NHL playoffs start now. It's the most wonderful time of year

[MegoMark71]

For me i could not be more proud of the Flyers. Laviolette is the best coach in the game. I hated it when Carolina let him go, but it worked out well.
The Penguins showed everyone just what kind of team they were today. Cheap hit after cheap hit and it ended up with another little wussy pulling hair. Crosby loves to run his yap and take cheap hits, but when someone gets right in his face he backs down every time cause he is a dirty $@$%%$@ son of an itch. Coach lav kept the Flyers in check with discipline today and the entire world got to see the real Penguins.
I would love to say more but out of respect i won't.

[MegoMark71]

How bout those rats D. Really took me back seeing all that. Good to see your boys win that game tonight. And the fans were amazing. Now i'd love to see the Kings take care of another cheap team in Vancouver

[spacecaps]

The Devils /Panthers game was a reverse of game one. Go up 3-0 and hold on for dear life at the end. The officiating in that game was maybe the worst in any of the playoff games so far though. They blew several calls both ways but the one that sticks out is the Ponikarovsky penalty that also got Clarkson sent to the box for nothing and gave Florida a 5 on 3 which turned out to be the difference in the game. Later Clarkson takes a high stick to the beak and nothing gets called. Very frustrating but it was like that all night.

[MegoMark71]

I agree with you on that one bud. The refs really sucked in that game. I wondered at times what the heck they were even watching.

[toys2cool]

How bout those rats D. Really took me back seeing all that. Good to see your boys win that game tonight. And the fans were amazing. Now i'd love to see the Kings take care of another cheap team in Vancouver

yea bro it's been a while here it was fun

[Duncan]

yea bro it's been a while here it was fun

Yeah, thumbs up to the rats. That was great!

[Duncan]

For me i could not be more proud of the Flyers. Laviolette is the best coach in the game. I hated it when Carolina let him go, but it worked out well.
The Penguins showed everyone just what kind of team they were today. Cheap hit after cheap hit and it ended up with another little wussy pulling hair. Crosby loves to run his yap and take cheap hits, but when someone gets right in his face he backs down every time cause he is a dirty $@$%%$@ son of an itch. Coach lav kept the Flyers in check with discipline today and the entire world got to see the real Penguins.
I would love to say more but out of respect i won't.

After the game I read a number of different stories about it. I hit some Philly sites, some Pitt sites, Canada, Yahoo, SI, etc. One constant across the readers' comments was that Pitt fans tended to be bothered/embarrassed by the dirty play. While that reflects well on those fans, it's not good for anyone - not the team, and not the NHL. I think that a line was crossed today, and I'm not sure what happens next.

Re: the hit on Sedin - clean or dirty? I say clean-ish.

[spacecaps]

I'd be embarrased if I was a Penguins fan. It's hard to support play like that. Did you see Crosby's postgame interview? He was saying things like "They're doing the same thing to us as were doing to them but you guys just want to make a story out of it." Really? I wanted a reporter to ask him if he wanted some cheese with his wine. He didn't come off looking good at all after that game and he looked worse after the interview.

Totally clean hit on H. Looked like he got caught with his head down looking in the wrong direction. There's been a lot of dirty hits in the playoffs so far and that wasn't one of em.

[warlock664]

I'd be embarrased if I was a Penguins fan.

Really? While I'm certainly disappointed in their performance, I'm not embarrassed. I have no control over how athletes I follow comport themselves. Additionally, I take no personal pride if a team I follow wins a championship. After all, I don't score any goals or hit any home runs myself. It's great when my favorite team wins (as the St Louis Cardinals did last year), but I don't take anything personal away from it. In the end, it's the athlete's accomplishment, not mine. I can separate the two, which allows me to forget a loss immediately after it occurs and concentrate on things I can control.
Believe me, it wasn't always that way. 25 years ago, I would stew for days when the Raiders lost. Eventually I realized I was miserable over things I couldn't control, and learned to let it go. I admire the achievements of the athletes I follow, but I don't take them personally. In the end, they're just highly-paid entertainers, and I'm no more embarrassed by what they do than I am an actor or musician I like.

[spacecaps]

I like it when a team or athlete I root for conducts themselves with dignity and respect and yes while I get nothing materialistic from a team succeeding, as a sports fan, there is some emotional connection with that team. It's why I root for them in the first place. One of the reasons I'm a Yankees fan (aside being born into it) is because the organization always seems to do things the right way. For me there has to be a certain sense of pride with pulling for a team. I can't stand the Jets because of how the organization conducts themselves. The Mets are always putting themselves in bad situations and living in the shadow of the Yankees instead of just going about their business the way they should. I can't respect that. I know the Yankees are a love em' or hate em' type of team but for me I'm glad to be aligned with them. About 10 years ago I was the biggest Roger Clemens fan but the way he acted after the steroids allegations was something I just couldn't get behind. Sometimes you can't defend an athlete or teams actions so yeah, I think it can be embarrassing as a fan if you align yourself with them. In Clemens' case, even though nothing was proven, I stopped liking the guy and packed up my jersey and moved on to someone else I could get behind and want to see succeed. In the Pens case, it's hard to defend their style of play and it starts with the way Crosby conducted himself.

As for comparing athletes to actors and musicians they may all be entertainers but I don't care what an actor does before they film a movie or a musician goes into the studio. Hell, I'd probably prefer it if a singer did an 8-Ball before going on stage or smoked a doobie before writing their next album but if my favorite athlete shoots up some PEDs before taking the field, it's different. I'm just saying that I like teams and individuals with some character and in the Pens case last night, there were a lot of guys on that team that showed they were lacking in that department and if the Devils pulled that, I'd be embarrassed for them.