Takes and trash talk from both ALL sides of the NHL's most obscure PATHETIC* rivalry

* Thanks, Kevin Lowe!

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Kings Gameday: Canadians Can Overreact to News Too

Los Angeles Kings (groan) vs. Buffalo Sabres (12-12-1, 13th in East)

7:30 PST, FSN West

When I read the headline, "Report: Crawford Ordered Attack on Moore," I was confused; why would Crawford want to kill Steve Moore? Isn't ending his career enough? Then I realized it was talking about the hit 2 years ago that Todd Bertuzzi laid on Moore and I was excited; maybe Crawford will get fired because of it! Then I realized that article only said, "Crawford pointed to Moore's name and number on a board in the Canucks' locker room during the second intermission of that game and said "... [Moore] must pay the price." Really? That's it? He didn't tell Bertuzzi to jump on top of him and drive his neck into the ice? He didn't even tell Bertuzzi individually that he had to hurt Moore? He said Moore had to pay the price. That doesn't sound like much.

Look, I don't particularly like Marc Crawford, but let's not act like he's somehow culpable in this whole thing. I'm sure 1,000 coaches have said those exact words 1,000 times and nothing has ever come of it. He saw his best player get injured by some 4th-line scrub and told his team to respond to it; that one player responded irresponsibly isn't his fault. Hell, if nobody had responded to it the very same media that is stringing him up would have lambasted the club as soft and unwilling to defend their teammate. You know why it was Todd Bertuzzi and not some 4th-liner on the Vancouver Canucks at the time that attacked Moore? Because Todd Bertuzzi is an asshole. That's basically it. He was an asshole who jumped Moore from behind and then an accident happened. I'm not trying to explain away the incident, and I hope I don't sound like I'm making Moore out to be the bad guy, but let's call it what it was: an accident. Let's not try to make this some sort of racketeering case.

***

Hooray, Scott Niedermayer is back! I know I should probably be upset, seeing as how he is really good and plays for our biggest rival and all, but I don't care. I love Scott Niedermayer. He's definitely one of the most entertaining hockey players I've ever seen and I'm looking forward to watching him play. The league needs as many Scott Niedermayer's it can get. (Not so many Rob's though; his head has an odd shape.)

***

Prediction: Kings lose, 4-2, and yet the people of Buffalo still manage to whine about something. (Seriously, expecting either Drury or Briere to accept fair market value, let alone a fucking discount, to stay in Buffalo is ludicrously insane. I'd rather go over Niagara Falls in a barrel than live in Buffalo.)

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alright Rudy,

I'm coming to the hometown defense! As soon as I can come up with a defensible position.

Seriously though, I love living in Buffalo. The people here are nice and love their sports teams. The commute is easy and short. Housing prices remain constantly low and are little affected by the national trends. The summers are warm and sunny and the winters perfect for skiing (I'm going tonight in fact!).

As to Briere and Drury, noone in Buffalo would have advocated paying Briere what Philly paid him. We only paid Vanek as much as we did because we were forced to by the loss of Briere and Drury. And Drury? well, he turned down a slightly better offer to play for his hometown team. No one here is real angry at them, only at Sabres management for failing to lock one of them up sooner.

Now, game time.

The Kings can take this one if the wrong Buffalo team shows up. Often times the team on the ice is the one you may have seen in the second period last night against the Duckies. They're lackluster, sloppy, unmotivated, and they lose. If the OTHER Sabres team shows up, the one that blew out the Hurricanes 8-1, then I think the Sabres can win.

Earl Sleek said...

"Report: Crawford Ordered Attack on Moore"

It's kind of funny that this Moore mess, which started as a purely Vancouver-Colorado problem, has migrated its way to the ol' BoC. All the key players seem to be here: Burke (the architect), Crawford (the field general), May (the bounty guy), and Bertuzzi (the triggerman).

I'm hoping somehow that the newspapers decide Cloutier was involved too, probably for saying something as simple as "go get 'em, Bert."

Anonymous said...

After reading the article, I see this report was filed by Moore's lawyer in an attempt to spread the blame as far and wide as possible. Put Marc Crawford at fault too in order to sue for more money.

"there are plans to increase the reward to $38 million through a proposed amended claim."

I think what happened to Moore was unfortunate and Bertuzzi's a shit bastard for hitting him like that, but this lawsuit of his is getting absurd. From his parents suing for "emotional distress" (imagine the can of worms that one could open, with any parent of a guy in the NHL having a precedent to sue every time they have to watch junior get hurt on the ice), to that insanely bloated figure, my sympathy for Moore is being stretched pretty thin. He deserves some compensation, but for jeebus' sake, not in the amount of the gross domestic product of a small country.

RudyKelly said...

Yeah, his parents suing is bullshit. Why doesn't Kevin Everett's mom get a fabulous cash prize for seeing her son break his neck? Better yet, why don't I get to sue the Kings for inflicting emoional distress? I was going to write about Moore suing everyone but I didn't want it to devolve into some long screed against the legal system.

Heather B. said...

Kings lose, 4-2, and yet the people of Buffalo still manage to whine about something.

It's what we do best, baby! Feel the Buff-a-love!

Anonymous said...

well ben your in luck..the kings are the anti-ducks...there as soft as rudy kelly's double chin..seeing as your team is soft (except that dude that fought the stache...poor guy was alone out there defending for his team) this should be an exciting game...ill have to tune in...

rudy that take on the "emotional distress" is a beauty

Anonymous said...

I hear the city is called buffalo after the women there...true?

Dave Pogorzala said...

"I'd rather go over Niagara Falls in a barrel than live in Buffalo."

Good! Thanks to people like you who are unwilling to live in Buffalo, I can buy a great 4 bedroom house in a wonderful neighborhood for less than $200k!

Also, Ben's spot on with all of his assessments.

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go drive from one end of the metro Buffalo area to the other. It's 4:30pm on a weekday now, so I'll probably hit some traffic and arrive at my destination at 5:10.....

RudyKelly said...

"Hey everyone, my city sucks and no one wants to live in it, woohoo! Now excuse me, I'm going to drive through this barren wasteland called Buffalo, assuming I don't freeze to death in the 10 seconds it takes to get to my car."

That reminds me, I better grab a sweatshirt, it's expected to get all the way down to 58 degrees tonight. I may not even wear sandals!

Anonymous said...

haha

Good! Thanks to people like you who are unwilling to live in Buffalo, I can buy a great 4 bedroom house in a wonderful neighborhood for less than $200k!

thats like saying..hey I'll take the ugly fat girl no one wants!! she's all mine!!! look at me!!

yea you go brosam!!!

VeryProudofYa said...

my dad could beat up your dad.

Katebits said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Megalodon said...

Yeah, Edmonton sure does suck.





Wait, what's this about Buffalo?

Unknown said...

Don't be jealous, you can just change your name to the Los Angeles Sabres of Buffalo, like other shitty locales do.

Earl Sleek said...

you can just change your name to the Los Angeles Sabres of Buffalo, like other shitty locales do.

Nice. Time to bring a little Anaheim-bashing into this L.A.-Buffalo dance, eh?

I wonder: cup envy or just standings envy?

Anonymous said...

Are you ready for that? Checking into a Las Vegas hotel under a phony name with intent to commit capital fraud on a head full of acid? I sure hope so.

Marie said...

it's expected to get all the way down to 58 degrees tonight.

And it might rain, for the second time in a year! There goes my weekend at the beach.

Is Buffalo even trying tonight?