MattPie

Maybe's it's because the curve on the hockey stick forces you one way once you're chosen. I suppose you could mess people up by having different sticks, but I'm not sure anyone would notice on the ice. How do girls figure it out?

And the Sabres advance to the next round of the playoffs!

I have a tough time seeing 5 of 8 points to match. But, small sample size.

Sabres need 5 of the remaining 8 points to match last year's 81 points. Over a full season, that's a 102-point pace. Also, Colorado's Max Points right now is 51. That's terrible on a level we can't even fathom.

I feel bad about this: Connor McPeanut. Because he's brittle. If only we had a high-draft pick Center behind ROR and Eichel that could anchor a third line.

Nah: Kane - ROR - Ennis Foligno - Eichel - Reinhart CJ Smith - Carrier - Gionta Moulson - Girgensons - Nylander

Slashing is probably better now than it used to be. When was the last time you saw something like these?

Seems like we've been hearing this for at least 20 years (Matt Barnaby, anyone?). It's starting to suspiciously sound like "in my day, kids didn't walk on other people's lawns".

Didn't read on here somewhere the in Pittsburgh, he did exactly that? The top 2 lines played one system, bottom two played another.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the crossbar is the standard for touching a puck on a goal, but playing the puck during play (not leading to a goal) is the player's shoulders. Handedness: My Dad told me he tried to "make" me ambidextrous when I was little by making me play with various things with both hands. My Mom didn't want me to be left-handed; I guess that superstition (left being the DEVIL'S HAND) dies hard. I'm pretty right-handed, and in my brief hockey playing experience I shot right. My Dad was a somewhat serious beer/work league player, he taught himself to shoot left despite being righty.

1: Ask Darius Kasparaitus. :censored: If a player is sitting or on his knees, and plays a puck above his shoulders, is it still playing the puck with a high stick?

0 goals 10 points in 56 games, -20. basic stats on a bad team, but that's not encouraging.

We're watching a slow-motion train crash.

If there's something to it, take it to the police or a reporter and help run it down. Hinting around at heinous accusations on a message board is NOT the way to handle it.

I totally agree. If it's a D, a forward should give a stick and then sprint off. It's it a forward, just go. Odds are the other team won't even be able to get organized in the time it takes to swap.

Late bloomers, I'd assume. Or they didn't play for a "big" high school program and flew under the radar until making it in college.

That was post-2005 lockout that the change happened, right? (apparently not; 03-04). NHL decided they liked it better that way, probably to match the NFL. The "Away Colors" wikipedia page only talks about whites at home from 1970-2002. This is interesting from Wikipedia: "The third major change was for the 1927–28 season when the team's name changed to the Maple Leafs, gaining a new logo and returning to the blue uniform. The logo was a 47-point maple leaf with "Toronto Maple Leafs" lettered in white. The home jersey was blue with alternating thin-thick stripes on the arms, legs and shoulders. The road uniform was white with three stripes on the chest and back, waist and legs. For 1933–34, the alternating thin-thick stripes were replaced with stripes of equal thickness. This would remain as the basic design for the next 40 years"

Moving someone else's stick: I think it's only a penalty if you push it away from the player, I've seem players push a stick out of the way, right? I'd guess if you picked up another players stick before they could get to it it'd be a penalty too. As for the clip, seems like Koivu could have gotten a holding the stick penalty when we (kinda) took it out of Ryan's hands. Good question!

That's the way it's usually called, but for the life of me I don't know how refs/linesmen can keep track of that in real-time.

A thread of random hockey questions that are absurd or stupid. Why not? I'll go first: - It's mandatory for a player to wear a helmet. Are any other pieces of gear mandatory? (I.e., can a player go out without skates or gloves, even if it's pretty ill-advised to forego them)

I get the feeling it's not your views that are the issue.

No worries! I remember the 2009 playoff bubble race being wacky. Philly and NYR tied and it came down the last game of the season head-to-head, win and playoffs, lose and golf. The game went to OT and NYR sandbagged it figuring Lundqvist would win a shootout over whoever the Flyers had. Whoops. I remember it because it was a day game and I was in my yard digging up the garden listening to the game. Due to the tie breaker, Philly was #7; either out or the #7 seed can't happen too often either.

That's his own fault for going out for dinner the night before the Game 7 against the Mexico City Jets. I'm guessing it does count as a game played. It'll especially funny if 5 years from now Samson is the NHL ironman having played 500 straight games. Thank you for indispenisable contribution to the conversation.

I wonder when the last time a Sabre (or NHL) skater had :00 ice time in a game. Peters, maybe? Val James? Seems like something from the 70s where your enforcer sat on the bench menacingly waiting for a bench-clearer.

Philly *and* Mor-ray-all made it in with 88 in 2009, and there have been a handful of 91s and 92s in the last 12 years, but Dallas missed with 95 in 2011. 93 is an average that's a decent predictor but not set in stone. Boston is sitting in 8th right now with 86, and should end up right around 92-93 points if they keep the same pace. St Louis is at 88 with 7 games to play, so they'll likely be above 93. BTW, we should all be rooting for Tampa, the Fishers, and (ick) Boston if we want Toronto eliminated. :)