Still had one more dirty play in him. Just stupid. Hope the rest of that line can still shut down the Avs top line with Veilleux or Brodziak in his place.
I'm confused about how dirty that particular play was. Certainly he was aggressive all night, but... he doesn't hit the other guy's knee unless the other guy dives awkwardly out of the way. It looked like it would have been a perfectly clean, though very aggressive, check, if not for the awkward dive.
Leading with your knee is dirty. Full stop. If the guy gets out of your way, then you just can't hit him.
I'll agree that it was a stupid play, but he's been 3+ years without a suspension (since March 2011). Dude knew his career was on the line and has spent the past 2 seasons trying to redefine himself. Maybe on that play he was being overly aggressive, and watching the replay, it's obvious there's not a clean hit. However, everyone's focusing on the knee-to-knee contact and making assumptions about his intent to injure by slew-footing the guy. He's not an NHL repeat-offender (18+ months since the last suspension) and hasn't played "dirty" for the Wild all season.
Watching it full speed, it's amazing how fast it happens. I can also see how folks would react to the injury and also why the refs would only call a 2-minute minor. httpv://youtu.be/3qmQHevtAJA
To me, it also looks like Cooke bit on Barrie's move to the inside (0:40) and then stretched in an attempt to still make a hit when he released the puck and made a move outside (0:41). Barrie passes the puck just a second before Cooke arrives (0:07 & 0:30). He lunges left and his shoulder and forearm make contact as well...just not before the knees.
The problem is, Cooke has a reputation as a dirty player, the Wild were checking, swatting and hacking all night, and the hit resultsed in Barrie (probably their most effective offensive-defenseman) being out the remainder of the playoffs with an MCL injury.
Again, I'm not saying it was a good play (and I'm trying hard not to be a homer here), but it just doesn't seem like Cooke was trying to be dirty.
However, this is the play I think we should be focused on!
httpv://youtu.be/t-V7wmNV7II
This. I'm not quite into fighting the homer urge, but... the "lead with the knee" seems like it was clearly reaction to the player moving, not the other way around. Of course, I'm terrible at skating, so maybe my baseline assumptions about body control are just wrong.
then stretched in an attempt to still make a hit
Yeah, you just can't do that. 90% of the time, that's how knee-on-knee happens and it's a dangerous play.
Cooke's reputation is driving a lot of the fan reaction / comment section flame-wars, and I'm not going to say there was intent to injure or not, but the suspension he's getting will be a deserved one based on the NHL trying to eliminate these types of hits for quite a while now.
Fair enough then.
Your explanation makes sense, and I don't disagree that he'll be getting a suspension, deservedly so considering who he is (or was) and what the NHL is rightfully attempting to do.
Even so, I just keep thinking about it - Cooke stretching to make a hit and Barrie lunging to avoid one - and feeling frustrated that it's detracting some* from focusing on the amazing Granlund goal and overall play of the squad last night. Just hate to think of this series being at all tarnished by one stupid play.
But yeah, I'm fine with singing Granlund's praises from now until Thursday (seriously, two days off without any travel?).
Sounds like Cooke's hearing will be tomorrow.
Did find one pretty cool nugget in all my poking around:
Home teams are 15-6 (.714) in the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs. All 11 Western Conference games have been won by the home team.
-NHL media relations
Let's hope the trend continues!
4 game 7's? Yes, please.
Provided it doesn't hold true for the Wild game 7.
Dater is a tool.
OMG. Did you read his blog post from last night? He throws Russo under the bus and than pumps the tires of ... Souhan!
I made a conscious decision not to read him this series.
Cooke's reputation is driving a lot of the fan reaction / comment section flame-wars, and I'm not going to say there was intent to injure or not, but the suspension he's getting will be a deserved one based on the NHL trying to eliminate these types of hits for quite a while now.
I agree. The Internets are on fire today. But what about Bickell? The NHL is so maddeningly inconsistent. Cooke's going to get 10 games or whatever, and Bickell didn't even get a fine, because Cooke is a black hat and Sobotka wasn't injured. Dumb.
Unfortunately the NHL decided a while ago that injury severity was at least part of the formula for suspension length. I don't agree with it, but they've been pretty consistent on that. My guess is that Barrie's injury will play more of a role than Cooke's history in the decision.
Bickell's hit is awful and dirty and suspension-worthy. I guess he's lucky Seabrook one-upped him by trying to decapitate Backes in the same game.
My guess is that Barrie's injury will play more of a role than Cooke's history in the decision.
I mildly disagree. Cooke's going to get the longest kneeing suspension evah.
That Granlund goal is awesome. You can see the point where he decided "I'm taking this straight at 'em."
Also, I love the slow motion and seeing how close that Avs defenseman came to batting the puck off his stick.
That line shake-up, getting Granny back with Pominville and Parise, makes Yeo look pretty darn smart in hindsight. Amazing what a win and amazing individual effort(s) does to perception, eh?
The worst part is that everyone's talking about Cooke today, instead of the fact that the Wild totally dominated Colorado. This is pretty good: http://www.mc79hockey.com/?p=6959
Methinks Roy might need to get that top line going again.
Uh Oh, did Gardy know this about Sam Fuld:
His father, Kenneth Fuld, is dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of New Hampshire. His mother, Amanda Merrill, was a New Hampshire state senator from 2008 to 2012. Sam Fuld studied economics at Stanford, is a Type-1 diabetic and served as an intern at STATS Inc.
To be fair, almost half of all New Hampshire residents have, at one point, been a state legislator.*
*Slight exaggeration, but I'm pretty sure it has one of the lower ratios of residents:legislators in the world. A guy with whom I went to school, who was about the least qualified person ever to run for higher office, almost got elected once.
I was more concerned about the studied "Economics at Standord and served as an intern at STATS Inc." part. Gardy might think he has Kevin Slowey's disease.
And here I was thinking "Diabetic? Hopefully it's well controlled. We don't need the training staff involved in that."
A bad fit on so many levels.
Wow. I thought that ND's legislature was too big. ND has one legislator for every 5130 people (141 total). NH has one for every 3121 people (424!!!!).
What would be really fun is combine that with short term limits. If it's two years, people would have a greater than 1% chance of being a state legislator at some time in their life.
Not to get into forbidden zones here, but the idea of everyone being in the legislature at some time in their life would be kind of cool in the abstract.
Have you met everyone before? No thank you.
On the other hand, have you met our representatives before? Yes, please.
I remember reading an article awhile back that the most effective way to combat corruption in politics is to elect people at random to short terms. Then no one is in power long enough to be overly-influential. The downside was that a) you get a lot of idiots in positions of power and b) anyone who's any good gets booted just as they're getting the hang of it.
Plus an unelected staff would run things. Lobbyist would just concentrate on staff, not electeds.
Live free Serve on the legislature or die.
ID the AU -- which Twins player (current or former or future) calls this his signature?
The ACL lineup is out. I want to go so bad. In rough order of how much I want to see them: Outkast, The Replacements, Interpol, Spoon, Eminem, Trombone Shorty, Belle & Sebastian, Childish Gambino (would be higher but I saw him at SXSW), Chromeo, Phantogram. Add onto that anyone I see just by walking up.
I went twice. The Milkmaid and I thought we were going to make a habit of going, but we had more kids to deal with soon after the last time and that's about the time we started getting serious about making our debt problem the #1 priority until it was gone.
As a result, I try to avoid lists of performers, because I know I'll start thinking about going. We're out of debt in 13 or 14 months...at that time, I can open my ears to that kind of thing, maybe.
It was awesome, by the way. Have you ever been?
I've been to Lollapalooza once in Chicago ('07), and SXSW this year. If I can afford tickets, this will be my first ACL.
My only advice is to bring a lot of water.
Oh, and there's a reaaaaaally good Mexican place, Baby Acapulco, within walking distance that also has the most badass margaritas you'll ever have (known as "Purple Margaritas"), if you dig that particular drink. Two is the absolute most you should even consider drinking, though.
Let me state for the record that I remember the food being good, but this memory may be tainted. Because, Purple Margaritas.
Yeah, I've been. My good friend from college lives in the condos literally next door to Baby A's. I really like Barton Springs Saloon, down on the corner of Barton Springs & Lamar. $1 Lone Stars on Mondays.
You should try to see The Rosebuds. They are excellent.
Belle and Sebastian? Didn't know that they were doing any shows, even festivals.
What kind of twisted place gives Lana Del Ray billing over The Replacements?
Shhh...it'll keep the riff-raff away.
Does anyone here work out a lot? I'd like to make use of your strength training knowledge for one of my silly online games. It requires very little effort, so if you could help out, email me. I think all of you have my address.
Two responders already! Thanks, guys. We have at least one of everything around here.
I assume we are to parse "America's Greatest Living Thespian" as "The Greatest Living Thespian living/working in America" since Shatner's Canadian.
Or is "America" the continents of North and South America, as opposed the USA.*
*When I'm abroad, I always say I'm "from the States( or U.S.)"instead of "from America". It seems more correct, but I might be being overly concerned.
J is a born & raised Canadian, and she's pretty particular about this distinction.
I'd hope that if I identified as American abroad they would know I didn't mean Amerikkkan.
Shat became a citizen of the U.S. of A. in 2004.
I wondered if that was ever the case, so I checked his wikipedia page, but it makes no mention of the fact. My fault for not checking some other sources.
Meanwhile, police are still trying to determine who the man is and why he was under the deck.
Guessing he was under the deck because he was dead and thus couldn't get out of there.
too soon!
Not soon enough... for the dead guy.
Maestro claimed by the Blue Jays.
Maybe it'll go better for that pairing this time around?
Fuld seems like an improvement over Mastroianni, even though Fuld still is no great shakes. Minor league numbers:
.283/.371/.402 -- 307 BB, 260 SO -- Fuld, minors
.280/.370/.370 -- 305 BB, 418 SO -- Mastroianni, minors
.233/.312/.334 -- 83 BB, 115 SO -- Fuld, majors
.220/.288/.295 -- 22 BB, 74 SO -- Mastroianni, majors
Fairly small sample size on the major league numbers, but it's consistent with their minor league differences--both players walked a bunch in the minors, but Fuld's walk rate has held up better, probably because he didn't strike out as much to get his walks, so he's a little more of a threat than Mastro and pitchers have to be a little careful with him.
Apropos of nothing and everything, Lew Ford hit over .300 in the minors each year from 2009 to 2012. I know it's the minors, but it's gotta be pretty cool to look back at the end of the season and see that you hit .300. (And unfortunately, Lew was also a better hitter than Fuld when they were each young and in the minors.)
Fuld seems like an improvement over Mastroianni
I saw an article comparing Fuld, Presley and Mastroianni somewhere (here it is!- thanks, Twinkie Town!), and it came to a similar conclusion.
How does Fuld compare with M in defense or baserunning? That seemed to me to be the main value that got away.
This is my concern as well. Checking UZR, Fuld is about +20 runs/150 in the corners and -15/150 in center, all SSS. Mastroianni is +26 in right, +17 in left, and -12 in center per 150 games. Seems like a wash to me.
What a goal by Granlund. It felt like I was watching him play NHL '94
Granlund was a monster all night. Fantastic to see him play that well.
I'm confused about how dirty that particular play was. Certainly he was aggressive all night, but... he doesn't hit the other guy's knee unless the other guy dives awkwardly out of the way. It looked like it would have been a perfectly clean, though very aggressive, check, if not for the awkward dive.
Leading with your knee is dirty. Full stop. If the guy gets out of your way, then you just can't hit him.
I'll agree that it was a stupid play, but he's been 3+ years without a suspension (since March 2011). Dude knew his career was on the line and has spent the past 2 seasons trying to redefine himself. Maybe on that play he was being overly aggressive, and watching the replay, it's obvious there's not a clean hit. However, everyone's focusing on the knee-to-knee contact and making assumptions about his intent to injure by slew-footing the guy. He's not an NHL repeat-offender (18+ months since the last suspension) and hasn't played "dirty" for the Wild all season.
Watching it full speed, it's amazing how fast it happens. I can also see how folks would react to the injury and also why the refs would only call a 2-minute minor. httpv://youtu.be/3qmQHevtAJA
To me, it also looks like Cooke bit on Barrie's move to the inside (0:40) and then stretched in an attempt to still make a hit when he released the puck and made a move outside (0:41). Barrie passes the puck just a second before Cooke arrives (0:07 & 0:30). He lunges left and his shoulder and forearm make contact as well...just not before the knees.
The problem is, Cooke has a reputation as a dirty player, the Wild were checking, swatting and hacking all night, and the hit resultsed in Barrie (probably their most effective offensive-defenseman) being out the remainder of the playoffs with an MCL injury.
Again, I'm not saying it was a good play (and I'm trying hard not to be a homer here), but it just doesn't seem like Cooke was trying to be dirty.
However, this is the play I think we should be focused on!
httpv://youtu.be/t-V7wmNV7II
This. I'm not quite into fighting the homer urge, but... the "lead with the knee" seems like it was clearly reaction to the player moving, not the other way around. Of course, I'm terrible at skating, so maybe my baseline assumptions about body control are just wrong.
then stretched in an attempt to still make a hit
Yeah, you just can't do that. 90% of the time, that's how knee-on-knee happens and it's a dangerous play.
Cooke's reputation is driving a lot of the fan reaction / comment section flame-wars, and I'm not going to say there was intent to injure or not, but the suspension he's getting will be a deserved one based on the NHL trying to eliminate these types of hits for quite a while now.
Fair enough then.
Your explanation makes sense, and I don't disagree that he'll be getting a suspension, deservedly so considering who he is (or was) and what the NHL is rightfully attempting to do.
Even so, I just keep thinking about it - Cooke stretching to make a hit and Barrie lunging to avoid one - and feeling frustrated that it's detracting some* from focusing on the amazing Granlund goal and overall play of the squad last night. Just hate to think of this series being at all tarnished by one stupid play.
*myself included
https://twitter.com/mlconnors/status/458668056185933826/photo/1
Dater is a tool.
But yeah, I'm fine with singing Granlund's praises from now until Thursday (seriously, two days off without any travel?).
Sounds like Cooke's hearing will be tomorrow.
Did find one pretty cool nugget in all my poking around:
Let's hope the trend continues!
4 game 7's? Yes, please.
Provided it doesn't hold true for the Wild game 7.
Dater is a tool.
OMG. Did you read his blog post from last night? He throws Russo under the bus and than pumps the tires of ... Souhan!
I made a conscious decision not to read him this series.
Cooke's reputation is driving a lot of the fan reaction / comment section flame-wars, and I'm not going to say there was intent to injure or not, but the suspension he's getting will be a deserved one based on the NHL trying to eliminate these types of hits for quite a while now.
I agree. The Internets are on fire today. But what about Bickell? The NHL is so maddeningly inconsistent. Cooke's going to get 10 games or whatever, and Bickell didn't even get a fine, because Cooke is a black hat and Sobotka wasn't injured. Dumb.
Unfortunately the NHL decided a while ago that injury severity was at least part of the formula for suspension length. I don't agree with it, but they've been pretty consistent on that. My guess is that Barrie's injury will play more of a role than Cooke's history in the decision.
Bickell's hit is awful and dirty and suspension-worthy. I guess he's lucky Seabrook one-upped him by trying to decapitate Backes in the same game.
My guess is that Barrie's injury will play more of a role than Cooke's history in the decision.
I mildly disagree. Cooke's going to get the longest kneeing suspension evah.
That Granlund goal is awesome. You can see the point where he decided "I'm taking this straight at 'em."
Also, I love the slow motion and seeing how close that Avs defenseman came to batting the puck off his stick.
That line shake-up, getting Granny back with Pominville and Parise, makes Yeo look pretty darn smart in hindsight. Amazing what a win and amazing individual effort(s) does to perception, eh?
The worst part is that everyone's talking about Cooke today, instead of the fact that the Wild totally dominated Colorado. This is pretty good: http://www.mc79hockey.com/?p=6959
Methinks Roy might need to get that top line going again.
Uh Oh, did Gardy know this about Sam Fuld:
To be fair, almost half of all New Hampshire residents have, at one point, been a state legislator.*
*Slight exaggeration, but I'm pretty sure it has one of the lower ratios of residents:legislators in the world. A guy with whom I went to school, who was about the least qualified person ever to run for higher office, almost got elected once.
I was more concerned about the studied "Economics at Standord and served as an intern at STATS Inc." part. Gardy might think he has Kevin Slowey's disease.
And here I was thinking "Diabetic? Hopefully it's well controlled. We don't need the training staff involved in that."
A bad fit on so many levels.
Wow. I thought that ND's legislature was too big. ND has one legislator for every 5130 people (141 total). NH has one for every 3121 people (424!!!!).
What would be really fun is combine that with short term limits. If it's two years, people would have a greater than 1% chance of being a state legislator at some time in their life.
Not to get into forbidden zones here, but the idea of everyone being in the legislature at some time in their life would be kind of cool in the abstract.
Have you met everyone before? No thank you.
On the other hand, have you met our representatives before? Yes, please.
I remember reading an article awhile back that the most effective way to combat corruption in politics is to elect people at random to short terms. Then no one is in power long enough to be overly-influential. The downside was that a) you get a lot of idiots in positions of power and b) anyone who's any good gets booted just as they're getting the hang of it.
Plus an unelected staff would run things. Lobbyist would just concentrate on staff, not electeds.
Live freeServe on the legislature or die.ID the AU -- which Twins player (current or former or future) calls this his signature?
Jack Bauer?
Nailed it without the hint.
Aw yeah!
The ACL lineup is out. I want to go so bad. In rough order of how much I want to see them: Outkast, The Replacements, Interpol, Spoon, Eminem, Trombone Shorty, Belle & Sebastian, Childish Gambino (would be higher but I saw him at SXSW), Chromeo, Phantogram. Add onto that anyone I see just by walking up.
I went twice. The Milkmaid and I thought we were going to make a habit of going, but we had more kids to deal with soon after the last time and that's about the time we started getting serious about making our debt problem the #1 priority until it was gone.
As a result, I try to avoid lists of performers, because I know I'll start thinking about going. We're out of debt in 13 or 14 months...at that time, I can open my ears to that kind of thing, maybe.
It was awesome, by the way. Have you ever been?
I've been to Lollapalooza once in Chicago ('07), and SXSW this year. If I can afford tickets, this will be my first ACL.
My only advice is to bring a lot of water.
Oh, and there's a reaaaaaally good Mexican place, Baby Acapulco, within walking distance that also has the most badass margaritas you'll ever have (known as "Purple Margaritas"), if you dig that particular drink. Two is the absolute most you should even consider drinking, though.
Let me state for the record that I remember the food being good, but this memory may be tainted. Because, Purple Margaritas.
Yeah, I've been. My good friend from college lives in the condos literally next door to Baby A's. I really like Barton Springs Saloon, down on the corner of Barton Springs & Lamar. $1 Lone Stars on Mondays.
You should try to see The Rosebuds. They are excellent.
Belle and Sebastian? Didn't know that they were doing any shows, even festivals.
What kind of twisted place gives Lana Del Ray billing over The Replacements?
Shhh...it'll keep the riff-raff away.
Does anyone here work out a lot? I'd like to make use of your strength training knowledge for one of my silly online games. It requires very little effort, so if you could help out, email me. I think all of you have my address.
Two responders already! Thanks, guys. We have at least one of everything around here.
Paging brianS - bS, it's time for a visit to the homeland and a chance to meet America's Greatest Living Thespian.*
*geez, that's the title, isn't it?
I assume we are to parse "America's Greatest Living Thespian" as "The Greatest Living Thespian living/working in America" since Shatner's Canadian.
Or is "America" the continents of North and South America, as opposed the USA.*
*When I'm abroad, I always say I'm "from the States( or U.S.)"instead of "from America". It seems more correct, but I might be being overly concerned.
J is a born & raised Canadian, and she's pretty particular about this distinction.
I'd hope that if I identified as American abroad they would know I didn't mean Amerikkkan.
Shat became a citizen of the U.S. of A. in 2004.
I wondered if that was ever the case, so I checked his wikipedia page, but it makes no mention of the fact. My fault for not checking some other sources.
That is indeed the correct title: AGLTh.
Bonus: a man called Jayne.
Double bonus: Spike!
Sounds pretty cool.
I hope your Easter egg hunt wasn't so ... eventful.
Guessing he was under the deck because he was dead and thus couldn't get out of there.
too soon!
Not soon enough... for the dead guy.
Maestro claimed by the Blue Jays.
Maybe it'll go better for that pairing this time around?
Fuld seems like an improvement over Mastroianni, even though Fuld still is no great shakes. Minor league numbers:
.283/.371/.402 -- 307 BB, 260 SO -- Fuld, minors
.280/.370/.370 -- 305 BB, 418 SO -- Mastroianni, minors
.233/.312/.334 -- 83 BB, 115 SO -- Fuld, majors
.220/.288/.295 -- 22 BB, 74 SO -- Mastroianni, majors
Fairly small sample size on the major league numbers, but it's consistent with their minor league differences--both players walked a bunch in the minors, but Fuld's walk rate has held up better, probably because he didn't strike out as much to get his walks, so he's a little more of a threat than Mastro and pitchers have to be a little careful with him.
Apropos of nothing and everything, Lew Ford hit over .300 in the minors each year from 2009 to 2012. I know it's the minors, but it's gotta be pretty cool to look back at the end of the season and see that you hit .300. (And unfortunately, Lew was also a better hitter than Fuld when they were each young and in the minors.)
I saw an article comparing Fuld, Presley and Mastroianni somewhere (here it is!- thanks, Twinkie Town!), and it came to a similar conclusion.
How does Fuld compare with M in defense or baserunning? That seemed to me to be the main value that got away.
This is my concern as well. Checking UZR, Fuld is about +20 runs/150 in the corners and -15/150 in center, all SSS. Mastroianni is +26 in right, +17 in left, and -12 in center per 150 games. Seems like a wash to me.
Nice feature on Mauer and Perkins being Minnesota kids wanting to play their whole careers with the Twins.
Bulls blow a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter at home to go into an 0-2 hole in their series with the Wizards.
If you are tanking AFTER making the playoffs, you are doing it wrong.
Hello from Yosemite. A mere six and a half hours from Claremont. I can't wait to get up at the crack of dawn to see nature shit.
And a public service announcement: Bakersfield is a dump.
duh.
It bears repeating.