Quote:
Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle
I think where you and I might disagree is the correlation to "playing your heart out" till the end of the whistle. I agree, players should do that, and agree that's part of the culture a great coach like Sutter instills.
Where I disagree is correlation you made to Bennett's hit last night actually being "playing his heart out". In terms of effort, or physical exertion, it certainly was. In terms of best move for his team, giving his team the best chance to win it wasn't, which is what in my mind "playing until the last whistle" entails. Bennett, in my opinion, went in the with goal to hit to hurt, regardless of the outcome of the play, he's conceded the game. If he hadn't, he'd have put as much effort into that play, but he'd have gone into the contact more controlled, because he would care about what happened to the puck after the hit. Presumably he'd have wanted to take the puck away, gain control and head up ice to try and start the comeback. That's playing to the end of the game................not what he did IMO which was make the biggest impacting hit I can.
Now where I do agree with you is on the construct of playoffs. If you look at the long game of winning a 7 game series, wearing down your opponent physically (and mentally) for the next game becomes a factor. Is it maybe smarter to go for the legal, but devastating hit with 3mins left, down three goals then actually try to win the game at hand and score 3 goals. In terms of positive impact to your desired outcome, win the series, it probably does make sense to make the big hit. Is that what we want......up for debate I'd say.
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I think you and I are pretty much on the exact same wavelength, as it's the bolded in which I think we're caught up in disagreement.
In my opinion, the only reason a penalty was called on that play was because of the game situation, whereas at any other point of the game, that's not being called. The ref didn't have his hand up at all, and both commentators made a note of the same thing saying that it didn't look like a penalty was being called at first. It wasn't until a couple seconds of Sillinger laying on the ice that the whistle finally blew (there was about 2.5 seconds between the hit & the whistle).
What I see there is Bennett actually making the right play, as in the video, before the whistle is blown, the Panthers were about to have a 4-on-2 rush going the other way because of Bennett's play.
In a close game, I think the Panthers have a 4-on-2 break going the other way because of Bennett without a whistle or a penalty.