(Video) Ryan Callahan No Goal Call vs Montreal Canadiens

I don't see any reason why this goal doesn't count, but I guess we need to take a look at NHL Rule 69.3.

69.1 Interference on the Goalkeeper - This rule is based on the premise that an attacking player’s position, whether inside or outside the crease, should not, by itself, determine whether a goal should be allowed or disallowed. In other words, goals scored while attacking players are standing in the crease may, in appropriate circumstances be allowed. Goals should be disallowed only if: (1) an attacking player, either by his positioning or by contact, impairs the goalkeeper’s ability to move freely within his crease or defend his goal; or (2) an attacking player initiates intentional or deliberate contact with a goalkeeper, inside or outside of his goal crease. Incidental contact with a goalkeeper will be permitted, and resulting goals allowed, when such contact is initiated outside of the goal crease, provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such contact. The rule will be enforced exclusively in accordance with the on-ice judgment of the Referee(s), and not by means of video replay or review.

Watch That's Hockey 2Nite on TSN 2 this evening with Steve Kouleas and you you will get the straight, correct answer on Tampa disallowed.
— Kerry Fraser (@kfraserthecall) April 21, 2014

Player who is in the goal crease & this results with impairment of goalkeeper's ability to defend his goal, the goal will be disallowed.
— Kerry Fraser (@kfraserthecall) April 21, 2014

Correct call on disallowed goal! 69.3if goalkeeper in act of establishing his position within crease, initiates contact with an attacking
— Kerry Fraser (@kfraserthecall) April 21, 2014

(Video) Hockey Night In Canada 2014 Playoff Opening

What an awesome video. Hockey is the greatest game on the planet. The Stanley Cup is also the pinnacle of the NHL's season. Should be a good run. This is one downside of having DirecTV, I no longer get CBC.

Bruins get tough draw with Red Wings

There's a common theme starting to appear on line. I keep reading how the Boston Bruins don't match-up well against the Detroit Red Wings, because they're a fast skating team. It's true, the Red Wings won 3-of-4 games during the regular season. As a Bruins fan, the match-up with the Red Wings and the Montreal Canadiens are the least attractive to me.

@Real_ESPNLeBrun -- If I had to pick a Cup champion right now, I'd go with the Bruins, especially because the East should be a more navigable journey compared to the contender-deep West. Yet I'm sure Bruins fans aren't exactly overjoyed their team drew the dangerous Red Wings in the opening round, a team that beat Boston three out of four games this season. I'm still picking Boston to prevail, but the matchup proves yet again that there's no such thing as a layup in the salary-cap era. All 16 teams that made the postseason have a shot.

History tells us that the Boston Bruins haven't done very well against the Montreal Canadiens. Boston had a 1-2-1 record against the Habs this past season. That's a fact that well documented. So what did the Habs do, they added former Buffalo Sabres forward Thomas Vanek, a known Bruins killer at the NHL trade deadline. Bruins fans are hoping that the Tampa Bay Lightning knock the Habs out during the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs.

During his NHL career, Thomas Vanek has scored 62 points, including 30 goals, against the Bruins, far and away the most against any opponent he has faced. Vanek is really hot right now, finally breaking out with his new team by scoring a hat trick against the Colorado Avalanche (Mark Wallace Graham, Hockey Writers)

The Bruins have a 2-5-2 record against the Red Wings and the Habs. Now, here’s the good news, the Boston Bruins have 15-1-0 record against the rest of the eastern teams in the playoffs. I know it sounds cliché, but anything can happen during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Brendan Gallagher Punched, Hit and Tripped No Call

I saw this over on Kuklas Korner and it's a perfect example of embellishment and why the divers don't get the call sometimes. Someone asked former NHL official Kerry Frazier about the non-call over on TSN and this is what the "ref" had to say.

Players that embellish on a consistent basis run the risk of not receiving the benefit of the doubt when they are legitimately fouled. Brendan Gallagher is too effective and too good a player to develop that unwanted reputation from the refs.

(Video) Marc-Andre Fleury and Peter Budaj Almost Fight

Last night, the Montreal Canadiens and the Pittsburgh Penguins hooked up in an eastern conference match-up. The Penguins beat Les Habs 5-1. The refs should have let Marc-Andre Fleury and Peter Budaj fight.

Max Pacioretty boards Johnny Boychuk (Video)

Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty was given a two-minute minor penalty for this dangerous, but not really malicious hit, against Boston Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk. I do not like this hit. I also think that Pacioretty should have been given more than a two-minute minor penalty. Not dirty, but it was worthy of a five-minute major. Boychuk was taken by ambulance to a Montreal hospital.

Montreal Canadiens: PK Subban Nice Goal-Line Save vs New Jersey Devils (Video)

Montreal Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban can play defense as well. Wow! Nice play.

Wild sit in 7th Place in the West

The Minnesota Wild have gone 6-3-1 in their last 10 games, won three in a row and still only sit in 7th place. The Wild west is tight again this season.

Related articles

• Wilderness Walk: 11-6-2013: Curb-Stomp Edition (hockeywilderness.com)
• Minnesota Wild: Parise Leads the Wild past the Flames with two goals (ndgoon.blogspot.com)

NHL Hockey: Anti-Fighting Cabal uses Parros Incident to Push Agenda

Last night, newly acquired Habs tough guy George Parros while fighting fellow Leafs Pugilist Colton Orr, slipped and fell awkwardly on to the ice, landing on his chin.  The violent fall knocked the Habs tough guy out. Fortunately, Parros wasn’t seriously injured and this is the tweet that George put on twitter account this morning.  [Video of incident]

Thanks for all the well wishes everyone #classyfollowers
— George Parros (@GeorgeParros) October 2, 2013

Now, the anti-fighting cabal which never lets an incident go to waste, immediately jumped on the Parros injury to make their call to ban fighting from hockey. Almost on cue, the tweets and articles to ban fighting in hockey started showing up from the usual suspects, you know who they are. Proving once again, that the people that write about hockey probably never played the game, ever. 

Fact: fighting in NHL will be banned some day. Question: will it happen before or after a funural? http://t.co/e1rkrBC0eC …
— Michael Grange (@michaelgrange) October 2, 2013

Whether you want to admit it or not, fighting is part of the game of hockey, that’s a historical fact, I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Sure, Fighting is not legal in college and most levels of youth hockey, but it’s part of the "culture" of junior hockey and the professional game. Let the hand wringing begin. Checking one of my favorite hockey blogs this morning, I found a few very predictable examples of the anti-fighting cabal’s stance on the issue. Obviously, they just can't help themselves. 

There's also an emerging theme starting to reappear almost every time the topic of fighting comes up in the Eastern Conference. Team are getting tougher because they're tired of getting beat up by the Boston Bruins. I kid you not.

Michael Grange, Sports Net -- With modest skills, he was smart enough to recognize that at six-foot-five and 230 lb. his best chance to make it to the NHL was as a fighter. He took boxing lessons (fighting is not allowed in college hockey) and fought every chance he could in the American Hockey League. He made his NHL debut in 2005–06 and has been in the league ever since, amassing 141 fighting majors and earning about $4 million.

This season he’s part of an arms race of sorts that threatens to make play in the Atlantic Division something like a UFC card on ice.

Parros’s name was added to the Canadiens’ lineup in part in response to the presence of rugged types like Orr in the Leafs’ lineup. The Leafs added fighters under head coach Randy Carlyle because he thought the club he inherited from Ron Wilson was too easily intimidated by the likes of the Boston Bruins, who won the 2011 Stanley Cup and were the toughest in the league.

Here's a few of the examples that I was talking about.

Pierre LeBrun, ESPN.com -- Everyone who reads me understands that I believe the game could survive without fighting. My belief is simply based on my fear that one day a player will die in a fight on the ice. Pure and simple. I say that because Don Sanderson did die in a Senior A Ontario game fight in 2009.

Am I concerned how the game would look if the "rats" in our game weren’t policed? Yes, I am. And I don’t have a good answer for that other than I’d hope the refs would police it as well as they could.

And you cannot discount the emotional lift that some fights do provide in games. The Habs seemed buoyed by Parros’ first fight with Orr, as well as Travis Moen taking on Mark Fraser.

I totally understand that and do not argue that fights in games have an impact. No question, they do.

But I come back to my one and only concern, the only one I’ve ever held on the sensitive subject: I’m worried we’ll have a tragic incident one day, because today’s players are just stronger and bigger than ever.

I believe that LeBrun is right about one thing, the NHL can't let the "Rats" in the NHL run wild. If the NHL takes fighting out of the game of hockey, the Patrick Kaletas and the Matt Cookes of the NHL will flourish and will run wild. Unchecked these players will be free to take runs at the leagues star players without the fear of retribution. You might want to ask Sidney Crosby if he want's the leagues "Rats" to have more freedom to take runs at him if fighting was banned from the NHL. To me, that's unacceptable. 

You must read this one, below is a blurb from the Hockey News, the anti-fighting hockey web page. It's almost like you have to be have an anti-fighting bias to write for them. 

Adam Proteau, the Hockey News -- In one respect, the injury could have happened on any play; it was an unexpected shift in weight and momentum that could’ve happened on a body check, as we saw with Kevin Stevens in 1993. As always, the standard disclaimer about how the game will never be 100 percent safe has to be issued, lest the straw-clutchers in the comment section get riled up.

But there’s no arguing one point: if Orr and Parros had been ejected from the game after their first fight in the first period, there’s no way Parros is hospitalized tonight. Tell me again why there shouldn’t be an automatic ejection for NHL fights?

To do so would allow fans of fighting and those who see it as a stress release valve to still watch fights. They just wouldn’t get to see the same guys punch each other repeatedly, repeatedly. Given what we’re learning about the long-term risk regular fighters such as Parros and Orr may face after their careers are over, the least we can do is acknowledge the toll one fight can take on them and not make them face two or three fights in the same night.

This is the nuance many fight fetishists can’t wrap their minds around. They throw out empty arguments such as the classic “you want to ban fighting”, when, at least for most people I know, that isn’t true at all. You can no more ban fights in hockey than any other sport. But you can punish it appropriately. And in all other sports, a fight gets you ejected.

We can’t have the anti-fighting debate without Adam Proteau chiming in. Proteau is a one of the founding members of the anti-fighting cabal. Proteau is a dove that hates fighting,  and sees no use for any fighting what-so-ever, in the game of hockey. Of course he’s right as well, Parros’s injury could have occurred even if he hadn't been in a fight. How about all of these grotesque checking from behind calls that aren't punished to the full extent of the rule book? I am more concerned about those kinds of hits. 

We can't forget Damien Cox from the Toronto Star. I used to follow this guy on Twitter but I had to unfollow him because I got tired of reading his political views in my twitter feed. Again, hockey is an awesome escape from the realities of real life. I don't care what these Canadian sports writers think of our countries flawed political system. Just write about hockey.  

But I digress.

Cox is another member of the anti-fighting cabal, that never misses an opportunity to slam the NHL's stance on fighting. I wonder sometimes if he wouldn't be happier covering baseball or figure skating. Hockey is a contact sport, people are going to get hurt no matter what. Injuries are a fact of life in the NHL. One NHL hockey player got hurt eating a stack of pancakes in his home. 

Damien Cox, Toronto Star -- After a summer in which the Bettman adminstration fiddled with silly rules like tucking in hockey jerseys and made changes to icing into a debate worthy of the Meech Lake Accord, of course it was the elephant in the room that made itself heard on opening night of the 2013-14 NHL season.

Fighting. The dangerous, pointless, bloody shame of fighting in the NHL, the combination of a league terrified to let the sport stand on its own two feet and a union that refuses to protect its workers.

In his 211th professional fight, Montreal’s George Parros went down for the count on Tuesday night, missing Maple Leafs enforcer Colton Orr with a wild haymaker and awkwardly hurling himself face-first into the ice as the bloodthirsty Bell Centre crowd, so thrilled with its new goon, roared.

And then went deathly, eerily silent.

Lastly, no one wants to see anyone get killed on the ice, that would be a travesty. However, fighting only accounts for about 10-percent of the on-ice concussions. Personally, I am more concerned about the dirty head shots, and the God awful, dangerous, checking from behind calls that need more scrutiny. Why doesn't the anti-fighting cabal members show as much disdain for these acts of violence as well?

Stop with the "let's ban fighting in hockey" non-sense following George Parros' unfortunate injury. The guy just lost his balance. #Habs
— Fred Poulin (@FredPoulin98) October 2, 2013

Related articles

• Montreal Canadiens' George Parros knocked out in scary hockey fight (with video) (o.canada.com)
• Habs' Parros carted off after nasty spill (cbssports.com)
• Parros concussed in first game with Habs (espn.go.com)
• Canadiens' Parros leaves on stretcher after fight (timesleader.com)
• Mirtle: Hockey doesn't need designated fighters (theglobeandmail.com)

Scott Gomez signs with Panthers

Scott Gomez gets 900k for on 1 year deal from #Panthers.
— Nick Kypreos (@RealKyper) July 31, 2013

Forward Scott Gomez signs with his third NHL team in three seasons. Gomez has played in the NHL for 14 seasons, scoring (171g-530a--730pts) and he has had a hard time hitting the back of the net, as of late, scoring only 11 goals in the last three seasons. Advice, don't select him for your fantasy team.

Related articles

• Scott Gomez signs one-year contract with Panthers (cbssports.com)

The Candiens sign Michael McCarron

Also, from the developing news department, the Montreal Canadiens have signed their first round draft choice Michael McCarron to a three year entry level deal, meaning he will forgo his college eligibility and play with the London Knights of the OHL. So, the NCAA vs. CHL debate will heat up even more with this defection. This also means that there were no college hockey recruits selected in the first round of the 2013 NHL Entry Level Draft.

MONTREAL (July 11, 2013) – Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin announced today the signing of forward Michael McCarron to a three-year contract (2013-14 to 2015-16).

In 55 games with the USHL’s US National Development Team in 2012-13, McCarron, 18, collected 34 points (14 goals, 20 assists). Six of his goals were scored on the powerplay and he tallied two winning goals. He led his team with 180 penalty minutes and maintained a +6 plus/minus differential.

The 6-foot-5, 237-pound right winger added five points (3 goals, 2 assists) in seven contests with Team USA at the 2013 IIHF U18 World Championship held last April in Sochi, Russia.

A native of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, McCarron was selected in the first round, 25th overall by the Canadiens at the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. He took part in his first Canadiens’ development camp last week

From the Hockey Writers

The London Knights are run the former NHL player’s Dale and Mark Hunter and in the past they’ve been pretty successful getting top American hockey players to decommit from their college commitments, to go play junior hockey for the London Knights. Last season, the Knights had two former NCAA players and a former NCAA recruit on their roster (Dakota Mermis, Anthony Stolarz, Alex Broadhurst).

This is a big loss for the Western Michigan Broncos.

Ken Dryden: After the Hit

English: Ken Dryden goalie mask, Hockey Hall-of-Fame (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you haven't seen this article, It's worth a read, but I don't agree with it. Not at all. I have never been a fan of Ken Dryden, post NHL career. Dryden has been one of the strong voices for taking fighting out of the NHL. A bad move in my opinion.

Ken Dryden, Grantland.com -- Yet if some of the decisions made afterward by the referees,1 by NHL senior vice-president of player safety Brendan Shanahan,2 or even the conclusions drawn by the media were technically wrong or contorted, they seemed right. The consequences of the hit, to many, somehow had to matter. The referees penalized Gryba for interference, even though he had committed no infraction. This wasn't interference. But the referees, somehow, still seemed right. In his reasoned-sounding judgment in suspending Gryba, Shanahan may have split the wrong hairs in concluding that Gryba made principal contact with Eller's head, but Shanahan, somehow, still seemed right. Commentators argued back and forth with each other, but mostly they argued with themselves — But Eller had his head down … but look at the injuries he suffered … But Diaz fed him a suicide pass … but look at the injuries he suffered … But it was a clean check … but look at the injuries he suffered.

Dryden goes on. Here it is...

There is another ethic in sports that has also always been there, and still is. It is worn as a badge of honor, particularly by the "tough guys." It goes: I will not hit someone when he is down. I will not hit someone when he is defenseless. There is no courage in that. There is dishonor in the doing. The question in this case: What makes a Gryba hit clean and good on a defenseless Eller when a punch to the face of someone lying on the ice, equally defenseless, is not?

In an age of concussions, maybe the first ethic is wrong. Maybe the second ethic is right. Maybe we don't just have a responsibility to ourselves. Maybe we do have a responsibility to everyone else, too. Maybe that's what the referees, Shanahan, the commentators, and the public are saying.

Maybe things are changing.

It's really not hard to see where this is going. It's a mind set, now we will start spending players that make legal hits, if they severely injure the player that was on the receiving end. This is what happened in the case with Lars Eller. In my opinion, NHL senior vice-president of player safety Brendan Shanahan Eric Gryba because if he hadn't he would have been ripped apart in the Montreal Media. It didn't matter if the hit was a legal hit.

Related articles

• Lars Eller destroyed by Eric Gryba (ndgoon.blogspot.com)
• NHL suspends Senators' Gryba 2 games (msn.foxsports.com)

Chris Neil elbows P.K. Subban and he embellishes yet again

I thought this was funny, even the announcers think that P.K. Subban embellished in an attempt to get the a call from the referee. I also think this is why some people don't like Subban and his antics. I have said this a thousand times, he's an awesome talent, it's the other crap that takes away from his game. I will give him a 4.5 on that one. If Chris Neil really wanted to elbow him, he would know it.

Rene Bourque elbow on Cory Conacher

So, I want to know why Montreal Canadiens forward Rene Bourque isn't getting a call from the NHL’s Department of Players Safety today for this vicious elbow on Senators forward Cory Conacher? Seriously? Looking at the video evidence last night’s game, I have concluded that this elbow is just as bad, if not worse than the elbow that resulted in Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference getting suspended for one game. I would really love to hear what others think of this elbow. Why do you think that there is no suspension coming?

Montreal Canadiens vs Ottawa Senators Donnybrook; P.K. Subban is a clown

Tonight, the Montreal Canadiens acted like a bunch of classless hacks. I don't know who the bigger clown is, P.K. Subban or the head coach of the Montreal Canadians. I don't blame the Ottawa Senators for taking the Habs to the wood shed tonight, Canadiens were begging for a beat down and they kept slashing the Senators and they obliged the Canadiens.

I also don't blame the Senators head coach Paul MacLean who called a timeout very late in the game. Make that 17 seconds left in the game. Of course the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens didn't like it. “As far as I’m concerned, it was classless,” Montreal Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien said.



Finally, talking about classless hacks. P.K. Subban runs his mouth up and down the ice, the guy is an absolute circus clown. Subban leaves his feet to check his opponent and is basically a two bit punk. When asked to fight, Subban turtles or runs and hides behind the refs, unless it's someone that weighs less than him.

Tonight, Subban (6'0" 200 lbs) fought heavy weight fighter Kyle Turris (6'0" 170 lbs), who is another player that is not known for his fighting prowess, according to Hockeyfights.com, Turris has been in three fights during his NHL career. Subban should really be proud of this fight, then he breaks the hockey code by punching Turris as he lays on the ice while he is tied up by the official.

subban leaving feet in gm1 RT @sensprospects Besides outcome, how is this hit diff than Gryba's hit? Guess allowed twitter.com/SensProspects/…
— sensblog (@sensblog) May 4, 2013

Carey Price appears to lose a tooth

Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price took a skate to the face from fellow teammate Jared Tinordi. At the whistle, Price skated to Canadiens bench and it looks like he handed the trainer his dislodged tooth. So, the first thought that comes to mind. Is there a bare nerve in Price’s mouth?  All I can say is ouch! That has to hurt? Nothing hurts more than losing teeth and air on a bare nerve. One has to wonder; don't these guys wear mouth guards?

NHL: Gryba to have hearing on Eller hit

"It's a clean hit with a bad result," Former NHL official Kerry Fraser. I don't believe there should be any [supplemental discipline], Fraser continued.

NHL.com -- The NHL has scheduled a disciplinary hearing for Ottawa Senators defenseman Eric Gryba on Friday for his hit on Lars Eller of the Montreal Canadiens in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series.

With just under 6 1/2 minutes left in the second period of Thursday night's game, Gryba caught Eller with a crunching hit at the blue line as the Canadiens forward was receiving a pass from defenseman Raphael Diaz. Eller was taken off the ice on a stretcher after landing face-first following the hit. He was expected to spend the night at the hospital with head and facial injuries, according to the Canadiens.

The following grounds for potential supplemental discipline are being considered: Illegal check to the head. However, the Department of Player Safety retains the right to make adjustments to these infractions accordingly upon further review.

Gryba was assessed a five-minute major for interference and a game misconduct on the play. Montreal scored once during the long power play, but Ottawa rallied with three goals in the third period for a 4-2 victory.

Game 2 of the series is scheduled for Friday night in Montreal.

Here is what the head coach of the Senators coach Paul MacLean had to say about the hit.

"(If I’m Eller), I’m really mad at player 61 [Raphael Diaz], whoever he is, because he passed me the puck in the middle of the rink when I wasn’t looking,” said MacLean. "That’s always been a dangerous place as far as I know. Ever since I’ve been playing this game, that’s a dangerous place to be — bad things happen."

@goon48 hit to the head. #MTLvsOTT twitter.com/AndyMPressoir/…
— JRoads ™ (@JRoadsreal) May 3, 2013

Related articles

• Lars Eller destroyed by Eric Gryba (ndgoon.blogspot.com)

Edit: Lars Eller destroyed by Eric Gryba

After watching some of the analysis post hit, I am not sure we need to page the NHL Department of Player Safety. Former NHL official Kerry Fraser gives us a pretty good explanation of what happened with hit and they had the benefit of having a big screen TV screen to break down the hit.

Edit: Senators defenseman Eric Gryba absolutely destroys Montréal Canadiens forward Lars Eller with a vicious shoulder-to-torso hit, in my opinion this is probably not a violation of the NHL's rule 48. Also, I would not be too happy with my teammate for making that suicide pass.

Buffalo's Steve Ott demonstrates textbook embellishment

Speaking of clowns. This is a textbook embellishment. You can't tell me that a big guy like Steve Ott who is 6'0" and 193 pounds, should be able to be knocked over this easily, no way, it's not possible. This should be a penalty on Steven Ott for embellishment. I also believe that it's probably not a smart play by Flyers defenseman Oliver Lauridsen because he fell for the bait as well. Not a good day for the Flyers defender.

More P.K. Subban and Canadians Diving.

After the game last night, Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julian wasn't happy with the Montreal Canadians, he said they were embellishing to draw penalties on the ice. I don't think that you would have to work very hard to prove his point. The Canadians historically, are a team that is known for it's embellishment.

I included the check that Boston Bruin's tough guy Shawn Thornton put on Canadian's defenseman P.K. Subban, in my opinion, it looks like Subban over dramatized that hit quite a bit. Sounds like Bruins head coach Claude Julian agrees with me as well.

“It’s about the game and the embellishment embarrasses our game and we need to be better,” Julien said, before turning his focus solely to Subban. “It’s pretty obvious when P.K. gets hit and throws himself into the glass and hold his head. You know what? If we start calling those for embellishment, maybe teams stop doing it. Until we take charge of that, it’s going to be an issue.”  

Was that hit a penalty? I suppose, but because of  P.K. Subban's reputation of being a diver, and a flopper, he's not going to get the benefit of the doubt. Personally would compare Subban to an Alex Burrows type player, I would imagine the ref wasn't inclined to call a penalty on that play, look at the video, it's there for you to see. 

To me it looked like an embellishment and Subban should have received an Academy Award for his acting skills. 

“Tonight, as everybody saw there is a lot of embellishment,” Julian said. “This is embarrassing for our game, embellishing. Right now They [Canadians] got over 100 power-plays so far and it’s pretty obvious why. We’re trying to clean this out of our game and it’s got to be done soon."

In my opinion, the Habs are becoming the Vancouver Canucks of the east.