Hockey Whatnot
- Lost amid the buzz about the Sabres suffering from food poisoning last night seems to be yet another example of Jarkko Ruutu playing out-of-control and with a clear intent to injure. Let’s be clear: Patrick Kaleta was hit from behind, in the head, and the offending player never even looked for the puck. We already know he can’t fight like a man and anyone who bites another player clearly doesn’t have much respect for himself let alone another player. With two two-game suspensions under his belt already, it’s time for Ruutu to get a five-gamer.
- And what the Hell is with Bob McKenzie and his analysis? People all over watch what he was saying, and here’s his quote:
“You never know if he’s hurt or really hurt…the fact that Kaleta came back and played (emphasis mine), there probably won’t be a suspension.”
- So where do we go with that? Here’s the shift chart from the game, which clearly shows that Kaleta didn’t return. Since 97% of Canada probably watches these guys, Kaleta’s reputation takes a hit again and nobody even bothered to correct him. I know it’s a small point, but it pisses me off.
- Which brings me to another point, and that is that I am sick of trying to be objective. When a Sabre player is involved in what could be a dirty play, I am usually fairly vocal about not making excuses such as “he turned his back!” when a Sabre gets a boarding call. In short, I try to eliminate my natural bias towards the Sabres and look at it objectively, and I think I have been consistent in my desire to punish blows to the head no matter the team involved. Know what? I’m sick of it. Is there no sense of irony in the blogosphere that the entire roster of Alexander Ovechkin apologists are now howling for a suspension on David Koci? I want to have it both ways too. I want to be able to defend obvious cheapshots by making excuses (Kaleta turned his back! Kaleta is a dirty player so he got what he deserved!) like they did for Ovechkin and then cry out for justice when it is one of my guys. So maybe moving forward we’ll adopt a “Sabres can do no wrong” policy, because it sure seems to be more fun than applying critical thought.
On to some non-Sabres issues:
- How fun is it to watch the Flyers and Rangers implode? As Sabres fans we probably pay a little more attention to them now than we might have if those weren’t the destinations for Briere and Drury. As I have written numerous times, Briere gets a pass from me because the Sabres never made him an offer, but I never have been able to get past Drury taking the money from the Rangers when the Sabres said they would match. I know there’s more to it than that (allegedly the Sabres and Drury had agreed to a deal earlier in the year and Buffalo never followed through), but at the end of the day he picked them over us. Well, you got what you wanted. You wanted the bright lights of New York, to be in the spotlight and to be the leader of the Blueshirts. How’s that going?
- The Rangers loss to the Islanders last night has coach John Tortarella enraged while columnists call for the team to be blown up. Some choice qoutes on Drury, first from Larry Brooks: “Now is the time for the head coach to justify the badge on his chest by figuring out how to reduce Chris Drury’s minutes and responsibility without embarrassing the earnest but painfully ineffective captain.” And from The Maven himself: “Tortorella was at a loss to explain his club’s blah start, which means that one must question the leadership – as in captain Chris Drury – and those who are supposed to be catalysts.”
- Oddly enough, Fischler is still predicting the Rangers will sweep the Islanders. (Sorry, old BfloBlog joke – Rangers in nine!)
- So here’s the big Drury question; would his game be falling apart if he had just stayed here? Would we be stuck with Drury through the 2011-12 season at $7 million per? Or would we have a happy second-line center and leader placed perfectly into the right role by his wise coach? Because treating him as a No. 1 center places false expectations on him, and he never had to worry about that in Buffalo with Briere here. No way to know, but it sure feels like Drury was the right man for Buffalo and Buffalo was the right place for Drury.
- Meanwhile, over in Philly, it may be even worse. How do you know things are bad? When you sign Michael Leighton off re-entry waivers to be your backup goaltender and you have to note in the headline that the former Flyer is, indeed, a goalie. The Flyers are so far over the cap this year it’s ridiculous, and only LTIR money and some minor-league moves allow them to continue to operate with a full roster. So when the chance to grab a guy for half-salary came up (Carolina has to pay half his $600K salary) the Flyers took it.
- After being embarrassed in Pittsburgh 6-1 the other night in a game in which the Flyers chose to goon it up, they get the Pens at home again tonight. The local media continues the drumbeat of a trade, without realizing that the team has a whole bunch of overpriced guys nobody wants to trade for. Daniel Briere for five more years at a $6.5 million cap hit? Pronger for $6.25 million per for seven more years, at which point he will be 41? Sure, the “real dollars” going out aren’t bad at the end, but the cap hit stays on your books. Just another team that signed crazy, long-term deals that were widely praised in the media that is now screwed. Again, the “offseason championship” usually goes to the wrong guys.
Nice venting. I agree, eff the Rangers, eff the Flyers, and eff any team that doesn’t think about the consequences when they go crazy on July 1. Unfortunately that list now includes the Blackhawks and that pains me greatly.
As for the Jarkko hit the thing that got me wasn’t so much that it was from behind (it was, in the sense that Patty didn’t see him coming), but more that instead of hitting Patty in the body, he clearly aims for what was just in front of Patty’s body: his head. He literally expended more energy to go an extra two feet to not hit Patty in the body. It’s a picture-perfect example of a “shot to the head”.
[...] I think Kevin’s got this one pretty well covered (seriously, go read that post), but I’ll join in and say [...]
Great post.
What is really surprising in the tsn film clip is that Keith Jones didn’t say anything bad about Buffalo and actually defended Kaleta (though he did get a shot in on the Kaleta). Jones would have loved a guy like Patty when he was (cough cough) playing for the flyers.
Great post. I would make this comment longer, but Dave in Rocha said everything I was gonna say.
Great post. I just want to add two things.
First, Ruutu hit Kaleta from behind and he hit him on the head. He got a 5 minute major penalty which is exactly what the current rules stipulate. Kaleta was not expecting it and the fact that Ruutu targeted his head makes that a very dangerous play. No one is disputing that. But the NHL enables this stuff by not strengthening the rules that pertain to these situations. How long has this nonsense been going on (remember Neil/Drury?). The problem is there are IDIOTS involved with this league like Matt Barnaby and Brian Burke who say things like, “Players need to keep their heads up. Checking is part of the game. Blah Blah Blah.” As if Kaleta could have possibly done anything different to protect himself in that situation. That’s the bottom line. Players need to be given a fair chance to protect themselves. What makes this league even more ridiculous is if that were Roy or Vanek getting hit like that instead of Kaleta, Ruutu WOULD get suspended. Just think about how illogical that is for a moment.
Second, any team that goes out and signs expensive UFAs always ends up getting burned. I can’t think of any situation where the value of a former big ticket UFA equals close to the salary cap hit after year two. It never works. The player is never able to replicate the production and value that he had for his former team. The coaching, chemistry, positional depth, role, etc. is just different. Would I have loved it if the Sabres signed Gaborik or Bouwmeester last summer? Of course, but probably not if I had really been reading the signs.
Taro, shows what a reputation will get you, right? Jones is way off in saying Kaleta sometimes “plays like an idiot.” He has been very disciplined this year in the sense that he no longer goes out of his way to hit people. If the hit is there, he takes it; if not, he minds his defensive responsibility.
It’s resulted in him being in the right place far more often, and it’s resulted in goals as well.
[...] for boarding, Kaleta was fined but not suspended by the league yesterday. Now Kevin at Bfloblog has summed things up nicely already, but what I find most interesting about all this is how little it was mentioned immediatley [...]
[...] As you can see, I’ve referred but obliquely to the Ruutu-Kaleta hit, the subsequent (non)response from the League, and the abject disregard for accuracy or professionalism of the non-local hockey media in their discussion of the incident. That’s because too many other blogrollers have already said it better, especially Heather, Ryan, and Kevin. [...]