As the first round goes on, it continues to suck worse and worse that the Coyotes didn't make it to the playoffs.
I am not one of those people who gets all depressed when my team loses, but with double headers on every night, especially when most of the games are flat-out awesome, it's just a constant reminder about how fun it would be to actually have a rooting interest in any of these games.
Still, the first round of the playoffs never disappoints and this year has been amazing, Coyotes or not. To my mind, the Blues series has been the best, and I hope there is a game seven because that would be the perfect end to an almost perfect series.
Almost every series has been good, and I don't know if it's just me, but for some reason I can't get into the San Jose / LA series. Maybe it's because it's always on so late, or maybe its just that they are not interesting teams, I don't know, but I can't get into it.
Has there ever been two players like Thornton and Marleau, obvious hall-of-famers, who are just so boring and hard to cheer for? Shouldn't I just like them because they are good at hockey and I like hockey? Clearly they are both decent guys, so I don't know what it is. And the weird thing? I don't think it's just me.
Marc Andre-Fleury
You gotta feel bad for this guy. When he wins, it's just because he plays on a team with Crosby and Malkin. When he loses, it's totally all his fault.
I think it's kind of weird that people always criticize guys who've never won a Cup, but the argument doesn't work in the reverse for some reason. I heard a lot of people talk about how Fleury always supposedly chokes this week, but I never heard anyone defend him by pointing out that he has two Cup Final appearances and one win.
He's a good goalie, and an easy whipping boy. People who are into hockey should be embarrassed with the low level of discourse, the easy and unthinking narratives that permeate the game as well as the shaming and the group-think that goes on, and Marc-Andre Fleury (if not Matt Cooke) should be the poster boy with what's wrong with hockey talk.
Intermissions
Am I the only one who is sick of watching hockey intermissions? I don't know if it's just burnout on my part from watching like nine months straight of nightly hockey, but I can barely stomach anymore intermission B.S.
If they talked about plays, strategy, hockey, players, history or rumors, I would be happy. Unfortunately, all they seem to talk about are two subjects I can't and don't care about anymore:
Referee errors and Suspensions.
These two topics, I am done with them. I don't care who hit who, how dirty it was or how long they are suspended. It's hockey. You should expect it. Get over it.
Now, I am not saying the NHL should be a free-for-all with tons of dirty plays, but I just don't want to talk about them anymore.
There are dirty hits every game. Get used to it. The NHL should hand out discipline, and we should all move on with our lives. This constant hand-wringing is sickening and worse, it's boring. At this point, I couldn't care less what Matt Cooke does and I would like to see someone paid to talk about hockey actually talk about hockey.
Furthermore, it's all so goddamned hypocritical. Everyone is so offended about these dirty hits, they scream for suspensions, then argue over them ad nauseam AND YET here is the thing: If the NHL wanted dirty hits out of its game, it could do so easily. All they have to do is make the suspensions really really heavy. Hit from behind? 30 games. Head shot? 50 games.
It would take two suspensions and these hits would be gone from hockey. But they won't do that. They will give two and three game holidays and when the Devil, I mean Matt Cooke, does something, he will get a few more. And they will do this until someone dies or is paralyzed and then everyone will be like "How did that happen?" which is idiotic because it's been obvious for years that the lack of discipline, the ridiculous equipment and the incentives to win all outweigh the danger and consequences of smashing a guy in the head with a metal-spiked elbow pad.
So, either piss-off with all this talk about suspensions and dirty hits, or actually do something about it.
As for the refs? They are human. They blow plays just like players do and its happened for as long as there has been hockey. Get over it. Bad luck on calls against your team even out over time, so while I feel bad for Minnesota last night, it happens. The NHL does not need to make their games drag on longer just so that they can get every single call right. The game has been fine this long without perfection.
And honestly, I don't care how bad the refs screw up, it's never as bad as hearing people talk about it incessantly while ignoring things like the actual game being played.
Anyways, that's just what I think. Hit me up on Twitter @james_tanner123 or call me an idiot in the comments below. Hope you had a great weekend.