Resetti

The Penguins really do not handle losing well. If this game doesn't get Fleury benched, nothing will.

LOL! Fleury has put together an incredible low-light reel today. How does that puck go in?!

No.

It's Subban all the way. Suter will be a close second.

These teams should just pull their goalies for the rest of the series. They're awful. Did anybody see Fleury sitting on all fours like a dog and let the puck get banked in off him?

I think a whole lot of Coors Light factored into the decision to play an outdoor game in southern California at the end of January. What a disaster that will be.

An embellishment, maybe. It's a quality scoring chance with a clear lane to the goalie and another player crashing the net. Saying that Strait isn't guilty of a hold is crazy: he puts both hands on Crosby. When you use your free hand on a player, particularly a star, you're really daring the refs not to call you for something.

Howard isn't the problem. Making a goaltending change for Game 4 would smack of desperation, and not the good kind. The Red Wings can beat the Ducks but the defense has to start playing better.

Yikes, talk about crapping the bed... the switch to Schneider didn't jolt the players one bit. Talk about an uninspired effort by Vancouver, you'd think they had no idea that losing this game would put them on the brink of elimination. Not to take credit away from San Jose for carrying the play.

The reality is that no decision is going to please everyone. "Flooding" his email with complaints may sound like it would send a message, but pretty much every single time he makes a ruling he ruffles somebody's feathers. Dissent is nothing new. It's a crappy job and I'm glad I don't have to do it. But obviously the league completely whiffed on the Weber incident.

Gotta love it! This is the kind of thing you like to see in the playoffs, and it's from wars like these that rivalries are forged. This series smacks of hatred, and I just can't not watch a game like that.

It may not be a popular opinion, but it was a penalty. They called something similar in the 1st period. If it was a penalty then, it's a penalty in overtime. Strait was beaten out of the corner, panicked, and put both hands on Crosby. Don't put the ref in the position to make that call (and I'm sure Strait apologized to his team for putting them in that situation). I gotta say though, Kyle Okposo has been amazing this series. Talk about a player answering the bell in the playoffs. The Islanders speed is giving Pittsburgh fits; it will be an interesting Game 4.

I don't think there's any chance that Abby doesn't get suspended. The bar was set pretty low after the Gryba hit resulted in a suspension, and this hit was much worse because of the upward explosion. It seems pretty clear to me that his skates leave the ice going into the hit (rather than after the hit) and it looks like he makes contact with the head. I guess we'll all know soon enough.

I'm of the opinion that a penalty is a penalty regardless of what period you're playing in. If that's a call they're making in the 1st and 2nd period of the game, there's no reason it shouldn't be called in OT.

You see, Prust? If you were a little more thoughtful and called him a bug-eyed husky walrus, then there'd have been no problems at all!

If you were to take fans' opinion as law, then the NHL has it out for every team in the league while simultaneously being biased in favor of every other team. It's a bit of a brain-bender.

Originally I had picked the Rangers in 6, figuring that hot goaltending beats hot goal scoring... but then again, Holtby has been pretty sharp, and the Caps haven't shown any sign of cooling off. I still don't think it ends up being a short series though.

Maybe not coincidentally the Islanders' comeback began after Niskanen fought Okposo. The score was 3-1 at that point, and then 5 minutes later it's tied at 3. That's the risk of dropping the gloves with a team that's been punchless all game (ironically).

Fleury is living up to all the hype of being the weak link. Isles up 4-3.

Every fan base accuses the other team of "gooning it up," or that there's some league bias for or against a team... it's almost pointless to debate specifics. They're going to miss calls both ways, so the most important thing is that they maintain a level of control that prevents things from becoming truly dangerous on the ice (e.g. player violently boarded that doesn't result in a penalty so headhunting begins in earnest).

I dunno, I see it all the time. Players defend themselves and the puck by counter-hitting doing pretty much exactly that: brake and throw their back/shoulder into the player. Ironically James Neal was hurt earlier this year when Michael Del Zotto of the Rangers tried something similar, only MDZ got his arms up and walloped him in the face with his elbow. *shrug*

Pretty soon the NHL will hatch a plan for sunbelt teams to have outdoor games too, in the all-new Roller Ball Classic! Games will count just the same, because why not? Seriously though, playing these games outdoors as late as March is such a dumb idea... even when they had the Winter Classic in a place like Pittsburgh, which gets snow in December and January, the temperature was above 60 and it rained that year! So making plans for Los Angeles to have an outdoor game, and other places to play outdoors in March, the chances are too high for a disaster. It's like they are knowingly crapping on the sport.

I had been rooting for an all O6 first round but it looks like everything was just a little off for that to happen. Chicago-Detroit has to happen at some point to provide a fitting end to an era.

Although Stamkos is a fantastic young player, it seems like he never scores goals without the help of St. Louis. I would safely wager that more than 50% of his goals has an assist from St. Louis. At any rate, it's pretty cool to see a guy that old win the Art Ross trophy - even if it was obviously due to an injury to someone else.

Under Team Stats on NHL.com it shows some percentages that relate to this and other game situations (but unfortunately nothing as specific as two- or three-goal leads). The Red Wings are tied for 19th place with a 83.3% winning percentage when leading after 2 periods of play. They are tied for 17th place for winning percentage (28.6%) when the other team scores first. Yet Detroit is 26th for winning percentage (60.9%) when they do score first. Interesting...