toby91_ca

Really....I mean....really??? Somehow, you find a way to blame the NHL and see favours for PIT on this play? Shouldn't have been a penalty, agreed, but any other team and any other ref, seeing that at full speed, it gets called, period!

Can't blame the ref on that one, even slow motion looks like contact from one angle. Total sell job for sure. At first I was thinking that I can understand jerking the head back....I'm thinking about playing and if a stick comes up quick like that within inches of my face, I'm pulling back in reaction.....then he grabs his mouth though and my defense of him goes away.

The one thing that really doesn't sit well with me is the fact there is history, the Caps haven't been able to get past the Pens in the playoffs, they come into this year's run and really think it's their year, after 2 home games, they find themselves down 0-2 and going down that same road again....then, first 5 minutes in the next game, Crosby is taken out. It's hard to imagine there wasn't some pre-planning there. I don't think the particular play was planned in anyway, but I think the situation presented an opportunity and you have to imagine the game plan coming in was to do something if the opportunity presented itself.

You haven't seen the right replay then No suspension and I've heard many suggesting Ovechkin is more to blame than Niskanen. Ovie wacked him in the head first and clipped his feet, sending him into that position. I can get behind a minor penalty or no penalty at all on Ovie, but nothing more. It is clear though, the Caps as a team, targeted him...especially if you listen to Trotz. The cross check looked brutal, but not necessarily on purpose....however, if you consider the way Niskanen has been playing Crosby the first 2 games, you never know.

It didn't look too bad from one angle, but looks downright nasty from another and from that angle, I have no issues with the call.

Milbury must be happy, saw a clip the other day suggesting if they really wanted to win, they should try to hurt Crosby.

Phil is in a perfect spot right now in Pittsburgh. He's a great player, but not the type of player that will be the centerpiece of the team and lead and drag guys along...that's what people wanted him to be in Toronto and he's just not. He's able to just be a supporting player in Pittsburgh, not worry about much else.

I was thinking the same thing. If the Oilers and Penguins meet in the finals it will be SUPER HYPED, but wonder how much the NHL would like it....fairly small Canadian city vs. PIT which isn't a big market, but I guess have somewhat of a national audience....that's just an assumption, have no idea.

Totally agree, many are debatable, but tonight's was a joke that shouldn't have gone to review in the first place.

One of the weakest goalie interference calls ever? Edit...while my comment is still accurate, they fixed it on review.

I guess NHL forgot to give the refs the memo for this one...PPs 4-0 so far in favour of Caps...penalties are really soft too for playoff standards. Pens conspiracy folks may suggest the NHL wants to keep this series close and keep it a long one

Going to call complete BS on this regarding refs. It's all about perspective. One could argue the Caps got away with a lot more than the Pens did. The reality is that it was a typical playoff reffed game. Always drives me crazy that the rules are different in the playoffs and the rules are different late in the 3rd period of a playoff game than they are in the 1st period. In the last 5 minutes of the 3rd, the only penalty that was going to be called would have been a puck over the glass and it went both ways (including Ovechkin running over Fleury).

His stats are not really eye opening, but decent. However, the big issue is that he put up decent stats as a 21 year old playing in junior. I'm not sure there are many NHLers (decent ones anyway) that played junior at the age of 21. The Crosby's of the world are out of junior by 18, the really good players are done by 19, after that you are into borderline guys and they often end up in AHL if not NHL by 20...very rare to have 21 year old playing junior and then jumping to NHL....but you never know.

You mean after laying on the ice, having to be helped off....only to come back perfectly fine? There was never anything wrong with him.

I think that is possible as well and it would screw the Hawks because they'd be stuck with his $5.3M cap hit still.

Only technicality though...in 1993, the #1 Hawks got swept by the #4 Blues, but if you look at the entire conference, Hawks were #1 and Blues were #8

Interestingly, could be the 1993 Hawks?

Looks like the Hawks are on their way to being up there for fewest goals scored in a best of 7 playoff series. Minnesota only scored 1 goal in 2003, so the Hawks won't have the record....damn....just as I'm writing this, with 5 min to go in the game, they score, so now they have 3 in the entire series...still low.

Did you just say Kronwall is maybe HOF material? Is there a single argument for this at all?

He's not going to be looking for a 1 year deal, so I think that option isn't worth discussing. Montreal will probably sign him to a 4-5 year deal and likely overpay....if not them, someone else.

I must admit, it would be pretty cool around here to see to the Leafs win the cup, the city might actually implode.

I live in Burlington as well and saw a ton of Leafs jerseys at the Go Train stations on my way home last night (Clarkson, Oakville, Bronte and Appelby). That said, with the kids, I'm not so sure. I have an 8 year old son and him and a lot of his friends tend to be big on Crosby, Ovechkin and now McDavid. I think the drafting of Matthews will start to make a big difference though.

Incredibly poor judgment to have him playing after that....broken bones in your face, especially near your eye are dangerous. Lawsuit waiting to happen if something would have gone wrong.

Voting finished last week though.

I find the WSH crowd extremely annoying. They boo and chant "refs you suck" every little thing that goes uncalled. There were at least a couple times tonight a WSH player committed a pretty obvious penalty...one being Oshie just running Andersen over...they go crazy because WSH doesn't get a powerplay...I think the complaint was that Andersen was punching at Oshie to get him off.