Ted Leonsis hates Pittsburgh - 5-7-09

I know the White Out has been questioned on here a few times already...but here are my random thoughts/questions:

Been a Pens fan a long time, but when did the White Out start?

Was it before the NHL switched to the dark uniforms for the home team? It might have made sense back before that...

Would anyone prefer a Yellow Out? Think I would...

Or maybe because we are Penguins...the White Out is like a snow storm in Antarctica?

Thanks Seth....yes, the memories of the ol' Jets days and the Smythe division are swarming back. Hated the Oilers and used to cheer on the Jets...

But was wondering when the Pens started this...I don't recall a White Out back in the days of Mario. Must be fairly recent. Bad choice either way I think.

Vegas Gold Out anyone?

Gold Out would be cool. Still think the 3rd jerseys should be primarily Vegas Gold.

I've done a lot of traveling around the country, and I truly do believe that Pittsburgh has the most illogical road setup of any city I've ever seen. The last time I visited Pittsburgh, I spent 30 minutes trying to get to the 16th St. bridge (which I could clearly see but couldn't figure out how to get to) - even ended up on the back side of Mt. Washington not once but twice. Maybe I'm just incompetent, but it was pretty wild :-P

Ted Leonsis is a little nuts, but I think it's good for the team. He does an excellent job of keeping the fan base motivated. Washington has some of the craziest fans in the league, and I think he can take a lot of the credit for that.

He's got a little Mark Cuban in him.

Is anyone else just absolutely fed up and tired with every team we play in the playoffs whining non-stop about the refs? There were tons of calls/no-calls that went against each team, and most importantly, nobody in the media has yet to mention that the first ovechkin goal was OFFSIDE!!

And better yet, at about the ten minute mark in overtime, Crosby slipped through the defense to take a clean shot and was hooked without a call. Did anyone else notice that? Maybe the worst no-call I've ever seen.

I think sometimes people don't realize that the referee's job isn't to call an equal number of penalties on both teams.  If your team is going to spend 3/4 of the game in our zone, they're going to get tired and take penalties.

The kind of whining I hate most is whining about the refs.

Our streets are a mess and the pee troughs suck, but Teddy should just happy we let him get tickets in our arena and be happy with that.

Also, I think McPhee should just be happy that they don't call charging on Ovechkin.  We could have ended up 1 for 12 on the power play instead of just 1 for 7.

Well, Mr. Leonsis, the feeling is mutual.

And a Vegas Gold Out would feel like 17,132 Elvis impersonators watching a game.

Mike Lange would get laryngitis announcing them all leaving the building, and then where would the radio broadcast be?

I've been to DC a few times.  I think he only thinks the traffic here is as bad is because he's not familiar with the area.

Vaguely topical: <a href="www.theonion.com/.../39315">Urban Planner Stuck in Traffic of Own Design</a>; and the story of Frank Lloyd Wright saying the only way to fix downtown was to raze it and start over.

In some parts of the city, the current main roads were the main roads in the 19th or even the 18th century.  i.e., they weren't designed for modern vehicles and traffic patterns.  It's no wonder we have traffic problems.

Personally, having watched the game, yes, the Penguins played better than the Caps did.  They deserved the win, and the Caps did not.  

That said, I have several observations to make:

1) Yes, there were missed calls - probably  on both sides - but the missed call of goaltender interference when half of the Penguins' line was all but sitting on Varlamov was pretty bad... so were the two or three missed cross-checking calls, and the missed interference calls...

2) How do you get off-sides when your goaltender touched the puck?  That renders "offsides" null.  Ovechkin took the puck from the middle of the ice in the middle of nowhere on a weird bounce off your goalkeeper who was out of position and had lost his stick.  Where's the off-sides in that?

3) Re: the hat thing from Game 2.  I would expect Pittsburgh fans to do the same as we did, if your star player scored a hat trick in his own building.  And I guarantee you that our players would not say word one to the officials about the length of time it took to gather all the hats; they'd be resting.  Do a little math: if a person in the 100 section throws a hat, chances are, he can get it over the glass.  If a person up in the 400 section throws a hat, it has to get to the 100 section, and THEN over the glass.  Of COURSE it takes longer to get there!  Jeez.  

4) The Penguins have no room to discuss the Capitals' owner whining.

The referees need to protect the goalies - on both teams.  I would expect any player who ran the goalie to spend some time in the box, and would consider it a fair call.  Period.  That is something you just don't do.  

If Player A does Thing B to Player C, and gets called for a foul, then if Player C does Thing B to Player A, HE should be called for a foul, too.  That is fair.  

If a hook for one player is different than a hook for another player, that is not fair.  

All we want is for the referees to call the game fairly.  We're not ASKING for an "even number of penalties," or for "make-up calls," or anything like that.  

We just want a hook to be called the same, interference to be called the same, cross-checking... etc.  If you call a penalty one way for one player and differently for another, that is biased refereeing.  The way the game was called last night, touching a Penguin was almost enough to get the referee's arm in the air (an exaggeration, of course), where the Penguins got away with all but murder on the ice (another exaggeration).  

All we're asking is for the penalties to be called - or not called - the same way, no matter who commits the infraction.

Oh, and on DC traffic: our city was not designed to intimidate foreign visitors; it was designed to confuse the h-e-double-hockey sticks out of them so that they'd get lost and go home, LOL!

Why is it that when Capitals fans complain about the officiating in game 3 they never take into account the 2 delay of game penalties assessed because capitals player put the puck over the glass (a completely objective call by the way). If the penalties were 5-2 in favor of Pittsburgh I think we would hear a lot less complaining about the officiating.

@irockthered: I'll respond in order for your points.

1) I would caution you to not revert to goalie interference when a penguin is laying on top of Varlamov. If you go back and watch the tape, the Capitals defensemen, as well as their forwards, did everything they could to make sure any penguin that came near the crease was pushed, tripped, or shoved to the ground. Since we're skating on ice here, inevitably some people will make a lot of contact with the goalie. But it should not be interference if a penguins player is pushed, tripped, or shoved to the ice anywhere near varlamov. This point was perfectly illustrated by the Capitals decision early in the game to knock the goal post off. They were very physical down low, and their aggression was, more often than not, responsible for the mess in Varlamov's crease.  

2) I have yet to see a clear replay of the entire play, and I'm not sure that Fleury touched the puck. However, the offsides rule states that the puck has to be the first thing to enter the zone for the team carrying it in. If someone threw the puck in (once it was out) without ovechkin tagging up, it doesn't matter what Fleury does: it still should be an offsides call.

3) Crosby probably shouldn't have said anything about the hats. That was a careless move on his part. But what I can't believe is the complete lack of ANY media attention to the Ovechkin dive at center ice, as well as his whining after Game 3 and refusal to talk to the media. As you so eloquently state in your fourth point, the same rules and treatment should apply for each player. Ovechkin whining should get just as much time as Crosby.

4) I agree that everything should be called evenly for both sides. The refs should call penalties as they see them. Considerations such as the time of the game, its playoff nature, etc. should not come into play. That's why it shouldn't seem odd to anyone that the disparity in calls last night (14 PIM for Washington, 4 PIM for Pittsburgh) occurred. It should be excpected when a team commands a 42-23 edge in shots. The game was pretty clearly played in the capitals end for a large part of the game, and when something like that occurs, a disparity such as last night's should follow.

Finally, Caps fans need to realize they're still up 2-1. They have absolutely no business whatsoever whining about the refs with the series lead. There are calls each and every game that go one way or the other. In the end, that's hockey. Fans need to learn to cope with it and not look to the officials for an excuse. I'm not saying that you came here to whine, but trying to paint the picture of a conspiracy theory that wants to see the Penguins win the Stanley Cup each and every year doesn't carry much weight when you take a sober look at the facts.

I was never aware that a goaltender touching a puck nullifies offsides.  

Did our owner whine about something?

Yea addressing the offside, i have not seen the play, don't really care to because i doesnt matter but if a capitals player had played the puck into the zone, than the puck has to enter before any capitals player does.  The goaltender can do what ever he wants, or any other pens player for that matter, the captials player would have to touch up if he were to enter the zone first.  There maybe some confusion here with icing.  If the goaltender plays an iced puck, than the icing is waved off.

@FLpensfan - well said.

Ovechkin also took a dive w/ about 3 minutes left in the 3rd period of game 3.  Watch for the triple back flip w/ a twist in Game 4.  He's making quite a habit of it.

I like the white out.  It would be odd to change colors, AT THIS POINT, i think...

FLpensfan - i stated this in another thread on here, the Caps were NOT offsides. Please take a look at this picture. You can clearly see both Caps players (inc. Ovechkin) tagging up in the neutral zone.

i45.photobucket.com/.../Clipboard02.jpg

Don't trying to be a jerk, but this needs to be laid to rest

Oh - the delay of game?  They totally deserved it.  Puck over glass.  It happened; so be it.  I didn't MENTION it, because I considered it a fair cop.  Period.  Ditto with the pushing the net out of place.  Fair cop.  He did the crime; he does the time.

@LetsGoPens: Do you have a picture that includes the game clock?

@Irockthered: Not quite sure what you're responding to. I didn't mention the delay of game in my post. And I wasn't accusing you of whining about the knocking the net off play. I only used that as an illustration of the Capitals play down low to show that the scrums and contact are not necessarily interference calls.

Don't know how this blog post lead into this topic...regardless...the offside:

First...it is not OFFSIDES..but singular - offside.

Second...that photo is dubious LetsGoPens. I have watched the replay at TSN.ca more than a few times. I believe the puck was sent back in BEFORE Ovechkin tagged back up at the blueline. Your photo doesn't seem relevant to the play....it is taken before the key moment.

Of course this a dead issue....but anyone have a YouTube link of that play?

www.youtube.com/watch

Watch the third (or fourth?) replay around the 0:44 mark.  You can't quite see both Capitals on camera, but it certainly looks to me like they both did tag up before entering the zone.

Maybe the Capitals organization should focus more on winning games and containing the Pens comeback instead of what the refs are/aren't calling. It is not getting them anywhere and just makes them look like sore losers.

Like has been said, when you are getting outplayed (like the Caps were on Wednesday) their actions will result in more penalties.