A hockey game

[ksmith]

Hawks won in OT. The guy who almost did them in with a 5-minute penalty that slopped into OT, Marian Hossa, scored the winning goal.

Hawks are up 3-2. At times, their inexperience shows. They frittered a 3-1 lead, then fell behind 4-3. Scored a shorthanded goal to tie it with 13 seconds to go.

Back to Nashville. Not exactly an easy row to hoe.

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I know you've been complaining about the Hawks goalie, but most of those goals against weren't his fault.

The Hossa penalty was ugly.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

The Hawks still aren't hitting on all defensive cylinders. It's been a knock against them for at least the latter part of the season. although I still think their Goals Against tally is still decently low.

You think Hossa should have been ejected and suspended? I don't think his hit was near as bad as Ovechkin's on Brian Campbell, which broke Campbell's collarbone and knocked him off the active roster for 6 weeks. Last I heard, Harmhuis (sp?) wasn't hurt. And Toews took a couple of hits that game that were apparently considered clean--I don't remember a penalty, but I was in and out of the room--that put him on the bench for a while. Luckily, he came back.

I'm not excusing what Hossa did. He may still be suspended, and I wouldn't want to be him when the team hits Nashville ice tomorrow because I think it pretty certain that Nashville will sacrifice one of their lesser players and send him out to cream Hossa into the boards. But there was a period of a couple of weeks near the end of the season when other teams seemed to be doing just that against the Blackhawks, and I recall 2 minute penalties being assessed if any were assessed at all.

And I'm not saying that the playoffs are the time for paybacks. But penalties for those types of hits need to be assessed equally.

And I think the Hawks would have won even if Hossa had been ejected. The emotion of Kane's goal would have carried them through.

And I am glad that Harmhuis wasn't hurt.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I remember that Ovechkin hit. Happened to be one of the games on TV here, and it was worse. Savard has been out for over a month due to a hit to the head, and he was one of the major Bruins stars. Last season, college hockey, our Maine college team had their goalie injured in a deliberate hit. Puck wasn't even on net.

Hockey is a rough game, but I'd like to see some stronger penalties on deliberate intent to injure.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I recall that one of the commentators argued that Hossa's hit didn't appear to be an intent to injure because of the way he piled into the guy. It looked as though he just couldn't change course in time.

OTOH, he's spent his entire life on skates, and he may just be a good actor.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

The "deliberate" thing gets complicated. One funny thing about the Olympics, the hockey games didn't have any fights. Even though those were mostly NHL players redistributed by nationality.

The NFL has had some success on eliminating behavior that's likely to injure players. Not universal, but some.

[equesgal.livejournal.com]

I'm a Kings fan, but still enjoyed that OT goal. The goal bullhorn gets me every time. LOL