April 16th News & Notes

Timeout with 5 seconds left, why?

Some people questioned on why Bruce Bourdeau called a timeout with 5 seconds left in last night’s game. The Caps were up 2-0 with the faceoff in their defensive end. John Torterella sent out Bryan Boyle, Sean Avery and Brandon Prust, Boudreau then called his timeout, only to get Washington’s tough guy John Erskine on the ice. So when it was all said and done, he wanted to be safe rather than sorry, alot of coaches would have done the same thing.

Standards different for every series?

                The Canucks & Capitals series have an anything goes mentality; you can do almost anything and everything and get away with it. The standards for a couple of other series are completely the opposite. Take for an example Nashville and Anaheim some thought game 1 was bad, last night was a joke. Marc Joanette and Francois St. Laurent were calling anything and everything earlier. The worst call of the year was a farcical non goal and on top of that goalie interference penalty on David Legwand. Ray Emery Ducks netminder was outside his crease, Legwand was outside of the crease as well, you can see the puck entering the net, at the same time Legwand’s stick tap Emery’s shoulder.  Then within a span of 2 minutes, two questionable interference calls on for each team. The icing on the cake was a non-call with 5 minutes left; Nashville’s Martin Erat gets but-ended in the mouth losing 3-4 teeth and no call?
                What’s the difference between the series? The Ducks-Predators, Penguins-Lightning series have had a combined 41 power plays, Canucks-Hawks; Caps-Rangers have had 16 power plays. Trust me on this one, there is not that much difference in the physicality in the series, if anything the ladder have been more physical.   

There is a first time for everything

                For the first time in NHL history, only 2 games will be played between Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay next week. Would it be the NHL scheduling it so Sidney Crosby could come back later in the series? Curious to know why else they would not be playing a game every second night, like every other team.