Around the NHL: 8/9/11

We’re taking our Tuesday look around the NHL and there are a few notable stories out there, so let’s get it going!

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Sean Avery Arrested

Sean Avery was arrested last week for battery against a peace officer and the collective opinion towards the incident seemed to be shocked, but not surprised.

Basically, what happened is that the police showed up on a noise complaint, which seemed to be resolved. They showed up again three hours later, at which point Avery shoved an officer and was subsequently arrested.

Now, this is the latest in many Sean Avery incidents, but by far one of the most bizarre.

This is really Avery’s first notable incident off ice (or, at least, away from the rink), so it’s interesting in that it’s the first time that he’s been in any notable trouble with the law. But what’s even more interesting is that is had been a while since Avery had even been in the news for his on-ice antics.

I don’t want to say that he’d been reformed, but he was keeping it under control at least.

The biggest question on people’s minds after this incident also is how does this affect his standing with the New York Rangers.

Now, I really don’t think that this is as big of a deal as people are making it out to be. Yeah, he shoved a police officer and he was arrested (as he should have been), but it’s not like he’s the first NHL player to get into legal trouble during the off season. The big hubbub over this is that, wait for it, he’s Sean Avery.

He’s got just one year left on his contract with a team that seemingly loves him in a city that he loves. I don’t think that this affects his standing with the Rangers in the least. It’s his first off-ice run in with the law and, unless the league imposes some sort of suspension

(which I doubt it will), I don’t see him missing any time this season because of the incident.

Ducks Extend Carlyle
It seems that Randy Carlyle will be behind the Ducks’ bench for another couple of seasons, signing an extension that will keep himwith the organization through the 2013-14 season, in a move that I really like for the organization.

He’s the coach you think of when you think of the Anaheim Ducks and that’s just how it should remain. He’s helped them go from a team that was a bit of a joke to a team that almost always enters the discussion when you start talking about Stanley Cup contention.

Now, Carlyle’s new contract doesn’t guarantee Anaheim a spot in the playoffs for the next few seasons, but it does guarantee that they’re going to be an unbelievably hard team to play against once again.

Mid-Morning Musings: Devils and Gestures and Headshots. Oh My!

***Mid-Morning Musings is a feature that I’ll be doing every couple days (read: every day the Wild don’t have a game) during the week here at Wild Nation. It will have to do with anything and everything hockey related, Wild or otherwise, so sit back and enjoy my opinionated ramblings.***

Could things get any worse for the Devils right now?

I mean, honestly. Any worse?

First they get out to their horrific start, then they have to deal with a knee injury to Zach Parise and now Martin Brodeur is looking like he will have to miss time?

Let’s make one thing abundantly clear here. The Devils are a good team playing bad hockey. They’re much better than their 4-9-1 record indicates. But at the same time, they’re a team that’s doing next to nothing to get themselves out of this slump.

But, as much as this is the player’s and the coach’s fault, some of the blame with this has got to fall on Lou Lamoriello and the rest of the front office and ownership.

This team’s off season put them in this situation.

Lou addressed a big need on this team in bringing in Anton Volchenkov and Henrik Tallinder on defense – they were shrewd signings and very important ones at that. But then he did something very un-Lou-like.

Now I don’t know if it was pressure from the owner or a slight break in his better judgment, but the signing of Ilya Kovalchuk was not only ill-conceived, it was ill-timed as well.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Kovie. I think he’s a much better player than people give him credit for and I’m the first to jump to his defense. He was a point-per-game player for them and gave them another offensive weapon.

But the team was 13-9-5 while he was there. Not a bad record, to be sure, but look at the results. They never put together more than two wins in a row – something they did seven separate times before his arrival (four three-game winning streaks, and one five-game, four-game and six-game streak apiece). They also went on losing streaks (no matter how small) four times – something they did just five times the entire rest of the season.

Did he help their offense? Not a ton – approximately 2.81 goals for with Kovie against about 2.65 without.

The only thing that he did was come into the locker room and mix up a team that had very good chemistry prior to his arrival.

And you re-sign him?

You can say what you want about this team, but the franchise’s Stanley Cup hopes were squarely in the capable hands of Zach Parise and Travis Zajac. The two were gelling and were beginning to come into their own as players in the league.

Give them another season together and they would have been the one-two punch that the Devils needed. But instead, you bring in Kovalchuk and screw up their chemistry.

So what you are left with now is a team that doesn’t know how they’re going to get under the salary cap once players return from injury and, what’s more, a team that doesn’t know how they’re going to keep their top players after signing Kovalchuk, not to mention one whose chemistry has been drastically altered in a bad way by his signing.

Any way you cut it; this was just a poor, poor decision by Lou.

*****

A lot has been made of the suspensions so far this season, and I definitely agree that the disciplinary culture of the NHL needs to be looked at in a big way.

So far, here’s what the suspensions look like (from the 2010-11 NHL fines and suspensions wiki page):

Date	Name	Team	Offense	Length
9/24/10	Nick Boynton	Blackhawks	Throat-slashing gesture	1 game
10/4/10	Mike Cammalleri	Canadiens	Slashing Nino Niederreiter	1 game
10/10/10	Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond	Devils	Instigator penalty in last 5 minutes of game	1 game
10/12/10	James Wisniewski	Islanders	Obscene gesture to Sean Avery	2 games
10/12/10	Niklas Hjalmarsson	Blackhawks	Boarding Jason Pomminville	2 games
10/18/10	Shane Doan	Coyotes	Blindside hit to the head of Dan Sexton	3 games
10/22/10	Rick Rypien	Canucks	Grabbing a Minnesota Wild fan	6 games
10/27/10	Stephane Robidas	Stars	Automatic suspension for two game misconduct boarding penalties within 41 games	1 game
11/1/10	Daniel Briere	Flyers	Cross-check to the head of Frans Nielsen	3 games

So far this season, 20 games worth of suspensions have been handed out – two of which were automatic suspensions (Letourneau-Leblond’s instigator penalty and Robidas’s boarding call).

But other than that, what does this really tell us?

Well, for one, it tells us that the NHL is putting a greater emphasis on its image than on the safety of the players.

Of the 20 games, 9 were for incidents that had absolutely nothing to do with a hockey play.

Yes, we can all agree that Rick Rypien should have been suspended for what he did – no question about it. But James Wisniewski and Nick Boynton?

I guess I can see it to an extent, but to what extent are you bringing more attention to it by bringing down a suspension to the player?

I’ll be honest, I was watching the Isles/Rangers game when Wiz made the gesture and I barely caught it. The broadcast didn’t replay it over and over and over again – it was a one time thing that, odds are, if I hadn’t been paying attention at that exact moment I would have missed.

But the NHL is dead set on making sure that they keep their image up. They don’t want to be seen as the “rogue sport.”

But wouldn’t their efforts towards their image be better served going towards the safety of their players?

Boynton and Wisniewski just made an innocuous gesture. One that, if you weren’t paying attention right then, you would have missed (and if myself, a 28-year old man, barely caught the gesture, what are the odds that a kid is going to be paying attention to the game long enough to catch it?) and one that, at the end of the day, kids are likely seeing and hearing worse than on the playground?

I understand that you want to make sure that players know that this isn’t okay. I get it. But don’t we have anything better to do with our time?

So here’s a thought. Gestures, anything like that – automatic game misconduct, they forfeit that game’s salary and a $10,000 fine. There you have it. It’s over, done with. You don’t have to worry about the rogue fellatio gestures anymore.

But for plays that are dangerous to players, a suspension is needed.  So how about this?

A blindside hit to the head – automatic 3 game suspension. No questions asked, if you get booted from a game for a blindside hit to the head, you sit for three games, repeat offender or not. Heck, we can even make it reviewable by the league to ensure that the right call was made on the ice.

Sure, an automatic suspension isn’t going to quell the problem. It’s not going get rid of these types of dangerous hits immediately, nor will it likely do anything to stem the problem down the road – players who are going to be repeat offenders (yes, Matt Cooke I’m talking about you) are going to do it regardless of the ramifications – but what it will do is make sure that the players know that there’s no questions asked; if they do this, they will be suspended.

*****

That’s all for this time. Hope you enjoyed the first of many mid-morning musings. Feel free to discuss below and I’ll pipe in with my thoughts when I can.

Tuesday's Links

There are a whopping 11 games on the docket for tonight.  Check out NHL.com for the full list, but here are some of the highlights.  First, the nationally televised game on Versus, the Sabres take on the Flyers.  In a battle of division leaders, Calgary visits New Jersey.  With playoff positioning on the line, Florida travels to Pittsburgh to face the red hot Penguins.  Also on the list, the Sharks will try to exact revenge on the Wild after their embarrassing 4-3 OT Loss.

• The Minnesota State High School hockey tournament starts tomorrow.  Follow the Puck has the brackets for you.  The Class A bracket can be found here and the Class AA bracket can be found here.  Also, for a complete preview of the state tournament, check out MN Hockey Hub’s State Playoff Headquarters.
• Puck Daddy has a look at “Stickgate 2009.”  Apparently a skinny stick blade is a dangerous, dangerous thing.  *Insert That’s What She Said joke here.*
• A sad day in the NHL.  Gary Roberts officially announces his retirement.
• NHL.com has a good look at the standings “If the playoffs started today.”  Is it just me or does the Eastern conference match ups for the first round look much, much more compelling than the Western conference match ups?
• Let the speculation begin.  Brent Sutter may leave the Devils after this season?  It would be a sad day for New Jersey, as Sutter has turned them into one of the more exciting franchises in the league to watch.
• The Star-Tribune has a couple good hits on the Wild.  First, Mike Russo spotlights the team’s inconsistent play.  Then, Jacques Lemaire says the Wild didn’t miss suspended enforcer, Derek Boogaard, much.  Ouch.
• A great indictment of the current NHL point system by Kevin in Pennsylvania on Hitting the Post. 
• The Hockey News has whittled the best masks in the NHL down to two.  Really?  Vesa Toskala and Miikka Kiprusoff?  I guess given the competition, it’s not too bad…
• Speaking of the Hockey News, Spector has a nice look at the trades that didn’t happen on D-Day.
• From 5hole.com, probably the best Sean Avery-based sign ever made.
• Jeff Paterson has an interesting look at the playoff picture in the West.  Meanwhile, James Mirtle adds his two cents on the issue.
• Per Kent Youngblood of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune; Marian Gaborik will join the Wild on their upcoming trip to Colorado.

That’s all for now.  Enjoy and make sure you check back for my thoughts on the San Jose/Minnesota tilt tonight!