04/18/24
May 04, 2011
SportsFilter: The Wednesday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
I suppose a link to the standings may help.
posted by NoMich at 09:37 AM on May 04, 2011
Today's New York Times is taking a swing at Derek Jeter's batting.
posted by rcade at 04:51 PM on May 04, 2011
22 horses entered for Kentucky Derby; only 20 can make race. If this were a human race, they would run semis or heats earlier in the day before the main race. Horses are such wimps.
posted by graymatters at 04:54 PM on May 04, 2011
How does Pierre McGuire keep getting work? It seems like every day he's on an NHL broadcast. He doesn't look like he's played a game of hockey in his life. Today he's on TSN for the Caps Lightning game.
posted by insomnyuk at 07:19 PM on May 04, 2011
and I can't stand him. Argh.
posted by insomnyuk at 07:23 PM on May 04, 2011
Dear NHL,
Perhaps it's time to get rid of the tangled stick penalty. Just because player A can't free his stick from player B's grasp and then player B takes a dive worthy of Greg Louganis, that does not mean player A committed hooking, tripping, or interference.
Thanks for listening.
posted by kokaku at 08:03 PM on May 04, 2011
Well, to be fair, don't put your stick there.
It's against the rules.
You might not be hooking, tripping, or interfering, but you are putting your stick where it shouldn't belong (at waist level, against another player, while skating behind them).
I do, however, believe that if player B embellishes the play, he should also get a penalty. I've seen that happen a couple of times.
posted by grum@work at 11:34 PM on May 04, 2011
Also, I see that the Flyers have the Bruins right where they want them...
posted by grum@work at 11:35 PM on May 04, 2011
Phil Jackson and the Lakers are sandbagging again. All part of their master plan.
posted by tron7 at 01:12 AM on May 05, 2011
@grum I'm saying that the rules should be changed so that things like this, where the defender is not impeding the player so much as trying to get his stick back while the player is actively holding his stick, that that is not called as a penalty. Hooking used to be more about reaching the stick in on a player in stride and yanking the player out of stride. Now, it seems like there's a lot more of these weak hooking calls than there used to be. Let them play (especially when players are hamming it up for the calls - let's not turn the NHL into Serie A).
posted by kokaku at 06:54 AM on May 05, 2011
No, no, no.
Letting "weak" hooking calls go is what led us down the torpid path to obstructive trap hockey. Remember how BORING hockey could be when every forward had to learn to skate with a 6'5" defenseman on his back?
I agree diving should be removed from the game. But the solution isn't to let players hook each other more. The solution is to penalize diving, or make the players believe it is an embarassing thing to be doing.
posted by fabulon7 at 03:23 PM on May 05, 2011
Oh - the Kesler/Weber thing? What the heck is Weber's stick doing in Kesler's armpit? Even if Kesler chicken-winged it, the stick had to be there to clamp down on. Even Weber doesn't complain.
Also the colour guy on that Youtube clip, Craig Simpson, hates the Canucks and always has. he is a p.o.s. and it's a disgrace the CBC has found yet another lackey to jerk off whoever Vancouver's opponent is on the night.
posted by rumple at 06:11 PM on May 05, 2011
I've finally gotten around to updating the 2011 SpoFi NHL Playoofs Confidence Pool standings with the scores through last night's games. mkn and rumple are now joined by grum at the top of the heap. Thanks to grum, I got the SpoFi Average in play as well.