skacore

The new OHL rule is a horrible idea as well. Watching this video makes me want to puke. Greenop is arguably the top dog in the OHL right now and in this fight he clearly has the upper hand against Stevens, but when Stevens gets his bucket knocked off... suddenly Greenop is mugged by two grown men and eats 2-3 shots to the face where he can't even defend himself! That just makes my blood boil... can't even describe it... that's great, just what we need in hockey. THAT IS HOW GUYS GET HURT.

Let's remove fighting and watch the game blossom

It really is a never ending debate, the sooner everyone realizes that, the better. Who are you preaching to, E_S_A_D? The same group of fans who love old time hockey will feel sick every time a Red Wing player backs down from a challenge, and the same group of fans who enjoy this European style will applaud the "turning the other cheek" mentality because we might score on the power play and in the end, win the game. No one's opinion is going to change, especially after winning the Stanley Cup. I find myself disgusted more often than not when I watch the Red Wings play, and I don't mean to offend anybody by that either, it's just not how the game I grew up to love has always been played. But it's pretty hard to argue with success, because the Red Wings are still winning games. Honestly, are we being cheapshotted/ran at more so than other teams? Not really, maybe a bit at times, but not really. Would an enforcer playing minimal minutes on the 4th line make a difference? No, not really, maybe just a little bit. It's not even about that anymore. To those who don't understand the obsession with fighting: It's because we grew up loving this style of play. Hockey is known for it's hard hits, fights, brawls, that is one of the things that makes it so different than other sports. Growing up watching a team with guys like Probert, Kocur, McCarty, Lapointe, Shanahan, Konstantinov, Rouse, Drake, Primeau, etc... you fall in love with that style of play, you love to see your team physically abuse the other team, you lose to see emotion bowl over and a fight takes place between your favourite player and your team's #1 rival. You won't be getting that with the new Red Wings squad. Some of us just can't accept the fact that our hockey team that we have rooted for forever has adapted a new strategy where they back down from physical play and let the referees handle it, I am definitely one of those fans. To those who can't stand to watch the team without ONE single fighter on the squad: Get that satisfaction from another team, plain and simple. It's not going to happen so it's best to just accept the team for what they are, a highly skilled European style team. Watch the Wings if you want to see highlight reel goals and great passing, but get your fix of hitting and fighting by watching other teams. Spamming this board with new threads about the same old thing just gets everyone riled up and putting each other down, just accept the team for what it has become, it is what it is.

please please please don't.........just......don't............lol lol

he could kick anyone on our team's ass

well he's obviously one of the best stickhandlers in the stick, but he wasn't really spectacular or anything in last year's breakaway competition, i see no problem giving other guys a chance rather than seeing the same guys go all the time last year was disappointing

way to create a circle around him boys, he'll think twice next time before ramming Datsyuk head first into the boards

get rid of mandatory visors or this is just stupid you'll end up with a situation like how it is in AAA right now... when the tough guys want to fight they just end up mutually agreeing to take off each other's helmets then square off EDIT...to clarify

wow is this a serious question? this is why they are on the 4th line Kopecky is friends with Hossa Draper is friends with Lidstrom Maltby is friends with Zetterberg but really Abdelkader-Helm-Downey

oh my god! logic!

But they weren't on the ice, or the bench, so who is going to stop Ott? And he deserves a suspension? Please, he deserves 2 minutes for what we call "cross checking".

Fighting isn't allowed in football. Fighting isn't allowed in basketball. Fighting isn't allowed in baseball. Ok, who said anything about fighting in the first place? Kronwall threw a big hit on Ribeiro in the 3rd period of a blowout game, I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THAT. But, being a blowout game, I also have no problem with Ott crosschecking Kronwall and letting him know that won't be tolerated. The game was over at that point. Get over what? I'm agreeing with both actions, the hit was fine, just accept the retaliation as well. You need to get over "it". THAT is hockey.

Why wouldn't he go after Kronwall in a blowout game? If Kronwall is willing to make big open ice hits in a blowout game, then Ott has every right to go after him. Again, why wouldn't he? Who is going to stop him on the Wings? The game was over already.

Kaberle @ 4.25 is an incredible deal, I'm excited to see who he might bring in for that.

has both

I love it. An ideal 2nd tier fighter for cheap, who brings leadership. Whether he brings anything on the ice or not is pretty irrelevant, he is there to change the team's attitude and image.

I doubt he put his fingers in Ruutu's mouth. It looked like an average face wash to me.

Probably a smart move by Samuelsson the puss Malhotra is an alright fighter

Good read. It almost seems unfair as a fan to not have a guy like that to rally behind.

I don't think it's fair to call those plays embarrassing. Whether it was dives or not, they saw their goalie take a spill, and they responded. I thought that was good showing from the Swedes, and I'm glad they didn't get penalties, the refs let them police themselves to a certain extent. If Canada's goalie was marginally bumped and fell, I'd want the Canadian D to respond the same way. Hedman was pretty bad all night long, but I have no problem with him showing some emotion after his goalie "got taken out". I said in another thread a few days back about players responding to "clean hits" or "clean plays" on their mates. In the heat of the moment, always respond. I wouldn't want to be the guy who has to look over the replay the next day and think to myself, "s***, that was a pretty dirty player, that wasn't clean at all", and regret not responding when it happened.

Maybe you shouldn't have been so confident a couple days ago when you suggested whoever Sweden faced in the finals would be an easy game, or something to that extent. Sweden lost because they were outplayed. Yes, the refs weren't particularly good throughout the night but it went both ways. If you think Canada went out of their way to run Sweden's goalie you're wrong. He embellished everything all night, I don't even see how anyone can suggest he was being run because it was so blatantly obvious that he was selling himself to the referees.

Dude.... look at it from a neutral stand point, maybe tomorrow when everything surrounding the tournament calms down. When he was going to the bench he skated into Della Rovere and he literally JUMPED like 2 feet into the air and fell backwards, that's embarrassing to watch. He can just as easily go around the players and make his way to the bench, not everyone is expecting a goalie to come rushing towards the bench during play. Esposito was skating for the puck, he wasn't trying to seriously injure anyone.. the goalie came so far out of his net, did he expect Esposito to take the long route around him? Tough luck buddy, you take the chance going for the puck, you suffer the consequences. He's a good goalie, but tonight was a little embarrassing.

Dion Phaneuf

If this happened in the NHL, that goalie would have a cloud over his head for a good 5 years after the game and he'd have a reputation as a flopper. It would be on TSN's highlight reel the entire week, people would laugh about it. Sure, a fight might break out in the game because someone on "his team" might think they have to respond, but the boys on the "other team" would be more than happy to oblige

They should just allow fighting in the World Juniors, it would eliminate most of these pretend tough guys