First off, if you haven’t already done so, go check out Steve Price’s column “Ice This!”. It’s terrific and you will certainly enjoy it!
In defense of Sean Avery?
As intimated last week, being a fan of Sean Avery can be a tough position to be in when one considers his inclination to yap about whatever nonsense he feels needs to be addressed. One of Avery’s incidents involved Phoenix Coyote player Dennis Gauthier and his pre-season hit on Jeremy Roenick which resulted in Roenick suffering a concussion.
At the time, Avery said it was a needless hit and went on to take a jab at french canadians who “wore visors and couldn’t back anything up”. Well, it looks like Avery isn’t the only one who see’s Gauthier as some punk with a visor on looking to stir things up. On Tuesday, November 22nd, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim defeated the Coyotes 2-1 in Phoenix but the real story was a hit involving Gauthier and Ducks forward Joffrey Lupul which later led to Ducks player Todd Fedoruk nailing Petr Nedved in retaliation for Gauthier’s hit on Lupul.
“It was something that had to be addressed,” Fedoruk said. “I’m not naming names but you have a guy out there with a visor on running around like he’s King Kong. He’s not going to back it up. If the refs aren’t going to call it, then it falls on the players to take it on. There were so many high hits and late hits.”
Fedoruk received a match penalty for his hit on Nedved while Lupul didn’t return to the game. That being said, it’s been a long time theory that if the instigator rule was taken out, that things like retalition wouldn’t happen. Simply because the NHL (but mostly it’s players) are fanatical about having players “police themselves”.
That type of philosophy only leads to more Sean Avery gems after he hit Paul Kariya during the Kings/Preds game last week (A Nasvhille victory which I predicted correctly, no less!) and Darcy Hordichuk decided to jump Avery after his hit:
“Paul Kariya is the biggest diver in the league,” Avery said referring to Kariya being awarded a penalty shot after replays showed he clearly didn’t have a breakaway or even had control of the puck. “Hordichuk is the worst player in the NHL. He’s is an embarrassment to the league. He can’t even skate. He can’t shoot. He can’t pass. I mean just look at the stats. It’s pretty clear.”
At last Saturday’s King/Blackhawks game, the Kings’ Ryan Flinn was taken to the hospital after his head struck the ice at the end of a brawl with Chicago defenseman Jim Vandermeer. When the two dropped their gloves to go at it the crowd went NUTS. Nearly everyone was on their feet rooting for these two guys to pound on each other (well, maybe for Flinn to get a shot in on Vandermeer since the game was in Los Angeles) and were cheering during the entire fight. Suddenly, you notice Vandermeer stops after hip tossing Flinn over to the ice and Hawks players are waving to the Kings bench to send the trainer out there and the crowd halts and sinks into a quick hush. Suddenly everyone is concerned for Flinn after having cheered for a FIGHT seconds prior as if fighting wasn’t going to cause Flinn any physical harm at all and was just silly fun. Granted, having someone get punched a couple of times and having someone crack their head open on the ice are two different types of violence but why are either of them necessary?
This just in….sorta
The Boston B’s have traded captain Joe Thornton to the San Jose Sharks for defenseman Brad Stuart and forwards Wayne Primeau and Marco Sturm.
Who cares, is what I say.
This is exactly what the Federov deal was for the Ducks and Blue Jackets, two underachieveing teams, one team trading a big name contract over to another team who needed to do something to “appease” it’s fans who were ready to walk out on their miserable season.
Thornton’s postseason record speaks for itself. Don’t bother looking it up, there are a hell of a lot of zeros. The season is still young but both these teams have a lot of catching up to do.
Jackets lose Brule….again
As if the Blue Jackets weren’t bad enough, they haven’t had Rick Nash at all this season, they’ve now lost Adam Foote to injury and once again, Gilbert Brule is on the injured reserve with a broken right leg. Brule and Nash were supposed to be a leathal combination for the Jackets but neither of them have seen any extended ice time this season, much less ice time together. In 7 games this season, Brule has cashed in for 2-2=4.
Good luck, Sergei.
Here are a couple of stand out games in an otherwise lackluster NHL schedule for this weekend.
Friday, 12-2-05
Kings @ Ottawa: This should be a fun game. The Senators are the best team in the league and the Kings have one of the best first lines in hockey and that’s about all they’ve got going for them. With that being said, the Kings pull out the upset here.
Saturday, 12-3-05
Flyers @ Nashville: Two top teams in their respective conferences and two very good skating teams. If it comes down to goaltending, the Preds will have the advantage but this will most likely be a high scoring game and the Predators will beat the Flyers. The best hockey overall is being played in the Western Conference.
2006 Olympics
They’re only a couple of months away and it’s time to dip into the old memory bank for some national team profiles. Things have changed A LOT since the 2002 Games which saw Canada reclaim it’s thrown as the best in the world when it comes to hockey. Many familiar faces on the U.S. and Canadian teams may not be back. Can Sweden live up to what they once could? Can Pavel Bure lead Russia back to prominence?
We’ll all find out soon enough, so keep a close eye on Inside Pulse as the hockey season progreses and we approach the Olympic Games in Turin.
