Tuesday, June 07, 2011
What's Good For The Bruins...
I will probably have Zeb really angry at me for this, but the video above is from the Eastern Conference Finals, Game 5. Bruins fans want to be up in arms about Aaron Rome's hit on Nathan Horton and claim that it another sign that the Canucks are cheap shot artists. Great. Then tell me what this shot is. And of course Lucic slashing and then punching Burrows in the head when Burrows is on his knees is a sign of playing tough old time hockey. You want to get worked up on the diving that the Canucks are doing, I agree with you. But you cannot sit there with a straight face and say that the Bruins don't take cheap shots against their opponents. And if you are screaming that the NHL office is against your team in the Finals, be it Boston or Vancouver, because of the penalties being called or not being called, the video evidence tells a different story.
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6 comments:
That's charging, Brent, and, yes, he left his feet...should've been called (the player was facing Ryder at least) but not nearly as dangerous as the hit on Horton, which I never said was a cheap shot. The Bs get screwed on that one though, losing their 2nd best player for a #5 defenseman.
My frustration is about how the league allows teams like Vancouver and Montreal to play soccer and flop to draw penalties and then poke and slash when the refs aren't looking and yet always refuse to drop the gloves. Old time fans like myself know there's a code in the NHL and we're pissed when it isn't upheld. And I don't condone what Lucic did but it was to Burrows who frankly had it coming and the pussy wasn't going to drop the gloves anyway. Like I said, there's a price to pay, one way or the other.
I can't stand Maxime Lapierre. Never liked him on the Habs and I don't like him at all on the Canucks. Alex Burrows isn't much better.
To be fair, the Bruins have cheap shot artists like Boychuk. I'm still steaming over that shot he took on the Leafs this past season.
Look at what the NHL said about the hit on Horton. It would have been a legal hit if it wasn't late because Horton saw it at the last second. So if you are going to call interference on a player and then give him a 10-minute game misconduct penalty because of a late interference check, then the game has worse problems than we thought because that hit happens almost each and every night in the NHL where a player hits someone late.
No one on this board said it was a cheap shot, but in reading all the hockey sites that I do read, all sorts of Bruins fans are talking about how they never get the calls, that the NHL wants the Canucks to win the series and that the Bruins would never stoop so low as to perform a cheap shot on a player like that. So when i did post this, I was angered about all the whining coming from Bruins supporters. I apologize for that.
All that i am saying is that if the Bruins want to make the Canucks pay for what they are doing, it isn't by playing goon hockey like the Canucks are playing according to Bruins fans. The Bruins need to play physical, within the rules, and start scoring goals. Because which is better? Winning or taking a cheap shot at your opponent and losing.
As for the enforcement of the rules, the NHL and Brendan Shanahan need to sit down after the finals and map out punishments for penalties and why certain things will cause the penalty to increase. If an interference hit in the Neutral zone is worth 10 regular season games and 4 playoff games, then what would increase that penalty? An injury? A repeat offender? The Canucks have every right to be upset over Rome's suspension because it has never been reason enough to suspend a player before just because they committed an interference hit in the middle of the ice. So the big thing for the NHL is to give teams and coaches the penalties and consequences of their actions before the actions take place out on the ice.
According to the Vancouver newspaper poll, 75% of Canuck fans think the punishment was fair. If the NHL said that Horton saw that hit coming, they're wrong. It's a hit that needs to be out of the game and I'll leave it at that. Every fan base has fans who have to play the unfair card. I don't. It certainly has been a problem for the Bruins at times getting screwed on fake penalties because of players diving. But I think I've been clear about what my gripe has been all along.
That hit should stay in the game. Horton knows better than to watch his pass like that. The only thing that Rome did wrong was hit him late and leave his skates. Otherwise, if a player is not paying attention to his surroundings and you come at him where he should see you, then I have no problems with that hit.
Good job by the Bruins in Game 4. They deserved to win. Now with their own cheap shot artist, Brad Marchand. 3 penalties on the same play with the game decided. That's good.
He's following his pass, Brent, because he's not supposed to get hit; but even if he was looking forward, he'd be lucky to see that hit coming. It's textbook "blindside hit on a defenseless player" and I'll leave it at that.
As for Marchand, yes, he is chippy and some of the stuff he does I don't care for. But he will drop the gloves and I disagree about the penalty where he ducked the check. If you're the one initiating contact, you can flip someone but not if they're initiating the contact? That one I don't get. Is it potentially dangerous? Yes. Then take it out of the game. But I have a hard time with them calling a penalty on a guy who's simply trying to avoid getting smeared to the boards.
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