Carolina 3 Boston 2 -- 'Canes win in OT
amazing game 7, Walker with the game-winner, incredible night if you're a Carolina fan.
i gotta get some sleep before i can think about the Penguins.
Woooooo!
UPDATE: WHY do these clowns like Shaughnessy and Barnaby on ESPN keep saying things like "Scott Walker, who maybe shouldn't have been playing these games after his punch to Aaron Ward" etc -- even if the league HAD suspended Walker, it would have been for one game, Game 6, not Game 7, so it really doesn't change things. Get it right.
i gotta get some sleep before i can think about the Penguins.
Woooooo!
UPDATE: WHY do these clowns like Shaughnessy and Barnaby on ESPN keep saying things like "Scott Walker, who maybe shouldn't have been playing these games after his punch to Aaron Ward" etc -- even if the league HAD suspended Walker, it would have been for one game, Game 6, not Game 7, so it really doesn't change things. Get it right.
posted by Mac at 12:02 AM
22 Comments:
and now, for the first time since i bought 'on the mouth' sixteen years ago, we are at odds.
LET'S GO PENS
Tried to sleep it off, but I'm still reeling from another blow by the Suckerpunch Kid. I could have survived the offseason fine if it was Staal, Samsonov, Brindamour, whoever...but &%$# Walker?!? In OT? My worst nightmare realized. Fantastic series, horrific ending. The Jumbotron prophet strikes again. Ah, well, thanks for all the hockey chatter. Until next year...Pens in 6.
you and Dan Shaughnessy, needing a hug. great series though, Thomas made some amazing stops or it would have been over sooner...
Prepare for a rant.
Great account of the game. HOWEVER Tripp Tracy has to get over the bad icing calls! Had you watched the game on NESN Mike Millbury was whining about the Samsanov goal as 2 many men, Samsanov was over the boards early, which left him wide open on the wing. had the refs made the call the result would have been no goal and a power play for the B's. AND TRACEY IS WHINING ABOUT AN ICING CALL?? Which results in a faceoff at the other end. The refs tried to make it up by calling those weak slashing calls. Point is, bad calls are made GET OVER IT TRIPP and Forsland should know better (he's really a closet B's fan)! Best team usually wins. Last night was a toss up and Ward outlasted Thomas.
I'm not whining (really?), as a life long B's fan I am hurting especially after such a fine season. However I moved to NC in the Cup year and the x-whalers now "home" team are in the words of Aaron Ward "hard to hate" so I sucked it up, put on my Canes shirt and got tix at the RBC for the next round.
GO CANES!
Now for some real whining.
Mac, whats up with the Merge Fest, tix??? I tried for 5-Day and they sold out. I was at my computer when the individual nights went on sale and STILL DIN'T GET ANY. Has the Cradle turned into the Viper Room? WTF??? I flew to NC for Merge 15 and had no trouble at all getting tickets? Anyway, can you help a hurting B's fan, now on the Canes bandwagon, Merge-Nut Brother out???
If you can my e-mail is deanstennis@yahoo.com, oh and I'd be glad to pay for them AND give any member of Superchunk a free tennis lesson!!!
Sorry for begging.
Oh, and Trippy's comment about tennis volleys helping block shots is spot on! I'll give him that!
there's always room on the bandwagon! yes sometimes i wish Tracey would talk less but as far as homerism goes Forslund and Tracey (and Kaiton) are all pretty good about not harping on the refs.
as far as merge tix go...see info on the merge bbs...hope to see you in july!
Hey, I like Forsland and Trippy, but he was CRAZY about that call! In the end the Canes deserved it, I let my 7 year old stay up and watch it and he jumped on my head when they scored, He's a true Caniac.
And sorry to sound like a novice blogger (I just started today) but whats the merge bbs??? I'm an idiot!
If there is a way to get Cradle tix I'll be there.
nevermind, I think I figured it out. merge forums right?
correct on the forums, and that's awesome that your kid got to stay up to see that game.
ummm, at this point i don't have time to read all of the previous comments, but i did want to tell you, mac, that you should start thinking about the penguins now. as we like to say in pittsburgh, "yinz are goin' dahn!"
if you need a translation, don't hesitate to ask.
what language is that even?
i'm trying not to think of the Pens yet...Crosby / Malkin will soon enough be giving me nightmares!
Can the 'Canes honestly rival the hometown pride and puck rock chops of the Penguins own Pop Rocks?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcK5k3iWb0c
I think the Pop Rocks have a future on Merge. Perhaps a rival Canes-related band is in order? (Sportastatic?)
the locals call that "pittsburghese." yinz = you plural; dahn = down. example sentence: "are yinz goin' dahntahn tonight to see crosby kick the pants off of them 'canes?"
note: those who speak pittsburghese without knowing it's strange are referred to as "yinzers." i am proud to say that i am not a yinzer. just one of many reasons why i am moving to new england.
that kid gets a sick tone from his axe
for future reference: the staal brothers drinking game.
OK, having trouble moving on. I hate Shaughnessy as much as the next Boston sports fan, but to objectively watch that 'fight' and call it anything other than what it was (a suckerpunch...one guy with his gloves on, stick in hand, arms by side; the other with no stick, gloves off, cheap right) is the definition of blind homerism. Show 99% of hockey fans that play and they'd agree: suckerpunch. I don't have a problem with no suspension for the play during the regular season because the players will police themselves. But during the playoffs, when you have be so disciplined and not take dumb penalties, no such regulation is possible unless one team has a big lead. So no, I'm not with Shaughnessy; I'm just pissed that this guy is made out to be some folk hero in NC for a total cheap shot and, in some cruel twist of wicked irony, he ends up scoring in OT. So yes, I guess you're right; I do need a hug...or a beer.
On another, gentler note, do you still sell those Merge onesies? I have a two week old that's dying for one!
while Kaiton surprisingly defended Walker's punch as "that's hockey -- 15 years ago that wouldn't have even made the evening news" etc, and frankly Ward had something coming (checking double-concussion sufferer Matt Cullen who he know won't fight, in the head, repeatedly), even if it wasn't that, most of the texts and emails i was getting after Game 5 were along the lines of "what the hell was Walker doing? we don't want to be the team that does that." and i think Walker feels the same way in retrospect.
but Shaughnessy's pitiful post mortem on Game 7 implied that he could have been suspended for TWO games, which was never on the table.
also, fuck Aaron Ward.
also, we need to make some more onesies! will do so soon....
MOST COMMENTS EVER on this blog, i should cover live sports more often.
PS i guess my point was that he's been turned into a folk hero not because of the punch but because he scored the game-winner in OT of a Game 7 against a team that had villified him.
FUCK AARON WARD?
C'mon, remember '06. He was a big part of the Canes Cup run, lets not fault Ward for clearing the front of the net. It's what he's paid to do. And Walker's punch was the definition of a sucker-punch. Tell me you were not surprised that he was not suspended. Had Lucic done that he'd have a game off as he did in the first round for a far less severe blow. I don't know what the hell happened with that punch but I'm guessing it was something like that scene in Slapshot when Regg Dunlap tells the goalie his wife is a dyke!!! and after a meeting with Colin Cambell and Rutherford for Gods sake, it was decided Ward deserved to get punched in the face. I just love that about hockey.
I have nothing against Walker, but c'mon THAT was a sucker punch and Shaughnessy, who's great writer BTW, has a legit bitch that some less knowledgeable Canes fans might give undo credit for...well a sucker-punch.
Am I right?
And Mac it looks bleak for Merge Fest tix on the Merge forums, all I found was a guy scalping on ebay, and a bunch of other beggers like me.
PLEASE, help a brother out!
OK, my last post, I swear. It's just that I've been on paternity leave, for lack of a better term, this past week and between changing diapers, napping, and walking the dog, the Bs/Canes series and this blog have been a nice diversion. I think we can all agree 'suckerpunch' and put that to rest. He did not deserve two games (please don't ever think Shaughnessy represents even 10% of Boston sports fans - most despise him), and one game wouldn't have been the difference. The Canes played great, demonstrating superior speed, playoff experience, and PP/PK throughout. The Bs lacked playoff intensity much of the series, showed their youthful inexperience, couldn't make up for the lack of speed after losing Hunwick and Ferrence on D, and couldn't do anything on the PP, especially in Game 7 with it all on the line. Canes were the better team, no doubt.
Soapbox time. My gripe, really, is with the NHL. I don't care if it was Walker, Ward, Cam Neely or Ron Francis...how can you basically condone that by penalizing him with a lousy $2500 fine? Part of the reason the NHL playoffs are such a great product is because teams can't afford to fight because the stakes are so high. There's plenty of hitting (Gleason, Lucic) and plenty of talent and wizardry (Samsonov, Stall, Kessel, Savard) on display. Yet the NHL insists on continuing to be the only professional sport, with in my opinion some of the most talented athletes on the planet, that allows its workforce to punch each other in the face and chalk it up as, 'oh, it's the fabric of the game' because they're afraid of losing the small percentage of fans who would give up following hockey if punching players in the face was actually penalized. So that's working out great; the NHL's on Versus, teams are bankrupt - no wonder no one cares except those with teams in the tournament. OK, sorry for the rant. Good luck all, thanks again for the great hockey talk, see you next year. Those diapers need a-changin'...
Hey Ben, get over it.
Fighting is in the game. Always will be. The Bruins I grew up with did far worse than Walker and I loved them for it.
And don't bag on VS. I think they do a great job after ESPN abandoned the sport that put them on the map (go Whalers!) in favor of Chick-Basketball (sorry ladies it's just plain boring to watch, in my opinion)
So when your kid gets out of diapers and asks you why the Hockey players are hitting each other, just tell them they don't like each other.
That's what I told Ed, he accepted it and moved on.
i know, i appreciate what Ward did for the 'Canes though he was never my favorite player then, but for someone who has no problem putting a stick in someone's face after the whistle (ask Ray Whitney) he sure gets offended when someone takes it to him. Walker's move was dumb, but Ward should have had his hands up, that was dumb too. what did he think Walker was coming to do, have a chat about why he was beating Cullen's head in? then all the talk talk talk "possible broken orbital bone" ie a scratch under his eye bullshit was just an intentional distraction. again, for a team that dishes out quite a bit of punishment after the action has stopped, it all of a sudden became "officer! we've just discovered there's gambling in this casino!"
i'm glad we've moved past the Bruins either way.
Versus, i think they do a good job, but it's really not helping the NHL when no one knows where to find a game (at least the casual fans don't, and they're not going to look hard before deciding to watch the NBA which they can find easily). compounded by ESPN's complete lack of coverage (2 mins towards the end of sportscenter...lame) the profile of the sport isn't going anywhere until the TV situation changes.
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