Around The NHL

Zulgad: NHL Blows Chance To Send Strong Message After Nyquist’s Assault On Spurgeon | Judd Zulgad, 1500ESPN.com

After some healthy debate among the Detroit fan base surrounding Nyquist’s attempt to impersonate Dr. Rahmani, I think it’s important to see things from the other side now that the punishment has been meted out. I can't say I agree with Mr. Zulgad’s assessment of the situation, either in Nyquist’s actions or in how the NHL handled things, but I do think we need to acknowledge that other fans outside of us have viewpoints that will pretty generally be much farther towards ‘THROW THE BOOK AT HIM’ than our collective viewpoints. This piece goes what I would think is a little far in suggesting that this incident was actually assault rather than a very serious high-sticking or possibly spearing incident, but other fans will see what they see. Hopefully this will be the last time for a long time that Detroit is the center of attention for such a serious and troubling incident.

In Red Wings Land

Red Wings’ Jimmy Howard: Suffers Another Setback | RotoWire Staff, CBSSports.com

After injuring his knee in a freak accident in Nick Jensen’s first game, Howard is still trying to get NHL-ready. The piece doesn't mention what in particular the setback was, but does bring up the idea of another conditioning stint during our upcoming 5-day break. Obviously the setback can't be seen as overly serious if there's talk of Howard facing game-shots in the AHL again soon, but this has to be pretty frustrating for Jimmy to feel so close to returning and still be having issues. Hopefully he continues to make progress and can be back in a playing capacity sooner rather than later.