Series Discussion Thread - Washington Capitals vs Pittsburgh Penguins

[jameslacarte]

Did anyone catch what Cherry & McLean said in the first intermission of the Senators-Rangers game referring to the Crosby incident? Those guys have forgot more about hockey than any of us all put together will ever know. But hey, its just a hockey play right?

[RGM81]

I don't like repeating myself, guys. If you can't behave in a civil manner there will be consequences for malarkey on the threads. I will not have these discussion threads derailed by foolishness. I have no problem with people disagreeing but you can do it without being disagreeable or confrontational.
Sticks on the ice, boys.

[LecavalierFan]

Did anyone catch what Cherry & McLean said in the first intermission of the Senators-Rangers game referring to the Crosby incident? Those guys have forgot more about hockey than any of us all put together will ever know. But hey, its just a hockey play right?

You mean Cherry, the biggest xenophobe and Crosby apologizer on the planet? Of course he's going to throw a fit because his pride and joy got injured. I take what he says with less than a grain of salt.

[cardboardkid]

@RGM81 I'm just putting this out here, as my thoughts, I actually thought most of the posts here were great arguments about the incident from both sides! Hockey fans are emotional and Playoff hockey evokes strong emotions, a good example was the Vancouver riots! Everyone is entitled to an opinion.

[RGM81]

@RGM81 I'm just putting this out here, as my thoughts, I actually thought most of the posts here were great arguments about the incident from both sides! Hockey fans are emotional and Playoff hockey evokes strong emotions, a good example was the Vancouver riots! Everyone is entitled to an opinion.

Absolutely they are. We encourage open discussion, even on the "hot button" issues of the day. Sidney Crosby is a polarizing figure for a lot of people; some like him and others do not. Whenever anything happens involving him, it gets people talking. And that's great! Unfortunately, a couple people crossed the line of acceptable discussion and instead of keeping it about Sidney Crosby and his latest concussion, it became about goading people into attacking one another. As our site rules plainly state, "Trolling is considered making comments in someone’s thread in provocation to create emotional distress towards other people or picking a fight....Hijacking a thread is considered taking over a thread that you did not originally create and posting something that has nothing to do with its actual subject matter." The posts that disappeared mysteriously last night fell into those categories.

If you guys wanna talk hockey until you're blue in the face, I'll totally encourage and participate in it.

The Crosby discussions going on here are highly reminiscent of something that came up in my FB feed this morning, about an incident that happened a few years back between Eric Gryba and "Player 81" Lars Eller:

At the end of the day, it's a 23-year old young man, who just had his first kid born a couple weeks ago, having to spend the night in the hospital because he was knocked unconscious by a hit to the head that left him unable to protect himself from smashing his face on the ice. People can try to white-wash it all they want and provide justification and rationale as to why Gryba's hit was or was not clean.
Frankly, I don't care if they suspend him or not. It's meaningless to remove him from the equation. Lars Eller is ten times the hockey player that Erik Gryba is. Taking out an 8 mins/game player doesn't put Eller back on the ice nor is it a fair trade off.
The bottom line is that the Habs are without a very good young player because of a violent & dirty hit -- we all say we want checks to the head out of the game, and that's great in the abstract. When an actual check to the head comes along, every so-called expert in the game comes on the TV to say that the blow to the head was incidental or not the principal point of contact, and that's OK, just carry on as you were, nothing to see here. Because yeah, it was totally the body-on-body contact that rendered the player unconscious and therefore unable to protect himself from smashing his head on the ice.

Change a few names & circumstances around, and here we are four years later still in the exact same place.

[Craig2]

Change a few names & circumstances around, and here we are four years later still in the exact same place.

That's what disappoints me so much, how little has changed in terms of safety despite a constant stream of easily preventable injuries.

[kdnist]

That's what disappoints me so much, how little has changed in terms of safety despite a constant stream of easily preventable injuries.

One of the things I love about hockey is that these guys know the risks, accept them, and go out there anyways and battle it out. If the NHL ever goes down the road that the NFL did with player safety, and completely change the game, I don't know that it would be positive. At the end of the day, it is hockey. Guys on ice, smashing bodies and faces off of the boards, traveling at 20mph toward the goal, hacking at the puck, and getting in fist fights. I think the refs do a good job of rewarding people with penalties that cross the line. The last thing I want to see are players getting subjectively handed fines, and strike zones being implemented for "safer hits". That changes the psyche of the entire game, it gets less physical, and the refs get confused about how to enforce the rules. Like I said, its an unfortunate circumstance, but how do you effectively avoid them in the future?

[Sharky94]

I have stayed out of this whole mess because, as a Caps fan, I know I am biased, and no matter what I would say, others would see it like that anyway. So I am not commenting on how it happened, who is responsible, or what penalties should/should not be assessed.

But I just want to say I am glad it was Niskanen (a former teammate) who hit him, and not one of the Caps other, younger Dmen. Could you imagine the conspiracy theorists if it had been Orlov (a Russian!)?

[10-4 collector]

I have stayed out of this whole mess because, as a Caps fan, I know I am biased, and no matter what I would say, others would see it like that anyway. So I am not commenting on how it happened, who is responsible, or what penalties should/should not be assessed.

But I just want to say I am glad it was Niskanen (a former teammate) who hit him, and not one of the Caps other, younger Dmen. Could you imagine the conspiracy theorists if it had been Orlov (a Russian!)?

It kind of sucks for you guys, if they go through and beat Pittsburgh, people will say they cheated and if Crosby had been there it wouldn't have happened. This year is now or never for the Caps.

[jameslacarte]

Even without Crosby pittsburgh gets it done!! Woo Hooooooo!!! Fleury is on his game. He is playing so well..