Archive for March 11th, 2009
WEDNESDAY’S GAMES AND PICKS
For in depth look into the NHL teams records and preview of tonight’s games please go back to the “Home Page” on Hockey God, at the bottom lower left hand side:
Click on “Scoreboard” and review every game by clicking in the individual games being played on Wednesday.
Tonight’s picks
TBL @ OTT: Take SENS
CAR @ CHI: Take BLACKHAWKS
VAN @ ANA: Take CANUCKS
Hockey God went 9-2 last night.
FIGHTING TALK IS BACK IN THE NHL . . .
Above the best fight of the NHL night between heavyweights Wade Belak & Donald Brashear. I have never seen Brash get knocked down with a punch until this fight with the former Leafs tough guy. WOW !
If last nights game between the Washington Captials and the Nashville Predators is any indication fighting is not only going nowhere it’s a down right great part of the game.
The above mentioned Belak-Brashear fight was a heavyweight tilt that Belak ended up getting the best of Brashear with a left to the chin knocking him down. But Brash has had his share of wins over Belak over the NHL years as well, so on any night any player can get the better of another player .
In this game that featured another tilt between the Caps Matt Bradley and the goof ball from the Preds Jordan Tootoo where they seemed to be going pretty even punch for punch wise. But It was Bradley that ended up with a split nose bleeding on the way to the dressing room for repairs.
Fighting is in the NHL to stay and let’s face it, it helps police the problems on the ice between fierce opponents that very seldom result in an injury to anyone. Even a complete ass like Tootoo who is a cheap shot artist and hated in the NHL will back up his antics by fighting there by at the very least still gaining the respect of most players.
Fighting keeps the game safer and stick work down and without a doubt the old days stick swinging is virtually gone from the game. Need to settle an issue on the ice stick up for yourself or a teammate, then there is no way better-than a good old fashion tussle.
NHL GENERAL MANAGERS MEETINGS
GMs did not as expected vote for an outright ban on fighting. GMs did make a recommendation that a 10-minute misconduct will automatically be issued to players who start fights at face-offs. The misconduct will also be issued for any other fight judged by the referees to be staged. The misconducts will come in addition to five-minute major penalties for fighting.
This is stupid- the players will either in the case of the two goon-tough guys just not care about the extra 10 and fight off face-off anyways. Other players that care about being out for that long will just allow the play to start and then fight as the play moves on to avoid the stiffer extra 10 misconduct.
The NHL is saying that in the first 500 fights this season, up to the first week of February, 108 of them, or 21.6 per cent, occurred at face-offs. That is an increase of 30 per cent in the past eight years.
“Even guys like me have never wanted an increase in fighting,” said Toronto GM Brian Burke. “Nor do we want fighting to go back to being a tactic like it was in the ’70s. But if it is truly a staged fight, good, let’s give them another 10 minutes, it’s fine with me.”
Not everyone agrees with the new rules that the league will now bring to the 5 NHLPA players along with 5 NHL members from the leagues teams to get a consensus and then vote.
Montreal tough George Laraque told TSNs Darren Dreger that he is outraged by recommendations made by general managers at the GM meetings in Florida.
“All of their recommendations are a joke!” Laraque charged after reading the NHL’s plans on TSN.ca.
It’s that proposed penalty - a 10-minute misconduct - which really angers Laraque.
“Stupidest thing ever!” Laraque told TSN. “I think it’s a joke. They might as well take fighting out of the NHL…fighting won’t be safer; it will be eliminated because an added 10 minute misconduct is too much.”
If you are going to make rules that are essentially already there for the refs to call then just come out and say that. The NHL wants to stop guys from fighting every time there is a solid hit on another player then when the fight happens penalize the instigator harshly with a 2-10 and watch how fast guys want to put their team down that quickly. It will still happen just far less frequently especially in tight, bigger games.
The extra 10 to me doesn’t have a whole lot of impact and won’t do much other than stop the face-off fight and make it happen elsewhere which will accomplish what ? To me nothing really.
Thank (Hockey) God that the GMs didn’t follow the OHL bad rule of fighting with helmets on only.
Also the NHL managers didn’t seem to bite on NHLPA recommendations about head hits/shots. Which I’m scratching my head about ? Is it not the players themselves that go out and play the game ? Well easy answer yes, so why not allow the p l a y e r s to suggest a rule that they believe in that makes the game safer for themselves on the ice ?.
That’s the problem in the NHL they don’t give the players enough of a voice on rules or suspensions, let’s face it they are the ones doing the entertaining in the buildings, the reason the fans pay to go watch games. Why would they not have a larger voice and don’t tell me that having a committee of 5 players is enough because it’s not clearly.
Fighting will be protected for the moment by GMs Like Burke but with these rules the players have to be involved going forward. The one rule that I myself would like to see brought in is an extra 10 for a player that intentionally throws another player he is fighting to the ice. That is dangerous far more than the two of them throwing Punches at each other in a stand up position having the ability to protect themselves from Punches. A player hitting his head on the ice from a throw down is where players can really get hurt.
There will always be fighting in the NHL. That to the tree huggers will be disappointing but it’s needed for so many different reasons to keep the game sane and the tree huggers really don’t get that and never will. For the most part look who it is ripping on the league about the fighting it’s guys that don’t even watch or care about the game.
It’s guys like radio host the Fans Bob McCowan, who is a dick head and only talks about this stuff because of ratings anyways. He knows nothing about the game nor does he understand the ramifications that taking away fighting would do or does he care. He is the type that uses his radio soap box to talk and talk and really never makes any hockey sense- churping about teams in the NHL that are in dying markets. Well those two issues are two totally different things in hockey. One being about small markets and revenues. The other is about and this is where guys like him get confused, is about the players managing the ice and the on-goings on the ice night to night themselves through fighting.
If guys were getting hurt every night and there were incidents every night where guys are getting laid out cold on the ice then it would be time to say “wait a minute’. But a tragic incident in senior hockey does not and should not change the NHL and the way they do business. Obviously the NHL knows this at least and understands that with the softer recommendations they purposed yesterday at the Florida meetings.
So those of the media that are cringing about fighting still in the game . . Watch curling it’s on TSN have fun . . . go nuts !!
For Hockey God I’m Dave Frost
