f13.net

For the first time in a long time I'm having to watch a hockey game with two American teams. What the hell is wrong with your commentators? Seriously. They haven't called a play. A goal doesn't count, cause you can't really ignore those. Honestly, they just ramble on and on about inane crap. Why are they talking about Malkin, Crosby and Ovechkin? Old news. Talk about what's happening now. You know, that's not hard, the fucking playoffs are around the corner and I'm sure there's a lot going on that doesn't require them to talk about, well, nothing.

So, what is it? Do you people (sorry to generalize) just not like good commentating? Do you like to watch hockey and hear about baseball? :P

I take it you are watching a national telecast? NBC?

Yeah, they're TERRIBLE. Be lucky you don't have to watch a Flyers vs Penguins game, because every third word out of their mouths seems to be Crosby.


At least where I am, the local guys do actual play-by-play. I'm just lucky enough that I can actually follow the play without the commentator. I feel sorry for the more casual fans.


EDIT: Also, Brett Hull as an analyst is painful to listen to.

They call hockey games the same way they call Baseball, Football and every other televised sport.  The general consensus seems to be, "you see it on the screen, why should we tell you what's going on?  But since we can't have 'dead air' we'll bring up any kind of asinine stats, reports about personal lives, or tangential behaviors we can"

This is why if I watch sports on TV, it's done with the sound off.

Compared to Bob Cole and Harry Neale, this is disgusting. Sometimes having someone calling it makes it that much more intense. When the commentator raises their voice on a play they know is good, you get more excited. Like you're under the impression the commentator knows something is going to happen and you're waiting for it. But, when they talk about random crap, it's just awful.

And who the fuck says "paraphernalia" to describe goalie equipment? Do we wear spaghetti strainers on our heads or something? It's equipment, but when they shoot it AT the goalie. Just say he shot it AT the goalie. Not into his paraphernalia.

Which game are you watching?

The Buffalo/Phil. game is terrible. They were talking some shit about what happened back between the teams in the 70s.

STFU and call the game. Maybe then more fans would actually KNOW about the game.

What I get from sports fans a lot, especially in Football, are ardent fans who don't know SHIT. They hardly even know the rules. You can learn this shit from good play-by-play.

Also, ++ on what Nix said. There seems to be a total disconnect between what is happening in the game, and what I hear these idiots talking about.


EDIT: And then these idiots go on, talking about how dumb Brian Propp was and how much they wanted to slash him, even when he scored his 1000th point...do they even realize that a huge chunk of their viewers at the moment are FLYERS fans? Or how about talking about when Hartford kept them out of the playoffs in the 92-93 season...What the fuck are they talking about? What does that have to do with anything?

Yeah, Phil/Buff game. I'm waiting on the Isles/Jersey game. I want to see the leafs out of the playoffs. They just don't deserve the spot after last nights game and the Isles have been playing their hearts out.

This is pitiful. They just keep babbling over rushes, nice keep-ins and cross-ice passes. Maybe this would work for a slow sport like Baseball, or something with huge gaps in action like Football...but not Hockey.

They cut in and out so randomly and not to mention they're butchering any foreign name it's not funny. It's become a joke here that whenever a quebec player goes to an American team we expect to hear their name horribly butchered for a long time. There's just no reason for them not to put some explanation into what's going on. Like you said, Straz, a lot of people don't know what's going on with the sport. There are so many people who still don't know what icing is or what determines a hook/hold. To the naked eye all of those calls seem really odd, but even with very little explanation it at least makes some sense to the sport.

It's so funny going to a game sometimes, and a penalty is called on the home team. Keep in mind that I usually get lower-level seats, so it's not so much that people are drunk.

The penalty is called, and lots of people get all up-in-arms over it. I know that getting a penalty sucks, damnit, etc...but don't keep bitching that it's not a penalty....when it was clearly a penalty.

Nix is Canadian, right?

You've been spoiled by watching the Canadian networks coverage.  I don't particularly like televised hockey,  and I'd watch some games on CBC.  It's just worlds different in quality.  That's not to mention the Don Cherry/Ron McClain back and forth in between periods,  which is pretty amusing.

American hockey coverage is pure shit.  I enjoy watching hockey,  between having a good Div III team here and assorted events in Lake Placid, but the televized stuff is awful.

I know we're spoiled, but it's playoff time, they should at least pick it up. The quality of some of your coverage is just atrocious. Every camera in the Air Canada Center is HD and you can tell. Watching some games where I see dark patches on the ice, I'm just shocked some teams put up with it, but I guess we might just love hockey that much more.

I've never seen this dark patch stuff, but I know that Comcast uses HD for the Flyers.

I've found it varies quite a bit, depending on the city you're in.  The local guys are exponentially better than the national ones though.  I grew up in Buffalo, so had the local coverage and as well as Hockey Night in Canada.  I've also spent 8 years in Denver, and a year in Raleigh.

The best commentators overall seem to come from the Radio coverage actually.  The radio announcer in Denver is great, as is my favorite, Rick Jeanerette who started on the radio in Buffalo, and is now on both TV and Radio.

Hockey really dropped the ball when they lost their contract with ESPN.  They had a competent team in Bill Clement, Gary Thorne, Barry Melrose and Darren Pang to cover the games.  They actually took some time to cover some of the basics of hockey for newer fans, while still adding color and flavor.  I hope they can negotiate better national coverage for next year.

They still have 3 of those 4 guys (I forget if they have Melrose).

I've never liked them much. Thorne isn't too terrible, but Pang is just abysmal.

Listen to the commentary in a good baseball game. There's lots of time in between plays, good color comments about the statistics, and generally you get a good idea of streaks and various facts that make baseball what it is. The announcers understand how to do it, they aren't rushed, and they don't feel they have to pack in every millisecond with constant chattering lunacy.

Announcers don't understand how to broadcast hockey in America, simply put. They try to use the baseball ideals of good announcing, but then juice them up to try and match the speed of the game. So, instead of getting solid play-by-play and in-depth analysis, you get cracked out quick color commentary that focuses completely on the only players they have in-depth stats for provided by the booth team.

The strike honestly killed hockey for a good long while for me. I was a huge fan and loved watching them every year. Now, I find that baseball has started and I could honestly care less because the NHL has shitty announcers on a shitty off-network channel. Even ESPN hardly covers them as more than a novelty.

If you think the guys on NBC are bad, then the HD-NET team is a level of dreadfulness reserved for a level of infinite suckage… …the color commentator is awful but nowhere near as noteworthy as the shrieking play-by-play guy that is literally clueless, mispronounces names, and launches into excited screams over a puck careening off the boards…

Welcome to the world of "the league pays for the broadcasting"

When the league has to fork over money to get the product on a broadcast network, the network has no responsibility to do anything other than the most basic attempts to cover the game. All commentators for that are hired by the league, they run the production truck as well. the product you get is of a lower quality as a result.

I've lived with this for years with MLS on ESPN. Now, MLS gets rights fees from ESPN and everyone else who shows the games nationally. There's now advertising for the games and they're all in HD with all the bells and whistles. It's fucking sweet.

Well, except for Dave O'Brien, but he's better than he was.

I think I should start this same thread about hockey referee'ing, you know how they favor the fuck out of anyone versus West Coast American teams...    :x

Also Ryan Smith is bullshit, looking forward to watching the Isles get absolutely smashT in the playoffs.

Honestly I dont even notice the commentary, because our commentary sucks balls for all sports.  I'm guessing you've never heard Kornheiser (sp?) on MNF.

Kornholer, lol.

Its a sad day when someone is wishing for Team Alzheimer's (Cole/Neale) to do their play by play. I've always been fortunate on the west coast to generally have great hockey broadcasting - Jim Robson for years, and now Jim Hughson, who is one of the best in the business period. Even in rare cases where we get stuck with Cole (who can't remember player's names from play to play), I can always hit mute and put on the radio broadcast, which is also top notch here.

I've watched a little of NBC's coverage, and I will say its better than the national coverage was a few years back, but not by much. Basically, you better hope you have regional play by play - guys who actually know the home team well - or you're fucked.

I shall now take a brief moment of silence for all the Leaf fans out there... *snicker*

Tommorrow marks the last day of trimming my goatee. Life is good.

Cole and Neale are definitely slipping, but the sounds of their voices still mean HNIC for me. Hughson does the local Canucks games, and I really like his work. Drew Remenda is a dolt, however. I would like to see John Garrett get more national CBC work with Hughson; he isn't nearly as sanctimonious as Remenda or Greg Millen, and he as a decent sense of humor.

bring back don cherry bi-yotch

I'm trying to summon the announcing hierarchy in the US.  Something like Football --> Baseball --> Basketball --> Golf --> Everything from NASCAR to Synchronized swimming --> Hockey.

There aren't that many Americans watching Hockey... hence the paucity of good announcers.

Yes, Garrett is the best of the three by a long shot. He does all of the Sportsnet broadcasts, which account for about 60% of our games. I am really afraid though that with Toronto and Montreal out, we are going to get the "A Team" of Cole and Neale on HNIC.

If I catch a boxing match on HBO, I usually end up trying to yell at the commentators through my TV.  That being said, I wouldn't replace them.  Yelling at the commentators has become part of the experience.

QFT.

Say what you will about the ESPN coverage, but it was MILES better than Versus has done. I keep forgetting that NBC does hockey on Saturdays and it sounds like I'm lucky. You think it's bad where you are? The ONLY hockey I can get is Versus and NBC, with the occasional Thrashers came on Turner South. And none of those fuckers are worth a damn at hockey commentary. I get better soccer coverage of Euro and South American games than I can get of hockey games taking place 2 states over.

Damn you hockey strike. ESPN had its flaws, but it was better than Versus.

Thank God for NHL Center Ice and HD-Net. HD-Net carries a couple games a week… …I suppose without NHL Center Ice, I would be relegated to Coyotes broadcasts, Versuses and the HD-Net broadcasts, which wouldn't be a total minus, except for the stupid unbalanced schedule in the NHL where division games x8 means no games/few games against many teams.

And yes, Versus has been that bad… …on the sole Coyotes broadcast they ran promos on Ed Jovanovski when he was out for the season… …seems like they were oblivious to mid-season developments…

As a fan of an east coast team, I am heavily in favor of the current setup. And not because we get to see Crosby or Ovechkin so much; most of the Flyers' games are at about the same time, 7pm or 7:30pm. Mountain/Pacific timezone games SUCK.

And also...not related to anything said by people here, but wtf is with the whining from people not getting to "see" Crosby etc out west? I usually go to games to see the home team. I think the owners out west are just inventing problems now.

Center Ice (http://www.indemand.com/sports/nhl/), n00bler. WELL worth the $159 or whatever it is.

I want to see ALL the teams and ALL the stars. I am first and foremost, a hockey fan,  and then second, a fan of a particular team. Sorry, but 8x games v. Los Angeles, 8x v. Dallas,  and even 8x v. Anaheim is too much.

And that's a valid point to bring up...


In 2+ years.  :evil:

3 years ago if I was told that neither Washington or Pittsburgh would not be playing ANY games here, I wouldn't have cared at all. That's what makes me laugh, since it such a BIG DEAL for those two teams to visit every NHL city now.




edit: forgot the NOT

Sometimes I wish we only had to see Crosby 4 times a year, or less. That little punk is so annoying to watch now, especially since most of the games are on NBC or Versus, and all they do is roll a montage of Crosby vs PHL clips.

Of course, they leave out the parts where he dives and/or cries like a little girl whenever someone touches him. I much prefer watching Ovechkin.

Spoken like a true Flyers fan! :)

He has a point. Crosby is good, I'll give him that, but he's not a fucking trick machine every time he comes to town. He came to Toronto twice and both times NADA. Not to mention he, as Straz mentioned, went all pansy when someone would touch him. Welcome to the NHL bucko, don't like being touched? Go play Polo or Golf. He likes being the poster boy for hockey with his off the boards self passes and between the legs puck lift, but he won't put up with what hockeys been like since it started? Fuck off. Cut the "Don't touch him" contract/rules shit. I want to see Zidano Chara or Phaneuf take off his upper body.

That's another thing that kills me about hockey.  They had their "poster boy" Crosby on National TV last week, and had freaking Georges Laraque as the skater they had "miked- up".  A guy that averages less than 9 minutes on the ice to be the person you profile for the game?  Silly.

Oh, and found a decent YouTube clip of Jeanerette, if any of you have never heard him, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEfbyrKnKc0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEfbyrKnKc0).  Definitely not his "best" but a good sampling.

Oh, and the guy in Denver is Mike Haynes.  I guess he's shifted to TV now as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18zsScCM1kY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18zsScCM1kY)

That's one of my favorite calls of all time- "How you like them apples Gilmour?"

While he's clearly better than the hacks on NBC and Versus, Jeanerette annoys the shit out of me (and no, not because he calls for the Sabres).

SCCCCCOOOOOORRRRRRRREEESSSS. He put it where Mama hides the cookies! TOP SHELF!

I'll try to find a clip of the guy who calls the Tampa Bay games, he's insane. You'd think every goal a Lightning player scores is in OT in game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. The guy is brutal.

I would think that the southern markets would need someone like that to make the games "artificially" more exciting for people who are not so familiar with the game.

What the South needs is the fucking NHL/Versus/NBC triumvirate to start showing some good goddamn games. I blogged about the fucking playoff TV schedule. It's a fucking trainwreck. With 2 networks covering, there's not ONE GODDAMN GAME of the Wild/Ducks series being shown. NOT... FUCKING... ONE. The Ducks are a fucking 2 seed for fuck's fucking fuck fuck sake.

Die in a goalie fire, fuckers.

So...which games Do you get to see? I'm probably not going to watch at all.

Here's a link to the Versus press release (http://www.versus.com/nw/article/view/34815/?tf=NHLArticleWrapper.tpl).

Lots of Dallas, Pittsburgh and Detroit. Hell, I'd rather see Nashville than Dallas.

Shit, so would I.

I would think Anaheim vs Minnesota would be a big match-up, especially with Anaheim being such a big team this year.

All the sports talk shows up here are now up in arms. Seems that NBC has told the NHL to play the Pittsburgh/Ottawa game in the afternoon on Saturday, because that's when NBC likes to broadcast thier games, and they want the game with Crosby. Why is this a big deal you ask?

Of the three Canadian teams in the playoffs, Ottawa is the only one playing Saturday. Hockey Night in Canada is the CBC's top rated show, and has been playing games involving Canadian teams on Saturday night since before my parents were born. Because NBC wants Crosby on in the afternoon though, we instead will get the game in the afternoon, and no Canadian team on Staurday night - we'll get the Jersey series instead I think.

The CBC is estimating that not having Ottawa/Pittsburgh in primetime is going to cost them about 300,000 viewers.

Now the obvious response is to say I mean come on, we are talking NBC vs. CBC right? Here's the interesting fact - NBC has a profit sharing agreement with the NHL - they give them a cut of add revenues, thats it. They didn't pay a dime up front.

The CBC - $60 million dollars. And Bettman wonders why Canadians sneer at him every time he talks about how important the Canadian market is to him.

Lol, I'd say lucky you for getting to see Dallas/Vancouver, except I have to admit that when those two teams play its usually a grinding borefest. Oh well, I'm sure we'll get rid of them in four for you.

Yeah, that's business retardation of the highest fucking order. I cannot fathom how bad the offer from ESPN must have been for Bettman to take the NBC/Versus deal instead, because it is worth jack and shit to the league and the viewer. The fact that the NHL couldn't or wouldn't charge licensing fees after the strike is just a good indication of how fucking bad the strike did them in.

I'm hoping for good things out of the Rangers/Thrashers matchup. If that series went to 7 I'd be pleased.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07100/776642-61.stm

He got to play a terrible PHL team 8 fucking times; Of course he won the Art Ross.

You can't really blame that on him though. The points leaders usually come out of divisions where the worst teams are playing. Hell, if not him then Joe Thornton would have won, and he played both of the dead last teams in the West 8 times each. I'm actually shocked he didn't do better.

How do you score 120 points, and still be only +10?  I guess playing D is HARD.

Fuck the draft and the lottery.

Right in the ass.

Well, I guess this will become the playoff thread...

Vancouver / Dallas - Five and a half fucking hours! That's how you kick off the playoffs. Really makes me glad I don't work the early shift.

Talk about playoff jitters - both teams were screwing up all over the place and no one really looked settled down until they hit the second overtime - by then they were all too tired to look jittery. :)

In four games against each other this season, they scored 11 goals total between both teams. Last night's game was 5-4.

Oh, and a question to any Kings fans out there (if there are any) - What in the hell possessed you guys to waive Jeff Cowan?

God that game was killing me. Thankfully I got to go to sleep happy, but all the adrenaline had me tossing and turning all 5 hours before my alarm went off.

I was stuck in the horrible position of having to watch Versus instead of CBC/HNIC because Comcast doesn't carry the CBC HD feed. The announcers weren't actually as bad as I had feared, but I would have vastly preferred Hughson and Neale. Went to bed after the 2nd OT and watched the last 2 on HNIC (no HD in the bedroom).

I can't WAIT until tomorrow! Friday playoff game = great excuse for copious beer consumption. If you are in the Seattle area, come on over and watch  :-D

Wow, what  a start to SC 2007…

/gratz to Senators who took it to Penguins, both on the scoring chart and w/laying the body on 'em. Baby Pens just made a discovery about 2nd season… …hopefully, they won't be in view mode on Saturday…

Go Sens.  :evil:

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/flyers/20070422_On_the_NHL___Penalize_head_shots_-_dirty_and_clean.html (http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/flyers/20070422_On_the_NHL___Penalize_head_shots_-_dirty_and_clean.html)

Article in a local paper. I'm sure there are similar pieces in other papers.

I'm so fucking tired of this crybaby bullshit. Some players are big, while others are small. And sometimes (perhaps a lot) players are not as aware as they should be on the ice. All these things can lead to shots to the head, intentional or not. I can understand penalizing a head shot if it was clearly intentional, but there are already penalties for doing shit with the intent to injure, so there's no reason to make up separate rules for hitting the guy in the head on purpose.

And the incidental ones? Oh Fucking Well. It sucks, but it's part of the sport. I mean, when you're a big defenseman, and you're going up against someone like Gomez or St. Louis, what the fuck are you supposed to do? If you're over 6ft tall, you'd be lucky if you could even avoid to hitting them with an elbow, much less your shoulder....which is what you're supposed to do anyway.

I just think it's a fucking waste of time to even try to legislate the sport in favor of the shortest players, or the ones who are not aware of what's going on around them. If they start making rules like this, it could seriously hamper the flow of the game. I really like how games flow along now, please don't break that by trying to baby players.

Fucking idiots.

One major problem with the NHL is the inconsistency in the refereeing.  There will be hits where no penalty is called, and then a guy gets suspended afterwards.  I realize the game is super fast, and seeing everything is difficult, but when a guy is hit late, and no penalty is called, and then they call a lame little hook, it's pretty frustrating.  Try watching hockey with people who don't know the game at all, and you'll see what I mean.  People constantly ask "why was that not a penalty?".

I think they need to move towards having the linesman able to call penalties now as well.  With the removal of the two line pass, the linesman have less to watch for now.  They basically watch offsides, do faceoffs, and act to pull players apart.  They have the officials on the ice to keep an eye on things, but aren't using them.  The NFlL sees a need for 7 officials able to call penalties, why can't the NHL use the people already on the ice to do so?

Oh yeah, Go Sabres!  They finally played a decent game on Wednesday.

Yeah, some more consistent calling would be nice. Also, they need to decide, as a whole, how to call "sticks around the midsection." Either call it, or don't call. Personally, I think that kind of crap gets called too often, especially when it's plainly obvious there is not actual hook occurring.

What the fuck is going on with playoff hockey, we're in the second round now!  It's time for the ref's to fuck off.  Yet I swear when I wasn't watching the Warrior's fall apart last night I was watching someone on a power play in the damn Ducks game.  Did they even play 5 minutes of 5v5 in that entire game?

I really really hope that whatever idiotic brand of officiating they were using in that game stays the fuck away from my Sharks tonight..

Odds are probably good that it will actually be the same refs.

Geography and all...

Except that game was in Detroit and the Ducks game was in California, good try though  :-P

Sharks looked solid although I thought they went into a defensive shell too early.

Go Canucks Go!

<please ignore game 1 - it's a ploy. thank you>

Canucks are in pretty tough now.

I see Anahiem vs. San Jose and Buffalo vs. Ottawa on the horizon.

I'm torn though, I vowed to NEVEREVERNEVER cheer for any team from California, but I really like the Ducks team. They have a good mix of all different aspects of the game. That 2nd line of Penner, Perry and Getzlaf is awesome.

Ottawa vs. Buffalo could have a fair bit of bad blood in it, which always makes for an interesting series.

Don't rule out Jersey so early, or Detroit tbh.  The Sabers and Ducks are basically in though.

I keep telling myself that they were tired, plus missing half of their top 4 defensemen, and that tonight will be better. Any idea if Salo or Bieksa are playing? They are dead without them, unless Luongo is superhuman and the offense gets its ass in gear.

Please don't say things like this, it'll jinx my team.  The city of Buffalo is so desperate for a team to win a championship it isn't funny.  We had 3000 crazy fans standing outside the arena in a blowing cold rain to watch the playoff games on a big screen.  I am kinda pissed that people are already pulling out the home made replica cups though... A local business already has a 10 foot cup on its roof.

I'm back here after 9 years in Boulder, CO and Raleigh, NC, and people are going apeshit about this team.  I will say, they are really good, probably the most talented team top to bottom that I have seen since the Avalanche won the cup in 2001 with Bourque.  But they do lack some toughness.  Only time will tell if their speed and skill can overcome that.  At least this year they're healthy, unlike last year when they were down 4 defensemen.

I said they would beat the NY Rangers, which are a super overrated team from an Eastern conference that just lacks 8 playoff  teams this year.  I'm a long way away from handing them the cup.  I like the Sabers to go out in 7 in the Eastern Finals if I had to play pretend seer.  Does that make you feel better?

Really hoping for a Anaheim v. Buffalo final…

Vancouver v. Dallas was an exciting game 7… …elsewhere, these playoffs have not been filled with such memorable play. Except for some nastiness in Nashville v. San Jose…

Disappointed with the Pens getting sunk so early, but not surprised at all, especially given fact Crosby was playing w/broken foot… …future is bright for the squad though I have to call into question some of the mid-season trades (other than Roberts, who skated like a madman and filled a much needed role on the up and coming team…

Don't really mind who makes it… …except for New Jersey and Detroit, and I hope they exit this round…

Salo has a good chance to play, Bieksa is a no-go from what TSN was saying this AM.

I hope you saw the slash by Calgary's back-up goalie. That was pretty nasty and memorable.

You mean this one: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Be5TWS4OFrc

Eh, that was a love tap ;)

If you compare that to anything Hextall did, it is.  :-P

His goal was glory in the form of vulcanized rubber! He also managed to break a mans arm...

That just goes to show how HARDCORE he is.

Anaheim v. Vancouver game #2 going into 2OT…

…won't be terribly disturbed if Canucks pull off upset, but Selanne is one of my favorite skaters and as Penguin fan, love Randy Carlyle (http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=829) too (only Penguin to ever win Norris trophy!)…

Sharks let them get back in the game but the officiating was pretty home team at times also tbh.  Also I swear if somebody doesn't re-break Bertuzzi's back for me in the next game of this series I'm going to be pissed.

Well, I shaved this morning...

OT games are usually decided on an ugly goal, but that one last night was REALLY ugly.

Really too bad since Luongo was unreal. The Ducks succeeded in getting under Roberto's skin and having a weak-sauce goal go in because he was beaking at a ref is a tough lesson to learn.

I am going to shave tomorrow. JUST when it stopped itching, too. Damnit. Sure hope Nonis can find some upgrades for next season. Need some size and speed, and someone to put the goddamned puck in the net. Wouldn't mind seeing a cheap 4th liner who can scrap too.

I wouldn't call it "ugly" -- it was a wicked shot on target, and goalie has to keep his head in the game… …though kind of tragic to be beat like that after standing on his head all game and literally almost willing the C's to victory himself. Vancouver has nothing to be ashamed over with, they played tough.

Previous evening saw two great games: one, Mike Fisher scored one of the biggest FU goals in SC history that I can remember. Yeah, the Devils got it back a little later, but the goal he scored was a big spike through the Devil hearts. Every player loves those kind of goals and every skater (with exception of goalie) on a team can strike like that - get a puck in neutral ice, take a few strides and launch a snap shot at the net. When it goes in though, it's a big FU effect -- usually it's a mid-ling caliber offensive sort, but it could easily be a lumbering D-man. It says anyone on this team can beat your goalie one on one from outside the dots, and defensive team takes notice and starts trying to over-accommodate for the letdown. Claude Lemieux (though I hate him) had a penchant for scoring such goals.

Any of you who play know what scoring a goal like that feels like. Yeah, fluke goals from long range or defensemen deflected in deals happen, but everyone knows that flukey stuff happens. When you score like Fisher did, though, it's a special form of elation, and can really shatter the confidence of opposing D (and elevate your own team confidence, because they all see how each one is capable of abusing opposing goalie).

Then, SJ literally hands Detroit the series. Sharks going nowhere with Nabokov as that goal scored by Lang was ridiculous… …blew a 2-0 game lead, and are going to blow a 2-0 series lead…

Oooh look! A playoff thread. How'd I miss this?

Funny story re: the OT goal that did in Vancouver-

Not even 12 hours earlier Kelly Hrudy was doing an interview and taking calls.  Someone asked for some advice for a young goalie and he says "I know it sounds cliche'd but never take your eyes off the puck."  Ouch.

I'm in for a great weekend. I'll be really interested in what happens tonight in Buffalo. May decide the series.  And on Saturday my beloved Senators will enter the gates of Hell (Newark) and finish the evil and loathsome Devils.  Ok, maybe I'll have to wait for Monday. Martin who?

Go Sens.

Everyone knows a sports fan that's a completely uninformed, cocksmoking retard that abandons common sense in his riduclous assestment of "his" team?

That guy in my life is a Senators fan.

DIE SENS DIE.

Plus, any Cup the Senators might win is hollow unless they go through the Leafs in the playoffs to get it ;)

I'm a Senators fan living in Toronto. I'm surrounded by nothing but the cocksmoking retards you describe. There is no amount of abuse you can heap on me that I haven't heard.

I could care less about beating the Leafs en route to a Cup. That would be nice, but the reality is the Senators will have succeeded where the Leafs have failed year in, year out. A Cup is a Cup; and it will only add to the suffering of the 'Leaf Nation'.  Besides, those clowns are 3 years removed from a playoff game.  Are we supposed to wait up?