The Rite of Spring

[speedy]

Caps take 2-1 lead on a rocket wrist-shot from Semin on a questionable power-play. Crap.

Both powerplays for the Capitals have been absolute crap calls by the officials? Hooking, really? On Boychuk's, Brouwer still maintained possession of the puck after the very brief stick tap and there is no way a stick can go flying from Laich's hands the way Bergeron hit it. But hey, I guess when your ownership publicly complains about how the referees are favoring the Bruins (even though there's absolutely zero evidence of that) you tend to get your way....

This officiating has been terrible in this series. The most blatant was the non-call on the high sticking of Chara in Game 3 and then another one that should have given the Caps a power-play tonight. The Bruins also got kicked out of an enormous amount of face-offs. And way too many ticky-tack penalties have been called.

Felger & Mazz said it best this afternoon, the Caps have been quietly complaining behind the scenes about the calls so we should expect the Bruins to be policed a bit tighter tonight.

As for getting thrown out of the face-offs, the Caps have been baiting the Bruins in the circle all series. They take the bait and get thrown out. Play your game, don't worry about how the other guy is lined up, shut up and don't retaliate. You can see it getting on their nerves every time.

Ah yes, the "I have no valid points to add, so here's an overused meme routine." Well played.

[Sodboy13]

Blackhawks forgot to play the first 50 minutes of the game. They show up for any of that, maybe they don't have to worry about Crawford letting in a dribbler.

Any team that shows up that flat in a playoff game after getting seriously dicked over in each of the two previous games deserves to lose the series. Hopefully the team finds its collective sack for Game 5, but please, good Christ, no more overtime, or I'm gonna have to switch from beer to Sterno.

[Morgan33]

Caps take 2-1 lead on a rocket wrist-shot from Semin on a questionable power-play. Crap.

Both powerplays for the Capitals have been absolute crap calls by the officials? Hooking, really? On Boychuk's, Brouwer still maintained possession of the puck after the very brief stick tap and there is no way a stick can go flying from Laich's hands the way Bergeron hit it. But hey, I guess when your ownership publicly complains about how the referees are favoring the Bruins (even though there's absolutely zero evidence of that) you tend to get your way....

This officiating has been terrible in this series. The most blatant was the non-call on the high sticking of Chara in Game 3 and then another one that should have given the Caps a power-play tonight. The Bruins also got kicked out of an enormous amount of face-offs. And way too many ticky-tack penalties have been called.

Felger & Mazz said it best this afternoon, the Caps have been quietly complaining behind the scenes about the calls so we should expect the Bruins to be policed a bit tighter tonight.

As for getting thrown out of the face-offs, the Caps have been baiting the Bruins in the circle all series. They take the bait and get thrown out. Play your game, don't worry about how the other guy is lined up, shut up and don't retaliate. You can see it getting on their nerves every time.

Ah yes, the "I have no valid points to add, so here's an overused meme routine." Well played.

It's not any less valid than the one you made...

[Kevin W.]

Blackhawks forgot to play the first 50 minutes of the game. They show up for any of that, maybe they don't have to worry about Crawford letting in a dribbler.

Any team that shows up that flat in a playoff game after getting seriously dicked over in each of the two previous games deserves to lose the series. Hopefully the team finds its collective sack for Game 5, but please, good Christ, no more overtime, or I'm gonna have to switch from beer to Sterno.

I've already broken out the whiskey.

[speedy]

Caps take 2-1 lead on a rocket wrist-shot from Semin on a questionable power-play. Crap.

Both powerplays for the Capitals have been absolute crap calls by the officials? Hooking, really? On Boychuk's, Brouwer still maintained possession of the puck after the very brief stick tap and there is no way a stick can go flying from Laich's hands the way Bergeron hit it. But hey, I guess when your ownership publicly complains about how the referees are favoring the Bruins (even though there's absolutely zero evidence of that) you tend to get your way....

This officiating has been terrible in this series. The most blatant was the non-call on the high sticking of Chara in Game 3 and then another one that should have given the Caps a power-play tonight. The Bruins also got kicked out of an enormous amount of face-offs. And way too many ticky-tack penalties have been called.

Felger & Mazz said it best this afternoon, the Caps have been quietly complaining behind the scenes about the calls so we should expect the Bruins to be policed a bit tighter tonight.

As for getting thrown out of the face-offs, the Caps have been baiting the Bruins in the circle all series. They take the bait and get thrown out. Play your game, don't worry about how the other guy is lined up, shut up and don't retaliate. You can see it getting on their nerves every time.

Ah yes, the "I have no valid points to add, so here's an overused meme routine." Well played.

It's not any less valid than the one you made...

Go cry about Blackhawks fans and how aspartame is the cause for AIDS and global warming.. Don and I can handle ourselves.

[Still MIGHTY]

Washington survives the last 15 9.5 seconds to square the series at 2 games apiece.

From Puck Daddy:

Mike Murphy, NHL Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations, released a statement after the game explaining the huge snafu:

"With 9.5 seconds remaining in the third period, there was a stoppage and resulting face-off in the Washington zone. During the stoppage, the game clock operator and Series Manager determined that 0.9 seconds should have been added to the time remaining in the third period and attempted to contact the on-ice officials to delay the puck drop to accommodate making the necessary clock adjustment to 10.4 seconds remaining.

"The off-ice officials were not able to attract the attention of the referees or linesmen despite sounding the horn, which was not audible due to crowd noise, and the puck was dropped.

"The NHL Situation Room in Toronto immediately was aware that the clock had not started for 5.3 seconds after the face-off and, therefore, would have disallowed a goal scored with 5.3 seconds or less showing on the clock."

LINK

[ninersdd]

Painful stat for the Sharks: 16 shot on goal, 10 from top line, not one from a defenseman.

[speedy]

Washington survives the last 15 9.5 seconds to square the series at 2 games apiece.

From Puck Daddy:

Mike Murphy, NHL Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations, released a statement after the game explaining the huge snafu:

"With 9.5 seconds remaining in the third period, there was a stoppage and resulting face-off in the Washington zone. During the stoppage, the game clock operator and Series Manager determined that 0.9 seconds should have been added to the time remaining in the third period and attempted to contact the on-ice officials to delay the puck drop to accommodate making the necessary clock adjustment to 10.4 seconds remaining.

"The off-ice officials were not able to attract the attention of the referees or linesmen despite sounding the horn, which was not audible due to crowd noise, and the puck was dropped.

"The NHL Situation Room in Toronto immediately was aware that the clock had not started for 5.3 seconds after the face-off and, therefore, would have disallowed a goal scored with 5.3 seconds or less showing on the clock."

LINK

Ohh baby, things got a little saucy in the last second of the game - imagine if that puck went in? My news feed is glad it didn't play out that way. The officiating has been NBA-level bad this series, and that's really saying something. Get it together.

[ninersdd]

Didn't something similar happen earlier this year when the Jackets were playing the Kings and the clock seemingly froze and the Kings scored the game winner with less then a second left?

[Still MIGHTY]

Didn't something similar happen earlier this year when the Jackets were playing the Kings and the clock seemingly froze and the Kings scored the game winner with less then a second left?

Yeah, but apparently that's something that happens all the time on every game clock everywhere. It seems to stop for a half second and then speed up for a half second to calibrate itself. The NHL released some lengthy description detailing the electronic collumbs (or whatever the hell) that run the clock. Basically, they're all calibrated with very specific electronic pulses. The only time you notice the starts/stops/skips are in those final 10 seconds, but when the clock hits zero, that is accurately zero. Not a half second slow or whatever.

This instance is different in the fact that the clock starter never started the damn clock.

[ninersdd]

Didn't something similar happen earlier this year when the Jackets were playing the Kings and the clock seemingly froze and the Kings scored the game winner with less then a second left?

Yeah, but apparently that's something that happens all the time on every game clock everywhere. It seems to stop for a half second and then speed up for a half second to calibrate itself. The NHL released some lengthy description detailing the electronic collumbs (or whatever the hell) that run the clock. Basically, they're all calibrated with very specific electronic pulses. The only time you notice the starts/stops/skips are in those final 10 seconds, but when the clock hits zero, that is accurately zero. Not a half second slow or whatever.

This instance is different in the fact that the clock starter never started the damn clock.

OK makes sense. Definitely a bizarre time to recalibrate itself at that instance, though.

[Still MIGHTY]

Didn't something similar happen earlier this year when the Jackets were playing the Kings and the clock seemingly froze and the Kings scored the game winner with less then a second left?

Yeah, but apparently that's something that happens all the time on every game clock everywhere. It seems to stop for a half second and then speed up for a half second to calibrate itself. The NHL released some lengthy description detailing the electronic collumbs (or whatever the hell) that run the clock. Basically, they're all calibrated with very specific electronic pulses. The only time you notice the starts/stops/skips are in those final 10 seconds, but when the clock hits zero, that is accurately zero. Not a half second slow or whatever.

This instance is different in the fact that the clock starter never started the damn clock.

OK makes sense. Definitely a bizarre time to recalibrate itself at that instance, though.

Oh yeah, most definitely. It looks weird, but if you watch closely (and I did after they released the explanation) it really does happen a lot.

Here's the full explanation of the LA/CBJ incident you mentioned.

[ninersdd]

Patrick Marleau is an idiot. Game sadly almost over

[BigEd76]

When (if?) Chicago and Detroit are eliminated, the remaining six teams in the West will have a combined zero Cups

[-kj]

It would be great if the Blues stopped letting the end of the third period get so "entertaining". However, I'll take a 3-1 lead for a "non-skill" over a supposed "skill" team.

[Punch]

Luckily for all teams involved in professional sports, you don't have to be skilled to win championships. You have to win to win championships.

[ninersdd]

Didn't see it mentioned, but Quenneville was fined 10K for criticizing the refs. Very ironic that he gets fined for calling out the refs, but the league is in the process of suspending Raffi for the hit. I mean what do you expect a guy to say when one of his better players gets knocked out by a goon? That it's ok that they missed that obvious call, and they deserve a break. Also of course the missed call was the biggest moment of the game, really what else will he talk about? The only real justice is if Torres gets nailed big time with a long term suspension.

[CS85]

I decided to forgo the blackhawks game in favor of a date. It was a wise decision.

Team sucks.

[The_Admiral]

Hope for your sake she let as much weak garbage go through her legs as Crawford did.

[JQK]

Hope for your sake she let as much weak garbage go through her legs as Crawford did.

Spit out my Egg McMuffin when i read this...

A hearty laugh was had.

Bravo.