Dear Hockey Gods,
WHY?
Didn't I mention that hockey was my stress relief during this hard time in my academic career? Have I treated you poorly?
On a personal level the Kings are currently up 3-0 in their series with my beloved Canucks (only 4 teams have ever come back from a 3-game deficit to win a seven game series *sobs*). And it's not even that we've been playing particularly poorly (unlike the Penguins). Yes there were mistakes and some bad plays - but that is normal. What isn't normal is that after a whole season where the Kings only won games by virtue of Jonathan Quick being a truly spectacular goaltender, they've figured out how to score. :(
(And when I say "spectacular" and "the Kings don't score" I mean it. I think they have the highest number of 1-0 and 2-1 games in the league. And also there was at least one, maybe two, games where they lost even though Quick had a shutout. How does that happen you say? Shoot out goals don't count against the goaltender's shutout. That's right. Even when their goaltender was a brick wall the Kings couldn't score in the regular season. This has changed. *sobs*)
Honestly the Kings have been a good team all season, and if they'd actually been able to score there is no way they would've been 8th seed, and we wouldn't have played them in the first round.
I'm currently longing for the alternate reality where we played the sharks in the first. We can beat them. (of course I was sure we could beat the Kings too. *sobs*)
But to add insult to injury the whole playoffs seem to be going to hell in a handbasket. Most of the teams haven't played game three yet and I've already seen at least five headshots. No wait, six. Which is something that the league has been fighting to get out of the game all season (and before, but this year it was a campaign). Some of these I'm sure will result in suspensions, some of them already have. But for some reason when Shea Weber (Nashville) grabbed Henrik Zetterberg's (Detroit) head in both hands and shoved it into the glass after the game had ended and after Nashville had won he only got a $2500 fine. Admittedly this is the largest fine they can give without handing out a suspension - but holy fuck batman? What do you need to do to get suspensions these days?
It makes me want to throw up a little. I mean, I still love hockey. But that's not hockey. There's playing close to the edge (which is fun to watch because it's physical and good), and then there's that.
Also I watched the Flyers-Pens game yesterday. Everyone was expecting this series to be a bloodbath because the two teams hate each other. But I don't think anyone was expecting it to go like this. There were 113 penalty minutes in the game. That's almost two full games worth of penalties. 78 of them came in the first period alone. Both Clouturier and Giroux (who each scored 3 goals in Game 2 - that's right their were TWO hattricks in game 2) were the recipients of elbows to the head. Clouturier had to leave the game (I have no idea if he's alright). Claude Giroux (lead scorer of the Flyers) got into a fight with Sidney Crosby (whom you might have heard of)! And to top it all off the scores were ridiculous. The Flyers are now up 3-0 in the series. Game 1 was 4-3, game 2 was 8-5, and game 3 was 8-4. The total number of goals in game 2 alone is the same number of goals that have been scored in the entire Canucks-Kings series. Both the defence and the goaltending on both sides of the ice have been super crap.
This is not hockey - it's organized chaos on ice.
So what the fuck?
The only light of goodness so far was that the Canadian Women managed to eke out an overtime win at the worlds to get the Gold Medal! Beating an American team that wolloped us 9-2 in the round robin. So let's focus on that.
These are from the Olympics, but I don't CARE!
And here's some perspective from Flyers Goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov:
"The Universe is so huMANgous big! ... just be happy. Don't worry be happy."
Bryz: Never Change. You are not the best goaltender, but you are probably the most interesting one.
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth.
comments
Didn't I mention that hockey was my stress relief during this hard time in my academic career? Have I treated you poorly?
On a personal level the Kings are currently up 3-0 in their series with my beloved Canucks (only 4 teams have ever come back from a 3-game deficit to win a seven game series *sobs*). And it's not even that we've been playing particularly poorly (unlike the Penguins). Yes there were mistakes and some bad plays - but that is normal. What isn't normal is that after a whole season where the Kings only won games by virtue of Jonathan Quick being a truly spectacular goaltender, they've figured out how to score. :(
(And when I say "spectacular" and "the Kings don't score" I mean it. I think they have the highest number of 1-0 and 2-1 games in the league. And also there was at least one, maybe two, games where they lost even though Quick had a shutout. How does that happen you say? Shoot out goals don't count against the goaltender's shutout. That's right. Even when their goaltender was a brick wall the Kings couldn't score in the regular season. This has changed. *sobs*)
Honestly the Kings have been a good team all season, and if they'd actually been able to score there is no way they would've been 8th seed, and we wouldn't have played them in the first round.
I'm currently longing for the alternate reality where we played the sharks in the first. We can beat them. (of course I was sure we could beat the Kings too. *sobs*)
But to add insult to injury the whole playoffs seem to be going to hell in a handbasket. Most of the teams haven't played game three yet and I've already seen at least five headshots. No wait, six. Which is something that the league has been fighting to get out of the game all season (and before, but this year it was a campaign). Some of these I'm sure will result in suspensions, some of them already have. But for some reason when Shea Weber (Nashville) grabbed Henrik Zetterberg's (Detroit) head in both hands and shoved it into the glass after the game had ended and after Nashville had won he only got a $2500 fine. Admittedly this is the largest fine they can give without handing out a suspension - but holy fuck batman? What do you need to do to get suspensions these days?
It makes me want to throw up a little. I mean, I still love hockey. But that's not hockey. There's playing close to the edge (which is fun to watch because it's physical and good), and then there's that.
Also I watched the Flyers-Pens game yesterday. Everyone was expecting this series to be a bloodbath because the two teams hate each other. But I don't think anyone was expecting it to go like this. There were 113 penalty minutes in the game. That's almost two full games worth of penalties. 78 of them came in the first period alone. Both Clouturier and Giroux (who each scored 3 goals in Game 2 - that's right their were TWO hattricks in game 2) were the recipients of elbows to the head. Clouturier had to leave the game (I have no idea if he's alright). Claude Giroux (lead scorer of the Flyers) got into a fight with Sidney Crosby (whom you might have heard of)! And to top it all off the scores were ridiculous. The Flyers are now up 3-0 in the series. Game 1 was 4-3, game 2 was 8-5, and game 3 was 8-4. The total number of goals in game 2 alone is the same number of goals that have been scored in the entire Canucks-Kings series. Both the defence and the goaltending on both sides of the ice have been super crap.
This is not hockey - it's organized chaos on ice.
So what the fuck?
The only light of goodness so far was that the Canadian Women managed to eke out an overtime win at the worlds to get the Gold Medal! Beating an American team that wolloped us 9-2 in the round robin. So let's focus on that.
These are from the Olympics, but I don't CARE!
And here's some perspective from Flyers Goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov:
Click to view"The Universe is so huMANgous big! ... just be happy. Don't worry be happy."
Bryz: Never Change. You are not the best goaltender, but you are probably the most interesting one.
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth.
comments