[DennisGreen]

Debacle
2. A total, often ludicrous failure.

Unreal I just watched the 1st period in it's entirety and wow that was unbelievable. Both teams are to blame for it in the end but wow they must have killed 5 minutes at least in the 1st just standing there doing nothing.

Was on the 1st period over and thank god I wasn't watching live or I may have smashed my TV

Bold statement by Philly which I can understand and same with Tampa sticking to their system. That was just stupid mostly for the fans and not a good way to sell the game.

[hydrosmak]

Love it. Can't stand the trap! It is becoming a detriment to the game and something needs to be done about it.

[LordCC]

Personally, I thought it was hilarious & glad Philadelphia did what they did. Tampa Bay wants to win the game too & order to win the game, you need the puck. To me, it made Tampa out to be dopes, players who didn't want the puck & who were "scared" to go after it.

I have a feeling, we will see a few more teams do this to Tampa as I believe Washington did it to them earlier in the season.

[bruceBRUCEbruce]

for shame on Tampa for playing like that with all the offensive firepower in their lineup. for shame.

[TomJSports]

Yeah, as I'm sure you know, all on TSN, VS, NHL.com, former and current players, etc. were all on board with what the Flyers were doing. They sent 100% of the blame to Guy Boucher and the Tampa Bay Lightning. What's Philly supposed to do? Skate into the trap and allow TB to get a counter attack scoring chance like everyone else has done for the past year plus. Good for the Flyers.

Kerry Fraser had an interesting point though, if we're going to make the 1-3-1 illegal, do we take back the Devils and Lemaire's 'trap' cups or Detroit's 'left-wing lock' cups? Of course not, but moving forward they need to make the trap or an type of it illegal. Because, as you said, that's not good for hockey.

And as Bruce said, it's not like they have a NJ or Minn Lemaire type team, they have Stamkos, St. Louis, Vinny, etc.

[face]

just glad tampa won. people saying tampa did something wrong by sticking to a certain defensive scheme within the rules? well, philly made me punch a hole in my closet door. people wondering why certain things aren't against the rules? well i got a rule i'd like to see, how about no stalling with the puck. philly should skate into the trap, who cares, they're philly and should dominate anyway if they're any good, skating around in circles is not the solution.

[Cicima6709]

no problem with it on both sides...

if thats how tb thinks theyll win, go for it. it might work for a bit, but it wont last.

and good for phi for makin the tb home crowd sit through that stuff...hope their management doesnt mind it

[Metalhead]

I'm sure many coaches around the league are drawing up new game plans to defeat the trap.

Maybe allowing the offensive team to ice the puck prior to crossing centre would help?

[bruceBRUCEbruce]

do we take back the Devils and Lemaire's 'trap' cups or Detroit's 'left-wing lock' cups? Of course not, but moving forward they need to make the trap or an type of it illegal. Because, as you said, that's not good for hockey.

And as Bruce said, it's not like they have a NJ or Minn Lemaire type team, they have Stamkos, St. Louis, Vinny, etc.

the Devils never sank to the depths TB did last night.

Guy Boucher is not a dumb man; the flat 3 man attack (Laviolette's system) is easy to defend against with a modified, or extreme (like last night) trap.

what shocked me is that TB continued to play like that even when Philly took the lead. And they needed a PP goal to even it up and send it to OT.

[TomJSports]

the Devils never sank to the depths TB did last night.

Guy Boucher is not a dumb man; the flat 3 man attack (Laviolette's system) is easy to defend against with a modified, or extreme (like last night) trap.

what shocked me is that TB continued to play like that even when Philly took the lead. And they needed a PP goal to even it up and send it to OT.

No doubt the actual action on the ice for NJ never reached what it did last night, they at least mixed it up and had a forechecker at times. But NJ was a boring boring team to watch for many years. Then Minni signs Jacques and the same thing. But another minus for TB is, like you said, they have a good team, not a defensive team like NJ or Minni.

This 1-3-1 went on all year last year. It's not a new thing. People are only talking about it because I'm sure guys like Lavvy and Pronger wanted to make a statement. And the fact that it has been covered on just about every sports talk show today has shown that they indeed made a statement.

[TomJSports]

just glad tampa won. people saying tampa did something wrong by sticking to a certain defensive scheme within the rules? well, philly made me punch a hole in my closet door. people wondering why certain things aren't against the rules? well i got a rule i'd like to see, how about no stalling with the puck. philly should skate into the trap, who cares, they're philly and should dominate anyway if they're any good, skating around in circles is not the solution.

Neither team did anything illegal.

I'm sure they would've like the two points, but ultimately Philly, especially Lavvy and Pronger, wanted to embarrass Tampa on their own ice. Mission accomplished.

[D3 Mighty Ducks]

Nothing wrong with the 1-3-1 trap. Sure, it kills the game and makes you want to fall asleep. But as soon as a team/coach figures a game plan to beat it, we won't be seeing the 1-3-1 trap anymore. And please don't say the 1-3-1 trap is unbeatable because it sure as hell is. EVERYTHING IS BEATABLE!