b.shanafan14

If Gomez scores, Montreal will riot. If Gomez doesn't score, Montreal will riot. The difference is that in only one instance will Gomez actually be lynched during said riot; not sure which though, probably the former.

Hahaha you win. You just do... Hahaha, s***!

s***ty Habs are padding their offensive stats. Won't look as awful after this embarrassment. Hopefully this is the one game per year that the Wings give up 7 or so goals Hahaha Goal #6 was LOL

So much for the shot in the arm and goaltender change . Conks is Turbo from Breakin'

I hate the effort level against these bottom-feeder teams, non-existent. When the Wings should really be cashing in and exercising their gameplan in the last game before break, they are just standing, watching, completely uninterested. Every team has their bad games, true. But the Wings tend not to play either Great, good, or poor. They tend to play Great, good, or AWFUL. Like others have said: Losing is one thing, playing like losers is another thing all together. The Wings played that period like losers. I've come to hate games against teams at the bottom of the standings, almost a guaranteed stinker. The Wings always talk about how the games at the beginning of the season are worth just as much, but are easier to get (less desperation) than the ones at the end. They need to adopt a similar attitude towards games versus these s*** teams. I swear, someone look up the Wings' record against teams under .500, especially from the East. Effort and execution, that's all that's required.

From the looks of it, that first period was our core players resting

Pathetic. Howard is sleeping, skaters are lethargic, the whole team left for vacation early. Sad, frustrating, embarrassing. ...Huck the Fabs and their fans.

I hate watching these games. My worries confirmed, as the Wings once again play-down to awful teams. Someone needs to tell the guys that these ones against s*** teams are worth the same 2-points that the games against the Blues. As I type, another soft goal after poor effort. Pathetic. Unbelievable how awful they play against awful teams.

http://www.freep.com/article/20120124/SPORTS05/120124044/red-wings-angry-birds-pavel-datsyuk Funny tid-bits from the Free Press involving Filppula and Zetterberg Great to see Filppula coming into his own. Skating great, playing his usual good defense, gaining confidence along with points and ice time. Keep it up, and pick up the pace, I want 70 points and at least 25 goals .

If Zetterberg is at fault here, its not for shoving him from behind, but for not bracing him enough. At that speed, both are making an attempt for the puck. Expecting to get ridden into the boards, the Columbus player leaned back into Zetterberg, causing him to lose balance backwards before slamming feet-first into the boards. Expecting that incident could happen with any less interaction from Zetterberg seems impossible; barely a hand on his back going into what is traditionally a much more physical incident in hockey. The guy "heard footsteps" braced himself against a hit that didn't come, and lost his balance. Ironically, he probably would have been in better shape if Matt Cooke was trailing him on the play.... OK... maybe not Cooke.

I'm not sure what his name is and I don't have the time/give-a-damn to look up his name, but we all know Boston's TV announcer to be one of the worst EVER. The often over-dramatic, always ignorant homer is laughable to hear in the background of Bruins highlights. But it gets worse.... Also, he looks like a much bigger weasel than his voice suggests.

TRUE. Has anyone looked at the Western standings lately? Of the top 6 teams, 5 will be in the Central Conference. As it stands: Minnesota (Won't last) Chicago (Umpteen games more played) DETROIT (Lidstrom retiring soon) Dallas (On the upturn, probably to stay) Vancouver St. Louis (Good young team) Its gonna get hairy come playoffs, for sure.

Pierre (the failed clone of Gary Bettman) has mad love for Pittsburgh (Sidney Crosby). "Edzo", Pierre's man-crush, is the Blackhawks' homer color commentator (the equivalent to a nationally televised Mickey Redmond, sans charm). This exchange doesn't surprise me in the least. In fact, I heard the names Johnathan Toews and Patrick Kane too many times last night to make me believe I was actually watching a Red Wings vs. Lightning game. That said, as the puck possession brand of hockey goes, the Wings, Penguins, and Blackhawks are head and shoulders above the rest of the league. One could make a case for Boston, which I've always seen as less about possession and surgical passing and continued time in the offensive zone, and more about a relentless forecheck and constant firing until something goes in; more back and forth, up and down, out and back in hockey. I would say their assessment is correct and the national games are meant to be a look at the league as a whole through the context of two of its teams. Still, knowing Pierre and Olczyk's slappy status with certain teams, it is always going to perk the ears to hear their plugs during games that are unrelated. And I'm almost certain their notes from NBC/NHL say "mention Crosby, mention conference/division leaders, mention Crosby again".

Ha. This is funny and a little awkward. The talk was Carlyle or Ryan heading out, leaning towards the latter in return for a mass of depth which the Ducks are lacking. The damn minute the Capitals can Boudreau, the Ducks jump on in, like "nope, he's ours!". Something very playground-touch-football about the whole thing, but OK. As far as Boudreu, he does remind me a lot of Ron Wilson. Kind of an awkward (charming?) guy in interviews, more likely to make some crass, sarcastic statement than an actual response. But most important to this situation, Boudreau and Wilson are both turn-it-around guys. They'll probably never win a cup, but they are the coach BEFORE you can win a cup. Give these guys a team in the toilet and they're good at being the new voice and righting the ship. Beyond that, you'll need someone else.

I'm not so much asking for a suspension myself, because it does happen often in the heat of battle, players will throw a quick elbow while jockeying for position at the net front. However, this is also not that. This wasn't about clearing the crease, and if it was, Crosby came out looking the ***** in all of it, either way. Sid is, has been, and always will be a petulant kid. All the talent in the world, which tends to be polarizing enough in pro-sports, but his attitude and how he composes himself aren't doing him any favors; he will continue to send more fans to the hate side of the fence over time. Sid has always picked his spots and made sure it was going to be either one-sided or that he can step out and let someone like Kunitz take care of the rest. Slappies and the NHL/Canadian media will continue to defend these actions as Crosby being "gritty" or "standing up for his goaltender", but they are really temper tantrums more than anything. If someone like Zetterberg went around throwing elbows and cross-checks every time he was upset, I would say he was fair game, which a lot of the backlash on Sid is saying. And yet you know the league would never stand for that. Pop quiz: whats the difference between his latest tantrum and the one below? Answer: the elbow to the chops and 11 months of complaining about headshots. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MytxhhimKqg

Pittsburgh has been playing great without Sid all season, but they have been promoted just like any other team. No excessive hype about how well Neal is playing or how Malkin has turned it around. For a few brief months, the league was somewhat objective and unbiased on who was making headlines and promotional attention. Since Sidney Crosby has returned, its nothing but him on NHL and TSN. Its not about teams, several talented individuals, or even one team, but rather a single talented individual. After the league put all their eggs in one basket and that basket got hurt, you'd think they would have learned something by now. Instead they are taking the stance "We dodged a bullet there, hey everybody: SID'S BACK!! We were lost without him!" To 90% of fans, Sid has become the annoying guy at a party. Everything is going fine, everyone is having fun, and then HE shows up. Changes the music, creeps on the girls, and is quick to start childish fights, due mostly to his LMS.

Nothing like padding stats against two bottom feeder teams. Plays well in a blow out game, actually contributed in only one goal with a nice assist, the other two were secondary assists of the most fortunate variety. He has played well and all, but hardly something outrageous, the hockey world is back on his jock all over again. Same old, same old. Look on TSN.ca and they are touting his performance as "playmaker and agitator", HA. As per the usual, the kid is, well, a kid. Lays a few two, three crosschecks first, someone pushes back, and he tosses a pretty blatant elbow, then steps out and lets Kunitz deal with the fall out. Why does the hockey world have to drop to its knee for such a little puke? Why does one of the most talented/the most promoted star in the game have to be such a doucher? Home games, lopsided victories and two teams in the toilet. One game against a halfway decent team and he ends up in the box three times, no points, and a Pens loss. Not knocking his stats per se, but rather the league falling back into its same old ways, a few good months without the endless Crosby talk and now its back in full gear. Disappointing and undeserving for such a little turd. Long overdue that the league's poster boy and Bettman's favorite punk nephew grows up and starts properly filling the former role instead of the latter. Haven't heard the kid's comments when or if he was asked about the elbow, but I can picture the same personality-less, monotone, pouty blank response. "When I said I wanted headshots out of the game, I meant hits to MY head". Tool.

Zetterberg is becoming the Wings' Scott Gomez... frustrating. Last night was a terrible effort all around, but it was the type of game that even last year the Wings' top players would have responded to with at least a valiant effort. This season it seems the opposite is true. If the team is getting bad breaks and making mistakes, the top guys are deserving of most of the blame. I mean no one picking up Jumbo on the shorty, and Pavel watching the puck as the goal is being scored, then on the Thornton goal, Jumbo out Zetterberg's Zetterberg, taking the puck off Hank's stick on the backcheck and turning it back the other way for the eventual goal, while Hank seems to pull up and watch in complete "aww shucks" mode. The personnel haven't changed much, but this is a very different team then the one that saw back-to-back finals appearances. Zetterberg more than anyone is indicative of that. Hate to bring it up but... 10 more years... :/ Its not the production, its the effort and attitude; better get it figured out, Z.

Calling it a night, long day, late game, lame Wings. Seriously, this is getting old, Wings playing disinterested, lazy, and when the break inevitably go against them, they show weak constitution and sulk. Howard is swimming out there and his skaters are asleep. Game started with the ref letting a lot of clutching and grabbing, but the Wings did this to themselves. Once again, the Wings didn't bother to show up. This team is feeling sorry for itself; it should be playing pissed off.

http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/42991-Kennedy-Advocating-for-frontier-justice.html Related to the recent Lucic-Miller incident, a columnist at The Hockey News wrote an article about frontier justice in hockey, busting some skulls in a fight to even the playing field. His argument is strange, interesting, and potentially extremely polarizing: As retaliation for the gooning of your teams skill players, lay a beatdown on the nearest outmatched player. Essentially, why beat on someone who is used to it, when you could more evenly settle the score. In the context of the Lucic-Miller incident, Gaustad should have (in lieu of doing nothing ) grabbed someone on the Bruins who was much smaller, "handed them their ass" so to speak, and then explained to Lucic that it was his fault. The article is worth reading, if not to see tremendously flawed logic all around. And while I think its a bit foolish, I thought it worth discussion. Perhaps the most confusing part is right at the end: This is where his argument goes completely off the tracks, and not only because the thought of anyone going after Stevie is cringe-worthy. Marty Lapointe was only a year older than Pronger at the time and Pronger, not exactly a shy fella, had about 7 inches on him. So Twist, who was a 260 lbs. monster promised Joey Kocur, perhaps the hardest puncher in the history of the league, that he would attack Steve Yzerman, small man and all-around respectable guy, if Lapointe didn't stop it. The argument being that it wasn't cowardly for him to go after Yzerman instead of Kocur or even continuing to hassle Lapointe for picking on Pronger, but... intelligent?..... WHAT?

Haha you don't actually read anything, do you? Quit picking a sentence and applying your own foolish context so that it fits your argument loosely, and address the conversation as a whole. Like I said previously, this does not apply and should not apply to deciding if a clean hit receives a penalty. And to continue to compare this to a skater on skater incident is the most ridiculous thing in this thread. This is intending, and doing a damn good job of achieving a hard open-ice hit on a goaltender without the puck. By your argument, the Bertuzzi-Moore incident (since apparently we're just making whatever wacky, unrelated, irrelevant references we can since we don't have any hard precedents, right) was a roughing penalty and nothing more, because hey, he got penalized right? And he didn't mean to crumple him like a piece of paper. Sure he meant to hit him, but come on, would he mean to do that? And then all the Avs jumped in on him and Moore, he couldn't control that. That was all just a misunderstanding, he should have served his two and been back out there. "That's good tough hockey, just like any other hit! Quit being a wimp. There was no intent to injure, therefore he is fine hitting a protected, unhittable player who just so happens to be the most important to the opposition's season. And if he is injured and misses a few games, that's not my fault, I didn't intend for it." - Shoreline (since you did such a good job at putting words in my mouth ) As far as I'm concerned, you're probably closer if you're comparing it to a hit on a linesman then you are a skater on skater hit.

The talk of intent is silly, and 99 times out of 100 is completely based on speculation and bias. It is nearly impossible to prove intent, which is why it should only be used when it is damn obvious, like say stomping on a players leg with your skate; black and white, only one outcome, injury. Saying you believe that he didn't mean to do it, like Shanahan did here, shouldn't acquit the player of the act. Likewise, we shouldn't condemn a player on plays like this (not black and white like the stomp) based on the way he looked at him or things he said, though after his reaction, Lucic was looking guilty as sin. In this case, it has little to do with whether Lucic intended to injure Miller when he hit him like he did. It matters that he did intend to hit him, and Miller did get injured. The rest is for the fans to argue. Lucic made a stupid, reckless, dirty play outside of the bounds of the rules (whether you agree with them or not), and it resulted in injury. Period. It doesn't matter if he knew how stupid it was or if he meant it to be as cheap as it was. This is a different example than most because this wasn't a goaltender getting hit playing the puck behind the net. I usually defend the skater when a goaltender is behind his goal, sitting on a puck and someone bumps into him. This wasn't behind the net. This wasn't a delayed play. There was no puck anymore. This wasn't a little bump. Everyone needs to stop comparing this play to plays behind the net, and definitely need to drop the whole "but he didn't mean to" argument. Action trumps intent.

Injuries should not have bearing on whether a clean play gets a penalty or a suspension (Kronwall on Havlat). However, in instances like this one, where a play is at the very least stupid and reckless, at its worst cheap and dirty, and considered by all to be a penalty both in the moment and afterwards, the goal of disciplinarians should be to determine the extent to which the player is penalized. More times than not they will decide (correctly) that, while the play was illegal, it was not of an apparent attempt to be 'dirty' or malicious. In this case, however, the play was unnecessary, borderline cheap on a protected player (a goaltender), and moreover, a player whose talents and position as the franchise goaltender for his team, more than any in the league decide the success or failure of that teams season or beyond. Put it this way: Crosby received his concussion on two plays, one not yet penalized, the final one a seemingly harmless hit. Those were in the bounds of the rules on a skater used to taking hits. People called for suspensions post-injury on even the initial hit. He has been out for the better part of a whole season, and he only plays half to a third of each game. Miller on the other hand was hit without reason to expect it, outside the bounds of the rules. He plays more than 99.9% of the league's players (even among goaltenders), sixty minutes minutes per game, 65-70 games a year. Concussions (and yes, the NHL's definition of concussions in particular) can happen subtly and linger for months. Lets say at the very least Miller misses 2-3 games with some lingering affects thereafter, that puts 4-6 points in jeopardy for the Sabres plus any diminished performance afterward. How many points separated the 6th best team in each conference from the 10th best team last season? The Bruins can survive losing Lucic for even 10 games (though 3-5 is probably more appropriate) far better than the Sabres could losing Miller for 3. Set a precedent now, save the league in the long run. Stupid (cheap), unnecessary play ends in injury to a goaltender? Take a seat. And not to use this as an argument against those who think there should be no suspension, or even those (shockingly enough) who think Miller should shoulder half or more of the blame, but if Howard left the crease, cleared a puck, and then afterwards was bulldozed by a goon like Lucic (completely avoidable), this board would be calling for blood. And Howard is a much sturdier guy the Ryan Miller (210lbs. vs. 175 lbs.).

The more I look at the hit, the more I don't like it. Now, in light of the injury to Miller, the league definitely needs to crack down and set a precedent quick. I'm guessing 3 games, hoping for 5, just 'cause I want to hear the Boston homers ***** and moan. "b-b-but we're SOOOO tough, its not our fault"

Any McSorely references related to the Miller attempted slash are R-E-tarded. Listening to Lucic's postgame interview makes it worse. First tries to make the excuse that he wasn't looking, then bracing himself, because there was supposedly nothing he could do. Then, make a comment that (I'm paraphrasing) "If that happened to our goaltender we would have taken care of it, but we're a different team then they are". Essentially, yeah, he did it, but what are they going to do about it? Wrong attitude to have. Difference between grit and goon.