Ahead of tonight's game between the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins -- the two team's first meeting since the Pens' Matt Cooke decided to put Bruins forward Marc Savard out of commission with a blindsided head shot -- a Boston newspaper has issued a challenge of sorts.
The Boston Herald is calling for someone on the B's to step up and teach Cooke a lesson, with the help of the above poster. Writer Stephen Harris saying if NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell won't do anything, than the team needs to. It all rings a tad familiar doesn't it?
Remember 2004? When Steve Moore injured Canucks captain Mats Naslund with a head check, and no penalty was called on the play? Well, we all know where that led. Bruins players certainly remember, as Harris points out, "Fully cognizant of the trouble then-Canuck Brad May got in for his
pre-game threats of revenge against Colorado’s Steve Moore in the
infamous 2004 situation that ended in Moore’s career-ending injuries -
and the far greater problems Todd Bertuzzi faced and still faces for
his assault on Moore - B’s players have chosen their words very
carefully in recent days."
We'll just have to wait and see if, with Campbell at the game, the decision not to suspend Cooke will come back to haunt the league.
How do you respond to a head-shot check on a teammate? Well, if you're the Anaheim Ducks' James Wisniewski, you reply with what TSN's Bob McKenzie tweeted, "Charging, Interference, Boarding and pre-meditated malice..."
During last night's Ducks/Chicago Blackhawks game, 'hawks blueliner Brent Seabrook clipped the Ducks Corey Perry at the side of the net with what appeared to be a questionable hit to the head. A few seconds later, Wisniewski tattooed Seabrook to the end boards with what looked like a flying forearm to the chin (or what I like to call a "Darian Hatcher"), but very well COULD have been a chest hit that had double impact based on Seabrook standing in that danger zone of about two-feet off the end boards. Either way, Seabrook looked like he'd just been hit with a Louisville Slugger and left the game shortly after. That led to Chicago's Duncan Keith jumping in to fight Wisniewski.
The CBC's Elliotte Friedman wrote today, "Right now, we're averaging one spectacularly dirty play per night. The GMs maintain there are only about six hits per year the league must
eliminate, but the players appear determined to prove them wrong... All of the talk about respect for 'the brotherhood' is nothing but hot air. This week is proof." And he's right.
Neither McKenzie nor Friedman are softies who wish hitting and fighting would be banished from hockey, but the rate of head shots, even in light of all the recent media attention, is a bit ridiculous. As McKenzie pointed out in the same twitter feed, "Tough part of today's NHL is most violent/questionable plays come on hits/contact. Once upon a time, it was mostly xchecks/hsticks/slash." Things are a bit more complicated now and it needs to be the league that steps up and sets some new ground rules. That, OR we can just say $#%! it and turn hockey into Rollerball. (The James Caan one, NOT the LL Cool J one.)
By the looks of this twitpic from ABC News' Jake Tapper, today is the day that White House press secretary Robert Gibbs made good on a bet over the Canada-USA gold medal hockey final.
Also, according to the CBC, "In addition to a case of Molson Canadian (President Obama is sending PM Harper), Gibbs said the U.S.
Embassy in Ottawa has been instructed to send Harper 24 bottles of beer
from Yuengling, a Pennsylvania brewery billed as the oldest in the
United States."
The Boston Bruins beat Philly 5-1 last night and currently hold the 8th and final playoff spot in the East. They also make some damn funny commercials, as we've said before.
You're a busy man. You've got that big account to handle, a distant wife and two kids who hate you. You also have a very nice watch. If there's one thing you despise, it's waiting. Forget that most hockey fans would take a Georges Laraque punch to the neck to score your seats, you are too important to sit in traffic. There's only one problem. The Boston Bruins have a seven-foot grizzly bear roaming the rink. And he ain't no Carlton.
While some Canadians are still recovering from the Vancouver Games hangover, it's easy to forget there's another Games starting this Friday, the Paralympic Games. While anyone who isn't dead inside can support the idea of the paralympic games, it's no secret they don't get the same attention -- from media or sports fans -- as the traditional Games. But after watching this video, if I was in Vancouver, I'd be looking to score some sledge hockey tickets... someone needs to make a Murderball for this sport.
Created so that physically disabled individuals could still fully participate in a hockey-like sports and environment, it seems to be amongst the more dangerous and competitive of the events at the Paralympics.
... things can get a little crazy. Or creepy. Whichever. Today at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Stanley Cup winner and former New York Ranger and Toronto Maple Leaf -- and everyone's favorite angry hockey commentator -- Nick Kypreos unveiled an exact replica, chocolate Stanley Cup. Then he licked it. Apologies to anyone about to eat a meal or wanting to eat chocolate again ever.
The Cup, created by Hershey Canada to announce a new partnership with the NHL, is three-feet tall and weighs 150 lbs. After some not-so quick math, we figure it clocks in at about 375,000 calories. (Insert Kyle Wellwood weight joke here.)
I'm fully aware the NHL's Winter Classic (presented by... Bridgestone!) is just over a year away, but I saw this news today and thought, "Hey, here's something that doesn't in any way have to do with the current Who's on First?-style debate about head shots among NHL GMs and the interweb commenterati..." So here we are.
USA Today reports that Yankee Stadium has been booked for December 30th for a "Pinstripe Bowl," which is not, contrary to common sense, a zoot suit-themed formal dance. No, it's a college football extravaganza featuring the No. 3 team in the Big East and the No. 6 school in the Big 12, excluding Bowl Championship Series teams. This immediately takes my original pick for the 2011 NHL outdoor party, throws it on the ground and stomps on it for good measure. (Single tear)
Will the NHL still go with a winning Classic Baseball Stadium + At Least One Original Six Team = Ratings Gold formula? Are there any left? Some have predicted a trip to Washington, others see a game north of the border more likely. The latter is a long shot because the game is already so popular in Canada, they cold play it on roller skates in Guam with a beachball and we'd probably still watch. But to really get that New Year's Day ratings score south of the border, it needs to be in the continental U.S. Preferably somewhere snowy. But where? Already, three of the four American Original Six teams have played (Detroit, Boston, Chicago), the only one left was the Rangers. Looks like there will have to be a new formula. Maybe back to the gridiron?
Above is a graph of water use in Edmonton during the gold medal hockey game, which -- SPOILER ALERT -- Canada won. As you can see there were mad rushes to the john between the periods. Of course, we're only speculating that this water use indicates the flushing of toilets and the (hopefully) washing of hands, but there's no way of telling how much of it was people running the faucet to drown out the sounds of Nick Kypreos or their own shameless weeping during that Tim Hortons commercial.
A select group of NHL GMs get set to meet up tomorrow in the sunny confines of Boca Raton, Florida to discuss an acceptable definition of a "head shot" in pro hockey. You can be damn sure they'll take a break from white pants and straw hats long enough to be watch this hit by Pittsburgh's Matt Cooke on Boston's Marc Savard from yesterday a few times.
Is this a head shot or simply a blindside legal check? A case can be made for either, though I'm pretty sure I know where Savard stands on this one. No penalty was called, and some will say Cooke should've been handed a two-minute sit-down while others are calling for a full-on suspension. Until the NHL outlines what is what and makes the rule for hits to the head less ambiguous, this type of debate will continue, ad nauseam.
This short film is based on our brain waves while pondering the 768 sports analysts who devoted 67 hours to talking TRADES!!!! today, the sports talk radio banter, the Twitter updates, the LIVE! TRADETRACKER!, the Lubomir Visnovsky for Ray Whitney, all those 6th Round picks that might turn into something but probably won't, Oilers fans pulling their hair out, Calgary fans hoping this might finally be the end of the Sutter era, Leafs fans comparing Luca Caputi to a young Bill Derlago... and on and on and...
