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The better team did win but sadly, the way they won is pretty nauseating. The style of play, the positional, possession type game is not very fun to watch. Add in that they have no real enforcer, no fights in the finals, etc and it's pretty dull to watch.
Sure, it was fierce competition but Detroit just grinds you down, plops in a goal or 3 and wins more often than they lose. It's like a high percentage way of playing hockey. Yuck.
I don't know that there is anything that can be done about it either. Illegal defense like in basketball? Get rid of the blue lines? They were supposed to have fixed all that trap crap by getting rid of the red line and calling obstruction. The hand check is still the easy way to slow down an opponent and that was supposed to be gotten rid of and it clearly hasn't. A player skating full speed need only be checked with a hand to the shoulder, face, arm, whatever and it slows him down enough for the 2nd dman to retrieve the puck. This is so obvious.
Next preseason, they will start calling it again and gradually swallow the whistles but will still call the mysterious hooking where player X touches the thigh of player Y and up goes the arm.
Get it right Campbell and Buttman! Let the players fight for christ sake and get hockey back to it's real glory of the 70's and 80's. Fast hockey and no instigator.
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