They'll lose two games in November and he'll come back up and they'll win two, and everyone will credit it to the 3 hits he made.
After essentially having an elite penalty kill for 15 years, the Bruins penalty kill is now terrible. Unfortunately this year’s Bruins might just be what many people thought last year’s Bruins would be. It’s early but vibes are low
Yeah, not sure what's going on, but they've been a poor 2 way team in general this year after being a possession monster for the better part of the last 2 decades. The only regular players on the team with a greater than 50% expected goal share is their 4th line, which is wild.
My root causes are: - Marchand looking old/maybe hasn’t recovered from his offseason surgeries. - a blueline full of absolute units that are unsurprisingly slow moving/with the puck and take penalties. - the penalty kill being completely ineffective + taking too many penalties in the first place (see the second point). - Jack Edwards retiring negatively affecting the vibes. Sweeney has constructed the team for long playoff series, but the problem is we have to make the playoffs first.
For my own entertainment I hope Tage is back this year. His highlight tape from the year before last was maybe the best outside of McDavid in recent years.
1. Interference 2. Holding the stick 3. Crosscheck How are NHL refs so bad to miss all three and why can’t we use technology to get these calls right? Would take less than 30 seconds.
I am not looking it up to see if it’s true or not, but surely last night was the first game where three different Arizona raised players scored in the same game? Knies, Kastelic, Matthews
Interesting situation in Philly. Dach has the puck, Couturier skates toward him, knocks the puck away, and pretty clearly unintentionally clips Dach in the chin with his back. Dach doesn't like it, Xhekaj goes after Couturier, and both drop gloves despite Couturier obviously not being thrilled about it. Right as they start, Seeler jumps on Xhekaj and prevents the fight. Refs convene and Xhekaj ends up with the only penalty. I think the NHL should enforce more plays that way because guys constantly having to fight for nothing plays is fucking stupid, but you pretty much never see refs make calls that way.
I don't like it. Regardless of whether he was "forced", he did drop the gloves. Once they do that, it's a fight and Seeler is clearly a 3rd man in. Nothing actually requires Coutuirer to fight. Could have just kept himself tied up with Xhekaj and waited for someone to join the scrum and save him, but he didn't. Should have been a Montreal PP there.
Agreed 100%. Was trying to articulate that Montreal got fucked in the current context of the rules, but I think they need to do something about players going after guys and clearly initiating fights during the run of play.
If Seeler never jumps in then the correct call would have been 5 each for fighting and a 2 min instigator for Xhehaj. But because Seeler jumped into a fight already in progress, the correct call should have been 5 min Couturier-Fighting 5 Min Xhekaj-Fighting 2 Min Xhekaj- Instigating 5 Min Major and Game Misconduct- Seeler-3rd man in. Final result 2 min at 4 on 4 then a 3 minute major PP for Montreal
guys having to answer for clean hits is one thing, but this was a guy having to answer for barely grazing a guy in the neutral zone.I get the letter of the law, but it would have been ridiculous if Montreal ended up with a power play over that. I think the refs gave Seeler the benefit of the doubt because he just grabbed Xhekaj and didn't take any shots.
You would know more than me but I’ve never got that impression. My brain is saying that they’re usually called in the classic big hit + third guy jumps in to fight the hitter but maybe it’s changed and I haven’t noticed.
Not sure I agree. I feel like refs have done a good job of calling an instigator penalty when players are made to answer for a clean hit. The call I never see is the 3rd man in which was what we clearly saw in this one. The problem is that seeler did get involved after the gloves were off for both.That should have been an auto major. benefit of the doubt would have been a matching minor and 4 on 4. Just my 2cents on the play
Data doesn't have the last 3 years, but from 2013 to 2021 there was about 1 instigator penalty called per 20 NHL games. Over that same span, there was an average of about .5 fights per game. So only 1 in every 10 fights receives an "instigator" call as well. Considering how often fights happen between a guy that made the hit and a guy that had nothing to do with the play, I think that's way low. https://www.icydata.hockey/vizzes/penalties-dashboard/7
NHL games this week: Mon: 8 Tue: 7 Wed: 6 Thurs: 7 Fri: 6 Sat: 11 Sun: 7 This may be the most balanced weekly schedule in NHL history