Yankees

It's tough being a Yankees fan living a Johnny Damon toss away from Boston. I know what you're thinking: "Oh, he must get picked on a lot." No that's not what makes it tough. What's really tough is not being able to get the YES network broadcasts of every Yankees game. I've got to go out of my way to find out if ESPN/Fox/TBS are going to show a Yankees game on Boston Area television and plan my whole schedule around it.

When I do mysteriously stumble across a national broadcast of a Yankees game (i.e. yesterday on Fox), I'm rooting for a win so badly. If this win is capped off by an A-Rod home run in the bottom of the 9th to tie the game and a walk off single by Melky a couple batters later, then I'm really excited. If the night is capped off by watching the Mets (on one of the three days a year when I root for them as they play Boston) perform their own bit of 9th inning heroics to crush the souls of Papsmear and the rest of Red Sox Nation, I feel bliss.

It's this type of bliss that can help get me over a tragic ending to the Bruins season. A couple Thursdays ago when I got the news via my BlackBerry (I was in San Fran) that the Bruins season had ended, I was crushed, especially considering that Scott Walker (see previous posts) got the season-ending goal in OT. I was so torn up about it that I couldn't enjoy unpacking my clothes at the resort I stayed at in Newport Beach, CA because of all of the Bruins t-shirts I had planned on wearing that were now going to have to stay in the back of a dresser drawer.

This clouded mindset I was in blurred my view of a streaking Yankees team last weekend. Friday - Melky walk-off single. Saturday - A-Rod walk-off homer. Sunday - Damon walk-off homer. These wins would have definitely been more fitting if I was in a good mood waiting for the Bruins second round opponent, but maybe not as appreciated. I needed to get to a point where I hated one sport (Colin Campbell is still a moron) in order to get involved with another. Well, I'm involved now.

As the Yankees pull to a tie with the Red Sox for 2nd int he A.L. East and a half game back of the Jays in 1st, it's now time for me to devote every cheering muscle in my body to the Bronx. I'm predicting a long run this year even into October. Err, well, I'm at least hoping they can hold my attention until the NHL season starts again...

I just wanted to post this video. Great game tonight, guys. I don't know if I'll be able to watch game seven. Heading out to California for a week or so.

Why should we be surprised?

Just when I thought some justice would finally be handed down by the League against a Bruins opponent, the NHL front office did what it's best at doing which is completely ignoring their own rule book and ignoring all common sense whatsoever. The reason that the NHL is a joke and is only followed by the common man at playoff time is because of the disgusting incidents (like Sunday night at the Bruins game) and the NHL's disgraceful response (like a small fine for a blatant sucker-punch).

Warning: This is not for the figure skating fan...



So the response from the Bruins Sunday night and the responses from every NHL analyst on the planet seemed to indicate that they felt a suspension was not only coming, but pretty much inevitable. Even the Carolina coach admitted he thought he'd get fined, stating in a press conference, "I might have to sell my truck." So what do Colin Campbell and Gary Bettman do? They not only choose not to suspend Walker for the extended five to ten games as everyone outside of Raleigh felt was due, but in their infinite wisdom Colin and Gary actually took back the automatic one-game suspension that Walker earned by committing an instigator penalty in the last five minutes of the game.

Here's the actual rule:

"47.22 Fines and Suspensions – Instigator in Final Five Minutes of Regulation Time (or Anytime in Overtime) - A player or goalkeeper who is deemed to be the instigator of an altercation in the final five (5) minutes of regulation time or at anytime in overtime, shall automatically be suspended for one game. The Director of Hockey Operations will review every such incident and may rescind the suspension based on a number of criteria. The criteria for the review shall include, but not limited to, the score, previous incidents, etc. The length of suspension will double for each subsequent offense. This suspension shall be served in addition to any other automatic suspensions a player may incur for an accumulation of three or more instigator penalties.

When the one-game suspension is imposed, the Coach shall be fined $10,000 – a fine that will double for each subsequent incident.

No team appeals will be permitted either verbally or in writing regarding the assessment of this automatic suspension."

The league lists criteria for review and possible rescintion (they state that there could be more, but you'd expect some reasoning if they went completely beyond outside of the rule). Both are valid reasons, but neither apply.

Score of the game - The league realizes that if the game is tied or close and the outcome is not yet determined, a player taking and instigator penalty may actually be just acting in the passion of the moment and still competing to win the game. In this case, a suspension may not be worthy. In Game 5, the score was 4-0 Bruins and the outcome was decided. The physical play that erupted from the 'Canes at the end of the third period was that of a team frustrated that they failed, not a team passionately trying to win. This instance of no suspension is not met.

Previous incidents - Another place where a suspension would not be just is when a completely innocent player normally is again just caught in the moment and acting out of character. You'd expect this to be applied to a player who's never been even in question of a suspension in the past and/or a player who may be just on the side of a scrum and not trying to instigate anything. Scott Walker has already been suspended once in his career for head butting another player. He also was the third man in to an offsetting roughing pair. This instance of no suspension also not met.

The problem with rescinding an automatic suspension is that you are completely screwing over your on ice disciplinarians. It's not like the referee that made the instigator, fighting, and misconduct penalty call was on the fence about giving a suspension. The referees read the rule book, too, and there is no doubt in my mind that that referee thought, after watching the whole game, knowing the situation the best, that Scott Walker was deserving of at lease a one game suspension for that sucker-punch. Overturning this is as bad if not worse than the NBA releasing a statement saying a ref missed an intentional foul call.

Still, after meeting with Walker, having Walker saying that he thought by Ward and Cullen being in a gloves-on scrum that meant that him and Ward were involved in an altercation to the point where he dropped gloves and hit Ward, Colin Campbell ruled that this was not suspension-worthy.

However, if Ward had been trying to start a fight and had skated at Walker at full speed and Walker had hit him in the side of the helmet with a gloved hand, then Colin would definitely have suspended him for a game. (See: Lucic v. Lapierre)

Finally showing up...

I'll admit it. It's been a little depressing watching the last couple Bruins games down in North Carolina. Not only has the home ice advantage been prevalent in the relevant PIMs, but Boston has been unable to kill penalties in anyway whatsoever. I think their 5-on-5 was getting a lot better in games 3 (which they could have easily won, taking it to OT) and 4 (which was a lot closer than the score would let one, tied 1-1 going into the third). Still, this wasn't the Bruins we were used to seeing.

Until Game 5...

First of all, I just want to state the fact that every playoff game I've been to this year the Bruins have won (side note: the Yankees have won every game I've been to). Unfortunately for the B's, should this go to a Game 7, I will be on the left coast and unable to attend. If they wanted to send me a jet and hook me up with a suite for Thursday night's showing, I wouldn't object. But I digress...

The most shocking thing for me last night was looking up on the scoreboards at the Garden and seeing the shot totals. I'm not saying that the final score of 4-0 wasn't impressive, because it was. We saw offensive performance from proven goal scorers Recchi and Kessel. I'm also not saying that Timmy's performance in net was lacking, because it wasn't. He had to work for all 19 of his saves. However, when I looked up on the board and saw shot totals in the area of Bos 8 - Car 0 and Bos 15 - Car 2, I had to turn to the people next to me to make sure I wasn't reading it wrong.

In a big change from the last few games, Boston dominated its PK. They were pushing the action even down a player, giving up few (if any, I honestly didn't keep track) shots for Carolina's PP. It was great to see such an improvement in this and really all areas of the Bruins' game. Great Game 5 win. Hopefully, this momentum will carry over into games 6 and 7.

A to be continued is left for this post as I'm awaiting Colin Campbell's decision about how many games to suspend Scott Walker for for sucker punching Aaron Ward at the end of the game and possible breaking the left orbital bone in his face (see: decided outcome, message sending, and injured player).

Bruins Games 1, 2 Recap

In an absolute shocker last night, I watched the Bruins, averaging 4 goals a game through the playoffs so far, get shut out by the a mediocre 'Canes team. Maybe it's because a bunch of jerk-off bandwagon fans got tickets instead of me. All I'm saying is that so far in the playoffs when I show up the Bruins win. Anyway, let's break down what the difference was between a dominating win Friday and a pathetic loss Sunday...

Physical Play: Friday night it was apparent the the Bruins had the freshest legs on the ice (probably thanks to the rest). Not only were they finishing checks and winning one-on-one battles (something that was only around for the first period Sunday), but they were consistently pestering shift after shift which gave way to Carolina mistakes and Bruins goals. Sunday was completely opposite with Carolina players taking every liberty they could to hit after the whistle, none of which was reciprocated by a sluggish Boston team. If the refs are going to allow the Carolina big men to shove Savvy/Kess/Chuck/Bergy around after the puck is frozen then Chara needs to step in around Thomas and clean house. (It got really pathetic at the end when the refs appeared to be letting every late shot go, unlike Round 1 or even the first game of this series.)

Neutral Zone: Another complete reversal of roles from Friday to Sunday came between the blue lines. Boston was really able to dominate Game 1 by always being a step ahead in the neutral zone. They read Carolina's breakouts well and capitalized while a flat footed 'Canes team got minimal penetration and even fewer quality scoring chances. Now substitute "Boston" for "Carolina" in that last sentence, and that is what you saw last night. When Boston got it into the offensive end they cycled well but the staggering of Carolina's D and confrontation in the neutral zone made Boston look especially sloppy.

Cam Ward: Ward saw something like 39 shots from the Bruins and stopped all of them. Part of this was the poor scoring chances by Boston, but I think a lot of this was Ward having the game of his life. I've seen him through the season put on these spectacular shows but the reason the 'Canes are 6th in the East is because it's not something he does every night. If he brings it again the rest of this series, though, it'll be tough for the Bruins to win another game.

That's all. I've got to get off the blog so I can buy my Game 5 tickets. I'll leave you with the quote of the night from Aaron Ward: "That's obviously a display of how not to play hockey on our end."

Catching Up - Bruins

Well, I just dropped the fiance off at the airport so she could go on a cruise with her girlfriends. What am I going to do with the apartment to myself for a few days? I think I'll start by catching up on my banters...

I think a big part of my lack of interest in writing has been the days off for the Bruins. It was not at all shocking (to me, at least) that the B's completed their sweep of Montreal a week ago today. To all of you people that thought the series would go 5 or 6 games, shame on you. (I don't even want to acknowledge people who said there would be a game 7 because they are oblivious to the sport of hockey.) Ask my friends. I knew this would be a sweep from the get go. The only doubt I had (which, I admit, is embarrassing) was after Lucic got suspended. I thought some directive might have been passed down in a secret memo that the Habs having no post-season game wins in their 100th season would be bad for the league. Nonetheless, the Bruins prevailed and waited a week before even knowing who they were going to play.

Ladies and gentlemen, get ready for a repeat. Bruins will sweep the Canes and Ovechkin/Crosby will run to 6 games (if the Caps can bring it more than they did against NY). Once again, the NHL will pay no attention to the Bruins as they walk all over Carolina. Instead, expect to see a lot of press on the NHL's wet dream of a match-up between the Caps/Pens.

A couple more media clips for the B's...
Aaron Ward, who is hilarious on the Toucher and Rich Show's "Ward Wednesdays," was talking this morning about his intimate knowledge of the Canes' playbook from his Stanley Cup-winning time in Raleigh. Also, there's an article in the Globe today about Ward. Read it here.

Also, I had to throw in the Vezina press release. Thomas, ever the wizard with words, gets interviewed below. (For the record: Flint, Michigan also produced Michael Moore; and my brother, who went to UVM for a semester, can speak just fine.) Congrats, Timmy.

Looch-Gate Wrap-Up

While this issue is still bugging me and is probably going to until the B's prep for their second round opponent, I thought it would be a good idea to post a closing entry (wow, accounting terminology) just to collect what I thought were good, bad, and ugly pieces that have run on the Lucic saga and the events across the league leading up to it.

I thought I'd start off with this first video just to start off on a lighter note:



I love the fact that Kovalev loses the stick. This was tough to watch from where I was in the balconey, but I can't stop watching the replay now. Anyway, I've heard people say that this late hit should have resulted in a Lapierre suspension if Colin Campbell (d-bag extraordinaire) wanted to be consistent. Either that or this elbow on Hunwick in the last seconds of game one:



Or the eye gouging that followed (watch Komasarek shake off his glove and go in with his bare hand):




While i think it's dumb that an elbow to the head and an eye-gouging are ignored, none are 100% clear on video replay. NHL VP's remarks stated they were part of the game, but if you're going to let that go, you need to get Looch's hit go, too. Here's the Lucic hit:



After the joke of an explanation given by Colin Campbell, we're all still left to question why exactly Lucic was suspended and what in the future is a suspension-worthy offense. (See previous post for ruling and my reaction.) Looking for some sort of sick justice I found the video below before and was happy when Jack Edwards in a great piece he wrote in his blog entitled "Dartboard justice in the NHL." Ron MacLean who's an acclaimed hockey reporter in Canada, asks Campbell the tough questions about Looch-Gate and other events in the first round of the playoffs. Campbell's response is priceless and really shows how out of touch with the game he really is.




That's all I'm going to say on the issue. Go B's. I'm hoping for the sweep tonight so that I can watch the Yanks/Sox series this weekend.