Fast Tube by Casper

Thanksgiving has come and gone and here is another issue of my weekly round up. I will have to admit with the holiday weekend, I have slipped a bit but here we go with some things that you have may of missed as you turned to football for the weekend or just simply slept your turkey dinner away.

Who is in, who is out?

Out for the next two games would be the Penguins Matt Cooke. Once again we see a cheap shot  and the NHL has responded properly by issuing Cooke a 2 game suspension for a high hit to the head on the Rangers Artem Anisimov. Cooke threw an elbow to Anisimov’s head and dislodged his helmet which to me was a total cheap shot as it was no where near the puck at the time.

The Avalanche have lost David Jones who torn his ACL  and will be out till late March. Colorado has been struggling of late and losing Jones will not help matters.

The Boston Bruins can’t catch a break in the injury department. Just 4 games after getting power forward Milan Lucic back in the line up, Lucic once again goes down for another 4 weeks as he has a high ankle sprain. Anyone in Boston that saw that injury live was thinking the worst as it appeared to be a knee injury at first. The B’s also got back Vezinar trophy winner, Tim Thomas on Saturday after missing 5 games. In that shootout win for the B’s, Patrice Bergeron rolled his right ankle and then took a slap shot off the leg. Bergeron missed Monday’s practice and there is no new if he will play their next game Wednesday against the Lightning.

The Chicago Blackhawks finally got what they were waiting for with Marian Hossa who made his debut on Wednesday. The red hot Hawks added had to have been on cloud 9 with Hossa’s two goals to what already appears to be a stacked line up.

New York Newsday is reporting that Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro will play in part of Bridgeport’s game in the AHL to start his road back to the NHL. GM Garth Snow is hoping to see Dipietro back with the Islanders by mid-December.

Black Friday killed some streaks

Like mentioned above, the Blackhawks are on fire as they rang up a 8 game winning streak before getting shut out Friday night by the Ducks and losing in a shoot out the next night to the Kings. Still at 8-1-1 and Hossa’s arrival, the Western Conference has reason to be worry.

Friday also killed Nashville’s 7 game winning streak as they lost to the Blues. The Predators are 8-2 in their last 10 and host one of the best road teams in the League as the Devils who have 10 wins on the road and are 7-2-1 in their last 10. Speaking of the Devils, they stopped the Bruins 4 game winning streak in a great battle of the goalies. Martin Brodeur also set another record as he passed Patrick Roy in all time minutes played.

Another southern team is also making some noise as the Atlanta Thrashers is riding a 3 game winning streak and 7-1-2 in the last 10 will host the Florida Panthers who are 5-2-3 but have lost the last 2.Even with all the injury issues the Bruins have had ,they have suddenly surged from 12th to 3rd  in the Eastern Conference by going 6-1-3 in the last 10.

The Carolina Hurricanes continue to struggle as they have lost their last 3 and are 3-5-2 in the last 10. The Canes are still without a win on the road will host the Avalanche who are 2-5-3 in their last ten games. Despite the recent slump of the Avalanche, they are still holding 4th in the West thanks to the great start they had at the beginning of the season.

Key Match-ups this week ahead

Tonight’s Pittsburg/Rangers game should be interesting as they play the back half of a home and home. Good thing for the Pens, the NHL suspended Cooke or this one could of gotten real ugly. The Penguins have a tough week as they face the Avalanche on Thursday and the Blackhawks on Saturday. Also tonight you have a battle of two hot teams as the Devils visit the Predators.

The Buffalo Sabres will try to leap frog over the Sen’s and Bruins to capture first place in the Northeast as they visit Toronto tonight as well.

The Bruins will have to beware of the set up game Wednesday night against the Bolts as they will visit Montreal for a Friday night battle against the Habs but more importantly the game that every Bruins fan has been waiting for as Phil Kessel makes his first appearance in the city he wanted to leave. I wouldn’t expect too many cheers for Kessel at the Garden Saturday night.

With all that pressure that a goalie gets from the fans, coaches, GM’s and owners… up until Saturday night have I ever heard a report of an agent bashing a player in public. Well Allan Walsh, agent of Canadiens back up goaltender Jaroslav Halak decided to do just that after the Habs 3-1 loss Saturday night to Tampa Bay. Walsh on his Twitter page no less writes “Interesting stat of the night….Price is 10W, 32L in last 42 starts. Hmm.”

You have to feel bad for Halak since he was unaware of the comment by his loud mouth or should I say cowardly typing agent. Montreal fans and media are all over Halak and have no right to be. Even former net minder Kelly Hrudey sounded off on hockey night in Canada showing his frustration about the situation. The sad part will be how the fans and media will play this up as a dual between the two Montreal goaltenders and neither one of them had anything to do with this.

Walsh tried to cover his ass by saying it was a “tongue in cheek comment that shouldn’t be taken seriously. To me that’s a bunch of BS from a BS artist agent. How unprofessional can you get and on Twitter? Jaroslav Halak needs to dump Allan Walsh and look for a new agent.

Although the Bruins suffered another loss, as they dodged another goose egg when Patrice Bergeron punched in a rebound from Zdeno Chara. Bergeron had a goal called back in the second period after replay clearly showed the net lifted as the puck went under it. The Bruins did manage to get a well deserved point out of the game forcing it to a shootout.

Tim Thomas once again was superb in net surrendering just one goal late in the first period to former Bruin, Glen Metropolit who also had one called back early in the game when his teammate was laying on top Thomas in a scrum out front.Thomas’ counterpart, Carey Price was equally impressive stopping 42 of the 43 shots the Bruins threw at him. Price who was under the gun in Montreal as he was win-less in he last 7 starts rose to the occasion against the hungry Bruins team.

The B’s schedule doesn’t get much better as the host Buffalo Sabres tomorrow at the Garden. Ryan Miller has been on of the NHL’s hottest goaltenders sporting a  9-1-1 record with a .941 sv% and 1.69GAA

One other note, The B’s solidified their goalkeeping by signing Tuukka Rask to a two year extension keeping him a Bruin through the 2011-12 season. Rask was acquired in 2006 for Andrew Raycroft. Hey is it possible not to make the playoffs and receive the Jennings Award? Just wondering.

“Like most people, we are taking many precautions to try to prevent our players and staff from contracting the H1N1 virus,” said Chiarelli.  “Our medical staff is working with David to get him healthy as soon as possible, and our players and staff will continue to take precautions with hopes of preventing the spread of the virus to others in the organization.” *from BostonBruins.com

Last season the Bruins went 5-0-1 vs the Habs during the regular season and you’ll have to go back to 3/20/08 to find the last time the Bruins lost in regulation to the Habs. Ironically, Michael Ryder had the game winning goal that night in the Habs 4-2 victory at the Garden.

If the Bruins want to continue the recent dominance of their arch rivals, someone in that locker room has to step up and take over for the absence of Marc Savard and Milan Lucic. David Krejchi is probably the best fit for the job and really hasn’t got his game going with only 5 points (1 goal, 4 assists) in 14 games. I expect Tim Thomas to be in net tonight , he has been very solid in his last 2 appearances giving up just 3 goals total with nothing to show for it ….literally as the B’s got shut out both games. Corey Price has struggled in net for the Habs and the B’s need to take advantage of that.

Mikko Lehtonen was called up from Providence yesterday you may see him in the line up tonight. Lehtonen lead the Providence Bruins last season with 28 goals.  Look for former Canadien, Steve Begin to be fired up with his first game against his former team since being signed by the B’s in the off season. Byron Bitz is still listed day to day and will more than likely be a game time decision.

The NHL rule book states as follows.

Rule 44 – Checking from Behind

44.1 Checking from Behind – A check from behind is a check delivered on a player who is not aware of the impending hit, therefore unable to protect or defend himself, and contact is made on the back part of the body. When a player intentionally turns his body to create contact with his back, no penalty shall be assessed.

So would the assessed penalties on the ice be enough punishment to Kozlov or is a fine and/or suspension in order? Watch the game clip and decide for yourself. I have looked at it several times and feel that Kozlov was well aware of what he was doing . The fact of Gomez not being hurt should not come into play when Colin Cambell looks at this clip. Kozlov should be held accountable for his actions.

It’s like a broken record over and over again but we have to keep bringing this issue up and why you ask, because hockey players are still acting reckless and have no respect for the game or opponents they are playing against.

I see it every day in youth hockey and although the players are ultimately the ones making the hit. The coaches are to blame  to some degree and I don’t know one coach that would approve of a hit from behind on any player but years ago when you watched a youth hockey game, coaches were yelling “defense, pass, skate and shoot” all the time to their players. Now I am on the ice and all I hear is “BODY” and “HIT EM”.

These young kids feel pressured to impress their teammates and not let down their coach and unfortunately the only way some of them can achieve this task is by taking advantage of a player in a vulnerable situation because they are simply not fast enough to do it right. This is not the first or nearly the last time we will talk about this subject and for all the youth players out there….hockey is a very fast sport but take a second to think before you severely injure a player, that player could be you just as easy. There is nothing worse than seeing a kid being carried off in a stretcher.

Click on the links to read the definition of the rule in your book. USA Hockey rule 607, NFHS (Federation/High School) rule 6-7.