xtrememachine1

I love reading Pens fans in comments on articles defend Orpik. Orpik has been suspended, at LEAST, twice for nasty kneeing hits and here, he skates right at Stepan, knee out, he gets a major for kneeing, game misconduct, but Pens fans claim "the NHL is targeting him because of his history" and "It was a clean hit, Tort needs to suck it up". Meanwhile, less than a week ago Crosby gets tapped from behind and they want blood. lol Talk about hypocrites... geez.

This clip is just great. I watched it twice.

Yeah I like how, despite getting caught on video, he denies it. Nice. lol I also like how the ENTIRE arena saw it, but the refs did not. Can't wait for the playoffs! lol

Oh yeah, definitely. He's definitely a Forsberg. Loads of talent, but he does the cheap shot against a tough player, then when he gets hit back, falls to the ice, looks at that ref and says "That bad man hit me. I'm a skill player!" Yeah, that crap used to drive me nuts. I always thought it was funny when Forsberg played for the Flyers and he used to get into it with Crosby. It was like watching someone yell at themselves in a mirror.

This is a popular misconception. Joe Sakic beat the Wings in 96, 99, and 2000 and while I didn't like him, it was different. I didn't like him because he beat the Wings, but I respected him and the way he played the game. He let his skill do his talking. He didn't take cheapshots at people when things didn't go his way. The truth is, Wings fans (well at least me anyways), started to dislike Crosby after Game 4 in the 2008 Finals. That was the game of the famous 5-3 kill where Zetterberg stopped Crosby right on the doorstep and killed off the penalty. After the game was over, the Wings are skating back to the locker room and Crosby skates over and gets in Z's face. WTF? He's supposed to be a leader and face of the league and he's trash talking to a guy that just beat him because he's a sore loser. Since then I've opened my eyes and seen him do A LOT of shady things (slew footing, slashing every single time he loses a face off, elbows, sucker punches from behind, etc). Regardless of the outcome of the 2009 Finals, I would still hate his guts today.

All this hype for Saturday's game and the coming blood bath and watch, it will be a nothing game and both teams will rest all their players. lol

Yeah I kind of expected that. The Blues are a good team, no question, but they're inexperienced and that "defense first" style that they play right now... everybody will be playing that way next week. I do think they'll win in the first round, but unless we have some sort of playoff disaster in the West, I think they'll get bounced in the second round.

Not surprising. However, Milbury apologizing or retracting his statement doesn't make it less true and I'm still glad someone finally said it.

It was refreshing to see someone in the media actually say it like it is when it comes to Crosby's behavior and not just ignore his antics like everyone else.

Thanks!

Yeah, I like those lines too, but I think with Lidstrom possibly retiring, we really need to focus on our defensemen. Unless we plan on overpaying (or the salary cap is gone) we're not getting Suter. Probably have to trade for one.

Wow! I can't believe Milbury said that. Good for him. Although, I think he likes to say things to get attention, so whether or not he actually believes that is a good question. For all the people whining about the crosscheck on Crosby (not so much here, but on comments of articles and other message boards), that hit from Schenn was nothing. It was essentially a tap and Crosby flops to the ground like he was hit by a sniper. How many times have we seen him with the puck and defensemen are slamming into him, crosschecking him, basically using their whole body to try and knock him off the puck and Crosby stays on his feet. He gets tapped from behind without a puck and down he goes? Not buying it.

They play each other again on Saturday and by looking at the standings, they're pretty much a lock to play each other in the first round. The Pens won't catch the Rangers and NJ is too far off to catch either of them. Let the bloodbath begin!

The Pens. The fans are already beyond obnoxious, imagine if they had another championship. UGH Unfortunately, I think its inevitable that they'll win at least one more Cup.

Why do you think that? Because of their point totals? Around and around we go. Yeah, I just live in Pittsburgh and (unfortunately) see the Pens play all the time. What would I know about how and when Crosby plays? Stats are great and are helpful to prove points, but they are misleading here. Crosby usually plays (or played, not so much now) the final 15-20 seconds of a PK, so he's out there when his team gets back to full strength. They're not putting him out there to "kill penalties". When the other team has their best PP unit out there, Cooke, Adams and their Selke candidate, Staal, play most of the two minutes. Yes, he has a good reputation because he's always one of the league leaders in steals and is out there for all the big PKs and at the end of the game. Datsyuk has earned that reputation of being a good defensive forward by playing really well defensively. He doesn't play much on the PK during the game because we have an entire lineup full of defensive minded forwards.

That's simply your opinion. Logic would dictate that if a forward spent more time in the offensive zone and less time in the neutral zone or his own zone, he would see an increase in points. Someone scoring 130-150 points a year would see a pretty strong increase in offensive numbers if they played a more offensive minded game. Nice snarky answer. For all the big offensive numbers Crosby puts up, he hasn't finished with more than a +20. In fact, when he won the Art Ross in '07 he finished with one of the lowest +/- totals in the history of the NHL for a recipient of that award. In '09 he had 103 points and was just a +3. Even the year he scored 109 points and led the league in goals, he finished with just a +15. Seems to me, if he's good defensively, with all the points he accumulates, shouldn't his +/- be much higher? Datsyuk was able to finish with a +41 in a year he scored 97 points. A +36 in a year when he got 87 points. Now comes the part where you say "plus minus doesn't matter", but those 20 seconds Crosby plays at the end of a penalty kill against a teams 2nd PP unit means more. Datsyuk has 3 Selke trophies, good for 2nd all time. Crosby hasn't even been close to a nomination.

Isn't this the same Alexander Radulov that has a career high 26 goals in the NHL? The same guy that has spent the last 4 years in the KHL? We saw how much that did for Hudler's career and he was just there for a season.

Thanks. However, you have to concede that comparing players based on points is ridiculous. Players like Yzerman and Datsyuk never get mentioned in these type of discussions because they backcheck, which is wrong. If Yzerman wasn't backchecking all the time and cherry picked at the opponents blue line, who is to say he wouldn't have as many points as Lemieux or Gretzky in a season. Don't know where you came up with those numbers. I see a lot of Pens games and I saw Cooke, Staal, Adams and Rupp out there a ton, not Crosby. When he's out there, its right before the penalty expires.

Why does Datsyuk have to have more points than Crosby in order to be considered to be the best player in the league? Datsyuk gives up points to play defense. Crosby does not. This an old argument. One that used to involve Yzerman and Lemieux and Gretzky. Who's better? A player with 199 points and doesn't play defense? Or a player that gets 155 points and helps prevent the puck from going into his own net? I don't necessarily know if there's a right answer to this, it really comes down to preference. The people that think Datsyuk is better believe that if he played Crosby's kind of game, he would have more points, while if Crosby played Datsyuk's style, he wouldn't do as well as Datsyuk is now. Personally, I think Datsyuk is better because he's more valuable when going for a championship. Defense plays a huge part in the playoffs and scoring machines typically get slowed down in the postseason.

While all these injuries certainly suck, its better that its happening in March than April.

Nobody wins the Cup in March. Seriously, how many times have we seen the Wings dominate in March, then get knocked out in the first or second round? The playoffs are a totally different game. Everybody gives a little extra. There's a little more fighting in the corner for loose pucks. More willingness to give up the body to block shots. More willingness to stand in front of the net to chip in a loose puck or deflect a shot. All these little things make a big difference in the postseason. Winning in the regular season is all good and fine, but they won't be playing Carolina, Winnipeg, Isles or Leafs in the playoffs and the good teams they'll be playing will be playing much differently than they are now. I'm not saying they won't change themselves, but winning a bunch of games in the regular season doesn't prove anything. Our fan base has learned that lesson a bunch of times.

This post made my day!

Letang was going to chip it past Nystrom and skate around him. Nystrom didn't want Letang to do that so he tried to get in his way and at least slow him down. Unfortunately he was moving pretty quick and drilled Letang. When I first saw it, I thought it was a solid hit to the shoulder with unfortunate consequences. Nystrom wasn't "going after" him and he kept his elbows tucked in. But because of the position Letang was in, Nystrom's tucked in arms make contact with Letang's head. Pretty much any blow to the head will result in a suspension these days. It'll be an interesting decision though because does this mean even a clean hit can result in a suspension if a head injury is caused?

In a somewhat related topic to this, I noticed Detroit is 4th in the West now with St Louis taking our spot at the top of the division. Anyone know how that worked out? We have the same exact number of points, more wins, more goals for and we've beaten them 3 out of 5 games this year. How do they come out on top in the tie breaker?

We're going to ride that "fair market value" quote till the end of his career aren't we? lol Good stuff. Does anyone else think it was foolish for Howson to say Nash demanded to be traded? The fans might boo him now, which will lead to a messy ending for everyone. Plus, knowing that Nash wants to be out of Columbus, that kind of hurts Howson's ability to trade him. Its going from "We're open trading him" to "We HAVE to trade him". I feel like revealing this cost them leverage to trade him now.