Comments on: Leafs will spend big this summer: Burke

By: Leafmonkey

Leafmonkey — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:50:06 +0000

Ya i was thinking it is a lot to give up but it was to satisfy leaf haters a bit more. however Stamkos is way better than Tavares in my opinion. But im Glad there are more people that dont underrate leaf players.

By: cam7777

cam7777 — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:07:37 +0000

that is true, but the calls that haven't been made against detroit have just been too massive to not consider favortism. the anaheim series was one of the worst officiated series i've ever seen. if the players were to have switched jersey's in that series, and getzlaf and co. were in the red and white, than they would have owned zetterberg and company, hands down. anaheim got one call in their favor (granted, an enormous call - the early whistle in game 3 to prevent hossa's tieing goal), and that ultimately cost them the series as the refs were determined to make up for their error.

this series hasn't been too bad, as they are letting things go both ways. the problem is that pittsburgh is getting away with little shoves, and hal gill pushing 200 feet away from the play, and detroit is getting away with slashing and hooking a stick into pieces, which direclty resulted in a goal, and twice being allowed to touch the puck in the crease.

i know you have to be good to be lucky, but sometimes detroit pushes that saying to its maximum extent. when all their goals are going in off flukey board goals, and pittsburgh can't stop hitting the post, and the refs are conveniently missing everything detroit does after the whistle, that's just an incredible streak of luck.

By: arigold

arigold — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:35:58 +0000

I have to say as a long time Leaf fan, If I could have one wish it would be that Bob Cole and Harry Neale call every Leaf game. They were clearly the best, and it'll be a long time before i get used to anyone else.

By: arigold

arigold — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:33:55 +0000

Honestly, you can't attribute Detroits wins so far in this series to officiating mistakes. Detroit is better than the Pens, hands down. Sure officials make mistakes, but it's the responsibility of players to play above that. Did Detroit pay the Pens to hit the post 4 times?

The Wings make good on their opportunities, play team defence, and have a confidence about them that i honestly can't say i've ever seen in another team. If anything, going into this series, i expected the officials to be one sided towards the Pens because they seemed to be the feel good story.

Sure a couple calls have gone their way, but as a wise man once said, "you have to be good to be lucky, and lucky to be good."

By: mcdivitt

mcdivitt — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:09:00 +0000

I completely agree with this. I think he led all players in the NHL in ice time this year. He gets all the PP time, yet he's not an elite scoring defenseman. And, to boot, he's a ***** considering his size.

I hope to hell he's not brought to Toronto.

By: JustYouW8

JustYouW8 — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:35:08 +0000

J-Bo is a very good player, but he is worth a lot of money.. I actually don't see too many standout UFA's this year that Toronto would NEED to sign. There are some very good role/depth players for the right price though, such as Beauchemin. But i think it's too early for Toronto to go and blow all their money on this year UFA's.. maybe an nice addition or two but wait to see what role's around next year too..
I know Burke said they're going for the playoffs but going out and blowing everything in one summer i believe will mean more regrets in a couple years and having to rebuild all over again.. Just be patient and let the right pieces fall into place, not just the biggest name players every summer..

By: mojo19

mojo19 — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:13:29 +0000

Don't worry once the Leafs get involved again we can be friends.

And Malkin was the instigator, not standing up for himself, he came out swinging, I don't think Zetterberg even wanted to fight, Zetts was just sticking up for himself. And what was the deal with Miro Satan there? I don't think he did enough to be 3rd man in, but he was holding on to Zetts when Malkin was originally throwing punches, then he came back in and got involved with those two a little at the end of it.

I think Detroit probably was lucky, but they were also good, and Osgood is playing unreal too. Fleury's playing okay too, glove stop on the Zetterberg backhand was money, but Abdelkader's goal was questionable.

I predict the Penguins win the next game at home, and then pivotal game 4 will be a war. But the Red Wings will go on to win.

By: cam7777

cam7777 — Sun, 31 May 2009 23:17:06 +0000

i love bob cole, it's that other tool. and bob cole wasn't announcing tonight. cole gives a penguins bias. this guy tonight was retarded. when fleury made a save, he would say "and the puck runs into fleury' in such a tone that it was like the wings were purposely giving him a break. then osgood is flopping around and clearly can't see where the puck is, it bounces off three players and out of the crease, luckiest play ever, and he's like "wow! hall of fame goaltending! unbelievable!!!"

none of the non-calls against the penguins were in crucial situations.

you just cant drop the ball on calls that directly effect the outcome of the game. fleury sticking his ass out at passers-by is not nearly as bad as holmstrom mangling him in the crease.

you can't just forget to call a penalty shot TWO TIMES when Zetterberg grabs the puck in the crease. That's the rule, and you have to call it. If you want to let little picks, and rough play away from the puck go, fine! But you can't miss crucial calls that break a defenders stick while he is on the penalty kill.

you also can't turn a conveniently blind eye to zetterberg and franzen taking cheapshots at penguins players, and than freak out and make a suspendable call against Malkin when he stands up for himself.

i'm quite sure that I do sound like an idiot, but anyone that can't see how ridiculous it is to miss things like that has been duped by the red wings fan club. osgood is no where near a hall of fame goaltender, and no where near being the conn smythe winner. if the red wings win the cup, bill mccreary should be given the conn smythe.

oh, and mojo, please don't let my insane red wings bias tarnish your opinion of me in other hockey related matters. ha. it's quite possible im out of my mind, since grapes said he was fine with the refereeing. but, he also said pitts was the better team, and that detroit was extemely lucky. which they were.....

By: mojo19

mojo19 — Sun, 31 May 2009 22:50:03 +0000

Hey Cam, you are so bias you sound like an idiot right now.

How about 3 non-calls on Hal Gill which should have been interference. How about in game one when a player fell on Osgood and punched him in the head? Picks made by Marc-Andrei Fleury never get called either, he goes out and plays the puck all the time and then just kind of waits a second and runs a little interference. Matt Cooke got away with a little bit too. The list goes on.

The refs have been letting the teams play and the non-calls have been there for both teams. I like the way the games are being called, they're letting the teams decide the outcome rather than the refs.

And actually Detroit's "penalty" in the first period was probably the only inconsistant call in the game because they let shit like that go all night.

Face it the better team won. And if you don't like Bob Cole, do what I do and watch the games on NBC, then flip to Grapes at intermission. I started doing this last year in the finals when I got sick of the Penguins bias, I noticed that NBC calls it a little more impartially.

Chris Osgood for Conn Smythe

By: cam7777

cam7777 — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:42:29 +0000

but they still call that stuff against pittsburgh. malkin's interference call could have easily been overlooked. it didn't effect the play at all. sure it was dumb, but i mean come on...

and once you see that you've made a massive error in detroit's favor, and not called a terrible hook that caused a goal (not to mention the goaltender interference), you would think that the even up call is on its way, but no....not for Detroit.

you would think that the play where zetterberg once again smothered the puck in the crease would have been the perfect time to call a penalty, or, if you were following the rules, even a penalty shot against pittsburgh.