And I hope that’s not Alfie’s last season, I’ve always liked the Sens mostly because of him (although that’s definitely not the only reason). I think it’s one of those match-up things, Senators don’t match up at all to Pittsburgh in the post-season, at least not since 2007.
Also, Penguins are now at 4.2 PPG in the playoffs which is mind blowing. The TV man said that hasn’t happened since the '92 Pens, which I somehow don’t believe. And, Crosby is 4th all time in playoff PPG (1.35) and Malkin is 8th (1.218) - the only two active players in the top 10. And, Crosby was the fifth fastest player to reach 100 playoff points all time (only the 80’s Oilers and Mario are above him) at 75 games. Malkin is at 97 points in 79 games, so he’s pretty close too.
Another fun fact? Crosby has 2 more playoff points in his career than Datysuk, despite playing in almost half as many games (77 vs. 137).
And this is why people think the Bruins are a classless, dirty team - it’s the highlights from game 5 of the AHL playoffs, where the Baby Pens came back from a 0-3 series hole against the Baby Bruins (something else the affiliate teams have in common). There’s some Grade A, 1970’s Goonery all over the place - kidney punches to players on the ground, lying on top of the goaltender, lying on top of the goaltender and punching him (for no reason) while he couldn’t protect himself, etc. If it’s Bruins/Pens in the ECF it’s going to get nasty.
But in the NHL, Boston and Pittsburgh were both about league average in taking penalties. It’s rather unusual for a team that’s actually unusually dirty to somehow go 48 games and have it now show up in the penalties. It usually DOES reflect dirtiness; Philadelphia, who are beyond any doubt at all a dirty team and have been for years, are consistently one of the most penalized teams in hockey.
The league’s most penalized team was, interestingly enough, Toronto.
It occurs to me, watching the Sharks Kings series, that Jonathan Quick is an incredibly good goalie, but it’s impossible to respect such a little bitch.
Toronto took far more majors than any other team - 46, which was 11 more than the next worst and about twice the league average. They were about average in minors, so it was the majors that put them at the top.
In terms of total PENALTIES, instead of minutes, it was, unsurprisingly, Philadelphia.
So did this hurt Toronto? Not really… they gave up fewer power play goals than any other team in hockey except Chicago. Ottawa, who were third in PIM, gave up the third fewest PPG. There is shockingly little correlation between the number of penalties, or penalty minutes, a team takes and the number of goals it costs them. Of course you have to consider that being on the penalty kill costs you goals indirectly, in that it’s time you aren’t on the attack; I would guess, though, that the total number of goals Toronto lost this way is probably no more than five or six (about 180 PIM more than the average team, during which they would normally score six to eight goals, minus the one shorthanded goal they got.) That bring their cost of penalties up to 27 or so, which is still fewer than the average number of PPG a team gave up. So really it’s quite surprisingly meaningless. What matters a lot is your penalty kill rate; a team that takes few penalties but with a crappy PK will give up far more goals than a team that takes many penalties but is good at the PK.
As to why it’s not done now, my guess is, unlike at the stadium, you can’t scan the entire field/ice on TV to see what is going on. If there’s a line change, you have to depend on the TV announcer to mention it.
IIRC, one of the touchdowns in that football game may not have been visible on the camera; it was caught in a back corner of the end zone on the camera side of the field, and this was in the days before every game had cameras everywhere.
Some illustrations of how much hockey is a niche sport in the US:
The last couple of Bruins games could only be seen on cable channel 795.
The Bruins-Penguins series schedule had to be fit around New Kids on the Block concerts - they’re selling out arenas for *two *nights, and in *both *cities.
And in Canada we cancel or reschedule all programming on the CBC, including the nightly 10:00 o’clock news in order to watch playoff hockey. It’s a cult.
And he’s OUR little bitch who doesn’t need anyone’s respect…just another Cup instead. BTW…Niemi was great in goal too.
San Jose has earned a level of respect this time around…they did not choke this series away, instead they lost by inches, not miles.
Yeah, NBC has it’s stranglehold on the entire postseason here in the US. I miss Bob Miller and Jim Fox calling Kings games on Fox Sports West, but we can watch post-game shows there…although last night I could not find them because the of the Galaxy game and some Angels puff show.
Anyways…wonder which team will step it up tonight. Part of me wants to see Detroit (Kings get home ice, better defensive matchup) or Chicago (almost giving away the series). One thing is for sure…OUR little bitch is better than any of those other little bitches.
You have no idea how pissed this makes me, because only one…ONE of the Bruins-Penguins games is on regular NBC, and that’s the series opening game this Saturday.
Every other game is on NBC Sports, which my satellite provider doesn’t include in it’s regular package I have. I also don’t get CBC, despite living in northern VT (by contrast, the cable provider here, Comcast, carries both NBC Sports AND CBC…so fuck you, Dish Network.)
And since you can’t just add one channel a-la-carte for, like, $2 or $3 more a month, I’d have to buy some sort of “total sports package” for over $15 more a month…granted, I’d only need it for June, but if it’s like that NFL package from DirectTV, they make you buy a full year to avoid people just doing it for the season.
My only options if I don’t want to spend money are:
Watch it in bars. But since it’s also the NBA post-season, and even though I live in New England and the Celtics are out, most bars will still be showing more basketball than hockey…hockey will get relegated to the small, non-HD TV in the corner with the sound off.
Shitty internet streams. I at least know of a couple that are “legit,” in that they don’t have malware or viruses or anything, but the quality is abysmal.