Hartley did this quite often for the opening faceoff in Colorado and still does it here after goals or when a new period is starting. When the other team expects you to put your 1st line out he's going to put his shutdown line out. So instead Hartley puts out his third or fourth line to get the energy started and stir #### up, and then tries to get the matchup he wants on the fly. Pretty common
Agreed. He started a forward line. Shouldn''t matter which one, and the 4th line has its purpose. Only question mark is why Westgarth started at the dot, not Jones; might be somethign there.
Bieksa obviously stepped in to protect the rookie on the faceoff, but that's way more questionable than Westgarth. And Vancouver had last change, so Tortorella could have defused the situation easily enough. Instead, he embraced it.
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Agreed. He started a forward line. Shouldn''t matter which one, and the 4th line has its purpose. Only question mark is why Westgarth started at the dot, not Jones; might be somethign there.
Bieksa obviously stepped in to protect the rookie on the faceoff, but that's way more questionable than Westgarth. And Vancouver had last change, so Tortorella could have defused the situation easily enough. Instead, he embraced it.
Only thing I can think of is the height advantage Lain would have had over Jones. Westgarth used to take faceoffs once in a while in LA. I don't know about that one though.
I completely get Bieksa stepping in for Laine, but I don't think he thought of how that'd be interpreted. If you're Westgarth in that situation and you see a d-man take over in the faceoff dot, how does that get interpreted as anything but "I guess this guy wants to go"
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Why? He couldn't have substituted Lain for the first shift then juggled him back onto the 4th line after?
Anyways, here's PJ Stock at the intermission for anyone who missed it.
Thanks for posting this, I missed the game (work).
Like its been pointed out, Torts ultimately has the decision to make on who he puts on the ice. Call it homer ism if you wish but not all the blames lies in Hartley and his decision for an opening line up. Not to mention history shows its not all that difficult to get under the Canuck skins. It would be different if this game was in Calgary.
Exactly, what has been the problem for the Canucks lately? Goal scoring, so what do they do? Call up a tough guy? And after all the shenanigans they pulled on the recent road trip and all the big deal about the "moral victory" and embracing this new "tough team" identity?
Hartley was the one who "had no choice" but to start the 4th line. Flames have been intimidated and pushed around by the Canucks for way too long.
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Calgary Flames, PLEASE GO TO THE NET! AND SHOOT THE PUCK! GENERATING OFFENSE IS NOT DIFFICULT! SKATE HARD, SHOOT HARD, CRASH THE NET HARD!
I don't have the clip from TSN but Craig Button is putting this squarely on the Flames' shoulders. He pointed at "Alberta style hockey" and didn't hide his contempt for it. I'm a little surprised. I thought Button was more of an old school thinker. I do kind of like that he is against what went down last night. Having said that...I personally loved every second of it.
When I refer to old school thinking I'm referring to P.J. Stock as an example. His take is that if you're going to break out of a slump you are going to do it most times by having a night out and pounding beers with the boys or by having a donnybrook like we saw last night. I tend to agree.
Last edited by SportsJunky; 01-19-2014 at 09:21 AM.
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when then puck finally dropped, both of Vancouver's defencemen were standing outside the face off circle. Seems that the Canucks were more prepared for the festivities than they're claiming.
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Resolute already said it in this thread or another but Hartley likely will (and should) get a fine because Westgarth had his gloves off before the puck even hit the ice.
The League wants to get rid of staged fighting and Westgarth going after Bieksa less than a second in was the clearest indication this was a staged fight.
