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| | any of the playing rules, including interference (30th Jun 16 at 9:01am UTC) | | | TORONTO - What a difference three days made for the Toronto Maple Leafs. http://www.soccerwalesshop.com/ . In the Winter Classic they played in front of 105,491 fans, many of whom drove several hours to Michigan Stadium to watch the spectacle amid frigid temperatures. Saturday night against the New York Rangers they were booed off the ice multiple times in an embarrassing 7-1 loss at Air Canada Centre that snapped the Leafs winning streak at three. "Getting booed off the ice in the first period, second period and the end of the game — and we deserved it," winger Joffrey Lupul said. "We were not good in any aspect. We dont feel very good about ourselves right now." There wasnt much to feel good about as the Leafs (21-17-5) experienced the worst kind of let-down from the high of the Winter Classic. Goaltender Jonathan Bernier, who had been stellar lately, was pulled for the first time all season, David Clarkson and Carl Gunnarsson left with injuries and everything fell apart at the seams. "Sometimes you have losses where you take some positives out of: some guys played well, you did certain things well, you didnt do other things well," said Lupul, who had Torontos only goal. "Tonight we did nothing well. Theres not much we can take out of this other than just not wanting to have this feeling in here again." The feeling of the loss led to the home locker-room being closed to the media much longer than usual. Coach Randy Carlyle called his teams lack of a push-back the "most disappointing thing" as goals piled up from Carl Hagelin, Dominic Moore (two), Benoit Pouliot, Chris Kreider, Brad Richards and Brian Byle. He shared the same sentiment with players. "My message was it was unacceptable to play and to feel that we were not embarrassed by what our performance was," Carlyle said. "And I stressed we." There was plenty of soul-searching after the Leafs most lopsided loss of the season, and as Lupul pointed out, plenty of blame to go around. Bernier, who had stopped 181-of-190 shots since relieving James Reimer on Dec. 21 against the Detroit Red Wings, gave up five goals on 32 shots to the Rangers before getting yanked for the first time this season. Moores first goal from a bad angle, which made it 2-0, was the softest he has allowed in a long time. Still, this one couldnt be pinned on Bernier, or even Reimer, who didnt fare much better in allowing two goals on 18 shots. "They had the freedom to roam about the ice and do what they wanted to do, and we didnt engage in the competitive side of it of limiting their space, stepping in front of anybody, skating in front of anybody to impede the progress," Carlyle said. "Obviously we left our goalies hanging high and dry." With the Leafs rarely in control of the puck and players being a step slow at times, the Rangers (21-20-2) pounced. They scored at least six goals for the first time this season and could have had as many as nine if Rick Nash finished on an empty net early and a late goal by Pouliot wasnt called back for Boyle interfering with Reimer. It was a real bounce-back effort for New York after losing 5-2 at the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night. "I know the guys were ready last night and turned the page on it, analyzed it, we got ready, the guys came out, moved the puck well, got some good opportunities and we were able to finish a couple," coach Alain Vigneault said. It stuck out that the Leafs couldnt keep pace with the Rangers, who travelled and were playing the second half of back-to-back games. "Its always disappointing when you give up seven goals, and especially they played last night," Bernier said. "They were just quicker and faster than us." All night the Leafs had no answers for what the Rangers were doing in the offensive zone. Defenceman Cody Franson, who was burned a couple of times on plays that led to goals, knew he and his teammates were on their heels from the get-go. "We got outworked, to put it mildly," Franson said. The Leafs certainly didnt do enough work to put pressure on Rangers backup goaltender Cam Talbot, who stopped 25 of the 26 shots thrown on net. It was another steady outing from the rookie, who improved to 9-3-0 with a 1.66 goals-against average and .938 save percentage. "Ive always just kind of started as a backup and then started playing more games, so Ive been in these situations before and you learn from every situation youre in," Talbot said. Theres not much the Leafs can learn from this one. They lost Clarkson to a left foot injury after he got hit with a shot from Rangers defenceman Michael Del Zotto and Gunnarsson to an upper-body injury following a hit from Hagelin. "No offence to those guys, but I dont know if they wouldve been helping tonight," Lupul said. "You never like to see guys go down, and those are two veteran guys and were hoping theyre all right. ... Thats certainly not an excuse for how we played tonight." Getting beaten so handily right after the Winter Classic was a ready-made excuse, even though Lupul and Carlyle noted that the Leafs were relieved to be done with the hype that came with the game and HBOs "24/7." Carlyle ended his post-game news conference blowing off any excuses. "I just look at tonight, you could go forwards, defence, you could go to our whole group, and we didnt have the competitive edge thats required to have success," he said. "Everything that I say is going to be an excuse, so Im not here to make an excuse for anybody." With answers lacking and excuses thrown out, Lupul passed along to reporters what was said in the locker-room afterward. It wasnt pretty. "Were not proud of that game, its embarrassing," he said. "I apologize to people who paid money to see us play like that. Its one game and were going to feel pretty bad about this tonight and then hopefully tomorrow come back and practise and get some life and try to turn the page on it." After so much notable progress in recent games, the Leafs were outshot 50-26. The loss stunted any momentum they had been building. "We felt that we were becoming more competitive," Carlyle said. "And this one kind of sent an A-bomb." NOTES — Newly acquired defenceman Tim Gleason was a healthy scratch as Carlyle stuck with the same lineup from the Winter Classic. Gleason took warm-ups, but Carlyle announced Saturday morning that the former Carolina Hurricanes blue-liner would not play unless there was a late injury or illness. ... Talbot got the start after Henrik Lundqvist played Friday night in Pittsburgh and allowed five goals in a loss to the Penguins. http://www.soccerwalesshop.com/blank-wales-jersey/ .ca. Kerry, With just over a second left in the game, the L.A. Kings puck got behind Henrik Lundqvist. Derek Stepan got in, swatting the puck back under Lundqvist with his glove. http://www.soccerwalesshop.com/customized/ .Y. - The Buffalo Bills have claimed safety Jerome Couplin off waivers two days after the rookie was released by the Detroit Lions. http://www.soccerwalesshop.com/joe-allen-wales-jersey/ . Stadler, who sits atop the leaderboard at 9-under-par 204, entered the day up by three shots, but the rest of the field could not shoot low enough to catch the American. Stadler is seeking his second win on the European Tour.Got a question on rule clarification, comments on rule enforcements or some memorable NHL stories? Kerry wants to answer your emails at cmonref@tsn.ca! Kerry, Id appreciate some clarification on when a ref is supposed to blow the whistle based on a player injury. Last night, Blues were on the power play, when a Blackhawks D blocked a puck with the side of his leg, went down, got up and skated for a bit, before going down again. Blues had possession the entire time, and the play was not near the defenseman on the ice. The referee blew the play dead (right after another Chicago player lost his stick, thus the refs turning a 5 on 2 back to a 5 on 4). Is play supposed to stop for a player who is able to skate (as he did after the shot block both prior to the whistle and again immediately following it) after he chooses to block a shot? Brandon Bell Hi Brandon, Regarding the play in question, we saw Hawks shot-blocker extraordinaire, Niklas Hjalmarsson rotate his body sideways, thereby exposing the unprotected area in the back of his right knee as Kevin Shattenkirk blasted a slapper from the point on the Blues power play. Taking a shot in this location causes the nerve endings in your leg to instantly go numb, resulting in "dead leg". Hjalmarssons wounded-deer attempt to defend reminded me of Gregory Campbells heroic broken leg defence in the playoffs last season. In Campbells case, the Refs allowed the play to continue while last night, play was stopped in the midst of a Blues scoring opportunity as Chris Stewart threw the puck into the slot past a fallen Hjalmarsson for a one-timer by Alexander Steen. The authority for the Officials to stop play is found in Rule 8.1: "In the case where it is obvious that a player has sustained a serious injury, the Referee and/or Linesman may stop the play immediately". In the judgment of the Referee last night, a serious enough injury was sustained by Hjalmarsson to kill the play. My preference would be to stop the play either prior to Stewarts centering pass from the corner or after allowing the scoring opportunity on the one-timer by Steen. Perhaps the memory of Campbell defending on a broken leg had some bearing on Refs decision to kill the play. Brandon, I have posted two articles from Cmon Ref archives that further explain when the Officials stop play due to a player injury. Fraser: Defining the rule for an injury stoppage in play Fraser: Blowing the play down on a player injury ----- Bonus Question of the Day: Hi Kerry, In Tuesdays game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Colorado Avalanche on TSN, whenever an Avalanche defender would be in their defensive zone with the puck setting up the play behind the net, their goalie Semyon Varlomov would be waving his hands to block the Maple Leaf player from seeing the Avalanche defender behind the net. To me, this is reminiscent of what happened between Martin Brodeur and Sean Avery in the 2008 playoffs wwhen Avery took screening the goalie to a level never seen before by facing Brodeur and using his stick and hands in an attempt to block Brodeurs view of everything. http://www.soccerwalesshop.com/gareth-bale-wales-jersey/. . That prompted the NHL to make a rule change: "An unsportsmanlike conduct minor penalty (Rule 75) will be interpreted and applied, effective immediately, to a situation when an offensive player positions himself facing the opposition goaltender and engages in actions such as waving his arms or stick in front of the goaltenders face, for the purpose of improperly interfering with and/or distracting the goaltender as opposed to positioning himself to try to make a play." I realize there are some differences here. The NHL wanted to protect a classy player as much as possible, especially from the potential of a goal scoring play. In the situation with Varlomov, its not the offensive zone and instead its a goalie doing the screening. But he is engaging in actions, such as waving his arms, for the purpose of interfering with and distracting the opposing player. Shouldnt any kind of actions like this be deemed unsportsmanlike? Its not like Varlomov is positioning himself to make a play. Why should only goalies be protected by this kind of behaviour which has nothing to do with hockey? Thanks Kerry, Steven Vandervelde Steven, The memo you referenced outlining the immediate actions Refs were to take if taunting and interference occurred following Sean Averys arm gestures in front of Martin Brodeur applies to all players in the broader sense. Goalkeepers are not immune to any of the playing rules, including interference and unsportsmanlike conduct. In a manner of speaking, whats good for the goose is good for the gander. Since the actions of goalie Semyon Varlomov were not in any way designed to stop the puck or tend his goal but instead solely for the purpose of distracting, interfering with or inciting his opponent, I would issue one warning to the goalkeeper at the first stoppage of play. Following the warning, if the negative behavior continued, I would immediately penalize the goalkeeper with an unsportsmanlike conduct. If I deemed that Varlomov legitimately interfered with the attacker (as opposed to just being a nuisance), I would penalize the goalie immediately without warning. There is plenty of language contained in the memo and Rule 75 to back the Referee up in making this call, including but not limited to, "Players and non-playing personnel are responsible for their conduct at all times and must endeavor to prevent disorderly conduct before, during or after the game, on or off the ice and any place in the rink. The Referees may assess penalties to any of the above team personnel for failure to do so." Colorado Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlomovs conduct fell into the disorderly category and, in the future, if the Referees dont properly address it, I fully would expect that some tough guy from the other team just might! Cheap China Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys From China China NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap Jerseys China ' ' ' | |
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