toby91_ca

To be fair, I think NHL refs are very good and they do make the right call most of the time. Out of all the major sports, I can't think of a more difficult one to officiate. People have to keep that in mind when they see bad calls made or missed calls. Refs will make the wrong call every now and then and when they do, people will jump all over it, but you need to step back and remember just how difficult a job it is and understand that sometimes mistakes will be made. Okay, all that said, none of that applies to the case with Auger if we are to believe everything Burrows has said. Edit: forgot to comment, a lot of fans tend to be critical of the league in defending the refs even though they've made terrible calls, etc., but the league does look at and take a refs performance seriously and does discipline refs behind the scenes. In the majority of cases, discipline would come in the form of not being assigned playoff games, or only being assigned games in the first round.

Williams is just as bad in the playoffs.

Looking at the replay, Burrows appears to grab the stick and take a bit of a dive, but I bet if you look at replays from all games, that type of thing happens almost every shift and never gets called, that's the problem. Regardless of that, the interference call was definately suspect. What I'm most shocked about is the comments from the ref along the lines of "I'm going to get you for it tonight....." - wonder if this is true or not.

The target was his father, not his agent.

Well, it's been almost 6 years.

Interesting. I did see something during an intermission to some random NHL game I was watching between Christmas and New Year's regarding his potential return to hockey, but I wasn't paying much attention. This caught my attention now mostly because he'll be playing at my old school.....which shoudl be obvious enough if you look to your left.

The answer to the least common is likely a tie of several numbers that are not used at all (98 for example) Hard to answer what number suits a player the best (I've seen 19 for Yzerman and 13 for Datsyuk.....but why?) I guess I'd have to say 87 for Crosby, born in the 8th month (August) on the 7th day in the year '87.

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I don't really understand what you mean. "Several teams" have pics that when you see them you automatically think of that team? The example you gave was the Bobby Orr goal and to be honest, when I see that picture, I think of Bobby Orr, not necessarily the Bruins (maybe it's different for a Bruins fan). In any event, do you have any other examples. Based on everything people are posting here, I just see these as fun pictures or pictures from various cup wins, etc. Nice memories, but not entiring sure if that is what you are looking for......then again, as I suggest, not exactly sure what you mean.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised by some of the Pens complaining and comments of league favouritism regarding this incident, but seriously, how stupid has this become? This rule, or variation thereof, existed before Crosby was even born, or Bettman was involved with the NHL. Actually, had the rule still existed in its original form, the Pens would get the goal and they would be playing 5 on 5 thereafter, no powerplay for the Leafs. New rule, Leafs get the powerplay.......how does that benefit the Pens again?

There is no blown call here at all or any mess up at all or any conspiracy to push the Pens. Any pointing to favouring the Pens here is just asinine. The issue here is the rule itself, which I think is beyond comprehension and should change. I've looked at the replays and too anyone watching, it's almost beyond a reasonable doubt that the only possible place the puck could be, during some of the time, is across the line. HOWEVER, and this is a big HOWEVER, there is no camera shot that actually shows the puck when it is in the net. Those mentioning the shot at 6:13, yes, it looks pretty clear that the puck must be in the net, but the only time the puck is visible is when it falls to the ice along the goalie's pads....at this point in time, it's on the goal line, not in the net. Yes, it "was" in the net, but not when you can actually see the puck. As stupid as this is, based on the rules as they exist, the correct call is no goal. I've seen similar goals called off where the puck is in the goalie's trapper, which is across the line, but since you can't see puck, it can't be called a goal. Stupid, stupid rule. I know you want to remove as much judgment as possible, but I'd be pretty comfortable trusting someone to make an appropriate judgment call here when they have several camera angles and slow mo at their fingers tips. Who cares about needing conclusiveness to overturn the call made on the ice? There is no way the ref is going to have the same opportunity to make such an informed judgment call.

NHL.com put out the following summary, today I think: http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=512856 The most interesting stats, to me anyway, were as follows Now, it's not that the Leafs only won 1 game of the 10 that went past regulation, it's that of those 10 games, 7 were determined before reaching the shootout. I haven't tried to determine what the average is in terms of games decided in OT vs. needing shootouts, but I have to imagine that the 70% decided in OT for the Leafs is extremely high. I thought this one was crazy. The Wings have only been shut out 7 times in the past 4 seasons combined and are already at 6 half way through this season. Granted, 7 over 4 years is extremely low and hard to continue to hold up that level, but 6 so far is way too high, can't win without scoring.

I think nhl.com only keeps current "NHL stats" player stats from games they've played in other leagues are only updated at the end of each season, so you you won't find anything in the 09/10 season from other leagues yet. I think you'll notice the same thing from any other player splitting time between the NHL and the AHL.

My favaourite has always been the Denis Savard goal against the Oilers. I don't think the Datsyuk goal against Turco has any business being on a list of best goals of all time, but maybe that's just me.

They definately do go to a shootout, just not 100% sure how long the OT is, but probably longer than the normal 5 minutes.

Had that play happened in the first minute of the game, no one would be talking about it. That call gets made way more often than not. Sure, he was pushed a little, but no only didn't make any effort to avoid the goalie, he seemed to make a little bit of an extra effort to put his shoulder into him, pretty clear cut call if you ask me.

Eberle's pretty good

I'm hesitating calling that one of the worst calls I've seen, but man......it was bad.

Well, as someone already mentioned, the MVP shouldn't necessarily be the best player, would look strange to have an MVP goalie that didn't also win the Vezina though, however, in the 6 times a goalie has won the Hart (in history, I could be wrong on the number), 3 of those times, a different goalie won the Vezina. Last time this happened was in 1954 though. What I think is more strange and also happened pretty recently, is a Vezina winning goalie that is not named to the 1st all star team. In 2002, Theodore won the Hart and the Vezina, but Roy was named to the 1st All Star Team. The Vezina and 1st team are both "best at position" awards, so they should be the same. To get to the bottom of this, however, I think it comes down to who is voting. The Vezina is voted on by the league's GMs while the Hart and the end of year 1st and 2nd All Star teams are voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association. You may then wonder why the same group would vote Theodore for the Hart, but not 1st team all star, but then I think that is explained by the Hart being for MVP, not necessarily best player.

No. I think if you are talking about grading in school, a C+ to a B maybe considered average, but in terms of rating an NHL player, I tend to use the following as a general rule (ignoring + and -) A - performing at full potential B - performing slightly below full potential (but still okay) C - performing below potential (disappointing)

He was born in Canada, but holds both Canadian and American citizenships.

Maybe I'm missinterpreting your response, but it appears as though you are suggesting it's been awhile since the tournament has been played in Europe, which isn't the case. The 2007 and 2008 tournaments were both played in Europe. That said, this year and last year were in Canada, next year is in the US and the year after will be in Canada again. Can't blame the organizers too much though, the tournament is a HUGE draw in Canada, much larger attendence here then what you see in Europe.

I saw the last half of this game, so I saw this call and yes, from the broadcast angle, the puck was by the pad, but clearly not covered. However, from the refs angle (corner), he wouldn't have been able to see it. He blew the whistle well before the puck was shot in the net. In the end, it was the wrong call as the puck was loose, but I've seen those calls several times over the years, it happens. It's the "intent to blow the whistle" calls that I have only seen more recently. This was not one of those calls, the whistle was blown, it wasn't an "intent." I can understand mistakes in early whistles, while frustrating, there isn't too much you can do, mistakes happen. I just can't understand why they can't fix the "intent" issue, there's gotta be a way around that.

Not Yzerman because is busy with the Olympics. Yes, the Olympics will be over, but organization for the World Championships take a lot more preparation than just starting after the Olympics. It's always been a different guy in charge of both events. Yzerman got his start in the same role as Messier a few years ago, now he's getting a shot with the Olympics. I think there is 2 reasons why Messier: 1. This is something he's working towards, the same as Yzerman was. Messier was involved last year as a special observer and has been serving alongside Glen Sather with the Rangers getting his feet wet. 2. Probably most importantly, recruitment. It's not easy recruiting for the World Championships, especially in an Olympic year and the thoughts are likely that Messier will have sufficient pull with several players to convince them to come. This is why Hockey Canada has gotten guys like Gretzky and Yzerman involved over the past several years as well.

Is this typical? What do you mean?

While the article was pretty stupid to begin with, since it came out, Crosby has 8 goals, 13pts, +8, 0 penalty minutes in 5 games.