Del Zotto Snipes Top Glass

During the Devils and Rangers tilt last night, New York Rangers forward Michael Del Zotto’s wrister got deflected way upstairs. Bonus points if you watch this clip on fullscreen mode:

{from Puck Daddy}

The puck destroyed the lens, causing a bit of a delay as the shards of glass were swept up. Looks like that camera operator got the rest of the game off.

Erik Cole Puts Drew Doughty on the IR

Expect the NHL to dish out another suspension (as Rypien will certainly be getting a hefty one after his shoving match with a fan a couple days ago), as Erik Cole dropped a blindside hit on Kings star defenseman Drew Doughty.

“Coach Terry Murray said the 20-year-old Norris Trophy finalist won’t play Thursday night against the Coyotes, but might join the Kings later on their five-game trip.

Murray said Doughty was hurt late in the first period on a neutral-zone hit by Carolina’s Erik Cole. Doughty didn’t return to the bench for the second period, but Murray wouldn’t disclose the nature of the injury.

“The puck had long gone,” Murray said of the hit. “He didn’t have the puck for a long time before that happened.”

Doughty has just one assist in Los Angeles’ first five games, but the young defenceman is a cornerstone of the revitalized Kings, who have four wins in five games to open the season.

Doughty had 16 goals and 43 assists last season, blossoming into an elite defenceman in just his second NHL season. He became the second-youngest nominee for the Norris Trophy in NHL history, only older than 19-year-old Bobby Orr in 1967.

The second overall pick in the 2008 draft also won a gold medal last February at the Vancouver Olympics. Doughty was Canada’s youngest player.” {CP}

I don’t think this was a clear-cut case of ‘intent to injure’, and I don’t think Cole brings his elbow up, or leaves his feet, but it’s definitely a late hit. Doughty doesn’t have possession of the puck at all, and in fact, Carolina is advancing the puck through the neutral zone as Cole delivers the hit. Now one of LA’s best blueliners will be out, and some are wondering now if Doughty’s ‘upper body injury’ is actually a low grade concussion. It’ll be interesting to see how the NHL handles this case.

Rypien Attacks Fan

During Minnesota’s thorough 6-2 beat down of the Canucks, Vancouver forward Rick Rypien pushed a fan that was situated right behind the Canucks bench.

“Rypien and Minnesota’s Brad Staubitz, who fought in the opening period, were about to square off in the second period before being separated by the linesmen in front of the Wild bench.

As Rypien, who was assessed a double minor for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct, was pulled by linesman Don Henderson toward the Vancouver bench, he appeared to push the official.

On his way down the tunnel to the dressing room, Rypien pushed a Wild fan who was applauding at the railing. Rypien was quickly pulled away by teammate Manny Malhotra. The fan was removed from the area. Rypien was in the penalty box to start the third period, but did not get any ice time.

“We’ll wait and see how the league views it,” Vancouver general manager Mike Gillis said. “I’m sure there will be a hearing of some sort.”

Rypien was not available for comment after the game, but Malhotra thought the fan “got a little bit too involved.”

“There’s boundaries that should never be crossed. We’re in our area of work,” he said. “We’re all for the hooting and hollering and supporting your team and saying whatever is tasteful. But as soon as you cross that line and want to become physical with a player then we have to make sure we take care of ourselves. … We have no idea of what their intentions are.” {TSN.ca / Video from Puck Daddy}

Everyone’s speculating as to how the league will respond to Rypien snapping at this fan, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see the NHL send a message with him, and suspend him for 10 or more games. No punches thrown in this incident, but it’s a line that fans and players should never cross. The league has already expressed their displeasure with some of the fan/player interactions during last season (Duncan Keith in Nashville, for example), and I fully expect the NHL to drop the hammer on Rypien.

Penner Scores Off Ian White’s Face

The Calgary Flames won the ‘Battle of Alberta’ this weekend, defeating the Oilers 5-3, with re-acquired forward Alex Tanguay doing most of the damage with his two goal performance. But Flames defenseman Ian White registered a -1 plus/minus in the most painful way possible:

“The Oilers got lucky early in the second period, at the expense of a Flame. Only 22 seconds after puck drop, Penner shot wide and watched the puck deflect off Ian White’s face and into the net. The go-ahead goal set the score 2-1 and sent White to the locker room leaving a trail of blood.

The lead was short-lived, however. Soon after Brendon Morrison completed a boarding minor, he skated in and fired on Khabibulin. Although the goalie caught the majority of the shot, the puck trickled through his legs and slid across the line to renew the tied game.” {NHL.com}

Thankfully, the puck clipped him on the forehead/eyebrow area, and didn’t cause Duncan Keith-style dental trauma, or worse, hit him in the eye itself. White was even able to return to the game after being stitched up, so no permanent harm done – on White’s face or the standings.

The TMNT Goaltender Mask

KHL goaltender Rafael Khakimov decided to take his mask design in a different direction – instead of using an intimidating illustration of an animal, he went with Raphael from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

“How did a Ninja Turtle appear on your helmet?

“Igot Vadim Tarasov’s old helmet. When he moved to Nizhnekamsk he left it to me as inheritance. A honeybee with honeycombs is drawn on it on a green background. And now my own helmet was made for me with Raphael and a two-headed eagle. I am going to wear it in the coming games.”

In the cartoon Raphael is the most fiery, strong and uncontrolled of all the turtles. Are you like that?

“No. If I were like that, then I would play in goal for sure,” Raphael said with a smile.

In the cartoon Raphael has a powerful weapon — two Japanese knives Sai. What is your main weapon?

“A catching glove, a blocker and a stick!” {Puck Daddy, translation by Dmitri Chesnokov}

I think a Shredder mask would be infinitely cooler. Just sayin’.

Modano Returns to Dallas

Mike Modano took to the ice in Dallas for the first time since being unceremoniously dumped by the Stars front office, and instead of jeers from the home crowd, Modano was given a standing ovation by the classy fans in Texas.

“This was the home opener for Dallas, for which Modano played his entire 20- year career and holds every one of the club’s major offensive records. Modano, who will be in the Hall of Fame when he retires and is considered one of the best American-born players to ever skate in the NHL, was the face of the Minnesota/Dallas franchise for two decades and a driving force behind hockey’s enormous growth in the Sun Belt region of the United States.

Fans gave a standing ovation to Modano, who signed as a free agent over the summer with the Red Wings, about five minutes into the game during a stoppage of play.

“It was really nice,” Modano said. “It’s great to be back, great to see a lot of familiar faces and people. Now we can move on and get into the season. I’m glad it was early to get it over with.”

Loui Eriksson, Brenden Morrow and James Neal also scored for the Stars, who improved to 3-0 on the young season.

Niklas Kronwall scored the only goal for the Red Wings, who failed to earn at least one point for the first time in four games this season (2-1-1). Detroit will travel to Phoenix to play the Coyotes on Saturday before the club returns home for a four-game homestand to close the season’s opening month.

Chris Osgood allowed four goals on 15 shots in the losing effort.

It took only 41 seconds for the Stars to officially welcome Modano and the Red Wings into town. Richards’ second goal of the season came on the power play after Brad Stuart was whistled for boarding 28 seconds into the game. Moments into the power play, Matt Niskanen held control along the right side and passed along the blue line to Richards, whose shot from near the centerpoint made its way through traffic and into the net.

“We’re gaining some momentum and I like the way we’re playing,” Richards said. “We found a way to not give them much as the game went on.”

The start of the second period was nearly a mirror image of the first, as this time Dallas scored 44 seconds into the stanza. Richards held control behind the net and fed a quick pass to Eriksson, who lit the lamp with a one-timer snap shot from the bottom of the inner right circle.

At the 7:03 mark of the second, the Stars made it 3-0. Morrow attempted a pass from the left circle to the far post, but the puck deflected off the skate of Detroit’s Stuart and slid into the net. It was Morrow’s fourth goal.” {SBNation}

Modano was an integral piece of the Stars Stanley Cup teams, and had the fans in Dallas reacted any other way, it would have been seriously shameful. I can’t really blame the Stars for wanting to move on, and while they’ve already got some great pieces in place, they’re clearly in a rebuilding mode as is, and every player has a shelf life. It might have been nice to see Modano stick it out in Dallas for another year (personally, I was hoping he’d land with the Wild, and keep his career strictly in Minnesota/Dallas), but this was a nice moment regardless.

Halak’s Goal-Line Save

The St. Louis Blues didn’t manage to get a win out of their tilt against Nashville on Thursday, but Jaroslav Halak continues to impress, robbing Predators forward Joel Ward with this amazing save (that’s currently the #1 play on Sportscenter in the US) in the second period.

Jaro only made 18 saves in his first road game for the Blues, but the goals he gave up (for the most part) really weren’t his fault. A couple of garbage goals, and one quick one-timer from Steve Sullivan on a 5-3 power play made up three of the four allowed by Halak (I’d blame the Marcel Goc tally on him, however). Still a fantastic performance from him, and this save wasn’t the only outstanding save he made on the night:

For the first time in a very long time, Blues fans can be excited about the guy they have between the pipes.

Horcoff’s Controversial Goal

Believe it or not, the Oilers are off to a 2-0 start, sinking both the Flames and the Panthers in their first two contests. But Shawn Horcoff’s game wining goal over the Cats seemed, well, less than legal.

“It looked very clear to me. I don’t know what else a kicking motion is. … That’s what I saw. … It didn’t surprise me they count it. They’re trying to get the scoring up.”

The Panthers outshot Edmonton 23-7 after two periods (28-13 overall), but three Edmonton shots got past Vokoun. The Panthers fell to 7-7-3 in season openers, including 2-7-1 on the road.

“It’s frustrating in that we didn’t get rewarded for the effort we put in,” DeBoer said. “It looked like a kick to me. The interpetation of that rule I don’t understand. I don’t know if you have to take a punter’s kick at it for it not to count.” {Sun-Sentinel from Puck Daddy}

To be honest, that goal really doesn’t bother me that much, just because we’ve seen goals called back for a ‘distinct kicking motion’ for much, much less. Often times, goals are called back for what really appears to be the reflex from the puck hitting the skate, as opposed to a distinct kick. Either case, by the letter of the law, this play really appears to be illegal.

First Fight of 2011 is a Knock-Out

The Oilers’ Steve MacIntyre kicked off the season in style with this pummeling K.O blow to Flames forward Raitis Ivanans:

“The 2010-11 NHL season is underway and, appropriately, the first fight of the season came from the Battle of Alberta.

The only game with fights tonight, the game was bookended by a couple of good bouts.

Stefan Meyer and Ryan Jones dropped the gloves a little under six minutes into the game. The middleweights kicked off the seasonal log here with a quick, scrappy bout.

New Flames winger Tim Jackman took on Theo Peckham midway through the game. Brett Sutter and Colin Fraser, new to the rivalry on the Oilers side, tussled a few minutes later.

The heavyweights didn’t join in until there was just 2:20 left in the game. Raitis Ivanans and Steve MacIntyre tossed heavy shots at one another until Mac dropped Ivanans with a huge right. Ivanans remained on the ice for a bit and was helped off by his teammates. No word yet on his status.” {HF.com}

That final punch dropped Ivanans like a ton of a bricks, and the crowd at Rexall Place loved every second of it. Towards the middle of the video, it looks like Ivanans was picking teeth out of his mouth, but he might have just been checking to see if they all were still in place. Brutal shot from MacIntyre, and the Oilers would go on to win this game 4-0. I guess it’s clearly the fight of the year (since this has been one of the handful that have gone down since the season began), but I can’t wait to see the fight that tops this one.

Ruutu Joyrides on a Zamboni

Ottawa Senators forward Jarkko Ruutu took the zamboni out on the streets to promote the Senators upcoming season. Ottawa’s mayor, Larry O’Brien, was on hand to announce that every home game will be “My Town, My Team” day. I’m not sure what that would even mean (if anything) for the city, but the ‘M’ on the front of his jersey reminds us all that he’s definitely the mayor (and evidently, and Alfredsson fan from the #11 on the sleeve).

Who among us hasn’t wanted to drive the ‘Boni at least once in our lifetimes? I actually wasn’t aware that you had to be licensed for Zamboni-driving, but not even Ruutu was immune to the regulations:

“When he was asked the other day if he’d mind driving one of the famed ice surfacing machines in front of City Hall, to promote the Senators home opener tonight, Ruutu was all over the idea.

“Why not?” says the veteran Finnish winger. “I’m always up for a new experience.”

Getting a ‘Zamboni licence’ was easy, according to the redoubtable Ruutu.

“I drove around the parking lot once,” he says, grinning, “and got the stamp right away.” {Ottawa Citizen from Puck Daddy}

I wonder if this qualifies Jarkko to clean the ice in between periods at Scotiabank?

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