Rd 1 - Official Series Discussion Thread: Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Philadelphia Flyers

[GrimUSMC]

I dont recall anyone taking a leaping jump into Malkin, Neal, or Crosby's head. We all know the Flyers and Pens are taking extra hits and playing hard nosed hockey. But some of the things the Pens, Crosby particular, have done are ridiculous. If he is going to grab Scott Hartnell and then pull his hair, he needs to have the intestinal fortitude to take what he gets. And if you are going to run your mouth behind a linesman and then throw punches, when the linesman leaves and Schenn offers to go, you need to handle your business not decline because you are scared. And Neal was out there with the intent to injure, so that says something about his coach in my opinion. Bylsma should have sent him to the locker room himself after the Couturier hit.

[GrimUSMC]

"it was a clean hit."

Seriously? Then why did he get a penalty on the play?

"Ive never seen a more gutless player in my life"

Brierre. 2 years ago in the playoffs. Mouthed off and then slowly skated backwards until he was behind Pronger.

Crosby does punk things. Its one of the things I don't like about him, but the cry baby stuff is old, real old. He talks to the refs no more or less than almost any other captain in the league. Why do you see it all of the time. Because for every delusional fan who thinks he's a cry baby, or gets special treatment, or just doesn't like him, there are at least 10 who do.

EVERYBODY, and I mean everybody, in Philly talked about how much they hated Talbot in 08-09 and now they love him.

I was there, and no penalty was called until well after Asham took his thug run at Schenn. And every hockey announcer watching the play said it was a clean hit. Mouthing off is one thing, but I dont recall Danny Briere ever grabbing guys by their hair like he wanted to go and then running away.

And whoever said Crosby challenged Schenn, and Schenn wouldnt go needs to get to a doctor quick. There are obviously many things wrong with you that we cant fix here on a trading card web site. Crosby didnt even drop the gloves against Giroux. He left one glove on and grabbed hold until the linesman stepped in. And then started throwing punches AFTER the linesman came in.

[FlyerGuy22]

My point was not to say that Asham was not wrong, but that everyone is saying that his aim was for the neck. As far a using sticks. I can think of two occasions that the flyers used theirs as weapons. In game 3 after the flyers scored I am not sure which goal but a scrum occurred and one flyers stick was swung at a penguin. I am not talking about a cross check but a baseball swing. I apoligize for not having specifics, but the tv coverage seemed to focus more on the penguins being bullies. Also in the game where Letang was robbed by the goalie. After the whistle a flyer again took a swing with his stick on Letang. In both occassions when they showed replays, they stopped before I could get the players involved for the flyers. As far as playing clean I don't think that was the case. I think the difference is that the flyers played smarter, and did not allow their emotions to affect their play. but they had their fair share of questionable hits that the penquins allowed to get under their skin.

Are you saying Matt Read's shove to Letang's arm was a baseball swing?

[policeradio556]

I was there, and no penalty was called until well after Asham took his thug run at Schenn. And every hockey announcer watching the play said it was a clean hit. Mouthing off is one thing, but I dont recall Danny Briere ever grabbing guys by their hair like he wanted to go and then running away.

And whoever said Crosby challenged Schenn, and Schenn wouldnt go needs to get to a doctor quick. There are obviously many things wrong with you that we cant fix here on a trading card web site. Crosby didnt even drop the gloves against Giroux. He left one glove on and grabbed hold until the linesman stepped in. And then started throwing punches AFTER the linesman came in.

Its a battle and argument that cannot be won with most Pens fans and Crosby supporters... I nearly had a heart attack with the biased NBC announcers said Schenn's hit was clean... Usually those knuckleheads are anti Flyers... Its a shame that the team gets a bad rap from people over the Broad Street Bullies days that happened 30+ years ago... Completely a new style of hockey today... Flyers have gone away of loading up on enforcers *cough cough* unlike some other teams around the league.

[FlyerGuy22]

I was there, and no penalty was called until well after Asham took his thug run at Schenn. And every hockey announcer watching the play said it was a clean hit. Mouthing off is one thing, but I dont recall Danny Briere ever grabbing guys by their hair like he wanted to go and then running away.

And whoever said Crosby challenged Schenn, and Schenn wouldnt go needs to get to a doctor quick. There are obviously many things wrong with you that we cant fix here on a trading card web site. Crosby didnt even drop the gloves against Giroux. He left one glove on and grabbed hold until the linesman stepped in. And then started throwing punches AFTER the linesman came in.

Yea, you can see here that his feet didn't come off the ice until he already made contact. They called the penalty after the fact, but that looks like a clean hit.
Martin saw it coming and braced himself. He jumped back up after the hit. If Asham didn't do what he did, there wouldn't have been any calls made at all.

[PensFan7187]

Removing my post; I don't want to get personal.

I hope the Pens come back (and I think they will) but if they don't, they got outplayed, plain and simple.

[abls10]

Yes the announcers said it was a clean hit. but they were wrong. If Martin was alone along the boards yes it would of been a clean hit. But he was engaged with another player which then makes it an illegal hit and that is what he was penalized for. As far Hartnell getting his hair pulled, It was Adams not Crosby. I am not happy with crosby's display yesterday, but don't put something on him that he didn't do. Also we all are sitting here making assumptions about what was happening on the ice. We always don't see everything on the ice watching at home. Alot goes on off camera and we definately don't hear what is being said. With that being said, the flyers not only beat the pens on the score board they are in their heads. And unless the pens start playing hockey and stop focusing on retaliating they might as well set tee times instead of showing up on Wed. Because the series will be over for sure.

I was there, and no penalty was called until well after Asham took his thug run at Schenn. And every hockey announcer watching the play said it was a clean hit. Mouthing off is one thing, but I dont recall Danny Briere ever grabbing guys by their hair like he wanted to go and then running away.

And whoever said Crosby challenged Schenn, and Schenn wouldnt go needs to get to a doctor quick. There are obviously many things wrong with you that we cant fix here on a trading card web site. Crosby didnt even drop the gloves against Giroux. He left one glove on and grabbed hold until the linesman stepped in. And then started throwing punches AFTER the linesman came in.

[FlyerGuy22]

Yes the announcers said it was a clean hit. but they were wrong. If Martin was alone along the boards yes it would of been a clean hit. But he was engaged with another player which then makes it an illegal hit and that is what he was penalized for. As far Hartnell getting his hair pulled, It was Adams not Crosby. I am not happy with crosby's display yesterday, but don't put something on him that he didn't do. Also we all are sitting here making assumptions about what was happening on the ice. We always don't see everything on the ice watching at home. Alot goes on off camera and we definately don't hear what is being said. With that being said, the flyers not only beat the pens on the score board they are in their heads. And unless the pens start playing hockey and stop focusing on retaliating they might as well set tee times instead of showing up on Wed. Because the series will be over for sure.

I'm not sure why I've seen a few people talking about 'engaged'
Here's a link to the rulebook the word engaged is used once (47.4 Clearing the Area of a Fight - When a fight occurs, all players not
engaged shall go immediately to the area of their players’ bench).
Guys get hit by multiple players all the time. There's no rule that says you can't check someone because someone else has already started checking that player.

Look at the video above, you'll see the ref doesn't raise his arm until Asham comes in.

[Srman77]

I thought this series was going to be dog fight to the end, but so far it's been a one sided affair.

[bobbywc21]

I was there, and no penalty was called until well after Asham took his thug run at Schenn. And every hockey announcer watching the play said it was a clean hit. Mouthing off is one thing, but I dont recall Danny Briere ever grabbing guys by their hair like he wanted to go and then running away.

And whoever said Crosby challenged Schenn, and Schenn wouldnt go needs to get to a doctor quick. There are obviously many things wrong with you that we cant fix here on a trading card web site. Crosby didnt even drop the gloves against Giroux. He left one glove on and grabbed hold until the linesman stepped in. And then started throwing punches AFTER the linesman came in.

I am the one that posted that Schenn refused to square up with Crosby. Near the end of the third period, NBC had the camera on both of them and Crosby was challenging him and Schenn refused. I read his lips- it was plain as day. As for Neal and Asham, believe me, they are not innocent- I just think what they did needed to be done. This stuff goes back a few years to now, and it's equally done on both sides. Richards intentionally running Fleury, Hartnell biting Letang, Schenn cross-checking Crosby in the BACK, after the whistle when Crosby was gliding, the hit on Martin. The Pens figured this is as good of time as any to try and even the score, but now the Flyers and their fans are crying. Believe me, they will try to get their revenge too. By the way, Schenn didn't play like this in juniors. This is the Flyers mantra- they have Broad Street Bullied him up and it's showing.