haroldsnepsts

He said those 4th line guys had been playing well together so he started them, but apparently someone did their homework and found out that line had never actually been together all season.

For those comparing this to the Wings of the 80s, some perspective from an old timer. The Wings missed the playoffs 5 consecutive years from 79-83. Keep in mind this was the era when only 5 teams didn't make the playoffs. You heard me, 5. In 83 they called up Stevie Yzerman from Peterboro. They made the playoffs with a losing record of 31-42-7 and lost in the first round. The next year they made the playoffs with an even worse record, 27-41-12 (for you youngins that last number is ties, not ROW) losing in the first round again. The year after that, 1986, they only won 17 games all season, losing 57 times and missing the playoffs. This current Wings roster is an average team that is struggling with a ton of injuries. They might not even make the playoffs but are still middle of the pack in their conference. On any given night they at least have chance of being in a game and winning. They may be frustrating as hell to watch, but they are still nowhere near the Dead Wings.

Is there a record for most players injured on a single shift?

I would say the amount of injuries has become comical, but it's just not funny anymore.

I laughed when I saw you refer to it but honestly wasn't even sure I was the one who said it. Had to go look. Eerily it was almost a year ago to the day.

Good memory!

From the NHL's perspective, a line brawl 2 seconds into a game and having Tortorella lose his mind in the hallway makes the league look like an illegitimate and fringe sport rather than one of the major pro leagues in North America. I'm guessing they're unhappy about that. The NHL once again gets highlights galore, but for all the wrong reasons. The line brawl was precipitated by the actions of Hartley. It has nothing to do with penalties being called on the ice. If the league doesn't like the end result, then Hartley should be fined. Which he was. Tortorella gets 15 days and Hartley gets fined $25,000. I think the league actually got this one right. This wasn't like the Wings Avs rivalry where a huge rivalry finally came to a head. This was an all out staged fight. Pretty funny to watch because it's so ridiculous, but bad for the league. http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/10324902/vancouver-canucks-coach-john-tortorella-suspended-calgary-flames-coach-bob-hartley-fined-brawl-roles

It's in no way saying that. Again, it ignores how obvious the intention was here with the 4th line out and Westgarth taking the opening faceoff. If you start your goons for the opening faceoff, have a goon winger take that faceoff, then your players simultaneously drop the gloves and make no play on the puck, the team and coach deserves to be punished. It's not like there will be many cases where a 4th line legitimately starts a game and a line brawl accidentally breaks out.

Let's get back on the topic of the game instead of fixating on 13 year old girls.

The problem is then players will intentionally shoot the puck into the net all the time. The nets are there to protect the fans from flying pucks so you don't really want to give players a reason to be firing more pucks out of the rink. Besides, just from a fan perspective I think that could make for some really ugly hockey. And I still don't understand how O'Halloran has a job in the NHL.

I'm in no way saying players should be barred from starting a game, but when you put out your goons with Kevin Westgarth taking the opening faceoff and big surprise a line brawl breaks out, the coach should be held responsible. Because those players were sent out there with either an explicit or at least implied message to drop the gloves and go off the opening faceoff. Earlier this season Toronto tried to diffuse the goon situation by putting their stars our there and it almost resulted in Kessel getting the snot beat out of him by supergoon John Scott. Luckily Kessel was smart enough to back up and start swinging his stick to avoid the beating.

Hartley absolutely did. He put out that starting lineup and had Westgarth, a winger, take the opening faceoff. Everyone in the hockey world knew exactly what was going on. When you put those players out and an all out brawl ensues, the coach is responsible. If the league is fine with the outcome, so be it. But if they don't like how that game and want to be seen as a legitimate sport then they absolutely need to punish Hartley for his actions. Everyone knew what was going to happen. This wasn't simply a coach starting his 4th line. It's fitting that it happens the same night as the Wings goal off the netting. If the NHL wants to be taken seriously they need to address what is actually happening. Everyone knew the Wings goal shouldn't have counted, yet it did because of four incompetent officials and a bad review policy. Everyone knows what was going to happen when Hartley put out that lineup. The league has all the legitimacy of professional wrestling tonight.

The Red Wing's toughest enforcer: Jimmy Howard.

Calgary was the one who instigated it with their starting lineup. Westgarth taking the opening faceoff sends a pretty clear message you're not interested in playing hockey. Funny to see Tortorella going nuts in the hallway. He had a right to be pissed, but I kinda still wanted someone to punch him.

It's kind of fun to see because it's two teams I don't care about, but the line brawl to start off the Flames Nucks game was pretty ridiculous too. Westgarth taking the opening faceoff? It's a hard night to take the NHL seriously.

It's good the Wings got 2 points. They need them. Kings are my second favorite team so it's unfortunate to see them lose on such an awful goal. Darryl Sutter summed it up, no matter who it was scored on it's embarrassing for the league. How does a puck go 30 feet in the air into the netting and four officials don't see it? And the bigger question, how does O'Halloran still have a job as an NHL ref? If there's a record for being involved on terrible goal calls, he owns it.

Honestly the Kings have been crashing the net hard all season. They don't change their style against some very tough teams, so they're certainly not going to stop out of fear of retribution from the Wings. It's no fun to watch them do it against the Wings, but it'd be nice if Detroit got the idea of going hard to the net too once in a while.

It'd be great if they're right. Bert has escaped much of the wrath of Wings fans here but I think he's among the big disappointments so far this season. He's been either invisible or awful too many games.

Ultimately Scrivens lost his spot to Quick when he came back, then became a tradeable asset when Jones played so well. We'll definitely see what Scrivens is made of behind the Oilers defense. Like you said it was basically Hendricks for a 3rd. It should help a little, but I agree it's hardly dealing with the major problems.

The Kings acquired Scrivens in the Bernier trade with Toronto, so he wasn't really #3. He was the backup behind Quick, then played great when Quick was out injured. Jones became the backup and was great in that role, so the Kings realized they could get by without Scrivens once Quick was healthy. Even if Dubnyk and Scrivens are an even swap the Oilers get Hendricks who by the sounds of it is a very good, if overpaid PK guy and will bring some much needed veteran presence to the Oilers. And now you get a clean slate with your starting goaltender. I agree though that until they get their defense sorted, it's hard to imagine the Oilers winning consistently.

He'll have his work cut out for him in Edmonton but Scrivens was great during his short time with the Kings. The Kings have this kid Martin Jones who was also great when called upon while Quick was out, which is why they could deal Scrivens.

I think it will continue to roll on but seems like it could be easier to settle. This may be naivete or ignorance on my part but I don't think the NHL is in as bad of a position regarding concussions as the NFL. The NFL has a long history or trying to suppress, deny, and mislead regarding what they knew about concussions. I'm sure it's been on the NHL's radar longer than I realize, but I don't think they have as damning of a track record. The NFL absolutely does not want this to go to court where all of that info will be revealed.

Don't give them any ideas for next year.

Well, the rink is for inline hockey, so that's not too bad. The beach volleyball, meh, I don't know, but it is Southern California, I guess they're featuring that idea since you really can't play to the skating on the pond concept. So what else are they supposed to do? The music stage isn't even a bad idea, but good lord couldn't they get a headliner better than Kiss? How much were tickets to the Winter Classic? From what I've heard the event is 80% sold out but the $250 seats have not sold well and they're not even the most expensive seats ($279). The league is even admitting it may have priced them too high. Add to that $50 for parking anywhere close to the stadium and $20 for far parking. Seems like there's been very little promotion of the event other than to existing Kings and Ducks fans. The Kings and Ducks are among the two best teams in the league and playing an outdoor game in LA is a novel concept, but it sounds like the league is bungling this badly.

It goes along with most of the decisions the Sabres seem to make. The logo for their third jersey should be a team tanking for a draft pick.