Posts from the Nhl Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Much has been made of the end-of-game incident Saturday involving Mike Ribeiro of the Dallas Stars and Chris Osgood of the Detroit Red Wings.

As the Wings' 2-1 win closed out, Osgood appeared to put his stick out in an effort to butt-end Ribeiro. The Star forward responded with a two-hand chop across the top of the net, which Osgood sold as if a sniper in the fifth row of the upper deck had just picked him off.

TSN is reporting that neither player will be suspended, but fines were levied against both. Dallas' Steve Ott was also fined for his attack of Detroit's Kris Draper after the official let him (Draper) get away with faceoff interference.

In the end, discretion on the NHL's part is the right move. Suspending Ribeiro probably would have required a suspension of the obvious instigator, Osgood. And I'm pretty sure the league doesn't want to suspend a goaltender who is 8-0 so far in the playoffs.

Game Three should be interesting Monday night in Dallas. Typically, a player who two-hands a goaltender the way Ribeiro did would be required to pay for his sin at some point. However, it's the playoffs. Such redemption may have to wait until October, when the games aren't quite as meaningful.

Today, Finland faced off against Team USA in the qualifying round of the IIHF World Hockey Championship. Finland won the game 3-2 but what happened on their second goal is beyond belief. Trust me, this isn't sour grapes on my part. Frankly, I really couldn't give a hoot about international hockey but the ruling on this play is unbelievable. You can check out the video on TSN since it's not on YouTube just yet.
Basically what happens is that Finland's Ville Koistinen took a one timer from the left faceoff circle and the goal went through the net. Yes, I said through. Team USA, naturally, is pretty upset about this but the goal does not get overturned. OK, so the refs missed the call. Not so bad, right? Wrong. The kicker here is that the goal was reviewed and still wasn't over turned. Seriously.

Let's review:

1. The puck went through the side of the net.
2. The play was reviewed.
3. Video revealed that the puck really did go through the side of the net, which negates the goal.
4. The play was ruled a goal.

If that's not the most illogical thing I've ever heard in regards to hockey then I don't know what is. Congratulations IIHF referees, you're worse than your NHL counterparts. And you, dear reader, thought that wasn't possible!

According to a report in the Toronto Star, Blake would welcome a trade if one came along.

"I don't know," Blake told the Star when asked if he wanted to return to Toronto.

"It's a long time from now until the beginning of the year. We'll see. It was obviously a frustrating year, the most frustrating year I've had in the NHL."

The Star asked Blake if he would put up a fuss if he were traded, he said: "Oh no, not at all, if that's the route."

I can't blame the guy. He had a frustratingly bad year that came along with a healthy dose of cancer. When you hear the 'C' word, hockey instantly gets put on the back burner. Add to it an organization in turmoil and a team that is lacking both a coach and general manager and it's not hard to see why Blake isn't exuberant about playing in Toronto. Heck, if I was him, I'd be on the next plane out. But that's just me. And heck, that would make for some great daytime TV -- something the Leafs are proficient at.

After the Penguins cruised to a 4-2 win in game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, mostly everyone agreed that the Flyers were nowhere near physical enough and that trying to score with the Penguins, as they did in the first period of the game, was going to lead with a short series. The Flyers must agree because word out of Pittsburgh today is that John Stevens is going to dress Steve Downie tonight. Downie, for his part, seems ready to go:

"I'll play my usual, simple, physical game," he said. Downie, who has played in four of the team's 13 postseason games, said he already has learned something about the Penguins.

"Discipline. That seems to be the key to Pittsburgh," he said. "You don't want to give them too many power plays."

If Downie does indeed play (and Stevens hasn't confirmed it yet), then discipline will definitely be the key for a player that only played in 32 games, averaged less than 10 minutes on the ice in those games, and still racked up 73 penalty minutes. The Flyers do need to be more physical tonight, but the last thing they need to do is take stupid penalties that give the Penguins a chance to take an early lead in front of the home crowd.

With all due respect to my colleague Jes Golbez, I feel the urge to chime in on Ribeiro Slash-gate. With the amount of Pro-Osgood press the story is getting, I'm a little surprised about how quickly everyone has cleared him of any and all charges. Sure, he took a "Chris Simon" right to the midsection, but was it really that bad? Maybe it's my eyesight, but it doesn't look half as painful as Osgood's acting job. After taking a hit that probably wouldn't have hurt my cat, Osgood crumples to the ice like he had just taken a gun shot.

I'm sorry, but this is not soccer. Hockey players are tough or at the very least try and act like it. Osgood crumples to the ice after getting slashed and writhes in pain as the trainer assists him. It looks serious. It looks like a scary incident. Did he bruise a rib? Worse? Nope. As you can see at the 1:43 mark of this video, Osgood doesn't even need any help getting off the ice. He is actually so hurt that he can get right back up and celebrate a Game Two win with his teammates. Give me a break.

One more point needs to be made before we jump all over Ribeiro -- let's remember that Osgood isn't the only victim here. There's another point to be made, one that can't be seen on blurry YouTube videos. If you check out this video from ESPN, you can clearly see Osgood nail Ribeiro in the face with the end of his stick. He even moved it a bit to make sure he caught the Stars forward. Cheap shot? Absolutely. There's no need for that.

Now don't get me wrong, what Ribeiro did was cheap. It was uncalled for. There is no place for it in hockey. What we have here is a case where nobody is right. Osgood was wrong for catching Ribeiro with his stick (you can clearly seem him move it in Ribeiro's direction as he skates by) just as much as Ribeiro is wrong for taking a swing at Osgood (we have enough Chris Simons and Todd Bertuzzis). The old adage goes "two wrongs don't make a right" and in Game Two, that certainly seemed to be the case.

It's easy to feel upset after losing a big playoff game, but it is no excuse for giving a wicked two-hand slash to an opposing player once the final horn sounds.

Witness Mike Ribeiro's two-hand chop to the chest of Chris Osgood after last night's 2-1 Wings victory. This was blatant and could have caused serious injury.

While the Stars will claim Osgood butt-ended one of their players, it doesn't justify this action, nor will it save Ribeiro from a suspension.

Still, given the NHL's leniency towards star players and playoff suspensions, I bet Ribeiro will get one game, at most.

As if being up 1-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals after a fairly complete 4-2 win on Friday night wasn't enough, the Pittsburgh Penguins got some more good news today when Maxime Talbot said that his broken foot felt good enough to play on Sunday in Game 2. Talbot's missed the last three games after blocking a shot in the Penguins game 3 win over the Rangers in the second round.

As noted when Talbot went out, he's one of those players that people don't notice until he's not there, doing a solid job as the fourth line center and killing penalties for the Penguins in these playoffs. There's no word on who he'll be replacing, but it will amost certainly be Adam Hall, who's centering the fourth line now, or Pittsburgh folk hero Gary Roberts, who hasn't really done much since returning from a groin injury in the wake of Talbot's broken foot.

Though the Penguins went 2-1 without Mad Max, he's probably coming back at the best time possible as he's a solid defensive presence on the ice and the Flyers are likely to come out, well, flying in Game 2, desperate to avoid an 0-2 hole before they return to Philadelphia. That's assuming he's at full speed of course, but since the Penguins have other options, I doubt they'd want him to take the ice at another other speed.

The Dallas Stars couldn't have been happy with their defensive play in Game One of the Western Conference Finals in Detroit. The Stars were outshot 31-21, and were back on their heels from the outset.

Head coach Dave Tippett knows that can't happen again, and it appears he's taking steps to adjust his defense before Game Two. Jean-Jacques Taylor of the Dallas Morning News says hard-hitting rookie Mark Fistric is out for Saturday's game, while puck-moving rookie Matt Niskanen is in.

Mattias Norstrom will work with Niskanen, who's more adept at moving the puck and plays more of a finesse game than the hard-hitting Fistric.

No one is blaming Fistric for the Game 1 loss, but he took a roughing penalty less than five minutes into the game, giving Detroit a 5-on-3 power play that it quickly converted into a 1-0 lead.

The message for Niskanen is simple. Play calm, composed hockey and don't try to do too much, as noted by Mike Heika.

And the skilled Niskanen is, in theory, a much better fit against the skilled Red Wings. We'll see if that holds true. Fistric seemed much calmer in pressure situations against the Sharks, so Niskanen needs to not only bring his skill, but also bring some calm.

Judging by this move, the Stars realize they can't win by playing mauler hockey. They're going to have to use their skill to get back in this series.

The incomparable Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports Minnesota Wild head coach Jacques Lemaire has decided to return for another season.

"When you are younger, it's a lot easier to make a decision,'' Lemaire said in a statement released by the team. "At the end of the year, I said I wanted to ask questions of Doug (president and general manager Doug Risebrough). I wanted to make sure my boss is happy with the work I am doing and with the way I manage the team. This is what we talked about in our meetings. I am reassured of my work and I want to coach again. My satisfaction behind the bench is getting the team to play the best it can, individually and as a group. Success will come with that.''

Lemaire is the only coach the Wild have ever had. At age 62, he sounded after the season ended like a man who knows he won't be doing this coaching thing forever, but he didn't sound like a guy ready to hang it up.

Now the work begins. General manager Doug Risebrough may end up retooling the roster, as the Wild have 13 free agents. They had 14, but Petteri Nummelin has already decided to play in Europe.

Such a high number of contract-year players may have led to some selfish play during the regular season, but Russo has noted a couple different times that Lemaire was pleased with the team's effort during their first-round playoff loss to Colorado.

Somehow, I don't think Don Cherry is making any friends in Hockeytown today after his appearance on ESPN's Sportscenter last night. The world didn't end, thankfully, but shortly after Cherry proclaimed that he "loves Hockeytown USA," more commonly known as Detroit, Michigan, he called it "a redneck town." I'm not from Detroit but I can't imagine that line is going to go over well.

Cherry was responding to a question from John Buccigross asking why he thought that the Red Wings were having attendance problems. To paraphrase, Cherry was making the argument that Detroit wanted to see rough and tumble hockey that was common when Joey Kocur, Bob Probert and Darren McCarty patrolled Joe Louis Arena. McCarty has made a comeback and has re-joined the Wings this year, but the others are gone and there's no question Detroit is a bit softer than in the past. It's hard to say that is what's keeping people away from the gate, though.

There's some truth in that there are probably people in Detroit who want to see more beatin' and bangin' at their hockey games. But somehow I imagine it's got more to do with Detroit's early exits the past few years and a struggling economy. Or maybe it doesn't, because right now, nobody seems to have any concrete reasons as to why the President's Trophy winners located in Hockeytown can't sellout the building.

But like him or loathe him, hockey fans that are familiar with Cherry know that this type of talk is nothing new from him. The question is -- did ESPN?