'Hab' or 'Hab' Not? That is the Question

by Redwing77

Well, my Wings are eliminated and the questions surround their head coach prevail, but that's not really news.  What IS news is that Tampa Bay is on the verge of total collapse.

Yup.

Game 6 is HUGE.  Why?  Because I truly believe that Tampa has ZERO chance at advancing if the series goes to seven games.  ZERO.

For this reason, Game 6 is must watch.

The series has been  a roller coaster.  We've seen Carey Price play like he's the most overrated overhyped goaltender in NHL History and then, next thing you know, he's invincible.  We've seen Bishop play above his head, and then suck in such epic fashion that you wonder how he even got a pro contract.  And the Montreal power play?  Maybe that's the key to the whole thing.  COMPLETE NON FACTOR in the first three games.

In fact, one may argue that the Montreal Power Play benefited Tampa!

In any case, apart from that, I think the only other item that jumped out to me in this series is that Andrej Sustr is a hot-headed liability.  Montreal's power play is back running and Carey Price continues to be epic, so Tampa Bay isn't going to be able to take careless penalties anymore.

My prediction?  I still believe Tampa can finish Montreal off.  But I'm not betting on Tampa beyond Game 6.

Steve Stamkos goal GIF

Nice goal by Steven Stamkos... It was the game tying goal. Click on the GIF to get it to move.

NHL Hockey: Lightning Star Stamkos injured in loss to Bruins

This is a scary video. Tampa Bay will be without their superstar forward Steven Stamkos who was injured today during the second period of today’s game against the Boston Bruins.

The Tampa Bay Lightning forward broke his fibula when he crashed into the Boston Bruins goal post. Stamkos was taken off the ice on a stretcher and transported to a Boston Hospital.  Stamkos will undergo surgery to fix the broken fibula. Stamkos was also going to be a member of the 2014 Canadian Olympic team, that’s a huge loss for the Canadians. 

Related articles

• Report: Lightning's Steven Stamkos Suffers Broken Tibia, Will Require Surgery (nesn.com)

A tale of two goalies (Ben Bishop and Daren Pang)

Ran into my little buddy @BenBishop30 before they hit the ice this morning in TB. #Padsbiggerthanme pic.twitter.com/hRPoyHhBXF
— Darren R Pang (@Panger40) November 4, 2013

Former Maine goalie "Big" Ben Bishop is 6'7" tall, that's a very tall goalie. Daren Pang is 5'5" tall, and he's very short goaltender. I once met Panger when I was working the check point at the GFK airport after World Juniors in 2005, he's really not a very big man.

NHL looks at Obstruction

I am sure that my buddy Redwing77 will give his spin later on this subject.

According to NHL.COM, the NHL is having a two day summit to discuss the NHL current standard of rule enforcement.

Translation, the National Hockey League is looking into whether there too much obstruction in the NHL right now, especially after they had players sounding off on the leagues officials during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The following people listed in the Paragraph below are part of the discussion.

If you need refreshing here are some examples about players being upset with the reffing during last season's NHL playoffs... [example one] and [exmaple two]

While they’re at it, I would like them to look at the diving and flailing about on the ice that some like to use to draw penalties.

Tim Campbell, Winnipeg Free Press --- Players present for the meeting were Mike Cammalleri of the Calgary Flames, Jason Spezza of the Ottawa Senators, Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning, John-Michael Liles of the Toronto Maple Leafs, James Neal of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Kevin Bieksa of the Vancouver Canucks.

The coaching roster included five NHL bench bosses -- Chicago's Joel Quenneville, Nashville's Barry Trotz, Phoenix's Dave Tippett, Boston's Claude Julien and Washington's Adam Oates -- as well as three active referees, Stephen Walkom, Brad Watson and Wes McCauley.

Also attending were five NHL GM's -- Pittsburgh's Ray Shero, Tampa Bay's Steve Yzerman, Buffalo's Darcy Regier, New Jersey's Lou Lamoriello and Vancouver's Mike Gillis.

After reading some of the tweets that Paul from Kuklas Korner posted on line it appears that the NHL is going to tighten up the calls if the NHL ever plays a game this season.

#NHL met today to discuss rules, namely obstruction. Looks like they’re going to tighten things up a bit for next season. — George Popalis (@SNGeorgePopalis) August 22, 2012

For fans that want to watch a more wide open game I think that this is really good news – I don’t know anyone that wants to watch the players hanging all over each other like groupies at a hockey party.

I also think that if the league cracks down on the obstruction they also need to crack down on the poor sports that like to embellish to draw penalties – you know the frauds like Ryan Kesslers (video evidence) and Alex Burrows (video evidence) that skate up and down the ice flailing around and snapping their heads back.

Lastly, It will be interesting to see if anything actually comes out of this or will they call it tight for a few months and go back to the horrible job of officiating we saw last spring during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Steven Stamkos takes a slap shot in the face.

This is what happened when Steven Stamkos got in the way of a slap shot off of the stick Boston Bruins Defenseman Johnny Boychuk... All I can say is ouch!!! I think Stamkos is probably very lucky that he was wearing a half shield. Some might say that this is enough reason to make the half shield mandatory.  Oh yeah and Stamkos put on a full bird cage and returned to the game.

Steven Stamkos falls down on the penalty shot...

Can we classify this in the #epicfail department... Holy Cow, I have never seen anything like that before.