We've got three major topics to address and, like all writers searching for a way to keep you involved to the end of an opus we're going to use a gimmick.
We're going retro, to a movie era you kids likely will only know through the cable channel, but since it's the stuff of classic's we're going Clint Eastwood on you (ask your parents if you don't know what I'm talking about).
It's not Dirty Harry and though Rawhide, Any Which Way but Loose and the Unforgiven crossed our collective minds we settled for the tried and tested The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. After all, when you're dealing with a trade, an arrest and an ugly on-ice incident that almost cost a life, well, we can hardly say, "Make my day."
The Good: Kudos to Ottawa general manager Bryan Murray who not only made a deal that should shake up his slumping and seemingly one-dimensional team, but likely made it better.
In swinging the deal with Carolina for 34-year-old Cory Stillman and 28-year-old Mike Commodore, Murray got what was notably missing in last spring's Stanley Cup final: Stanley Cup experience.
Don't underestimate the value of that. The Sens had their way with the Buffalo Sabres in the Eastern Conference final, but that came about largely because of the boost in confidence they received from handling the Sabres with regularity in the regular season. It was different with the Ducks, they had players -- particularly defenceman Scott Niedermayer and goalie J.S. Giguere who knew what the Cup final was all about.
In Stillman, the Sens get an additional top six forward (a desperate need for the Sens) who should be able to create something of a second scoring line with the Sens, particularly if he plays with Mike Fisher. The two have a history that goes back to the Peterborough Petes. More importantly, they get a forward who is versatile, can play in all three zones on the ice and has won Stanley Cups with two different teams -- Tampa Bay in 2004 an Carolina 2006. Stillman may not have the scoring and playmaking touch of a Peter Forsberg, but he certainly knows what it takes to win.
Commodore brings similar rink 'cred. He went to the finals in 2004 with the Calgary team that lost to Tampa in seven evenly-matched games and he too won a Cup with Carolina in 2006. In addition, Commodore brings some physical play to the front of the Ottawa net, something that was woefully missing last spring when the Ducks physically manhandled the Sens in their own zone.
Murray gave away youth in forward Patrick Eaves and defenceman Joe Corvo, and those are two players who are good and getting better, but Ottawa's time is now and the general manager knows it. He made a good trade for his team. He'll need more, but clearly he's not going to go back to the postseason with a team that doesn't have enough to get it done.
The Bad: I understand that the rules are different when teams get to Florida or Los Angles or even to the streets outside a strip club in Columbus, OH. I also understand those rookie dinners -- of which the incident that has Montreal players Ryan O'Byrne and Tom Kostopoulos in trouble with the law in Tampa -- are as much a part of the code of hockey as fisticuffs on the ice and silence in the locker room.
But what I don't get is two young players, still in the formative stages of their careers, being so drunk or so stupid (or whatever excuse you care to imagine) as to get themselves arrested for third-degree grand theft (O'Byrne) and resisting arrest without violence (Kostopoulos). And what I really don't get is that these guys might have been involved in the theft of a purse. A PURSE.
Spare me the "kids do stupid things" speech. Jean Beliveau was a kid once; ever hear of him lifting a purse? Henri Richard was a kid, so was the Rocket and Serge Savard and Larry Robinson; ever here of those great Canadiens disgracing the uniform or themselves? Ever hear of Sakiu Koivu embarrassing his team like that? Of course not. Those men not only weren't stupid, they knew the meaning of respect. They had respect for themselves, respect for their teammates and for the uniform they were so proud to wear.
One can assume this will go away in time. Wronged parties have a way of finding forgiveness after a time (although two tickets left at a window isn't likely to do the trick in Tampa).
The Ugly (but with a twist): There have been two major cut injuries in the NHL in my lifetime and I've witnessed both of them in Buffalo. The first one I saw was a skate across the throat of then Sabres goaltender Clint Malarchuk. It was the most sickening and terrifying thing I've ever witnessed at a hockey game until Sunday night when a similar accident caused a blade to cut across the throat of Florida Panthers forward Richard Zednik.
According to doctors in Buffalo, the Zednik injury (the result of teammate Olli Jokinen being upended and his skate blade making contact with an onrushing Zednik) was worse than the Malarchuk incident because it nearly severed the carotid artery, a major artery that carries blood from the heart to the brain.
Zednik left a drenching trail of blood from the corner to the bench, a sight every bit as disturbing as when Malarchuk flooded his goalcrease with red. The shock, horror and outright fear on the faces of both players is something I can never forget. It was the scariest and ugliest thing I've ever witnessed in sports and that includes the near-fatal hit Buffalo Bills special teams player Kevin Everett absorbed in the opening game of the NFL season in Buffalo last fall.
But before you start thinking that only bad things happen in Buffalo understand this: Richard Zednik and Clint Malarchuk and Kevin Everett are alive today because well trained hockey people and well trained physicians were proactive and highly skilled and moved quickly to avert what could have been tragic consequences. What doctors did to Everett by stabilizing him, immobilizing him and using a cutting edge technique of lowering his body temperature to minimize swelling, not only saved his life, but enabled him to recover to the point where he is once again walking and even doing some light jogging just months after a severe spinal cord injury.
Malarchuk and Zednik both were immediately treated by doctors who managed to control their bleeding by closing their hands over the wounds and stopping the pulsating bleeding that could well have caused them to bleed out in a matter of minutes.
In the Zednik incident Sabres team doctor Leslie Bisson was sitting in the fifth row near the tunnels where players exit the ice. He removed a moveable barricade and jumped down into the chute and had his hand to Zednik's throat the moment the Florida trainer and teammates had moved him off the ice. He kept it there all through the ambulance ride as the player was rushed to Buffalo General Hospital were a team of surgeons had been alerted and were standing by to repair the two-inch long, two-inch deep slash that nearly took his life.
Malarchuk got similar treatment (his outside jugular vein was severed) and he too was on the surgeon's table within minutes of the injury.
Like Everett and Malarchuk, the road back to a full recovery will not be an easy one. Everett is not likely to ever play football again. Malarchuk returned to the crease but for a variety of reasons, the injury included, never quite was able to recapture his form.
But that's in the future. Zednik survived an ugly incident and is alive today because he got care that was fast and good and at exactly the right time.
We tend to call people who play our game "heroes", but in the real world the people who stand behind them and us are the ones we should admire for a long, long time. The ones in Buffalo did their jobs and they did them very well.
