With yet another 4-day break, news is slow regarding the Red Wings. However, a certain #55 seems to be dominating the headlines for the Wings. Here are your links:
A Solution to the Head Shot Issue – Rob Benneian of Detroit Sportsnation (and Wings Win, Eh?) offers up a potential solution to curbing the number of concussions in the NHL: a rule that is in place in Hockey Canada. It’s an interesting rule in that it gives the referee a large amount of discretion when determining what, if any, punishment should be levied after a head shot. Given the state of refereeing in the NHL today, I’m not sure if them having more input is good or bad.
Does Uncle Mike: Does Kronwall Scare You? Good. Suck It – The Chief at A2Y offers his take on the story about Mike Babcock liking what Niklas Kronwall brings to the team. He also discusses the latest excerpt from Bob Probert’s book and the potential return of Big Rig. I’ll say this: if the Red Wings are happy with the way Kronwall plays, then so am I. I do not believe that he is more reckless or dangerous than anyone in the league, and could easily name 5 players off the top of my head who deserve the title of “dirty” more than Kronwall does.
Do You Want to Play a Game? – The Dude at Gorilla Crouch offers up his take on the game from Saturday night with the requisite opinion on the Kronwall hit. However, he does include a creepy pic from a certain horror movie series, and gives us what I believe to be an accurate depiction of what was going through Andreas Lilja’s mind when Pavel Datsyuk had the puck with 12 seconds left.
Prospect Rowdiness Out West – The boys over at Red Wings Hardware update us on what’s happening with our junior prospects, complete with videos. I guess Callahan and Ferraro got the wrong tape of Datsyuk in terms of what to emulate. Oh well, a little truculence is good for the soul.
The Danger Zone – Tyler at TTD gets serious on us for a moment as he takes on the Kronwall-Selanne hit. The philosophical discussion about a good hit vs a bad one is very interesting, and one can only assume that he was wearing a toga while writing it. There’s also a nice clip if you love ’80s movies.
Around the NHL:
How Can Concussion Problems in Hockey be Fixed? – Elliotte Friedman from CBC writes an interesting story on concussions in the NHL. What surprised me the most was the doctor saying he actually hopes that the number of concussions rises in the future so we are more aware of the problem. Friedman consistently puts out good stuff, and this is no exception.
Michael Nylander’s Career in Jeopardy – Sobering news out of Rochester as it appears that Michael Nylander sustained a broken neck after a hit in a game against the Grand Rapids Griffins. Nylander is one of those guys who was always underrated for what he could do, and there’s talk that he may never play again. The checker in question was Brendan Smith, although everything I’ve read indicates it was a clean hit. Our thoughts go out to Nylander as we wish him a speedy and full recovery.
Is Hiller a Killer? – The Ducks are not very good. We know this. But, one of the few things they seemed to have going for them was a solid goaltender in Jonas Hiller. However, Anaheim Calling is wondering whether he’s a bigger contributor to the Ducks’ early struggles than people realize. I’ll say this: giving up 40 shots a game will make any goalie look bad.
Burish Apologizes To The Pronger – I just started reading Broad Street Hockey, but they are really good. In this post, Travis reminds us that career fourth-liner Adam Burish took a few potshots at Chris Pronger after the Hawks won the Cup last year. Remember that Burish did not play in the final 3 games of that series, yet had the audacity to call out Pronger (not that I blame him). Here, Burish apologizes for his comments, probably because he knows that Pronger doesn’t seem like the type of guy to let bygones be bygones.
