I was surprised the Rangers lost, Pens surprised me by how good they were

Yes, I think that took at lot out of them. Many of the goals scored by Pittsburgh in that game were not pretty.

patriot2342001 wrote:
I was as well, especially considering that the Rangers pretty much dominated them during the regular season. Pittsburgh jumped to another level in the playoffs.

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"Fight them until all opposition ends and all submit to Allah." ~ Qur'an:8:39

Muslims aren't dying from war....they're being murdered by members of their own cult.

I went to a local prize fight the other night and right in the middle of it a hockey game broke out. Strange

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Its better to have fussed and crabbed then never to have fussed at all - Lucy

Playing the sport is very intense, the frustration level can be very high. It's a very physical sport and fighting is a part of the game and I don't mind it until it becomes a tactic of the game. Many of these guys that get into brawls are actually friends off the ice. The ones that aren't(the goons), have no real place within the sport.

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"Fight them until all opposition ends and all submit to Allah." ~ Qur'an:8:39

Muslims aren't dying from war....they're being murdered by members of their own cult.

The best trade in Sharks history, even though I hated to see Marco Sturm go. I wonder how many times a team has traded a player who then went on, with his new team, to win the scoring title and MVP award the same year?

Big Joe just signed a new long term contract last year, so he'll be in SJ for a long time. Now, expectations have been ratcheted up and with the Sharks failures in the second round 3 years in a row, Ron Wilson has been fired. I'm just waiting to see who we're going to have as a new coach.

Good for Joe. Sturm has fit in well here.

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Han Solo: "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid."

Why are hockey players allowed to fight?

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Democrats are raping Americans at the pump

Because someone has to do it.

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Han Solo: "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid."

I dunno, why don't College Republicans go and fight?

Fighting in hockey has been around as long as the game itself. To simplify it, what it comes down to is that theoretically it allows the players to police the game themselves. For example, when Wayne Gretzky was at his peak in Edmonton he had people like Dave Semenko, Marty McSorley and others watch his back so he could do what he did - which was break over 60 NHL records. If someone took liberties with Gretzky , then someone on Wayne's team would retaliate and draw that other offender into a fight. Normally, that would end things right then and there. It was an action, followed by a reaction, a fight and that would most of the time be it for the game. In the early to mid '80's when there were still bench clearing brawls and 3rd man in and stuff that got a little silly, the league started instituting new rules to curb the brawls and tugging and the like because of the reputation that hockey had. So if you were a 3rd man in a fight you got booted from the game. If you instigate a fight you get a 2 minute minor plus a 10 minute misconduct and possibly a game misconduct. If you leave the bench to start or join an altercation you get an immediate, no questions asked 10 game suspension. Most recently, they put in a rule that if you start a fight within the last 5 minutes of a game then you get a 1 game suspension.

The Philadelphia Flyers were really the first team to employ fighting as a tactic and it worked. They won 2 Stanley Cups back to back. Any team that enjoy success will always have one or 2 enforcers on their team. Today, you can't dress a 'goon' for strictly the sake of fighting. the game has changed too much Some for the better, some for the worse. Personally, I hate the instigator rule. But if you look at any Dynasty team or any team that has won 2 Cups in a row, not only will you see names like Gretzky, Hull, Bossy & Lemieux but you'll also see names like Semenko, Loney, Caufield, Schultz and Kelly.