Pre-season fight at the Garden - Strudwick vs orr video!

[davey_nyrangerboy02]

http://hfhelper.hockeyfights.com/cf853/ ... udwick.wmv



during the Rangers 4-2 win over the Bruins

[Minstrel]

I love Struds... he's a really good guy and a great team player. He won't back down from anyone either.

A lot of local Hawk fans I know of talked to him at various events when he was here and said he was a blast to talk to. He even did a few games on color commentary while he was on the IR and the Hawks 'lost' then-color guy Dale Talon to his now-GM job. 8)

I really hope he does land a spot with your Blue Shirts because I fear it's guys like him that the league is trying to run out...

[Tasku]

Link doesn't work.

...

But anyways, fights remind me, there seems to be a new attitude towards fighting in SM-Liiga, in the way that they're allowed now. In earlier years the linesmen would step in right away, this year they let the guys bang each other for a while. I haven't seen any articles of rule changes, but that's the picture I got when Nielikäinen and Helenius had a squabble in Ässät - HIFK game.

[Minstrel]

Link doesn't work.

Didn't work for me the first time but when I tried it the second time it went through It's a good one.

Do you get automatically tossed from a game for fighting in SM-Liiga?

[Tasku]

Yep. It's a so called 5+20 minute penalty.

Looks good on your stats.

[hluraven]

I saw the Bruins-Rangers game, my first preseason viewings. Not over impressed with the new world, three penalties in the first two minutes, despite the defenders skating around too scared to touch people on the boards. It looked too open almost, kind of like a shot fest rather than a hockey game. I think that netminders will be the difference in teams this season as much as shooters, but the art of defending looks to have gone

[davey_nyrangerboy02]

i think there is a lot of this open fear at the moment but this is what they wanted, and supposedly what the fans do, i think at the moment its still transition, i think that they will ease up but for holding a guys jersey and throwin him to the floor or sticking his shirt, how is that an art form? its prats who play the game bad and it stops the flow and special players doin what they do best

i unserstand sort of your point, and i think players and refs will adjust but the day of clutch and stickin is over

[hluraven]

Sure, throwing someone to the floor is a penalty. But should a clean check be a penalty, because that was being called. Clearing the crease, should that be a penalty because that's what's being called.

Essentially, it can go one of four ways IMO:

1: Same as always, the refs go back to normal pretty quickly as people complain of too many penalties
2: Defenders adapt to the new rules and cannot defend, the game is much more open and games finish 9-7 a lot.
3: As number 2 but a lot more trapping outside the blue zone, so similar to before
4: Defenders defend, and teams are on powerplays or 4 on 4 for about 55 minutes a game.

For me, the only sustainable one of these options is numbers 1 or 3. If you want number 2, watch basketball, if you watch number 4 you've never been a defender in any sport. For number 3, no difference to last (finished) season. IMO, there was not that much drastically wrong with hockey before, and the removal of the red line and some tightening up of calls on obstruction will do that, without making it impossible to defend.

EDIT: I did like some of the change, the lack of obstruction when the defender has the puck was good, ie before when a defender has the puck on his own goal line, another defender and the goalie would hook, slash and block the forwards from chasing the puck down. Now, the defenders without the puck just use their body, not the stick. This I like, but it is scant consolation for continual special team plays.

[Minstrel]

But should a clean check be a penalty, because that was being called. Clearing the crease, should that be a penalty because that's what's being called.

This is what alarmed me the most about that 'new rules' video they released, in that they said these would be called and I hated it. The one game I've seen so far was not called extremely tight but looking at box scores with 30 penalties for a game seems to point to the game I saw being an exception not the rule.

I guess they want it to look like the All-Star game out there? I mentioned this on my local fan board, the difference here is a fundamental misunderstanding of the game by Gary Bettman (in my opinion). He wants to make the game flashier and more marketable and 'fan friendly' instead of understanding the game and its fans and wanting to make it better as someone who understands the game would want to. As is, yeah, you might as well put two cardboard cutouts in jerseys out there and save yourself the hit on the salary cap.

I don't know what will happen but am very skeptical that any of these 'tight' calls will last for long and it will be right back to hook, clutch, grab etc.