OFFICIAL GDT: GAME 2 PENS @ CAPS

[Dan]

I don't know what I'm more upset about: the Orpik hit or the horrendous make-up call against Letang.

[Dickie Dunn]

I know the Penguins have become a turn the other cheek kinda team, which is all well and good, but if they're not going to bother using their power play as a deterrent against cheap and chippy play they might want to find an on ice method before the Caps decide to find out how the league would penalize a human sacrifice at center ice.

[Gaucho]

When I woke up today I thought for some reason that we lost, but then I remembered and I was like ...

[tifosi77]

"Ya f'd it up, pretty boy! F!"

I have it as "F'n unbelievable! F!"

Probably good that I'm not deaf.

[mikey]

@mikey: I don't know that I'd call Maatta strong in front of the net right now. He has been getting knocked off the puck easily that he normally would have. Schultz for Maatta may be more of a wash in that regard.

Maatta's battle level on the boards and in front of the net have been fine defensively. Him getting knocked off the puck is a different can of worms. He has the urgency and ability to negate opportunities in front against a bigger team. Schultz will need to sack up and try to match that, he will account for less minutes than Maatta by probably 8 to 10, so he needs to be diligent in the time he's allotted...

[tifosi77]

I just saw the Orpik hit on Maatta. Very late, head hunting. Not good.

Orpik apparently claimed that he though Maatta was getting the puck back. Which, I mean.... do you laugh at that?

[Craig]

Yeah if you havent followed Orpiks career you might. Having followed his career i just shrug while thinking about him running around into corners for hits the past decade plus...sometimes connecting sometimes missing, sometimes leaving someone wide open in the slot.

[Avyran]

https://twitter.com/DKPghSports/status/ ... 7224167424
lol

[Dan H]

Bright side to the Maatta incident...Thornton knocking out Orpik is suddenly not at all upsetting in retrospect anymore. What a dingleberry.

Awful behavior is awful behavior. One big problem with people thinking any of this crap is OK is then when normal people play beer league hockey there's always some jagoff on the other team who thinks ice hockey allows baseball-swinging his stick at guys and trying to check guys into the benches from behind. And usually the refs aren't aware that isn't hockey, either. Hockey is fun to play when people aren't getting criminally assaulted or recklessly coldcocked. As long as the sport doesn't take those incidents seriously, though, we'll remain a fringe sport.

[relantel]

Pens get that type of win on the road playing 5D all game and get to come back home for two games?

Imagine that game with 6D all game. Might not have been close. I can see the Pens keeping it up at home & having a chase Holtby type game.

[count2infinity]

Pens get that type of win on the road playing 5D all game and get to come back home for two games?

Imagine that game with 6D all game. Might not have been close. I can see the Pens keeping it up at home & having a chase Holtby type game.

First two periods it was alllllllll Pens. Smothering the Caps. I'm sure the 5D didn't help, but that game easily could have been 4 or 5 to nothin going into the 3rd. They keep playing like that and this is the Pens series.

[NTP66]

"Ya f'd it up, pretty boy! F!"

I have it as "F'n unbelievable! F!"

Probably good that I'm not deaf.

That's what he said, but I still had to laugh at meow's interpretation.

[slappybrown]

I can't stop admiring this:

Capitals coach Barry Trotz said that Orpik thought the puck was coming back to Maatta after a shot and a rebound. “There’s a real size difference, and Maatta leaned into it a little bit.”

[NTP66]

I wonder if Trotz and Orpik actually believe the nonsense coming out of their mouths?

[slappybrown]

The Maatta "leaned into thing" is really one of the craziest things to say. Say Orpik misread the play (even though that explanation is really something), fine, but to blame maatta is a shtty thing to do to another player in this circumstance. His brains are scrambled my man.

[count2infinity]

See, what happened was Maatta actually jimmied his stick up under Orpik's elbow. That's what made it come up and hit him in the chops. If anything it should have been a hooking call on Maatta.

[slappybrown]

I will say the Caps are pretty high up on the ultraviolence scale relative to the NHL these days, or at least have been this series. They are not fun to play against.

[mikey]

Source of the post As long as the sport doesn't take those incidents seriously, though, we'll remain a fringe sport.

This seems like kind of a red herring though, no? I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying, is hockey a "popular" sport in America if it starts having heavier suspensions...? I'm really not sure that's what is driving people away...violent collisions is a must-have in football, no one watches the Pro Bowl even though that is skill on skill...basketball survives with no parody, the worst officiating in professional sport (to the point that there is documented fixing) and carnival-like feel to it...now, it's not very popular itself, losing a fair bit in shared markets to hockey...but it's accessibility makes it popular...the NBA as a league puts out a worse product than the NHL, I'm not sure even the most hard-luck public defender would fight against that, but the sport is more accessible and easier to understand...

I really don't think how the league handles internal suspensions or even the shots that warrant them is what is holding the NHL down...the dink and dunk stuff like Orpik's hit and Wilson's knee...yeah, those aren't pretty, but they really aren't like "OMG, can you believe this!" they're not even terribly violent...they're just regular dirty plays, for lack of better phrasing...no worse than clocking a defense-less receiver or sliding wide to breakup a double play...

It's the Bertuzzi stuff that is black eye inducing...and how often does that happen anymore? The real borderline criminal stuff...? That's the amateur stuff, that's what you can't have...what's happened in the last ten years? Then compared to the ten before that...you had Bertuzzi on Moore, you had Matt Johnson on Jeff Beukeboom, you had McSorley on Brashear, you could make a weak claim for Odjick on Lindros, though it failed I guess...

That stuff and those guys have largely washed out. You could probably point to some factors, some obvious, some not so much...you think about the incidents that happened in the 90s, and the first thing you think about is that that is the first generation of players really where everyone was helmeted...so you get the green light of invincibility...Bertuzzi head shot, Johnson head shot, McSorley head shot, Odjick head shot...reckless high hitting abound...

Fast forward to now, the helmeted thing is passed. Now you have visors, and the body armor, the hard-capped equipment and you have sped up the game precipitously with rule changes...enforcers largely gone, instigator rule in, fighting way down, "destroyers" way up...players that skate around at 100 mph and try to inflict damage, try to destroy...not that interested in the puck, interested in the hit...love the sell, not so much the sale...what's up? Knee injuries, hits from behind...invincible players can do anything, throw their body in front of anything, run into anything at any speed...and their face is more protected than ever, their head, their legs, their shoulders and chest...and at the end of the day, they don't have to answer the bell because no one is around to beat the piss out of them...green light.

Now, I'm not saying players shouldn't wear helmets certainly...I'm just making a connection, again, that in the name of speed/safety sometimes you make a more dangerous environment...

[Fire0nIce228]

Source of the post As long as the sport doesn't take those incidents seriously, though, we'll remain a fringe sport.

Fast forward to now, the helmeted thing is passed. Now you have visors, and the body armor, the hard-capped equipment and you have sped up the game precipitously with rule changes...enforcers largely gone, instigator rule in, fighting way down, "destroyers" way up...players that skate around at 100 mph and try to inflict damage, try to destroy...not that interested in the puck, interested in the hit...love the sell, not so much the sale...what's up? Knee injuries, hits from behind...invincible players can do anything, throw their body in front of anything, run into anything at any speed...and their face is more protected than ever, their head, their legs, their shoulders and chest...and at the end of the day, they don't have to answer the bell because no one is around to beat the piss out of them...green light.

Now, I'm not saying players shouldn't wear helmets certainly...I'm just making a connection, again, that in the name of speed/safety sometimes you make a more dangerous environment...

The one thing I think you hit on the most there Mikey is the protective gear issue... Compare a set of Shanahans shoulder pads to what these guys are wearing today.. Its literally as you put it "body armor." Its invincibility. Its hit a guy as hard as you can because you know YOU won't feel any damage from it.

Same thing with other equipment that leads to each and every player being required to block shots and stifle the offensive aspects of the game. 15 years ago guys got out of the way of a Al Macinnis slapper, now some players dont think twice about stepping infront of a chara bomb

[Pavel Bure]

Yeah I don't think hockey if ever not going to be a niche sport again. It doesn't matter fighting or suspensions it's just not that popular.

I'd say one of the bigger reasons is cost to play. It's expensive. Baseball and basketball are cheap. Football has equipment provided by schools from midget up because it makes money. Hockey is all on the parents for the most part and if you don't have some money for the most part you're not playing hockey.

[mikey]

Yup, excellence connection, FoI. Time and time again, I go back to the equipment as being a key player in this, and like when Maggie shot Mr. Burns, it's the culprit the people least suspect...

And then when you take it further, it goes beyond even the actual action, it's what habits you form that lead to further poor action. How defensemen retrieves pucks, how shot blocking is done - improper form often seen, timing and placement of hits, etc. - leaks into goaltending...giving up too many five hole goals? Put padding there. Getting beat high glove? Get a bigger glove that doesn't close. etc. Thus, Canada puts out losers like Malcolm Subban in a best-on-best junior tournament...this issues leak down into development...produce poor results...

[Faubert5]

I will say the Caps are pretty high up on the ultraviolence scale relative to the NHL these days, or at least have been this series. They are not fun to play against.

I thought that at points in the last series they were out Flyering the Flyers. Oshie is a dirt bag, Wilson is too, Brooks head hunts, and the only Russian that leaves his feet more than Ovechkin is Baryshnikov.

[skullman80]

I actually went to bed after the 2nd cause my wife and I had been painting since like 8 am. Was happy to wake up to a win.

[shmenguin]

Violence and officiating has nothing to do with popularity.

Players are boring, it's not aesthetically pleasing, nobody played hockey when they were a kid and there are a bunch of foreigners involved.

It was popular for a time because nothing else was on. It's doing better than it should now, and I'm thankful for that.

[columbia]

Violence and officiating has nothing to do with popularity.

Players are boring, it's not aesthetically pleasing, nobody played hockey when they were a kid and there are a bunch of foreigners involved.

It was popular for a time because nothing else was on. It's doing better than it should now, and I'm thankful for that.

Can you rephrase this in English?