haroldsnepsts

Just turned the game on. Good god they're letting Edzhole call the game? They should have Mickey Redmond there instead of Pierre just to balance things out. Has he said "active stick" or pointed out the Red Wings subtle interference yet?

He did give him a decent whack but it looked like it caught leg pad as much as leg. Either way I love how Smith lay there dying, at least until he saw no penalty was being called. Somehow he's managed to play completely normally on one good leg. Shootout. Just another three point game in the NHL...

Smith with another epic dive in the Ducks Yotes game.

If he continues to play well and hold a roster spot, absolutely. I was excited at the possibility of the Wings having two big puck moving D men in Kindl and Ericsson. E as the stay at home guy with a good first pass and Kindl as the more offensive guy. Like I said he's always had skills. But he's lacked consistency and a willingness to play physically, not only dishing out hits but taking them in order to make the good play instead of just throwing it up the glass. It's easy to forget that Kindl is 6'3 216 lbs. That's as big or bigger than anyone on the blueline except Ericsson and Huskins. And by the roster stats he actually outweighs Huskins. The Wings finally have size on the blueline and if these guys play like they should, they won't get pushed around by anyone around the net.

Just came here to see if anyone was watching too. Habs tie it up 6-6. It's crazy how some of these games in the East just get wide open.

Probably because plus minus doesn't mean much of anything. If he keeps playing like he has the last couple games though, people will come around.

In the Winnipeg game on the NHL network they ripped Ovechkin again in between periods, along with more highlights of him dogging it. He's basically circling around waiting for someone to give him the puck half the time.

I don't disagree. But earlier in the month he pointed out Kindl's bad play. Kindl has shown from the start he's capable of playing in this league. For him though it seems to be the willingness and ability to do it for a whole season. That's all I was saying.

What's weird is even when Ericsson would play like a solid bottom pairing guy people would still want to tar and feather him, like they thought he was supposed to play like a top pairing or something. Kindl on the other hand people seem really excited if he just looks decent for a stretch of games. I can't say I really ever understood it given their relative draft positions and potential.

If you're basing that on his +/- then I understand why you think it's a meaningful stat. You're misunderstanding how it works. Here's the full context of Babcock's quote about the "best D" by the way. Kindl has been playing better. But see the hot and cold part? That's the whole problem with Kindl. He needs to stay hot this time and hold a roster spot.

Lebrun has a pretty good article on Shanny and the Player Safety reviews. http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/9002609/take-brendan-shanahan-player-safety-room

I'm fine with having a hearing just to review it but it seems like 5 and a game was enough. I know guys want to protect their goalie but from the replay it didn't look like Jones was really trying to run him.

What facts exactly? Plus-minus is a mostly useless statistic because there's too many random variables involved for it to demonstrated anything meaningful. In 2011 Nick Lidstrom finished the season as a -2. Rafalski was the highest among D men with +11. So what does that mean? Rafi > Lidstrom? Oh, that's also the year Lids won the Norris. as a minus 2.

Pierre LeBrun ‏@Real_ESPNLeBrun On Avs matching O'Reilly offer, one industry source believes it's a given they'll trade him a year from now.

Over the course of a career as long as Fraser's there's going to be some awful calls (or missed calls in this case). I know Leafs fans would never think so but overall Fraser was a good ref. Certainly better than anyone out there now.

The penalty on Datsyuk they didn't show a replay but I rewound the DVR and watched it a few times. It was hard to know for sure but it sure looked like he kept both hands on his stick even though his stick was flat on the ice, then the puck shot out from somewhere else. Then the center ice ref called the penalty and everyone else looked like they had no idea what was going on, including the linesman who dropped the puck and the ref much closer to the play. I can't say for sure Dats didn't touch it, but it sure didn't look like it. I don't know if they can or not but they should let the lineseman who drops the puck call the penalty. Anyone outside the scrum that is a faceoff is going to have a hard time seeing what exactly happened.

Good point. these GM's are already using the new CBA to put the screws to each other. And to what people said earlier, it is overpayment but all offer sheets are going to be that way. They have to make it as painful as possible for the player's team to match the offer.

I know what you're saying. The Kings are my second favorite team so if the Wings are going to lose to anyone, it might as well be them in my book. So I was watching from a fairly balanced perspective. I see a lot of both teams games. And I don't disagree really except for the only way being to change the system. Because under mostly the same conditions the quality of officiating has gone noticeably down the last few years. No one is really ever going to be happy with refs, but there used to be guys like McCreary who knew how to manage a game. The quality and competence of the officials seems to have gone down. Linesmen included. In all my years of watching hockey I can't remember noticing linesman in a negative way as much as I have the last couple seasons. One of my biggest complaints about officiating, and what seemed to happen on the Datsyuk faceoff penalty, is when the ref 10 feet away is looking right at a play and doesn't call a penalty but the ref all the way out at center ice somehow thinks he has a better look at it and does make a call.

Ovechkin has 8 more years on his contract at $9.5 mill a year. At that price a buyout or trade seems unlikely, at least for Detroit (hopefully). If he takes nights off like this now, imagine how he'll be in 5 years. I've criticized Franzen for lack of effort, but I've never seen him do anything close to that.

Very well put. I don't think Datsyuk's was legit as it didn't look like he used his hand, but the others were legit calls taken individually. It's just the total lack of consistency throughout the game. And to think the refs are doing it intentionally to manufacture drama for NBC is tinfoil hat stuff. Bad officiating is bad officiating. I know they had to spend a ton of time killing penalties but when you're only goal is a fluke bounce off the back of a goalie's head, it's hard to win games. And the Kings game winner came on an awful play by Emmerton, completely letting Kopitar go free while also wiping out Ericsson.

On Kopitar's goal Emmerton basically slew foots Ericsson knocking him down and then leaves Kopitar wide open.

Given the way the two play, it's crazy that Franzen and Kopitar are the same size.

Jimmy's been good tonight.

Agreed. At first I thought he clipped him with the stick, but it looked like Cleary's loose bucket does him in. Crap. Smith. How is that not a penalty on Penner??

When you grab a guy around the head as he's trying to check you, you're probably going to get called for a penalty. the faceoff one was a joke though. Called by the center ice ref.