1. It’s called hitting from behind and it’s not allowed. I would think the most passionate and knowledgable fan base in all of hockey would know that its against the rules! Tits went right from behind and hit Ward right between the numbers into the boards… that is as straightforward as it gets. Period.

   Blaming officiating for a loss is the coward’s way out. Had Montreal wanted to win, they should have fought back and scored after the second Chara goal instead of practically giving up.

2. Hey tard..

   I do know what constitutes a five minute major call for boarding..and I didn’t see any evidence of it there. Kostitsyn didn’t leave his feet. Ward wasn’t one foot from the boards facing the glass when Kostitsyn made the check.

   If that check was truly worthy of a 5 minute major, the penalty box would be filled, every night…every game.

   Perhaps you should read my review, tard. I gave the Bruins credit for shutting down the Canadiens in the third. In particular, I wrote that Julien made the adjustments needed to win.

   Thing is..the bogus major penalty turned the momentum of the game. And once the Bruins get a lead, they are hard to beat especially in the 3rd period.

3. Hey Tard,

   I concur with Rocket, it was a marginal boarding penalty at best.

   The the NHL also seems to agree as they have withdrawn Andrei Kostitsyn’s name from the repeat offenders list. Basically, when a player receives more than one 5 minute major in a season,they’re placed on the list.

   Gainey requested that Kostitsyn’s name be removed as the call was marginal and the NHL agreed to remove his name.

4. Tard,

   Take another look at the how Kostitsyn hit Ward.

   He didn’t leave his feet, hit Ward on an angle/side and used his arms. He also let up as he skated towards Ward.

   I can understand the referees reacting the way they did as they don’t have the benefit of a replay like we do. It just seemed to be the type of call that would have been called in an IIHF game, by a European ref.

5. Regardless of your opinion on the hit, blaming the loss on officiating is still weak at best and there is no legitimate excuse for it.

   If you are going to blame this loss on the officiating, does that mean Boston can blame our OTL to Montreal at the beginning of the season on the refs? After all, they ignored a blatant leglock by Kostitsyn on Wideman but called him for the follow-up crosscheck. Montreal scored on the ensuing penalty and twice more in a manner of minutes… call matching penalties (as the play merited) and Montreal likely doesn’t score any of those goals and Boston goes on to win the game. Oh, and Boston gets two points for the Minnesota game too!

6. Anything else you want to adjust retroactively, Tard? Take a look at the 1977 series, game 4 between Montreal and Boston. Notice anything that will change the Canadiens lifting the Cup in the Boston Garden?

   My review of the game is titled “Bruins team up with Refs…” If you read it, I have given the Bruins full credit for what they were able to do in the third period. It just would have been interesting to see what would have happened had the Bruins not be the beneficiaries of all that help!

   As Habster correctly pointed out, the officiating was minor league calibre at best.

7. Good reporting on Gainey’s action with the league office, Habster! It really was a marginal penalty call by one of the league’s incompetent referees.

8. “Anything else you want to adjust retroactively, Tard?”

   No. But I just figured since you are trying to adjust the outcome of last night’s game, I might as well do the same for the first matchup this season. After all, I have just as legit an argument as you do in that the officiating screwed the Bruins out of a potential win at the beginning of the season.

   Fact of the matter is, bad officiating calls happen. Humans are imperfect beings. They tend to balance themselves out, as was the case in the season series with the refs arguably costing Boston game 1 and arguably costing Montreal game 4. Such is life.

9. It looks pretty straightforward to me. He hit the guy while he had his back turned and was in a vulnerable position into the boards. If all he gets is 5 minutes he should consider himself lucky.

10. “the refs arguably costing Boston game 1 and arguably costing Montreal game 4.”

    Just glad that you are willing to concede that the referees played a part in last night’s game.

11. Hey rob…I was expecting your comments. It’s Andrei Kostitsyn…your hatred towards him is well known. I’m actually quite surprised that you aren’t recommending the death penalty.

12. Hey guys, just thought I’d drop by and disagree with everybody here. You know, just because I love arguing.

    Aaron Ward was playing the puck and quite frankly if he does the normal move of turning his body as he clears the puck, the whole thing doesn’t happen and it’s a simple shoulder to shoulder hit. But he doesn’t. So instead, you have a hit from behing but clearly not with intent to injure. At no point does Kostitsyn jump, accelerate through the check raise his elbows or target the head. By the rulebook, it should have been a two minutes hit from behind, not a major penalty.

    Tim Thomas response was unexpected and a hit targetting the head, even if he missed lower, after the play on an unsuspecting player is, in my mind, far worse. Who, even Boston fans, expected Thomas to hit AK? Now Ward on the other hand played 726 games in the NHL, started with Detroit in 93-94. How can he not expect to be hit when he plays the puck in the corner?

    I am NOT saying the hit was undeserving of a minor penalty, but it was a simple hit with no real mustard behind it. Yeah, he caught him from behind but to call it vicious is far from reality. If it was a vicious hit, he could have put the guy in a coma in the position he was. Hell, if it was Pronger he would have been in a coma.

    And at the same time I do respect Thomas a great deal. He trully is a fighter and his story is one of those great “Disney moments”. He is all heart and you I can understand that this move was intended to defend his teammate, not simply to injure an opponent. We compared him to Hasek, not Hextall.

    But in the end, it was another weird call from a referee that is known to do exactly that. Every time I see his name at the beginning of the game I cringe.

13. “Just glad that you are willing to concede that the referees played a part in last night’s game.”

    Only in so far as it did in Game 1. And of course they played a part in the game… how can they not? The only way to have a game where the refs play no part is to have an unofficiated game! That’s just foolish…

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