toby91_ca

Yes, I watched, it was from behind, not the side. Edit - even if it was from the side, it is still boarding, but that's irrelevant as it was from behind anyway.

Interesting comment from Boudreau: What is he actually trying to say here? Is he saying people outside of Pittsburgh would want Crosby out to give their team a better chance of winning and it's the same for Ovechkin? I'm really confused. What I did get from the comment though is that he almost thinks Ovechkin should get a free pass because he's a star and it's not good for the game to suspend him.

I agree on Cooke's hit, it was dirty and I think it should be suspendable, but I guess I agree that it's not against the rules and they didn't suspend Richards, so... On the Ovechkin hit, they just suspended a guy for the same thing for 4 games, so I don't see how they wouldn't suspend him. When I first saw the Lapierre hit, I wondered why he would get 4 games for it, but the more you look at it, it is a very dangerous play that could result in very, very serious injuries.

Not sure I understand the point. The incidents are completely different. Cooke's hit was not against the rules and for which there was a precendent of no suspension on similar incidents (this will change in the future). Ovechkin's hit was against the rules and a precedent was set last week whereby Lapierre was suspended for 4 games...so getting only 2 games is lucky if you ask me.

Not sure what this means at all. What are you implying? He's the anti-Crosby, so he will be suspended? Does that imply that Crosby has avoided suspensions for some reason or another? Ovechkin has been very lucky when it comes to suspensions, he's only been suspended once, while he has committed several borderline plays (not saying he should have been suspended for all of them, but to only have one suspension is lucky). If they suspend him for this, I think it would make sense, they just suspended Lapierre for 4 games for basically the same thing. I'm not sure how they avoid suspending based on that, but I worry that they will not suspend and explain it away in that the boarding call rule doesn't apply because there was 41 games in between, blah, blah, blah, but that would be missing the fact that this play "alone" is suspendable and they already showed that by suspending Lapierre for 4 games. Lapierre had no previous suspensions either, Ovechkin has the one (I think he avoided suspensions in teh past because he wasn't a repeat offender....which is always curious if you never suspsend, then you're never a repeat offender, but that's a different discussion).

Well, not sure if I'd go as far to say that it "looks" like intent to injure. For most players I would say that it simply looks like he tackles Crosby (not legal of course, but not dirty) and the legs get tangled. Though, with Downie, I guess you might be apt to think about it a little more, does look like he goes out of his way to wrap up that leg, but not sure if he fell on it like that on purpose. After watching the reply, I think my gut instinct would say that he simply tried to take him out of the play, not injure, but I can see where someone might take a different view.

I think it would be more reasonable to wait to see him score 35 before asking about whether he could score 40 and then if he scores 40, then ask if he could hit 45 and so on. AT this point, his career best is 34 and he'll be 31 years old this year. 7 goals in 13 games is on pace for 44 over an 82 game season, however, far, far, far too small a sample size. To be honest, my first wish is to see a 75+ game season out of him.....that contract will start to look real bad if he doesn't stay healthy.

Didn't someone recently get a 4 game suspension for essentially the identical play? Can't remember who.

I suppose it's allowed because the situation is different. But are you suggesting they don't allow it and if so, why? To create offense? It the other team is able to just shoot it in an empty net, that's not very exciting.

I am willing to admit if I am wrong here, but I'd be willing to bet that anytime anyone has been suspended for a hit to the head, it's been because they charged, jumped, elbowed, etc. Yes, Cooke is a repeat offender, which means if you offend, you are likely looking at a suspension, but help me understand what the offense was here? He didn't break any rules. This is why Richards was not suspended as well. Richards is no saint either, he can be a pertty dirty player. Look at the Keith hit on Cooke, that play is no differnt than the Cooke hit on Savard, except that Cooke didn't have the puck. Keith got away with nothing out of it. Suggesting Cooke got away with this because the league favours Pittsburgh is BS.

Really? What team does Richards play for again? How many similar plays have you seen that resulted in suspensions?

Not sure how that tripping call isn't made.

I could be wrong, but I always thought that the officials for any particular game would not be from either of the country that are playing in the particular game.

The key difference between the AHL and the NHL is speed of the game and it's the speed of the game that has passed Chelios by, so I'm not surprised that he does okay in the AHL, still has no place on an NHL team.

If my calculations are correct, this game will feature 10 of the top 21 scorers in the league (6 for Canada and 4 for Russia). This doesn't even include guys like Nash and Datsyuk. Looking at the top 20 list, there are another 4 Canadians in there that didn't make the team (St. Louis, Stamkos, Richards and Green).

German

But he didn't score 60pts a year, so how can you ignore that? You think defensemen shoudl just be judged on their D? Do you really think Lidstrom would have won all the Norris trophies he has if he only put up 15-20pts a year?

Kinda scary stats, even though a small 2 game sample. Toews (26 draws) - 73.08% Crosby (37 draws) - 67.57% Bergeron (11 draws) - 63.64% Thornton (23 draws) - 60.87% Getzlaf (28 draws) - 60.71%

Note quite, in the top 14, you have the following: Canada - 5 Sweden - 3 Finland - 3 US - 2 Czech - 1

At first I was thinking this was a really old article because I remember reading almost the exact thing maybe 4 or 5 years ago. Perhaps they are just recycling the story? For the record, I started playing hockey when I was 5 and played at a highly competitive level until my early 20s. I'm 33 now and still play, but now it's only once a week. Point being, I've never been in a locker room where this has been happening. That said, I don't see it as a massive problem.

No

Actually, Crosby has the slight lead (career wise), but ever so slight. By rounding, they are actually identical. Crosby - 1.35328 ppg Ovechkin - 1.34656 ppg

Unfortunately, you aren't learning something new here, there is no such rule.

I saw that picture pop up 4 or 5 years ago and it's cleary not Crosby, just some dude that resembles him.

I filled in what I know