Same score as Game 1—completely different game though. Unlike the disastrous first game, there were moments during game 2 where both teams looked like the teams they were touted as being. Those moments, however brief they were, give me hope that we have a series on our hands where good, quality hockey will be played.
There is only one team that has ever come back from being down 2-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals. Considering the fact that the Penguins were able to come back against the Capitals, I’m not counting them out. I still think they are incredibly talented and well coached. They just haven’t been “on”. My concern for them is how they have been unable to capitalize on opportunities such as breakaways and the injuries that have been plaguing the wings as well as the wings age! The wings are NOT the oldest team in the NHL. They are the second oldest. The New Jersey Devils hold the top spot for the oldest team on ice! The wings just have the oldest player in Chris Chelios!
Again in this game I think the refs didn’t do such a hot job. There were blundered calls throughout the game for both teams. I do think they made the right call when Zetterburg was in the net, however! I saw the puck, with my own eyes, underneath Z’s right elbow which was OUSIDE THE GOAL and in the blue crease! That means that it did not cross the line, therefore, no goal!
Then there was the fight at the end of the game! Do I want to see Geno suspended for that little melee? The wings fan in me says he should be sitting on Tuesday night. Bylsma even said after the game that the rules were pretty clear. The hockey fan in me says let them play! I actually like the fact that Geno is such a physical player. I think he’s a linebacker on ice skates. I don’t like that he intentionally goes after guys though. I do like how he throws his weight around. Do I think it was necessary for him to go after Zetterburg? NO! Do I think Ozzie needed to fall when Talbot speered him, no, but I do think he was off balance! The league has rescinded the instigator penalty they originally gave Geno. What’s the point of having the penalty in the rules if you don’t give it out? It was only given out once this playoff season to Milan Lucic of the Boston Bruins during the first round. I think Malkin was frustrated and wanted to vent with Zetterberg as the guy he wanted to vent against! He picked Zetterberg out of the crowd. Now why would he do that? Could it be that Z has been one of the main reasons why he and Crosby have been unable to contribute a lot offensively? Maybe! But in the end, no one got hurt, we were all entertained and it leaves us with something to think about before game 3. I also want to beat the Pens when they are at their best, not without the leading scorer of the league during the regular season and playoff season. Then people really will be crying foul and we’ll hear about how the wings have the league officials wrapped around their finger, blah blah blah! I honestly never knew the red wings were considered the Yankees of the NHL! When I hear this I laugh, because it’s not true in the least bit!
I do think the NHL as well as all athletic leagues need to be consistent with calls and rules within their game. I think the NHL is having issues with this durng the playoff season. The NBA always has an issue with this and last year the NFL had some pretty crazy calls! Consistency is key here! Don't make a rule if you're not going to enforce it! It almost seems like the NHL is at the point where they are just going to let the Wings and Penguins play. They are trying very hard not to impact the outcome of the final. But at the same time, by not following the rules, they are either helping or hurting the teams. It's a total catch 22.
Read this article by Jeff Passan--http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=AjsVIzB1TudB_iQPAdr4c9J7vLYF?slug=jp-malkin053109&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
DETROIT – The National Hockey League rule book spells out 87 rules and hundreds of sub-rules that govern its game. There is an 88th rule that goes unwritten: The league’s braintrust can invalidate any of the others, so long as it behooves their short-sighted and selfish interests.
No group of management has so mangled its sport as the NHL, and its never-ending quest for redemption and relevance turned laughable again Sunday night following Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena. The league overturned an automatic one-game suspension handed down to Pittsburgh star Evgeni Malkin(notes), whose post-whistle elbow and subsequent fight with Detroit’s Henrik Zetterberg(notes) earned him an instigator penalty.
Because Malkin’s antics came with 19 seconds remaining in the Penguins’ 3-1 loss that left them facing a 2-0 series deficit, it triggered Rule 47.22, which hands down the one-game ban to players who instigate a fight in the game’s final five minutes. It is a rule to prevent the kind of thuggery and frustration spilling that Malkin displayed. The punishment fits.
Except in the NHL, which includes out clauses with its rules. This suspension can be reviewed by Colin Campbell, the NHL’s executive vice president and director of hockey operations, who certainly doesn’t have anything riding on Malkin, the potential MVP, no, sir, and wouldn’t at all let his decision be compromised by the quality of the player involved, no way, no how, because he is a fair and impartial jury of one, yes, indeed.
There is only one team that has ever come back from being down 2-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals. Considering the fact that the Penguins were able to come back against the Capitals, I’m not counting them out. I still think they are incredibly talented and well coached. They just haven’t been “on”. My concern for them is how they have been unable to capitalize on opportunities such as breakaways and the injuries that have been plaguing the wings as well as the wings age! The wings are NOT the oldest team in the NHL. They are the second oldest. The New Jersey Devils hold the top spot for the oldest team on ice! The wings just have the oldest player in Chris Chelios!
Again in this game I think the refs didn’t do such a hot job. There were blundered calls throughout the game for both teams. I do think they made the right call when Zetterburg was in the net, however! I saw the puck, with my own eyes, underneath Z’s right elbow which was OUSIDE THE GOAL and in the blue crease! That means that it did not cross the line, therefore, no goal!
Then there was the fight at the end of the game! Do I want to see Geno suspended for that little melee? The wings fan in me says he should be sitting on Tuesday night. Bylsma even said after the game that the rules were pretty clear. The hockey fan in me says let them play! I actually like the fact that Geno is such a physical player. I think he’s a linebacker on ice skates. I don’t like that he intentionally goes after guys though. I do like how he throws his weight around. Do I think it was necessary for him to go after Zetterburg? NO! Do I think Ozzie needed to fall when Talbot speered him, no, but I do think he was off balance! The league has rescinded the instigator penalty they originally gave Geno. What’s the point of having the penalty in the rules if you don’t give it out? It was only given out once this playoff season to Milan Lucic of the Boston Bruins during the first round. I think Malkin was frustrated and wanted to vent with Zetterberg as the guy he wanted to vent against! He picked Zetterberg out of the crowd. Now why would he do that? Could it be that Z has been one of the main reasons why he and Crosby have been unable to contribute a lot offensively? Maybe! But in the end, no one got hurt, we were all entertained and it leaves us with something to think about before game 3. I also want to beat the Pens when they are at their best, not without the leading scorer of the league during the regular season and playoff season. Then people really will be crying foul and we’ll hear about how the wings have the league officials wrapped around their finger, blah blah blah! I honestly never knew the red wings were considered the Yankees of the NHL! When I hear this I laugh, because it’s not true in the least bit!
I do think the NHL as well as all athletic leagues need to be consistent with calls and rules within their game. I think the NHL is having issues with this durng the playoff season. The NBA always has an issue with this and last year the NFL had some pretty crazy calls! Consistency is key here! Don't make a rule if you're not going to enforce it! It almost seems like the NHL is at the point where they are just going to let the Wings and Penguins play. They are trying very hard not to impact the outcome of the final. But at the same time, by not following the rules, they are either helping or hurting the teams. It's a total catch 22.
Read this article by Jeff Passan--http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=AjsVIzB1TudB_iQPAdr4c9J7vLYF?slug=jp-malkin053109&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
DETROIT – The National Hockey League rule book spells out 87 rules and hundreds of sub-rules that govern its game. There is an 88th rule that goes unwritten: The league’s braintrust can invalidate any of the others, so long as it behooves their short-sighted and selfish interests.
No group of management has so mangled its sport as the NHL, and its never-ending quest for redemption and relevance turned laughable again Sunday night following Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals at Joe Louis Arena. The league overturned an automatic one-game suspension handed down to Pittsburgh star Evgeni Malkin(notes), whose post-whistle elbow and subsequent fight with Detroit’s Henrik Zetterberg(notes) earned him an instigator penalty.
Because Malkin’s antics came with 19 seconds remaining in the Penguins’ 3-1 loss that left them facing a 2-0 series deficit, it triggered Rule 47.22, which hands down the one-game ban to players who instigate a fight in the game’s final five minutes. It is a rule to prevent the kind of thuggery and frustration spilling that Malkin displayed. The punishment fits.
Except in the NHL, which includes out clauses with its rules. This suspension can be reviewed by Colin Campbell, the NHL’s executive vice president and director of hockey operations, who certainly doesn’t have anything riding on Malkin, the potential MVP, no, sir, and wouldn’t at all let his decision be compromised by the quality of the player involved, no way, no how, because he is a fair and impartial jury of one, yes, indeed.
And Campbell did review the incident. With the precision of an electron microscope, assuredly. The rule allows him to rescind the suspension based on “the score, previous incidents, etc.” Campbell determined that “none of the criteria in this rule applied to this situation,” and he went on to explain how.
“Suspensions,” Campbell began in his prepared release, “are applied under this rule when a team attempts to send a message in the last five minutes by having a player instigate a fight.” And that, Campbell said, was not the case Sunday.
Oh, what delicious wording. The Penguins may not have wanted to send a message to the Red Wings, who manhandled them with two season-long minor leaguers and a third-line center tallying their goals. Malkin did. His frustration boiled. The entire point of the fight was to send a message – that the Penguins were still around, and that they still had some fight in them, and that he was going to show it by beefing with a guy 4 inches shorter.
In his first three years, Malkin has not once gotten a five-minute penalty for fighting. This was Zetterberg’s first fight in his six NHL seasons. These are two of the best players in the league, and even if it wasn’t a sucker punch like Scott Walker’s(notes) fist introducing itself to Aaron Ward’s(notes) face in the Carolina-Boston series – which, by the way, was overturned by Chief Justice Campbell, ever wise he – the rule is in plain language.
Now, certainly the rule itself is questionable. That’s not the point. The worst kinds of rules aren’t the ones that make little sense. They are the ones levied willy-nilly, or even worse, enforced with favoritism.
The NHL believes it cannot afford to lose Malkin, even for a game. Pittsburgh staying competitive is good for the league, which wants a long series and surely wouldn’t mind watching Sidney Crosby(notes) skate around the ice with the Cup hoisted above his head. Those versed in NHL justice consider this such a non-issue that they simply scoff at it, so familiar are they with those in charge of the league treating their own bylaws like some burden.
It’s not cynicism if it’s true. Thirty minutes before Campbell’s ruling, Detroit coach Mike Babcock was asked about the potential of Malkin missing Game 3, and he said: “I don’t think anything will happen.”
So that is how it works in the NHL.
Face a penalty.
Get bailed out.
Everyone goes on with their merry day.
The players know the rule because of its severity, and still, Malkin had no problem instigating. The scrum started around Detroit’s net after Pittsburgh center Max Talbot(notes) poked goalie Chris Osgood(notes), who had made a save. The Red Wings did not take kindly to it and surrounded Talbot. Malkin swerved behind the goal, laid into Zetterberg with a left elbow and kept goading him until the gloves came off and punches went in both directions.
And he did this knowing that the league would never, ever suspend him. Players realize the NHL is weak in mind and spirit. It could, ironically, learn something about toughness from them. So they’re going to continue to flout the rule until Campbell or commissioner Gary Bettman or someone else steps in and abolishes it or enforces it.
The league must make up its mind. If it agrees with the principle of the rule, live with its consequences. Otherwise, get rid of it and mete out punishment in its usual manner: devoid of logic and consistency.
Next thing you know, the players will look at the book and wonder what other rules they can break. In fact, that happened Sunday. At the end of Campbell’s statement, the NHL made sure to include this chestnut:
“NHL Hockey Operations also determined that Malkin should have been assessed a game misconduct for not having his jersey tied down.”
Well, that’s grand. An unnecessary elbow. A few good punches. And the NHL is worried about Evgeni Malkin’s clothing.
Like you’d expect anything different.
“Suspensions,” Campbell began in his prepared release, “are applied under this rule when a team attempts to send a message in the last five minutes by having a player instigate a fight.” And that, Campbell said, was not the case Sunday.
Oh, what delicious wording. The Penguins may not have wanted to send a message to the Red Wings, who manhandled them with two season-long minor leaguers and a third-line center tallying their goals. Malkin did. His frustration boiled. The entire point of the fight was to send a message – that the Penguins were still around, and that they still had some fight in them, and that he was going to show it by beefing with a guy 4 inches shorter.
In his first three years, Malkin has not once gotten a five-minute penalty for fighting. This was Zetterberg’s first fight in his six NHL seasons. These are two of the best players in the league, and even if it wasn’t a sucker punch like Scott Walker’s(notes) fist introducing itself to Aaron Ward’s(notes) face in the Carolina-Boston series – which, by the way, was overturned by Chief Justice Campbell, ever wise he – the rule is in plain language.
Now, certainly the rule itself is questionable. That’s not the point. The worst kinds of rules aren’t the ones that make little sense. They are the ones levied willy-nilly, or even worse, enforced with favoritism.
The NHL believes it cannot afford to lose Malkin, even for a game. Pittsburgh staying competitive is good for the league, which wants a long series and surely wouldn’t mind watching Sidney Crosby(notes) skate around the ice with the Cup hoisted above his head. Those versed in NHL justice consider this such a non-issue that they simply scoff at it, so familiar are they with those in charge of the league treating their own bylaws like some burden.
It’s not cynicism if it’s true. Thirty minutes before Campbell’s ruling, Detroit coach Mike Babcock was asked about the potential of Malkin missing Game 3, and he said: “I don’t think anything will happen.”
So that is how it works in the NHL.
Face a penalty.
Get bailed out.
Everyone goes on with their merry day.
The players know the rule because of its severity, and still, Malkin had no problem instigating. The scrum started around Detroit’s net after Pittsburgh center Max Talbot(notes) poked goalie Chris Osgood(notes), who had made a save. The Red Wings did not take kindly to it and surrounded Talbot. Malkin swerved behind the goal, laid into Zetterberg with a left elbow and kept goading him until the gloves came off and punches went in both directions.
And he did this knowing that the league would never, ever suspend him. Players realize the NHL is weak in mind and spirit. It could, ironically, learn something about toughness from them. So they’re going to continue to flout the rule until Campbell or commissioner Gary Bettman or someone else steps in and abolishes it or enforces it.
The league must make up its mind. If it agrees with the principle of the rule, live with its consequences. Otherwise, get rid of it and mete out punishment in its usual manner: devoid of logic and consistency.
Next thing you know, the players will look at the book and wonder what other rules they can break. In fact, that happened Sunday. At the end of Campbell’s statement, the NHL made sure to include this chestnut:
“NHL Hockey Operations also determined that Malkin should have been assessed a game misconduct for not having his jersey tied down.”
Well, that’s grand. An unnecessary elbow. A few good punches. And the NHL is worried about Evgeni Malkin’s clothing.
Like you’d expect anything different.
hmmmm...makes you think doesn't it?? :)
I have to give props to Justin Abdelkader and Jonathan Ericsson for once again coming up big for the Wings. Justin now has two goals in back to back games. He literally skated around two Pittsburgh defenders, neither of which seemed too worried about him because they didn’t bother to try and take the puck away from him! He skates to the middle and boom, let’s one rip and MAF doesn’t stop. (Celebrate good times, come on!)
Ericsson scored a goal last night as well. It was a beauty off a faceoff that was the result of an icing call on a very tired group of Penguins on the ice. I read they were out there for 1:43! That’s far too long for them to be on the ice in this high fast paced game! Unlike in Game 1 where a similar scenario took place, Bylsma did not call a time out, but they found the same result—a Detroit goal!
Ozzie did a tremendous job in net once again. If he keeps this up, he has my vote for the Conn Smythe trophy! Guerin and Crosby did hit the posts in the game, and there were some great attempts by members of the Penguins, but Ozzie stood tall and shut them down!
Funny moment of the night: Chris Kunitz sliding or “riding” the Red Wings bench after a hit. It looked like a skateboarding or rollerblading move when you ride the edge of a ramp. Very, very cool!
I will admit that I did not expect the wings to be up 2-0 going into game 3. I am a die hard wings fan, and I honestly did not think they had it in them. I truly believed I underestimated their will, as well as their depth. Vallteri Filppula has played great for us this year and he scored last night. He would be a first liner on almost any other team in the league! I love that we’re getting contributions from all 4 lines. Kenny Holland (wings GM) has built this team around the mantra that having 4 lines will make you a dominant team. We have had significant contributions from all four lines! I also didn’t believe that we would be able to continually stop the two headed monster that is Crosby and Malkin. So far the team (I say team, not defense, because they are all playing defense when these guys are on the ice) have been able to shut them down or at least limit their offense power! That is not easily done. The Pens also have a large number of other offensive guys that they have had to limit as well. The wings have done an outstanding job completing this task.
Now comes Game 3 after a day off/travel day. Do the Pens have what it takes to get back in it? YES! They are so incredibly talented! Don’t think for a minute that anyone on the Red Wings roster (coaches or players) is already planning on how to spend their time with the cup. They know this series is not over!
I have to give props to Justin Abdelkader and Jonathan Ericsson for once again coming up big for the Wings. Justin now has two goals in back to back games. He literally skated around two Pittsburgh defenders, neither of which seemed too worried about him because they didn’t bother to try and take the puck away from him! He skates to the middle and boom, let’s one rip and MAF doesn’t stop. (Celebrate good times, come on!)
Ericsson scored a goal last night as well. It was a beauty off a faceoff that was the result of an icing call on a very tired group of Penguins on the ice. I read they were out there for 1:43! That’s far too long for them to be on the ice in this high fast paced game! Unlike in Game 1 where a similar scenario took place, Bylsma did not call a time out, but they found the same result—a Detroit goal!
Ozzie did a tremendous job in net once again. If he keeps this up, he has my vote for the Conn Smythe trophy! Guerin and Crosby did hit the posts in the game, and there were some great attempts by members of the Penguins, but Ozzie stood tall and shut them down!
Funny moment of the night: Chris Kunitz sliding or “riding” the Red Wings bench after a hit. It looked like a skateboarding or rollerblading move when you ride the edge of a ramp. Very, very cool!
I will admit that I did not expect the wings to be up 2-0 going into game 3. I am a die hard wings fan, and I honestly did not think they had it in them. I truly believed I underestimated their will, as well as their depth. Vallteri Filppula has played great for us this year and he scored last night. He would be a first liner on almost any other team in the league! I love that we’re getting contributions from all 4 lines. Kenny Holland (wings GM) has built this team around the mantra that having 4 lines will make you a dominant team. We have had significant contributions from all four lines! I also didn’t believe that we would be able to continually stop the two headed monster that is Crosby and Malkin. So far the team (I say team, not defense, because they are all playing defense when these guys are on the ice) have been able to shut them down or at least limit their offense power! That is not easily done. The Pens also have a large number of other offensive guys that they have had to limit as well. The wings have done an outstanding job completing this task.
Now comes Game 3 after a day off/travel day. Do the Pens have what it takes to get back in it? YES! They are so incredibly talented! Don’t think for a minute that anyone on the Red Wings roster (coaches or players) is already planning on how to spend their time with the cup. They know this series is not over!
Interesting news piece by Scott Burnside and Pierre LeBrun of ESPN:
This was on espn.com page 2 today:
