Rite of Spring '14: Can you fall asleep with a panic switch?

[rainmaker17]

Class

[Still MIGHTY]

Yeah, ok there, Funky. Chillax.

---

Ryan Getzlaf comes back like a boss. Cut face, jaw protector on, kid born yesterday, goes out and gets a great goal. Perry off his playoff schnide and won't go goalless this postseason. And Cogliano just doing what's he's done all season on the game-winning shorty.

Ducks really need to figure out how to just close out these games. Step on the throat. Letting Dallas back in like they have isn't killing anything in the Stars and probably won't fly in further rounds, should they make it.

---

And I rode the Zamboni in the first intermission, which was pretty gosh-darned neat.

[-kj]

Quenneville fined $25,000 for this gem:

I love the guy behind him at the end: "Whooaa!"

What's the problem? He was just speaking Manbird.

[monkeypower]

I believe Funky was trying to make a reference.

[Breakwood]

Pretty good start to the series by the Habs. I thought they played a near-perfect game last night. Can't say the Lightning had more than 5 actual scoring chances.

[Kramerica Industries]

1) the two best chances came in relative succession from seemingly the same spot on the ice. Killorn and Stamkos wasted both.

2) wonder why it's near-criminal in a short playoff series to lose a game where you score four goals against a Vezina-calibre 'keeper? Those chances don't come very often and despite Tampa Bay being extremely outplayed, they still had a chance to steal that game.

3) unlike Game 1, this game really felt like it was over after Bourque scored to make it 2-0 (brief aside - quit giving up goals to that guy, jeez). The Habs turned that game into a quagmire where-in Tampa Bay couldn't gain zone entries or do anything of any sort on the forecheck afterwards, and that was exactly what the Habs wanted to make of that game. I didn't realize that after nine seasons of not doing this, that Michel Therrien would suddenly become this coaching genius with regard to maximizing matchups. Playing possum I guess, right?

--

I spoke of grasping for straws earlier; wanna know something really freaky? The last three times Montreal took Game's 1 and 2 on the road to begin a playoff series were in 1996 vs. NY Rangers, 2006 vs. Carolina, and 2011 vs. Boston. They ultimately lost all three of those series'. That is incredible. Considering it's only like 10.7% likely that Tampa Bay can win this series at this point per NHL history in these situations, I guess(?) this is the rarest of occasions where you would retain a ray of optimism of overcoming it? Obviously what happened in those series has no bearing on this one; different teams, largely different rosters, etc., just let me roll with this one, because that is quite the hilarious stat there.

[Kramerica Industries]

Glenn Healy is such a remarkable :censored:.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Ym1XFQJpA

You wonder where the xenophobia comes from with Northern vs. Southern hockey markets. Unreal. I don't even care if that statement is true [which is obviously isn't] as much as I was annoyed to hear that kind of crap on a national broadcast in Canada and the United States alike. That's pathetic.

[IceCap]

Well...maybe the Tampa fan shouldn't have given Plekanec the finger? I get that it's a condescending thing to say about a southern team, but come on. A fan exhibits crass behaviour, and it's thrown right back.

[TorinK92]

That was a cheap shot on Tampa who is one of the better southern markets; but it's Glenn Healy, he makes his mark being the villain of the CBC crew.

[Kramerica Industries]

Well...maybe the Tampa fan shouldn't have given Plekanec the finger? I get that it's a condescending thing to say about a southern team, but come on. A fan exhibits crass behaviour, and it's thrown right back.

Montreal is the only Canadian team in the postseason this year but that wasn't an RDS broadcast, that was a national broadcast, so I hold somewhat higher standards than what I guess could be described as "defending your team", although I wouldn't exactly be defending Bobby Taylor if the roles were reversed and he did that on Sun Sports, either (of course, I probably wouldn't post a video about it either, but my latent hypocrisy isn't the point here).

This was late in the game and it was stupid and it was probably somebody also figuring it may be (will be?) the last chance to try and be a douche towards Canadiens players in this series but my main point was that showing those views really has no place in a nationally broadcast game.

I mean, this doesn't anger me or anything, it's more of just a "gee whiz what the hell dude" kind of thing.

[AHcreative]

Glenn Healy is such a remarkable .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Ym1XFQJpA

You wonder where the xenophobia comes from with Northern vs. Southern hockey markets. Unreal. I don't even care if that statement is true [which is obviously isn't] as much as I was annoyed to hear that kind of crap on a national broadcast in Canada and the United States alike. That's pathetic.

I heard that too and thought it was an incredibly ridiculous thing to say. Classless, really.

[IceCap]

Glenn Healy is such a remarkable .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-Ym1XFQJpA

You wonder where the xenophobia comes from with Northern vs. Southern hockey markets. Unreal. I don't even care if that statement is true [which is obviously isn't] as much as I was annoyed to hear that kind of crap on a national broadcast in Canada and the United States alike. That's pathetic.

I heard that too and thought it was an incredibly ridiculous thing to say. Classless, really.

Fan gives a player the bird: commentator is called classless. Makes sense.

Well...maybe the Tampa fan shouldn't have given Plekanec the finger? I get that it's a condescending thing to say about a southern team, but come on. A fan exhibits crass behaviour, and it's thrown right back.

Montreal is the only Canadian team in the postseason this year but that wasn't an RDS broadcast, that was a national broadcast, so I hold somewhat higher standards than what I guess could be described as "defending your team", although I wouldn't exactly be defending Bobby Taylor if the roles were reversed and he did that on Sun Sports, either (of course, I probably wouldn't post a video about it either, but my latent hypocrisy isn't the point here).

This was late in the game and it was stupid and it was probably somebody also figuring it may be (will be?) the last chance to try and be a douche towards Canadiens players in this series but my main point was that showing those views really has no place in a nationally broadcast game.

I mean, this doesn't anger me or anything, it's more of just a "gee whiz what the hell dude" kind of thing.

Well a few things. First, Healy IS the heel when it comes to CBC hockey commentary. I can't speak for everyone, but I mostly know him as Curtis Joseph's backup during the Leafs' late 90s/early 2000s run. Consider the source. Career backup turned commentator says something provocative.

Secondly, I cannot emphasize this enough, the fan sort of instigated it by giving the finger. If you could epitomise classless behaviour by a singer gesture that's probably it. So I can't really say Healy was unprovoked. Don't do that kind of thing and it won't give people like Healy ammunition to poke fun at your team and/or fanbase. Remember that "Boston Strong, Toronto Stronger" guy from last year? He brought a lot of crap down on the Leafs' fanbase. Same thing here. Sometimes one idiot can colour everyone's perception of a fanbase.

Was Healy's comment in poor taste? Yeah, it probably was. Classless? Eh...given what he was responding to? I wouldn't say so. Besides, this just touches on a bigger issue at play here, and I might as well share my thoughts on it now. What else am I going to do? Talk about my team's post-season performance?

Southern fans like to complain about the "traditional market vs non-traditional market" mentality that seems prevalent in hockey. Well they don't make things any better for themselves by being hyper-sensitive about their teams' financial situation, level of fan support in the community, and/or ticket prices.

Sports fandom is full of trash-talking. Most teams and their fandoms are the brunt of one kind of joke or the other. Leafs fans are tired of "losers since 1967." Ducks fans are tired of "lol Disney" and "Coach Bombay" jokes. Philly fans are tired of being compared to the worst scum on Earth. Yet these jokes aren't going way. They get tiring but they're just something fans of teams have to put up with because that's how sports fandom works. Southern NHL teams and their fans need to realize that. It's ok for a Nashville Predators fan to crack a joke about the Leafs not winning anything since 1967 but I've "crossed the line" with my "classless" comments if I make a joke about relative ticket availability and lower prices south of the Mason-Dixon line? Come on now.

[HedleyLamarr]

The Tampa fan was giving the finger to the Montreal player, not the CBC broadcast team or Healy's family.

So, yeah, the comment was pretty unprovoked.

[Kramerica Industries]

You won't find a whole lot that I disagree with there; that guy on the Panthers SB Nation blog that posted that two-piece rubbish that was full on-whining about the disrespect Canada purportedly heaps on Southern hockey is something that I mostly disagreed with.

I'm really having a hard time articulating my thoughts here. At the end of the day, I guess what I was really trying to get at is that, yeah, there's trash-talking that exists and will always exist, and to varying degrees trash talk is healthy. And I'm certainly not trying to defend the douche who for some reason seemed to think giving Plekanec a middle finger would actually have any effect on anything; you could tell that Plekanec was laughing at the guy afterwards. It was a 4-0 game and the Habs were on the verge of a 2-0 lead heading back home so, umm, scoreboard buddy. Basically, what I'm getting at is that there were probably better ways to snark about the jackass. I dunno. I'm running out of words here.

[HedleyLamarr]

Kramerica's point is that a nationally-broadcasted game shouldn't have their broadcasters taking pot-shots towards one team. The remark about $11 glass seats (and no way does Tampa have the ticket-selling problems other teams have had) was certainly thought about in advance, waiting for the perfect opportunity once a game got out of hand or a Tampa fan banged on the glass in frustration, or both. And it's not like the CBC crew didn't know their game was being simulcasted on American airwaves.

That said, CBC doesn't exactly hide who they're cheering for in the Stanley Cup playoffs. And with Montreal being the lone Canadian rep in the playoffs, they're fully on the Canadiens bandwagon, much like a lot of the hockey fans in Canada are doing. (Which is, by the way, one of the dumbest reasons to cheer for a team...especially a heated rival at that. Don't quite see how you can suddenly cheer for a team when you want them to lose all 82 of their regular season games....countries don't win Cups, singular teams do.)

[GFB]

So it was a backhanded comment by the opposing announcers... Who cares? If a player can get speared in the balls and it gets written off to "playoff hockey," then I think fans can deal with some condescending play-by play (/has flashback to EDZO! calling the entire Wings/Hawks series last year).

If you're a "southern" hockey fan and it hurt your feelings, you really should develop some thicker skin.

[TorinK92]

That said, CBC doesn't exactly hide who they're cheering for in the Stanley Cup playoffs. And with Montreal being the lone Canadian rep in the playoffs, they're fully on the Canadiens bandwagon, much like a lot of the hockey fans in Canada are doing. (Which is, by the way, one of the dumbest reasons to cheer for a team...especially a heated rival at that. Don't quite see how you can suddenly cheer for a team when you want them to lose all 82 of their regular season games....countries don't win Cups, singular teams do.)

Um, no... everyone hates the person doing that and everyone else hates that team.The only people that write about stuff like that are people who know nothing about sports in Canada, it's exactly like Ottawa last year who virtually no-one started cheering for. I don't see anyone on the boards changing hat right know, so I don't know where you're getting this information.

[sportstar1212]

Kramerica's point is that a nationally-broadcasted game shouldn't have their broadcasters taking pot-shots towards one team. The remark about $11 glass seats (and no way does Tampa have the ticket-selling problems other teams have had) was certainly thought about in advance, waiting for the perfect opportunity once a game got out of hand or a Tampa fan banged on the glass in frustration, or both. And it's not like the CBC crew didn't know their game was being simulcasted on American airwaves.

That said, CBC doesn't exactly hide who they're cheering for in the Stanley Cup playoffs. And with Montreal being the lone Canadian rep in the playoffs, they're fully on the Canadiens bandwagon, much like a lot of the hockey fans in Canada are doing. (Which is, by the way, one of the dumbest reasons to cheer for a team...especially a heated rival at that. Don't quite see how you can suddenly cheer for a team when you want them to lose all 82 of their regular season games....countries don't win Cups, singular teams do.)

Agree 100%. I several people that always jump to the last Canadian team standing solely because they're, well, Canadian. It's :censored:ing retarded! I remember the 2011 finals when I was called "unpatriotic" and was told that "I should be charged with treason" by people at school for cheering for the Bruins instead of the Canucks, and it happened once again when the Bruins played the Leafs last year. I seriously can't stand Canadian hockey fans sometimes.

[TorinK92]

^That may have something to do with the fact that you're a Bruins fan, since last year the Maple Leafs weren't even the final Canadian team and you say you were still getting stick for cheering for Boston.

The people who do cheer for the last standing Canadian team are in fact idiots, but they're a very small minority that we all look down on. Clumping all Canadian hockey fans in with those people is just unfair.

The CBC... can be a crapshoot sometimes, I rarely watch the intermissions or pregame shows anymore

[sportstar1212]

Lucic was fined $5000 for spearing DeKeyser.