goflyakite
Registered User
Credit to him, I guess. The league should have never allowed a team to get to the Finals by playing like that, but it’s clear they don’t give a shit about player safety, so congratulations to him for figuring that out.He had his team play a style that they needed in order to win. The sharks should learn a thing or two from that
Also, credit to him absolutely working the officials in at least two straight series’. The Blues went from taking 4.7 penalties per game through the first three against Boston to 2.5 per game through the last four after complaining about the officiating. One penalty shy of literally cutting the rate of penalties in half.
Side note: it’s kind of funny that he took issue with his team getting called for 14 penalties over three games. I feel like that stat sounds familiar... oh, right! The Sharks received 14 penalties in the three games following the missed hand pass; a 100% increase from the first three games and compared to the consistent amount the Blues received throughout the entire series.
Not to mention game 7 of the finals had only one (automatic) penalty called, after games 1-6 averaged nearly 8 combined penalties per game (never dipping below 7). First off, is there another league that just seemingly flips a coin to decide how many, if any, penalties they’re going to call? Secondly, I wonder if that benefited the slower team who plays better 5-on-5, throws dirty hits every ten minutes, and illegally slows other players down, or the faster team who was struggling at even strength and has a deadly PP. I guess we’ll never know who it affected more.
Alas, I guess people will write these things and others like all the players that just so happened to get injured playing against the Blues, all off to coincidence. I’ll just call these playoffs the
Coincidental Cup Run .
The more I think about tonight’s outcome the more sick I feel. Time to go to bed.