I love Bobby Orr too (seriously, is it even possible not to like Bobby Orr?), and I’d go so far to say there are players, past and present I like on every team (the Flyers excepted, unless they’re former Pens). That, however, doesn’t prevent me from hating the Bruins. 
The whining about the black and gold? That was incredibly stupid, when you consider how many other teams have the same colors.
But enough about that – talk about standing on your head! Back to back shut outs for the Flower! Whatever he’s doing, I suggest he keep doing it.
Well, what do you mean by silence? If Neely was asked about it in a press conference, he should have responded as he did. If he ignored the question, or said “no comment”, I agree that would have been bad… But to come out with an official statement just seemed odd. It was redundant (to me) because he didn’t have to say anything in that statement that wasn’t exactly what anyone would expect him to say. The only reason I could see him coming out wi an official statement is if a twitter comment was linked to a Bruins employee. Then fire (or discipline) the employee and come out with your statement.
Like I said, it didn’t hurt anything, so no harm done. But it wasn’t (IMO) necessary. Especially after reading that article that was linked, which said that most of the comments that were linked with the N word were not negative comments at all, so the trending of the word was a product of the word being included in the hashtags, not the racist comments of Bruin fans.
I also wasn’t trying to prove anything to you other than my comments had nothing to do with my hatred of the Bruins, which is what was suggested.
Right now, I hate all Boston teams to a certain degree. And my hatred stems more from the ESPN coverage than anything else. According to ESPN, the only two cities that exist are New York and Boston, and that gets old.
You can say that about every team left in the playoffs. If nothing goes wrong, they all have a chance to win the cup.
I would think the Leafs play would do that. 
Seriously, though… To me there is something unnatural when a team from Toronto hasn’t lifted the cup in my lifetime. What has it been, since 1941? that means that for almost 30 years with only 6 teams playing they couldn’t win one cup. That boggles my mind.
Not that we Leaf fans dwell on that or anything.
Oh, man. It is MUCH better than I thought. Still bad, but not nearly as bad as I imagined.
I have no idea why I thought it was 1941. I know the rangers were 1940 until 94. Did the maple Leafs win in '41?
I need to look this up.
Just checked.
The Leafs had a great run in the 60’s.
It looks like things went downhill when the first expansion came.
If you’re not familiar with Harold Ballard, I suggest you read up on how he single-handedly killed the Leafs. He died in 1990 and in the 90s the Leafs made it to the conference finals three times and had a really good run. They made the conference finals in 2002 also, but have been seriously struggling since the new CBA in 2005.
It’s been a roller coaster.
I admit my interest in the Leafs was due mainly to my love for their uniforms when I was a kid… Especially the home whites. But my love of the Penguins took over long before they changed to black and gold and the arrival of Mario. I still have my blue Pens jersey from when I was a kid, and my favorite player was Syl Apps.
I really didn’t follow the Leafs like the Pens, so I don’t know anything about their ownership.
I will check out Harold Ballard.
I’m rooting for the Hawks, but I have to say, I don’t quite understand the uber-confidence. I mean, I’m all for believing in your team, but, while listening to sports talk radio, they talk about how St. Louis was really the Hawks’ big challenge, and the next big challenge will be the Stanley Cup finals. I mean, it is a talented team, but I personally don’t have that sort of confidence in them like I had last year (which almost ended vs. Detroit) or in 2009-2010. The Wild, despite the final scores, have been challenging in the first two games. I really think they could have gone either way, especially that first game. But I got to hand it to the much and unfairly maligned Crawford for keeping us in those games. How the Hawks managed to parry a 17-3 shots on goal onslaught in the second period of game one and end up with one goal to Minnesota’s zero is beyond me. That is the stuff of champions. That said, an inch here or an inch there, and the series could be, in my opinion, 2-0 Wild. Maybe I’m just tempering my expectations to avoid too strong a disappointment, but, seriously, I just don’t get the super confident nature of at least the sports talk radio folks.
Wow. It looks like the Penguins should win this series 4-1, or 4-2. Their defense is keeping the shots or “quality shots” away from the Pittsburgh net, and if they get there, Fleury (surprise, surprise) is right there. He had one lucky shot get by him and bounce from post to post, but that was certainly not a goal. Even so, I don’t think that would’ve changed the outcome.
Kings also playing great against a team that’s far better on paper this year, but only paper. It still astounds me that back east, a six-hour car drive or less brings you to at least one big rivalry stadium/area of your team. Out here in L.A., biggest Kings rivalry seems to be Vancouver. Sharks a vague second and Ducks? Who? Yeah, that’s the teams that’s usually great when the Kings aren’t and vice versa. Last year the Ducks lost first round, so no playoff meeting until this year. NOW (finally), the hits are coming!
Blackhawks may well sweep this series with the Wild, though Minnesota is a closet team for me. Great players but they’ve got Illya in net… ugh. Yeah, not good.
Bruins/Habs, I dunno. Montreal has been under the radar this year, and I didn’t think they’d sweep the Lighting. That’s the closest series to watch, IMO.
Bottom line, there’s a really good chance it turns out to be a rematch with Chicago/Boston.
Playoff NHL is THE BEST sport to watch, no matter who’s playing.
As a season ticket holder for the Caps for the last six years, I can confirm that the Penguins are special. The Caps choke against almost anyone in the playoffs.
More accurately, when your biggest weapon is the power play, you have an uphill battle in the playoffs when the whistles go away. Not saying its not fair, the whistles go away for both sides, but they aren’t bult for the playoffs.
I think we are going to see another Chicago vs Boston final.
I guess it’s true you don’t know much about it because actually it wasn’t trending on Twitter.
[QUOTE= CBC correction]
A previous version of this story reported that a racial epithet was trending online in Boston during Game 1 of the Bruins-Canadiens series. While the word was mentioned on social networks, it was not trending on Twitter.
[/QUOTE]
That’s in the article in the first post about it here; I’ll like again: P.K. Subban targeted by racist tweets after Habs win | CBC News
Certainly after the hullaballo, with the number of denunciations, it may well have been trending, but that’s clearly not indicative of anything. You even admit that ‘perhaps a lot of them were responding negatively’.
So what’s your point?
If your main fact is incorrect, and you can’t even be bothered to find out if it is correct, but you’re STILL complaining about it (while back-handedly acknowledging that even if it was correct it still might not necessarily mean anything), what should I call it, if not ‘playing the victim’?
That quote is in a correction at the bottom of the page. The article still says: "“N----r was trending in Boston because P.K. Subban scored…”
I’m terribly sorry for inconveniencing you.
Damn typos when posting around work stuff. I meant Penguins are NOT special, the Caps choke almost everyone.
Yep. I can watch any two teams, and I almost always enjoy it.
Playoff hockey is great.
Nothing like it in any sport.
The only thing I hate is watching it on NBC rather than the local sports channel. I hate Milbury, I hate Roenick, and I hate Pierre McGuirre. I know people find Steiggerwald and Errey annoying, but they’re nowhere near as bad. And I love Dan Potash. NBC sucks. (And they often talk over the anthem – what’s up with that?) I’ve tried muting the TV and putting on the radio so I can listen to Mike Lange, but there’s a time lag, so it really doesn’t work all that well.
Ballard was an absolute disaster – the man was a cheap bastard. To the point that he’d shut off the water fountains and turn up the heat in order to raise sales for drinks at the concession stands. One notable story is when the NHL started mandating that players have their names on the backs of their jerseys. Ballard refused, stating that it would cut down on program sales. The NHL told him tough shit. He complied by putting their names on in the same color as their jerseys, so nobody could read them, and ended up getting fined. He used to make sexist and racist comments on the time, insult players, etc.
Ballard later went to prison for tax evasion. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. I’d say he’s only slightly less hated than Alan Eagleson.
You missed the part where, after he was mandated to put the players’ names on contrasting colours, he made them so small that you couldn’t read them. The NHL then had to change the rule once again to mandate minimum letter size.
P.K. Subban is a total weenie.
There, I’ve said it.
OK. Why?