EHM The Blue Line

Alright, Habs will lose in 5 playing like this, for sure. They started the game well enough with alot of energy and when the Rags took the lead 2-1, nothing. I've rarely seen a team having that much difficulty entering the offensive zone. When they were able they wouldn't even were able to go to the net. IIRC they finished the game with 40 shots, more than the Rangers but half of those shots were from the blue line, you can't beat Lundqvist with that.

Lundqvist though played another good game. When the Habs were able to get around the net he did a really good job stopping some weird pucks. The Rags defense was pretty solid as well, always getting to the puck carrier quickly when he was entering the zone.

Yeah the Price blow is not good at all which has to hurt the team. I think its at the point where guys try to hard as well. At the end of the game with PP and goalie pulled Subban basically controlled the puck the whole time skating in for some bad shots, that's not how you score consistently.

Nice come back by the Kings! Nice collapse by the Hawks at the same time.

So far Dustin Tokarski is doing really well in Price's absence
Strong game by him yesterday.

Tokarski stole that game His 2 saves on Marty was game winning. Prust gets a hearing, needs to get atleast 1 game for that late dirty hit on Stepan.

Tokarski is really surprinsing. He showed good things in the regular season but I wasn't expecting him to be like this in the playoffs. Budaj is probably out of MTL plans already.

I just watched the hit. Not that bad just a solid one. Shoulder to chest. Close to the head though and yes, he didn't had the puck but an obstruction penalty could've done the job. Stepan was up like 1 minutes after the hit, screaming things at him so...yeah. Probably saw stars and that's it.

I love how everyone is freaking out here that Prust gets a hearing and that Kreider got away with nothing for his "charge" on Price. What do you guys think about that? People here are complaining that when you get hooked you fall with your head first and not your feet so it was intentional. I personally think that Emelin did not hooked Kreider enough to make him dive but just enough to cause him to lose his balance. Kreider was skating really fast and the only thing he could do was trying to brake so he puts his skates in front of him. He was already close to the goalie and at that speed, diving head first or not he would've hit Price anyway.

Like i said before, Kreider doesn't have full control when he's at max speed. Kreider tried to shoot and stop at the same time he got that slash on the knee, he just lost control, nothing malicious in it from my biased point of view atleast.

The Prust hit could have been dealt with by the refs in the game, 5min or a game misconduct and it would have been done. Late highish hit with no other intent then to take Stepan out. For me the intent is the worst part about it, the intent was the same as Seabrooks hit on Backes, luckily for Stepan he hit mostly the chest, some follow through to the head. He should get 1-2 games for me, if nothing else then to stop it from escalating.

Edit; According to Vigneault Stepan broke his jaw from the hit, so it definitely wasn't a pure chest warmer like most of the habs-fans are calling it.

I think the refs miising the Prust hit is what is making it worse. It got the teams fired up during the game more and gives fans ammo.

I'm torn on what the league should do. The elbow clearly was meant for the chest but bounced up hitting the jaw causing the injury. While the hit to head may be accidental the hit to the body of a player in open ice without the puck was not accidental.

I think the league will end up suspending him if for anything else the message sent. If they do not suspend him they are saying it is okay to hit a guy with your elbow in the chest even though there is a possibility it might hit his head. The league is trying to crack on down on things like this and get players to respect each other. It may not be fair to Prust who only want to hit Stepan in the chest to interfere with him from getting to the puck but with all the head injury talk in sports now the league wants it to be clear you cant go high with your eblows.

Prust normally is not a dirty player, likes to play hard but not dirty. I guess he tried to wake-up his team but that wasn't the best decision. He'll most likely get 1-2 games because I think he's never been suspended before.

Because I don't know if his jaw is broke that much I mean, look at the replay. He gets up and he screams with his jaw wide open with absolutely no difficulty and he goes back on the ice 5 min later with no facial protector. Maybe the Rags doctor are just dumb but that's not safe at all.

Carcillo's suspended for 10 games because he pushed a ref. What a dumbass.

Stupid by Carcillo, i just hate the way that situation happened. The linesman overreacted so much skating full speed for like 30 yards then gripping Carcillo hard. Carcillo had done nothing, he just stood there watching the fight, suddenly a crazy linesman comes from nowhere treating him like a bloody killer. He should get suspended, but it could have been avoided if the linesman wasn't so dumb and/or bad.

jester - I agree, if they only saw the hit and gave him 5 + game it would have been dealt with. Now the game went out of hand and they need to suspend him, or it might get really nasty in the last games.

philou - He might not be a dirty player normally, but in this series he has been. He had some awful slashes in both the first and second game, especially cynical was the one on Kreiders operated wrist.

philou21 wrote:Carcillo's suspended for 10 games because he pushed a ref. What a dumbass.

Doesn't surprise me a bit when it comes to Carcillo.

So, Prust got 2 games and now its an uproar on social media from both sides. NYR-fans wanted atleast 5 games and Habs-fans thought it was a clean hit
I think 2 games is fine myself.

Peter_Doherty wrote:Now the game went out of hand and they need to suspend him, or it might get really nasty in the last games.

Whet out of hand? Maybe I misunderstand your sentence but the game from what I've seen was intense but not out on control. Players weren't looking to fight each others all the time or things like that. I don't see the rest of the serie been nasty. Even against the Bruins it wasn't. Rags and Habs are not like this at all. It could get more intense though, which was needed.

philou - He might not be a dirty player normally, but in this series he has been. He had some awful slashes in both the first and second game, especially cynical was the one on Kreiders operated wrist.

Tell me in the playoffs teams that don't do those kind of things lol Prust hated Kreider for taking Price out so I guess he wanted a payback or something. Who cares what wrist it is, do other players will stop hitting Crosby because of his concussion history?



Going back on the suspension, it's okay that way. Like I thought the fact he hit him when he passed the puck a couple of seconds ago maybe the suspension. If he had the puck, just a normal hit to me.

If the hit was the other way around...how would you feel philou? Or if the hit was Prust on Tyson Barrie?

Tyson Barrie? It was a knee on knee and that was dirty! Plus it was Mike Cooke! Easy to freak out with him.

I absolutely don't care of the kind of hit that Prust did. Like I said they should punished the fact that he hit him while the puck was away for a good 3-4 seconds and that it was blind sided but except of that it was simply a solid hit. I expect when watching hockey to see those kind of things happening, whoever it is. Just last year when Gryba destroyed Eller I never thought it was that bad, only a bad timing and a bad decision by Eller and he paid the cost of it.

Intensity is one thing, cheap shots is another. Last game started to get out of control, if the refs don't get a grip it will get out of control i think. The hit was dirty, even if Stepan had the puck. Blindside and hit the head, it wasn't a pure headshot like Seabrook on Backes, but it did hit the head. And what i meant with Prust going after Kreiders wrist is that he knew, it was blatant that he did it just to try and injure him, and thats just nasty and should go away. Hence why refs need to get a hold of the series, they have been horrible so far - both ways ofc.

Refs are horrible since the entire playoffs started and Quintal is as much of a joke as his predecessors.

philou--the point was towards your fan favoritism, not the specific play itself.

If that had been

a. Kreider on Prust
b. Prust on say Duchene or Stastny or Mackinnon or Barrie
c. Kreider on some guy from Florida
d. Prust on some 4th liner from Florida

Would it make you feel any different about the hit? Are you separating your fandom from the hit itself? # should be the same in all 4 cases, but I think if people are honest with themselves (not just you) depending on who they cheer for that # will change.

Because I could careless about either team, and think that hit....deserved more than 2 games. Seabrook on Backes deserved more than 5 and if it had been anyone with a rep and not Seabrook it would have been.

I agree, Seabrook should have gotten over 5, that hit was really really malicious. The fact that they gave Seabrook 3 though made sure they couldn't give Prust any more then 2.

batdad wrote:a. Kreider on Prust
b. Prust on say Duchene or Stastny or Mackinnon or Barrie
c. Kreider on some guy from Florida
d. Prust on some 4th liner from Florida

Would it make you feel any different about the hit? Are you separating your fandom from the hit itself? # should be the same in all 4 cases, but I think if people are honest with themselves (not just you) depending on who they cheer for that # will change.

I'm not a fan of both team but I still prefer the Habs over the Rags but I try (like with the Avs) to not let my judgement be clouded by favoritism. I would be mad if it was on MacKinnon or Duchene BUT not mad like "ohh so dirty my fav player get him suspended 10 000 games."

I really don't care about the Prust hit because it wasn't that bad compared to what we're seeing in the NHL since 5 years or so. It deserved a 2-3 games suspension to me but not more. I would say the same if this was Prust on MacKinnon. It's always easy to speak louder when it just happened but normally I check it back the next day to see what it really looks like.

If you think I do not care because it's Stepan, I would think the same if it was Crosby or Upshall or Glen Metropolit. Status of the players injured in those situation does not matter stars or not, the problem is that the NHL do it that way.

philou21 wrote:he (Prust) hit him while the puck was away for a good 3-4 seconds

When I saw it I thought it was extremely late, and therefore to me dirty (IMO even in the "old time hockey" world of finishing your check it would have been considered a very late/dirty hit!)

And for me Kreider was just as bad and maybe worse...the replay viewed from behind the net shows how he basically slide into Price as if he was playing baseball and sliding into second base trying to break up a double play! Looked like an attempt to injure to me...and the idea that "he couldn't help himself" doesn't wash IMO...skating right through the net/goaltender is illegal and IMO dirty play beyond any accepted "norm" in any era of hockey (put the 6 inch immovable pegs back in and see if Kreider plays the same way! HaHa)

I just don't agree about Kreider, nothing dirty about it.

nino33 wrote:And for me Kreider was just as bad and maybe worse...the replay viewed from behind the net shows how he basically slide into Price as if he was playing baseball and sliding into second base trying to break up a double play! Looked like an attempt to injure to me...and the idea that "he couldn't help himself" doesn't wash IMO...skating right through the net/goaltender is illegal and IMO dirty play beyond any accepted "norm" in any era of hockey (put the 6 inch immovable pegs back in and see if Kreider plays the same way! HaHa)

People here are still freaking out about, especially since Prust is suspended and not Kreider. I think both situations are very different and even though I explained earlier what I think happened with Kreider, I'm not 100$ sure it's an "accident". We will never know.

Funny enough PJ Stock said that in 90 NHL games Kreider had something like 14 collisions with goalies and 3 of them (including Price) were injuries that made them miss some weeks. Accidental or not, the kid should learn to avoid that.