Mayhem reigns in Stanley Cup playoffs (Great article)

[Red Reign]

Hard to argue this....and as I said in the thread not a good advert for the NHL....

After watching too much go too far during the last five days, I think it should be obvious to anyone who has any sense of proportion that the Stanley Cup playoffs are out of control. There have been head-rammings, sucker punches, maulings and ambushes, all of which is apart from the more commonplace vendettas, elbows, crosschecks, spearing, charging, knee-to-knee shots and line brawls that we’ve come to expect each spring.

This isn’t just hard hockey. It is, as one of the sport’s prominent personages called it during the first phone call I got on Monday morning, “a disgrace.â€

I began watching the NHL 50 years ago and I can’t recall ever seeing anything like this, not even in the game’s darkest days of the mid-1970s. In more games than not, the play has degenerated into open warfare.

To some extent, it was predictable. When the NHL allowed Shea Weber to escape relatively unpunished after smashing Henrik Zetterberg’s head into the glass on the playoffs’ opening night last Wednesday, the only conclusion that I could take away from the league’s inaction was that the standards of permissible player behavior this spring have been relaxed. And that is how the players have proceeded.

Tons more here of a very long and detailed article:

http://nhl-red-light.si.com/2012/04/16/mayhem-reigns-in-stanley-cup-playoffs/

 

[Huskers57]

by contrast, last night's ny/OTTAWA game was very well played, IMO. That's the way hockey should be.

 

[Red Reign]

That was a rarity thus far...

by contrast, last night's ny/OTTAWA game was very well played, IMO. That's the way hockey should be.

 

[Huskers57]

kinda weird that NHL is more physical and all while NFL is going the way of the tutu.

 

[Red Reign]

The NHL has some real issues and this is only highlighting them....I'm not against good hard hockey....I love but there are some serious issues that the league continues to ignore and in the long run it will hurt the brand....

Someone is going to get hurt serious or even killed if they don't reign it in a bit....

Actually the way the NFL handled the Saints thing was 100% correct in my opinion....

kinda weird that NHL is more physical and all while NFL is going the way of the tutu.

 

[McJack]

agreed. I like good hard hockey, and even love a good fight mixed in, but that display between pit and philly the other day crossed the line, reminiscent of the blood baths of the mid-to-late 70's.

The nhl doesn't need that type of chaos, especially on national tv after they've been relegated to versus for so long. Everyone likes a good fight, but fighting for fighting's sake isn't going to do the brand any favors. Even most hard core puck-heads think these playoffs have been largely out of control, and not because of the actual fighting, but because of what leads up to it, cross checks to the neck and back, boarding from behind, cheap slashes, etc.