Tarkus' Nonsensical Musings and General Bruhaha

Here's my $0.02 ... unbiased (b/c I honestly have no love or hate for Detroit or Dallas other than to say they are both great teams now and have been well run organizations for a long time) and as a former goalie ... albeit a complete hack of a goalie Haha

I will admit though that as a former goalie, I tend to stick up for them.  Guys are always crashing into you, slashing at you under the pretense of taking a final swat at the puck even when they know it's covered, etc.  And I played in rec leagues where the skating wasn't all that great, so sometimes I never knew if the guy crashed into me on purpose or by complete accident, but it can still be frustrating as hell.  So I do tend to stick up for goalies.

Point one ... I don't think Osgood intentially butt-ended Ribeiro in the face.  I say this because I can tell you that if you are holding a goalie stick in proper form .... which Osgood was doing at the time ... you have no idea as a goalie where your butt-end is.  (I've even made saves before where the puck beat me cleanly over the right shoulder, but then I would feel the stick vibrate in my hand because the puck caught the end of it ... that is just as good a feeling as hearing the puck strike iron.  But it is equally as lucky.)  It's not like a "skater" who has there hand up near the end of the stick and has complete control over it.  However, I do believe that Osgood obviously stuck his stick out to catch Ribeiro somewhere ... and it just so happened to catch him in the face.  It is still a reckless play, but not an intentional butt-end to the face.  I hope that makes sense.

Point two ... I can't excuse Ribeiro's response.  He could have caught Osgood in the throat area, and then we would have another Simon incident on our hands.  But fortunately he didn't.  That's my problem with it.  But I can understand why he would have been "hot" about getting a stick in the face.  A better response would have been to push Osgood in the mask and knock him over, and then get ready for the melee that ensued.  I just don't like to see guys using their sticks to go after one another.

Point three ... Once again not excusing Ribeiro, but Osgood without question embellished that.  I can tell you that I have been hit by pucks, sticks, skates, etc. in that area of the goalie equipment, and you barely feel a thing.  I mean think about it ... how many goalies have caught an Al MacInnis 100+ mph slap shot in the chest area?  And then how many of them toppled over on the ice in pain?  And that slash by Ribeiro had no where near the impact of an NHL-caliber slap shot.  That equipment is built to withstand a lot more impact than that ... that much I know for sure.

So in summary, I would fine Ribeiro for intentionally slashing a player ... that has got to be taken out of the game IMO, but I wouldn't suspend him b/c in my opinion if Osgood doesn't go down and make it look so bad, people really aren't talking about this.  And as for Osgood ... since he doesn't have a history of this that I'm aware of, I would say a warning is sufficient here.  Goalies are often sticking their equipment out to send a message to onrushing players, and he just happened to catch Ribeiro in the wrong place.

Anyway, that's my take ...

I hear ya tark. Tough loss tonight and Hatcher was really getting me p!ssed off. If he keeps up the late punches and hits, he's going to cost this team the series.

Mike Richards has continued to step it up, but the Briere/Prospal/Hartnell line hasn't played their best. Hopefully Coburn makes it back for game 3, the Flyers were not far off tonight at all. At times they had the advantage in the game, but in the 3rd period they were slow and never got it going.

Game 3 is a must win for the Flyers if they want any chance at coming back in this series. The crowd in Philly will be nuts and the Flyers need to feed off of that right off the bat.

Let's go Flyers!