Top Shelf: Begging for a Competitive Series
NHL April 28th. 2008, 10:45am
Lee Diekemper recaps the night in the NHL playoffs.
Pittsburgh 2, New York 0: After a shaky start to begin the series, Marc-Andre Fleury shined Sunday. He not only turned away all 26 shots from the Rangers, he even tangled with Client No. 16 not willing to put up with Mr. Evil’s shenanigans. Caution: The Pens haven’t won in The Garden this season. Pittsburgh leads series 2-0.
Dallas 5, San Jose 2: The Sharks have painted themselves into a nasty corner and the series is likely over. The Sharks have lost both games in the Shark Tank to begin the series and now have to win four of the next five games, four of which (if needed) will be in Dallas. Good luck. Brad Richards had an unassisted goal to begin a four-goal third for the Stars and added two assists. When Richards shows up, good things happen. Dallas leads series 2-0.
33 Responses to “Top Shelf: Begging for a Competitive Series”
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April 28th, 2008 at 10:49 AM
Yo0u know, I think the Ranger’s have a right to be pretty pissed off at the reffing in the last game. That was a very quick whistle on that goal by Straka.
April 28th, 2008 at 10:54 AM
YESSSSSSSS!! Top shelf before Ballin!!
@jibbles – definitely agree, the Rangers are getting screwed with calls, although Crosby most certainly did NOT dive yesterday. I sent you a link in the comments section on your blog, did you see it? It’s not red wings related, I promise you’ll like it!
April 28th, 2008 at 10:56 AM
I’ve never commented in the Top Shelf before, I thought it would be fun.
How about that controversy in the Pens game?!?!? Ok that’s all I got.
April 28th, 2008 at 10:59 AM
Come on, Bettman is pulling a David Stern, making sure Pittsburgh gets to the finals. Smartest thing he’s done in 15 years.
April 28th, 2008 at 11:00 AM
@Sportsgal,-Yes i saw it. I had seen it before, but I love that video. It’s priceless and shown as much as possible. I hate that bastard Phaneuf.
I don’t think Crosby dove yesterday, but the quick whistle on the goal was extremely bad.
In fact I think the refereeing in the playoffs this season has been extremely subpar. There were a lot of missed penalties in the Wild-Avs series, And theres some blatantly obvious calls being missed (like the boarding against Foote in game 2).
April 28th, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Oh jeez – here we go. Even the Rangers coach admitted there was no problem with the whistle before the goal. The ref lost sight of the puck, blew the whistle like he was supposed to.
The Rangers had 6 power play chances (1 more than the Pens), including 2 in the last 7 minutes of the game. Complain about your players not getting one past Fleury, not the refs.
April 28th, 2008 at 11:03 AM
Yeah, Bettman’s a real genius.
After watching that Stars/Sharks game last night, the Stars look good, but I’m wondering if the Sharks were more of a joke than everyone thought. They looked lost in the defensive zone, made a ton of bad passes, and couldn’t even finish their checks.
April 28th, 2008 at 11:06 AM
The replays clearly showed play was stopped before, after taking several hacks at Fleury, the puck finally crossed the line. It’s a silly, non-story. If if you don’t want to take it from a Pens fan, here’s what the Rangers’ coach had to say:
April 28th, 2008 at 11:12 AM
jibbles – the no-call boarding was a mistake, but there were plenty of missed tripping/slashing/holding calls that could have been made against the Avs on Saturday. It’s not like the Avs were going to score on a power play anyway.
April 28th, 2008 at 11:28 AM
exactly, which is why he had toronto disallow the rangers’ second goal friday that was clearly a high stick on the puck. if you want to cheat for a team the best way is to allow goals to stand against them
fucking idiot
April 28th, 2008 at 11:29 AM
Oh I know, I’m not blaming the refs for the loss I blame the Avs for sucking it up.
And that call was awful Pens fans. And the ref was clearly out-of-position which is why he lost sight of the puck. And I’m not taking the word of a guy who will be fined if he says otherwise.
I watched the call live and my first thought was “That’s awful” (and I have no vested interest in either team FYI). It was a quick whistle by a ref who was out of position. The whistle had certainly blown before the puck crossed the line, but the ref blew it by blowing the whistle too quickly.
Not trying to take anything away from the Pens, but the call was awful.
April 28th, 2008 at 11:30 AM
I know all of those words, but they really make no sense when you put them together in the same sentence.
April 28th, 2008 at 11:33 AM
because LORD KNOWS renney would never critcize the officiating in this series
April 28th, 2008 at 11:34 AM
@battlin – They might make more sense if you know I was being EXTREMELY sarcastic when I wrote them!
@jibbles – did you hear the geniuses on NBC say they think Theodore deserves the start for game 3 since he’s been sick for the past week? As a Wings fan, I would love for that to happen, but there’s no way Q doesn’t start Budaj, right? And is the consensus Forsberg’s out for game 3?
April 28th, 2008 at 11:36 AM
@sportsgal – theodore is starting</a<
April 28th, 2008 at 11:41 AM
YESSSS! The first comment on that story says it all, pimp cane is the Wing’s best player!
April 28th, 2008 at 11:41 AM
@sportsgal- Now Q’s terrible coaching is there for the national stage to see. Avs blogger’s have been complaining about him all season. He has basically been biased against Budaj all season and here’s another case.
@mole: As I coach I wouldn’t say anything either. IT didn’t do him any good after game 1. Saying something here would only make him look like a huge whiner (especially if he said something after game one), and it doesn’t do any good because his team needs to focus on games 3 or 4.
And fuck NHL.com for not showing the replay of that non-goal on their highlights.
April 28th, 2008 at 11:45 AM
hes all hopped up on the Q!
yeah i think if he had kept his mouth shut after game one he would have bitched about the goal. it technically was the right call even if the ref was out of position, it happens, that sucks. but now theyve had a bad goal stand and a quick whistle against them, theyre even.
the officiating has actually been pretty solid. if anything the penalties were heavily in the rangers’ favor yesterday, unless they want to somehow argue that sid dived to cause the rangers to shoot the puck out of play for a delay of game
April 28th, 2008 at 11:52 AM
I’m a little more sensitive to it because I think the officiating has been awful in the playoffs, The end of the Sharks-Dallas game (the matching blown call minors) were a joke last night. And, as Sportsgal mentions above, the Wings-Avs series hasn’t been officiated very well either. (I say that not as an excuse for the Avs losing, they have no one to blame but themselves, but as an observation).
The first round series had some seriously bad officiating too.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:11 PM
Agree with jibbles, the officiating has been atrocious throughout the playoffs. All I’m asking for is some consistency. They call ticky-tacky penalties but they miss big calls.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:35 PM
Renney has yet to complain about the officiating in this series. I want one person to find me a quote from Renney saying Crosby dives or that the officiating is awful. You won’t find one. You know why? Because he’s never said it.
This was the Renney quote that the NY and Pittsburgh papers ran with to make it seem like Renney had an issue. ” We’ll meet with the the supervisor of officials, like all teams do before the series, to have a discussion with them.”
Thats it. Nothing about diving. Nothing about Crosby. Nothing about officiating. Therrien has gone crazy about it and made Renney look like the bad guy when he’s said nothing. I may be partial but having seen every Ranger game this year there is no doubt that Tom Renney is one of the classiest, most humble coaches in this league. He always gives respect to the other team. Never bad mouths officiating and doesn’t make a scene even if he feels like his team has been wronged.
Pens fans want to get respect from other teams but aren’t willing to give any to anyone else.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:41 PM
Wha-wha-what?
April 28th, 2008 at 12:42 PM
The anti Penguins stuff on here is amazing.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:42 PM
followed by
April 28th, 2008 at 12:46 PM
From Scott Burnside’s article on ESPN.
rs27 – No one dissed the Rangers or Renney. If you back through past Top Shelf’s, you’ll find comments from myself, 412 and our other Pgh ilk rooting for the Capitals because we wanted to avoid the Rangers in this round. If that’s not respect, what is?
April 28th, 2008 at 12:48 PM
the rangers offense yesterday was absolutly abysmal and emberassing. penguins defense has really stepped up this season and what a turnaround by gonchar. one thing about crosby, how do you think he felt when JAROMIR JAGR went up to him and told him to “stay on his feet” according to pierre maguire.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:50 PM
to be fair ive probably talked shit about renney, his shit eating grin when that blatant hold on sid got called yesterday pushed me over, fuck him
April 28th, 2008 at 12:57 PM
I don’t feel like reading all the comments, but Flyers/Canadiens is 1-1, I would say that’s pretty competitive.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:58 PM
True. The Rangers have been brutal at MSG. Even up 2-0, I don’t relish the thought of having to go back there.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:59 PM
and honestly both rangers/pens games have been increidbly competitive, coming down to the last two minutes and a power play each time
April 28th, 2008 at 12:59 PM
Competitive? Sure. A series anyone outside of Philly cares about? No.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:04 PM
um….I care about the Philly/Montreal series.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:52 PM
i care about the philly/montreal series as well. to be honest, its the west series i don’t care about. i was excited for wings/avs but didnt think the avs had a chance really and i don’t like the wings, so cross that one off. stars/sharks doesn’t interest me one bit, maybe its because i havent watched much of them all year but they are just two teams who don’t have the histories like the rangers/pens/flyers/habs.
As Usual
East > West