Ahira's Hangar

Go PENQUINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (that "Mrs. Sidney Crosby" one was pretty dam nasty)

Well, I did say that some of them were pretty good.

If my Wings were healthy they would have a great shot at the Cup. But with all of these injuries to key players...

Wings win a bizarre game one in the Cup finals at the Joe. The Pens goalie scored two own-goals, handing the Wings a 3-1 victory. He scored at least one own-goal that I can remember in last year's finals, too. Zetterberg did a magnificent job shutting down Crosby; we really could have used Pavel Datsyuk back from his injury to shut down Malkin (who I think is actually a better player than Crosby at this point in their respective careers, though Crosby obviously has a lot more potential upside and gets all of the attention). The kids the Wings called up from the Grand Rapids farm team to cover injuries did a great job! We needed those good strong young legs!

not to be one to blame losses on referees, but this whole idea of "letting them play" is BS.
You get the same results, only to the opposite advantage when you don't call penalties.
For instance, the 2nd wings goal last night happened 5 seconds after a slash by (can't remember names) wings player that BROKE THE STICK of the pens player, causing him to have to go to the bench to get a stick. In the mean time, wings continue the play, make a nice pass/set up & score a goal.
It was an 'opposite' power play goal
Again, I blame Bettman for allowing the referees to operate this way.
A penalty is a penalty, whether it's the first game of the season or the Stanley Cup final.
ARRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!
The refs say they don't want to unduly influence the game, but the do nonetheless.
I am not saying that only the wings are not getting called (although they did seem to have a greater amount of non-calls), the pens got away with a few too
Power plays & penalty kills are part of the game. You can't tell me there were only 2 call-able penalties the the whole game.
Even the announcers on NBC commented on how the wings were masters on interfering and not getting the penalties called.
I'll get off the soap box now.
FIRE BETTMAN.
Earthy

I was at work and could not see any of the game - but I have to agree with the FIRE BETTMAN!!! He has been destroying the league.

Of the few games I have been able to watch during the playoffs, the officiating has been by and large terrible. And the NHL front office keeps standing up for the refs, even in cases where the video evidence shows they are dead wrong (as with the game tying Hossa goal against the Ducks which was disallowed even though video showed it to be a perfectly legal goal). At least in the NFL if the officials screw up a call and cost a team a game, the NFL front office admits the screw up!

And the NHL keeps ignoring its own rules, as when they did not suspend the Hurricanes player who sucker punched one of the Bruins in one of the earlier playoff rounds.

Why even bother having automatic suspensions/rules if you are just going to ignore them all anyway?

I must admit, Earthy, that I despise the NBC and Versus announcers. I hate coverage of the later rounds of the playoffs because we cannot get our regular announcers on our local cable channel that covers the Wings. Micky Redmond, in particular, is so much better than any of these national guys it is not funny. He follows the immortal Sid Abel in the Wings tradition of being honest and knowledgeable (not only about the Wings but also opposing teams) and not being a homer or a slappy - if one of the Wings makes a bad play or if they get away with a noncall on a penalty Redmond freely says so (as did Sid Abel before him). Sid Abel was a Hall of Fame player and a good coach, so could get away with it as TV color person - and Micky Redmond learned well from him.

What does it say when the local team's cable coverage is less biased and more knowledgeable than national coverage?

Now, this is not the case with all local coverage for all teams. The Detroit Tigers local cable coverage TV guys are such slappies, for example, that I often wonder what alternative dimension they have wandered onto Earth from...

But just as with nearly all of the national baseball announcers being Yankees and/or Red Sox homers, most of the national hockey people have their lips firmly planted on Sidney Crosby's butt alongside of Bettman's lips. Take anything the NBC or Versus people say with a grain of salt, as they are at least a bit biased against any team that faces Crosby.

all right, I'll give you that one, I did not see a slow mo replay until now.
I stand by my "letting them play" rant
The non-call of penalties is crap and one of the reasons I have trouble watching hockey, especially in the playoffs.

All I can say is, game 7, Stanley cup finals, Dallas Stars v. Buffalo Sabres - Brett Hull CLEARLY in the goal crease (a penalty at the time), game winning goal gets by Hasek, Stars win the cup. That penalty was called all season long and during the finals, it suddenly gets forgotten.
BTW, the next year they eliminated the rule....hmmmmm...another stellar management decision by Bettman
You understand my rage against the machine?????
E

You had no way of seeing that particular play, as NBC did not choose to show it from multiple angles or in slow motion!!!

And I share your rage at playoff officiating.

Two calls against the Wings this year were so bad, the mind just boggles. One was the game tying perfectly legal goal scored by Hossa against the Ducks that was called off in the last minute of play. And then there was a monumental and perfectly legal check by Kronwall against a Blackhawk that ended up with him being thrown out of the game. It was a brutal check, which unfortunately ended up with the Blackhawk being injured - and no one wants to see a head injury less than I do! But it was a perfectly legal check. And the Wings player got thrown out for it.

To be fair, there was a very questionable goal that the Wings scored against the Blackhawks that was allowed to stand which should have been reviewed.

And in game one of the finals this year, the Pens probably should have been awarded a penalty shot when Zetterberg did something (hard to tell exactly what from the crappy NBC replays) to a puck on Osgood's back in the crease area.

All we can hope for as fans is that the bad calls eventually balance themselves out over the course of the series, so that the series itself is not decided as a result of them! (and when that happens, I might well become a former hockey fan - as that is the line I will not cross).

I was not able to watch game three last night, but heard it was a good game, with the Pens really stepping up and playing great! Congratulations to your Pens, Earthy!

I should add that I do not hate Crosby, despite what I said above about the NBC guys having their lips planted on his butt. I think he is a great young player with a load of talent, who is one of the better players in the NHL, and who might someday mature and develop into one of the best. And as far as I know, he is an upstanding young man. What I hate is all of the constant hype about Crosby. At this point in his career he is not even the best player on his team (that would be Malkin) much less the NHL (that would be Ovechkin or Lidstrom) and I really wish that the national media and the NHL would stop constantly ramming him down my throat until I feel like I am choking on him.

He is a great young player - but the key word is young. Give him a few years to grow up a little bit both on and off the ice, then start hyping him once he has actually done something to deserve it. No one is doing someone that age a favor by pouring constant blind adulation onto him.

Another reason to hate NBC:

They have blocked Joe Vision for game six.

Joe Vision is where Joe Louis Arena is opened up so fans can watch important road playoff games on the jumbotron - and the Wings donate all profits from food and rink sales to local charities. Usually thousands of people go, and a boatload of money gets raised.


Thanks for nothing, NBC.


You are the losers of the day!

See it's class warfare-mega corp vs the working man, viva la REVOLUTION! Datsyuk returns for Detroit and they've switched the game from cable to duchy's fav station: NBC to see if the Red Wings can win the Cup in the same opponents arena two years in a row. The last time that happened was in '77 and '78 Montreal over Boston.

Game seven tonight. I hate game sevens! Too nerve wracking - and too much chance that a good team will have its season end by a bad bounce of a puck or a crappy call (or non-call by a ref).

Well, congratulations to the Penguins and their fans!

The injury wracked Wings gave it their all this series, but just couldn't beat a first rate team.

Congrats to Crosby and the Penguins. Had other distractions so I ended up not catching any of the finals at all. But the fact that it went to seven games must have meant it was a very hard-fought battle.

Both teams played their hardest, and the Pens came out on top. I am really glad they won it openly and honestly, with no extreme weirdness on the part of the refs (something which I was both expecting and dreading).

I turned the game off as soon as time ran out, but I understand that the fans did give Bettman the planned (on various Wings' fans discussion sites) standing boo-vation. This was not planned or intended as an insult to the Penguins - it was planned to happen period, win or lose, Wings or Pens. It was an expression of pure hatred for the abomination of an admin who is ruining the sport. And yes - we wanted it to happen live on national TV in two countries so it could not possibly be missed.

Well, the Wings finally confirmed the rumors that - yes - Captain Nicky Lidstrom had been speared in the groin by one of the Blackhawks in game three of the Western Conference finals, and had to have surgery on his testicles during game four and that is why he missed the first playoff games in his career.

No wonder he did not have a good finals.