So you're saying all slashing/HSing/Crosschecking penalties are of equal value here?
Given the gigantic discrepancy between Columbus and Pittsburgh in this - particularly this year - it doesn't actually matter. You're nitpicking, because the data have you dead to rights.
You started out in this thread with the following:
The jackets with another stick infraction?
Color me surprised . I'm convinced torts and Dubinsky hold special off ice training sessions on how to properly maximize damage to the upper body area
And yet the data clearly show that if any coach in this league is big on stick infractions, it's your own Mike Sullivan.
Of course, those data aren't relevant to you, though. Because in the end, it's not actually about stick infractions for you, is it? The simple truth is that it's not that Columbus is any more dirty than any other NHL team. The truth is that when the DoPS has gone after Jackets players for stick infractions, two of the three were against Pens players - Crosby and Kuhnhackl. That's why you keep pressing, and insisting that Tortorella is dirty, and the Jackets are dirty, and that we should all just "admit" to it so you can be satisfied.
See, there's several teams that outdo us in DoPS-punished stick infractions with regularity - before and during Tortorella's tenure here - but they obviously don't matter to you; you don't react with outrage towards them. They didn't commit those offenses against your beloved Penguins. They didn't crosscheck Crosby. What matters to you is that when it was Columbus, it happened to
your team's players, and you just can't let that go. Anyone or anything suggesting otherwise
must be wrong, because Crosby was attacked that one time and
this cannot be borne.
But to mount that defense, you need to spread this gospel to all that Columbus Is A Dirty Team (and not just prone to incidents against the Pens in particular). And to do that, your outrage has to be justifiable as something other than homerism, or else folks won't care. So Columbus can't just be exceptional against the Pens per se (and so we can't just stick to reliable, established fact) - no, to achieve that coveted justifiability, Columbus has to be exceptional among all teams in the League. So you keep repeating over and over that this is a regular thing for the Jackets, that stick infractions are commonplace with this team - desperately trying to convince people (possibly including yourself) that it's true. Except we're not - the data clearly shows that, if anything, this year we're exceptionally
restrained in that regard - and right now you are flipping the f*** out and trying to nitpick those data to death because they undercut that feeling of justifiable outrage you so wantonly crave.
Take the L and move on. You can't win this [mod]
