The Rashomon Effect

 By Stu Hackel, NYT Slap Shot, Nov. 9, 2008:

The Rashomon Effect is named for the classic short story by Japanese author Ryūnosuke Akutagawa and the film by Akira Kurosawa, both titled “Rashomon,” in which different people describe the same murder in different, even opposing, ways.

Well, the Rashomon Effect descended on the press box at the Verizon Center in D.C. last night as the Rangers lost to the Caps, 3-1.

Alexander Semin, president-elect of the Sidney Crosby fan club, bowled over Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, leading Hank to leave the crease to complain to referee Dan Marouelli about the lack of a penalty (TSN highlights here). Lundqvist certainly was rattled and surrendered a goal shortly afterward.

The Caps in general made life miserable for him in the early going, and the New York writers (like Steve Zipay in Newsday and Larry Brooks in the Post) certainly saw it as the theme of the game.

For the Washington writers, it was a minor detail, if that.

Tariq El-Bashir in the Washington Post lauded the Caps for going hard to the net near the bottom of his story, mentioning even lower that Nicklas Backstrom crashing the crease distracted Lundqvist on the second Caps goal. Corey Masisak in the Washington Times didn’t mention any crease crashing or going hard to the net at all.

For them, it was merely the Caps’ best game of the season, despite Alex Ovechkin’s goalless drought being extended to nine games, the longest of his career (OV still played a rugged, effective game).

Rashomon.

Hafta mention Ted here: "One Man’s Ceiling is Another Man’s Floor"

Larry Brooks makes us sound like the old Broad Street Bullies; storming the crease; working hard; winning battles; and playing rough and tumble hockey.

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