Why the NHL Needs to Keep its Edge

As the 2010-2011 NHL season winds down with what now promises to be one of the nastiest and chippiest Stanley Cup Finals in recent memory, some folks in the general sports media, and within the Hockey World itself, are loudly proclaiming that something needs to be done to clean up this game.

While I agree that headshots and concussions are a problem the league has to deal with, I hope they can manage to achieve this much needed goal without blunting some of the edge off the game.

As the great John Buccigross has written, "Hockey is a blood sport. It is played with a searing emotion most people can't empathize with unless they have played and lived the sport. Hockey is mostly difficult and frustrating. Which is why there is such an explosion of excitement whenever someone scores. Just about every goal is well-earned in some way. In this game, nothing comes cheap."

When Bucci refers to the game of Hockey here as a "blood sport," he is certainly not taking the perspective of some neanderthal wishing to see gladiatorial style combat upon the ice. He is putting into words the raw emotion and fury that inherently part of a hard hitting, high speed game played by rugged men.

It is not about the blood spilling out onto the ice after Steven Stamkos takes a puck to the face in Game 7 against the Bruins that draws us to the sport. It is him waving off the trainer, racing into the locker room, and returning less than five minutes later with a full cage guarding his now exploded nose and continuing on in the game without a second thought.

My instant response: a moment you can only have in the NHL playoffs.

At one time concussions were viewed in many circles the same way Stamkos’ broken nose was. Get some smelling salts, clear your head and get back out there for the next shift. The sport has learned the hard way that such a policy is reckless and dangerous for the safety and long term health of its participants.

It is right and proper that the NHL address hits to the head that lead directly to these concussions as a serious and dire matter. I implore the league however to be careful not to totally take away the mentality, the unquestioned willingness to sacrifice limbs in order to lift the Stanley Cup with heart and heart alone. Planting the seeds of doubt within the players would cheapen the game, cheapen the Stanley Cup, and lessen the impact of the sacrifice guys have spoken about for ages that it takes to win the Hardest Trophy in Sports.

My suggestion: target specifically blindside and direct hits to the head with harsher and automatic suspensions of 10 games for a 1st offense and escalate a scale from there. Fine the team that employees the offender on sliding scale as well. Leave the periphery stuff go. Players will adapt quickly to launching shoulders into chests rather than elbows into craniums. Scrappy, dirty stuff, like Alex Burrows biting Patrice Bergeron? Leave that kind of decision to the referees on the ice. Keep a hands off approach and let the player’s police themselves and send their own messages. Tell me that incident did not add an element of drama and edge to these Stanley Cup Finals. Having that edge is a good thing for the sport. Hockey is a game that needs to be played on the edge.

The fans who get into the game buy into this and understand such things. And they are your target audience NHL.

One of my favorite fan stories of this post season came from the “non-traditional” hockey market of Tampa Bay (there have been more Cups there than Toronto has had since ’67, just sayin).

Steven Paul, a Bolts season ticket holder was told by his Home Owner’s Associaton that his “GO BOLTS” sign in his yard was violation of the mandate within the neighborhood that no signage was allowed with the exception of security company signs. His response was the same as Stamkos flying back onto the ice for game 7. He pressed on in the face of clear and present danger with an edge to his game and a thin shield to guard himself from further ‘harm’:

"Protected By:

GO BOLTS

Security"

My instant response: a moment you can only have in the NHL playoffs.

Stanley Cup Finals: Game One

The NHL yesterday announced that Colin Campbell will be stepping down as the head of supplemental discipline. He will be replaced in that role to begin next season by former player Brenden Shanahan, but it is expected that some sort of committee, with Shanahan at its head, will be established to review incidents that take place during games and try to establish some consistency and order to what has been a murky and seemingly random process of fines and suspensions.

The 1st game of the Stanley Cup finals gave us another example of an event that will fall under Shanahan's jurisdiction next season, as the Vancouver Canucks Alex Burrows took a bite out of the Boston Bruins Patrice Bergeron at the end of a hard hitting 1st period. The decision if Burrows will face a suspension for this act will actually fall upon the desk of Mike Murphy. Campbell has recused himself from all incidents in the Finals as his son, Gregory, plays for the Bruins. I hope no emails leak out with Campbell trying to influence his underling.

Outside of the dental related controversies, Game One was a solid defensive struggle between two teams both trying to establish physical dominance while maintaining solid defensive systems. The game remained tied at 0-0 until Raffi Torres finally got the 1st and only goal of the game with 18 seconds left to play in the final period, cancelling out what seemed to be an inevitable overtime duel. It was the latest game winner in the Stanley Cup Finals since 1992, when Mario Lemieux scored with 13 seconds left in the 3rd to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 1-0 series lead against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Both goalies played fabulously, Roberto Luongo will get the shutout for the record books, but I would say that Tim Thomas actually played better and had to make some tougher saves through the course of the game. This is the 3rd time this postseason Luongo and his Canucks have launched a series with a game one shutout.

“I thought we were going to play all night the way it was going,” Luongo said. “It was an exciting way to start the series. It was such a close game. It could have gone either way, a flip of the coin.”

When Torres scored it was the first goal Tim Thomas had allowed in 128 minutes of play, having shutout the Tampa Lighting in game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Thomas and the Bruins got no help at all from their powerplay, going 0 for 5 with the man advantage, including a futile extended 5 on 3 in the 2nd period.

Last night was the kind of game Boston needs to win to have a chance in this series. Dropping a close game out of the gates like that hurts, and the game one winner has gone on to win the series 77% of the time in the Stanley Cup Finals. If Boston can steal one on the road Saturday night they will have a good chance going home. It will be a long cross-continent flight down in a 2-0 hole if they don't.

Hockey Notes (Crosby still not able to work out, Jagr Shines at Worlds, Red Wings/Sharks ready for game 7)

*Shelly Anderson of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting that Pittsburgh Penguin Captain Sidney Crosby has yet to resume workouts after suffering a setback in his recovery from a concussion suffered in early January. Crosby was skating and practicing with the team up until the reoccurrence of symptoms, which occurred on April 20th.
This is a major concern for both the Penguins, and the NHL as a whole, as the future of one of hockey’s greatest young stars, just coming into the prime of his career, is in serious peril, dealing with a brain injury that we are only beginning to fully understand the long term impact of now in the 21st Century sports world. Hopefully Crosby is able to make a full recovery with rest and begin next season at the same level he was at December 31st, 2010, but with brain matters like this, there are no guarantees.

*Jaromir Jagr’s contract status is unknown for the coming season. He made a statement yesterday at the Hockey World Championships to anyone who was wondering if he had enough left in the tank for a possible NHL return after 3 seasons in the Russian KHL. Jagr scored a hat trick for his Czech squad in eliminating the United States and NHL caliber goalie Ty Conklin 4-0.
One thing I will say for Jagr, he has always been a conditioning freak from when he first came to Pittsburgh in the early 90s and has been a pretty durable player throughout his career. I think even at age 39 he has some game left in the tank, and if rested strategically during some soft spots on the schedule, could really crank it up to another level for a team in the playoffs.
My guess is that it makes sense for #68 to stay in the KHL, the money over there is more than any NHL team would be willing to commit to under the Salary Cap, and is tax free to boot. Money can be a very important thing to the talented Czech winger, who has been verified to have run up at least $1 Million in gambling debts over the course of his career, and for all we it could very well be higher than that.
There is absolutely no logical reason why Jags should want to come back to the NHL for what would most likely be a highly publicized tryout, but the rule of Jagr states that he is just crazy enough that there is about a 2% chance that he will do pretty much anything. And his offensive talents and numbers alone will certainly draw interested suitors, should his whims take him back to North American soil this offseason. It will at least be something interesting to keep track of over the summer.

*Fans of the San Jose Sharks or Detroit Redwings will get an unwanted early start on such offseason speculation after tonight’s game 7 in San Jose. I never remember a series in my lifetime of watching hockey where the clearly better team went down 3 games to Nil in 3 consecutive one goal games, and then stormed back to even the series. I will chalk this one up to the experience and poise of the veteran Detroit squad, but anything can happen in game 7, and often does. Antti Niemi will have to be very good if the Sharks have any chance to pull through and shed the epic choke label that must feel like an anchor around their necks. San Jose has to feel pretty tight right now, and if the bounces don’t go their way early it could easily get out of hand. In any case, it should be a real fun game to watch starting at 9 PM tonight. We will check in tomorrow morning with reaction and hopefully some video highlights from NHL.com.

Mike Richards and the Flyers Goalie-Go-Round

Mike Richards is the Captain of the Philadelphia Flyers in the sense that he wears the letter 'C' upon his jersey. That is all. The real leader in that room, the one guys look to when the sailing get stormy, is Chris Pronger. For all of his badboy reputation Pronger is an Alpha Male's Alpha Male.

Richards comes off far too often as both a petulant brat with the media, and a guy whose play on the ice goes over the line and should not garner respect around the league. He makes too many borderline and dirty plays, then leaves his mates to clean up his mess and finish what he starts. He was also identified by his own team as part of a group of young players too focused on nightlife and not enough on gamenight.

On ice he has been involved in more than his share of questionable incidents, and yet he is never grouped in when 'dirty' plays are discussed. His hit on David Booth of the Florida Panthers was a carbon copy of Matt Cooke's infamous leveling of Marc Savard, both in intent, follow through, and results, yet nobody caused a fuss over it.

These playoffs Richards has been at it again, he was tossed from game four for throwing an elbow into the chin of an oncoming Patrick Kaleta of the Buffalo Sabres. An elbow to the head in "self defense" is still an elbow to the head. I don't know what Richards was "defending" himself from yesterday when he sent Sabres forward Tim Connolly face first into the boards. Another notch on Richards holster, and the league's overlords once again turn a blind eye toward the Flyer's head hunter.

The Flyers as a team meanwhile continue to hunt for a legitimate playoff goaltender. They started this series with the Sabres depending on rookie Sergei Bobrovsky, but after falling down 2 games to none have switched to some unholy combination of Michael Leighton and Brian Boucher. It has pulled them even with the Sabres at 3 games apiece, but it hasn't been pretty. Even if the Flyers do somehow survive this first round it is only a matter of time until this weakness in net comes back to bite them in the playoffs. Again.

The Flyers have invested way too much in Mike Richards to walk away from him, in contract term, length, and naming him Captain before he was ready to act like one. Where the Flyers have always short changed themselves is in net. And it continues to comeback to haunt them.

All that is Solid [Brain Matter] Vanishes into Thin Air

Sometimes silence is a deafening roar. The NHL yesterday made a decision not to even hold a disciplinary hearing for the Detroit Redwings Todd Bertuzzi after he was given a 5 minute major and a game misconduct for elbowing the Chicago Blackhawks Ryan Johnson. The reek hypocrisy and maddening inconsistency of taking such a non stance after making a league wide whipping boy out of Matt Cooke, banishing him from play for the rest of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs, is absolutely bewildering.


As Burress pointed out here in the wake of the Cooke suspension, Bertuzzi is the one guy in the league with a bigger reputational footprint from being a dirty player than Cooke himself.


“Irony would also rear it's beautifully hideous head when Matt Cooke would serve the first game of his suspension against a Red Wings team featuring the aforementioned Bertuzzi. Prior to the game, Red Wings Alternate Captain Henrik Zetterberg weighed in on the Cooke situation calling for Cooke to be shelved for the remainder of the season and much like everything else in the NHL, the Red Wings got their wish. Zetterberg clearly overlooked the fact that his choir boy organization employs a guy who once came up behind another human being, grabbed him by the back of his sweater, wound up, and delivered a gloved punch to the back of his head sending him plummeting to the ice face first. The result was merely a concussion, 3 broken neck vertebrae, facial lacerations, and 5 months in a hospital plus a year in a neck brace. Nothing major, I guess. Heck the most storied Red Wing ever, Mr. Hockey himself, was known to throw an elbow or 10 during his career, so at least they have that going for them!”

“For all of Steve Moore and his family's suffering, Todd Bertuzzi was suspended for only 3 more games than Matt Cooke for an elbow that didn't even sideline a guy for a period. Since the "Steve Moore Incident" Bertuzzi has played in nearly 400 NHL games and pocketed nearly $18 million dollars for his troubles while Steve Moore can skate, but that's about it. While his neck has healed but he still suffers from the concussion he received when Todd Bertuzzi held the back of his jersey, cocked his fist, and sucker punched him in the back of the head so hard that he fell helplessly to the ice face first and unconscious. For that, Bertuzzi got only 3 more games than Matt Cooke for his stupidity in finishing a check with a dirty elbow. Get my drift?”


And yet despite that history and prior reputation, and the heralded new found revelatory focus and immense attention paid to protecting players from vicious, brutal, concussing headshots, the league DID NOT BAT AN EYEBROW OR RAISE ITS TINIEST FINGER toward an incident that was similar in every way shape and manner to the elbow that Cooke put into McDonagh’s cranium. That duplicitous roar you are hearing is absolutely deafening. And please, spare me any sort of super slow motion instant replay analysis and breakdown establishing intention and intricacies of the incidents at hand. The bottom line: both guys were trying to finish checks after the puck had left, and both ended up inserting their elbow directly into the skull of the opposing player.

If the NHL is serious about eliminating headshots, they must take a hard stance on these flying elbows as they do on high sticks. From my understanding of the league’s rules in that situation, it is that the player responsible for wielding his stick must be in control of it at all times, and any contact, even the most unintentional and incidental, with an opposing player is an automatic penalty. Of course, my understanding of such a solid rule was brought into question last night when James Neal of the Penguins was clipped in the face by Claude Giroux of the Flyers. Giroux was following through on the puck and, under his own power, lifted his stick into Neal’s mouth and cut his lip. Instead of an ensuing 4 minute power play, the officials on the ice huddled and waived off the infraction. It was a fitting end to a perfectly baffling day.

.....And Justice For All

Sing High Praise: Matt Cooke has been suspended for the remainder of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs for his indefensible and incomprehensible elbow to the face of the Rangers' Ryan McDonagh. For those scoring at home, that would lead to total suspension of 17 games if the Penguins first round series goes the distance. For those with a memory and scoring at home, that is 3 less than games than Todd Bertuzzi received for ending Steve Moore's career. It's also 17 more than Zdeno Chara got for  more-or-less paralyzing a guy, but let's not split hairs.

If you know me, I love and appreciate irony. I love that the Winklevoss twins are being sued by somebody for allegedly cutting him out of profits for the sale of ConnectU to Facebook after they sued Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly cutting them out of Facebook altogether. I love Mike Huckabee saying it was inappropriate to comment on Bristol Palin's out of wedlock teen pregnacny in 2008 yet blast Harvard grad and 29 year old Natalie Portman for also being pregnant out of wedlock. Irony would also rear it's beautifully hideous head when Matt Cooke would serve the first game of his suspension against a Red Wings team featuring the aforementioned Bertuzzi. Prior to the game, Red Wings Alternate Captain Henrik Zetterberg weighed in on the Cooke situation calling for Cooke to be shelved for the remainder of the season and much like everything else in the NHL, the Red Wings got their wish. Zetterberg clearly overlooked the fact that his chroiboy organization employs a guy who once came up behind another human being, grabbed him by the back of his sweater, wound up, and delivered a gloved punch to the back of his head sending him plummeting to the ice face first. The result was merely a concussion, 3 broken neck vertebrae, facial lacerations, and 5 months in a hospital plus a year in a neck brace. Nothing major, I guess. Heck the most storied Red Wing ever, Mr. Hockey himself, was known to throw an elbow or 10 during his career, so at least they have that going for them!

For all of Steve Moore and his family's suffering, Todd Bertuzzi was suspended for only 3 more games than Matt Cooke for an elbow that didn't even sideline a guy for a period. Since the "Steve Moore Incident" Bertuzzi has  played in nearly 400 NHL games and pocketed nearly $18 million dollars for his troubles while Steve Moore can skate, but that's about it. While his neck has healed but he still suffers from the concussion he received when Todd Bertuzzi held the back of his jersey, cocked his fist, and sucker punched him in the back of the head so hard that he fell helplessly to the ice face first and unconscious. For that, Bertuzzi got only 3 more games than Matt Cooke for his stupidity in finishing a check with a dirty elbow. Get my drift?

Truthfully, I feel that the Cooke suspension is exactly what he deserved for his selfish actions. He has had umpteen chances to keep his focus on winning puck battles and doing the things that make him a valuable hockey player  and he only has himself to blame for being out for 17 games. Bertuzzi, as far as I am concerned, got off light. So did Chara and Heatley amongst many, many others in the league.But Cooke, and the Penguins for that matter, are the only ones who face league wide scorn. The Pittsburgh Penguins are not the only team who employ a Matt Cooke type player and frankly it would be a shorter list of teams who don't and anybody who says otherwise is a bigger homer than I am.

With the Cooke punishment handed down from the father of Boston Bruin Gregory Campbell ( just thought I would mention that tidbit), the NHL has set a precedent that targeting the head is not going to be tolerated. That is awesome, that is progress. BUT, the NHL has also put themselves in a precarious position for future suspensions. Will Alex Ovechkin get the book thrown at him the next time he leaves his skates to hit somebody? Will Mike Richards finally get a suspension for one of his trademark blindside hits to an unsuspecting opponent? Will Zdeno Chara get off scot-free the next time he hospitalizes a player with whom he has a grudge and no longer has the puck? I would have to go with an emphatic NO on that one. If there is one thing we can ascertain about the NHL's policy on consistency, it's that there doesn't seem to be one.

Great response by Penguins

The Pittsburgh Penguins rebounded from two tough losses, one being a game, the other being Matt Cooke, to pick up a 5-4 shootout victory over the Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena.
The Penguins jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first period, scored two more, chased Jimmy Howard, allowed the Red Wings to tie the game in the third before James Neal won it in the shootout.
I was very impressed with how Pittsburgh responded after losing to the New York Rangers Sunday. Also, Cooke's suspension, although warranted after another cheap shot by the LW, gave the Pens a "us against the world" approach.
Cooke was suspended by the NHL Monday for the remainder of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs for his elbow to the head of the Rangers' Ryan McDonagh Sunday.
Cooke got what he deserved, Mario Lemieux and Ray Shero had to support it, but the players will go that extra mile for their teammate, even if they're upset.
Chris Kunitz had another great game. Kunitz and Jordan Staal have elavated their game. Brent Johnson was strong, and didn't really let in any bad goals. The Red Wings started to take control in the third. I believe that can be attributed to the Penguins playing back-to-back games against two quality opponents, but take nothing away from Detroit. That team is loaded with talent and Mike Babcock is one of the best coaches around.
Pittsburgh has big games coming up against New Jersey and Philadelphia. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the game with the Flyers is important. (Understatement of the year). I don't think the Penguins will win the division, but who knows. I doubt Philadelphia will struggle going into the playoffs.
We shall see.
Keep your head up!

Monday Morning Notebook (03.21.V3-3)

*The US lead an all out air assault over the weekend on Muammar Gaddafi's forces in the Libyan civil war. The UN resolution gives nations carte blanche to do whatever is necessary in order to stop Gaddafi from attacking civilians in his bid to retain power. This is a bold gambit by the Obama Administration to spread and cultivate the new found freedom and Mass Movement power in North Africa. The attempt to so audaciously spread core American values is a grand goal, but is military intervention really the best route to do so? One can only hope for the best results from this adventure for US forces and sincerely wish them success in their mission. The prudence of this undertaking must be brought into question in light of the already ongoing conflicts our all-volunteer military is currently serving in. It is not to be suggested that the (so far) limited engagement airstrikes will truly strain our armed forces readiness. As we saw in Iraq however, not only the worst case, but sometimes totally unpredictable scenarios unfold from these actions. It would be a shame if a decade from now we are looking back with regret on this moment of well intentioned intervention because of these unforeseen demons yet to be encountered. The cause against Gaddafi however is just, and hopefully in this case justice prevails for the people of Libya, the people of America, and the people of the world.

*Matt Cooke's hit yesterday on Ryan McDonough of the New York Rangers was ill-timed, dirty, and really selfish when you consider the situation both within the game that was in progress and efforts at large by his team, and others, to eliminate these cheap shots from the game. The fact that McDonough was okay should be no consolation to anyone with the power to determine Cooke's fate. The Penguins should step up and send their own message to Cooke that these actions will not be tolerated on top of the already certain forthcoming league discipline. The GM and coaching staff of the Penguins must also take into serious consideration whether Cooke is a potential liability come playoff time with these increasingly frequent unnecessary hits that cost his team significant penalty minutes.

*Yemen seems to be the next Country in line after Libya to go down the road toward political freedom through mass movement protest. The army today announced they will support the protesters legitimate complaints in that nation, and several of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s administration members are also turning against him quickly. Saleh, who could be out of power by tomorrow, has been an ally of the United States in trying to root Al Qaeda out of his Country, but perhaps a more free, open, and prosperous society in Yemen will reduce the recruiting base of the terrorist forces in that region long term. Yemen is the most poor and desolate Countries in the Arabian Peninsula, and one of the most beleaguered in the world. It would be the first Country outside the geographical barrier of Africa to succumb to the protest movement that has rocked the Arab world.

Sports, Politics, and Partisanship

It was about a year ago that fans of the Boston Bruins were up in arms about a hit placed by Matt Cooke of the Pittsburgh Penguins upon their forward, Marc Savard, which lead to a serious concussion for Savard. The outrage and venom from Bruins fans and their media was off the charts. Even though an almost carbon copy identical hit had felled David Booth of the Florida Panthers and no action was taken to punish the perpertrator, Mike Richards of the Philadelphia Flyers, you would have thought that Cooke playing for the rest of the season was the grossiest miscarrage of justice for decades in the league to hear a Bruins fan tell it.

Now the Bruins are on the opposite side of a controversial hit. Mamouth Defenseman and Captain Zdeno Chara was thrown out of a game last night against the rival Montreal Canadiens after shoving Max Pacioretty face first into the divder between the Bruins bench and the score keepers booth. Like Savard, Pacioretty had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher and right to a local hospital. I want a Bruins fan to come forward and really explain to me how the Chara hit on Pacioretty was different from Cooke’s hit on Savard. Neither was done with an intent to possibly end a guys career, but both were dangerous hits in the “gray area” between establishing a physical game and gladiatorial chaos on ice. I’m not saying this to condemn Chara, I’m saying it because I’m sure the self-righteous and pious Bruin fans will see no problem with the hit last night, while they continue to push for public flogging, Abu Ghraib styled tortures, and ultimate crucifixion of M. Cooke.

In this way sports is alot like politics. If a guy (or girl) on your team, party, or side of the aisle or spectrum, is embroiled in a scandal its always viewed as a rightous public servant being harrased or persecuted by the other side, media, corporations, unions, or whatever boogeyman is a plausible explanation. While if it is someone that you don't like, they are a dirty, rotten, corrupt politician who oozes slime as they slither down the hallways of power making shady backroom deals by the dozen as they go. Like so many things in life, perspective plays a larger role in our judgements then any sort of objective evidence. Some days it seems like the worlds of both sports and politics can be boiled down to a giant rorschach test in which we view exactly what we always want to see.

Monday Morning Notebook (03.07.V1-4)

*On the international scene, Libya remains the global hotspot that everyone is watching, but nobody is doing much of anything about. Muammar Gaddafi, the long standing tyrant, remains in security control of Tripoli, with his blue shirted thugs enacting violent repression against protesters. Those in revolt from his regime remain in power in Benghazi and the Eastern side of the Country, and the two forces are conflicting in the lightly populated, but oil rich, middle sections of Libya. There is little doubt that Gaddafi has initiated violent assaults upon his own people using terrible weapons of mass warfare to quell internal discord. The international community has done little to stop him from doing so, outside of sending much needed humanitarian aide to the Eastern border of the Country where streams of refuges are fleeing the violence. This inaction by the rest of the world may be a course of prudent wisdom from an international affairs standpoint, but it certainly leaves those seeking a more free and fair society in Libya at the diabolical whims of a violent madman who will stop at nothing to retain power. The situation has reached a point where it is already functioning as a low level civil war, and if we have learned anything from misadventures in Iraq, it is that these sectarian styled conflicts are not often resolved quickly or peacefully, and outside intervention may do more harm than good at this point.

*Ryan Callahan had the game of his life on Sunday afternoon as the New York Rangers whitewashed the Eastern Conference leading Philadelphia Flyers, who all of a sudden seem eminently beatable after dominating the first five months of the season. Goalies in Philadelphia tend to thaw out as the birds return and the flowers bloom, and April, May, and June are the harshest months for Orange and Black clad netminders. Henrik Lundqvist meanwhile remains a rock solid rubber stopper for the Blueshirts and hasn’t let up more than 3 goals since January 25th, the thinking here is that he may be able to vault the Rangers into darkhorse Cup contenders this Spring.

*The US Senate will take up two proposed bills to provide funding for the rest of the federal government's fiscal year, the GOP passed House Bill, and the New Democrat compromise plan. Both cut billions from President Obama's budget, but neither is predicted to bridge the 60 vote threshold needed to get out of the Senate. They are however expected to lay out the groundwork for future debate and compromise.

*The New Jersey Devils continue their most unlikely of quests for the 8th and final playoff spot in the East, which if they could claw their way into, would be one of the most incredible in-season turn around stories in the history of professional sports. I still believe they will burn out from playing each and every game as if it is the 7th of the Stanley Cup finals, and the law of averages states that they inevitably will start losing some of these 1 goal decisions. The authoritative statistical probability website, Sports Club Stats, still only has them listed as being a 1.8% chance to make it into the playoffs this season, but if they can complete this absolutely astronomical turnaround, the Devil will be a very scary matchup for one of the top 4 seeds in the East.

*Speaker of the House John Boehner is putting together his legal options to challenge Obama's plans to not enforce DOMA laws. This little culture war salvo is a bit unexpected given the current focus on fiscal issues and the laser-like focus on job creation promised by GOP leadership.

*It seems like Mario Lemieux was once again right, and the NHL and pompous Canadian media blowhards were wrong in regards to a situation with the League. After Mario blasted the league for not throwing the book at Trevor Gillies and the New York Islanders in the wake of an absolute travesty of a contest on February 11th which saw Gillies concuss young forward Eric Tangradi with a blindside elbow to the head, continue to pound on him as Tangradi lay helpless on the ice, and mock him from the runway as the training staff attended to the injured skater. Tangradi has yet to return to action, but after the league mandated 9 game suspension, Gillies was back at it again on Wednesday night. He saw less then 4 shifts and 2 minutes of ice time before he once again took a blindside flying elbow to the head of Minnesota Wild forward Cal Clutterbuck, who is now out with a concussion “upper body injury.” What did the league determine was just reprieve for a thug who obviously didn’t learn his lesson the first time around? 10 games measly games this time was what they saw fit to lay at his doorstep for his grevious misdeeds. He should have been gone for the year, and possibly all of next season as well. There is totally no place for him in this league. For those who claim the game of hockey is nothing but a circus freakshow on skates, all they have to do is point to Trevor Gillies being back out there on March 26th against the Philadelphia Flyers and I will have absolutely no rebuttal.

*Both sides in the debate over the State budget and the future of public sector unions remain entrenched in their hardline positions. Governer Scott Walker continues to insist upon stripping the unions of their collective bargaining powers and forcing them to recertify every year. Democratic State senators stay in self imposed exile so that legislation remains at a standstill in Madison.

Six Times Steckel

With the trade between the New Jersey Devils and Washington Capitals that sent Dave Steckel to the Pine Barrens for Jason Arnott, the Penguins will now see the man who injured Sidney Crosby six times a year. In case you have been living on Mars or in the Charlie Sheen Porn Family for the last 2 months, Steckel may well have ended Crosby's season when he hit lowered his shoulder and blindsided him in the head while the puck was the other end of the ice during the waning moments of the Winter Classic's second period. Crosby, slow to get up, would continue in this game and also play the following tilt against Tampa Bay but suffered another cheap head shot via Victor Hedman ( who received a boarding minor for his troubles) and has been missing from the lineup since.

According to a DC sportswriter being interviewed by Mark Madden last Monday, Capitals bench boss and resident NHL whiner Bruce Boudreau apparently gets hot under the collar anytime a reporter merely mentions the Steckel hit. Of course, there is not shortage of subjectsthat raises Boudreau's blood pressure; standing up is probably a daunting task for him. But my misguided point in this post is whether or not the Penguins will seek any further retribution against Steckel now that they will see him six times a year?

My guess is NO. The shorthanded Pens have already met the Caps twice since the Winter Classic and while the Penguins tough guys continued to challenge Steckel to a fight during the first matchup( Much to the ire of Boudreau of course), he did finally drop the gloves against the much smaller Tim Wallace. That would seem to settle the score if there is such thing as a finite hockey code, but as we learned last month on Long Island, enough is not enough for some people. The Bruins haven't gotten enough of Matt Cooke still challenge and target him every chance they get so what's to say the Pens don't call up Ogie Ogilthorpe and have him take a Flying Gillies at Steckel before pummelling the back of his head while he is unconscious on the ice? the answer to that would be simple : organizational class.