haroldsnepsts

and Therriens' crying pays off.

Do you really expect him to say "Yeah, I punched him in the head." Would Kronwall ever say "yeah, I left my skates on that hit" or Draper saying "I completely crosschecked him in the face when he wasn't expecting it?"

Cheapshot to Franzen aside, I've always liked Roberts. I didn't hear any of his comments, but it wouldn't surprise me that he would be a man about it.

This is seriously a press conference from today? Therrien is disgracing himself as a coach. To ***** about the officiating in three straight press conferences. Can't you eventually get fined for publicly ripping on the officiating? They should have Jordan Staal giving the press conferences. He was obviously disappointed in a post game interview after the second loss, but was easily the most composed an articulate of the bunch. He actually talked about what the Penguins needed to do to win games, instead of crying about officiating. You know it's bad when a 19 year old is showing more leadership and composure than the coach.

Amen brother.

Can we please just win the Cup first? All these threads about parades and Conn Smythes are starting to make me nervous....

Definitely. Stevie used to do it too, but I'm pretty sure he picked it up from Fedorov. During the Cup years, it seemed like they were all picking up on each others tricks. Sergei's move, Shanny banking the puck in off the goalie...

It's a great photo, but I agree, when you watch the actual goal, you see he actually scored and basically lept afterwards. As for Flips, I was thinking Fedorov, not Orr. That's a total Sergei move where you put the puck under the guy's stick, then bring your around and on top of it so you can get the shot off.

*cough* bertuzzi *cough* *achoo* hatcher *ahem* ulfie

Wow. It's bad enough for a coach to due that in a press conference after a loss. But the next day? I have a hard time believing the Pens have what it takes to come back and win the Cup. Heavy on talent, low on leadership, including their coach.

I've always thought the Crosby diving thing was totally overblown. He's embellished sometimes, but he's nowhere near the level of someone like Forsberg, or Avery. He plays with a reckless abandon that causes him to go crashing around a lot. Holmstrom plays that way and falls down all the time too, though a lot of that is his terrible skating skills. But with Crosby the refs do seem to give him the benefit of the doubt when he goes down and it draws calls. That's not his fault though. And those usually aren't dives.

I think a fair number of Pens players were thinking that.

Honestly I think it's the best analysis of read of the series. And that's totally shocking coming from Pronger. I still hate the guy, but he knows hockey. He's not exactly the thinking man's defenseman the Lidstrom is, but he's also more than a pair of elbows.

Ozzy definitely embellished, but it's what goalies do to make sure a call is made when they get run. Mainly though, you're focusing on a few incidents where there may have been embellishment and overlooking all the plays where guys have taken slashes, shots to the head, and other cheapshots, all without faking anything.

I thought he conducted himself pretty well as a young captain. His team just suffered two tough losses and has yet to score a point in the SCF. Talk about a shot to your pride. The press conference after the first game, he was alluding to obstruction calls not being made which is lame, but I thought he was fine. This time he left all the whining to his cry-ass of a coach. Seriously, I can't believe how much Therien complained about obstruction. The sick part is it'll probably work and they're gonna get a ton of calls at home next game. As a coach, I generally think you should be talking about your own team and what they need to do, not crying about obstruction. Instead Therien basically said the Wings were cheating and getting away with it, and Osgood is a diver. The young Jordan Stall had more insightful comments after the game than his friggin coach.

Absolutely McCarty. It's been nerve racking every time he's on the ice. He just doesn't have the footspeed, stamina or strength to keep up right now.

That's great to hear.

I think it's a little early to write Malkin off, but I loved the way the Wings handled him and Crosby last night. I'm guessing they weren't expecting to get knocked around quite as much as they did, with the exception of Kronner and maybe Stuart. But I bet Crosby would've never thought he'd get put on his ass by Datsyuk, then Zetterberg.

QFM*F*T! Goaltender interference is up to the ref's discretion, like much of the rulebook. based on how they've called it this season and most of the playoffs, with the possible exception of Holmstrom's waved off goal against Dallas, that was an extremely weak call to negate a goal in the SCF. The good news is that, though it was the first goal of the series and potentially huge, it turned out not to matter. So hopefully that will be the one bullsh*t call against Holmstrom this series to negate a goal.

Yeah, I've always though Lidstrom is the engine that runs the puck possession offense. But Kronwall has been awesome this playoffs. He's been solid defensively, and definitely has guys thinking twice with the puck in open ice.

Read my post again. I said I can buy that someone would think that's a legit call. I don't think it was, and agree that they called it ridiculously tight. Had they called it that way on every player in the playoffs, many goals would've been disallowed.

I saw the press conference, and when he was talking about the schedule, he made sure to say "even though the majority of fans don't want it" they're going to expand play between the conference. This is what drives me nuts about Bettman. His passive aggressive little invented comments when people are talking about the game and potentially changing it. It's like he still has to say "I'm right, but I'm nice enough to do it for some fans." That is one of the major reasons I think the guy is a d-bag. He's done it constantly over the years.

You mean you agree with Eva, and the ref. This is not a cut and dry thing. We're not talking about whether a stick was above the cross bar on high sticking. This is about what is incidental contact, and what is interference.

I can buy that someone could think this was a legit call. You could argue that it in some way distracted Fleury. I think it was an extremely tight way to call interference, and much different than how they called it all season and most of the playoffs (with the exception of the last goal Homer had waved off). But there's no way I buy for one second that Fleury mistook Holmstrom's stick for the puck hitting him. No way. He has about as clear a view of the shot as you're going to get in the NHL. When the puck is fired, he looks down, but not where Holmstrom tapped him. He misplayed the shot, but not because he thought it was already fired and hit him in the leg pad.

Probably. I gotta admit, I had hit my limit with Sammy. Not because he's awful, but because he possesses talent but seems not to make the most of it. He reminds me of how Primeau was for much of his time in Detroit. He's the ultimate non-finisher. So many promising plays end in a fart. Still, he played awesome last night, even beyond the goals. He was so fired up. I hope it continues, and I'll try and hold off on bashing him, at least for a while.