I rarely watch the NHL these days. Mostly because I hate Versus. I prefer the NHL on any other channel, I miss Gary Thorne and Bill Clement. Digression over.
I was hanging out, passed by Versus--saw Boston and Montreal warming up--and thought, ahrite. I'll give this a shot. I am a casual Boston Bruins fan--casual in the sense that I root for them, but I don't cry when they lose. I love the spoked B and the color combo sweater. I also hate ucla bruins, so it's tough for me to type the words "Go BRUINS!" even though, thankfully, the Boston Bruins predate the ucla gutless bruins by 20+ years or so.
That was the most exciting fooking hockey game I've seen since....dare I say it--Detroit v Colorado :shocked: back in the day?
The intensity was off the friggin hizzy. There were goals galore. There were subplots galore. Boston has had to suffer horrendous losses to the Habs in the playoffs recently and in the season recently (as TSN feed showed over and over last night). I know this rivalry has been nasty for years, but was dormant for a long time too.
Boston scored one of the goals of the year too in the 1st period which stupid fucking ESPN didn't bother showing. Versus didn't show it either, but they did after the first and second periods. The goals were great, the Habs played great too. They didn't quit at all. They took it and dished it out. That's what makes them great and great to fucking hate. You can't take your foot off the pedal. They will come back especially in Boston.
As for fighting. I have NO PROBLEM with fighting as long as it's an even square up. If we ban fighting in the NHL then ban MMA completely (which is garbage) and force all Pro Boxers to wear headgear and thicker gloves.
For the most part, the fights were square ups between guys. David Krieji is an idiot for fighting a legit Habs toughie, but how can you criticize him for not backing down? We can criticize the Habs tough guy for accepting a fight when there were other tough Bruins on the ice. That wasn't the kind of fighting that I have in mind.
The goalie fight wasn't much. I think the Habs goalie realized that it wouldn't be useful to fight and the Boston goalie realized that too. They both got in swings though.
The Boston player who went after Roman Hamlik also--that was shit. Hamrlik is a Kreiji type of skillful player who should not fight. But, he had no choice really.
The Steve Ott vs Boston player--that was a carryover fight from earlier when Dallas came into Boston. Ott can hold his own in a brawl, but obviously he got tuned up, and it wasn't his night.
The Habs probably need to look at adding another size guy because 3 of Boston's usual toughies didn't even go--Lucic, Chara and Thornton. Hell, McQuade only got his hands on someone at the end and the refs said NOPE, off you go.
I think the NHL should allow refs to end a game within the last 2 minutes when the contest is over to prevent the gooning at the end. The game was over. We didn't need that last 40 seconds even if Montreal scored a meaningless powerpplay goal.
Give the refs the power to bring the game to a close. That's all that needs to happen.
But, it was easily the game of the year, and I can't wait until Boston travel into Les Habitants land with that crowd no doubt in a frenzy...it will be MUST SEE CAN'T MISS TV.....
