Islanders vs. Lightning Gameday: Yo, Wallace

and had lousy possession #s when he did.

Should fit nicely as the RW on a line with Bailey and Ullstrom. He has AAAA level scoring touch as he has got the goose-egg in 24 NHL games. He has adequate size, and functional AHL speed (The games that I have seen he has been able to push play down the wing). He’ll most likley won’t challenge any of the Tampa D past the blue line. Expect a lot of chip and chase when he has the puck through the zone.
He will get a real opportunity with a regular shift on that line. Martin might be a better option, but leaves them with two LH wings with Bailey, and two RH wings (Wallace and Gromet…aka Haley) on the fourth line with Marty.
I’d personally rather see Ullstrom move up to Grabner’s spot, and Wallace take the RW with Bailey and Rolston… better yet… Wallace-Bailey-Martin, Haley-Reasoner-Rolston. But in the world where Doug Weight’s buddies are costing the team $5M/yr that will NEVER happen.

DS: This article about Boogard and CTE was just beyond sad. One has to look at Mohamad Ali to see what repeated punches on the head and face can do later on in life.

Not to be callous, but it’s also incredible that the Rangers signed him to that contract if they really did know the medical history.

very sad story. I’m not sure the NHL needs to go all NCAA on fighting, but it could definitely eliminate the role via rules changes. One thing they do not use as much as they should is progressive penalties.
Per season:
1 fight, 5 min penalty
2 fights, 5 min penalty, $1000 player fine
3 fights, 5 min, $2K player fine, $5000 team fine.
4 fights, 5 min, $3K player fine, $10K team fine
5 fights, 5 min, game misconduct, $5K player fine, $20K team fine. 1 GM suspension.
6 fights, 5, game, $10K, $40K, 5GM suspension.
See how many guys have more than 3 fights, or are even dressed after the third one. The days of the 0 goals, 100+PIM guys would be DONE… but there would be room for a guy to vent his frustration with a hall pass once or twice… once the team fine kicked in he’d be on double secret probation.
One loopholes would be to dress guys ONLY when they were there to fight.. maybe 5-10 games per year. The league could close that loophole by making non-emergency Roster Spots have to serve 100 minutes of TOI or 30 days. See if teams will bring up a Sestito for two games and waste a roster spot for at least 10 games.

It almost seems callous to say this because Boogaard was a living, breathing human being, but his story plays out like a Greek tragedy.

All three parts are amazing. Things like:

In the fall of 2009, a doctor asked Boogaard to name every word he could think of that began with the letter R. He could not come up with any.

are basically unbelievable. Not something you consider when your blood lust is up.

And then guessing that these guys have had 300+ fights from the time they are 16 (when they are still developing), man, it’s just tragic.

I’ve never been an anti-fighting guy, but these articles have me considering it. Obviously, banning fighting isn’t going to end brain issues, and these guys all made a choice to get to the league using their fists. But at the same time they weren’t grown men when they made that choice, as alluded to here:

"If you’re playing pond hockey, 6 or 7 years old, and somebody said, ‘Hey Brantt, the only way you’re going to make it to the N.H.L. is fighting your way there,’ you think I would have done it?" the former N.H.L. enforcer Brantt Myhres said. "No way. I would have done something else."

And you have to love weasel Bettman, first questioning the link between hockey and head injuries and then going further with:

"If you polled our fans, probably more would say they think it’s a part of the game and should be retained," Bettman said. He noted that fights were down slightly this season.

"The issue is, do we increase the penalty?" Bettman added, referring to the five-minute punishment typically handed to both fighters. "Because it is penalized now. And there doesn’t seem to be an overwhelming appetite or desire to go in that direction at this point in time."

So basically, player safety should potentially be left in the hands of fan appetites. Good job commish!

As a mom of athletes I do worry about head injuries so much.

At the beginning of the football season, male child 2 took a VICIOUS hit (I am NOT a mom that comes flying out of the seats when one of my kids gets hit, but this one I was halfway down the steps before my hubby grabbed me and stopped me) and was checked by the trainer and deemed to be OK. But then a couple of days passed and we noticed he was squinting more and just, for lack of a better term, seemed loopy. But then again, he is 17, in love, knows it all and would rather hide any injury he could from us short of a compound fracture…and even that if he could hide it he would for fear that we would make him sit.

We took him to the Dr. and they said no concussion(thankfully), but it really made me wonder. Here in PA, the High Schools start baseline concussion testing once they register to play in 9th grade, but does that really do any good to do it in 9th grade? Most of these kids have already been playing for 5 plus years.

I totally support naming the new divisions:Banks, Bombay, Conway, Averman

I don’t get it.

I vote for Adams, Patrick, Norris and Smythe. After all, weren’t we pretty competitive in the Patrick Division once upon a time?

4. @tedstarkey NBC Favorites, Canadians and Floridians, Flyovers, and Teams that Air Too Late to Watch.

Made me laugh, even the “Well, it’s true” comment afterwards

It sounds like it is a sort of scholarly and lit-review approach to the series, but depending on the fan, that approach might be a wonderful revelation or it might be redundant.

There are some Amazon user reviews here, which might give a better sense of what kind of fan enjoyed the book in what kind of way.

that’s what had already happened.

What’s your angle? Sarcasm? Gravity? Really could go either way.

“off with his head” Then a slow motion reel of his head going down the stairs from the guillotine……or 2 game suspension. Whatever they think is best

I don’t know if anyone else found it, or posted it yet but I found this rather telling.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/opinion/2011/12/concussions-and-suspensions-list.html

Never know what will bring a lurker out of the woodwork! Sorry you had to miss the game — it was the least stressful one of the season, I reckon.