Quote:
Originally Posted by Wayfarer
When some guy is trying to goad you into a scrap for no other reason than because he's a sore loser and wants to goon it up even though the game is all but over, I'm not so sure 'the code' really applies anymore. Personally, if I were in Phaneuf's shoes there, I wouldn't have bothered at all (and not just because Horton is twice the size of me  ), but like I said, Horton didn't exactly give him much of a choice on that one, so I can't really blame him. Good on Dion anyway for not even letting the Bruins get away with so much as a 'moral victory', which it looked like they were going for at that point.
You can't blame Rask for letting the goal in, but you can sure blame him for throwing an on-ice hissy fit about it. And it's not like tonight was the first time, he threw his stick in an infantile rage the other night as well, and threw that ridiculous temper tantrum with the Providence Bruins earlier in the season (might've been last year, actually). He's a great goalie with the potential to be one of the better starters in the league but damn, he needs to frigging chill out or he's going to ruin the confidence of the team in front of him. The Leafs were having similar problems with Jonas Gustavsson earlier in the year and he was sent to the AHL because of it. Well, that, and for a conditioning stint after his heart surgery. You can't have a guy like that in net for the Bruins though, because as tough as they are physically, they seem to be fairly fragile mentally, which is a weakness we all saw the Flyers expose in last year's playoffs. When they're on, they're nearly unstoppable, but when faced with the slightest bit of adversity, it seems like they really begin squeezing their sticks, over-thinking the game, making bad plays and running around all over the place taking ill-advised penalties out of sheer frustration. Compound that with a goalie screaming at them for making mistakes and you have a recipe for another playoff disaster.
I'm still hoping for them to make the finals this year, though, 'cause IIRC the conditional pick the Leafs acquired in the Kaberle trade gets higher if the Bruins make it to the Stanley Cup Finals, LOL. Plus it'd be nice to see Kabby have some playoff success after years of not even getting the opportunity with the Leafs. My #1 pick is Detroit though. They seem to always win, which I guess some people find boring, but personally I never get tired of it. Datsyuk & Zetterberg are possibly my two favourite players in the league. |
There's no doubting what Horton's intentions were. But it's just a thing you do when your team is down. All teams do it. You just don't fight a guy if he takes his helmet off unless you take it off as well. It's not like Horton jumped him. He was goading Phaneuf into fighting but if Phaneuf didn't willingly want to fight as well, it never would have happened. Does that not deserve the respect to take your helmet off?
The interesting thing about Rask is that his mental game might be one of his stronger assets. He is known to flip out after letting in goals, but only after ones that he has absolutely no control over. He's let in plenty of weak goals but I find he bounces back extraordinarly well from them, which shows a strong mental game.
The Providence freak-out happened in a shootout where there were two VERY questionable calls that didn't go his way. This was years ago BTW. The game was over, and he flipped. The throwing the stick incident happened when he stoned a guy on a breakaway, stopped the rebound, but then was prevented from stopping another rebound because a Bruins defenseman had slid into his crease. And then Seidenberg screened him tonight. These are all legit reasons to get upset.
I really have no excuses for the choke last year, but I actually place very little blame on Rask. I remember he had one brutal game (game 5 I think), but other than that he was very solid. Every goal is imprinted into my memory from game 7: deflection off Stuart's stick, deflection off Hunwick's back on a wraparound, blown defensive coverage by Ference on a rebound, deflection off Stuart again which led to a point blank shot in the slot for Gagne in the slot when he was already down trying to stop the original shot. Basically what I'm trying to say is that he gets an unfair knock against him for that series.
I love Detroit and also think they're the best. I'm not a fan of Zetterberg because he's kind of cheap in how he goes about the game (clutching and grabbing, and never seems to get called for it), but I love Datsyuk. Easily one of my favourite players in the game.