Jiji

Sooo, Ducks in 3?

That's a tough one to take. Questionable hit by... Nicklas Backstrom of all people to set it up.

If you isolate it to that, it's not a big deal and I think most people would be fine with that. That they took thinly veiled shots at our third best forward and leading goalscorer's play in the post-season while praising Sbisa for "initiating scrums and being physical" (really? when?) is a bit more unnerving. But it's the long-term decision making (Sbisa going from a thrown-in piece in the Kesler deal to a $3.6 million dollar AHLer and Derek Dorsett getting more money than Higgins and Hansen, as well as Benning's trades outside of the Baertschi deal) that scares the shit out of me and a bunch of Canuck fans. MOAR MEAT AND POTATERS, FELLARZ.

I hate my team. I also don't like yours and DFA's. Stupid hockey.

Still though, those points have to be valuable when he's on because scoring is at such a premium. If he didn't have a stupid Luongo contract, Holland could probably fleece some team in a Franzen deal. But, if my aunt had balls...

I thought it was just a really efficient form of travel. Like Kurt Wagner.

Well, Franzen is that power forward and when he's around, he does put up offensive numbers (he's been around that ~.7 ppg rate the past three years). I'm with you that they're moving in the right direction though.

Not the best week but I still was mostly entertained. Was really hoping Pentagon Jr. would break all 4 jobbers' arms simultaneously but Texano clearing the ring was just one of many let downs in terms of booking decisions. I didn't hate it as much as Curt did but I hope this was a one off. Also, hoping for spinal injuries isn't the best form.

Exactly. They've kept him close because they knew this day was coming. Blashill is the easy choice for them. They love to develop their players through the AHL and he's gone through a similar learning curve and he's familiar with a huge chunk of their team as they're getting younger and younger. Makes too much sense for them to go externally. It's not a good thing for Detroit that they missed 35-year-old, beat the fuck up, concussion riddled Franzen, is it? He hasn't played anything close to a full season since '11-'12. Babs in Edmonton would suck. I hope he goes to Toronto but at this point I think the only allure for him there would be it's close to home and the dollars.

Well, I'm last and will stay there. Stupid Detroit and St. Louis.

Well, at least they've got the next Reebok ad done. Aw, shucks.

Those are really nice outside of the ad right underneath the ribbon. "This half-hearted tribute is brought to you by... Snacky Smores!"

Wait, so isn't every Kronwall hit charging then? That's no worse than any of his big hits in that situation. I call bullshit on their explanation. He jumps a lot. So does the majority of big hitters in the league.

Well, there was one penalty called all game, so you'd have to be pretty good to 1 for 1. I watched the condensed highlights and some of those hits were definitely either boarding or charging.

Damn it, Washington. This is why we can't have nice things.

I don't think I would even want to see another player get 50 in 50. And while a lot of people think of the '80s-1993 as "regular levels of scoring" and Marek has some merit there, we're actually below the late '90s/early '00s/late dead puck era of scoring. Teams scored 2.74 GPG in 2012/13 and 2.73 this season. In '99/'00: 2.75 and 2.76 the next year. Yeesh. As the chart spoilered for size shows, it's pretty volatile over time but I feel like scoring is being lowered artificially and not so much a lack of skill more so now than ever before. 6 goals per game is a nice, happy medium.

I think that was one of the few major booking things they got spot on last night. Rollins is a chicken shit. He shouldn't beat anybody outside of El Torito, Heath Slater, and Cesaro cleanly. He survives Orton through nefarious means, the same with Reigns next month, and then who knows how you handle the Brock match at SummerSlam. That's why it'll be so intriguing.

There is. Go back to calling it like '05-'06, put up with a few years of lunkheads learning how it's going to be called, keep calling it the same way, and then players may adapt and you can have more open hockey without all the penalties. Instead, they called it extremely tight in year 1, called 2 PPs per game fewer the next year, and then went back to normal, all the while players adapted to take out only the most obvious shit. This isn't the '70s where you had low skill level throughout much of the league as SDB stated above. There are a tonne of really talented kids that can skate extremely well, so scoring should be way up. The alternative to all of this is create a Terminator-esque time machine and send Arnold back to take out Francois Allaire and Patrick Roy. And Garth Snow.

That was his NBA Finals.

I can't wait to hear ESPN/TSN people butcher that one. BORN-UH-MOUTH, Y'ALL!

And the Caps have huge choke potential though I think this team's handled the pressure of playoff hockey (and lack of calls) much better than the Boudreau era Caps.

I'm psyched for it. It would be a much better atmosphere if it were in the Coliseum because those fans just don't give a fuck but I think it'll be a helluva game. I'm stupidly hoping that TBL forces a game 7 (before losing in 7) so we get one more game 7 despite the Red Wings making a deep run is probably the only thing saving me from finishing last in the bracket pool. As of right now, I'm dead last. Thanks a lot corsi and gut instincts on the tighter matchups. Can anybody stop Chicago? Stupid advanced stats say they smoke Anaheim should both teams win their respective quarter final matchups.

Pretty much. I still don't think we're too far away from having the technology to keep goalies safe but also reduce their equipment size. Until then, making the nets bigger and calling it tighter is the way to go. While quite a few of the low-scoring 2-1 games in these playoffs have been pretty darn good, I still think the league really needs to evaluate net sizes. It's a sacred cow for them though and that's why it'll probably get laughed off until the best players aren't even hitting a PPG pace regularly. Teams scored an average of 2.73 goals per game this season (64th out of 97 NHL seasons). The post-lockout season of 2005-06, when the obstruction shit was called very tightly, had an average of 3.08 (37th highest all-time), so if they aren't going to look at net size then at least go back to referees actually refereeing and not game managing. The NHL put out a BS article last year, I think, saying that penalties and scoring are down because players have adapted to the new rules. Uh huh. The post-lockout season had the most recorded power play opportunities in the league's history with 5.85 per team, 0.4 higher than second highest ('87-'88). This season was the lowest since they started recording PP statistics all the way back in the 1963-'64 season at 3.06 per team. That's ridiculous. No fucking wonder scoring is down so much.

As awful as the goalies were in the '80s and how it was too easy to score off the rush (how many goals did Bossy score from 40 feet out with shots more or less right along the ice?), there is hardly any drama when an offensive player has the beating of his defender on the outside in a 1v1 these days. Goalies come way out to cut off the angle. Bigger nets won't make it easy to score but it would give some hope for the attacker in those situations and create some excitement for fans. I always thought reducing goalie equipment size was the answer, but apparently it's not possible without safety becoming an issue and with the way players are blasting the puck with those composites that's understandable.