[Lizzie]

The playoffs are starting soon folks, and I can't help but get very excited. We're not quite there yet, though, and there are an abundance of great games left in the regular season. The battles at this point are twofold: 1. Get the best playoff position possible, 2. Don't lose any studs to injuries at this point.

BOS/NYR and PHI/PIT tonight, so it's a loaded evening, not only for valuable points, but for pride, momentum and intimidation.

[Mr. Allen]

Anyone else see this?

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/kari-lehtonen-accidentally-hits-stars-fan-face-puck-033934024.html

Dumb ugly broad thinks Kari Lehtonen is waving at her, when Kari is acknowledging a fan got hit in the face with a puck and is bleeding, then snags the towel out of the hand of the fan, who was politely given it because he's bleeding and so he can clean it up, assuming it's for her without paying any attention then oops. I was laughing my ass off at this.

[Jani Eayon]

Ice skating thread? Silly (probably) British mods

@ Third Eye: yeah I saw that. It was pretty funny. Kari also gave him a stick afterwards if I recall because it was actually Kari who shot the puck that hit him.

[Kim Bradley]

Let's go Pens!

[Jesus Duran]

So, umm, as I stated in the Pony Racing thread... It was an awful start for the Flyers but good to see them back in the game. Bobrovsky wasn't bad or anything. The beginning was just that good for the Penns. Nice plays by Crosby and Geno.

[Ellie English]

The Flyers are the Penguins Kryptonite.

[Klaire]

If they meet up in the first round, it might be the best playoff series we'll get, (unless of course, it happens to be Bs/Canucks).

Hilarious Kari...hilarious.

[Tammie Flint]

I love how physical and nasty the Flyers play against the Penguins.

And yeah hope New Jersey screws up a few games, I wanna see this as a 4/5 matchup.

[Emma]

The Flyers are the Penguins Kryptonite.

It sure seems that way. All chaos broke lose after Voracek's empty netter. It even looked like Laviolette wanted a piece of Bylsma! Man, I really hope these two are going to meet in the first round!

And yeah, Lehtonen was pretty fair on that clip. Unlike the woman. (I love how you call him Kari more often than Lehtonen. Is it just to distinguish him from Jere Lehtinen? You guys pronounce those two surnames pretty similarly, that is.)

[steve brewin]

It sure seems that way. All chaos broke lose after Voracek's empty netter. It even looked like Laviolette wanted a piece of Bylsma! Man, I really hope these two are going to meet in the first round!

And yeah, Lehtonen was pretty fair on that clip. Unlike the woman. (I love how you call him Kari more often than Lehtonen. Is it just to distinguish him from Jere Lehtinen? You guys pronounce those two surnames pretty similarly, that is.)

Actually that's exactly right.. it's hard to call another guy Lehtonen when for so many years referring to one the better two way forwards I've ever watched.

[Mylizards Dot com]

Actually that's exactly right.. it's hard to call another guy Lehtonen when for so many years referring to one the better two way forwards I've ever watched.

Yeh. In English, the quality of vowels in the unstressed syllables tend to reduce, so your pronunciation doesn't differ that much, if at all, between Lehtinen and Lehtonen. In Finnish this is not the case at all. The "i" is [i] and the "o" is [o], so there's a clear difference.

Anyways, the game was very epic indeed. I hope there will be material from the end-game chaos in the net soon, it was epic. Unfortunately I missed what Pierre did or said or asked the teams there between the benches, but Bylsma and Laviolette literally had a confrontation going on around him. The secondary coaches had to pull them down so that they don't go for it for themselves. Now that I'd still like to see -- a coach vs. coach fight.

[Izzy Coleman]

I'm not sure who, I as a Bruins fan, am rooting for in that game (PHI/PIT). I don't really like either team...But Philly has more history.
Since Ottawa is running away from the Islanders, Bruins are going to have to win themselves if they want to secure the division tonight.

P.S. Archmagister are you Finnish?

[Sammykins]

I kinda drooled when I looked at this week's schedules and saw another Flyers/Pens matchup next Saturday (easily the most watched finale), and several decent Pens matchups like versus the Bruins and Rangers.

The Sharks' basically have the rest of their schedule with teams they're competing with for spots.. Stars and Kings. They easily control their own destiny and if they lose, can't feel bad, they had a favourable schedule.

Caps and Sabres both fighting for the 8 spot have a very tough schedule to end the season.

The Wings this week can easily slip down to 6th (pretty much as far down as they can go) and have matchups against the Blues (who undoubtedly will be playing hard for the 1 seed/Pres Trophy) and Blackhawks. It might actually be easier for them if they hedge their bets against one of the Pacific division teams (the only bad one being the Sharks who have been kicking their asses lately) going down to the 6 seed.. I can't believe 2 pts separates those 4 teams with only 3 games left for them, and only the Coyotes has even remotely somewhat of an easy schedule remaining.

I gotta say this is gonna be a pretty good week of hockey.

[Stephy Beck]

Bruins lock up the division and the 2 seed. Now we can get Timmy and our injured some rest, some of the new guys some experience, and hit our stride going into the playoffs. Great game today against the Rangers, two very similar teams fighting it out.

[Amy Melissa]

I don't understand why the Flyers didn't like that Vitale hit on Briere. It was a perfect, clean hit but it seems that's what got them fired up to that breaking point.

[Janine Rose]

P.S. Archmagister are you Finnish?

Yup.

I don't understand why the Flyers didn't like that Vitale hit on Briere. It was a perfect, clean hit but it seems that's what got them fired up to that breaking point.

Me neither, but it was nice to see an old rivalry heating up. See you at the playoffs, Pens! >: )

[Sarah Kim]

The Flyers don't need a reason to overreact and resort to thuggery. It’s in their nature.

I know Laviolette was pissed because Blysma put his fourth-liners out in that situation. He saw it as the Penguins attacking his players. If I coached the Penguins, I wouldn’t be putting Malkin, Crosby, Neal, etc in at that point either. Laviolette took Max Talbot’s stick, broke it over the glass, sending pieces into the Penguins’ bench.

[stevie trent]

I don't understand why the Flyers didn't like that Vitale hit on Briere. It was a perfect, clean hit but it seems that's what got them fired up to that breaking point.

In hockey you're not supposed to go after star players who don't merit getting targeted, even if it's a "clean hit", on the ice the environment is different than behind a TV or in the crowd.

Imagine if this guy was going after Gretzky with a clean "hit" while McSorley and semanko were on the ice. The guy would have his face rearranged and pummelled into next week.

People wonder why so many more disrespectful players nowadays go unchecked? Because they get punished for defending teammates. When Scott Stevens even laid out skill players most of the time it had consequences, if not right away, later on. Daniel Briere is not a player who can defend himself in a fight for being targeted in retaliation for Schenn going after Crosby (who supposedly can defend himself and certainly gets involved in scuffles/talks quite a bit of [censored]).

[Nany Smith]

People wonder why so many more disrespectful players nowadays go unchecked? Because they get punished for defending teammates. When Scott Stevens even laid out skill players most of the time it had consequences, if not right away, later on. Daniel Briere is not a player who can defend himself in a fight for being targeted in retaliation for Schenn going after Crosby (who supposedly can defend himself and certainly gets involved in scuffles/talks quite a bit of [censored]).

The hit on Briere was not in retaliation to the shot on Crosby. It was during play; his head was down. A clean hit.

While we're on the subject, the Crosby "supposedly can defend himself and certainly gets involved in scuffles/talks quite a bit of [censored]" is still no reason for the cheap shot on Crosby. Vitale's hit on Briere was during play. http://www.wpxi.com/videos/news/raw-video-flyerss-schenn-hits-pens-crosby-with/vGkh9/ There was a stop in play, Crosby was skating back toward the bench, totally relaxed, not bracing for a hit. Players shouldn't have to be on guard 10-20 seconds after play has stopped. If you're going to be tough, Philly, do it during play.

EDIT - added link to Schenn's hit on Crosby

[Annika Marziniak]

I know the whole honor system thing. It leads to stupid [censored] like what happened in that game. You make it sound like Briere was targeted on purpose. But I'm sure Vitale wouldve hit anyone. Its just because Briere is so small that everyone jumps to defend him. But maybe he won't cut across the middle with his head down again!

Besides, I agree. As Bylsma, I wouldn't put my stars out at that point, especially against a team like Philly. If you play for Philly you better be prepared to take it as well even if you're someone like Briere.

Anyways, does anyone know what happened to Jeff Carter? I noted he wasn't playing on Saturday (I can't believe L.A. Lost to the Wild ) but I never followed up and discovered why Carter was out.

[Rodney C]

The hit on Briere was not in retaliation to the shot on Crosby. It was during play; his head was down. A clean hit.

While we're on the subject, the Crosby "supposedly can defend himself and certainly gets involved in scuffles/talks quite a bit of [censored]" is still no reason for the cheap shot on Crosby. Vitale's hit on Briere was during play. http://www.wpxi.com/videos/news/raw-video-flyerss-schenn-hits-pens-crosby-with/vGkh9/ There was a stop in play, Crosby was skating back toward the bench, totally relaxed, not bracing for a hit. Players shouldn't have to be on guard 10-20 seconds after play has stopped. If you're going to be tough, Philly, do it during play.

EDIT - added link to Schenn's hit on Crosby

Hehe, that was not even close to an intent to injure. Crosby did a terrible sell job.

Want to know what that jab to the back of Crosby is? It's a sign he did something just before to necessitate it. Having watched Crosby for so long that's a rather safe bet.

The Crosby thing happened at the goal not seen til review, only a few mins before the Briere hit.. retaliation. In the NHL people don't run at skill guys without expecting something in return, even it's retaliating on a shot to Crosby who in all likelihood did something to earn it in the first place.

[Neko Jenny]

^ Typical anti-Crosby mentality. If that were Claude Giroux instead of Crosby, Flyers fans would be out for blood.

I have no problem with Philly getting back at Crosby for some real or imagined insult/slight/shot. Just do it before the whistle blows.

[Sammie LM]

^ Typical anti-Crosby mentality. If that were Claude Giroux instead of Crosby, Flyers fans would be out for blood.

I have no problem with Philly getting back at Crosby for some real or imagined insult/slight/shot. Just do it before the whistle blows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDmdz0x8QXM

Watch Schenn (#10) on the Flyers, or Crosby, whichever you prefer but at @ 0:09 is when you see Schenn get hit up high by Crosby well after clearing the puck -- if that is "anti-Crosby" mentality then I better take back ever suggesting I like watching Crosby play. I'm pretty sure Don Cherry who http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeP7m2FVCws&feature=youtu.be&t=1m22s which gets retaliations (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_nDCI1ihts&feature=youtu.be&t=4m57s when Crosby got hurt again) should also be deemed "anti-Crosby" as well, even though both of us have mentioned we like Crosby.

Crosby earned the retaliation he got. I'm an [censored] and I had that link all along, because my curiosity had me trying to find out what happened before, rather than let a small 4 second clip decide my opinion for me, but I wanted to see how you'd react to criticism of him. No doubt this is what Crosby does and he needs to stop.

One of my favourite players in the league is Milan Lucic, known for fighting and drawing attention as well as scoring and being one of the league's best power forwards. If someone did the same thing to him I'd suggest the very same thing.. what did he do to necessitate that kind of action. Call it whatever you like, but it's certainly known around the NHL and the media that covers them.

[Daddy Cool!]

I was hoping my would clue you in that I was teasing you about "anti-Crosby" mentality.

Okay, let's talk Crosby. To be serious for a moment, player's should be held accountable for the actions - whether it's the officials calling penalties, Shanahan fining or suspending someone, or other players taking matters into their own hands to enact their own revenge. All of that is part of hockey. Crosby can be a [censored] - plain and simple. That's why he is so polarizing. If he dishes it out, should needs to be able to take it. In almost every case, he brings a lot of his "problems" on himself. My problem with Schenn is NOT that he did what he did (I'm sure Crosby deserved that and more); it's WHEN he did it. If he would have done it during play or even a few seconds after the whistle blew, I'd have no problem with it; however, it was well after that.

[Soraya Davy]

My problem with Schenn is NOT that he did what he did (I'm sure Crosby deserved that and more); it's WHEN he did it. If he would have done it during play or even a few seconds after the whistle blew, I'd have no problem with it; however, it was well after that.

What I don't like is that he attacked Crosby from behind. Very cowardly and I'm surprised no one jumped Schenn for that. Man up and cross check him in the chest dammit

EDIT: poor grammar