Sykora Finally Free from Tyranical Benching
Earlier today, the Minnesota Wild placed veteran winger Petr Sykora on waivers, leaving this reporter wondering what is next for the Stanley Cup champion.
Categories: Atlantic, By Teams, Eastern Conference, Minnesota Wild, Montreal Canadiens, NHLHS Features, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Northeast, Northwest, Pacific, Phoenix Coyotes, Pittsburgh Penguins, Western Conference Tags: Andrei Kostitsyn, Chris Kunitz, Garth Snow, James Sheppard, Luca Caputi, Martin Havlat, Mathieu Darche, Minnesota Wild, Petr Prucha, Petr Sykora, Robbie Earl, Todd Richards
Categories: NHLHS Features Tags: Alex Auld, Andrew Brunette, Antti Miettinen, Corey Perry, Curtis McElhinney, David Backes, David Poile, Devin Setoguchi, Jason Strudwick, Joe Pavelski, Manny Malhotra, Martin Hanzal, Mason Raymond, Mikko Koivu, Patrick Kane, Petr Prucha, Radim Vrbata, Ryan Clowe, Terry Murray, Todd Richards
The New Coyotes
After a hectic and worrisome summer, the Phoenix Coyotes came into the 2009-2010 season completely revamped. With a new coach, Dave Tippett, and a new owner, the Coyotes have remodeled their roster, acquiring fourteen of its 25 players in the year 2009.
The new roster has proven to be a successful change, as the Coyotes with 45 games played sit fourth in the Western Conference with 26 wins, and 56 points. They are on pace to shatter the Phoenix Coyotes franchise record, of 95 points (achieved in the 2001-2002 season)*, with a total of 106 points. If the Coyotes want to establish the Coyotes fan support in Arizona, they will need to make the playoffs—and ideally, win the first round. Through half the season, the Coyotes have proven they are a new, rejuvenated team (average age of team is 27.8 years) that can win.
Though attendance has not been outstanding this season at Jobing.com Arena, the Coyotes have posted a great home record (16-6-1), and fared decently on the road (10-8-3). Hopefully the days of 5,000 fans in attendance are gone, as they will need the support to continue winning.
Though the Coyotes dropped their home opener to the Columbus Blue Jackets (2-0), bringing back the White-Out showed how great the momentum and energy can feel when the Coyotes play in front of a nearly sell-out crowd.
Categories: Around the League Tags: Adrian Aucoin, Daniel Carcillo, Daniel Winnik, Dave Tippett, Ed Jovanovski, Ilya Bryzgalov, Jason LaBarbera, Martin Brodeur, Martin Hanzal, Matthew Lombardi, Paul Bissonnette, Peter Mueller, Petr Prucha, Robert Lang, Ryan Miller, Sami Lepisto, Scottie Upshall, Shane Doan, Wayne Gretzky, Zbynek Michalek
Here’s to a New Year Without Head Shots
I am certain that an opinion piece of this nature will upset each team’s fans but these head shots have got to stop. Of course, we are all hockey fans and love the big hit, some live for it but there needs to be a line drawn with the increasing speed to the game. These hits need to stop or else hockey becomes a survival of the fittest in which young players stand little chance of establishing a career due to playing scared due to footage from the last gruesome head shot.
While the League’s general managers mull over a rule change, I would like to propose a rule change of my own. Repeat dirty hits will lead to a permanent suspension from the League. The OHL instilled a similar rule when they banned Michael Liambas, a notoriously dirty player, from playing in their League following a career ending hit against Ben Fanelli. This instance marked just another time Liambas made a questionable hit, you cam see another one on first overall pick John Tavares here. The NHL made a similar move with former NHL pugilist Ryan Hollweg, essentially calling any hit remotely borderline until he played his way out of the league.
The moral of my rant will be that these types of players simply do not deserve a paycheck in the National Hockey League. A League where the rest of the world comes to play and play for the sport’s greatest trophies. What kind of message does it send when careers start to end due to these injuries? Do we need Sidney Crosby or Alexander Ovechkin seriously injured before we start to see lifetime bans?
My nominees for a lifetime ban…
Categories: 30 Team Series, Around the League Tags: Alexei Cherepanov, Andrew Peters, Anze Kopitar, Brandon Sutter, Brent Sutter, Chris Drury, Chris Pronger, clar, Clarke MacArthur, Curtis Glencross, David Booth, Dion Phaneuf, Jarkko Ruutu, Jaromir Jagr, Michael Liambas, Mike Richards, Patrick Kaleta, Paul Mara, Petr Prucha
