The Official NHL 2011-2012 Thread

I played hockey in HS, but that is irrelevant. I just watched the replay and three different angles of the play. He clearly, at the last second, moved to his right to deliver the hit and the only intention that could logically exist, was the intent to hurt the vulnerable player. It is thug hockey and it needs to stop. Nystrom should take Cookes lead.

No, his intent was probably to deliver a bone-crushing, yet legal, hit. Those kinds of hits happen all of the time in hockey.

Also, early word is that there not only won't be a fine for the hit, but not even a hearing, which means the NHL has deemed it a clean hit. This is according to Rob Rossi on twitter.

Going to the Flyers game tonight, look for a brown person on TV!

Sometimes it is all about a player's reputation. I would bet you paychecks, if that was Matt Cooke making the same type of hit, a suspension would surely follow, but Nystrom doesn't have the same reputation and therefore gets away with it.

It doesn't really matter to me though... Getting arguably the best overall defenseman back in action asap is what is important to me.

That's because Cooke is a well-known dirty player, so it is easier to interpret a borderline hit as intent to injure in his case, as opposed to guy like Nystrom, who has no rep for being dirty. That is just common sense.

No. What is common sense was the hit was either dirty (illegal) or it wasn't. It shouldn't matter who made the hit.

Are you saying the hit was a dirty hit or not? You can't have it both ways.

Besides, Cooke has cleaned up his game.

Just my .02

I am completely against the pussification of the National Hockey League. But I hate gray areas even more. It's either allow these thunderous hits (shoulder to shoulder, accidental head contact, whatever), or completely get rid of them. Do not try to judge intent, or base disciplinary action on the outcome of the incident (injury or not). There is so much confusion amongst the players, and numerous players have even come out and said it. You'll have a guy intentionally go for a dirty hit but not injure a guy get like 1-3 games. Then you'll have a guy with no intent (but who the fuck knows except for the almighty Shanaban) accidentally injure a guy with a slightly dirty hit get like 3-5 games. Then you have guys not getting disciplinary action at all... I mean, what the fuck? Seriously. Shanny isn't much of an improvement over Soupy senior.

It was not a dirty hit.

You just proved my previous point. If Cooke made the same "not a dirty hit" it would have been considered a dirty hit and Cooke would have been fined. So, there is more to the hit than the hit itself.

No, he wouldn't be given the benefit of the doubt on any hit considered borderline.

Krejci with the hatty, he needed that. Good game zero.

I like this time of year because it's the time of year that David Krejci critics are forced to shut the fuck up.

Blues ran out of gas. Brutal schedule lately and playing the Canucks doesn't help. It sucks that we blew 2 clearing attempts and it of course results in the only (real) goal of the game.

Yep, tough loss in a good game, but yeah, too many games in a short span caught up with them tonight. I still like the shape we are in, though!

I almost got into a fist fight with someone who was arguing with me saying Krejci needs to be traded. I responded with "are you on fucking drugs?" and they got in my face. I love when people get up in arms over sports. So I followed it up with "and who would you trade him for?", they repond "Dustin Brown", I say "yes, you are on drugs, sit the fuck down." Then we did a shot, and watched the Bruins lose. Ugh.

We won 6-3! I missed goals 3 and 4 waiting in line for beer, lol

Look for a brown person on TV, lmao. I heard it was a good game. Isles could have had a dangerous team in a couple years, but I think they moved in the opposite direction with some of the moves they made, and some of the decisions they are making (trying to low ball Paranteau) and such.

Man the Isles need some new ownership or something. It's a shame to see one of the most storied franchises in NHL history be reduced to its current state. I view the Islanders as almost an honorary Original Six team. It makes me sick whenever there's talk of moving the team.

Letang with concussion like symptoms.

I checked YouTube for the hit and I'm on the fence with that one. Letang put himself in a vulnerable position playing the puck behind the net in traffic - awareness is key. Nystrom didn't exactly try to avoid him but as others have stated, breaking down the play in slow motion playback and guessing intent is unrealistic. It really sucks that he got hurt (maybe it's just a neck injury) and Nystrom used up his free card (next incident is a suspension).

lol no penalty, suspension, or disciplinary hearing. What a joke.

I don't know, I think Briere did a pretty bad job of preparing himself for a hit there. Yeah, he got pushed, but I think that play happens all the time and the other player almost always gets his hands up and it's no big deal.

He stopped three feet in front of the boards. The other player had no chance to stop. No penalty.

That again is one of those plays that happens all of the time. Most of the time, the player being pushed is stable enough on his feet to where the push won't do much. Remember it's two guys going after the puck in a corner. But because Briere lost his balance and fell into the boards, it is a penalty? Nah.

Why should he? Hockey is a physical sport, and playing the man happens all of the time. It does suck that Letang is having concussion symptoms, but if he doesn't drop his head at the last second, he gets hit shoulder to shoulder and we are not even talking about this.

no better way to snap a losing streak than to spank the caps, it's mind boggling how bad they are this season. makes no sense.

Man, I get that you have to keep skating until the whistle, even if you expect a whistle, but how fucked up was that non-icing call that cost the Bruins the game today?

Briere has a pretty bad history of embellishing to get penalties. I have always hated this about him + Hartnell so it's rare that I ever think "missed call" when one of them is involved.

Add onto that the fact that Briere was perfectly fine and, yeah, no call.

Without Crosby and Letang, the Penguins are still going strong... nice road win against Colorado tonight.

That was bullshit. Should have been icing.

And that loss to the Rags stung... bad. Fucking Bruins just can't play a full 60 minutes of quality hockey. They completely OWNED the Rags in the 2nd period, and only could tie the game. They should have been up 5-2 after the 2nd.

I know the defense has been prone to catastrophic mistakes, but fuck Thomas really needed to bail them out yesterday. That Stepan goal was such a kick in the nuts. 4 goals on 17 shots wtf.

Yep... Ugh. Any update on Rask? I believe I heard it was just a pulled groin, which I hope is true. Cause if he fucked his knee up. Fuck.

Shit, not sounding good.

http://articles.boston.com/2012-03-05/sports/31120715_1_bruins-ice-time-td-garden

My original thought was that it was his knee because he was putting zero weight on his left leg. Do groin pulls actually make you favor one side? Anyway supposedly they are going to have news today.

Honestly, I love Rask (let's face it a lot of us are metal heads here and so is he and he's a super cool guy by all accounts), but there could be a silver lining in that Thomas plays better when playing a lot. This is the perfect time to get him into a rhythm. With that said, if he keeps playing like yesterday we're fucked.

That was such a good fucking game yesterday though. Definitely a game deserving of OT, even though I hate 3 point games this late in the season. Rask had surgery on his knee in the offseason, I really hope he didn't fuck it up all over again. He looked like he was in serious pain.

So the Flyers are now without Meszaros and Timonen "indefinitely". WTF how many D-men are we going to lose?

Luckily, SOMEHOW, Bryz pulled off a shutout yesterday. Turned the corner perhaps?

Oh and on Saturday, 2 goals for Carter and 3 assists for Richards. Flyers West

only an abdominal/groin strain for Rask, 4-6 weeks. Thank God it wasn't his bad knee.

Fuck... We signed Turdco too. Ugh. He has to clear waivers. He is still better than anything we got in Providence.

lol

Turco is going to be hilariously bad. He'll get the Bruins' goal differential down to the negatives in no time.

Another nice win by the Pens over a tough and scrappy Coyote team. MAF is playing extremely well.

The Blues are destroying the Hawks

Bryzgalov has been kicking ass lately. Nice to finally see a stretch of solid play from him.

He played great last night.

Another well played game last night and the rookie goaltender was strong in net again. Go Pens!

Holy fuck! The Bruins actually won two in a row! Let this mark the beginning of the beantown beatdown coming to a theater near you.

The Penguins, Flyers and Devils all neck to neck with Rangers maybe faltering... It is coming down to the wire... Gotta love it.

This is unreal. I still don't know what to think - in past years, the Blues have always had some sort of hot streak, which all ended miserably. I know they're a lot better this year, but it's still hard to trust them after the last 8+ years of being pretty bad. This is really exciting though.

They would have to lose every game to not make the playoffs, man. I kind of want the Blues to do really well just out of principle. Teams that turn it around that strongly deserve success.