It's Hockey Season!!

“buffalo?
HAHAHA”

“What's wrong with buffalo?”

“pick up your phone crazy lady in staten island!”

“house phone or cell?

it twignut answers tell her to get off the phone!!”

“Penguins kick the ducks! 2-1”

“Wash. just beat Phili., Flyers came up with an amazing goal with 25 seconds on the clock though.

Devils kicked some Carolina a$$ tonight also.”

“Thank God about the Devils. Was Marty in goal?”

“Don't know. I picked it up on NHL.com.”

“Thanks anyway I'll check it out.”

“Just checked, Marty was in goal.”

“Yes he was in goal. He's the 2nd star! 4-1 Cool! He's great for my fantasy team!”

“Brian Rafalski was back tonight.”

“Penns won too.”

“Yep I love our new goalie. He is very good for a 20 year old. If he becomes consistent and we bring Fleury up next year (or the year after with CBA), baby LOOK OUT! Mario will be back kickin' it with 2 good hips!”

“Penguins will be back in a few years. They have a lot of young guys who have gotten a lot of ice experience.”

“I think the Pens won't have to wait too long. They are playing great now, our goaltending sucked until we brought up Chiodo. Aubin shouldn't even play in the NHL. Our young players are starting to get cohesive and I absolutely love our forechecking! Now we need some experience and we will start kicking butt!!!!
We play the Rangers tomorrow now that's a game I'd like to see.”

“Last night's 5-3 win over the Panthers puts them first in the NHL. Unfortunately, they have to play the Red Wings tomorrow night.”

“Yeah, and with Robbie Lang! It's going to be tough.”

“7-4 OVER THE RANGERS!!!!!! I am one damn HAPPY GIRL!!!!”

“The Ranger are bad....and I think they've the biggest payroll in the NHL....I could be wrong...but I think they've the biggest payroll in all national sports teams!!!”

“My guess is that the Yankees have a higher payroll. Hockey players are the lowest paid of all national sports.”

“The Flyers fought the Senators Friday night and a hockey game broke out. 419 penalty minutes, nearly all in the last two minutes. New NHL record.

That took the starch out of the Flyguys though. Lost to the Craps the next night!”

“Even Bobbie Clarke, Flyers GM wanted to duke it out with Senators GM. Now that woulda been classic. Clarke starting something without Schultz to back him up. Who woulda thunk!”

“Feels like the playoffs are right around the corner.”

“The Flyers and Sens have another game coming up. Will they start it up all over again, or skate like the Ice Capades? Somehow, I expect another donnybrook.

One of the gals in our office went to the game. I told her she probably got the best game of the season to see in person. She said by the end of the game, there were just three guys left on the Flyers bench and four on the Sens.”

“Limpy, did you catch the Brashear interview after the game. I nearly fell over laughing.”

“No, I didn't but Robt Esche was classic Flyer, baby!!!”

“The reporters were asking Brashear about the Senators starting the fight, and Brashear said, "I started it!"”

“I saw Hanzus had 25 pen min!

Still the PENGUINS have a winning streak!!! The Rangers have traded alot of high priced players!”

“I heard it was the first time the Pens won two straight since Dec.”

“Yes, and it was a home game, I can't even remember when they won a home game last.”

“Must be a holiday for Pittsburghlars!”

“Hey goon lover!”

“Why can't you see the puck on television? Maybe optic orange is the answer.”

“I remember Fox had a little blue dot that followed the puck around. The problem was it sometime didn't.”

“Sometimes at the rink you lose sight of the puck. That silly dot was disconcerting.

Tango, a Darius Kasperitus fan calling somebody else a goon lover is like a tree peeing on a dog! Even if you have dumped him.”

“Never has Darius had 25 min of penalties in one game! Anything else?”

“'Course not, he skates with the Broadway Blues and the refs can't believe any Ranger would do a thing like that. I've seen him do some pretty ugly things on the ice and not get called.

At least when Brashear does it he owns up to it and doesn't act like it didn't happen.”

“I just don't know how to act! I am so happy!!! WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!!

I don't think Darius is a goon at all. All defensemen ride that line at one time or another. I can say I have never seen him try and injure someone.

I missed the Bertuzzi hit how bad was it?”

“hey Tang.

I'm not much of a hockey person, nothing against it I just have conflicting schedules if ya know what I mean.

anywho, I was browsing the Sports page this afternoon and I took note to the fact that the Penguins are in last place??

Is this correct or was I reading an old paper that was wedged in between the hopper and the wall for a while?”

“It's true. The fire sales that are going on around the league now started in Pittsburgh about 4 years ago. We have no big names (Mario is out for the year) most of our guys are very young and rookies. So in a few years we will be a force to reckon with, but now sadly we are last. We had 18 losses in a row (1 OT loss). But I still watch every game and have the faith of an Angel!”

“"I missed the Bertuzzi hit how bad was it?"- Tango

It was bad...Bertuzzi pulled Moore's collar from the back, and gave him a roundhouse punch to the right side of his head. Then Bertuzzi fell right on top of Moore (I think at that time he was unconscious already), smashing his face into the ice. Apparently there was a pool of blood under Moore's head. Moore now have a broken neck.

I know Bertuzzi (and the rest of the Vancouver team) wanted to hurt Moore, for his hit on Nasland three weeks ago...an elbow to the head which gave him a concussion. But there's lots of ways to hurt a player that is legal, or looks legal. This sucker punch sure didn't look legal.”

“Re goons, I think players in all sports pump a little too much testosterone, although when somebody kicked me in the crotch in a soccer game, once I recovered I had the son of a stronsa marked until they took him out of the game and saved him the same agony he put me through.

Fact was, though, he really was playing the ball, just not necessarily the ones he connected with.

Not always easy to take your lumps and play on though.

Fighting and intimidation have always been the machismo code of hockey, and apparently always will.

Frankly, I am one fan who could dispense with it. It's a violent enough sport as it is, what with hard ice, sticks, a hard puck, and bodies crashing into one another. But it's not the only sport where intimidation is routinely practiced, witness the baseball ritual of brushing them back off the plate and knock-down pitches, charging the mound, spiking.

Football and basketball as well.

Baseball pitchers carry memories of players and teams they mark for retaliation, just as hockey goons do.

For better or worse, it's all part of the game. In the average fan's mind, it's okay if our goon is bigger than your goon.

There are goons with no class and classy goons. Gordie Howe was a classy goon. He did what he did in a manner that refs couldn't see it, but just as brutally. I still recall that a Chicago defenseman named Keith Magnuson got an indentation in his skull that was the flip side of Gordie's elbow. Earlier in the game he transgressed against Gord. Howe caught up to him in the third period in a play where they were in the corner and the play went back up-ice. Howe took Keith into the boards with his famed elbow calling card in the ear. Magnuson collapsed like a sack of potatoes, and when he got up he was screaming at the zebras for a penalty. Gordie was skating up ice like he was out for a Sunday spin on the pond, looking innocent as a choirboy.

Some guys play coy and deny the've done anything. I just thought it was funny the way Brashear 'fessed up to it.”

“I personally don't like fighting. I especially hate when two players dance around each other threatening the first punch. That is so contrived. I can understand heat of the moment fights more (still don't like them). I loved that in their hey day the Pens were one of the least penalized for fighting. I love the skill, the flow (Hate the dump they mostly use now). I totally agree with you Geo about it being violent enough, I love a good hip check, a good open ice hit. I just love this game!


stanlee, I did see the hit. I think it (you're gonna kill me) wasn't totally intentional. Let me explain. I think the punch was intentional, but I think Todd didn't know that the guy was unconscious on the way down. It kind of reminds me of the open ice Brashears thing a couple of years ago.
Hope he recovers I read he has a broken neck.”

“It is out of control, and the league looks the other way because there are "fans" who cheer when it happens.

I agree Tango about the flow of the play, at least the way old time hockey was played. I still maintain that the last good hockey game I ever saw was played on 1980 at Lake Placid. That was beautiful, absent the result.”

“Even though we lost I liked the Penguin Philly game that went 5 OT's!

And of course I loved the Stanley cup games.”

“"stanlee, I did see the hit. I think it (you're gonna kill me).."-Tango

Nah, I think I'll just hire one of those NHL goons to do it for me. :o)”

“The only hockey player to kill someone was an offense player.”

“what a fan!”

“I totally LOVE Hockey.

$250,000 fine for the club? Suspended for the rest of year. But it's cruel for him to have to wait till training camp for next years eligibility!”