GDT: Game 5 - 1WC Boston Bruins vs 1A Buffalo Sabres at 7:30 PM ET on HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, NESN, MSG-B, SNP, SNO, SNE, TVAS, and WGR; Sabres Lead 3-1

[littletonhockeycoach]

3 tactics really

1) Obstruction on everyone everywhere
2) Goalie
3) 88 cherry picking

That's about it, and it's a sad league where that's enough to win multiple games in a playoff series.


It's maddening to see the obstruction penalties called per game:

G1) Bruins 2 - Sabres 3
G2) Bruins 4 - Sabres 3
G3) Bruins 1 - Sabres 3
G4) Bruins 1 - Sabres 1
G5) Bruins 1 - Sabres 2

Does anyone really believe the Sabres have been guilty of more obstruction fouls than the Bruins this series? Because that's what the refs are saying. It's ludicrous to anyone watching. One team's entire identity is hook/hold/interfere/trip and the other team is the one getting called for it. If you're just not going to call obstruction then don't, but don't try to sell us that. It's insulting.

It's not limited to the Bruins.... In this league repeatably, and with today's ref's, a team's identity (or style of play) sets the baseline for the official's objectivity (bias) for making calls.

Been that way for a long, long time now. And I hate it!!

 

[littletonhockeycoach]

Even when hockey teams pull the old Legion of Boom's "we bet you won't call holding on every play" tactic, they'll usually get whistled at least a couple of times when it's egregious, and the refs last night just...refused to call anything. And I get there's usually more lax whistles in the playoffs, but Boston defenders felt empowered to just grab Sabre players with their free hand and prevent them from cleanly winning puck races to sustain pressure because the refs weren't putting their arms up at all.

Most annoying was McLeod getting called for a trip in the second where he knocked skates with a guy in incidental contact, but when Doan gets his legs yanked out from under him in front of the net late and falls backwards with the defender's stick under him, it's somehow not an infraction. The whole "we don't want to affect the outcome of the game by calling too many penalties against the team committing obvious penalties" approach is so dumb.

The official's argument about not wanting to influence the outcome by making calls is counter intuitive. They are indeed influencing the outcome by NOT making calls. Play according to the rules as written and applied and just call a penalty what it is. A penalty!

The ref's gave Tuesdays game to the Bruins by NOT making obvious calls. Further, it does appear that coaches whining about calls made or not made does indeed work. And that's why so many coaches employ the technique. I give you Sturm, DeBoers, Cooper, Laviolette and Brind'amour as prime examples.

Endless wah, wah, wah.......

 

[littletonhockeycoach]

There was a scramble in front of the net with a loose puck where Jokiharju dropped his stick and just tackled the guy in from of him football style, lol.

There was another play where a Bruins player just laid on top of a Sabres player behind the net giving a 4 on 4 rush the other way (Krebs I think?)

I’d say the Sabres should just return the favor and obstruct as much as possible, but it doesn’t suit their game, and I fear they’d get called anyway.

If the refs are calling a game like that, then the Sabres need to be ready to interfere and hold in the offensive zone to set up scoring chances.

The ref's gave instructions to the benches that cross checking and elbows and roughing in scrums would not be allowed. They said nothing about interference, holding, obstruction, hacking and hooking in flow of the game.

 

[ValJamesDuex]

Blade Gang going to drive a Zamboni to Boston ?

 

[Chainshot]

Blade Gang going to drive a Zamboni to Boston ?

Corner of Woodside and Abbot (looking up Woodside toward Tuscarora).

 

[Zman5778]

Corner of Woodside and Abbot (looking up Woodside toward Tuscarora).

Good old South Buffalo -- my old stomping grounds. Grew up 3 blocks from that corner.

 

[ValJamesDuex]

Good old South Buffalo -- my old stomping grounds. Grew up 3 blocks from that corner.

You don't go in to SB now without permission I've heard stories about dealing with the drugs dealers themselves.

 

[Kevbeau]

Corner of Woodside and Abbot (looking up Woodside toward Tuscarora).

Wonder if they came down Potters?

 

[Chainshot]

Good old South Buffalo -- my old stomping grounds. Grew up 3 blocks from that corner.

I used to drink at that bar - co-worker at my day job tended bar in the evenings so every few rounds was free.

 

[Kevbeau]

Was that the Penny Arcade? Or am I thinking of the wrong building?

 

[Chainshot]

Was that the Penny Arcade? Or am I thinking of the wrong building?

I remember it being something like Holligans or Hollihans? It is the same building that Molly Maguires is in now, but the bar they are going into in that vid was on the other end.

 

[Kevbeau]

I remember it being something like Holligans or Hollihans? It is the same building that Molly Maguires is in now, but the bar they are going into in that vid was on the other end.

I was more of a Potters Field guy. Golf Club Inn back then.

 

[littletonhockeycoach]

Blade Gang going to drive a Zamboni to Boston ?

Any relation to Joshjull or his kids....?? lol

 

[littletonhockeycoach]

Good old South Buffalo -- my old stomping grounds. Grew up 3 blocks from that corner.

I went to school #67 for a couple of years.

Wife went to Nursing school at Trocaire next to Mercy Hospital.

My brother still lives in S Buff.

 

[Zman5778]

I went to school #67 for a couple of years.

Spent many a summer day playing football in the front lawn of 67 and baseball in the back lot.

Went to St. Martin's at the corner of Abbott and Downing

 

[littletonhockeycoach]

Spent many a summer day playing football in the front lawn of 67 and baseball in the back lot.

Went to St. Martin's at the corner of Abbott and Downing

Almost neighbors! Kimberly Ave