A Caps fan tried to take a shot of whiskey to feel better last night but it was blocked by Ryan Callahan.

look for philly to bring the 'hits' tonite

Bad defense and a softy = Bryz cheese

Lavy better be diggin' in their a$$es to come out possesed.

FTFY

Where's Emrick? These clowns announcing are atrocious.

What's wrong with Kenny Albert?

Flyers got screwed there, Fatty looked like he embellished that a bit.

Looks like Lavy dug in deep, defense only allowed 4 shots in the 2nd.


Kenny Albert is better at football, and he stinks at that too. Not my cup of tea, dont know what to tell you. He doesnt hold a FLAME to Emrick, and its not even in the same zip.

Oh boy, another ot game. Both goalies with softies in the 3rd.

That's a horrible call against the Devs.

Tough to blame Bryz for that, it was a terrible change by the Flyers.

Horrible switch.

Sometimes i feel we'd be better off with the degenerates from Luck as our defensemen than our current group. Hurry the hell up Meszaros, we need you.

Giroux gets a game suspension for his hit against Zubris. It's become beyond ridiculous.

here's the explination:
http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/con...d=60&id=176718

Based on this I'm still trying to figure out how Ovechkin didn't even get a hearling for jumping in the air and hitting Girardi in the head.

Why is that ridiculous? I thought it was deserved.

I edited the post. Just no consistency by Shannahan, that's the ridiculous part.

Here's the hit by Ovechkin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8myT-qqM0TI

The only thing I'd say about the Ovechkin hit is that Girardi is looking Ovechkin square in the eyes when Ovechkin hits him. Ovechkin is just one big dude. Also, much more of a body check than the Giroux play.

But yes, Shanahan/NHL has been incredibly inconsistent this year. I think the issue is that his boss is Bettman and Bettman's bosses are the owners, and while suspending guys for infractions is what he's supposed to be doing, it's got to be difficult to do that with the dynamics of the situation (especially in the playoffs).

But if you look, Ovie actually goes to make the hit versus playing the loose puck (which is where I believe Girardi is looking). Like I said, the fact that Giroux did get suspended (which was warrented) and Ovie didn't even get called into the principal's office is the thing that makes my head shake.

giroux deserved a game-it was blatant elbow directed at the head.
ovie? no, i don't think it did warrant a look. and knowing how shannie likes to review, i'm sure he'd have done something if it was called for.

Shea Weber didn't get called into the principal's office for slamming a guy's head into the turnbuckle; why would it be surprising that Ovechkin didn't get a call for a 93.7 percent legal check?

Again though, completely agree on the lack of consistency. I did think Giroux was much more blatant than Ovechkin though.

Weber had a hearing and was fined, just not suspended.
They say past hits impact the punishment. Giroux has no history and Ovechkin has had a number of questionable hits. Shanahan has a tough job but he sucks at it.

As physical as Shannahan played I'm shocked that he's been such a puss at his job

I haven't yet nailed down why but it seems like the NHL is against the idea of the Rangers moving on. Caps have had late PP's in any game that is tied or they are trailing. The fact that this didn't get a second look is just another point.

I don't believe Weber actually had an official disciplinary hearing, which I don't believe is necessary via the CBA to fine a guy. I think Shanny just called and said "don't do that again" and that was the extent of the "hearing."

I can't figure it out either. It can't be Shanahan, who played here. Colin Cambell? Unlikely, it's not Daly, Bettmans right hand man, as I heard him say he grew up a Ranger fan. So that leaves only Bettman himself.
One or two horrible calls/non calls against the Rangers can be written off as coincidence, but it's gone far beyond that IMO.

For me it comes down to the timing AND the awfulness of the calls. Lets hope for a blowout this evening.

I don't believe that there's a conspiracy theory against the Rangers, if anything you would think the opposite and the NHL would want them to go far.
I'm just confused about the inconstistency of Mr. Shannahan's office. I really believe that the Ovie hit was borderline, but if he follows the path that he has taken during the post season so far, there should have at least been a hearing.

Un-Belieeeeeeeevable.......................

Joel Ward from hero to goat. Still, Holtby needs to secure that rebound with under seven seconds to go. Richards just beat him to the puck.

I don't blame Holtby at all. He made the first two saves including one that was deflected. I think Carlson has to take some blame, it was 6 on 4 with the Rangers being on the PP and having the goalie pulled and he jumped into the net behind Holtby making it in essence a 6-3. At that point someone should have tackled Richards. Even if they took another penalty, it would have came down to a face off with about 4 seconds left.

I'll admit that I was in absolute shock at the thought of going back to Washington down 3-2 in a game where the Rangers seemed to dominate.

Just in general, I think Holtby gives up way too many rebounds. I realize that he's played reasonably well, but he's beatable on any given night. Not a lot of teams win Cups with goalies who have regular holes in their game.

I think he has been excellent all series, but the Rangers haven't had the great scoring opportunites that the Caps have had. But he has made almost all the saves. I'm sure he would like to have that first one back from last night. I really haven't seen the rebounds that you are talking about. Keep in mind that since the Caps block so many shot, that many times when they do get through they have been deflected (like the winner last night).

If the Caps end up losing this series, it will come down to them just not finishing on some great opportunities that they have had (Ovechkin & Brower in the triple ot game and Backstrom last night).

in the marathon triple ot game the other night, the rangers were the ones with two pp's in two ot periods. caps had none.

missed watching the game last night, which is probably a good thing. had a lions club fundraiser-what poor timing!
anyway, hopefully we can even the series in d.c. tomorrow.

This was the first game they have played well for the entire time since game 1 of the Ottawa series.
I was thinking the same thing.

No but they did get one with 3 mins left in regulation...again.

my point was that there's no bias, which is why i posted that.

I havent seen the Flyers outskated/outplayed like this in a long time. It's like NJ has 7 players on the ice to our 5. The defense has been atrocious and if it werent for Bryz, we'd be getting beat by 5 goals a game.

With that said, i like them to rally around the loss of G tonight for a hard fought win. Look for Hartsy and Co. to come out finishing checks and scrappin along the boards, something we've strayed from in this series. With a win tonight, we can gain some momentum back in our favor, get the shot in the arm with G playing like a man on fire in game 6, with Game 7 up for grabs to the hungriest team. Wishful thinking, but this team has been in this position before and isnt out of it until the horn sounds. NOW, IF WE CAN ONLY TAKE OUR COLLECTIVE HEADS FROM OUR ASSES.

That would be true if the Rangers PP were worth a damn, until waaay late in the game last night it was just two minutes off the clock where the other team is less likely to get a good scoring chance.
3 games in the series the Caps have tied or taken a lead on a 3rd period PP. I stand by my bias claim, though I am biased. :D

I'm going to go ahead and say that they've not really strayed from the scrapping along the boards bit when Giroux isn't playing tonight because of a scrap in the vicinity of the boards.