It’s covered by the rules: The standard is that past 0.6 seconds it’s a late hit. Letang got suspended for basically being a 10th of a second late. The standard used to be much more loose. Take away body checking and you have a different game—women’s hockey.

But it makes a big difference in terms of the call whether you leave feet before or after hit. Because it was after, the league determined the foul to be interference (the call on the ice) and not charging.

The long-time linesman John D’Amico was as tough as a lot of the players whose fights he broke up. Wiki:

He did his job, which was pretty much piss Dallas off all game.

Stop while you’re behind.

I read it as a general statement about him. (“it was the same...”)

The only place to put it is Milwaukee, and the Hawks have probably blocked that idea.

But wilt? They lost by a goal. An inch away from a goal. Basically they lost a coin flip of a game.

But that was Shaw, who had been abusing the refs and who committed a blatant penalty in front of the goal. It was the exception.

I’m a hockey fan. Not a fan of “letting the players decide,” which actually means “let the illegal plays decide.”

That’s not an “argument”; it’s a description of the pitiful state of NHL refereeing and the league’s stance toward refereeing. A lot of folks in Florida who maybe were on the verge of getting excited about hockey are now swearing never to invest themselves in a sport with inexplicable rules and enforcement.

Yes, but for instance, the two games I really wanted to see were NY-Pittsburgh, and Chicago-St. Louis. I got to see them both. This was the only way that would happen. Necessary evil.

It’s not for no reason, unless you think the Hawks and Blues are the only teams in the playoffs. The late start allows NBC to show every game of every series—a hockey fan’s dream and a gift for fans of other teams in the playoffs.

I’m inclined to disagree. The late starts are a pain in the East and Midwest, but they make it possible to have every playoff game televised. In the old days that people pine for—when ESPN did hockey or before NBC took over all of it—you had to hope that your team was one of generally half the series that would get…

God it took me four beats to comprehend. May riches be yours.

How is it different? The octopus is a single thing thrown in a way it’s not going to hurt or endanger a player. The rats are thrown after a goal and are highly visible and swept up. The players don’t feel endangered by them. Plus, they are now calling penalties for the rats, so there you have the answer you want/

The willpower part is hard, but unlike most of us, he has the means and the time to just check himself in someplace and clean up rather painlessly

That you proved the point: Gambles can pay off. They can also lose.

How about the fight between Shaw and Dumba, where both players were landing blows to the others’ skulls? And every other fight in hockey? And every time a swung stick glances off a helmeted skull? If you want to prosecute every instance of contact to the head, say so, but don’t pretend that Keith’s swing was…

You are pretending to think that Keith’s one-handed swing was as egregious as the McSorley incident, and you seem to think repetition of “skull” clinches your point. It doesn’t.