Honest question for you Winger, and I promise not to judge (well, I'll probably judge the hell out of whatever you choose to write but will try to keep it to myself
)... it seems like you're referring to the Bruins and how they play- do you not like watching them or their style? I guess that I don't view them as the Devils of the '90's and early 2000's when I felt like they set the sport of hockey back 40 years every time they took the ice.
I'm only asking b/c while I loved watching the Wings style in their puck possession prime a few years ago, I also really like the swagger, physicality and tenacity that Boston brings in the playoffs. I could be in the minority on the board, but I'm okay with either playing style. Thoughts?
I don't think it's a Boston thing, but an NHL thing. In the past, you could be pretty sure of what was going to be allowed on the ice and what wasn't, and you could build a team/gameplan accordingly. Now, half the time I don't know what's going on with where the refs are and what's going to be allowed/called. I sit through it with the Wings because I'm a Wings fan, but when I don't have a rooting interest I just want to be entertained. Watching all of the obstruction/interference, questionable hits, etc. just isn't very entertaining. If you want to play a defensive, phsyical game that's fine, and that can be entertaining, but there's just too much junk going on to interest me. I think LA is the same way, and St. Louis. Z Era's comparison to the old Anaheim teams is pretty dead on to me.
With the old Jersey teams, I think everyone had a better idea for what to expect, and those old Jersey teams skated a lot, and took the body. The "defensive" play that is supposed to have been copied from them gave them a worse reputation than their actual play in the mid-90s warranted. edit: though by the late 90s/early 2000s they were just as brutal as most of the teams they copied.
further edit: So I guess I just want to know what to expect when I tune in, and so I know if it's worth my time. Hockey loses its appeal a bit when it becomes a question of who can bend the rules the furthest, or who just ends up with the most favorable reffing (whether or not you get guys who call a lot of penalties or very few).
I hear you man and I agree. I guess that I feel that games should be called just like they are in the regular season. Course, then the fans get upset when little hooks and trips are called. If these games were called like the regular season, we would see 10 power plays per team instead of the 3-5 like we are seeing now.
As you said though, I really don't know what can be done. All I do know is that hockey is my favorite sport to watch. Playoffs or regular season, I really enjoy the games. Doesn't matter if everything is called in the regular season or next to nothing is called in the playoffs.
Yeah, I wish they'd just call the regular season and playoffs the same. What seems to have been really bad this year isn't just the difference between the regular season and the playoffs, but from game to game and series to series. The reffing from the Wings/Hawks series and the Bruins/Pens series look like two different leagues. I should be able to watch a couple of games here, and have a reasonable expectation for watching a couple of games somewhere else.
