The odd couple – Koivu and Vanek.
Finally a guy who can anticipate what Vanek is going to do with the puck. Who could have guessed that’d be Koivu.
The odd couple! That perfectly captures the Koivu/Vanek situation. Koivu is on fire. He was inches away from a hat trick last night with a late chance that almost went.
Very enjoyable game last night, although I was worried when the Wild seemed to let the Rangers back into it giving up a goal that made it 2-1 with 8 seconds left of the second. Fortunately, it was almost all Wild from there.
Nice skull-cracker shot from Scandella on Ranger’s goalie Raanta. Note to self, stopping pucks with forehead can still smart a little. It was really a treat to see that the change in goalies simply meant that the Wild continued the @ss whipping on Lundqvist.
And now for the rant.
Why, why, why can’t the NHL refs EVER, get the freaking freaking fighting calls right? What the HE!! is wrong with these @ssclown refs?
For the second night in a row, the Wild is laying an @ss whipping on a team and the losers decide, predictably, to get chippy late in the third. So last night Stahl tries to instigate a fight with Coyle, Stahl drops his gloves, Coyle says “No dance, fat kid, check the scoreboard, loser.”
And the freaking refs send them both off for 2 for roughing! WTF? Clearly, many NHL officials have no idea whatsoever about how to apply the various fighting rules in an actual game and they have taken it on themselves to change the rules to a “both go off”.
Here’s a couple of clues for you clowns directly from the NHL rulebook. Which you obviously need to read sometime. Probably for the first time for some of you.
46.1 Fighting: Fighting occurs when at least one player repeatedly punches or tries to punch an opponent.
Note that under 46.1, a FIGHTING penalty CAN be assessed to just one player.
46.2 Aggressor: … (any player who throws punches on an opponent) “who is in a defenseless position or who is an unwilling combatant.”
Again, how much more clear does it need to be that Fighting and the Aggressor rule can both be applied to only one player in an altercation?
Grouse