That Aud Smell

Hell yeah

^ I hate the fight over a clean hit. That (sort of) includes Eichel throwing hands after Reinhart got rocked at Pittsburgh.

Can't say I'd ever seen that picture of Susan Banks. Aye yi yi. I can't say I ever recall seeing her on TV when I was a kid -- that's probably because my family was devoted to Carol Jasen.

Occasionally, I'm into gossip. Mostly not.

I've come to realize, in the past few days, that the question of whether Eichel and O'Reilly truly don't like each other is deeply uninteresting to me.

The mitigating factor for Gudas seems to be the ... fairly bizarre nature of the hit. Like - what was he even doing there? The thing is just awkward as hell. His story is that he was looking at the puck in the corner, thought the NJ player would vacate that space and follow the other Flyer to the corner, so he leaped to avoid his own player. It's not an implausible take on what we see in the clip. But the guy gets no benefits of the doubt.

Easier to do on a go-forward basis. Using the team-response-to-nonsense as a metric: The Devils are a good team (and I think they're a damn good team otherwise).

The Phantom Thread, from Paul F. Tompkins. https://twitter.com/pftompkins/status/959192605924864000 Be sure to scroll through for sublime progression.

Didn’t get to see this one. Honestly unsure what to make of the 15/90 “thing” at this point.

Penguins (principally Crosby) do nothing in response to Dustin Brown's dirty cross check.

What grade to the Kings get here? I'd say a passing grade. Done posting for now. It's interesting to note: I think the Bruins have been the victims of three dirty hits that resulted in supplemental discipline this season. In two instances, Schaller responded by dropping the gloves. The Bruins get an "A" grade, I think. OTOH, I'm not sure what this does to the notion that prompt retaliation discourages future reckless acts.

Full marks to the Bruins here. Not a hit that warranted a "reply," but ... Eichel cares.

Over in the Devils game thread, pi posited that teams that care about each other will (consistently) stand up for each other when an opponent takes liberties. So I took a look at the wiki for this year's suspensions and fines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017%E2%80%9318_NHL_suspensions_and_fines and picked out one out that sounded nasty, to spot-check the assertion. The Avalanche have been terrific of late. Do they not care about each other? I'll add other clips here as time allows, and invite others to do the same. The Lightning jumped up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HIhcE2JUGM

Same. I no longer place the same stock in it that I used to, but, really, where's the downside to just bear hugging the other guy (Taylor Hall, btw) in that situation and grappling for 20 seconds? It'll be a meaningless scrum, rest assured. I used to be. Not as much anymore. But still .... I'd be interested to see actual data (footage) on this point. My mind is pretty open on the subject. But I'm skeptical that there are teams that reliably get after it when one of their own gets cheap-shotted.

Ha.

Excellent point.

Relegation games are incredibly exciting. And there's a ton of money at stake, to boot. That's a fair observation on how the NA system differs from Europe. I hear you on capping costs for the richer clubs, but, really -- if the Yankees were at liberty to spend $350M on payroll, would they? They probably would. I don't think the ultra-rich clubs really want to be constrained in what they spend. Part of the difference lies in the reality that, with soccer, there are multiple top-flight leagues and top-flight clubs competing for the same talent. If "Sidney Crosby" had started out with Tottenham Hotspur, he'd have long since jetted for Real Madrid, or whatever.

Interesting. But, with that brutal phantom PI in mind from the JAX game, I still think that the refs are, at times, unwittingly influenced by the Pats' aura.

I think the business of "how did the team react" is over-played. Cooke damn near killed Savard years ago, and the Bruins' on-ice reaction was pretty tame.

^ It's a shame. I'm still becoming accustomed to the very hurly-burly (sp?) ways in which international footballers move, rise, and then fall among clubs of different tiers, quality, and resources. It's a persisting irony to me: The USA fancies itself a bastion of free markets, but our professional sports associations are very much influenced by principles that are, well, the opposite of how free markets work. Lots of monopolies and other permitted anti-competitive conduct, for starters. OTOH, Europe is often referred to as a network of declining socialist states. Yet, their pro sports associations are governed by very cut-throat free market principles. Are you a good player who's become a great player? Okay, then, you leave your role as a Chelsea reserve (or whatever) and go to Liverpool. Are you a great player who's become an elite player? Okay, then, you leave Liverpool and go to Barcelona. Oh, and are you a club that's bleeding cash and unable to maintain payroll? Okay, well, then - you fold. Or you topple down from the top flight into the second division. It's amazing, really. North American sports can't hold a candle to the intrigue that comes out of international soccer.

Mahrez is apparently on strike at Leicester.

Haha - fair deuce Cool map on this page. I can't say I think of Erie, PA as being part of Appalachia, though.