The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Just after Pittsburgh scored to make it 3-1 against Philadelphia in the third period, 4th liner Steve Downie gives Petr Sykora a blind body check about 5 seconds after Sykora had control of the puck. There's a penalty for these late hits, however since both referees likely were looking at the back of the net where the puck was, they didn't see it so Downie got away with it. Sykora took some time to get off the ice, but turned out he was okay, and more importantly the Penguins got the goal.

What the Flyers didn't get away with was a win, and being down 3-0 in the series you can pretty much say they're done. And with Philadelphia's dirty play not being rewarded this time, I am looking forward to a Pittsburgh-Detroit matchup for the Stanley Cup.

You could see Dallas in their series (which will likely end tonight) trying to get "physical" with the Red Wings as their skill level is not up to par with the way Zetterberg, Datsyuk and Franzen (until he got injured) have been playing. So you have guys like Steve Ott running around trying to stir things up by throwing punches and tackling players to goad them to take penalties or whatever. Luckily for an NHL fan like me, this isn't working.

Now I'm a guy that can tune into a UFC event and see two guys bash each other up pretty good and not give it a second thought. But when I watch hockey, I want to see hockey. I like the big hits, sure, but the "extra" stuff that goes on: late hits, cross checks, slashes, face-washes, elbows...I don't care for it. And when teams get the win after playing that way because the refs decided to let it go, that's not good for the sport. The battle for the Stanley Cup this year will be skill vs skill, and I'm certain will be treated to some really good hockey. Let me tell you, I'd rather see Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin raise the cup than Steve Downie or Derian Hatcher any day of the week.