Faceoff Factor

Playoff hatred boils over

Mike Wilson | National Hockey League

May 15, 01:30 PM | Hype this story!

The hatred between the rivals squaring off in each of the conference finals has caused a lot of hatred in the air. Fans hating networks, teams hating injuries and players hating players are no surprise to the playoffs. The following is a look at what damage has been done so far.

Penguin fans hate VERSUS.

The Pittsburgh faithful will remember in game one of this series that VERSUS kept showing little snippets of Flyers fans back in Philly…which was nice. However, where was the coverage from Pittsburgh for game three? Oops.

Darren Elliot, the color analyst for this series, was ever vigilant in pointing out “all this orange” referring to the fans’ orange crush in Philadelphia. Doesn’t sound like anything white he might have seen two games ago does it?

Not to mention Elliot saying how much he “loves these [Flyers] fans” calling them “passionate, passionate fans.” I’m not taking anything away from Flyer fans because they certainly need the coverage, but shouldn’t this be an equal thing?

And don’t fall asleep before Joe Beninati screams “goal” because you’re in for a rude awakening.

Chris Osgood and Mike Ribeiro hate each other.

Nearing the end of game two in Detroit, Chris Osgood delivered the butt-end of his stick to Mike Ribeiro’s face as he skated by him. Osgood called the apparent six-inch arm spasm accidental. Maybe Ribeiro’s slash-to-Osgood’s-chest reaction was a little overboard, but give him the benefit of the doubt. What would you have done?

Who knows what would’ve happened if Hasek was in net?...Ribeiro might have been decapitated!

Hairstylists hate Brian Engblom.

Is an explanation really necessary?

Fans who cry “dive” hate the Penguins.

Without a doubt, the Pittsburgh Penguins have been open to more criticism than any other team in the playoffs regarding diving. Yet, hardly any are called against them.

The Pens have experience everything from Jagr’s on-ice complaining to Philly fans’ rating of Malkin’s dive and holding up posters saying “Penguins don’t fly, they dive”…which is creative (kudos to Flyer fans), but inaccurate.

Pittsburgh’s lone dive was called against Jarkko Ruutu for embellishing Derian Hatcher’s face wash. Philadelphia also has one dive call that came on Scottie Upshall in game six against Washington.

The Philadelphia Flyers hate injuries.

There has certainly been no shortage of injuries for the black and orange in the conference finals. Gagne is out with a concussion, Timonen is out with a blood clot in his foot, Coburn is out with his broken orbital bone, and Downie is day to day with a fragile psyche. All are hard losses for the Flyers.

Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom hate Dan O’Halloran and Kelly Sutherland.

The first goal of Wednesday’s game four between Detroit and Dallas was thought to have come from Pavel Datsyuk with Tomas Holmstrom providing the screen in front of Turco.

However, the two referees, O’Halloran and Sutherland, declared Holmstrom was in the crease and the goal was waved off. The overhead shows Holmstrom was outside the crease, and Detroit loses the game.

Tough break.

Marty Turco hates Joe Louis Arena.

Turco is winless in the playoffs at the Joe and that has to be weighing heavily on his mind going into game five in Detroit.

The guy who counts stitches in the operating room must hate his job.

We who watched game three of the Flyers and Penguins learned from Joe Beninati’s ever-flowing fountain of knowledge that Braydon Coburn received 50 stitches from the puck he took to the face in game two.

Which makes me wonder…who is the poor sap counting these stitches one by one in the O.R.?

Penguins’ fans hate Ben Roethlisberger.

Ok…this one might be a little bit of an overstatement. But Roethlisberger received a Flyers’ jersey with a #7 and Roethlisberger on the back.

The jersey was given to him by Flyers’ center R.J. Umberger, a Pittsburgh native. While this was shortly before the Steelers won Super Bowl XL(roughly two years ago), Penguin fans never forget.

Luckily for Big Ben, he made up for it by showing the black and gold in Mellon Arena for game two.

Fashion designers hate Barry Melrose.

During Thursday’s edition of Sports Center, Melrose was sporting a lavender suit that even Steve Levy made fun of. No wonder ESPN doesn’t cover the NHL often, because they don’t want Barry Melrose’s jackets lowering their ratings.

The Mellon Arena Ice Crew hates Don Cherry.

On Monday’s Sports Center, Don Cherry ridiculed the Mellon Arena Ice Crew for the appearance of the red goal line behind Marty Biron (you know…the one over which the goal was taken away). Cherry asked, “When was this line painted? 1992?”

Cherry is half right. The other half goes to the ice crew. What would one expect the ice conditions to look like behind Marty Biron near the end of the period in a game where there has been much movement in front of the net and by Biron himself due to the offensive play of Pittsburgh? You guessed it…a lot of snow.

Both sides are innocent; both sides are guilty.

So that’s only a brief look at the hatred in the NHL right now. Expect more of the same as both of these series face termination in their next game and someone moves on to the Stanley Cup finals.