(NHL Playoffs) Rite of Spring 2017: can't go on, no, I'll go on

[RockyTopper]

Boy has 2017 sports wise just been a bummer or what? The Patriots make a ridiculous comeback against a ringless team for their fifth title, Warriors-Cavs round three (three) is likely ending up being a lopsided dud, and a thrilling NHL playoffs with so many new teams and surprise runs ends with.....(drum rolls)...the Penguins. Again. Beating a ringless team in their first appearance. Again. As the away team. Again. Whoa boy. And all of it ending on a sour officiating note, no less. I'm glad my intensity for sports hardly exists much these days cause there wouldn't be much of a point to being intense with it with outcomes like this, y'know?

[OnWis97]

38 minutes ago, McCarthy said:

That's been my point all playoffs long. They're definitely the best team who was probably going to win it all again anyways AND they got a lot of help along the way without really facing the wrath of a bad call against them. I'm not saying it's a conspiracy, I just want a Penguins fan to admit they got more breaks than they mathematically should've because they did. 

 

I brought up the 2002 OSU football national title because I was a huge fan at the time and that one never felt 100% comfortable for me because the PI call, right or not, did take away some of the luster. This feels like the same thing. 

 

and yes this being Pittsburgh has a lot to do with my ire. Fully able to admit that if this was like, the Sabres or another similarly snakebitten franchise finally on the receiving end of some good luck and hometown scoring time and time and time again I wouldn't have a problem with it, but that nearly every bad call for two months fell Pittsburgh's way, is aggravating. 

 

Time has passed on the OSU thing, so I've forgotten the details.  But something happened in that game that made me feel better about it (from the "Go Big Ten" angle).  I think a Miami scoring drive was kept alive on a bad call and I think it was on 4th down.  Game probably does not go into OT without that call (maybe @infrared41 recalls).  That's another beef I have with how we complain about calls; we over-emphasize the last call.  Maybe less so in hockey, which has such minimal scoring...but in football and basketball we do it all the time.

[Red Wolf]

1 hour ago, the admiral said:

It's amplified because there's been a concerted effort to paint the Nashville faithful as these perfect fans who are so loud and so passionate but also have hearts of gold and never do anything wrong, not like boorish East Coasters or hidebound Canadians. Hawks fans see through it on two fronts: for one thing, smells like St. Louis Cardinals, for another, we've seen the facade of big-hearted hockey lovers come tumbling down every time they lose to Chicago and pout about what a crime-ridden hellhole that city is. So when you go holier-than-thou, as this whole Perds thing got, sometimes people don't mind it so much when you fall. In a thoroughly unrelated story, I have read reports that PK Subban built a children's hospital.

Well now I'm offended. 

[tp49]

My wife's a Penguins fan.  Game 5 and yesterday were excruciating for me.  When I pointed out to her that Crosby shouldn't have won the Conn Smythe...well, let's just say the couch was surprisingly comfortable.

 

My only solace in this is that if history repeats itself, next year my team will make the Conference Finals only to be crushed by Montreal.

I'll take a trip to the Conference Finals.  LGI!

[Unocal]

3 hours ago, RockyTopper said:

Boy has 2017 sports wise just been a bummer or what? The Patriots make a ridiculous comeback against a ringless team for their fifth title, Warriors-Cavs round three (three) is likely ending up being a lopsided dud, and a thrilling NHL playoffs with so many new teams and surprise runs ends with.....(drum rolls)...the Penguins. Again. Beating a ringless team in their first appearance. Again. As the away team. Again. Whoa boy. And all of it ending on a sour officiating note, no less. I'm glad my intensity for sports hardly exists much these days cause there wouldn't be much of a point to being intense with it with outcomes like this, y'know?

 

The last 12 months of pro sports haven't been too much fun save for the Cubs.

[JayMac]

38 minutes ago, tp49 said:

My wife's a Penguins fan.  Game 5 and yesterday were excruciating for me.  When I pointed out to her that Crosby shouldn't have won the Conn Smythe...well, let's just say the couch was surprisingly comfortable.

 

My only solace in this is that if history repeats itself, next year my team will make the Conference Finals only to be crushed by Montreal.

I'll take a trip to the Conference Finals.  LGI!

Stay strong, my friend!

[YELDARBfield]

Well. At least I got to lustily boo Gary Bettman in person. A few thoughts:

 

- Four PPs is not even close to one disallowed, good hockey goal. Textbook definition of false equivalency.

- Murray played well last night, but he was beaten once. Kevin Pollack screwed up and even apologized to Sissons for doing so. The NHL's unwillingness to prevent this sort of thing from happening, either in the moment or after the fact, is infuriating regardless of the team(s) involved.

- This whole thing would stink a little less if the first goal of the series weren't also taken away by dubious means.

- Pittsburgh got outplayed in 5 out of 6 games.

- Nashville got better intermission acts on relatively short notice for Game 6 (Ben Rector, Cage The Elephant) than the league got for the All-Star Game last season (honestly don't remember, and I was there) with over a year to prepare.

 

All in all, I'm proud of the Preds and Nashville. We'll be back.

[IceCap]

 

[Viola73]

11 hours ago, McCarthy said:

Never said it was rigged

 

[Viola73]

7 hours ago, McCarthy said:

 

and yes this being Pittsburgh has a lot to do with my ire. 

 

[Viola73]

1 hour ago, Bradbury said:

 

All in all, I'm proud of the Preds and Nashville. We'll be back.

As you should be, and you will.

[Viola73]

7 hours ago, RockyTopper said:

Boy has 2017 sports wise just been a bummer or what? The Patriots make a ridiculous comeback against a ringless team for their fifth title, Warriors-Cavs round three (three) is likely ending up being a lopsided dud, and a thrilling NHL playoffs with so many new teams and surprise runs ends with.....(drum rolls)...the Penguins. Again. Beating a ringless team in their first appearance. Again. As the away team. Again. Whoa boy. And all of it ending on a sour officiating note, no less. I'm glad my intensity for sports hardly exists much these days cause there wouldn't be much of a point to being intense with it with outcomes like this, y'know?

So the Pens should have just laid down and let you win because "you don't have a ring"? There is a reason why championships are coveted and celebrated the way they are, it's because they are difficult to achieve and are earned. Any championship where they just hand you a trophy because of...well...the feelings of the fan base is not worth showing up for and no league is worth it's weight if they decide that, "well, this team is in the championship and has never won it, and they play against this team who are defending champs.....we should let the ringless team win so that they can feel good about themselves." Cry me a river of salty tears.

[FiddySicks]

I don't think anyone is saying any of that. Just that it's kind of unfortunate. 

[Cosmic]

11 hours ago, JWhiz96 said:

It was more than a few man. Fans were throwing stuff on the Pens bench and onto the ice. Luckily the object of choice were towels, but to act like it was a miserable few is mistaken.

 

Additionally, there have been other playoff matches lost in equally questionable circumstances without fans throwing stuff on the playing surface. I don't recall Sabres fans throwing stuff on the ice in 1999, and I don't remember the Kings doing it against the Lakers in 2002. It's one thing to be angry and/or upset at the outcome of a controversial call, but to do what they did is inexcusable.

 

Now to be clear, it does not represent Nashville's fanbase; it was a minority of fans, but it shouldn't be excused, and that goes for all fanbases. I was pissed at the Pens fans who threw crap on the ice in the ECF Game 7.

I'm not excusing it at all, but to say "Nashville doesn't deserve to win the Cup" or "Look at them throw stuff on the ice! I knew they were racists all along!" is nonsense. There's no team's fans who would surprise me by throwing things on the ice on occasion. Anybody that thinks their city is above it is kidding themselves. It's wrong (hell, even the catfish was waaay overdone for my taste), but I don't think it uniquely says anything about Nashville.

[The_Admiral]

I see you're subposting me. I didn't say throwing crap on the ice proved that Perds fans were racist. I said it proves that they aren't truer, purer fans than anyone else, which some people lost sight of as they got too excited about making sure they were on the right side of all things PK Subban, and additionally, Perds fans do get a little worked up about Chicago and Detroit.

[ninersdd]

14 minutes ago, Cosmic said:

I'm not excusing it at all, but to say "Nashville doesn't deserve to win the Cup" or "Look at them throw stuff on the ice! I knew they were racists all along!" is nonsense. There's no team's fans who would surprise me by throwing things on the ice on occasion. Anybody that thinks their city is above it is kidding themselves. It's wrong (hell, even the catfish was waaay overdone for my taste), but I don't think it uniquely says anything about Nashville.

The NHL's best fans threw popcorn on the Oilers bench after they lost to them in round 1. Although it would've gotten a pass from me if it were directed at Kassian.

[Cosmic]

1 minute ago, ninersdd said:

The NHL's best fans threw popcorn on the Oilers bench after they lost to them in round 1. Although it would've gotten a pass from me if it were directed at Kassian.

Well, they obviously weren't from the NHL's best rec league; those guys are pure class. 

[JWhiz96]

2 hours ago, Bradbury said:

- Pittsburgh got outplayed in 5 out of 6 games.

I disagree with this. The Preds played better in games 1, 3, and 4. The Pens played better in game 5, and games 2 and 6 were about even. If you recall game 6, the shots were and chances were about even, the only real indicator of one team being out played were the faceoffs (which were heavily in favor of Nashville).

[HedleyLamarr]

19 minutes ago, Cosmic said:

(hell, even the catfish was waaay overdone for my taste)

Like a lot of Nashville's hockey traditions that suddenly got international exposure, they've been tossing catfish onto the ice for years.  I want to say it dates back to when the Predators made their first playoff appearance against the Red Wings.  Obviously an octopus gets tossed onto the ice in Detroit...so either a Red Wings fan tossed an octopus onto the rink at the first Nashville home playoff game and a catfish was tossed the next game, or a Nashville fan just wanted to start their own tradition there.

 

It wouldn't have become a wildfire sensation had that fan not gotten that "Instrument of Crime" charge in Pittsburgh.

[Cosmic]

2 minutes ago, HedleyLamarr said:

Like a lot of Nashville's hockey traditions that suddenly got international exposure, they've been tossing catfish onto the ice for years.  I want to say it dates back to when the Predators made their first playoff appearance against the Red Wings.  Obviously an octopus gets tossed onto the ice in Detroit...so either a Red Wings fan tossed an octopus onto the rink at the first Nashville home playoff game and a catfish was tossed the next game, or a Nashville fan just wanted to start their own tradition there.

 

It wouldn't have become a wildfire sensation had that fan not gotten that "Instrument of Crime" charge in Pittsburgh.

I mean, the catfish was cool and all, but it felt like there was one every stoppage in Game 6. I did lol at the one in the jersey and sparkly hat before the game, though. I'm part of the problem.