April 02, 2012

Hey Mike Milbury, what do you really think. Sure NBC cant be happy with his comments Following the Pens Flyers game. I could not find the soundbite,. it sounds much more sarcastic then it reads. This will be a brutal round one in the playoffs.

posted by Debo270 at 09:19 PM on April 02, 2012

I watched the game, and the expression on the NBC "Inside the Glass" reporter was priceless. He stood there, his eyes about the size of the puck, looking alternately to his left and right, waiting for one of the coaches to make a move toward the other, and knowing if it happened he'd be crushed in the collision. A funny moment in live TV.

Milbury's comments I'm sure were made with an eye toward the TV ratings of games between these 2 teams. Take anything Milbury says with a grain of salt, and don't forget that during his playing career he led a charge by the Boston Bruins into the Madison Square Garden stands where he grabbed a fan's shoe and proceeded to beat on him with it. As far as Penguins and Flyers go, I think both teams go a bit overboard in trying to prove how tough they are. Crosby is a punk who thinks his star status will protect him, Malkin doesn't need to pull some of the cheap moves he makes, and Philadelphia seems to be stuck in a mid-'70s Broad Street Bullies remake with a second-rate cast. These teams have too many decent players to need to play this style of hockey. Either one would be much better off to play sound hockey and forget the rest of it.

A good contrast to the Flyers vs Penguins was yesterday's Bruins vs Rangers game. These are 2 very tough teams, neither is averse to dropping the gloves, and yesterday's game was important to both. One would expect a physical game with emotions running high. The game was indeed physical, play was rough and at times very close to the limits, but there was only one unsportsmanlike conduct minor called (the 4 other minors were for interference (2), puck over the glass and a too many men call), and it was the result of an encounter that never did develop into anything more than pushing and shoving. I follow Bruins closely, and I know that their coach stresses self-control and discipline on the ice. It appears that Rangers' coach does the same. Yesterday the players were listening, and there were no stupid moves that might give the game away. I also note that the officials were on top of things as well. The result was good, hard two-way hockey. That type of play will have any team going deep into the playoffs.

posted by Howard_T at 12:18 AM on April 03, 2012

Sometimes the words other people use remind me that not everyone on the planet has been steeped in Internet filth the past 17 years.

posted by rcade at 01:05 AM on April 03, 2012

Howard, I could copy and paste your entire post and have to mostly agree. I think that when the playoffs start, you will see very much what you saw in the Rangers vs Bruins game, tough physical hockey but not crossing that line. Malkin is definatly to good of a player to take some of the dumb calls he does. He still seems to willing to "go to da box for 2 min and feel shame."

The only thing I can see him getting in trouble for is making fun of the concussions. The NHL has been trying to crack down on head hits just like the Nfl is, and you cant have one of your lead guys mocking concussions. If an NFL pregame talking head had mocked concussions, he wouldn't be there by halftime.

posted by Debo270 at 07:54 AM on April 03, 2012

Anything that comes out of Milbury's mouth is, by default, lacking intellectual processing.

I can say this because the brain that tells his mouth what to say is also the same brain that he used to make decisions as the GM of the NY Islanders.

I think it's safe to say that Milbury was the worst NHL GM in the history of the league, and it's not even close. Other GMs might have made bad deals (Courtnall for Kordic, Gilmour for Leeman, etc), but no other GM excelled at making terrible trades, horrible draft decisions, and signing idiotic contracts. There was no aspect of Milbury's tenure that didn't leave hockey experts scratching their heads.

So, anything he says (on CBC or NBC) just sounds like "Chara and a draft pick (Spezza) for Yashin!" or "Jokinen and Luongo for Parrish and Kvasha!" to me.

posted by grum@work at 12:44 PM on April 03, 2012

So, anything he says (on CBC or NBC)

You should move to somewhere (Kingston, Ont?) that gets NESN. Then you'd have 3 options. I know I've said it before, but I can only assume he's angling to replace Don Cherry.

In the defense of NESN, I just got to watch Andy Carroll's dive in real-time during a Liverpool (A Fenway Sports™©® Production) re-run.

posted by yerfatma at 03:45 PM on April 03, 2012