I love the fact that licking someone is seen as so offensive in hockey, but punching someone in the face is perfectly acceptable.
It is? I’m pretty sure that’ll draw a penalty.
/extreme nitpick/Actually that gets a penalty. To draw a penalty, you have to force your opponent to commit an infraction on you. /extreme nitpick/
(heh heh, i.e. - diving:))
The Mephistophelian Connor Hellebuyck was pretty solid last night. Nice to see less of Nashville’s boring trapping (from the previous game).
Rarely. Usually a ref comes in and just splits them up. And do they ever get warned by the NHL after the game with talks of suspensions and fines? Rarer still.
“Rarely”? I’m gonna need some actual numbers. I think it’s closer to “most of the time”.
Let’s just ignore your second assertion until we parse out the accuracy of the first one.
Extreme nitpick: that’s not how language works. There are any number of words that would also have described an official designating a player as being penalized, and all of them work just fine in context.
I started out rooting for the Caps and the Bruins. Now it turns out one team has a headhunter and the other has a facelicker. I guess that leaves Winnipeg…
I don’t think it’s a conspiracy, but sometimes it seems like downright incompetance. Wilson had blatantly illegal hits on the Pens twice, and didn’t spend a second in the penalty box. You can’t tell me that it was just because hockey is so “fast and fluid” that they didn’t give him a penalty for that hit on Aston-Reese? :dubious:
Fixing your [URL=“https://apnews.com/c4d03253d53e47f9a83144ea2ffba462”]link](]Marchand has been warned[/url), Bo.
Quite frankly, that’s something I’d have expected from Sean Avery.
Thanks! Sorry about that bad link, y’all.
I did not know that Sean Avery was prone to screwing up hyperlinks; at least I try and avoid it becoming a habit. 
Might depend on what you mean by ‘punch’. At least twice in that Marchand game, one player gave a hard uppercut shove on the chin of another player, at least a borderline punch. With no consequences other than a ref skating over and telling them to cool it.
And – even assuming every nearly every punch is penalized – if one for some reason wasn’t, nobody would be up in arms calling for a ten-game suspension; they’d be saying ‘gosh that should be a penalty next time’.
So why is a lick so much worse that it needs league discipline and banning from hockey and everything else that’s been called for? (as opposed to saying. “Hmm… in my opinion, that’s probably a spitting penalty, and should have been called”)
I mean, even accounting for the relative softness of a punch from someone on skates, I’d much prefer to be licked than punched, thank you. So why is it worse?
A truly lazy, lackluster effort from the Bruins sees them on the losing end of the contest (no surprise) and on the vacation side of the season.
On my way! to Blue Elk’s to see the Knights advance as well (hopefully).
Sure, a number of verbs have been used there with varying accuracy, and yeah, your context gets a pass - I just basically poo-poo announcers who never used to get that one wrong. Luckily Jim Hughson and Paul Romanuk don’t, but when other announcers (only lately) do, I have to adjust, and am like - oh right, they meant ‘get’. (and fine, no biggie) (sometimes “headmanning” and “chippy” have also gotten misused.)
Expected the Bruins to get more than a game out of their series against Tampa Bay. Also thought the Bruins would’ve dealt more punishing physicality, but it was players like the Bruins’ Krug and Backes who got sidelined. And Stamkos is still uninjured!
Tampa might have the most underrated (and deadliest) player in the NHL in Kucharov - his release is insane, like Boesser’s. I caught only the second period of this one - JT Miller was a beast - sending nasty big Backes out of the game with a legal lambasting at the blue line, and like a minute after that, scores to put Tampa ahead.
I’ll bet whoever comes out of the Pens/Caps series should have a harder slog, coming up, than the series they were just in.
Yzerman is brilliant.
10 minutes left in the third period and it is dead quiet in San Jose.
Go Knights, from this Blackhawks fan!
Also, go Jets, go Capitals, and good job, Tampa Bay!
Sadly, we’re used to going out in the second round. Out of 20 trips to the playoffs, out in round 2 for like 15 of them. 
I’ll probably root for the Knights for the rest of the playoffs.
Impressive - major kudos to the first-year expansion Vegas Golden Knights making it to the second round of the Stanley Cup Play-offs. And Fleury getting the shut-out too. (heh those posts and crossbar were definitely his friends tonight too) If the other series goes seven, VGK should be good 'n rested - will look forward to that series.
In the first period Burns was a total liability, coughing up the puck at least three times in the Sharks zone, by my count. Scary.
Jeez, Reeves! Welcome to the play-offs! During warm-up, you almost get a puck in the face, and then a couple minutes later, in the first period, you DO end up getting a puck in the face! (Just make sure I’m not on the business end of one of your body-checks!)
ETA: Interesting VGK outshot SJ 12-3 in the third.
Got my numbers wrong. I should have looked it up before I posted:
19 first round appearances
13 second round
4 conference final appearances
1 trip to the finals
Awesome, baby!
Our 4th line kills. They won the game for us tonight; no doubt. I didn’t think we needed to trade for Reaves but I admit he’s been active as hell and doing all he can to contribute; tonight he and his linemates Carpenter and Bellemare were outstanding.
And holy crap who can say enough good things about Marc-Andre Fleury? 4 shutouts in 10 playoff games! And how about that little jump tonight?
Congrats on the win and advancing! Vegas has a strong team. And Fleury is awesome.
And… damn. (sigh)