Tidbits of information for your knapsack of hockey knowledge.
Stop me if you've read this before, but the NHL is "cracking down" on hits to the head.
No really, it's true, it's in a memo from NHL executive Colin Campbell where he reminds players that the league has, "for a number of years, tried to eliminate elbow blows to the head and other hits to the head that were deliberate and avoidable. Campbell also said the suspensions would be harsher and longer for such hits if incidents continue.
As a way of apparently enforcing the new reminder, Campbell upped the suspension level from three to five in his latest crackdown.
You can almost see Chris Pronger filing this "reminder" in the same file with the letters to divers and standards for goaltending equipment. We've beaten the drum more than many on this issue but we'd be remiss if we tried to tell you this will do any good, especially when the one-season standard of 15-25 games has been obliterated by the general managers despite Campbell's best efforts.
"The league has sent out memos before and we've had discussions about protecting players," Carolina GM Jim Rutherford said in a somewhat obvious retreat from his "the league doesn't care" speech of a few weeks earlier. "This is a reminder.
"We're in the middle of the season, and changes can't be made until next season," Rutherford added. "But people have been calling me saying they want to pursue it at our next meeting."
Odd, but the last time the GMs met they tanked Campbell's harsh stance and then pulled back on injury information to the point of near-total obscurity.
Hard to put a lot of faith in the idea that real change is coming.
The problems in Tampa Bay aren't limited to just off-ice and behind-the-bench issues (and quickly now, who looks sillier, the owners who hired and fired Barry Melrose after 16 games or Melrose for taking the job) but there are issues on the ice as well.
Ryan Malone, obtained as a free-agent signee from Pittsburgh during the off-season Monday, missed his sixth consecutive practice with a leg injury. Malone is listed as having a lower-body injury and will miss his fourth consecutive game Tuesday evening.
Like a lot of teams with too many changes too fast, the Lightning have had trouble scoring, keeping the puck out of the net. The best scorer on the team has been 40-year-old Mark Recchi, who had 10 points in his last 11 games prior to Melrose being sacked. Another vet, however, 42-year-old Gary Roberts didn't get his first two goals of the season until last week against Washington. Both came on the power play. Roberts says he still thinks he can contribute offensively, but the statistics are showing a different story.
It's not news to anyone that the Senators are awful so far this season, but a lot of people who wear the sweater are acting like it should be.
The recent loss to the Islanders allows for some historical perspective. A year ago on Nov. 15, the Sens beat Buffalo, 3-2, to run their from-the-start record to 15-2, prompting some in media to proclaim them as on path to becoming hockey's best team ever. In the time since that mark was posted -- through to the end of their run -- the team was 34-41-10 (including the sweep by the Penguins in the first round of the playoffs.)
Through Monday night's games they were 6-9-3, 28th overall in a 30-team league and looking, some say desperately, for management to make a trade to re-energize the club.
Rumours abound that general manager Bryan Murray will have to cut into the core of the team to make the necessary shake-up. Don't bet the mortgage money or even the price of a used Atari game on that, but there likely will be a change of some sort.
Winger Dany Heatley is being asked about, but not likely to go. Heatley, however, does have a book out entitled "Dominant Dany Heatley," not exactly apropos to the season so far. It's out in soft cover only.
That is in sharp contrast to the somewhat harsh language Heatley and Chris Kelly exchanged in a practice dust-up that was quickly smoothed over.
"We joked about it afterward and that's as far as it will go," Kelly said. Maybe, but that's what they said when goalie Ray Emery had a few exchanges last season. How quickly did that die down?
We questioned whether Alex Auld was a fit in Ottawa at the start of the season, but we owe him props now. The Senators goaltending has never been all-world and it isn't again this season, but Auld has numbers keeping him in the top ten in save percentage and goals-against average. That's a noteworthy achievement for a team two spots out of last overall.
Shades of Jason Blake, but Mike Comrie is on the verge of being a healthy scratch with the New York Islanders. The well-traveled centre was supposed to contend to anchor the No.1 line, but coach Scott Gordon was said to be on the verge of banishing him to the press box until he came down with complications from an off-season hip surgery. There are some who would argue that that is a face-saving gesture, but we don't buy it. Gordon has been running a tight ship on the Island in terms of demanding performance, but Comrie hasn't always been able to answer the call.
We realize that's partly speculation, but when you don't get legitimate information regards injuries (and the Islanders are notorious for that so far this season), speculation is going to fill the void.
Gordon was hired, supposedly because former head coach Ted Nolan wouldn't play the kids. But the truth is there are very few kids worth playing in the New York system and Gordon has been patching together what he has while leaning on his vets, much the same as Nolan did.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are a little better than most regards injury announcements, but that doesn't mean they have good news. Veteran defenceman Sergei Gonchar, a key performer in the drive to the Stanley Cup final last spring, isn't likely to be a contributor this season. He had surgery to correct a problem with a constantly dislocating shoulder back on Oct. 2, but now the return date has been pushed back until at least March.
The red-hot Jordan Staal is playing for a contract extension and the word out of Pittsburgh is that he will soon get it. It's a dicey negotiation for the Penguins in that Staal is finally proving he deserves big money, but it's coming at a time when the prospects for a downturn in the economy and a downturn in NHL contract money is in the offing. The Pens are always close to the salary cap now that Sidney Crosby and company are succeeding, but if the cap goes down next season -- and a lot of people are projecting that it will -- Staal getting bit money might mean someone would have to leave. Teams are trying to avoid that scenario, but they still don't have a firm idea of what the economy will do to their cap-measured budgets.
The Pens would like to offer market value, but they don't know what that is any longer. A lot of teams are looking at the same issues in the same light and some are looking to the Staal talks to set the tone for the rest of the soon-to-be free agent market.
It's not a crime that Shane Doan missed an empty net with a shot that clanged off the goal post in a recent game in Phoenix. The crime is that the miss scuttled his first-ever chance at a hat trick. The Coyotes captain thought he had it coming in NHL game No. 897, but in the immortal call of hockey broadcasters everywhere, he "hit the f***ing post.
"It takes a lot more skill to hit the post from there (the blue line) then it does to hit the empty net," Doan joked afterward. "(Still) I've got so many two-goal games its ridiculous."
In just this week, Mats Sundin has been rumoured to be in more cities than Barack Obama and John McCain covered combined in the recent U.S. Presidential election and still he's no closer to signing in Toronto than he is in Columbus. Thank goodness we all have Brian Burke to speculate on.
