Running Stanley Cup Playoff Thread

Downie and Kunitz should both be suspended. Can't remember a year with this many suspensions and so few overtime games (just 2 in 23 games) this early in the playoffs.

As for the Coyotes and their fans, I feel for them. I mean, c'mon, they've been there 15 years and have NEVER won a playoff series and only made the playoffs 5 times in that span. So we've never really had the chance to see how they would or would not support a winning team. Ditto for Atlanta, Florida, Columbus. I read that Phoenix is the sixth largest city in the US, so in that sense, it makes as little sense not to have a team as it does for Los Angeles not to have an NFL team.

I'll be the first to admit I don't have an answer. In a market with four major pro teams, a major Division I college, plus major golf and auto racing events every year, I understand competition for the sports dollar (both fans and advertisers) is steep and you have be consistently successful if you hope to stand out in the crowd. Heck, I remember Cardinals games when Sun Devil Stadium was 1/4 full.

So while I'm not going to say they're a completely lost cause, I really wonder if any other city would do any better, given the same set of circumstances. At this point, nothing would surprise me. I could see the league selling if they get what they consider a reasonable offer, or standing pat, or even (God forbid) contracting and focusing on an expansion franchise someplace else. Will be interesting to see.

 

Compare it to the Kostopoulos hit then. The puck was also there (Stuart had swung and missed a beat prior to getting creamed). There's no way Stuart, who's head was actually facing Kostopoulos, shouldn't have been able to see him coming. Yeah, he was hit high, but high hits aren't illegal unless they're from the blind side. The league specifically said that hit wasn't from the blind side, but it got six games for a non-repeat offender. This was a repeat offender, and more specifically, a repeat headshot offender, coming from the blind side making the same type of hit.

Also, the puck being "there" is not free reign to hit a guy in the vicinity. You can only hit the guy in possession of the puck, and Seabrook was not in possession of the puck yet. In fact, as I think Aaron Ward on TSN explained nicely, he was likely very consciously not touching the puck yet, wanting to use it's natural momentum around the boards to help him clear it.

A forechecker shouldn't have to pull up as long as he keeps his check away from the guy's head. If Torres had nailed Seabrook in the sternum, it should have been two for interference and that's it. But he went high and caught a guy in the head from the blind side, and that's what makes it dangerous and illegal under rule 48.

 

Kunitz WILL be suspended. Downie SHOULD be suspended. How many games, well, it's the NHL, so anywhere from 0 to 17 should suffice, depending on Coley's mood after the hearings.

 

I think a big issue in officiating revolves around the old "charging" call, or lack there of. You never see it called anymore. The Torres hit was not as bad as Kunitz blatantly going for the head, at least in my mind. Kunitz went out of his way to do that, while Torres was at least near the puck -- and who knows whether he targeted Seabrook's head area? I bet both Downie and Kunitz get suspended one game.

 

It is not a rule 48, the league has stated these hits behind the net are legal and the players should know this. There was DVD showing almost the exact same hit as Torres laid shown to every player at the beginning of this process. The fact Seabrook is behind the net makes it completely different than the Kotsopolous hit.

 

Hockey is pretty ruthless sport, especially in playoffs. Hunter on Turgeon. Quebec-Montreal brawl where Hamel got KOed by Sleigher, so many examples. Do you remember the time when the Devils Verbeek sliced the back of the leg of Caps Langway with his skate blade and put him out of the series? The Caps were accusing Verbeek of having done it on purpose. Hard to tell if it really was intentional or not. But hockey players are cunning competitors. Remember the Gordie Howe story where he could use his stick to clip a cigarette out of a fans mouth in the second row, this was before glass boards were up.

 

Shanahan's take on the Torres hit

http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=AhieYrtD3vyyMsMt61DP.ZJShgM6?slug=nc-cotsonika-shanahan_weighs_in_on_torres_seabrook_hit041811

 

I know what Seabrook was doing. I'm saying he shouldn't have been doing it, and I'd bet my house he knows it.

And as for saying Torres should have hit him in the sternum, I hear that all the time and I don't get it. Seabrook has three inches on Torres. If he's hunched over when he doesn't need to be, does that mean Torres has to hunch down just as much to get him in the chest? The game's way too fast to expect that on a pure black-and-white basis.

 

Seems a little excessive given how Stoll got one game and a repeat offender like Torres didn't draw any supplemental punishment for a hit to the head on someone who didn't have the puck or have his stick on the ice. Two or three games would be fair, given the Stoll-Torres rulings.

EDIT -- Per Bob McKenzie on Twitter, one game each for Kunitz and Downie.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/NHL-hands-Chris-Kunitz-Steve-Downie-1-game-susp?urn=nhl-wp2968

 

Globe & Mail says the NHL and NBC agreed to a $2 billion deal over that 10 years.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/NBC-Versus-win-NHL-TV-rights-in-bidding-war-vs-?urn=nhl-wp2944

 

The thing is, Kostopoulos wasn't a rule 48 violation either. The league specifically stated the hit was not from the blind side. And the hit on the DVD is not comparable at all. In that hit, the Rangers' head is faced forward when Pronger steamrolls him. Seabrook was never facing forward.

But even if you argue it wasn't a rule 48 violation (which I disagree with, but whatever), then you still run into the Kostopoulos suspension issue. That was a non-repeat offender with violent interference aimed at the head. This was a repeat offender with violent interference aimed at the head. Cut Kostopoulos' suspension in half for the lack of broken jaw, then multiply it by 3 because of the repeat headshot offender and you get 9. Since it's the playoffs, cut than by half or 2/3 and you get 3-5 games, which is what should have been handed out here.

Kuntiz getting one game for an intentional, blatant elbow to the head is also a joke. Haven't seen the Downie clip yet, but he often strays into the stupid so I wouldn't be surprised if he deserved more too.