Gonna refer back to my Orpik post from last season for my logic here; if you allow controlled zone entries to become easy as pie, without any physical deterrent, you might as well be playing shinny. I don't think Gryba's trying to end Anisimov's career with this hit. It's also a hit he needs to make. If guys figure out they've got a green light to overload your side in possession, your days as an NHL defenceman are numbered.

if you can't blast a guy in the head, the terrorists have won

got it.

Ference on Kassian was similar to the Gryba hit as well, it was just more obvious because ZK is like 4-6 inches taller than AF.

72o. When you lined a guy up to hit him, were you never off at all with your timing or positioning? Did you never expand your body because you were off to assure contact?

I'm not arguing that this is a legal hit. It is not by today's rules, which I'm fine with.

I do however take exception to how cognitive so many people seem to think a players physical reaction is on the ice.

Thank you Devin.

We get hyperbolic in here way faster than these guys can even react on skates.

I still maintain the premise of the hit was fine. The extent of malicious intent I can see is "he's on my side of the ice and I have an opportunity to legally remove him from the rush." If, somehow, this hit didn't make head contact, I suspect many here would not have said a thing; now, he's allegedly jumping, targeting the head, looking for an easy scalp, etc. Not buying it.

i don't have a ton to add on this from my playing experience, but yeah i probably missed hits. but i'm not quite as big as you or Geddy, so that wasn't really my game. i usually only threw hits if it was a sure thing (or i was pissed about something and specifically going after someone), can't ever recall landing a headshot on anyone. nor saying it didn't happen, just can't find it at the moment.

ok now your turn, how often would you miss your target on a play like with a basically stationary target? how often did you intentionally throw a questionable hit for whatever reason?

What do you mean by fine? legal?

Cause when the head is the principal point of contact it is a penalty.

I would absolutely miss people frequently. From time to time id stick my arm, elbow, or leg out. I was never trying to hurt anyone, it was just a reaction born from a life time of playing D with the guiding principal of not letting people skate by me.

You have got to be kidding right? Ferrence CLEARLY raises his elbow to make contact with Kassians head, (and you know I ****ing hate kicker K) but that was pretty much clear as day and just stop with oh he's 6" taller irrelevent BS.

Geddy: you're completely missing the part where i'm saying it's fine to hit him, just not how Gryba hit him. there are plenty of legal checks in there, he did not find one of them imo. i guess we can disagree whether he missed on purpose or not. i still say not, have seen too many guys who have gone through their whole lives hitting high on purpose.

yeah for sure, but on a play like that, AA isn't skating by anyone. he's not even trying to. he's gliding while looking backwards for the puck. i suppose there's another difference from the Ference/Kassian one, where ZK is making a move to elude AF.

and it's obvious because Ference has to climb the ladder to get to Kassian's head in the first place.

I just found out Ferrence got 3 games for it too. 72o you are so way off here its painful. Look for yourself again.

Burrows gets 3 games and suddenly the nucks fans are trying to get everybody suspended. Well color me surprised.

oh and Everlastrr still bitching about the Kassian/Bolland thing again reminded me of this play from a few weeks back that got lost in the shuffle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxWZthoNZnI

Umberger's mad because he got owned trying to exit the zone by Nemeth, so he pulls him down with both arms, while kicking his feet up in the air like a moron. the skate slices an artery in Nemeth's arm or whatever, and this 22yo kid with 8 NHL games to his name has his season ended by this melonhead. what an idiotically reckless play by Umberger, should have given him a few games for being stupid.

yeah it's a shoulder to the head, the elbow has nothing to do with it

what play are you watching?

Okay, that's fine.

people said the same thing about roughing the passer, or helmet to helmet hits. it will take some time, but it can be done.

I'm fully on 72off's side on the Gryba play. Haven't looked very closely at the other plays so can't comment on it.

On another note: I did a lot of reading/researching on pulling the goalie in hockey and the math shows that you should basically pull your goalie any time you get a PP when you are trailing in the game and never pull your goalie shorthanded.

It was also interesting to find out that penalty rates are much higher for the road teams compared to the home teams and that goal rates in general are higher for home teams so road teams should be even more aggressive when trailing.

It's interesting to note that Patrick Roy pulled is goalie with a 2 man advantage in junior when they were down 2 goals with about 12 minutes left. The other team ended up scoring but it seems like it was a good move according to the numbers.

I love to hate on Patrick Roy but looks like he is ahead of the curve with pulling the goalie with 3 minutes left and **** but even he isn't aggressive enough.

i don't often find myself on the same side as 72off, but when i do, it's always about headshots.

I miss the hip check.

I'm with syf and 72o on the gryba hit. it looked like he avoided hitting him square to hit the head. but what do I know.

It is interesting that we went for so long without any head shots, but now it's game on.

Hip check

http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/con...14020158-414-h

8 year old kid got killed by a puck in the pro league in France 😞

A regular contributor to the Flames fancystat blogosphere noted that if you eliminate the first five games of the year (which include the Blues debacle and the "Miracle on Madison"), Calgary's actually sitting at 51.9% FF in all situations over that 8 game stretch, which would be good for 9th in the league. I think two consecutive one-sided affairs against the Habs - who are seen up here as legitimate contenders - opened up quite a few eyes that assumed the Flames were destined to suck again...including my own. Results like that can't be ignored, they looked terrific.

I know they're getting some unsustainable contributions right now, Hiller flirting with .940 SV% tops among the list. I believe I saw Calgary's currently 3rd in PDO league-wide, which explains a strong early run. With that said, they've looked much better as of late and I think the kids are the biggest reason why - above all else, Gaudreau is getting better with literally every game he plays and for the first time I can remember in quite a while, the Flames can roll out worthwhile offensive threats across at least two lines.

Lots of quality opponents during the month of November. Washington, TB, Florida, Anaheim twice, Chicago, New Jersey and San Jose make up the meat of this month's schedule. I'm reserving judgement for a few weeks. If we start December with the Flames still in the (admittedly) adjusted possession black and still picking up points...

Buffalo at a -27 goal differential through 13 games. That's pretty bad right?

I feel like the flames could be this year's avs.

Get good goaltending and overachieve with their young guys.

I think only Gaudreau is comparable skill-wise to that MacKinnon/Duchene/Landeskog/O'Reilly elite group, though. Monahan projects as much more of a competent 2C than superstar; he'll be a fine player but he'll never have the out-of-nowhere gamebreaking ability like the other boys listed.

Bennett probably will, however. But that doesn't do the Flames much good this year.

Sabres are going to challenge for worst record of the 3 point era.