When Will Boston Learn?

Really, Boston? Really?

Over my brief blogging history, I've had to talk about Boston many times. Partly because they won the Stanley Cup, and partly because one of their players did something stupid. And considering the Stanley Cup Finals isn't until June, guess what this article is about.

The Rangers and the Bruins were playing today in a matchup of the 2 first place teams in the Eastern Conference. The game went into overtime and in a game where gaining the two points mattered a lot, you wouldn't think a player will do something stupid in overtime, right?...RIGHT?!?!!

non biased commentary provided by NESN (Boston TV)

Before I get to this hit, let me remind you of the some of the dirty hits Boston has dealt over the past year or so:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0g7_pVqpB0&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn97tELtNTI&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffiQUe1tfqM&feature=feedu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC8PR4b_wk4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ7MWYYtZ8Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jimZ1tSdPY0

So clearly, these guys don't have such a great track record. It has become apparent to any hockey fan that these guys play hockey with a dirty attitude. So it amazes me how ignorant Boston fans are to the dirtiness of their team. 

Alright. Let's talk about the Ference hit from today.

Ference is chasing the puck full steam and hits a defenseless Ryan McDonagh, who's back is to Ference, right into the boards. This is a play that the NHL is desperately trying to get rid of. It is clear that this hit is something that the NHL has addressed directly, so, WHY THE HELL WOULD ANDREW FERENCE DO IT? There is simply no excuse for this dirty hit. The refs are on top of it, give the Rangers a 5 minute powerplay which they used to win the game and maintain first place in the east. 

So, that whole inexcusable thing? Someone should tell that to Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley (aka NESN announcers for the Bruins).

Andy: "He (Ference) thought that he had enough of an angle from the side to make a little" (yes, he said a little) "contact with McDonagh"

Andy: "Not a whole lot of contact, but it was the momentum" (yes, there was momentum...your point?) "Let's see if he got him by the numbers- he's trying to get a good angle" (he did, by the way, hit him "in the numbers" (from behind) which is illegal, something Andy never mentioned).

Andy: "Unfortunately, when you have that kind of speed in that situation, you almost have to avoid all body contact, because, hits like that will happen." Well yes, that's the point. You have to avoid contact in that situation because, otherwise, there'll be an illegal hit from the back. The whole point is to get rid of those hits.

So there was Andy Brickly and the Boston announcers doing what they do best, being extremely biased towards the Bruins.

So I saw a tweet today from Boston Globe NHL writer Kevin Paul Dupont that just enraged me:

Wrote Callahan by accident instead of McDonagh

Building?....Seriously?

This just shows how ignorant Boston fans are regarding their team. While most of the world sees them as they are, a team who, with all honesty, can play hockey pretty damn well, but a team that has to throw in a few cheap shots every now and then.

So that's why they pretty much always suspect opposing players of diving when they are down and injured, that's why their announcers, much like the fans, do the same (from the clip, I don't know if Jack Edwards ever watches hockey but players do that literally every game), and that's why the Bruins felt like this was the dirtiest hit of the century (questionable at best IMO) and this was an overreaction by Montreal. 

Hopefully Boston changes their way because, at this point, this is getting ridiculous.

UPDATE: Justice has been served. NHL disciplinary head Brendan Shanahan announced that Ference will face a 3 game suspension for his hit:

Rangers Score Goal on a Familiar Play

It isn't too often that we see a play happen twice. Not only is it tough for the same exact situation to come up again, teams now, with the help of televised replays, are able to crack down on specific plays by the opposition. Well to the Penguins defense, it was 417 days since the first play happened.

In November of 2010 in a 2-2 tie between the Rangers and the Penguins in overtime, Pittsburgh defenseman, Zybnek Michalek, turned the puck over at the point giving the Rangers a 2 on 1 with Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky. That's when Brandon Dubinsky pulled one of the most patient toe drags I've ever seen, putting the puck right on Callahan's stick for the easy finisher.

Fast forward 417 days to January of this season. The Rangers are playing the Penguins in Pittsburgh again. A turnover on the powerplay by the Penguins gives the Rangers a 2 on 1 with who else but Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky (this time Callahan bringing the puck up ice). Callahan, in a vaguely familiar way, toe drags the puck by the Penguin defender and slides it to Dubinsky who's staring at the wide open net.

Oh and that was Marc-Andre Fleury in net for BOTH goals. Talk about Deja Vu.

stick tap to D. Fuchs for the idea

I Feel Bad for R.J. Umberger

Columbus forward R.J. Umberger has been a solid source of secondary scoring since starting his NHL career in 2005-2006. He has 274 goals in 474 career games and, just recently, was signed by the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 5 year extension. However, the former first round draft pick has had a dose of bad luck throughout his career.

Go onto www.youtube.com and look up R.J. Umberger. While most hockey players would have results of videos of highlight goals and good plays, Umberger has several pages of getting laid out by opposing players. And it all started with this famous hit:

"Flyers looking to respo-OOOOOOO"

R.J. Umberger was simply decked (legally) by Brian Campbell in the 2005-2006 playoffs in Game 1 against the Buffalo Sabres. Umberger did come back later in the series but that look on his face after the hit was priceless.

 Umberger did get his rematch though next season in a fight with Campbell.

Skip a few years. The 2009 NHL playoffs saw the Columbus Blue Jackets faced off against the Detroit Red Wings. Umberger was doing alright in Columbus but they were facing a 2 games to none deficit going into game 3. That's when he ran into Brad Stuart.

Another instance of Umberger skating with the puck up the ice with his head down. He was rocked by Stuart on a clean hit. Once again, Umberger came back later in the series. Now another lifeless image of Umberger filled our heads.

Skip another couple of years. Last season on March 15th, the Blue Jackets were playing the Boston Bruins and hello there Brad Marchand:

 Boston's Brad Marchand deliberately elbowed Umberger in the head. Marchand was suspended 2 games for this incident and once again, Umberger came out relatively unscathed as he was in the lineup the next game. However, Umberger called Marchand out saying "You got to think that's one of the hits we are trying to eliminate, whether it's inadvertent or not." Well Your not done dealing with these yet R.J...

This season, Umberger was abused even more, again against the Bruins.

After throwing a nice and completely legal hit on Milan Lucic, Umberger gets crosschecked, slashed, slashed, slashed, and then crosschecked again by the sticks of Lucic and Boston goalie Tim Thomas. They only called 2 penalties, both to Lucic, 1 for slashing and 1 for crosschecking. This was uncharacteristic Boston, who are usually amongst the most disciplined teams in the league. (http://tiny.cc/v3n9x ; http://tiny.cc/0n4b2 ; http://tiny.cc/qyh9x ; http://tiny.cc/j2n5e)

Alright. So we've seen huge clean hits. We've seen dirty cheap shots. We've even seen slashing. So what haven't we seen? Well, we haven't seen Umberger miss any games. But that just changed courtesy of a hit by Anaheim's Jean-Francois Jacques from January 9th:

Umberger finished the game AND played 2 days later in Chicago. However, he didn't feel right during a practice after the game in Chicago and was later diagnosed with a concussion. Jacques was fined and suspended 3 games for the elbow. Interesting stat though. Umberger is going to have his streak of 291 games in a row end. He has not missed a game since joining the Blue Jackets which is amazing for someone with a history like his.

So the question arises. Why him?

Well many people (just like the uploader of the Jacques hit (with the title "Jean-Francois Jacques hammers R.J. "I love to skate with my head down" Umberger")) feel that it has to do with R.J.'s tendency to skate with his head down (ehem ehem Eric Lindros). That may be true with some of the early hits laid out on Umberger. But at this point, I think it's just R.J. being in the wrong place at the right times. Kinda like that guy from "The Comebacks".

So I hope R.J. comes back soon and his luck turns a little. Rumor has it concussions can be tricky to deal with so we'll have to wait and see.

Winter Classic 2012 Review; Success?

This year's NHL Winter Classic was an interesting selection. The 5th WC didn't have some of the aspects that the other games had. The first one in Buffalo had A) the football stadium surrounding with all of those fans and B) Sidney Crosby. The next year in Chicago they had the game in a historic ball park, a feature that drew a lot of attention. The same thing happened the next year with the game in Fenway Park in Boston. And then who can forget the Crosby-Ovechkin matchup next year. 

This season, the NHL didn't have the appeal of a historic location or a complete superstar playing in the game. The game was in the somewhat new Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia and had the Rangers matched up against the Flyers. This year the NHL went with the rivalry Winter Classic. 

Did it work?

Not really.

As far as drawing in views, which is pretty much the only feedback available, this was the worst year of the Winter Classic.

2008: Pittsburgh @ Buffalo; Jan 1st; 1 PM: 2.6 Overnight rating

2009: Detroit @ Chicago; Jan 1st; 1 PM: 2.9 Overnight rating

2010: Philadelphia @ Boston; Jan 1st; 1 PM: 2.6 Overnight rating

2011: Washington @ Pittsburgh; Jan 1st; 7 PM (primetime): 2.8 Overnight rating

2012: New York @ Philadelphia; Jan 2nd; 3 PM: 2.4 Overnight rating

Well, to this game's defense, it wasn't the first WC, it wasn't in a historic ball park, it wasn't in a historic ball park, and it wasn't hyped up for months and months in advanced Crosby vs. Ovechkin. Additionally, this game was on January 2nd which may have lost a handful of views. And the fact that the start of the game was pushed back to the odd time of 3:00 didn't help. 

But this doesn't necessarily matter. In my opinion, the flow of this year's game was better of the ones in years past. The players said it was because of the ice which may be. The conditions for the ice were perfect at 3 o' clock making the playing smoother. Also, while the snow in '08 was pretty awesome, the skies were clear for the most part (besides for a slight flurry that lasted just a few minutes).

The game itself was an exciting one. The first period was physical and had a great feeling to it including a Jaromir Jagr move that was more classic than the Rangers jersey. Jagr took the puck up the ice and then split the two defenseman only to have his chance denied by Rangers' goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Jagr ended up leaving the game, however, due to a groin injury. 

The Flyers got 2 goals in the second (including Brayden Schenn's first career goal). The Rangers responded a couple of minutes later by Mike Rupp who ripped the puck past a screened Sergei Bobrovsky. Rupp then did his best Jagr impersonation. 

In the third Rupp added another goal followed by a goal by Brad Richards 2 and a half minutes later to put the Rangers up 3-2. The game kept moving and then with 1 minute remaining, there was a controversial penalty call that I'll get to in a second. With the Flyers goalie pulled and Ryan Callahan of the Rangers racing towards the puck, Philly's Kimmo Timonen interfered with Callahan. However, the refs called matching penalties; 2 minutes to Timonen for interference and 2 minutes to Callahan for holding the stick. This kept the teams even strength on the ice. 

A minute later, with 20 seconds left, this happened:

Just to remind you, Danny Briere faced Lundqvist 2 years ago on the last day of the season in the shootout to decide who made it to the playoffs. Briere won that matchup. Lundqvist won this one.

Just a stat about penalty shots in the last minute for teams down 1 goal. Shooters are now 0-11 on penalty shots with a chance to tie the game in the final minute over the last 15 years. A combination of the pressure, the choppy ice (because it's the end of the game), and the goaltending probably causes this statistic.

The Rangers held on and won 3-2.

Many argued that this incredible finished was really a fixed event so the game would have a more exciting finish. Well it definitely was that but I wouldn't go that far. What about you John Tortorella?

Go to 8:50 of this press conference. Tortorella completely bashes the reffing in the game. In my opinion, that's what he had to do. It's wrong but those calls shouldn't be acceptable in the NHL. However, the NHL fined Tortorella $30,000 for his comments about the officiating, a fair move as well.

As a blogger, I wasn't given press tickets for the game, but given that I live in Ranger territory, I had an abundance of friends who attended the festivities in Philly. As one friend put it, "Words can't even explain the experience."

From the pictures I saw, I can agree, being in a building filled with the best fans on earth, there can be nothing better. Here were a few great images:

So good job to the NHL. (On the right side of the blog, vote for your favourite Winter Classic!) See you next year in Detroit!