Headshots, Playoffs, etc.

It should be taken as no surprise that ESPN, the network that all but proclaimed during the lockout that they'd just rather see the NHL wither and die, then bother to get good at covering it, gave very poor coverage to the whole headshot debacle. One day after the GMs' rule change, there read, for a few hours, a small headline, to the effect of, "NHL to ban headshots". No, that's not what happened. Of course, as of now, there is no change in effect, as the actual rule change proposed cannot go into effect until it passes the NHLPA and the Board of Governors. The proposed rule concerning headshots, chunked in with some other interesting tweaks, reads: A lateral, back pressure or blind-side hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and/or is the principal point of contact is not permitted. A violation of the above will result in a minor or major penalty and shall be reviewed for possible supplemental discipline.

I'm sorry, but that's just weak. I would usually be the last person to take this side of this debate. Generally, I'm all for as much physicality in play as possible. I love a brutal open-ice hit just as much as the next guy; I thought the Ovechkin hit on Jagr in Vancouver was tremendous. Whenever I hear complaints about fighting, I do my best to shut them down, as I believe it to be an integral tradition that should never leave the game. But in this scenario, it seems absurd that the GMs would decide to be nitpicky about what kind of headshot is OK. You shouldn't hit a player in the head, period. I don't care if the hit isn't blindside. If you target a player's head, under any circumstances, and hit it, that cannot be acceptable; there's just no good reason for any headshot. The notable exception, of course, would always be the incidental headshots: a player on an offensive rush with his head down who gets lit up, or an unintended point of contact in a hit delivered by the Charas, Regehrs, Andy Suttons and Viktor Hedmans of the world, but I don't care if the hittee to my hitting is staring at me in the face, and I shake his hand while politely informing him that I intend to bash his skull, unblinded, off of back pressure and un-laterally. If I deliver a shot to him that is a clear shot to the head, with no other intent, it needs to be a penalty. Period.

And Sean Thornton had better beat the un-suspended Matt Cooke into oblivion next week when the Pens come to Boston.

Seperately, the season seems to be taking some form at this point; we no longer have the wild Eastern Conference cluster, but there are some teams yet fighting on both sides, though it may be a tale of two races. Out East, the battle for the bottom 3 spots appears to be little more than a battle to make some cash on a playoff ticket or two. Washington and Pittsburgh are on a completely different level than the Bostons and Montreals, and the gap between 3-4 and 6-8 isn't much closer. Philadelphia, Boston and Montreal are mere opportunists, rising above a huge crop of woefully incomplete hockey clubs. The Flyers are a poor man's version of the last two teams they had, that just weren't good enough, while the Habs and Bruins just don't have that much talent. The way their goalies have been, even another player of note or two might make a considerable difference, but March 4th has come and gone, and if you stack these clubs up against the elites, depth to depth, you will arrive far too quickly into Sobotka/Hunwick/Pyatt/Darche territory. That said, I don't think the cast of characters in the postseason will look too different from the way it looks now, give or take a seeding shift (which could be big, because it would take a miracle for any of these teams to beat Pitt, Buf or NJ, but it would take an alternate universe for them to beat Washington), despite my Olympic break prediction that Tampa would emerge over Montreal. The Habs are finding points every night right now, ugly as they may be, and though every team on earth has games at hand on them, those points are adding up, and none of these 6-12 Eastern teams are good enough to reel off a considerable enough streak to make 4+ point jumps this late.

I can tell you, though, that there are at least a handful of front offices who are thanking their lucky stars that the Carolina Hurricanes decided to play Field Hockey for the first 3 months of the season.

Out West, we have something potentially more intense brewing. Theoretically, St. Louis (another probable too little, too late story) and Dallas could re-insert themselves into the conversation, but as of this moment the battle for the last 2 spots, barring an Avs collapse, is between 3 teams, and unlike the East, any of those 3 are capable of beating anyone, particularly the way they are playing. Calgary have won 4 straight, and in the meantime, Kiprusoff seems to have shaken out the Olympic semifinal jitters, and the offense is clicking. Before Kipper blanked the Sens last night, the Flames reeled off 5 goals, 5 goals and 4 goals in 3 successive wins, matching the number of 4+ goal games they had registered prior since mid-December. Why? The newly extended Stajan and Bourque seem to be truly clicking with Iggy up front, and everything else is following suit. The Wings, sitting 1 point behind Calgary and Nashville in 9th, have also come out strong, winning 4 of 6, including a thriller in Chicago on NBC last Sunday. They appear slower and older, save their netminder, and are still only scoring at a Bruin-esque pace, but they are still defending Conference champs, and they still can throw Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Lidstrom, Rafalski, and now, most notably, a finally returning Johan Franzen at you every night. On an interesting note, Boomer Gordon pointed out on NHL Home Ice yesterday that while the Wings are in the high 20's in terms of team scoring, they are 3rd in the NHL in shots on goal, and that opposing goalies have a save %, collectively of about .925 against them. I'm not sure if this is encouraging or discouraging for them. Either way, both of Calgary and Detroit appear to be more fierce than Nashville, who can't find their scoring stroke, remain uncommitted to Pekka Rinne or Dan Ellis in net, and most of all seem to be headed in the wrong direction. Not long before the break, Nashville had gone on a nice run, and wedged their way right in there with the LA-COL-PHO bunch in the middle of the playoff pack, and they have now fallen down to the edge, battling two talented teams with an awful lot of momentum.

All in all, and I may be biased here, mind you, the Flames look to be the best of the bunch, with their mini-streak as the case in point: Win 1, they they beat a very good New Jersey team, Kipper's first ever win against the Devils, amidst a mini-media frenzy surrounding Brent Suter facing his old club. Win 2, they beat up, 5-2 on a Wild team trying to get into the playoff picture that had embarrassed them less than a week prior. Win 3, they beat a hot Red Wings team, in 3rd period comeback fashion to leapfrog the Wings into a playoff spot. Win 4, they blank a very talented Ottawa team All the while, Iginla just may be on one of those runs. If I'm Chicago, San Jose, etc., I don't particularly want to see any of these teams, but I really don't want to see Calgary with both Kiprusoff and Iginla streaking.

On a non-playoff note, if there was any question in anyone's mind about the quality of player that Steven Stamkos could become, there is not now. For weeks now he has actually been better in terms of production than either Crosby or Ovechkin, riding an 18-game point streak that has him only 2 goals behind the aforementioned duo for the Richard Trophy. Look out for Tampa next year, because they have Stamkos, they have some other resources, and their new owner appears to be serious.

As an aside, I will be playing in net tomorrow in a charity 4-on-4 tournament in Saugerties, NY benefiting an organization called Coaches vs. Cancer, which, oddly enough, appears to be usually a basketball-centric charity, but they are sponsoring this hockey event. I encourage anyone to check them out and donate, or if you happen to live anywhere around here, come check the tourney out, all day Saturday, March 13th, at Kiwanis Ice Arena, with food all day for the cost of a donation.