haroldsnepsts

Honestly I didn't know much about Kindl when he was drafted, but I definitely got excited for a puck moving defenseman who is 6'3" 216 lbs and drafted that highly. I've been pretty hard on him because he shows flashes of getting it together and then fades to the background once again. As a 26 yr old with as many chances as he's had, I don't hold out much hope.

Kerry Fraser's take: http://www.tsn.ca/blogs/kerry_fraser/?id=415224 Fraser certainly wasn't perfect in his days as a ref but even his worst day meets or exceeds some of the guys they got now. And Bill McCreary is sorely missed on the ice.

The thread title is "and you thought ONLY Homer got hosed..." After so many brutal calls against him, Homer getting hosed on goalie interference calls isn't even really up for debate.

Don't get me wrong, based on what little I've seen and heard of Suter's performance to date, I certainly wouldn't be happy with his play so far given his paycheck. But the OP was drawing conclusions about how tied to one another Suter and Weber's success was. It could ultimately be true, but given all the variables involved, 8 games is a ridiculously small sample to draw any reasonable conclusions about that. Especially when we're coming off a lockout into a shortened season with no real training camp.

Price was a foot outside the blue paint and moving forward. What an awful, awful call. There continues to be zero standard for what constitutes goaltender interference in the NHL.

I've always thought Suter looked better because of Weber, but 8 games seems a tad premature to pass judgement on how much their success was tied to one another.

To be clear, I think the hit on Huskins was a fine and he definitely should've been aware of who was on the ice. My point is it's a kind of hit Backes looks for, and it's essentially one misstep away from being the kind of dangerous hit the league is cracking down on. If the guy he's hitting leans forward he'll end up contacting the head and the hit becomes a Matt Cooke special. So I wasn't all that surprised the refs overreacted. That was all I was saying. I think he caught Rafalski with one a few years ago. Found the hit. And a good explanation from Mick. It basically meets all the criteria of being an illegal hit, except for the head contact. So it's a high risk hit. When the refs saw Huskins head snap they must've assumed Backes clipped him. That was my point. As much as I don't like Backes, I'm not blaming him or anything for the hit.

Agreed. Backes has hit guys like this before. His hits like this are lateral, blindside, and sometimes push the boundaries of being late. That's a lot of the criteria for hits the league is trying to crack down on. All he has to do is graze a guy's chin and they're going to toss him from the game and suspend him. With the way Huskins head snapped the ref jumped the gun. Bad call, but I'm hardly surprised given the caliber of officiating the last few seasons.

Did you not read what I wrote, are you intentionally misrepresenting what I said? I called it a questionable hit, not a dirty one. Though it certainly wasn't clean. It could've been boarding, roughing, elbowing. But regardless of whether it was dirty or not, he broke Sprunger's neck on the play. He never bothers to contact Sprunger after the incident. Then the next time they played one another he taunts him saying it could happen again. That's a prick move. And Backes made no attempt to play the puck when he hit Sprunger, so I'm not sure what you're talking about there.

I think when you break a guys neck with a questionable hit, then you taunt him next time you play him saying you'll do it again, you're pretty much a dirty player, and definitely a prick (Yes, I know he denied it, but he did admit to telling Sprunger to "keep his head up out there" which is basically the same thing, so spare me). There's a lot of stuff I chalk up to "that's hockey" but Backes still stands out from most players in those kinds of incidents. Like I said, he plays on and sometimes over the line. He's not Matt Cooke (or how cooke used to be) but he's a prick. agree to disagree i guess. If you're so sound in your opinion I don't know why you keep going on about mine.

I know who Wyshynski is. I wouldn't rank him quite as high and respected as you apparently do. He's basically a blogger who consolidates things he's read elsewhere and chimes in his two cents, but my apologies for referring to him as "a guy" and not "The Great and Respected Blogger..." He's also been a pretty clear fan of Backes for a while now. My point is you digging up some random article on yahoo where he mentions Backes isn't dirty as if that's some irrefutable evidence. I've made no claims about Backes hit the other night. That was a terrible call. That doesn't change my opinion that Backes is a prick and often plays at and sometimes over the line. So like I said originally, when he gets a 5 minute major he didn't deserve for that hit, I certainly don't feel too bad for him. It's not the first time Backes has thrown that type of hit. This one was clean but he's had a few that are borderline late on a defenseman who's made a pass up ice. He comes east west and drills them after the puck is gone and they're looking up ice at the play. That's not a misinformed opinion by the way, it's just one you don't agree with.

Wait, a guy wrote an article on yahoo mentioning Backes isn't a dirty player?? Well that changes my mind completely. Backes is a prick. That doesn't mean he's not a good player. And if you spent time here other than to respond to some perceived injustice perpetrated against the Blues, you would've seen the Tootoo signing got mixed reactions to say the least. Tootoo is absolutely a dirty player who I'm hoping gets it together and learns to be a little more defensively responsible while with the Wings. If it carries so much less weight than yours, than why are you spending so much time trying to refute it? You don't think Backes is dirty or a prick. Since you're a Blues fan that's not surprising. Since I'm a Wings fan my opinion shouldn't be all that shocking either. I'm not exactly losing sleep over our difference of opinion.

Because I've seen him play. That's not actually a fact. That's your opinion as a Blues fan.

What's sad is in the Philly game Erskine threw an elbow that almost KO'd Simmonds. No call on the play. People will always complain about officiating, but having watched hockey a lot of years, the quality of reffing really seems to have deteriorated in the last few. Terrible call by the refs against St. Louis, but Backes is a prick so it's hard to feel that bad.

Am I the only one who thought Dats goal went in off Mule's leg? Bad call on the Backes hit. Great to see Z in beast mode, and yes, Ericsson has a good first pass.

Or essentially, Zetterberg gets about 20 minutes a game, with his beard picking up the extra minute or two.

Over his career several people have made reference to how deep Zetterberg's tank is. The guy's a horse. So he ends up getting a minute or two more ice time. Trying to extrapolate that into some meaningful qualitative difference between the two is a stretch.

It is pretty funny. People seem to bash E out of habit. He's been solid so far this season, and was much of last season. He's never going to be a top pairing guy, but he's a big, good stay at home guy, who has the ability to make a great first pass (which a lot of stay at home guys don't necessarily have).

Agreed. Because in that case there was already a lot of bad blood and scores to settle. If it's from some prior incident earlier in the season that's totally fine. I'm guessing it was this one? If memory serves that was Lemieux basically trying to redeem himself after turtling in the infamous brawl. (courtesy of hockeyfights and youtube)

In general I agree, though for me that's overshadowed by having someone on the Wings that will actually drop the gloves. But yeah, staged fights, especially on the opening faceoff are kind of lame.

Where's Smith? Lashoff has been impressive for a rookie in his first few games but Smith is already playing a bigger role than both him and Kindl. And Smith plays a similar role as Kindl, but is better at it and can handle more minutes.

Not really. What he's saying isn't against forum rules. Your last couple posts however, have been (I deleted one). You guys can disagree without the insults.

Not surprising given their defense. I haven't been following them that closely but they never really got anyone to replace the loss of Pronger or Carle did they?

Not sure if this has been posted yet but here's Tootoo's first fight. I hadn't seen it because I only caught the third period. What's with the refs jumping in so fast?? And his second fight. So far he's squaring up when he fights, bringing energy, hitting guys, no cheap stuff... I'm coming around on Tootoo.

Seems like the Wild are already getting their money's worth out of Parise. Suter, not so much.