Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and based on his average annual salary, Brendan Smith will forfeit $23,648.65. The money goes to the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund. Keep in mind this is a true rookie in the NHL. That's a bit of a hit.
This one was an interesting call for Shanahan, as the argument could be made that Ben Smith's cut to the goal altered the hit ? ye olde "prone position" argument that Mike Babcock made in saying, "Is there any responsibility on the puck carrier, toe-dragging, sliding sideways, to look after himself?"
But it could also be argued, that Smith stuck out his arm after being beat and kabong'd Smith.
As The Video Shows (tm, Shanahan), the NHL is making the argument that Ben Smith did shift his body before the hit but that his head didn't move. Hence, he didn't put himself in a prone position for the hit to the head, which would have been delivered anyway.
With his five regular-season game ban for Smith, NHL Executive VP of Players Safety and Infomercials Brendan Shanahan has banished eight players in the preseason. But it's clear one type of foul means more than the others ? head shots.
Four of them have received suspensions of five or more regular-season games: Jody Shelley for boarding, thanks to a criminal history longer than some supporting characters on "The Wire"; Jean-Francois Jacques for skating off the bench to start a fight; and suspensions to Smith of a head-shot on Ben Smith of the Chicago Blackhawks and James Wisniewski (8 games) for a head-shot on Cal Clutterbuck of the Minnesota Wild after the period had ended.
The takeaway from this, besides the fact that there's a Shanahan Multiplier to any suspension that would have emerged from Colin Campbell's cluttered desk:
Head shots matter more.
Brendan Smith is a rookie. He has no priors. He's not considered a head hunter. But he hit Smith in the head, and Smith may have received a concussion. The mandate from the moment the NHL began to re-evaluate its player safety approach has been concussions, concussions, concussions.
Rule 48 was about concussions, and the revamp of that rule since last season was about Sidney Crosby's concussion. This summer's trio of tragedies involving players who frequently fought in the NHL ? flimsily connected as they are ? added more attention to brain injuries in hockey.
On Wednesday, after the hit and before the ruling, Shanahan re-released the player safety video he and Mathieu Schneider hosted that that given to the players during camp. It explicitly points out the "right" way to hit in the NHL in 2011: Without the head being the principle point of contact, going to the body first.
This wasn't a coincidence. Neither was a 5-game suspension to a guy who hasn't seen a second of NHL ice time yet.
The days of hits to the head ? be it head-hunting or just a way to separate man from puck ? are done. Watching a Scott Stevens highlight reel will be like peeking into an alternate timeline for the NHL; it's a world that doesn't exist any longer, for better or worse.
Greetings, nonselective fans of live events that take place on ice! Welcome to the third season of Battle of the Blades, the program that awkwardly combines two of Canada's favourite things, Kurt Browning and Ron Maclean (or hockey and figure skating, I guess, whatever). BotB is apparently the highest-rated program in Canada, a country clearly in need of some mentoring.
My name is Harrison Mooney, the Poochy of Puck Daddy and, because I have a lifetime of sins for which to atone, I'll be reviewing this program weekly for all of you.
I don't hate myself, so before last night, I had never watched an episode of BotB in my life, but after sitting through an hour of this thing, I understand why it's so highly-regarded in my home and native land: it's the most Canadian program ever, narrowly edging out Just for Laughs: Gags (a show where a bunch of Francophone comedians trick ? and then immediately apologize to ? strangers).
Only Canada could get behind a reality program where the three judges spend the evening tripping over one another to be the kindest and most encouraging, even when the performances are excruciatingly bad. It's like having three sober Paula Abduls, one of whom hits on all the female contestants (that's Jeremy Roenick, clearly a man of appetites).
If, for whatever reason, you're still following me, here's what happened this week:
Like Hockey Night in Canada, the program opened with a black and white montage set to slightly ominous drumming and voiced over by an unnecessarily melodramatic Ron Maclean, who informed us that BotB is "a leap of faith," where "Old skills are set aside, new ones learned." And then, this needless and probably-not-accidental couplet: "Familiar skates gone / new blades laced on."
Ron Maclean is the T.S. Eliot of the CBC.
Then the live portion of the program began, with Kurt Browning, wearing what appeared to be a shirt made of camouflage saran, dancing to Maroon 5's latest hit, "Moves Like Jagger," with all the preening and finger-snapping we've come to expect from Canada's figure skating darling. Then, after a brief performance, he was joined by Maclean, and the two sprinted towards the camera like they were involved in an XFL coin toss. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
Then we met our cast, describes by Maclean as "this year's heroes", officially laying the word "hero" to rest. This season, like the two that preceded it, features 8 pairs, each a combination of a hockey player untrained in skating of the "figure" variety and a figure skater untrained in wearing non-sequined attire. Those pairs are:
1. Former Calgary Flames' assistant captain Cale Hulse and Extreme Ice Skating world champion Violetta Afanasieva.
3. Former Colorado Avalanche defenseman Curtis Leschyshyn and Olympic silver and gold medallist Elena Berezhnaya.
4. Former New York Islanders' first overall pick Bryan Berard and five-time Canadian ice dance champion Marie-France Dubreuil.
5. Former Calgary Flames' captain Todd Simpson and US pairs silver and bronze medallist Marcy Hinzman-Harris.
6.Brad May of the 2008 Anaheim Ducks' Stanley Cup team and eight-time Canadian national medallist Annabelle Langlois, 1990-91.
7.Montreal Canadiens' leading scorer Russ Courtnall and two-time ice dance bronze medallist Kim Navarro.
8. and finally, for the first time, a female hockey player in 2010 Olympic women's hockey gold medallist Tessa Bonhomme, who is paired with David Pelletier, 2002 Olympic pairs champion.
By the way, Maclean introduced the Bonhomme/Pelletier pairing as "the gender-benders." I looked very closely, but I could see no evidence of cross-dressing or androgyny. In other words, "gender-bender" may be a bit of an overstatement for what is still a fairly nuclear mixed pairing. That's probably for the best, though. One assumes that, if the inclusion of a female hockey player on the program calls for a backpat, Canada certainly isn't ready for actual transsexuality.
Anyway. Then we met our judges, a panel that consisted of Sandra Bezic, the aforementioned Roenick, and guest judge Darcy Tucker, who came dressed as a cross between a professor of anthropology and Crispin Glover.
What, no impossible-to-please French judge? Then this isn't figure skating.
Additionally, we met "social media tour guide" Maura Grierson, added to the lineup, one assumes, so that at least one of the hosts had hair,�and she overcompensated with some fairly conspicuous hair extensions. Sitting between two women in the audience, Grierson asked the one to her left, "Who are you here to see?", and the woman responded, "Kurt Browning." Funny, I thought Curtis Leschyshyn was the main draw.
On to the performances, of which there were four Sunday night, and there will be four more Monday. I'll try to provide video wherever possible, and since BotB has its own Youtube channel, this shouldn't be too hard.
Annabelle & Brad opened "Rock Week" by "dancing" to Nickelback hit "Saturday Night's All Right For Fighting." They began the performance with a choreographed punch-dance/air guitar power strum combo that was so egregiously stupid that even May gave the whole thing a bemused look. Then May, who has clearly never played a guitar in his life, reprised the moves later on.
The pair performed a series of impressive lifts, then May did three of the most hilarious bunny hops I've ever seen in my life, and then, because there is a God, they (and the music) stopped. What did the judges think? Sandra called the pair "equal parts physicality and charisma," and marveled that May was surprisingly quick-footed. Tucker suggested "Maybe a couple knee bends to loosen up the hips and the corners," and Jeremy Roenick shouted "Mayday!" and then hit on Annabelle. Total score: 16.2.
Violetta & Cale (who looks a bit like Nick Carter from the "Get Down" video), went next. Prior to their performance, they appeared in one of those pre-filmed spots that advertises a car, and I'm not sure why they were chosen. Clearly, Ford assumes the vehicle will be the star, because Violetta and Cale are the most boring couple on the program.
They danced to "ET" by Katy Perry, a song that is neither rock nor lyrically sound enough for me to forgive the genre-violation, especially with a line like "Infect me with your love." (Is this a desired portion of relationships nowadays? Times have changed.) The performance was exceedingly awkward, as Hulse moved about the ice with the grace of a yule log and Violetta gesticulated wildly to make up for his woodenness. Then Jeremy called it "fantastic", because he lies, Darcy claimed it had a Hollywood look, probably because both Violetta and Cale are ridiculously attractive, and Sandra said it was "part smiling and a lot of thinking," a nice way of saying that Cale spent the entire performance gazing at Violetta and holding her with a frozen stare of terrified wonder, like Lenny from "Of Mice and Men". Total score: 16.6.
Tanith & Boyd, were clearly unaware that the Canadian Contant portion had already been filled by Nickelback (and also, everything else), so they danced to Our Lady Peace's "We Are All Innocent." It's an awesome song, but a figure skating track it's not. Thankfully, the pair made up for it with the best outfits of the evening, with Boyd dressed in a basic grey dress shirt and jeans, and Tanith in a sparkly black dress. Hooray for sensibility!
Unfortunately, that was the only part of their performance that was any good. In my favourite bit of irony so far, Boyd, a famously swift skater, moved about the ice so slow that I wondered if my wife was rapid-tapping the pause button.
Ron Maclean introduced the judges by saying two of them "were never innocent." Huh? Anyway, Sandra suggested the pair work on their speed, presentation, and unity," which is a nice way of saying it looked like a Christmas Eve skate down at the rec centre. Darcy said the pair was "smooth, silky, and technically sound," proving he knows as little about adjectives as he does about figure skating, Jeremy said Tanith was "very easy on the eyes." Total score: 16.2.
Marie-France & Bryan "Thor" Berard�continued the theme of misunderstanding rock week, dancing to "Rocketeer" by Far East Movement. In my favourite forced storyline, the program tried to sell Berard's eye injury as some sort of superhero origin tale, with his "heightened sense of awareness for touching, feeling, and hearing." I don't buy that Bryan Berard is�Daredevil on skates, especially since he looks more like Thor.
Like the other three performances, it was stiff, slow, and uncomfortable. Mostly, Berard just drifted around the ice while Marie-France climbed about him like a squirrel on a telephone pole. What did the judges think? Jeremy Roenick said "it was nice of Hell's Angels let Bryan come do the show for us," then hit on Marie-France. Darcy Tucker said "you look great out there", and Sandra said this was Berard's best performance, which is evidence that he won't be around that long. Total score: 16.5.
Stray observations and things my wife said:
? At one point, Maclean introduced the show's trophy. Am I the only one that thinks it looks a little the Zephyr from Battlestar Galactica's Colonial Fleet?
? My wife: "Ron Maclean is a ref person, right? He refs?"
? Jeremy Roenick just copies Sandra's score and calls it a day. It's a good strategy. It�makes him look like he knows what he's doing, when he clearly doesn't.
? My wife: "Who decides the costumes? Because you know what would look better? A nice plaid button-up."
And that's it for today. Stay tuned Tuesday morning for recap and snark of Monday night's performances.
***
Harrison Mooney is also the co-editor of Canucks blog Pass it to Bulis.
Have Clips, Will Tailgate is a daily web clip show featuring the coolest guys in tailgating talking about the hottest clips in sports.
Today, Weston, Thad and Matt break down the Top 5 WWE Diva finishing moves. From Kelly Kelly's K2 Legdrop to Melina's Sunset Split, these are some grand grappling maneuvers you'll have to see to believe.
Thanks for watching. Be sure to come back daily to see the newest tailgate location.
I know you?re going to ask, so here?s the answer: Dwayne De Rosario?s three goals in nine minutes was not the most compact hat trick in MLS history. Harut Karapetyan did it in five minutes during the Los Angeles Galaxy?s 8-1 win against the Dallas Burn in June 1998. So now you know.
It?s the only time Harut Karapetyan will ever be mentioned in the same sentence with Dwayne De Rosario. Promise.
They're young, they're brash and they're just dumb enough to be thinking upsets.
Kids—you just can't teach them a good lesson in humility. They have to go out and learn it all by themselves. Sometimes, they teach us all a lesson in self-confidence in the process.
The newly-promoted Canaries take on Manchester United on Saturday. It would be prudent to start the David and Goliath comparisons now.
Norwich City is certainly as David as one could hope for. They have been promoted twice in as many years and find themselves among the big boys for the first time since 2005.
The Canaries have approached this EPL season as they have any other promotion. They play like they belong, and that passion has rewarded their effort to a tune of two wins in the last couple of weeks against Bolton and Sunderland.
The folks at Carrow Road are starting to believe. Meanwhile, at Old Trafford, they are slipping into complacency.
The silent killer of all teams big and pompous is complacency. When results come as easily as they do for United, you start to create challenges for yourself.
If that wasn't the case, the Red Devils may have picked up full points against Stoke City and FC Basel. The latter result, of course, could have been worse if not for the late heroics of Ashley Young.
Sir Alex Ferguson can hardly afford another lackluster performance at Old Trafford, and I don't expect it. United have had enough of soft defense and attacking doldrums.
Look for them to give the Canaries their best shot on Saturday. Splitting points in their last two fixtures is enough of a wake up call for the Manchester outfit.
Norwich City will come out with confidence and fire. However, that won't nearly be enough to get a result at Old Trafford.
(The Player is an active member of a National Hockey League team. Anonymous by choice, he will provide insights about life in hockey on occasion throughout the season.)
One number that has made the headlines in the hockey world recently is 286 ? as in the number of pounds Winnipeg Jets defenseman Dustin Byfuglienallegedly weighed near the start of training camp.
All of the uproar got me thinking about how there are NHL players, all across North America and more than you might think, stressing out about their body fat.
When camps open, one of the first things that every player will do is strip down to his shorts, step on a scale and then have his percentage body fat measured. For some guys ? OK, most guys ? this is a non-event. They have trained hard all summer, been disciplined with their diet and they are naturally lean.
For others ? it's more complicated.
They might be among the small fraction of players who show up to camp out of shape. More likely though, they simply have a tough time keeping their body fat down. It's not that they don't work hard, it's just genetics.
The problem for these guys is that a high body-fat score in camp can haunt them all season. Depending on what team you play for (and who the coach is) offenders can be sentenced to the "Fat Club" or something similar. I've seen this play out in a few different ways.
In one instance, those players whose body fat was higher than some arbitrary number ? say, 12 percent ? were made to ride the stationary bike for 45 minutes every non-gameday until they got under the cutoff.
Of course, with nothing being off limits inside the dressing room, the guilty parties are also ridiculed mercilessly by their teammates.
"Fat Club" members are often heckled at team meals every time they reach for a dinner roll or sprinkle some cheese on their pasta. At these moments a loud groan will go up from the group and calls of "stay light!" can be heard from the peanut gallery.
Another popular one is the "boom-babba-boom-babba" chant (remember Lard-Ass from the pie-eating scene in "Stand By Me"?) that you can do when one of these guys walks across the room.
Probably the most common way to needle a "Fat Club" member is to add zeroes to his number on the team weight chart every day.
Most of this humor falls somewhere in the seventh to eighth-grade range on the wit and originality scale. Regardless, hockey players don't seem to get tired of it and it always gets a laugh.
On a team I played for, we would have surprise weigh-ins throughout the season. If a player was found to have gained more than five pounds since the opening day of camp he was subjected to a similar bike routine until the next weigh-in.
This led to at least one ridiculous scenario in which one of my teammates was being tipped off by a member of our training staff when there was going to be a weigh-in. The player would then not eat or drink anything until after he stepped on the scale. The problem was, whatever he could find to stuff himself with after the weigh-in couldn't get into his system in time for practice. So on those days he could be seen skating around completely light headed, on the verge of passing out, back flat to the ice.
Just the other day one of my teammates told me he hadn't eaten any carbs for about a week in preparation for the training camp physical. Not exactly the ideal way to prepare physically for one of the most intense three-week stretches of the season.
Situations like these are so obviously counter-productive they beg the question: What's the point?
The traditional theory is that the less body fat you have, the less extra weight you have to carry up and down the ice. Lean body mass will help you be faster, more efficient and have greater endurance, while having too much fat will have the opposite effect.
Theoretically this makes sense. The question then is how much fat is too much? How little is too little?
Presumably there is an optimal range, but no one has ever given me a convincing explanation of what that range is. I feel pretty strongly, though, that it differs from player to player. Remember, we play a sport that is broken up into approximately 45-second bursts of high intensity. We're not soccer players running around constantly for 90 minutes so we are able to carry more weight (muscle AND fat.)
The theory also doesn't take into account that the NHL is full of exceptions to these "rules." The fact is there are so many athletic freaks in the NHL ? guys who look heavy but are lightning fast, guys who are skin and bones but impossible to knock off the puck.
There are some guys, like the Los Angeles Kings' Drew Doughty, who look like they still haven't lost their baby fat but can still play half the game without getting tired.
There is an urban legend that former St. Louis Blues winger Keith Tkachuk tipped the scales at over 300 pounds at some point during the NHL lockout. Granted, he was out of season, but one would think that someone with that body-type would have a tough time playing at a high level. It didn't stop him from playing over 1,200 games and scoring more than 500 goals ? and if you ever ran into him on the ice you knew that his size was an asset.
It's pretty tough to judge those types of physical gifts quantitatively.
I'll concede that I've never been in the position of a coach or a GM trying to pick a team, but my gut (no pun intended) tells me that a player's body fat rarely factors into whether or not he makes the opening-night roster.
The truth of the matter goes something like this: As with a lot of things in life, perception is a large part of reality.
So, if people within the organization perceive you as hard-working, responsible and professional, they are not going to worry too much about your test results. Sure you may have to sweat it out in the "Fat Club," but no one's really going to hold it against you. It's not going to hurt your career.
However, if you have a reputation for being lazy and out of shape, coming into camp at 15 percent body fat might be another big strike against you.
I think it's also true that these sorts of training camp tests carry more weight for younger players than they do for veterans. Again, it comes down to perception ? if you've lasted six or eight years in the league, management, coaches and training staff tend to trust that you know how to take care of yourself.
Having said all that, it's still professional sports. Results and performance trump everything else. I read somewhere that Byfuglien played at 245 pounds last year. How does anyone really know that outside of the dressing room? I know guys whose height and weight listed in the program are still what Central Scouting measured them at when they were drafted at 18 years old.
So whether or not "Big Buff's" weight remains a topic for discussion will depend almost entirely on how he plays. I didn't hear too many people complaining about it last year when he was playing 23 minutes a night at an All-Star level for the Thrashers.
Besides, maybe he's just bulking up for a long winter in the 'Peg.
? ? ?
(Ed. Note: As was stated at the top, we've granted this player's request to remain anonymous in exchange for what we believe will be candor about life in the NHL. As such, this won't be a column with non-sourced character assassination. It's not a gossip sheet. We see it as a text-based version of "24/7," bringing all of us a little closer to the game and behind closed doors. The Player will blog occasionally throughout the season. Oh, and the answer is no: We're not going to confirm or deny your guesses. What's the fun in that? Thanks for reading and supporting Puck Daddy.)
A BEHIND THE SCENES ORAL HISTORY OF SOCCER IN KANSAS CITY On November 18, 2010, a Major League Soccer team changed its name. One minute they were the Kansas City Wizards. The next, they were Sporting KC. Of course it?s never that simple. This is that story. Greg Cotton Chief Operating Officer, Sporting Kansas City I hate the word ‘brand’ [...]
Say what you will about the positives Juergen Klinsmann has brought to the USMNT, there are still some things he can't change, like the US player pool...or can he? Although he may not be able to magically produce eleven world class American players, he is in a unique position to cure one of the US's most painful ailments: left back.
Enter Fabian Johnson, the 23 year old German-American left back at Bundesliga club Hoffenheim. Only a couple short years ago, Johnson was playing for the German U-21 team at the UEFA Championship, having just completed another solid season at 1860 Munich, starting 33 matches, scoring two goals and notching seven assists in the process. He then made the big jump to then Bundesliga champions Wolfsburg where his promising career hit a sizable speed bump.
In his first season at Wolfsburg, he played in ten matches, starting only six. The following season, he played in just seven matches, with Wolfsburg's lack of European competition putting the squeeze on his playing time.
At the beginning of this summer, he transferred from Wolfsburg to Hoffenheim for ?600k, where general manager Ernst Tanner expects big things, calling Fabian a "very talented and very versatile full-back." And Johnson is already fulfilling those expectations.
On July 31, Johnson came on as a late sub in a cup match against Germania Windeck and scored the match winner in extra time on a calm finish after an excellent run through the Windeck defense. Last week he started and played 89 minutes in Hoffenheim's first Bundesliga match against Hannover and he looks to feature prominently for the foreseeable future.
At a time when Juergen Klinsmann is making many changes to the USMNT, bringing Fabian Johnson into the fold could prove to be one of the best he can make. His status as a German soccer icon might help accelerate the process of Johnson opting for the United States by way of his one-time international allegiance switch rather than waiting for a Germany call-up. If there's one position on the US national team a guy like Johnson could walk into and get a long look at, it'd be left back without a doubt.
Despite Edgar Castillo showing signs of potential down the left flank, he still doesn't appear to be the permanent solution. His loans in the past few years have been inconsistent at best, and only recently has he logged major minutes at Club America. Jonathan Bornstein plays for Tigres at the U-20 level, and Heath Pearce plays in MLS, not the ideal level for a national team starter. Johnson is attack-oriented, just as Klinsmann likes, and his experience at the highest levels in Germany and positive situation at Hoffenheim make him an ideal candidate for the USMNT. Johnson is also just 23 years old, putting him in position to be a long term solution at left back, possibly through the 2018 World Cup.
The German national team has a plethora of young defenders coming through the ranks, so making the squad will be no easy task for Johnson. Johnson could very well make the German squad if he realizes his potential, but it would be a lengthy and trying process whereas the US could use him immediately. Klinsmann is in a unique position to simultaneously give Johnson international soccer and cure the USMNT's perennial illness at left back. If Klinsmann is acting now, Johnson could be in a US uniform for the Belgium friendly in September.
With Klinsmann at the helm of US Soccer, the US is one step closer to solidifying its back four, arguably the most uncertain part of the team. Johnson didn't exactly fall from the sky, but Klinsmann would be wise to reach out to him while he still can before he realizes that potential and opts for Germany on a permanent basis.
Full National Team Prognosis:
Position: Johnson is more of a left back than a left midfielder, and for the US it's not hard to figure out which position he would play.
Strengths: Like his fellow countryman Tim Chandler, Johnson has good size and powerful pace up and down the flank.
Weaknesses: Consistency. Johnson has begun to bounce back from his troubling years at Wolfsburg, but he needs to make quality shifts a habit.
USMNT Potential: It's not beyond Johnson to become the final solution at left back, making him nearly invaluable to the US. If Juergen hasn't already placed a call somewhere, it's mildly disappointing.
Estimated Time Until First Senior Cap: Once his paperwork clears, 1-3 months.
Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it.
Brendan Shanahan, as the new wielder of justice for the National Hockey League, came out flying for his first shift.
Five games to Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond. TEN games to Jody Shelley. And while the majority of those games were in the preseason, it sent a very clear and obvious message: Brendan Shanahan isn't here to screw around.
Media and fans alike are sighing with appropriate happiness over the new enforcement official of the NHL, he of the shiny new badge and requisite air of seriousness. Finally, here is a guy who Gets It.
The league wants to take dangerous plays like this seriously? Great. Shanahan's suspending guys who have a history of disciplinary problems longer than those who do not? Even better. It wasn't the first time in the principal's office for either player.
But there are a few questions people should be asking here.
The first is whether those two hefty suspensions already handed out ? which would have been sixth and tied for second in the league, length-wise, last season ? would have been quite so weighty if they had not included wholly meaningless preseason games or been to guys who are essentially goons?
(Coming Up: Dean Lombardi turns to the Red Sox for Doughty help; Devils' ownership mess; Panthers spelling fail; Saad days for Chicago; the World Cup of Hockey's return; the Avs are already banged-up; Loui Eriksson, sans Richards; Derek Stepan's snipe; Kyle Turris is delusional; Blues ownership bid weirdness; San Jose's bonds issue; a man with too many Caps tats; Malkin in Beast Mode; �and does Nathan Horton know his teammates are texted apologies for hits?)
Let's be honest: Shelley and Letourneau-Leblond, who averaged 6:11 and 3:28 in ice time last year, respectively, aren't going to be especially missed by their teams, and certainly not before the season even starts. (The same will go for Staubitz, with his 6:31 TOI per game last year.)
While these five- and 10-game penalties sound really nice, people are not calling them what they were: one- and five-game suspensions. No one cares about guys missing preseason games. And yeah, five games is still a decent amount, but the long arm of the law may not have gone quite far enough in sending as firm a message as people are giving him credit for.
Plus, how are preseason games weighted versus those in the regular-season? Brad Boyes got a pretty good piece of Joe Colborne's noodle on Friday night and got two preseason games for it. Would it have been more or less or the same if this had happened in February instead of September? What about the playoffs?
Another issue is that having Shanahan stand in front of a camera and say, "Here's why this happened," is all well and good, but just reading from the rule book and sticking to the same language doesn't account for what the league often reminds us are nuanced, unique situations.
While we know that players' previous suspensions are now being taken into account, we also don't know what they count for. For example, would Wisniewski's two-gamer for the gesture at Sean Avery be considered the same type of discipline problem as Shelley's two-gamer for running Adam McQuaid? Do a pair of two-game suspensions count the same as one four-gamer? These are things we don't know, and need clarity on.
There should also be serious questions about what happens for Wisniewski or Boyes, well-paid players that are expected to contribute to their clubs. One thing they're not is off-brand cement-head intimidators like the other three guys. Wisniewski scored 10 goals and is expected to quarterback the Columbus power play.
Word of the Wisniewski hit was that it wasn't particularly pretty because it may or may not have been in retaliation for a clean hit on Fedor Tyutin (there's also talk of embellishment on Cal Clutterbuck's part). Of course, the general public is still not privy to video, but we do know that the hearing will be by phone, indicating that the suspension will likely be fewer than five games.
That's a little worrying given that we've seen the league drop the gavel hard on goons and lets star players skate with slaps on the wrist for similar offenses.
I understand we're still in the nascent stages of the new disciplinary system here, but if the guy people are now calling "Sheriff Shanahan" wants to carry around the big iron and clean up the town, he has to be ready to draw on anyone and act with the necessary amount of force. And then he has to be able to better articulate why.
The league needs a Seth Bullock. The Barney Fife days have to be over.
What We Learned
Anaheim Ducks: The Ducks dressed their big top line of Corey Perry,Ryan Getzlaf and Bobby Ryan against the Sharks on Friday and they still got buried 5-1. Randy Carlyle: not happy. Anaheim has lost its first two exhibition games 13-5 on aggregate.
Minnesota Wild: Eric Nystrom got run into by Colton Gillies, his own teammate, in the neutral zone Saturday and in doing so gave up an odd-man rush that went for naught. So Nystrom got the puck, went down to the other end of the ice and scored on a rocket shot. If I'm Nystrom I start paying teammates to run me every shift and see if I can match 92 in a season.
New Jersey Devils: Hey, remember that whole "No, the Devils aren't in bad financial shape," stuff a little while back? Sure you do. So why is a guy that owns 47 percent of the team getting rid of his stake?
New York Rangers: Beautiful snipe by Derek Stepan. That kid can play.
Ottawa Senators: The Sens blew a three-goal lead and lost to Montreal in a shootout. Not quite midseason form yet. If this were January they'd have coughed it up in regulation.
Phoenix Coyotes: Kyle Turris is, yes, still holding out because he still wants between $3 million and $4 million a year. You didn't read one word of that incorrectly. Said GM Don Maloney: "His position is just so illogical; from our standpoint, it makes absolutely no sense." Burn.
Pittsburgh Penguins: Evgeni Malkin looks terrifying so far in this preseason, two goals in as many games, and three assists. He's making it look very, very easy.
San Jose Sharks: The bail bonds company that has people in its shirts sit behind the Sharks' bench has been banned from doing so this upcoming season, and now the company is considering a lawsuit based on the ? get this ? constitutionality of the ban. Where's Bill Alfonso when you need him?
St. Louis Blues: Hey, so that guy that tried to buy the Blues for $167 million the other day, what's his deal? Turns out most people seem to have little if any idea. It all seems a little shady.
Vancouver Canucks: The Canucks are so injury-phobic that they're keeping their veterans out of as many preseason games as possible. But now those vets are kinda starting to feel like they should be getting in at least a few, y'know? Through Sunday's game, the Sedins haven't made a preseason appearance.
Winnipeg Jets: Claude Noel is trying to teach the Jets how to have fun. That means puck possession. For a team on its third coach in as many years, gotta think they won't really have a huge handle on it in the early going.
Gold Star Award
This report says they might bring back the World Cup of Hockey, which is really awesome. That means more hockey in the summers sometimes. Who wouldn't love that?
C Logan Couture D William Wrenn 2012 2nd round pick (from Minnesota)
To San Jose:
RW Jarome Iginla
Signoff
Barclay, Barry, Bert. ? Bort?
Ryan Lambert publishes hockey awesomeness rather infrequently over at The Two-Line Pass. Check it out, why don't you? Or you can email him here and follow him on Twitter if you so desire.
An American club went to Mexico and won a game last night. We should be doing back flips, right? Throwing ragers, cracking the seal on our best bottles of special edition liqueur, inviting the breakers of "The Streak" (FC Dallas, in case you hadn't heard) to our homes to eat our food and sleep with our wives. Finally, finally, FINALLY, the nightmare is over. MLS CAN win in Mexico, and now we have the proof. Everyone breathe.
Of course, because of the circumstances, what should be a day of rampant and debaucherous celebration is instead a ho hum Thursday with a couple of half-hearted attempts to fire up the fan base. It's really not much of a story, even though FCD's win was the first of its kind in MLS history. Hyndman and company slayed the dragon. Marvin Chavez is an American soccer hero.
Yawn?
Perhaps FC Dallas isn't sexy enough to get the blood of American soccer fans pumping. I suppose the reserve side UNAM Pumas sent out against FCD takes the sting out of a one-goal win. Maybe it was the late Wednesday night start, or the fact that the game wasn't on live TV anywhere. Seriously, why wasn't that game on live TV anywhere. If I'm going to be up until midnight on a school night watching soccer, I shouldn't have to go searching for skeevy streams to do it.
Let me propose another possibility for why the excitement over FCD's accomplishment is at levels more appropriate for a win over a USL side in the Open Cup: maybe we're not feeling as inferior as we used to. There's reason to be pretty high on MLS at the moment, and while the o-fer in Mexico hung over the league's head like a cartoon rain cloud, it's not as directly connected to American soccer's relative quality as it once was. If Fabian Espindola didn't turn into a pumpkin at exactly the wrong time earlier this year, RSL would have beaten Monterrey. They nearly did anyway. So we're not as anxious about that Mexico thing anymore.
Probably not though. That's a windy road I've laid out from Point A to Point B. Really, MLS fans that carried the Mexicurse burden are just too relieved, regardless of the how's or why's, to have much of a reaction at all. It's been an ordeal.
It's going to be another year of blockbusters and huge flops in the NHL. Which teams blew out their budgets for big name stars and gigantic special effects to score Michael Bay-levels of box office gold? Which teams are bloated action retreads and terrible sequels? Find out in Puck Daddy's 2011-12 NHL Season Previews, running throughout the month.
Two plays in the span of a little over a month changed the course of the Pittsburgh Penguins' 2010-11 season. Heading into the Winter Classic against the Washington Capitals on New Year's Day, the Penguins were flying. Between Sidney Crosby's 25-game point streak and the team's 12-game winning streak, the Penguins were positioning themselves as prime Stanley Cup favorites.
Then Crosby took two hits -- one in the Winter Classic and another four days later against the Tampa Bay Lightning -- and didn't play another minute of the season due to lingering effects from a concussion. On Feb. 4, Evgeni Malkin landed awkwardly into the boards after colliding with Buffalo Sabres defenseman Tyler Myers and tore both the ACL and MCL in his right knee and was done for the year.
What was setting up to be a Cup-caliber season was gone just like that.
But despite the absence of their two stars (and others with miscellaneous injuries), the Penguins' roster didn't quit. Players like goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury,Jordan Staal (returning from his own injury) and Tyler Kennedy stepped up their games as they went 15-10-4 after the Malkin injury, losing out on the Atlantic Division title to the Philadelphia Flyers due to a tiebreaker. The 106 points (49-25-8) were the second-most in franchise history.
The manner in which the team battled through injuries helped earn head coach Dan Bylsma the Jack Adams Award as NHL Coach of the Year.
Heading into 2011-12, Malkin is healthy, but questions remain as to when Crosby will return and if he'll be the same player that was on a record-setting pace last season. If No. 87 returns like his old self, Pittsburgh will find themselves as overwhelming favorites in the Eastern Conference.
With players returning from injury and prospects that have been waiting in the wings in Wilkes-Barre, GM Ray Shero didn't make many changes to the roster from last season. Allowing tough guy Eric Godard to walk opened the door for former Edmonton Oiler Steve MacIntyre (seven fights, 93 PIMs) to become the team's new bodyguard.
After spending the past five and a half seasons with the Nashville Predators, Steve Sullivan signed 1-year, $1.5 million deal. Sullivan, 37, has been hampered by injuries throughout his career, but if healthy, can be an asset on the wing and chip in on the power play. Shero knows Sullivan from his days as assistant GM with the Predators and fits the mold of the type of character guy he likes bringing into the Penguins' room.
Latching on with two-way deals were Jason Williams (1-year, $600,00) and Richard Park (1-year, $550,000). When healthy, Williams can be a provide depth up front, while Park, who spent last season in Switzerland after four years with the New York Islanders, is a solid addition to the penalty kill. The Penguins would know as Park scored a 3-on-5 goal against them in 2007.
After rejecting a 3-year offer from Shero, forward Max Talbot took the longer (five years), richer contract ($9 million) to join the cross-state rival Philadelphia Flyers just hours after former Penguins star Jaromir Jagr did the same, also for more money than what Pittsburgh was offering.
Also taking their talents to a division rival was Mike Rupp, who signed for 3-years, $4.5 million with the New York Rangers. With Rupp leaving, Shero moved to bring back Arron Asham for one more season at $775,000.
At forward ... It's still unsure exactly when the two-headed monster of Crosby and Malkin will be back in the lineup together, but outside of that pair returning, seven players hit double digits in goals last season.
As the Penguins went through 24 forwards last season, this year, they'll have a full campaign from winger James Neal, who was acquired from the Dallas Stars in February for defenseman Alex Goligoski. Neal struggled to contribute scoring just once in 20 regular season games and once in seven playoff games with the Penguins. He worked out again with Gary Roberts over the summer, which means he should be primed for a 40-goal year.
Chris Kunitz (23 goals, 48 points) and Tyler Kennedy (21 goals, 45 points) each had their best seasons as Penguins, while Pascal Dupuis, the forgotten man in the Marian Hossa deal in 2008, continued to provide speed up front and timely scoring (17 goals, 3 GWG).
Jordan Staal only played two games with Crosby and Malkin in the lineup before injuries forced the 23-year old Thunder Bay, Ont. native to the top line. Staal thrived in his new role last season and he'll find himself likely in the same situation at times switching from focusing on offense to being the shutdown No. 3 center that's made him a valuable asset to the Penguins.
As the NHL ushers in a new disciplinary system, all eyes will on Matt Cooke. He's talked about being reformed since his season-ending suspension, and with new discipline czar Brendan Shanahan in charge, Cooke is on a very fine line. If he can stay out of trouble, Cooke is a vital cog, along with Craig Adams, in the Penguins' No. 1 ranked penalty kill. Pittsburgh was second in the NHL last season with 13 shorthanded goals.
Attempting to make longer stays of their time in the NHL, youngsters Dustin Jeffrey and Eric Tangradi contributed in parts of last season, but couldn't stick. Jeffrey, who is recovering from a torn ACL, showed signs of potential after scoring seven goals and 12 points in 25 games last season. Tangradi was a highly-touted prospect acquired in the Chris Kunitz deal from Anaheim in 2009, but has only played 16 games in a Penguins uniform. He missed 24 games last season after suffering a concussion against the New York Islanders and will have to have an impressive camp to make the club.
On defense ... Last summer, GM Ray Shero wanted to improve defensively and on the same day brought in Paul Martin and Zbynek Michaelk. The duo formed the Penguins' top pairing and led the team in blocked shots and shorthanded TOI. Pittsburgh jumped from 20th in the NHL in 2009-10 with 2.87 goals per game to 6th last season with 2.78 GPG. Same goes for the penalty kill that was No. 1 in the league last season with an 86.1-percent success rate.
For the first half of last season, Kris Letang was playing himself into the Norris Trophy discussion, but then cooled down while finishing with career bests in assists (42), points (50) and plus/minus (plus-15). It was a step forward year after his former partner, Sergei Gonchar, signed with the Ottawa Senators. Still just 24, Letang is coming into his own. Partnered with the defensive-minded Brooks Orpik allows Letang to take chances
In goal ... Marc-Andre Fleury dusted off a shaky start and finished his best NHL season with 36 wins, and career highs in goals-against average (2.32) and save-percentage (.918), putting him in the Hart Trophy discussion at one point. It'll be more of the same for Fleury this year with a fully returning top-ranked defense in front of him.
When he's not fighting other goalies or forwards, Brent Johnson is a very capable backup for Fleury, allowing him to take 20 games off.
"Rush Hour". An action adventure led by two dudes from different worlds. One's from the East. One's from the West. One is soft-spoken, one brings the charisma. Together, they make everyone involved filthy stinking rich.
Dan Bylsma's cool demeanor behind the bench and in the Penguins' locker room was on display during HBO's�24/7 last season and his players have responded to his methods since coming on board late in the 2009 season.
Shero likes to put the Penguins right near the salary cap, but with just enough room to make one of his patented trades around trade deadline time. Some were hits (Bill Guerin, Marian Hossa), some were duds (Alexei Kovalev, Alexei Ponikarovsky), but that hasn't frightened him off from making one last tinker with the lineup heading into the playoffs. With about $1.5 million under the cap, Shero has room yet again to make a late-season move.
There aren't many open spots up for grabs in the Penguins' lineup, but one who could make a difference later on in the season is defenseman Simon Despres. He'll start with Wilkes-Barre of the AHL, but after winning the Memorial Cup and the QMJHL's best defenseman award last year with Saint John, he's ready to contribute at the NHL level. Some professional seasoning in the AHL will do him good first, however.
"Riddle me this: why didn't Leahy pick the Penguin? That would have made a whole lot more sense."
It all went right for Tyler Kennedy last season. When Crosby and Malkin went down, the door opened for Kennedy to grab more ice time and do something with it. In a contract year, he did just that netting career highs in goals (21), points (45) and power play goals (7). His even-strength TOI jumped by almost two minutes from the 2010-11 season and his power play time went from an average of 17 seconds a game two seasons ago to 1:52/game last year. Kennedy signed a 2-year, $4 million deal over the summer, but with Malkin back and Crosby returning at some point, how will he follow up a career year?
Dec. 22 was a big night for Ben Lovejoy. He took part in his first NHL scrap with Shawn Matthias of the Florida Panthers, registered his first NHL goal during a 5-2 victory and also took a puck to the face. That night, the team flew to Washington and the pressure from the flight caused Lovejoy's face to swell, making him look like Chunk from "The Goonies" as documented by 24/7.
Pittsburgh is a contender even without Sidney Crosby in the lineup, but his arrival back in the locker room, as an unchanged Sidney Crosby, moves the Penguins from contenders to favorites.
The Penguins will be an Atlantic Division favorite and depending on if Crosby returns and at what level, they should be heavy favorites coming out of the Eastern Conference. The defense is again strong and the return of Malkin and a full year of Neal will help boost the offense. Fleury put up a career year as he continues his maturation into an elite netminder. The Penguins can't be discounted, even without Crosby.
Before we get into NHL senior executive vice president of hockey operations Colin Campbell's explanation for Wayne Simmonds skating on the alleged homophobic slur on Monday night, take a look at the controversial clip one more time:
Here's Campbell on the NHL's investigation of the incident, in which New York Rangers winger Sean Avery claims Simmonds used a gay epithet:
"All Players, Coaches and Officials in the National Hockey League deserve the respect of their peers, and have the absolute right to function in a work environment that is free from racially or sexually-based innuendo or derision. This is the National Hockey League's policy and it will remain so going forward."
"It also is important to emphasize that the National Hockey League holds, and will continue to hold, our Players to higher standards with respect to their conduct both on and off the ice. While we recognize that the emotion involved in certain on-ice confrontations may lead to the use of highly charged and sometimes offensive language and commentary, certain lines cannot be crossed. Specifically, we have for many years emphasized to our Clubs and Players that commentary directed at the race or ethnicity of other participants in the game (or even non-participants), or that is otherwise socially or morally inappropriate or potentially hurtful -- including as it may relate to sexual orientation -- is absolutely unacceptable and will not be tolerated."
Well, save for this one time coming up now.
From the NHL:
"With that as background, we have looked into the allegations relating to the possible use of a homophobic slur by a Flyers player in the Rangers/Flyers preseason game last night in Philadelphia. Since there are conflicting accounts of what transpired on the ice, we have been unable to substantiate with the necessary degree of certainty what was said and by whom. Specifically, Flyers Player Wayne Simmonds has expressly denied using the homophobic slur he is alleged to have said."
Yes, who can forget Simmonds' emphatic denial of this allegation after the game, when he told reporters ? oh, wait, he only talked about Sean Avery crossing the line with his rhetoric and said, "I don't recall every single thing I said to him," not denying anything? OK then.
"Additionally, none of the on-ice officials close to the altercation in question heard any inappropriate slurs uttered by either of the primary antagonists. In light of this, we are unable at this time to take any disciplinary action with respect to last night's events. To the extent we become aware of additional information conclusively establishing that an inappropriate slur was invoked, we are reserving the option to revisit the matter."
Translation: If this clip exists, what the hell else is out there we haven't seen yet?
Here's where Simmonds has been truthful: Avery provoked the whole thing. He probably said things to draw out that reaction.
But Simmonds got caught saying something he shouldn't have said with the cameras on, and whoever is advising him told him to deny, deny, deny because there's no audio, because this is the kind of thing that cost Kobe Bryant $100,000 and because his accuser was Sean Avery.
And with that, we turn the mic over to a Puck Daddy reader named David who has written an open letter to a gay NHL player:
Hi, my name is David, and I'm a gay hockey fan. Every day during the season I'm poring over highlights and stats, and each day in the offseason I hunt the internet for every shred of information on my team. While I don't know the names of each of the 600+ players that will be on a starting roster, I do know one thing: at least one of you is gay. I need to ask you a favour, and it's a bit of a big one.
Please, please, please come out.
We're an invisible minority. People assume that since they can't tell who we are on sight, we don't exist. So far, there are no gay people in North American pro sports, we're just not there. But you can change that. You can instantly become a role model to thousands of young men who are afraid of continuing in sports that they love for fear of being outed and cast out. You can be a beacon, a trailblazer. You can make history.
You may say "I'd rather be known for my skill", but you already are. You're in the best league in the best sport in the world, and no-one will be able to take away the fact that you've made it there on your own merits.
You may say "It'll be a distraction", but people have said that about the religions of Nazem Kadri and James Reimer. People said that about the race of Willie O'Ree and Grant Fuhr. People said that about the language of the Russians, and the Swedes, and the Czechs.
It won't be easy, but it will be worth it. Your first game after you come out, someone will call you a faggot or a nancy. There are a million terms, and you've probably heard them all. But this time it will be specific and targeted.
Your response? Beat the hell out of him. Drop the gloves, right away. Show him that just because you're gay, it doesn't mean you're soft. Quite the opposite in fact. Show him and show everyone that you won't back down. Your teammates will support you. Who wants to be the guy who gives up on a teammate who's just done something courageous?
Come out. The biggest reward comes from taking the biggest risks. I don't know who you are yet, but I hope that will change.
And we're sure when he does, the NHL will have his back ... provided there's ample audio evidence, multiple witnesses and Sean Avery isn't involved.
They're young, they're brash and they're just dumb enough to be thinking upsets. 
They might be among the small fraction of players who show up to camp out of shape. More likely though, they simply have a tough time keeping their body fat down. It's not that they don't work hard, it's just genetics.
The theory also doesn't take into account that the NHL is full of exceptions to these "rules." The fact is there are so many athletic freaks in the NHL ? guys who look heavy but are lightning fast, guys who are skin and bones but impossible to knock off the puck.
