Blackhawks @ Penguins IGT March 30th 6:30

[DMelt36]

I don't think you do. It's not done anymore and that's why these talented players sit while the hacks skate on. The whole point was to keep the best players playing. The players knew where their bread was buttered....now they have to rely on a dufus like Shanahan. Unless the punishment matches the crime, it's pointless. No matter what Shanahan does, come playoff time Oprik will be playing...Crosby will be playing.....Toews will be sitting.

Even back then, though, star players still got hurt. Cam Neely's career was pretty much ended by Ulf Samuelsson. Markus Naslund was the victim of a brutal knee-to-knee collision in the early 2000s. I'd be willing to bet there's plenty more instances of this happening.

The point is this: the belief that star players are "protected" because of fighters that are on the roster is a myth, IMO. The only real way to discourage a team from taking liberties with your star players is to light them up on the ensuing power plays.

And the reason that that the NHL had to start cracking down on the retaliations is because of the Bertuzzi incident, which was the final chapter in the aforementioned story about Markus Naslund.

 

[DMelt36]

You can still get your shots in on Orpik or Crosby or anyone else. But you have to take them in the flow of play and without doing something to put your team shorthanded.

 

[DMelt36]

In other news the Blackhawks are owning this game right now.

 

[ClydeLee]

What's the love affair with Morin. He's showed about nothing in his 20 or 30 callups....I take that back. He HAS shown something. He's shown he's NOT an NHL player. He's just one of many unproductive stiffs that'll be moved this off season. Hopefully in some sort of a package to bring a damn goalie here.

There's little logic with Joe, it's all emotional bland statements and player fascinations. He was high on Morin years ago and continues. Just like his overinflated love of Pirri as an NHL level player, but proclaims TT should be in Rockford.

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[DMelt36]

There's another dumb fucking pinch by Seabrook giving Crosby another 2 on 1 and there's your ballgame.

 

[Capt. Serious]

Duncs & Seabs a combined -4...solid.

 

[nwfisch]

Duncs & Seabs a combined -4...solid.

We know they're not as good as Nick Lidstrom.

 

[DMelt36]

Duncs & Seabs a combined -4...solid.

Brent Seabrook has sucked this year.

 

[nwfisch]

Brent Seabrook has sucked this year.

 

[DMelt36]

Honest. An insane number of Seabrook's pinches have ended in odd man rushes the other way.

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[Diehardfan]

You can still get your shots in on Orpik or Crosby or anyone else. But you have to take them in the flow of play and without doing something to put your team shorthanded.

You're still not getting it. It's probably because you're not going back far enough. I guess I'm showing my age but there was a time where high hits along the boards was common place...it happened every game. It had nothing to do with goons, and the knee to knee stuff came way later. The only difference was that for the most part, if you were a "star" player...you pretty much got a free ride. You'd get hit but you wouldn't get splattered....that part of the game, for better or worse was taken away from the players. IMOP, all it accomplished was putting better player's careers in jeopardy. If it had been Brookbank being hammered and injured instead of Toews, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. It certainly wasn't a perfect way of doing things but I always thought it to be pretty effective.

 

[nwfisch]

Honest. An insane number of Seabrook's pinches have ended in odd man rushes the other way.

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I guess I'm a Seabrook defender :shrug: He has his highest +/- of his career this year.

You're still not getting it. It's probably because you're not going back far enough. I guess I'm showing my age but there was a time where high hits along the boards was common place...it happened every game. It had nothing to do with goons, and the knee to knee stuff came way later. The only difference was that for the most part, if you were a "star" player...you pretty much got a free ride. You'd get hit but you wouldn't get splattered....that part of the game, for better or worse was taken away from the players. IMOP, all it accomplished was putting better player's careers in jeopardy. If it had been Brookbank being hammered and injured instead of Toews, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. It certainly wasn't a perfect way of doing things but I always thought it to be pretty effective.

I get what both of you are saying, and ideally DMelt's theory would be good, but this joker that hit Toews has a history of this garbage. Why he gets to wear an "A" is beyond me.

 

[Diehardfan]

I guess I'm a Seabrook defender :shrug: He has his highest +/- of his career this year.



I get what both of you are saying, and ideally DMelt's theory would be good, but this joker that hit Toews has a history of this garbage. Why he gets to wear an "A" is beyond me.

Why he wasn't even penalized is even more astounding......if you're gonna play by these rules, the damn officials have to do their job. But back in the time frame I was refering to...no way that's a penalty.

 

[nwfisch]

Why he wasn't even penalized is even more astounding......

Hey Diehardfan, great question.

He wasn't penalized because he was playing good, clean hockey.

 

[DMelt36]

You're still not getting it. It's probably because you're not going back far enough. I guess I'm showing my age but there was a time where high hits along the boards was common place...it happened every game. It had nothing to do with goons, and the knee to knee stuff came way later. The only difference was that for the most part, if you were a "star" player...you pretty much got a free ride. You'd get hit but you wouldn't get splattered....that part of the game, for better or worse was taken away from the players. IMOP, all it accomplished was putting better player's careers in jeopardy. If it had been Brookbank being hammered and injured instead of Toews, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. It certainly wasn't a perfect way of doing things but I always thought it to be pretty effective.

Yeah, I think you're referring to a time that's outside of my hockey knowledge.

 

[Diehardfan]

Yeah, I think you're referring to a time that's outside of my hockey knowledge.

Certainly not out of your hockey knowledge by any stretch but I would guess a little before your time. Just a rougher game back then. Heh, I'll give it a bit of perspective. No one in the league wore helmets and most of the goalies didn't wear masks.

 

[DMelt36]

Certainly not out of your hockey knowledge by any stretch but I would guess a little before your time. Just a rougher game back then. Heh, I'll give it a bit of perspective. No one in the league wore helmets and most of the goalies didn't wear masks.

Haha yeah, a tad before my time. I went to my first game in '96 and I've got a decent handle on most things that happened in the NHL from the 90s up til now. But anything before that is spotty at best. Only so much you can learn about an era you didn't live through.

 

[CRM 114]

Honest. An insane number of Seabrook's pinches have ended in odd man rushes the other way.

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Not to mention all those own goals. And he always misses the net unless it's in his own net

 

[Raskolnikov]

**** Crawford and the kazillion holes in his game.

Why is Crawford getting so much disrespect? I feel like we ask more of him than a normal NHL team. Our penalty kill plan seems to be let them take good clean looks at Crawford but minimize deflections. We rely on him to snuff out lots of 1 on 1 breakaways with our slow defenders occassionally out raced.

I don't know....I was against losing Niemi in the first place. We had a young net minder and Crawford has done nothing except spare us the true pain of letting that go. He has been big for us, and seems to play big in big games. I expect good things from him in playoffs and when we need it most.

 

[Diehardfan]

Why is Crawford getting so much disrespect? I feel like we ask more of him than a normal NHL team. Our penalty kill plan seems to be let them take good clean looks at Crawford but minimize deflections. We rely on him to snuff out lots of 1 on 1 breakaways with our slow defenders occassionally out raced.

I don't know....I was against losing Niemi in the first place. We had a young net minder and Crawford has done nothing except spare us the true pain of letting that go. He has been big for us, and seems to play big in big games. I expect good things from him in playoffs and when we need it most.

He almost never sustains for a whole game. Lately, its been a lot like last night where he allows early goals that were very stoppable and because the Hawks are struggling to score, they are immediately are in a hole. There's been other games where his failures have come late. Soft goals are a killer when a team is struggling to score...hell, even when they're not. Let's put it this way....had the Hawks and Avs swapped goalies in the pre-season, the Hawks would probably have 120 points right now and Colorado would be struggling to get in the tournament.