2018-19 NHL Season Thread

RookieWriter

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Yeah, if you're down you try to pump your team up. More fighting in hockey is rarely ever a bad thing, imo.

Happy happy for both Game 7 and that the B's are there and at home.

Fighting is one thing. Playing cheap and dirty is another. Even the commentators said that if this was the regular season Boston would probably put their first line out during that final power play to run up the score as a way to respond to the Blues behavior. To be fair, Boston has done some of that too. Notice how fights rarely break out in the playoffs and when they do it's usually when the game is already decided.
 

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Game 7 of the Stanley Cup is less than 90 minutes away. Sounds like the Bruins are bringing in Tom Brady to wave the banner tonight. Gonna be a classic game. I think Bruins take it 2-1.
 

cornflake

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Hopefully, Brady will fall out of a skybox onto a Blue.



Ok, that's just wrong; I'm sorry. I don't wish that kind of ill on any St. Louis player.

:ROFL:
 

cornflake

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Fighting is one thing. Playing cheap and dirty is another. Even the commentators said that if this was the regular season Boston would probably put their first line out during that final power play to run up the score as a way to respond to the Blues behavior. To be fair, Boston has done some of that too. Notice how fights rarely break out in the playoffs and when they do it's usually when the game is already decided.

Yeah, cause if it was the regular season, their stats would matter, heh.

Fights do sometimes break out in the playoffs, and can make a series absolutely epic. Remember the Avs/Wings? Which is an example in and of itself of the need for fighting in the league.

Also, it's Boston. The uniform gives you the right to fisticuffs.
 

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Yeah, cause if it was the regular season, their stats would matter, heh.

Fights do sometimes break out in the playoffs, and can make a series absolutely epic. Remember the Avs/Wings? Which is an example in and of itself of the need for fighting in the league.

Also, it's Boston. The uniform gives you the right to fisticuffs.

Not sure which fight you are referring too. There have been several this year, like the Ovechkin one. I was at the game when Reaves and Kane fought. Fights do happen in the playoffs but it goes down. Also fighting in general is going down and will probably not be a big part of the game in five years or so. I don't mind the fighting but it's not always smart for players do it. Penalty, risk of injury, ect.
 
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Blues strike first. 1-0 late in the first. Feels like the Bruins have dominated but the Blues are leading.
 

cornflake

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Not sure which fight you are referring too. There have been several this year, like the Ovechkin one. I was at the game when Reaves and Kane fought. Fights do happen in the playoffs but it goes down. Also fighting in general is going down and will probably not be a big part of the game in five years or so. I don't mind the fighting but it's not always smart for players do it. Penalty, risk of injury, ect.

People have been saying that about fighting for years, ever since the league tried to squash it some. They'd be better off encouraging it, imo, rather than discouraging. It's a safer, more polite world with goons.

How pleasant.

It's Tom Brady. That was me being pleasant. :)
 

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People have been saying that about fighting for years, ever since the league tried to squash it some. They'd be better off encouraging it, imo, rather than discouraging. It's a safer, more polite world with goons.

Take a look at the numbers though, it's way down. There is almost no fighting in college hockey anymore so the next generation is less likely to engage. Even in Wayne Gretzky's book he said he expects it to be out of the game in the next decade.
 

cornflake

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Take a look at the numbers though, it's way down. There is almost no fighting in college hockey anymore so the next generation is less likely to engage. Even in Wayne Gretzky's book he said he expects it to be out of the game in the next decade.

What does college hockey have to do with it? There's not ever been that much fighting in college hockey. It's... college hockey.

As for 99... for a guy who wouldn't have had a career were it not for fighting, heh.
 

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I have umpired baseball to the level of MLB spring Training and PAC-10 (now PAC-12) and done small college basketball and played collegiate LaCrosse. I would have been a NCAA fooball ref if I Hadn't had to give it up to take care of my young daughters. Three of those are as violent as Hockey but have nowhere near the level of fighting. I knew a NHL ref who said something to the tune of "It's a violent sport. You have to let the players fight sometimes" BS. There is fighting because the league knows that while it is not the primary reason fans come in, they really enjoy the fights.
 
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cornflake

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I have umpired baseball to the level of MLB spring Training and PAC-10 (now PAC-12) and done small college basketball and played collegiate LaCrosse. I would have been a NCAA fooball ref if I Hadn't had to give it up to take care of my young daughters. Three of those are as violent as Hockey but have nowhere near the level of fighting. I knew a NHL ref who said something to the tune of "It's a violent sport. You have to let the players fight sometimes" BS. There is fighting because the league knows that while it is not the primary reason fans come in, they really enjoy the fights.

I disagree any of those are as violent as hockey. If you were talking about box lax, ok, but I assume you mean field, which is a gentle little game, heh.

There are few games with both the speed and force that are played full contact, and especially played in the same way. Fighting is a good thing. Goons are a good thing. They allow for the proliferation of players like 99, and keep everyone on the ice safer.
 

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each to his own ... but the other sports are as violent in play as hockey is. Watch the play under the basket in basketball, the line play in the box for football, and LAX crosschecks are as rough as in hockey, delivered from solid footing on the ground. In football and basketball much bigger and stronger opponents deliver the blows.
 

cornflake

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each to his own ... but the other sports are as violent in play as hockey is. Watch the play under the basket in basketball, the line play in the box for football, and LAX crosschecks are as rough as in hockey, delivered from solid footing on the ground. In football and basketball much bigger and stronger opponents deliver the blows.

My reasoning is twofold -- no walls, no skates. Yeah, basketball players throw elbows (and are certainly lacking the padding), but they're mostly standing, basically, about still or jogging along. They're bigger, but they're all bigger and in such a way as to make them less dangerous -- they're big and with a higher center of gravity. Football players do hit hard, but it's so contained, and constrained by their speed. Field lax players hit with sticks but .... it's nothing like box. Box is a vicious (super fun!) game, because walls.

The physics of putting 200+ lbs on ice and speeding it along is entirely different, imo. A crouching defenceman skating full speed, plowing you into a wall is doing so with more force than anyone on a bball court or football or lax field.
 
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Larry M

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Take a look at the numbers though, it's way down. There is almost no fighting in college hockey anymore so the next generation is less likely to engage. Even in Wayne Gretzky's book he said he expects it to be out of the game in the next decade.

The lack of fighting in college hockey is mostly due to the fact that if you fight, you are automatically ejected from the game, and possible suspension for future games depending on how many times the player has been ejected. The penalty is enough of a deterrent that fighting is substantially reduced.
 

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Bruins are winning everywhere but the scoreboard. Fortunately for the Blues the scoreboard is the only place that matters. 2-0 Blues after two.
 

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each to his own ... but the other sports are as violent in play as hockey is. Watch the play under the basket in basketball, the line play in the box for football, and LAX crosschecks are as rough as in hockey, delivered from solid footing on the ground. In football and basketball much bigger and stronger opponents deliver the blows.

Basketball is definitely physical in the paint. Though I observe it's less so than it was in the past. Now the game is more about the three point shot and less about banging for points with the big man. Still, it gets nasty down there. Saw that in the finals when the Raptors player got elbowed in the face and needed seven stitches.

Boxing is probably the most violent of all sports. That and football probably are hardest on the body.
 

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That's a good thing. The NHL game has changed a lot since I first became a hockey fan in the late 1960's. Back then, every team had a couple of guys who were only there to throw their weight around, rough up the opponent's playmakers, and fight whenever possible (the "goons", as someone else mentioned.) As mentioned in the linked article, the NHL wanted to get away from that and speed up the game. The modern emphasis is on skating and keeping the puck moving. There are bound to be fights, but it's more fun to watch now, IMO.
 

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That's a good thing. The NHL game has changed a lot since I first became a hockey fan in the late 1960's. Back then, every team had a couple of guys who were only there to throw their weight around, rough up the opponent's playmakers, and fight whenever possible (the "goons", as someone else mentioned.) As mentioned in the linked article, the NHL wanted to get away from that and speed up the game. The modern emphasis is on skating and keeping the puck moving. There are bound to be fights, but it's more fun to watch now, IMO.

I think there's a middle ground.

I also think the pro Olympics had as big an effect as anything on the actual shift, but eliminating fighting isn't, imo, a good thing. Led to more clutch and grab, among other things. I believe it's safer to have goons -- not necessarily the old, old school goons who possessed no other marketable skill, but there was a shift away from that and you still had goons (still do but they're fewer and farther between). European and NA have always been different and it's not necessarily wrong.

A scrap would possibly help the Bs here, for instance. :) Mike Milbury is a pos but he knows how to rile up a crowd <insert shoe joke here>.
 
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Larry M

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I think there's a middle ground.

I also think the pro Olympics had as big an effect as anything on the actual shift, but eliminating fighting isn't, imo, a good thing. Led to more clutch and grab, among other things. I believe it's safer to have goons -- not necessarily the old, old school goons who possessed no other marketable skill, but there was a shift away from that and you still had goons (still do but they're fewer and farther between). European and NA have always been different and it's not necessarily wrong.

A scrap would possibly help the Bs here, for instance. :) Mike Milbury is a pos but he knows how to rile up a crowd <insert shoe joke here>.

Good points.
 

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That's a good thing. The NHL game has changed a lot since I first became a hockey fan in the late 1960's. Back then, every team had a couple of guys who were only there to throw their weight around, rough up the opponent's playmakers, and fight whenever possible (the "goons", as someone else mentioned.) As mentioned in the linked article, the NHL wanted to get away from that and speed up the game. The modern emphasis is on skating and keeping the puck moving. There are bound to be fights, but it's more fun to watch now, IMO.

I didn't know the game back in the 60s (wasn't born until the 80s) but I do like the game now. I think now they will keep pushing the offense and higher scoring like they do in the NFL. It gives more of the fans what they want.
 

Larry M

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4-0 Blues. St. Louis will win the cup for the first time in history. Crazy story.

We moved to St.Louis in December 1969, and I immediately became a Blues fan. We were watching on TV in May 1970 when Bobby Orr scored that famous OT goal in the final game, called by the great, long-time Blues announcer Dan Kelly. The Blues had no chance in that series; this year is different.