The Official 2010-11 Regular Season Talk Thread

[MizzyMike05]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Regular Season Talk Thread

man the Avs are really getting beat up recently.

[Fiddy]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Regular Season Talk Thread

Good article (for a change) by Scott Burnside in response to Mario's whining:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/column...ott&id=6120121

[Fiddy]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Regular Season Talk Thread

That has nothing to do with it at all. The hypocrisy comes from the fact that the guy signing a dirty player's checks is making comments like this. He actually has the power to do something about it, at least on his team, but chooses not to.

lol.. has nothing to do with Cooke, for the 100th time. he wants a tougher suspension system etc so this crap dont happen again. if it just so happens to a player he has under contract, guess what? he wants them fined and suspended like everyone else should.

[Fiddy]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Regular Season Talk Thread

sigh, shut up Shero. you have no room to talk bc you have Matt Cooke on your team.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/penguins/s_722897.html

Penguins general manager Ray Shero spent Monday meeting with coach Dan Bylsma to discuss upcoming games - not the one Friday night against the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum that turned gruesome in the third period, spawned disciplinary action from the NHL on Saturday and sparked majority co-owner Mario Lemieux's critical comments Sunday.

Shero and team CEO/president David Morehouse, as has been the case, will provide the franchise's voices at general managers and board of governors meetings. Shero, himself a hockey dad whose son is dealing with a concussion, will come to March meetings with that perspective.

He spoke yesterday with the Tribune-Review about Friday night, his club's reputation, and how the Penguins go about moving on.

Q: What do you feel would have been suitable discipline handed down by the NHL from Friday night?

A: It's not my job to dole out the punishment. Mario's statement speaks for itself, and he didn't think it went far enough. I agree with him.

Q: What is your response to opinions from within the media that the Penguins, who lead the NHL in penalties and employ controversial winger Matt Cooke, come off as hypocritical with regards to Lemieux's statement?

A: We lead the league in fighting majors compliments of seven (Friday night), six defending ourselves. This is the first year we've been in this position. That last four years we were middle of the pack. When I say "tough team to play against," it's not about fighting. There's not a manager in the league who says he wants his team to be easy to play against.

What transpired on Friday night was not in the context of a hockey game. That wasn't the hockey code as anybody might call it. (The Islanders) were trying to extract revenge, for I don't know what, to be honest. If that's what they wanted to do - listen, tap the guy on the shoulder and say, "Let's go." OK, we answer the bell. These cheap shots, and a shot from behind, to say these guys actually came out to play hockey - I find that hard to believe. That's the disappointment I have.

Q: Does your team have an image problem?

A: No. Not at all. You've written that. You wrote it (Sunday). I don't think it's an issue.

I want to be a blue-collar, hard-working hockey team. We're not a dirty team. OK, Matt Cooke - everybody is saying, "How can you say this and have Matt Cooke?" He gets fined, suspended. In the (Columbus defenseman Fedor) Tyutin case, (Cooke) was talked to by me and the coach. I talked to him after the Savard hit.

Hard-working and aggressive (play) go into the same thing. From our hockey team's standpoint, I think we play with honor. I really do.

Matt Cooke wasn't about Friday night. Friday night was something different.

Q: Does the NHL need to consider eliminating fighting?

A: I don't think what happened Friday night is about getting rid of fighting. The issue with Friday is what happened and how (the Islanders) went about it.

As far as eliminating fighting, that's another conversation. I hope we can continue to clean up these head shots and keep the game safer. The game has evolved, and we've recognized that.

This should make for a lot of conversations at the March GM meetings. All I'm saying is that I want to keep talking about (eliminating head shots) without taking the physicality out of the sport. It's easy to make a blanket statement: no more head shots. But how?

Q: What is your opinion of the NHL disciplinary process?

A: The repeat offender comes into play. The player's track record comes into play. I've dealt with (NHL vice president of hockey operations) Colin Campbell a lot since I've been GM. I wouldn't want to have the job, put it that way. It's an almost impossible job to satisfy both teams, both sets of fans. Not one instance comes to mind that I think of where both sides are satisfied.

Q: How involved were you with Mario's statement?

A: I wasn't involved in his statement at all. I wasn't even at the game Friday night. I got a text from somebody that said, "Holy cripe! Did you see that?" I went to the TV and was glued to it. It was a series of emails and phone calls from that point, and your first concern is safety and health of your players. The whole problem with that game for me was that it wasn't one incident, it was a series of incidents. What are (the Islanders) doing? What was the point? I don't get the point.

Q: How do you prevent the events of these past weeks from becoming a distraction as the Penguins push to secure a playoff berth?

A: I think I've read this over the past day or so, but there really are no distractions. We played a game Friday night that got out of control. Our ownership made a statement. We've got 10 players out of our lineup. Is that a distraction? Not to me. We've got adversity. We go through this every year with injuries. It's more adversity than it is distraction.

Read more: Pens GM defends team's style of play - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pitt...#ixzz1E27JJayV

[TheMatrix31]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Regular Season Talk Thread

Well....Sabres/Canadiens on VS tonight. Hopefully its another VS classic.

[RealmK]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Regular Season Talk Thread

Lol it's not about him having Matt Cooke on his team.

It's about the circus the Islanders were the other night. That's what he is talking about. He is talking about the league as a whole as well.

Mario don't like dirty play so to speak. He retired in his prime bc it was a garage league. It cleaned up a bit and he came back. As of past few years it's right back to being a garage league.

Until him and other great players start stepping up to rid the NHL of Campbell etc nothing will change. Hopefully this starts to set that in motion down the line.

Yet he made no fuss about "cleaning up the game" when Cooke took Savard's head off and got no punishment for it. Don't the Pens have the most penalty minutes this year as well?

Look I agree that the NHL needs to do a better job on this topic, but Mario whining about other teams, without first looking at his own is about as hypocritical as you can get.

[Scottdau]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Regular Season Talk Thread

To be honest I think teams are tired of Cooke, so they are showing the the Pens what is it like. I mean Sid never got hit like that before. Could be a payback or just a coincidence.

[KSUowls]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Regular Season Talk Thread

lol.. has nothing to do with Cooke, for the 100th time. he wants a tougher suspension system etc so this crap dont happen again. if it just so happens to a player he has under contract, guess what? he wants them fined and suspended like everyone else should.

lol..
As someone else mentioned why hasn't he come out publicly with this tougher suspension system before when Cooke has taken some of his cheap shots? Heck he doesn't even have to make any public comments. He could have suspended the guy on his own during any of his previous antics, and anyone else on the team that leads the NHL in major penalties.

Whether you agree with what Lemieux said or not when you make comments like he did while signing the paychecks of guys like Cooke and not taking this tough line stance with your own team then it is by definition hypocritical.

[FlyingFinn]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Regular Season Talk Thread

All I'll add here is that the league alone is not to blame. The NHLPA has consistently valued paychecks over player safety. The players don't want soft pads, the players don't want long suspensions, the players don't want 4th liners to lose their jobs.

It is funny you say that... there was an article in the St. Pete Times where they asked 12 Lightning players if they would be open to going back to the softer pads (with out the hard shell). Out of the 12, all but 1 said they would go back to the softer pads (including Stamkos). The only one to say "No" was Steve Downie AKA Cheapshot artist.

[Fiddy]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Regular Season Talk Thread

Yet he made no fuss about "cleaning up the game" when Cooke took Savard's head off and got no punishment for it. Don't the Pens have the most penalty minutes this year as well?

Look I agree that the NHL needs to do a better job on this topic, but Mario whining about other teams, without first looking at his own is about as hypocritical as you can get.

hahahahaha its not about penalty minutes, fighting majors lol..

he is not whining about the Islanders/other teams.. he is not whining at all!! he wants the league to do whats best for the safety of its players etc. from his team to yours etc. wants stricter punishment!!

i think some of you guys need to take a step back, its not a Pens issue, etc. its a league issue!!

[MizzyMike05]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Regular Season Talk Thread

I still don't understand why the Pens are being singled out in this.

[Dog]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Regular Season Talk Thread

I still don't understand why the Pens are being singled out in this.

It's because of Cooke. People see a guy going around giving cheap shots (or whatever you wanna call it) to people wearing a Penguins uniform, so they associate the Penguins with "dirty play"

[SPTO]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Regular Season Talk Thread

Someone on the radio here said that Lemieux's comments were very general and that while not pointing to any players or incidents it seems he wants a total change in how the league handles these things. If it means Cooke gets suspended or whatever than so be it.

So chew on that for what it's worth. I think, looking back on it that that seems pretty accurate.

[Scottdau]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Regular Season Talk Thread

If he really wants a change then he needs to get rid of the players like Cooke and Downie for that matter, but I doubt he really wants a change like that.

[RealmK]

Re: The Official 2010-11 Regular Season Talk Thread

hahahahaha its not about penalty minutes, fighting majors lol..

he is not whining about the Islanders/other teams.. he is not whining at all!! he wants the league to do whats best for the safety of its players etc. from his team to yours etc. wants stricter punishment!!

i think some of you guys need to take a step back, its not a Pens issue, etc. its a league issue!!

It's the timing of it that bothered me. I agree the suspensions should be tougher to deter guys from doing it. But seriously a guy like Matt Cooke takes runs at people EVERY game just about, yet not a peep from Mario, the Islanders take exception to it, goon it up right back, and all of a sudden Mario feels the need to make a speech about saving the game. Yeah ok there whatever.