Final Thoughts on the Stanley Cup Finals

Yuck. That is all we need, more Pittsburgh crap. Now we are going to have to listen to this for a whole %$#^&* year. The Whaler board that I frequent is all happy about the Pens winning. Why? Well they are mostly bandwagon jumping losers.

So a bunch of diving, crybaby, cheap shot artists won the Cup. You and your spoiled fans can go choke on it.

at least bettman got booed so much you couldnt even hear him, hopefully that opens his eyes to how bad he is running this league

I take issue with the claim that Hossa chose the wrong team. It didn’t work out quite the way he had hoped, but he got himself to within one win of the cup. When you consider that the Pens were in 10th in February, I think it’s quite clear that Hossa knew something was fundamentally off in Pittsburgh. The coaching change worked wonders for the team, but there is no way that Hossa could have seen that coming 8 months in advance! As well, if Hossa had stayed in Pittsburgh, who’s to say that the Pens are not in 8th place in February and there is no coaching change at all?

Yes, there’s definitely been more obstruction this season, especially during the playoffs. Sometimes I forgot that it was 2009 and not 1995 with the way guys were hooking and holding out there.

I don’t think Jordan will ever be as much of a scoring force as his older brother but he is a much better player than I thought he was. He was on the ice against the opposing team’s top line in all of their series and I wish there was a way we could get him.

I didn’t notice the trophy mishap you mentioned about Malkin but I do feel that certain young Russian players don’t have as much of a healthy respect for the game as others do…cough..Ovie.. cough Malkin can be a bit of a dirty player at times after the whistle, much like many other Russians I have witnessed in the past.

I don’t think you can really blame the media for Crosby’s mistake. It’s their job to get a prime interview for their viewers and it was Crosby’s job as a captain to excuse himself from the interview and participate in the handshake. He could resume the interview after he was done. I mean you said yourself that Maxim Talbot was able to do that so he could be in the team photo. Don’t you believe the handshake tradition is just as if not more so important? Especially for a captain? I think Brind’amour would agree with me.

You’re right on about the refs letting WAY too much go during the playoffs. I understand that they don’t want to decide the series, but the NHL has to be careful not to revert back to the pre-lockout scoring drout. Even during the regular season I thought more holding and interferences should have been called. The NHL should nip this in the bud unless they want to sabatoge the viewership upswing that they have right now.

I’m really glad for the NHL and the sport of hockey about the good ratings. I hope it becomes a more widely watched and talked about sport in the USA. I do fear that you’re right about the Nothing But Crosby network though. And to think I thought the market couldn’t possibly be more saturated with him.