re: Stanley Cup Champions the WASHINGTON CAPITALS Ovechkin wins Smythe

Great 2nd round so far, and last night games were intense, the Washington -vs- Pittsburgh & Predators -vs- Jets games were awesome! Finals are over, its time to really enjoy the NHL playoffs, wooo hooooo...

Hopefully the Lightning can take care of business tonight, and Lightning's top-line has got to produce or things could go south. Well, Kucherov's bad seems to be some players good but he's still has another level that can be reached. Hopefully we witness this line going off soon, the Lightning need all hands on deck. All these 2nd round games are starting to get chippy, they usually do, but if you don't fight back you'll get eaten alive by those who do. I've watched the Lightning go from a soft team to one who doesn't take crap no more. Should make for a hard fought battle tonight, and I'd be shocked if we don't end up with the fever we witnessed in last night games. Game 3, buckle-up...

Go Lightning !!!!

As for the Wilson stuff... I thought he should've been suspended after Game 3. You can go back in the thread and check if you want. It was a bad hit from behind, and the NHL's failure to suspend him directly lead to what happened: the Penguins spent the entire game trying to run Wilson. They constantly fouled him, cross checked him, and even had a pretty dangerous head first shot into the boards. None of it was a penalty because the refs were in pure Screw Tom Wilson Mode, which is understandable. The Pens were entitled to their frontier justice. But here's the problem with trying to get frontier justice against Tom Wilson: he's eventually going to hit back, and you're going to lose.

The criteria that DOPS supposedly looks at are 1) skates on the ice at the time of contact 2) whether the head is the principle point of initial contact 3) whether the hit comes from behind and 4) it was a hockey play (player has the puck).

Frankly, Wilson's hit meets all the criteria of a legal hit. His feet were on the ice, Wilson hits shoulder-on-shoulder at initial contact, he hits from the front, and Aston-Reese had the puck just before getting leveled. It was a legal hit with disastrous consequences. Mainly because Wilson outweighs him by about 50 pounds, and his momentum ripped through his shoulder and right into his head.

However, saying all that, I think it would be best of the NHL suspended him for a game anyway. I think it was a legal hit, but Wilson has been skating the line for a long time, and his Game 3 hit WAS illegal. He's now knocked out two players, and failing to suspend him would mean even more attempts at frontier justice, and probably ANOTHER Penguin knocked out of the series. Let's nip the escalation in the bud.

As for the trip... whatever. There's not a ref in the NHL that is going to call skates clipping on a check in the final minute of a tie playoff game. not one. And the accusation of a slewfoot is ridiculous, as that's not even what a slewfoot is. You'd think a fanbase that roots for Hornqvist and Malkin would be familiar with what slewfoot looks like by now.

Oh, and Crosby needs to stop spitting on people. That's gross. And Kuzy is like the least violent dude on the ice. At least spit on someone who has a chance of smashing your face in.

heres a closeup of Wilson breaking that dudes face

LINK

Brutal

Tom Wilson is a fricking cocksucker and embarrassment to the NHL. I think that’s what you meant to say Baloo.

Can someone who follows the west more than me, what are the Pegs chances of making it out of that bracket? They seem to have Nash chasing their tail at this point. Games I’ve seen them play, they appear solid.
ETA: if Pitt loses the next, I hope someone looks up Wilson and fricks him up!

gonna be tough to beat preds still. last night preds destroyed period 1, jets were slightly better in p2.. they were even in p3 until empty net shenanigans.

my point..these are even teams. i dont like wpgs chances

Also American commentators are ruining hockey.
America frick yah!

I figured as much.

Grzelcyk yikes. That was awful.