re: Fresh Ice! NHL Season-Long Thread, Part 2

So Letang should have gotten a 5 then for his.

Actually, the Pens' blogs have been pretty reasonable:

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In a rough and tumble game instigated largely by Alex Ovechkin slashing Kris Letang in the back of the leg (sending Letang crashing into the boards) early in the third period, the Capitals kept their emotions in check better than the Penguins , were better on the power play and skated out of town with a 3-1 win.

After Ovechkin's slash on Letang- which went unpenalized- the Pens responded with Chris Kunitz and David Perron taking a small run at the next beginning of play. The whistle after that, Maxim Lapierre and Steve Downie went fairly crazy against other Capitals, for no apparent reason, and that didn't help anything.

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LINK

Watching live it looked like Ovi was hoping that puck was going to slide back and he tried to make a shot out of it. Now he clearly missed and it should have been a penalty but he lucked out and it wasn't called.

The Pens then let that get in their head and they lost it. Pens have no one to blame but themselves.

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Do you not know what spiral means?

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Haha yeah I do, Pens gave me a front seat to it. Do the Pens know how to control it?...and is that some kind of sick Hog logic for justifying it?

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Any team would do the same thing defending their star, minimum 1 or 2 penalties as a direct result of that play. That's hockey.

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Well...looks like you are justifying it. Clearly not any team would do it because you just witnessed the Caps not give a shite about the shots on Ovie, or pitiful attempts to take shots at him. The Caps were on the ice tonight to win 2 points, the Pens simply weren't. Thank you for the two points.

...oh and by the way want to chat about Latta. Should be a little embarrassed about that whole fight situation, seeing that Downie pussed out and the Pens sent some jack that was clearly bigger and Latta went toe to toe.

Thats hockey. That's why every playoff team has a player or two whose main job is to be physical and most importantly protect their stars.

If this was the playoffs you'd dial it back obviously, but it's not and they went haywire, so be it. Refs jobs to prevent it and control that type of stuff, they failed, miserably.

Also, this is the first season since the lockout I've gotten bored with the NHL and think they should shorten the season a bit. Feels like the season should be ending end of this month or mid March.

Maybe it's because the Metro is so balanced and seeding doesn't matter idk. Thought the game tonight was pretty boring overall. Had more fun watching Wings Habs and Isles Rangers last night.

This is for Fatty...

Postgame, Barry Trotz was asked who is the best player in the NHL? (trying to stir the Ovi-Crosby thing) He answered "Carey Price."

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Montreal is 29th in road scoring

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That could be interesting if the playoffs ever get here.

So you're mad that those teams have the most posters and thus, most posts are about them?

Dallas has been discussed multiple times in this thread dude. Congrats on beating a very good if not awesome St. Louis team. Kari was hot last night, and played much better than he normally does. frick Cody Eakin for ruining Benn's natural hat trick.

Full disclosure I fricking hate Dallas (love their fans because I love anyone that likes hockey but is not from a cold weather city. It sticks it to the canadians that think their shitty 2nd tier cities deserve a team - if I have to hear about Hamilton or Quebec City one more time I am going to kick a puppy. I hate the Stars as a team), but let's discuss them anyways.

In THN's season preview, Dallas was predicted to be 4th in the division, however readers poll expected them to be 3rd. You're 6th.

Dallas straight up is underachieving this year. You got the shiny new free agents over the summer, and they have not delivered. You have no defense. I actually feel sorry for Kari, statistically he's playing like King Henrik this year - however the results aren't showing up because he has zero support. Dallas' winning percentage when getting out-shot? .280. second to last in the league.

Let's take a look at the big questions from the start of the season:

1) Can Dallas live up to the heightened expectations?

Clearly not. Seguin won't win the Art Ross trophy and the Hart trophy won't go to a guy whose team doesn't make the playoffs.

2)Will the defense improve without any drastic personnel changes?

Well there was a drastic personnel change on defense, but that was losing a wily veteran to the Habs.

3) Will the Dallas Stars finally find consistent backup goaltending?

We'll never know what consistent goaltending looks like until Dallas learns how to play defense.


But congrats for being mathematically alive. You're two games out of a playoff spot right now, but get this: Out of your next 10 games, you might win 50% of them. Might. The only way you win 6 or more is if every one of your opponents plays their backups and rests their regulars. Even then with Seguin and Hemsky out 5 out of 10 will be difficult. The good news is that over the next week, games against Winnepeg and Minnesota are basically playoff games, so while you won't be enjoying hockey in April, May, or June at least you can enjoy it now. Those months are better spent fishing anyways.


So congrats to Jamie Benn on his first career hat trick though. Pretty awesome at 25

In other news, Nashville straight up dominated the Sharks tonight, and last night the Rangers won a wide open shootfest against the Islanders.