this is great
https://twitter.com/TLNdc...tatus/1117225945864130560

if you ignore all context. so dumb they both got a penalty.

I hope Babs has told the Leafs to never look at the refs again. if you get mauled..just keep going as if nothing happened..dont try to signal to the refs.

I wonder how the knee on knee would have been called if Kadri was the perpetrator.
- shack67

He definitely would have been penalized.

But he earned that. DeBrusk will also earn that if he continues to play on the edge. As it is, you have a guy in Kadri who has not only earned a reputation as a diver but also as going over the edge too many times.

No.

See Kadri, Nazem.
- TrashPanda

yeah? what else you gonna do? you can't really let them do it to you unanswered. If you retaliate, you're gonna get penalized/suspended. If you do'nt do anything, you're letting them play that game and win because of it. In one way or another, they have to pay the price if they're going to play that way. So, if they're going to take you out playing a dirty game, might as well make them pay the price for doing it.

Anyone hear if the Leafs called up Sestito yet?
- DrunkenCanuck

Leafs can't call up anyone until Marlies are eliminated.

Come on dude.

Anyone but Bergeron.
- Scabeh

uhh, no. I like Bergeron, but piling Debrusk into the boards means nothing to them. It's gotta be Bergeron.

Would Pastrnak be more to your liking?

Matthews will break out tonight. He makes so many good subtle plays that go unnoticed people think he’s not playing good.
He’s a sniper but he gets very few good passes from his linemates. Bergeron gets open net looks but Matthews never gets an easy goal.

Leafs can't call up anyone until Marlies are eliminated.
- Matthews_Auston

Good to know Auston.


They really could use Sestito and Marchment. Need more grit.

I blame Dubas and Babcock for part of this. There is no excuse that we can't have a goon on our 4tth line to take care of this stuff instead of having to have guys like Kadri step up. The 4th line plays less than 10 minutes anyway. I hope we go after McQuaid in the offseason as a free agent and then get a guy for the 4th line.

yeah? what else you gonna do? you can't really let them do it to you unanswered. If you retaliate, you're gonna get penalized/suspended. If you do'nt do anything, you're letting them play that game and win because of it. In one way or another, they have to pay the price if they're going to play that way. So, if they're going to take you out playing a dirty game, might as well make them pay the price for doing it.
- prock

Make them pay through the scoreboard.

Trading cheap shots is not the way to do it.

We've determined that there is no respect in playoffs. If Debrusk can cheapshot Marleau, then OFF WITH BERGERONS HEAD!

The perfect plan: we know thanks to Chara that if you're a veteran you can do pretty much whatever you want. In comes Marleau. We line match Marleau against Bergeron and by line match, I mean Marleau skates out and two-hands Bergerson somewhere below the shoulders and then skates off. This is allowed so it should work perfectly. (alternatively he can skate up to Bergeron and crosscheck him from behind somewhere between 3-5 times before he uses up his per-shift veteran discount)
- markmark

yeah! (frank) bergeron

snap him with a wet towel!

Pretty good description from Saturday:

Both teams played as if each player had a vendetta assigned to some random opponent that they needed to take care of. It was a mentality that even showed up on the stat sheet. For context, the other three games had hit totals of 56 (Caps-Canes), 44 (Avalanche-Flames) and 40 (Preds-Stars). This game had 83, and it didn’t even require an overtime period. A lot of the hits were examples of good physical play that most would consider standard in the playoffs—stuff like the hit from Toronto’s Jake Muzzin on Torey Krug.

But there were other hits as well that the refs were letting slide because they either didn’t see them or they happened to look “clean enough” for a playoff game. Players were getting sticks shoved into their faces, their skulls crashed into boards and frequently broke out into full-on wrestling matches during every other stoppage of play. While the merits of whether a ref should “swallow their whistles” during play can be debated until the end of time, one thing that can’t be denied is that choosing to go with that officiating style early often leads to players escalating things to dangerous levels. Case in point, you have Nazem Kadri’s hit to the head of Jake DeBrusk.

There is a little context here. Earlier in the game, as he was leaving the penalty box, Kadri went to steal the puck from a Bruin. Once he got possession of it, DeBruk tried to lay a hit on the Maple Leaf. Depending on your perspective, DeBruk either tried to go for the knee-to-knee collision, or Kadri brought it upon himself for trying to dodge the hit and made incidental contact with the Boston player’s knee.

Regardless, Kadri believed the hit was on purpose and because, from a player’s perspective, the lines between clean and dirty plays was blurred beyond recognition, he felt the only way he was going to get any sort of justice for the hit was to get it himself. The hit was certainly dirty, but the thinking behind the act wasn’t too far out there—though I doubt that’s an argument that will help him in his upcoming player safety hearing.

The feeling that the refs weren’t going to do anything appeared to be shared among the Maple Leafs on Saturday. Though the montages of the big hits that happened throughout the game featured physicality from both teams, it was only Toronto’s players that were seen complaining to officials because they thought they were on the receiving end of a dirty play. This either happened because the Maple Leafs are a bunch of whiners—as noted pissbaby Don Cherry argued—or because the refs actually missed some calls, which Toronto coach Mike Babcock acknowledged while also chastising his players.

Babcock is right here in that both things can be true: the refs missed a lot of calls, and his team needs to do better in moving on from those botched plays if they want to succeed.

The Leafs will certainly hope to elevate their game to continue making this a competitive series, but they’ll probably also hope that the officials elevate their game as well so as to stop things from getting worse on the ice. Otherwise, someone might end up taking Sean Avery’s advice and “take the top (frank)ing row” of a player’s teeth out.


Pissbaby Don Cherry

uhh, no. I like Bergeron, but piling Debrusk into the boards means nothing to them. It's gotta be Bergeron.

Would Pastrnak be more to your liking?
- prock

Yes. Yes it would.

I blame Dubas and Babcock for part of this. There is no excuse that we can't have a goon on our 4tth line to take care of this stuff instead of having to have guys like Kadri step up. The 4th line plays less than 10 minutes anyway. I hope we go after McQuaid in the offseason as a free agent and then get a guy for the 4th line.
- Matthews_Auston

Dubas’ decisions since he took over are questionable at best. He’s turned this into the softest Leaf team ever to hit the ice.

Yes, because he literally was instigating the entire thing... He grabs onto DeBrusk as he is falling so that he gets taken down with him, then grabs his stick when DeBrusk tries to get up and skate away.

Dubas’ decisions since he took over are questionable at best. He’s turned this into the softest, yet most skilled Leaf team ever to hit the ice.
- DrunkenCanuck

fixed

I blame Dubas and Babcock for part of this. There is no excuse that we can't have a goon on our 4tth line to take care of this stuff instead of having to have guys like Kadri step up. The 4th line plays less than 10 minutes anyway. I hope we go after McQuaid in the offseason as a free agent and then get a guy for the 4th line.
- Matthews_Auston

here is the thing, I dont think having 5 goons changes what Kadri does, he doesnt doenst care in the moment. Its pretty clear he loses all control

and it migth be worse if he thinks he has protection

Come on dude.

Anyone but Bergeron.
- Scabeh

No.

uhh, no. I like Bergeron, but piling Debrusk into the boards means nothing to them. It's gotta be Bergeron.

Would Pastrnak be more to your liking?
- prock

I hate this type of talk. It's exactly the type of thing that made me start to dislike the Canucks fans. So many fans who were gleeful that a player was nearly paralyzed is sickening. It's like this twisted mob mentality.

Beat them on the ice. I was thoroughly unhappy with what DeBrusk got away with last game, but that's on the refs, the series supervisor, and the NHL to manage.

Turning it into something where people start to wish serious and long-term physical harm to people as a way to send a message is just a bad way of thinking.

here is the thing, I dont think having 5 goons changes what Kadri does, he doesnt doenst care in the moment. Its pretty clear he loses all control

and it migth be worse if he thinks he has protection
- senstroll

Yeah, I think Kadri just reacts too.

After what happened last year, I thought Kads would think more about what he was doing. Making the same stupid mistake proved me wrong.

uhh, no. I like Bergeron, but piling Debrusk into the boards means nothing to them. It's gotta be Bergeron.

Would Pastrnak be more to your liking?
- prock

This entire line of reasoning you have is pure idiocy.

here is the thing, I dont think having 5 goons changes what Kadri does, he doesnt doenst care in the moment. Its pretty clear he loses all control

and it migth be worse if he thinks he has protection
- senstroll

Maybe he'll bag 100 points like Marchand

I wonder how the knee on knee would have been called if Kadri was the perpetrator.
- shack67

AB SO (frank)ING LUTELY

I hate this type of talk. It's exactly the type of thing that made me start to dislike the Canucks fans. So many fans who were gleeful that a player was nearly paralyzed is sickening. It's like this twisted mob mentality.

Beat them on the ice. I was thoroughly unhappy with what DeBrusk got away with last game, but that's on the refs, the series supervisor, and the NHL to manage.

Turning it into something where people start to wish serious and long-term physical harm to people as a way to send a message is just a bad way of thinking.
- Monkeypunk

Ignore my post above your.

here is the thing, I dont think having 5 goons changes what Kadri does, he doesnt doenst care in the moment. Its pretty clear he loses all control

and it migth be worse if he thinks he has protection
- senstroll

If Ryan Reaves is on the 4th line Debrusk doesn't do what he did. Plain and simple.