US Olympic Team...

The US Olympic team should re-name themselves Team Ryan: Ryan Suter, Ryan Miller, Ryan Callahan, Ryan Kessler, Ryan Malone, and Bobby Ryan.

* * *

Why the big deal over Doug Weight, Bill Guerin, and Keith Tkachuk not making the 2010 US Olympic team? The US wants to win, right?

Weight had no goals in 11 games before being injured... again. His first game back was the night before the Olympic selections were announced. Guerin is actually scoring around the same pace he was in 2002 when the team won the Silver Medal, but he's 39 and the chances that he'll have anything left for 8 games in 11 days is very slim. Tkachuk hasn't been a force on any team since before the lockout, and he would just be taking space for a young power forward - say, Ryan Callahan (or Ryan Malone).

Scott Gomez was an interesting name left off. He just turned 30 last week and he played well in the 2006 Olympics in Italy, but those of us who watched him the past 2 years (and anyone following him in Montreal this year) know that he just isn't as good in another system as he was with the Devils.

I would also venture to guess that it came down to Gomez and Chris Drury fighting for a spot, and with John Tortorella as an assistant coach, Drury got the nod.

I like Callahan and Drury being on the team. I'm very excited for Callahan and I think the experience can only help him. As for Drury, he won't play 20 minutes a night for them so he won't come back burnt out. Plus, being there could inspire him to play better - he said so himself after being selected to the team.

As for Henrik Lundqvist and Marian Gaborik? Awful.

Remember how good the Rangers were playing in 2005-06 before the Olympic break? They were 20 games over .500, then ended the season 9-11-4 after the break. Lundqvist came back grinding his teeth and with migraines and was utterly awful in the playoffs against New Jersey (he'll admit it). Jaromir Jagr came back hurt from a Jarrko Ruutu check; on top of that, a nagging hip injury was made worse by the lack of off-days in the compressed Olympic schedule.

Without Jagr and Lundqvist, that team was just a bunch of role players who played great together and had a dream season.

Without Gaborik and Lundqvist, this team is a bunch of young players who haven't really meshed yet (and a few overpriced veterans who are just waiting for their careers to end).

What happens if Lundqvist gets hurt? The season is officially over. What if Gaborik gets hurt? So far, he hasn't injured anything that was hurt in previous seasons, but you shouldn't press the matter. An injury to him in Vancouver could have negative effects on him - and this team - for the next 4 years.

Plus, Hank could use the rest for 3 weeks before the stretch-drive.

Four reasons I am very against NHL players playing in the Olympics...

1) It should be an amateur competition.
2) You're stopping an exciting NHL season for 3 weeks and expecting people to pick off where it left off 21 days later.
3) The chance for injury is too great. (Ask the Ottawa Senators how the rest of their season was when Dominik Hasek was injured in the Czech Republic's first game in '06.)
4) It can be a career-maker for a young kid. Paul Kariya and Peter Forsberg in the 1992 Olympics in the shootout was an instant classic. I'd much rather have that than see Chris Pronger snuff out Evgeni Malkin in the bronze medal game because they're division rivals.

Colin Campbell's Double Standard Strikes Again

Before we get to the latest BS suspension from Colin Campbell, there's some important Lighthouse stuff going on at Hofstra today. Read up on the importance of today's meeting here and here; follow along with the proceedings here.

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The news that Pascal Morency was suspended for ten games (five preseason, five regular season) comes as no surprise to the writers of this blog. No, it's not because we believe, as many do, that ex-Rangers coach Colin Campbell has a secret vendetta against the Islanders. Instead, it's because we're well aware of the double standard that exists in the NHL when it comes to suspensions.

The NHL has no problem throwing its weight around when it comes to suspending a fringe player. However, when a superstar is involved, things become very shady. For instance, Chris Pronger still having a very well-paying job in the NHL despite his lengthy rap sheet. Of course, that rap sheet was significantly lessened by the the likes of Campbell, who just can't seem to pull the trigger when superstars are under review.

You may recall Chris Simon's stomp of Jarko Ruutu from December of 2007. You know, the incident that netted Simon a 30-game suspension. You may also recall that Pronger did the exact same thing to Ryan Kesler three months later and got nothing. Until, of course, everybody flipped out, and then Pronger got an 8-game ban that conveniently ended when the playoffs started.

By giving Morency ten games, Campbell is essentially saying that what Morency did is worse than what Pronger did - and that's something that got a lesser player 30 games. And what exactly did Morency do? Yes, he jumped the boards to start a fight, but he was about to come onto the ice for his shift anyway. He then attempted to defend a teammate that was knocked unconscious, which is what an enforcer is supposed to do. So, if you think about it that way, he was suspended for ten games for doing his job. And yet, if he didn't do his job, he would have been cut immediately by the Islanders for not standing up for his fallen teammate.

Now, let's go back in time once again, this time to the 2009 Stanley Cup Final. You may recall Evgeni Malkin receiving a fight instigator penalty in the final minutes of Game 2. NHL rules clearly stipulate that any player receiving an instigator penalty in the final five minutes of a game also gets a one-game suspension. But do you really think the NHL was going to suspend Malkin in its big TV-ratings showcase? Of course not!

If you really want to get picky about it, you can argue that Malkin's instigator was far more egregous than Morency's. At least Morency had a reason to start a fight. Malkin's fight came at the end of a game as the result of a scrum caused by his own teammate (Max Talbot), which could be interpreted as "sending a message" - the very thing the NHL legislated against before the playoffs. Yet, Morency's the one who gets the big suspension. Go figure.

But we all know that the NHL kowtows to its superstars. Every league does it; most don't stoop to the levels of the NHL. So the NHL bullies its lesser-known players just to prove a point. Donald Brashear deserved something for his attack on Blair Betts in last year's playoffs. But there was no way he'd get six games if he wasn't playing roughly five minutes a game. Morency's suspension falls into the category of the NHL abusing its power. Unfortunately, Colin Campbell's ruling has all but killed any chance of Morency playing for the Islanders in 2009-10. True, he wasn't going to make the team. But now, if the Islanders want to call him up, they must take into account his five-game regular season suspension. The Islanders don't have the roster room to keep someone on their NHL roster just to clear a suspension. So, not only does this screw over the Islanders, but it potentially costs Morency a ton of money, as two-way deals are exponentially more lucrative in the NHL than they are anywhere else.

One last note about this suspension. If you really want someone to blame for all of this, blame the NHL itself. The NHL is the organization that allows preseason games to become endless fight-fests in the first place. The NHL charges full price for preseason games, then turns a blind eye when games devolve into mindless line brawls just so aspiring goons can fight established goons for no reason. The NHL does this for as long as it can, then suspends the crap out of someone who dares to touch a superstar. The shame of it is, a guy like Chris Pronger would never be in this situation, largely because no team would give its biggest stars serious minutes in a game where players go out of their way to hurt each other just to stand out. So, while Colin Campbell screwed up by handing Pascal Morency a ridiculous suspension, it's really the NHL's fault for allowing this violence to occur.

A Fact, An Opinion, and a Mistake...

MISTAKE
I think a lot of people erred when they (me included) predicted the Sharks would sweep the Ducks. I think we overlooked the fact that even though these Ducks aren't the same as they were 2 years ago, they still have Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer on the blueline, and Francois Beauchemin is back from injury. Those are 3 big assets to have on a team, and they can have anyone of them on the ice at any given time. Add in Ryan Whitney, and that's a scary defense that not a lot of people took into account.

They sure shut down Joe Thornton today. His only shot came with like a minute left in the game.

For those who didn't catch the end of the game, it was scoreless going into the 3rd period, but the Ducks scored 2 to win it. The Sharks did hit 2 posts in that period though.

OPINION
Ian LaPierre, the "Sean Avery" of the Montreal Canadiens (albeit with less skill and without Avery's stunningly good looks), should be suspended. Tonight, the Bruins scored an empty-net goal to ice the game 4-2, and LaPierre just went and hit him while he was celebrating.

His back wasn't turned like when Dale Hunter attacked Pierre Turgeon in 1993, but there is no place for crap like that in this game. I know they allow fighting in the game, but that is in the heat of the moment (or should only be) and should deter punks like LaPierre from doing that cheap stuff.

He didn't injure Phil Kessel, but he could have, and it was after the play, after a goal, and with nothing to be gained. A one-game suspension should do the trick, like they gave Dan Carcillo in Philadelphia for a useless cheapshot last night.

FACT
The Rangers have been in 5 playoff serieses since the lockout (not including the current one against the Capitals). In those 5 matchups, the team who won Game 1 wo the series.

They lost to the Devils 6-1 in 2005-06. The next season, they beat Atlanta 4-3 and lost to Buffalo 5-2. (I still maintain that if they won Game 5, there was no way Buffalo would have won Game 6 at the Garden that year.) Last year, they beat the Devils 4-1 in Game 1 and then lost to the Penguins 5-4 in the opening of that series.

Not a stone-cold fact, but it's worth noting. Makes you feel a lot better hearing that stat now that they do have that lead though, doesn't it?

Nik Antropov...

Patrick Kaleta is a punk, we know that. Paul Mara broke his eye socket and cheek bone in a collision last year with him, and in their first meeting this year on October 15, he left his feet for a hit then taunted Mara about his face.

Last time the Rangers played the Sabres, in Ryan Miller's last game, he was doing the same stuff. He ran amok, hit dirty, got under their skin, and tried injuring players. In my post-game wrap that night, aside from calling the Rangers awful (as they most certainly were in the dead of February), I called out Colton Orr for not teaching Kaleta a lesson. Why have someone like Orr, who doesn't contribute offensively or defensively, on the team if he isn't going to punish the players taking runs at his teammates? Tie Domi or Bob Probert would've pummelled Kaleta into the hash marks.

Well, tonight, one of the sweetest things my eyes ever have seen was Nik Antropov using his 6'6" body to crush Kaleta, then seeing him dazed on the bench. I normally don't root for people to be injured, but when you intentionally attempt to injure someone, I'm all for you getting rocked hard.

For example, Domi never tried to hurt people. Trent Hunter is irritating to play against, but he's clean. Darcy Tucker takes runs at players (or at least did when he was relevant). Sean Avery, like him or not, will get under your skin, but he won't try to take you out of the game. Matt Barnaby and Ville Nieminen played the same way, just not as good. Gary Roberts, Chris Pronger, Chris Simon, and Jarkko Ruutu try to injure opponents, so when someone like them gets absolutely nailed, I smile.

Antropov creaming Kaleta fits that bill. It was awesome, and worth the 2nd round pick just to have him do it. (And yes, worth next year's conditional pick as well.)

What is This, October?...

A full 60-minute effort; clean line changes; a low-scoring game; backchecking and forechecking.

The only thing thing that would lead me to believe that I wasn't watching a tape from early October is the fact that Chris Drury scored a goal.

The first period was a little boring, but the next two were exciting, and watching Henrik Lundqvist shut the door was fantastic. Nigel Dawes had a good game even before making the violent criminal Chris Pronger look stupid. No, the Rangers weren't perfect against Jonas Hiller and the Anaheim Ducks tonight, but it's a far cry from letting in 8 against New Jersey or leaving it all up to Henke against Carolina. 

My personal highlight of the night was seeing Nik Zherdev score on one of my favorite rules in hockey: if you are taken down from behind on a breakaway to an empty net, you automatically are awarded a goal, making it a goal where technically a shot is never taken.

Not much to say as it's 2:36 in the morning here in the Eastern Conference, and I have less than 5 minutes left on my laptop battery. I will say, however, that I love these late starting games. I go out and do stuff during the evening and then I get to still watch the game. Today I went shopping for Christmas presents and tomorrow I'll work then get home to watch the game or watch it at my Wednesday night bar. Very exciting stuff. This also would've made a good road trip: 3 games in 2 and a half California cities in 5 nights.

Anaheim was the easy game this week; the Rangers always play them well (who could forget Blair Betts' stunning end-to-end goal in Anaheim in 2006-07?). LA is tough just because they are an unpredictable team and the Rangers traditionally play poorly against poor teams. San Jose is the real test. Beat them - in San Jo, no less - and you are worthy.

Until then the real question is whether Mats Sundin will do what Markus Naslund did and forsake Vancouver for Broadway.

Avery Suspended for Violent Act...

Oh, wait, sorry. Sean Avery got a 6-game suspension today for a joke, however unfunny you might find it. That means Gary Bettman puts Avery calling Paris Hilton's co-star in House of Wax "sloppy seconds" (a true term in high schools all around the nation) up there with these violent acts...

:: Randy Jones gets 2 games for hitting Patrice Bergeron from behind in October 2007. Bergeron missed the rest of the season with a head injury. Avery's comments were three-times as bad as this career-threatening injury, apparently.

:: Mike Mottau gets 2 games for lunging himself across the ice at Frans Nielsen. Nielsen is out 3-4 months as a result of the hit. This was three-times less dangerous than Avery's childish wisecrack.

:: Ryan Hollweg gets suspended 1 game for boarding Sergei Kostitsyn in February because it was his second boarding game misconduct. He then does the same thing in pre-season, gets suspended 2 games, and does it again in his first game back this season, where he gets another 3-game suspension. That's 4 violent boarding penalties and a total of 6 games where he was forced to sit. Avery talking ill about Elisha Cuthbert is akin to Ryan Hollweg injuring 4 players with illegal hits.

:: Chris Pronger steps on Ryan Kesler's calf with his skate and receives an 8-game sentence, on his 8th suspension in the NHL. This (probably illegal by American law) act was slightly more damaging than Avery's comments.

There you have it. Avery's words hurt Cuthbert (and scumbag Dion Phaneuf) more than Bergeron's season-ending head injury. Frans Nielsen should just shake off his injury, as it is less important that a Hollywood actress's feelings. It was equal to 4 people being illegally hit from behind by Ryan Hollweg, and Chris Pronger's big skate blade being slammed onto Ryan Kesler's leg was only slightly more dangerous. How much time did Phaneuf miss from Avery's 15-second interview? None? Weird.

Bettman said he had "warned" Avery last season and that's why the punishment is so high. Were the Flyers not warned when 2 others on their team received suspensions in October of 2007 before Jones got his? Was Hollweg not warned during his previous suspensions? Were Pronger's previous 7 suspensions not warnings? 

Get real, Gary Bettman. You are a joke. You never liked hockey, so go back to the NBA and let a real fan take charge of the league. 

Sean Avery Suspended for Free Speech...

Last year, Chris Pronger stomped - yes, stomped - on Ryan Kesler's face. The dirty player, glorified by the NHL Network and nearly every hockey pundit out there, received 8 games as a punishment. 

It was his 8th time being suspended.

Today, Sean Avery referred to all-around nice guy (is my sarcasm evident online?) Dion Phaneuf's girlfriend as "my sloppy seconds." He was suspended "indefinitely" because of conduct "detrimental to the League or game of hockey." My guess is it will be a 5-game suspension and he will be fined.

Uh, it's true, isn't it? Kim Bauer went to Phaneuf right after she broke up with Avery. One Canadian hockey player to the next. Sounds like sloppy seconds to me. She went from Avery to Long Island native Mike Komisarek to Phaneuf with barely enough time for a shower.

Here's the full text, said in Canada, where apparently they don't have freedom of speech like the States do...

"I am really happy to be back in Calgary, I love Canada. I just want to comment on how it's become like a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds. I don't know what that's about. Enjoy the game tonight."

Suspended indefinitely for speaking his mind and neither cursing nor threatening a player. Apparently, it would have been less dangerous for him to step on someone's face with a skate blade (8 games), or elbow Dean McAmmond's head (1 game) after he was suspended for elbowing Thomas Holmstrom's head from behind (1), or kick Ville Nieminen with his skate (also 1 game), or cross-check Brendan Morrow in the face (2), or swing a stick at Jeremy Roenick's helmet (4 games). Maybe he should have fractured Pat Peake's thyroid cartilige when he swung his stick at his neck (Pronger received 4 games).

Oh, but calling the star of The Girl Next Door sloppy seconds is a heinous act.

Maybe the NHL was too busy reviewing Mike Mottau's vicious hit on Frans Nielsen and the subsequent 2-game suspension to actually hear what Avery heard. 

The Ushering-In of the Dan Carcillo Era...

Since Tuesday, I was planning a retrospective on Chris Simon's career, complete with YouTube videos of his 8 suspensions. However, I could only find videos from his latest suspensions - the Ryan Hollweg stickball swing and the Jarkko Ruutu ankle stomp. We've all seen those enough that we should have them memorized by now, so no need to beat a dead ... horse? Is that the expression? A dead horse?

So, instead of videos, my words.

1) A slash to the head of Dennis Vial, 1994. 5 games

2) Calls Mike Grier a very bad word for black folks after Grier makes a comment about Simon being Native AmericanCanadian, 1997. 3 games 

3) Cross-checks Peter Popovic's neck in the playoffs, 2000. 1 game (Note: There was a video of this but it was in a Simon tribute video that I didn't want to post.)

4) Elbows Anders Eriksson, 2001. 2 games

5) As a Ranger, protects his teammates. Ruslan Fedotenko hits high and skates away, Simon turns away from the play and cross checks him down, then Todd Bertuzzi's him while Tank is hurt on the ice, 2004. 2 games

6) Now a Flame, knees Sergei Zubov, 2004. 2 games

7) Paul Bunyon's Hollweg after diagnosing himself with a concussion due to jumping into the boards to draw a penalty, 2007. 25 games (Note: I saw it happen while everyone else was watching the puck, and single-handedly started the "Asshole" chant.)

8) Steps on everyone's least favorite silver-medalist's ankle while getting off the ice, 2008. 30 games

I was surprised there wasn't a video of him attacking Fedotenko. It was brutal, barely provoked, and a sign of things to come. He snapped "defending his team" and could have seriously injured someone. A 2-game suspension for that was useless, just like Chris Pronger's slap on the wrist for stepping on someone this year like Simon did. 

He also should have been suspended for attacking Nick Kypreos in the 1995 playoffs. The 8th-seeded Rangers were about to beat the 1st-seeded Nordiques in the first round, and Simon runs Kypreos into the boards with a vicious cross-check. No suspension, obviously, and the Rangers won the series 10 minutes later. Kypreos said that he was disappointed in Simon, but the fact that he had all summer to not play hockey was vengeance enough.

Well, good riddance, Chris Simon. I hope you and Alex Korolyuk get along nicely. Now, go on, attack Alexei Yashin next year in Russia.

Oh, and I did find one good video. Rick Tocchet destroying Simon in a fight...

Most Hated Players...

Off the top of my head, I believe the 4 players I hate the most in the NHL are (in no particular order)...

Chris Simon (although I liked him as a Ranger)

Rick DiPietro

Chris Pronger

Martin Brodeur

And this April, all is right with (my end of) the world. Simon is being sat in the playoffs in favor of seven-goal scorer Aaron Voros. Rick DiPietro can't even play golf because his hip is injured. Okay, I made that up, but it could be true. Translation: He has no second season. Marty the Overrated has given up 2 goals in 2 games to Sean Avery, and Chris Pronger, he of an unstoppable defense, was on the ice for 3 of Dallas's goals in Game 1 and has been on the ice for 2 of Dallas's 5 goals tonight. 

Quick note on Brodeur: When the Devils win, it's because of him. When they lose, it isn't his fault. Just ask him! When the Devils beat the Rangers, it's because he outplayed Lundqvist, and it's extra sweet because of who they defeated. When the Rangers go 7-0-1 against the Devils (or 1-4-3, depending on who you are a fan of), it's because the Rangers got lucky, or it just doesn't matter, because it's the regular season and only playoffs matter. 

When the Rangers beat them in the playoffs on goals he lets in, he blames the offense for not scoring. Hey, Marty. You play on the Devils. Your team hasn't been scoring for 10 years. Now, you just happen to be facing a goalie better than you.