Jim Kelley

Jim Kelley writes regularly on the NHL for Sportsnet.ca and can be heard on Primetime Sports on the FAN590.

Memo from the National Hockey League's Department of Moving On to Alex Burrows: You can't prove it so shut up and play.

Look, nearly half a million words have already been written or spoken regards the alleged confrontation between Burrows and referee Stephane Auger and it comes down to this: no proof. Seriously did you expect anything other than a fine? You had nothing in the way of proof and as best as can be determined at this point you didn't even have the good sense to report what you think you heard to your coach or an assistant coach before the game got underway.

Maybe next time you should wear a wire.

Is there anyone better at deflecting blame than Ottawa Senators general manager Bryan Murray? He makes a deal for a goaltender of average talent and a long history of injury and declares him to be the second coming, the answer to a long run of problem goaltending in that city. The goalie, Pascal Leclaire, then lives up to his reputation, the Senators, who have been sliding ever since Murray deposed then GM John Muckler after Muckler's team went to the Stanley Cup final, and now Murray declares its goalie coach Eli Wilson's fault.

True, Wilson was, essentially, the departed Ray Emery's hire, but why waste a good firing? Murray could have replaced Wilson at any time after Emery became the poster boy for Ottawa's failures, but might as well save a bullet until it's truly needed.

Whose next: the team doctor, equipment manager, director of ticket sales? After all, each of those areas have been a problem spot as well.

Maybe Murray should fire Cory Clouston and go behind the bench himself. After all, accountability has to start somewhere in Ottawa and blaming a string of coaches and an even longer string of goaltending mistakes, injury misfortunes and Dany Heatley hasn't really worked.

And for the record, doesn't anyone think it strange that the Columbus Blue Jackets let Leclaire go in favour of Steve Mason? At the time that deal went down, Mason was nothing more than a prospect and the Blue Jackets were desperate to finally make it to the postseason. That's the kind of warning flag a lot of GMs would take under consideration.

I'd feel a lot more empathy with the fans of the Vancouver Canucks and their defence of Burrows if they didn't have a whack job in their midst. Bring a laser pointer into an arena and then try to shine it into the eyes of the opposing goaltender, how pathetic!

And while we're on that subject no one in the most expensive seats in the arena had the courage to point out the offending fan? Much has been made of the fact that technology couldn't pinpoint the perpetrator but what would be so wrong with one of the Masters of a Very Expensive Universe, a patron with seats behind the player's bench pointing out that one of their colleagues is attempting to influence the outcome of the contest via means that are simply unacceptable in any arena.

You wouldn't tolerate that if someone were standing near you at the airport and flashing a beam into a pilot's cockpit while he's trying to land a plane with your love one's aboard. Why would you tolerate being seated next to a fool who embarrasses you, your city and your team?

Well, if you're Canucks coach Alain Vigneault maybe you would. Informed of the issue after the game Vigneault is quoted as saying "Great fans. I'm not sure it happened that often."

Hey Alain, isn't once more than enough?

In that regard, kudos to Nashville Predators coach Barry Trotz who was quoted as saying that if someone did that to his players "I'd pull the team off (the ice)," he said. "They do that again, then we'll stay off. Everybody thinks they will get their 15 minutes of fame. That's just brutal."

Nice to know that when someone puts the green light on Trotz they can at least find his stones.

Regular readers of this space know I think the world of New Jersey Devils goalie Martin Brodeur and his ability to keep piling up wins and especially shutout wins. It’s reaching a point where it defies comprehension.

But I'd also point out that even in that sacred area of Canadian expertise, the rest of the hockey-playing world is catching on.

Of the top ten in the save percentage category as of Thursday morning, the No 1, No 3, and No 6 goalies are Finns Antti Niemi (Chicago), Tuukka Rask (Boston) and Miikka Kiprusoff (Calgary).

The No. 2 is American Ryan Miller (Buffalo), the No. 7 is Russian Ilya Bryzgalov and Nos. 9 and 10 are Semyon Varlamov, a Russian (Washington) and Evgeni Nabokov, a native of Kazakhstan (San Jose).

Brodeur, a native of Montreal, is No. 4 and Chicago's Cristobol Huet, who was actually born in France is No. 5. Detroit's Jimmy Howard, a native of Syracuse, NY is No. 8 and New York Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist, a native of Sweden is knocking at the door in the No. 11 spot.

Proof positive that hockey truly has a world-wide talent pool and that not just Canada should be a favourite at the upcoming Olympics.

I know this might sound ridiculously ridiculous to many fans of the Washington Capitals and superstar forward Alex Ovechkin but yet another player has charged Ovechkin with perhaps taking a run at his knee.

Steve Downie of the Tampa Bay Lightning was on the receiving end of a big hit from Ovechkin Wednesday night and though he stopped short of saying Ovechkin targeted his knee, it was just short.

"He came at me pretty good, had a head of steam going and I'm lucky that I saw him at the last second to brace myself because I could have been hurt," Downie said. "But you have to expect that. He makes big hits like that; it's not his first time running guys. He's a hard player and he likes to play hard."

The same can be said of Downie who's seen his share of suspensions for hard physical play, especially when he was with the Philadelphia Flyers, but the bigger issue here is whether or not Washington's Matt Bradley left the bench to step into Downie after Downie challenged Ovechkin to drop the gloves.

Ovechkin was more than willing to oblige, but Bradley intervened, seemingly leaving the bench to be the third man in an altercation.

I don't know if Curtis Joseph will someday make it into the Hockey Hall of Fame. It's not just because he didn't win a Stanley Cup that will perhaps hold him up, it's more that as spectacular as he so often was, he didn't always win the games and the playoff series' he was expected to win. That can work against a man more so than any shortfall of hardware.

My gut feeling is that he will get in simply because he's won enough games to qualify AND because he played in Toronto AND because he's a popular and likable guy and in hockey, that counts among the voters.

My other gut feeling is that I hope he does get in simply because of the way he played. He played with passion and with a style you just don't see much anymore. In a world of almost robotic netminders who are many times only as good as their equipment and coaching, Joseph was different. He had spectacular ability and often used it to make spectacular, sometimes downright unbelievable saves. That's the kind of goaltending the Edmonton Oilers used to get on a nightly basis from Grant Fuhr and it certainly helped Fuhr's case that the Oilers racked up Stanley Cups on an annual basis when that team was at its best.

Joseph seldom had that kind of quality in front of him yet he still won games, lots of games and lots of games his teams wouldn't have won were it not for his effort in goal.

To me he was an all-world performer and, hopefully the voters will someday recognize that.