NHL playoffs

Watch the one I posted. (Youtube has several, as does several websites that are hockey related). The slo-mo and other angles give a great vantage point that you miss from the real-time. I even missed some of what Zetterberg did when I rewound my DVR player live to watch it.

Well, Malkin (and others) reacted to Zetterberg and Stuart reacting to Talbott's putback. So pick one to penalize. That's Colin Campbell's take (You can't suspend everyone in the fracas) and that would be mine as well. Was Malkin taking out some frustration? Probably. But you can't single him out just like you can't protect him either.

I'm pretty sure you can hear it on the replay.

Oh, but they are. Els got penalized for an illegally wrapped putter recently. Appelby got penalized for an extra club. I could quote tons of these. And that's just the big names we'd all know. some marshalls I know at the Nationwide level and LPGA tour these officials have twelve eyes. They are looking at everything all the time.

Me too :thumbs:

 

I think they are watching, but not like what we think of in other sports. A couple of years ago at the British Open, Ian Woosnam started with an extra club, and no one caught it until he called it on himself. PGA pros could get away with a lot of stuff if they didn't call it on themselves. It's just a different game. There are very few penalties actually called because the players know the rules and play in them.

 

I don't disagree. The major PGA events are different because the tee boxes are so crampes that the marshalls/officials are lost in a sea of people. I was just pointing out that you don't have to wonder if the ball is legal every down in football (that's a given because you've supplied/checked them); same is true in basketball and baseball. But you have to keep an eye every time a golfer dips into his golf bag. You do have to listen to every word said between competitors. Had two kids lying near each other in the fairway. A freshman hit his ball solid, onto the green. Soph said "nice shot. What did you hit?" The Freshman replied "Thanks...8 iron." It was ruled that the Soph just broke 8-1(b) by asking advice and the Freshman broke 8-1(a) by giving it because the soph hadn't played yet.

Or another one: Senior was first to hit off the tee. Hit his ball too far that landed in a bunker just off the fairway at a dogleg. Looked over at the other school's kid and said "I'd put that driver back in your bag. You don't want to be over there with me." That, too is a violation of the afore-mentioned rule.

What other sport do you have to pay attention to even idle chatter?

Staying on this rule, I had to help overrule another official who was going to call a penalty on two kids for talking about what club they just hit for a shot. That's legal. His argument was they could use that for a future shot. But that's not the rule. Also had the same thing on distance. Since distance is a public piece of information, you can't penalize someone for that.

I'll stop there. You see some wierd things, and things that maybe are a little taken for granted are actually violations of the rules.

But isn't golf the greatest game in the world

 

Penguins win again. The series is tied as it goes back to Motown.

 

Now it's a new series. It's a best of three now. Should be fun to watch.

 

Here is an article you might be interested in:

http://sports.sympatico.msn.ca/NHL/...line=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=True

 

It can all be decided in just one more game, but I hope not.

 

I agree. High sticking in November should be high sticking in May. High sticking with two minutes gone in the first period should be high sticking with 3:00 left in the 3rd pd. That said, you and I both know that there's a "flow of the game" that the refs cede to and/or get caught up in. We may not like it but it's there and forever shall be in all likelihood. The refs say they don't want to be a deciding factor late in a game, but through obvious no calls, they have de facto become a factor. I don't want ticky tack things called ever. But if it's a penalty, it's a penalty, no matter where or when it occurs.

I don't necessarily think that's what made Malkin's call get reversed. I think this one was one Colin Campbell got right (the refs should've called Malkin for using his stick as a weapon when he swung it wildly at Zetterberg).

 

I agree. I want to see two more hockey games. I'm not ready to give the stage over to the hapless NBA just yet.

 

Gary Bettman runs the NHL and the NBA is hapless? :laugh:

 

Indeed. How bad is that? :laugh:

 

Why do you say the NBA is hapless?

 

Fear the waddle! Fear the waddle!!

 

Recently, I have read that NBA is now fourth most popular league. The league is publicly lamenting an identity crisis. Finals projections were that viewership would remain low. Many big name college stars are pulling back from the draft this year, so there's a worry that everyone will be asking "Who's that?" on draft night. And that's just the bottom line kind of stuff.
Plus, you have David Stern as commish. The only good thing about being David Stern nowadays is knowing you aren't Gary Bettman. The one good thing the NBA has going for it is Obama is focusing some attention on it. Getting free publicity on "Situation Room", et.al., can't hurt. From time to time, I hear rumors that there are some NBA franchises on the chopping block. Look at the empty seats around the league and you'll see why those are likely going around.

I'd like to see updated numbers and see what the ratings/share will be. I know that I have only heard a couple of people say they've watched any part of the NBA finals. More are talking about the Stanley Cup finals. So it seems to be bearing out.

All of this is IMHO. I was a bigger NBA fan in the 80s and early 90s. I'm begging the NBA to give me a reason to be a fan again. They aren't answering.

 

Yes indeed. The trouble is, they have a hard time winning in Detroit.

 

Don't know. They outplayed the Wings for most of the game last night and still almost didn't win. They had to get a couple of calls and some big time stops in the last few minutes to beat a team that had played very very bad.

But anything can happen in Game 7. I look for it to be more like Game 5 than game 6.

 

There's no question the NBA has serious issues in front of it.

Let's start with the officiating because the officiating has made most games downright unwatchable. If anybody watched Game 3 last night, they saw some horrible officiating, which has become the norm for an NBA game. For example, on a Kobe drive late in the game, Dwight Howard got both hands on the ball and the ball only. What was the call? Foul on Howard. It was an egregious call favoring the superstar, which happens all the time, re: 2006 NBA Finals. And that wasn't the only terrible call that favored the Lakers. Even Mark Jackson, the NBA apologist of the group, and President of the Kobe Bryant Fan Club, said that it was a clean block.

What big name college stars? Other than Blake Griffin, who are the big name college stars? You can't blame the NBA for the fact that this will be the worst draft in years.

There absolutely should be some teams on the chopping block, starting with the Memphis Grizzlies. And Seattle should get their team back. That was a disgrace.

I'm undecided about whether Charlotte should be eliminated or not, because there's fun to be had making fun of Michael Jordan for being on the golf course all the time. Once we get rid of Charlotte, maybe we can transfer Jordan's ownership to an irrelevant team like Sacramento. I also think we should get rid of the Timberwolves. Nobody really cares about them and instead of having a basketball team, what Minnesota really needs is to change the nickname of their hockey team. The Wild? Come on.

While I wouldn't call the NBA hapless, there are some major issues and don't be surprised if there's a work stoppage in 2011.

 

Not sure about the calls you're referring to, but they are very fortunate to have won. Fleury came up fairly big.

I expect Detroit to win 4-2 in game 7.

Bingo.

That's partially my point. There's not much left to go into the NBA, and what is out there is coming back. Tyler Smith is on the fence, as is Jodie Meeks (I think the latter is in, Tyler is legit on the fence). Patterson pulled out, as did Reynolds. I don't disagree about this being a weak draft. I think next year could be weaker. When Tyler Smith could be your best swing entry (shoud he return), what does that tell you about the talent pool?

Wouldn't bother me. Memphis can't support pro teams. They have a hard time financing their other pro team - the Memphis Tiger basketball team :tongue3:

I dunno. Seattle had their chance. Nashville proved what can happen when you decide as a fan base that you're not letting some corporate idiot take your team away from you.

....and Buzz Peterson as your player personnel guy. Smart move. Charlotte has had now two NBA franchises that they can't/won't support. The Bobcats didn't learn...you call yourself "Carolina" and you get support (See the Panthers and Hurricanes).

I want to support Sacramento since they used to be the Cincinnati Royals. But I can't stay up til 11 at night to watch a tip of a game I can't seem to muster concern for.

Two of the worst nicknames in sports.

Stern knows this is coming and is doing nothing about it. He's putting an inferior product on the floor every night. He is presiding over a decline in interest in his sport. His sport is overexposed. He has teams on the precipice. He still hasn't erased the stigma of doing virtually nothing about a tainting scandal that could bring down his sport. The NBA playoffs continue to have dismal ratings (though there is a slight improvement this year off of the tide of record low ratings). And according to the Harris poll, I was wrong: the NBA is tied for fifth with the PGA (NASCAR jumped into fourth). These are some of the reasons I call the league hapless.

 

:laugh:

Hadn't the Seattle taxpayers already pay to rebuild KeyArena in 1995? Why should they have paid for a new arena when they had the KeyArena and the only reason to do that is so a billionaire could make more money?

Tom, if you think that a carpetbagger owner couldn't come in and hijack the franchise and move it to some other market, say, Las Vegas for example, you're being a little naive. If it can happen to Seattle, it can happen to any market other than New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or Boston.

I can't argue with this, but the reason he's not doing anything is he already knows the owners are going to win. Too many players have leveraged themselves too much and they're going to have to cave in to owner demands, just like they did in 1999.

Stern refuses to believe that he has a problem with the officiating. I'm convinced that if he fixes the officiating, the NBA would become good again.

Agreed. It's indefensible that he's done nothing about the Donaghy scandal.

I don't know that I'd go as far as hapless, but, like I said earlier, there are some serious issue the NBA has failed to address, with officiating being at the top of the list. I firmly believe that if Stern fixes the officiating, he goes a long way towards resolving the league's primary problems.

 

I think there were issues that went further than just a new arena. Didn't the city put up a fight with the franchise? And, if memory serves me, attendance was also lagging. That's why I said they had their chance. I don't want to be heartless.

It can happen, no question. The Hartford Whaler deal comes to mind (again, fan support was waning over the final years). However, fans in Milwakee kept the Brewers from moving to Charlotte (took a new stadium to do it). Hockey fans in TN stopped Balsille dead in his tracks when he wanted to poach the Predators when Hamilton Predators' merchandise was already being printed. Fans are not entirely helpless. I know I'm a homer, but the latter is a proud accomplishment for fans anywhere. No new stadium/arena, no largesse...just fan outrage and fan support of local business drew local ownership and forced Bettman to make one of the few bright decisions he's ever made (which was a no-brainer).

That would be a great first step. But one of a few he'd need to take.

He could at least appear to be impartial and that he cares. Bud Selig could give him lessons :tongue3:

Yeah, you're right. That's probably too strong of a word. But when you fall as far as they have and pretend nothing's wrong, I don't think we can weaken the adjective too much.