Matt Bradley gets his face ruined
I was watching the Capitals – Rangers game the other night, and watched this fight between Matt Bradley and Aaron Voros. It was a seriously even-matched tilt, but Bradley clearly comes out on the losing end. The right side of his face takes the brunt of the punishment from Voros – it was totally brutal. Check it out.
I didn’t really notice that Bradley was bleeding until the fight was over, but to his credit, he didn’t really get completely rocked; he held his own fairly well. Not to mention that Matt Bradley would score the game winning goal in a 4-2 win over the Rangers – so it’s fair to say he had the last laugh.
NHL officials botch two goal-calls
This week, the NHL had its referees miss two goals in two separate games. In both of these games, the puck was clearly in the net, but both goals were waived off because of the now infamous ‘intent to blow whistle rule’. The first blown call was during the Stars – Red Wings game. (Skip to the 2:22 mark to see several replays of the goal in question)
After Brad May takes the shot, you can see the puck skip off the pad of Alex Auld, and stick in the low corner of the net. The worst thing about this call is that it was reviewed by the ‘war room’ in Toronto – where each game is monitored for the sake of reviewed plays like this – and the no-goal call was still upheld.
Mike Murphy, the VP of Hockey Operations for NHL, tried to explain the non-sense review process.
“Blow the horn and get the referee over here. We see a puck in the net that hasn’t been ruled a goal,’ ” Murphy said. “At that point the referee comes over and we have a discussion. They came to us and said, ‘My intent to blow the whistle was there, I have this play dead before the puck crosses the goal line,’ No more needs to be said. Once we hear that, video review is out of the process.”
So instead of the review process actually overturning obvious botched calls, it remains useless in cases like these, where the initial ruling on the ice can’t be questioned. What a joke. Why even have a review process if you’re not going to utilize instant-replay when it can cost teams wins?
Shortly after this debacle, the Maple Leafs endured a similar missed call against Carolina.
Hagman carries the puck into the offensive zone, crashes the net, and gets checked into Manny Legace, right as Mitchell fires the puck into the goal. The puck actually sits in the net two or three seconds before the whistle actually blows. Again, the goal was waived off for the exact same reason – intent to blow.
Look, there’s no point in having a video-review process if the league isn’t going to use it. Much like the ‘foot in the crease’ rule of the last few decades, it’s a marginal procedure that should be done away with before it costs a team a playoff series, or worse. Even when a play is reviewed, the officials don’t actually see the play on video, they simply slap on a set of headphones and let the Toronto war-room tell them how to make the call. Why doesn’t the league follow the same mold as the NFL and place a monitor in the penalty boxes, so that the officials can actually watch questionable calls for themselves?
Hey Jason Chimera, Faceplant Much?
Sometimes there is nothing like a good still frame shot to really capture those ‘precious’ moments. This one in particular looks extremely painful for Jason Chimera, left winger of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Maybe Chimera is changing his mind about his choice to not wear a shield? Even the half visor may have helped on this faceplant.
(Check out more cool shots on Sports Illustrated’s ‘Did you see that?’)
Top 10 Most Unusual Items Thrown On An Ice Surface
Ice. This is the cold, rigid, slippery surface used by hockey players around the world. They skate, shoot a small cylindrical black rubber object from end to end of this aforementioned surface attempting to score goals. The crowd throw their ball caps on it when players reach the lofty sum of 3 goals in a single game and, at times, has other foreign objects thrown onto it for good measure.
What kind of objects you ask? Well, we found this little clip after seeing a great video the other day, and we thought we should share this with you…
2009 Hockey Hall of Fame Inductees
This class of new HOF’ers is one of the best yet, as Steve Yzerman, Brian Leetch, Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille and Lou Lamoriello were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame this week.
video - 2009 Hockey Hall of Fame Inductees courtesy of The Hockey News
It’s hard to think of a better, or more deserving class that this group – Yzerman was clearly one of the greatest captains in the history of the game, Hull was electrifying (and still has the 3rd most goals in NHL history), Leetch was a legendary defensemen, and an integral piece of the historic 1994 Rangers Cup win. Luc Robitaille ended his career with 668 goals, only the sixth left-winger in NHL history to do so – and his captivating play helped the NHL thrive in the crowded expansion market of Los Angeles.
Lou Lamoriello was the mastermind behind three Devils Stanley Cup wins, (in 1995, 2000, and 2003) and on top of these three rings, he holds the distinction of longest tenured GM in NHL history (22 years) – a feat that is truly remarkable, considering the rapid turnover of personnel and administration in the modern game.
In the past, there have been considerably weaker classes of inductees, but 2009 is a good year for the Hall – all of these players (and coaches and builders) truly deserved their spot in the Hall of Fame, undoubtedly. I managed to take a tour of the Hall on a trip to Toronto once, and it was incredible. Easily one of the highlights of my life, and I’d recommend it to anyone – go if you ever get the chance.
NHL GM’s meet about checks to the head
We debated a while ago about the hit on David Booth, but after several other questionable hits (and suspensions), the NHL is discussing hits to the head, and whether they should be legal. All thirty of the league’s GM’s met, and discussed what could be done to stop checks to the head.
While there was other business on the docket – long term salaries being one of the issues – the issue of hits to the head was a central theme of discussion.
“(It was) very low key,” said Atlanta Thrashers GM Don Waddell. “It didn’t go on as long as you guys would like to think it went on for. Everybody’s concerned about it, but everybody also doesn’t want to lose hitting in the game.”
After some of these marginal hits, some have called for the NHL to adopt a ‘head-checking’ penalty – similar to a high-sticking call; an automatic minor penalty for any contact to the head. While this seems like a natural solution, there are some problems to this idea. First, imagine how hard this penalty would be to call when there’s a height differential between two checking players. It may be impossible to completely avoid contact to the head of shorter players. Secondly, a dedicated penalty for checks to the head would be susceptible to diving; all a player would need to do to get a call late in a game is to drop his head into check.
Overall, hits to the head rarely happen when the player is expecting the check – and instead of instituting a new penalty, the NHL’s leadership was leaning more towards eliminating these kinds of unexpected hits, much like the one Richards laid on David Booth.
“A player should have an ability to anticipate a hit, prepare for a hit or avoid a hit,” said Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke. “If he doesn’t have those, then I think the onus has to shift to the hitter. He’s got to deliver a safe hit.”
No one wants to see hitting eliminated from the game, just career-ending injuries and concussions. It’s not unreasonable to curb this kinds of checks; we should encourage the league to protect its talent. That being said, do you want the NHL to introduce a head-checking penalty?
Do you want a head-checking penalty in the NHL?(opinion)
Cam Janssen Decimates Aaron Asham
Adam Steevens is a student, author and blogger who has semi-coherent thoughts about the NHL
Easily one of the best (and most one-sided fights) I’ve seen in a long time, check out this tilt between Janssen and Aaron Asham. Janssen knocks him down twice with huge blows to the temple – I think it’s clear that Cam Janssen destroys him and wins this fight, hands down:
Cam Ward Cut By Rick Nash’s Skate
One of the scariest things in hockey is the possibility of being cut by a skate of an opposing player. Especially for goalies who are often the closest to the diving and flopping players near the net. Carolina goaltender Cam Ward was taken to the hospital after his leg was cut by a skate during the first period of the Hurricanes’ game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night. I’m sure Rick Nash feels awful about it, but it was totally unintentional. Here’s the replay if you missed it:
And for those of you who don’t realize just how dangerous it is for a goalie, take a look back at this video of Clint Malarchuk and how he almost died on the ice froma skate to the neck a few years back.
Andrew Ladd Leveled Matt D’Agostini
Andrew Ladd of the Chicago Blackhawks last night set the tone against the Montreal Canadiens with this ridiculous hit on Matt D’Agostini early in the game. D’Agostini was skating out of his own zone with the puck when Andrew Ladd laid him out above the shoulders and off came the bucket.
IMHO this wasn’t a dirty hit. Matt didn’t receive a suicide pass, he was skating with his head up right into the hit, but unfortunately just got the wrong end of a great check. What do you think?….
Habs Fans Fail, Taunt the Leafs Too Early
In last night’s win for the Habs, the Montreal Canadiens had to bail out their fans. Everyone knows the chant i’m referring too. Na na na na, Na na na na, Hey hey hey, GOODBYE! But this time the Habs fans jumped the gun and started chanting a bit too early while the Toronto Maple Leafs were still within striking distance. And what’s with the throwback Habs jersey’s? Where’s Waldo in the house? Check out the replay:
