would be great news, I would keep Franzen on the primary PP as the anti-goalie. Let's hope it's not a sports hernia.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rational agreeable to reason; reasonable; sensible: a rational plan for economic development. [/i\ http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rationale%20 1. the fundamental reason or reasons serving to account for something. 2. a statement of reasons. 3. a reasoned exposition of principles. Rationale is used when talking about reasons and thoughts. Rational is used when talking about a behavoir. A person being rational has rationale, but it's grammatically incorrect to say someone are rationale. Someone is rational, or has rationale. One is an adjective and one is a noun. If you want to nitpick, I suggest you look it up first. Why do you insist on picking apart people's posts that has nothing to do with the topic? Are you in politics? You sure do like to misdirect the attention away from the topic a lot.

Going to have to agree with that one. Even though the rules state no contact that impedes the progress of a player who doesn't have the puck, it's not called that way 100%. I see people getting pinned agsainst the boards all the time who don't have the puck. It seems that grey area is only applied to the boards in and around the net though, if you try and tie someone up in open ice, you'll get called. As far as puck races go, no contact should be initiated other than lifting the stick until someone has touched the puck. Then the war body position should begin.