Once in a while, you gotta SQUEE.

Not only did the Bears managed to clinch a playoff spot yesterday AND have a line brawl involving my favorite backup goalie......

I got Andrew Gordon to sign my jersey. And managed to keep my eyes open in the picture. :-)

He also says he's going for the Mike-Green-As-A-Bear-Originated Playoff Mohawk as of next week, which just amuses me to no end.

(And video of said Line Brawl where you get Cheezer(Daren Machesney, the goalie) in Triumphant Agitator mode...)


Sadly, I didn't get any Stalkercam 8000 pictures of it, as it was down the glass in the corner on the same side I was on, but you can bet I was screaming and yelling and jumping up and down and teaching the kid next to me all sorts of words he didn't need to know until he got to middle school.

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More thoughts on the Roy debacle

So, after all of the calls for banning fighting in hockey, I decided to take a look at some leagues that do, in fact, ban fighting. In other words, fighting results in immediate ejection, and in three fights result in a one game suspension (in some of these leagues) and three of those suspensions result in a longer suspension.

I also found the video of the fight.

Next, I looked at NCAA hockey. Where fighting is banned - it results in an automatic ejection.

Or is it? Look up University of North Dakota Hockey on YouTube. They've been involved in several brawls this season alone.

I go back to the Midget AA games I went to this season. There were fights, regardless of suspensions and ejections.

The fact is, fighting in hockey isn't always about fighting. Especially not at the junior level. At level, fighting is about stupidity, and try as we might, we cannot make rules against stupidity. Sure, we can make rules and laws that try to protect people from their own stupidity (seat belt laws) and the stupidity of others (non-smoking laws), but people will still be stupid if they chose to be stupid.

What Roy Jr. did was stupid. It was a senseless act of violence. Senseless acts of violence occur in rinks every year and every year, one of them garners enough media attention to make the bleeding hearts demand a "ban" on fighting.

I'm not a bleeding heart. Sure, I think a lot of fighting that occurs in the game is stupid. I thought last year that Jordin Tootoo acted a fool. I think its awful that Todd Feodoruk's cheek bones are mush.

That said, I believe that you cannot legislate stupidity. You simply can't. No matter what rules you put in place someone will break them, and claiming that making an example of Roy is going to make a difference is ridiculous.

If you're going to make an example in the CHL, you need to make an example of EVERYONE. The line brawl in the Windsor-Sarnia series resulted in ONE suspension. Compared to 9 suspensions in the Sagueens-Remparts series. Now you tell me which league made an example that fighting in the game is unacceptable?

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Sometimes The Officials Get It Right

[Cross-posted from IPB]

We are like every other hockey fan in that we spend a lot of time bitching that the officials never do anything right. We're always ready to heap scorn and outrage on some hard-working referee after we get to review his every call in excruciating detail and from multiple angles. So we'd like to take a moment now to appreciate a call made in this evening's Bruins-Penguins game.

We were in the middle of dinner, up to our elbows in chicken tacos, when our attention was drawn to the TV by the quivering excitement in Bob Errey's voice. It seemed that Georges Laraque and Zdeno Chara were squaring off to fight, and Errey squealed that this was the bout he'd been looking forward to for weeks. And so the two behemoths struck ye olde boxing poses, and spent a long moment sizing each other up while the officials swept their discarded gloves aside. Then they spent another long moment waving their fists at each other in what they surely thought was a menacing manner. Then they spent another long moment bobbing and weaving in nearly imperceptible, spastic torso fakes. Then they spent another long moment waggling their eyebrows at each other as if to say, "Wanna go? Let us earn our keep by our fists like men!" Then they spent another long moment wondering if they'd turned off their stoves before leaving home. Then they spent another long moment clenching their fists into ever more imposing weapons of flesh. Then they spent another long moment whipping out the financial pages of the local newspapers and reviewing their stock portfolios. Then they spent another long moment waiting for the airplanes passing overhead so the noise would not be a distraction.

What we're saying is that they spent ages wasting time posturing like a couple of preening, pantywaisted peacocks on parade.

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Philosophical Musings from Sam Mitchell

^{REUTERS/Marc Serota}

Caught this story on AOL Fanhouse where Toronto Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell had some comments regarding violence in hockey:

It's part of hockey. That's their culture. If hockey players go in the stands, it's hockey. Right? Seriously. Basketball players go in the stands? Ohhhhh, the sport is out of control.

Hockey players fight up in the stands! Basketball has one incident and all of a sudden... oooooohhhhhhh. It was a major thing. How long in history have hockey players been going up in the stands? Since time began. Why don't you all write about it like you when it happened one time at a basketball game? One time. I have my theories why, but I'm not going to comment.

I can understand Mitchell's frustration. He's the head coach in a city where it's All Leafs, All the Time and even with a winning team, the Raptors have a hard time drawing the same type of crowd the Leafs are able to draw despite being mediocre to down right awful most of the time. Plus, he works for MLSE so is probably privy to whatever clusterf*ck is going on in that organization half the time.

But like Fanhouser Greg Wyshynski pointed out in the comments, having violence and donnybrooks as part of your culture is hardly a flattering image to be saddled with. It makes hockey seem one dimensional and it's bad enough that the American outlets feel that the NHL is only newsworthy whenever these sideshows happen, even though they account for only a small portion of the game.

Like I pointed out in the comment thread, Mitchell is also inaccurate in suggesting people just shrug at hockey players going into the stands. There are boards and glass protecting the audience from the ice for crying out loud, so getting up there is pretty much a chore in itself and it has never and will never be seen as acceptable. The fact that the audience is protected from the on-ice shenanigans is why fighting in hockey is more acceptable and in basketball it isn't because there's no barrier between the hardwood and the audience. The debate can go on forever, but it also needs to be pointed out that there's a difference between two players with pounds of gear that resembles armour exchanging a few punches than two guys in shiny shorts exchanging punches.

Jiri T-Lusty
Deadspin caught onto this story a number of days actually and since nothing much came of it, I figured it would just blow however. However, living in the fishbowl and being privy to Leafs Media, the story of Jiri's Cameraphone was pretty hard to avoid. I'll just say this, even yours truly did a few stupid things when she was 18-years-old and quite possibly had too much to drink. I will say that it is always ill-advised to be snap happy in compromising positions when you're 'famous' because they will inevitably end up on the Internet but everybody just needs to calm down and relax. I'd find the fact that Bryan McCabe just gave another game away last night on a silver platter as a more troubling issue.

^{Cross Posted to Scarlett Ice}

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I-95 Highlight Reel

Not for the weak of heart or short of time:-)



As IPB has already given us the heartfelt and intelligent version of the Hlog I-95 meetup, I'm going to go the "Best Of!" route, and I'm going to attempt to do it in chronological order. This may get ugly quickly.

All images used within can also be found at my Flikr site

Your blog for tonight will consist of:Pookie, Schnookie, CapsChick, Elly, Steph and Shmee. Your team will be the Washington Capitals. (or the Hershey Bears.)

Friday:
I arrived at Shmee's apartment. If parking was truly lighter than other days, DAMN, I am NEVER moving to D.C, as I went around a 6 block area for about 20 minutes looking for somewhere I could park Turco's ample posterior. (Turco is my 1997 green Subaru station wagon. Big. Slow. Green..... he sort of named himself.) After the pleasantries and introductions, we decided to go punish our livers in the rainbow district nearby.
Enter Gay Danny Briere. No joke. Little guy, button down shirt, dark hair cut into that awful shaggy-wedgy-wants to be a gymnast style, and I couldn't stop laughing. I believe there was a text message to the CapsChick/Steph party about him, but I was rather fermented at that point, and can't be sure. After soaking ourselves up in a little greasy fried stuff, we moseyed our way home, and crashed for the night.

Saturday:
We got going late, the Metro hung us up, and we stopped for Starbucks, so we didn't actually get to Kettler until around 10:40. Once there, it quickly devolved from "Get to know You" to "World's Loudest Hockey Fans Invade D.C. Mall, Details At 11." For whatever reason, one of the recurring weirdness of the weekend became Elly and my desire to make as many of the Caps as possible bastard love children of the Pens and to figure out their parentage. Our crowning glory was as follows:

This also allowed me to coin the phrase, "He's Maloney in the eyes."

Of course, later on we decided that all hockey players had a variation on one of about 12 heads, which is why so many of them look so similar... then every 20 years they bust up all the molds and make a new batch. But more on that later, when we get to Fluffy and BabyMalkin on Sunday.
It turns out that the Caps were also not the only team there. The Canucks had sent their forward scout, Comrie "Thorguld" Sedin. This poor guy got the dreadedly unsubtle 'turn and stare' from all of us, and was sufficiently creeped out enough to avoid making eye contact for the rest of the day. Of course, as far as weirdness levels go, Cape Dude was the hands down champion.

After the rookie scrimmage, (that's Scott Barney from Hershey) we wandered across the lobby en mass to the other ice rink, where we found the big boys doing drills. (and lost Elly to one of those dumb crane games.) It's ridiculously thrilling to me to be standing literally on the other side of the glass as two people attempt to shove one another through it, so I was having the time of my life. This was also the longest time we saw Ovechkin practice for the entire weekend. He and Semin seemed to have this idea that because they were the big names, they didn't really need ice time that badly.
Onwards, there was lunch (nachos and dip and chips and beer... some people had sandwiches), over which we discussed the role of the female fan, and how you couldn't really wear a Sidney Crosby jersey or and Ovechkin jersey and be taken seriously. Schnookie got the winning quote from that conversation when she brought it home with "We're sports fans...who objectify." I managed to challenge her quote supremacy later on the way back to Shmee's house, when we had to climb 2.5 stories on a dead escalator out of the Metro and nearing the top I whined "I'm getting Sidney Crosby butt from this!"
Shmee greeted us with a drink that went from being named "Rachael Ray's Spiked Pink Lemonade" to "Pink Drink of Firey Death" and the evening went downhill from there. Between Rocky-Horrorizing The Cutting Edge (we even had the SIDE PONYTAILS, come on) and Shmee recounting her adventures in supposedly skanky clothing, the evening could really only end with a field trip. And where else would one go on a field trip than to the Verizon Center?

Sunday:
Up and at it on time this time. Loaded into Turco, picked up the rest of the troops, and headed out the the rink again. This time, we settled in for the drills and actually watched what was going on, about three rows back from what we were guessing were Ovie's parents. Ovie and Olie were in rare form from the beginning, scrapping verbally during a shootout drill then each dancing when they managed to best the other. However, Olie's game disintegrated from there, and by the time they were done he had cracked his stick and wound up throwing it off the ice at one of the equipment people. CapsChick started edging away from us early this time, especially after Steph asked in true Steph loudvoice "Is Olie looking especially creaky today?" The rest of the first round players were in high spirits, however, and two of them wound up horsing around amusingly as well.
After a slight Zamboni break (and a chance for us to go raid the Caps store for the *right* team's stuff, we went back out to watch the prospies. Enter Fluffy, BabyMalkin, Backcountry Pyatt and NotMachesney. (in reality, Jay Beagle, Dan Kronick, Tyler Sloan(I think) and Kris Mayotte) interestingly enough, Alexander Semin was also lumped in with this second group, but spent more of it lounging on the boards and looking disinterested than he did actually playing. It was interesting to see the prospies go through the same drills that the big boys had just finished, because you could tell that these were the guys who were really WORKING to do well and make the team, not the guys that knew they were already there. Frederic Cassivi (Hershey's goalie) was down in the same net Olie had been in earlier, and wasn't doing much better. He seemed to be overcommitting to one side of the net and disregarding anyone not in his immediate line of sight. We debated getting him a flowerpot to improve the chi of that end of the rink, but decided that probably wasn't gonna be enough to help him. The other goalie, Kris Mayotte or NotMachesney, (as he was NOT Daren Machesney from Hershey the way we thought he was, but a potential Machesney backup, as Machesney broke himself at some point in the near past) was doing much better overall. After finding out that he was an import from the Arizona Sundogs, I really hope that they decide to keep him around and send him up here to Central PA to play with the Bears... not only was he showing some real promise, but he seemed to be meshing with all of the other prospies pretty darn well.
As all the prospies were packing it in for the day, we also got the treat of getting to watch Puck Handling 101, which was pretty downright amazing.

And of course, as we were leaving for lunch, we wandered into the other rink and watched the last period of a local hockey club's game, which was really much less GAME and much more FIGHT. I think I actually physically squee'd when the two dudes started pummeling each other directly in front of us, and I took way too many pictures, just proving my previously known goon slut tendencies.

All in all, I couldn't have come up with a better way to spend a weekend. Except maybe Pens camp, but even then, I wouldn't have wanted to spend it with a different group of people. I think the I-95 meetup may well become a half-yearly thing, and Elly and I are already plotting towards the Ice Bowl in Buffalo.


Oh, and when you thought it couldn't get much better? Hershey Bears open practices start Thursday.

I'll see you there!

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GMGM is Old School...and Hanlon's a Loon

(x-posted to A View from the Cheap Seats)
Need something to take your mind off this sloooow news day?
This is fantastic:

Even if you don't like fighting (or the Rangers), there's just something satisfying about seeing little George McPhee taking on Tocchet.

Even more satisfying? Current Caps' coach Glen Hanlon.

Trust me, you won't want to miss the last minute of the video.
(As if I needed another reason to love ol' Hugs and GMGM...)

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Jordin TooToo Acts a Fool

(x-posted to Objectionable Conduct)

I've been doing a lot of thinking recently (scary thought I know - but dumb blondes who party with the boys are actually capable of thinking) about why fighting is acceptable in hockey.

You see the incident pictured above occured last night during a game between Dallas and Nashville (bad TooToo Train bad) and it will, inevitably, lead to another storm of controversy about why fighting is acceptable in hockey when it is not acceptable in any other professional sport.

First of all, I would like to point out that that is not entirely true. Bench clearing brawls are as much a part of baseball as fighting is in hockey. Fighting is completely acceptable in the NLL as well (National Lacrosse League).

However, my thinking has led me to several conclusions about fighting in hockey, and why you cannot eliminate it from the game.

Many people ask why fighting isn't acceptable in basketball, but it is in hockey? Many people then bring about the issue of race - the majority of basketball players are of African descent, while the majority of hockey players are as white as the ice they play on.

I don't see this as a race issue at all, I see it as a logistics issue. Look at the seating at your typical basketball game. There are courtside seats, and nothing between the players and the fans. When basketball players brawl, it inevitably spills over into the stands. Someone not involved in the game gets hurt or worse, does something stupid and gets involved.

Now look at a hockey arena. The glass seperates the fans from the players. The gates keep players off the ice from getting involved. There are rules about leaving the bench during a fight. Those who are not involved are not going to get involved, nor will they get hurt.

What about football? You ask. The simple fact is, there are plenty of dirty shots in the pile ups that officials don't see. There is so much contact in football (more so then hockey) that the need to fight simply isn't there. Add to it the fact that the average play in football last no more then 30 seconds and there's a whistle?

Well it makes it hard to really start anything. The pace of the game simply doesn't allow for it. Not to mention the number of people on the sidelines at games - despite the seperation of fans from the players there are any number of people on the sidelines at most pro football games and much of the security is in the stands. Someone who wasn't supposed to be involved would get hurt.

In soccer, you have to eliminate fighting, because, world wide, what happens on the field spreads to the stands and then to the streets, without fail. Vancouver and Montreal have both experienced hockey riots. This escalation in violence has resulted in the Italian League going on a brief haitus this year. It is this without fail escalation that makes fighting unacceptable in soccer.

In baseball, the pace of the game doesn't really allow for regular, boiling over anger. However there are still occaisions when players charge the mound and the benches clear. That is viewed as a part of baseball in much the same way that fighting is a part of hockey. You cannot eliminate it from the game.

I maintain that fighting isn't just about violence. It's about passion and emotion - either feeling it or creating it in the building to help your team.

I don't believe that trying to put a stop to fighting will do ANYTHING to prevent incidents like the Chris Simon incident OR the Jordin TooToo incident. Sometimes people do stupid things. They happen in every sport. Ron Artest did something stupid in Detroit. Carmello Anthony did something stupid in New York. Plenty of football players (can you tell I don't really follow then NFL? Except during playoffs of course) have done stupid things in practice, fighting with teammates. Not to mention the spitting. I seriously don't understand what it is with football players spitting on each other.

Stupidity is the most destructive force in the history of humanity, and unfortunately we cannot eliminate stupidity without even more big brother style interference.

One of my favourite authors wrote these words for one of her characters:

"He was stupid. If I killed everyone who was stupid, I wouldn't have time to sleep." - Alanna of Trebond/Tamora Pierce

We can't eliminate stupidity. It just isn't possible, and to me the problem in the NHL isn't the fighting. Its the stupidity of some of the people doing the fighting.

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Isn't it Amazing?

What I think is amazing is this: the Buffalo Sabres have to have the best fans out there. I'm sorry, but it's true! As you recall, there was a "unfair" hit against Chris Drury from Chris Neil. Many did not believe it was dirty, but the way Neil acted last night I think made it significant that he had the intention of hurt Chris Drury. He instigated (Is that a word? Maybe he was the 'instigator.') many fights last night, but only one was started between himself and Adam Mair (along with an anticipated fight between Andrew Peters and Brian McGratton). He also barged in after McGratton got in Danny Briere's face during the game warm-up, Adam Mair also showed up to make sure nothing happened.

ANYWAYS... Lindy Ruff was fined $10,000 because he put the Peters, Mair, Kaleta line up verses the Spezza line on Thursday. Now, every player agrees, he did not tell them to do anything, only to get on the ice. Now, that right there made Buffalo mad, so some people decided to make a statement and help out. For instance, Pesci's Pizza, a Buffalo pizzeria, decided to donate 10% of their proceeds to Lindy Ruff to pay his fine. Also, in some towns farther to the south, a school is suggesting students who are Sabres fans donate a dollar, also for Ruff's charge. As a result, the Sabres organization released this statement-

STATEMENT FROM THE BUFFALO SABRES ON FANS WANTING TO DONATE MONEY TO THE BUFFALO SABRES TO HELP PAY FOR LINDY RUFF'S $10,000 FINE:
"The Buffalo Sabres organization is aware of some fans wanting to donate money to help pay for the fine that was levied on Lindy Ruff by the NHL on Saturday. It certainly is a wonderful gesture by our fans to want to assist Lindy through various fundraisers, but the team will pay the fine. We do not want fans to donate any money to Lindy or the organization as a result of the fine."

Although, many people were expecting this, so Chris Phillips, co-owner of Pesci's Pizza specified "If Lindy wants to donate it to a charity of his choice or the Sabres Foundation, that would be fine with us." I mean, how many cities would do that for their team. It reminds me of last year in March, when the fans were very supporting of the Ruff family because his daughter, Madeleine, was discovered to have a brain tumor.


By the way, I change my answer to number 5 on the questionnaire.

5. If you had to punch one hockey player or member of the NHL Organization, who and why?

Chris Neil, because I hate him for what he got away with.

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Madness

Six games, seven injured players. Chris Drury taking a blow to the head worries me big time. He looked coherent and left the ice on his own power so hopefully that's a good sign.

Crazy ass game between Buffalo and Ottawa tonight. Peters went a little overboard at the end of the brawl I think - he had no business going after Emery - but hey, mess with the bull (Drury) and you get the horns (Peters and Mair). The team has been listening to opponents call them soft for the past few months and good for them for standing up for Dru, the one guy on the team they should absolutely be willing to go through a wall for. (Not that they wouldn't or shouldn't do so for anyone else... But Chris is the heart and soul of the team, in my opinion.) And my beloved Marty was in a goalie fight! He got his ass handed to him by Emery but who didn't see that coming? (Marty after the game: "I hung on for dear life and tried not to get hit in the face.") Throw in the coaches standing on the benches to scream at each other, an overtime and a shootout and that was the most awesome game I've ever seen in person. Bizarre, hilarious, entertaining and totally awesome.

Here's video for the curious. It's worth watching if you haven't seen any footage or heck, even if you have:


(Please be okay Chris.)

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The Post that Hlog doesn't want to see

A bit of background on yours truly:

I've been an Edmonton Oilers fan since the early 90s. My parents were never big fans so the ability to choose a team fell on my shoulders. I've been actively following the Oilers for about 13 years - Age 12 to present. Like many of the women on this site, my fan-ness verges on obsessive. I work at an Oilers bar (in Vancouver!), I help run an Oilers blog, I have several pieces of memorabilia and an strange overwhelming interest in Marty Reasoner. But my interest doesn't stop at the Oilers. I'm a stats junkie, having written many pieces (that I should publish) about the economics of the nhl (especially relocation) and a thesis paper about women in sports broadcasting. (My first degree was in Economics and now I'm working on a diploma in broadcast journalism.) During the lockout, I went to Austria to see the World Hockey Championships. And my interest doesn't stop at hockey. I love sports, the competitiveness, and the athletic skill. I have played many sports at a high level and none of them were hockey.

So, why the lengthy intro?

Because I want you to understand the background behind someone who doesn't believe in fighting in hockey.

During the locked out period, many ideas flew around about how to improve the game. I think the best one I heard was to decrease bench size rosters by one player. Granted, the NHLPA was never going to agree to that - it would put 30 guys out of a job. Teams would have to allocate their fourth line players differently. With one less person, coaches would arguably want two players that could fill different roles on the team. Maybe a PK and a PP specialist? The "fighter" type would have less mobility in the lineup and would therefore be eliminated.

My biggest problem is the "fighter". If you're just going to send someone out there to drop the gloves when the puck is dropped, you might as well fit Mike Tyson with skates. And you know he'd be a draw to the arena in the US. What's the point of averaging as much ice time as penalty time?

I look at the international, junior and college play. Is anything lost in those games because you don't see the squaring off of two mediocre hockey players?

When I make this argument, usually the counterpoint is that a good fight can change the momentum in the game. I'd argue that a big hit (within the confines of the rules) can do the same thing. I don't condone injuring players on hits, but the effect of Raffi Torres in the playoffs was seen without him ever dropping his gloves. It's similar to a huge hit in football. It's within the parameters of the game and there's no stoppage for it to happen.

I think fluidity is what makes the game what it is. No other game has people travelling with that speed and skill. Ideally, stoppages would be limited to goals (obviously not possible). But the best games just fly by.

With recent rule changes, many teams are going without a fighter in the lineup. If a fight is needed, you see regular player take that role. But if Shanahan breaks his wrist or if (god forbid) Ethan Moreau throws out his shoulder when trying to punch someone, doesn't it seem erroneous? The clock wasn't even running when it happened.

No other sport gets to stop to fight. I think it's just an ancient tradition that has been held onto for too long. A lot has changed since pond hockey.

If purists believe that fighting is here to stay, then my suggestion is to let players fight. If they are that mad, fine. But you're out for the rest of the game and if it happens in the third period, you're also out for the next game. And your team isn't able to bring in an extra body to replace you.

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