Head Hitting Controversy

Headshots have been talked about to death, but the question is whether a head shot is suspension worthy.

A lot of media outlets are out raged that Bertuzzi was not suspended for his hit yesterday. Being a big Tuzzi fan, I still agreed, until I thought of it some more. THe new blind side rule basically says that “a lateral, back-pressure or blind-side hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and/or the principal point of contact." aka. don't fuckin' clock the guy in the head. However, it doesn't say if you should be suspended or not for it.

To my recollection there is another rule which prohibits a player to hit another player in the face with his stick, but that's a 2 minute minor.

Until the NHL straightens things out - this topic is gonna be beat around the bush more times then Ke$ha.

In my opinion, you should just make a baseline game suspension for hits to the head and tack on more games depending on the severity of the injury, Even if the hit to the head was accidental. You still get a penalty for high sticking, so you should still get a suspension for head hitting

Lidstrom Makes Me Angry

video

Heres the video footage i promised. ffwd to 28:10. turn up your voloume to hear the "fuck" and keep watching for like one minutes later to see how angry lidstrom makes bert. that was a sick tap. bert knew he had it sniped right into the net and conklin could do nothing. but who needs a goalie when you've got the magical hands of nik-lid.

bertuzzi played that entire powerplay i think. its good to see that keenan still has lots of confidence in bert even when hes not scoring goals.

-hark

Did anyone see bert say "fuck" last night

late in the third, the game was tied and flames were on the powerplay, the puck comes to bert at the side of the net, Conklins out of position so bert lobs the wrist towards the net but lidstrom taps it out of the air at the last second like a wizard. Then Bertuzzi screamed "fuck" so loud that the deaf kid who was at the game with the make a wish foundation even heard it. On TSN it sounded like they had bert miched. and then he went back to the bench and continued to utter curse words under his breath while Keenan called a time out. he was still uttering curse words like 2 minutes later... it was hilarious. ill try and find the video.

Battle of Western Canada Last Night

Calgary Played Washington and won 2-1. The first goal by the Flames was trickling across the line, and Bertuzzi almost touched it to add his 6th goal in 6 games, but it crossed the line before he could leave the mark on the scoreboard. Iginla got credit for the goal, which gives him 2 on the season.



Interestingly enough, BErtuzzi is a -4 and Iginla is a -6. This makes sense, considering many of their goals are scored on the powerplay, and don't factor into the +/- differential. But it seems like some better defensive play is going to be needed from these lines. Also, Bertuzzi is going to have to score 2 goals next game, to stay on his pace to be the first player to score 50 goals in 50 games since Brett Hull did it in 1990-91.

Canucks lost 4-2 to Columbus. The only silver lining is Bieksa looked great. He had a great fight and a goal. Two years ago, Bieksa looked like he might develop into a Phaneuf, but last year he was plagued by injuries, and when he did play he blew chunks. So far this season he has not been great, but by stepping up his physical game he might find himself more capable of getting his mental edge back. check out this fight, it is going to be a favorite on hockeyfights.com:



Luongo only let in 3 goals, because one of columbus's goals was scored on an empty net. On 32 shots he had 29 saves. These are pretty good numbers. But he still let in 2 goals in the first 10 minutes, and this is hard for a team to recover from.

Bertuzzi

He had a great game again last night. He scored his fifth goal in his fifth game, still on pace for 82 goals this season.

He played with Iginla on the powerplay and it always looked deadly. Then he played with Conroy on the second line for much of the game. This line had a lot of pressure throughout the game, even though it did not score. Bertuzzi had good presence of mind, and was setting players up to put a lot of pressure on Edmonton.

The only complaint about Bertuzzi, would be that he is not being very physical. Every once in a while you see him line up for a big hit, but he usually lays off. Iginla has already been in 2 fights this season, but bert has not been in one.

Flames fans don't despair, you always start the season off really shitty. The fact that you've got Bert the superstar, and not Bert the Floater, means that you will have a great season.

check out this fight last night. the flames player looks like he got his ass kicked. but when you consider that Macintyre outweighs Prust by 75 pounds, then you realize that Prust did an amazing job. The hit by Macintyre is the best hit so far this season, and Prust had to stand up for his teamate who just got boulderized by Macintyre.



-hark

Todd Bertuzzi Scores Twice in Flames Win

Good Job Bert. Already in his third game as a Flame, he has three goals. he's on pace for 82 goals this season.

In other news, Chuck Kobasew is injured. He has a fractured ankle and should be out for a good portion of the season.

kevin Bieksa, the canucks defender, is also injured. He was injured in Saturday's game against the flames when he went down akwardly. This is bad news for the canucks, because bieksa missed 47 games last season. reports are saying the injury is only "mild". I went to a thai restaurant the other day, and asked for only mild spice, and my mouth was burning so hot that i was out of the lineup for over 20 games.

-hark

Will Bertuzzi and Phaneuf Get ALong?

I wonder if they will ever go to Chianti's together. They seem to fight each other a lot and really hate each other. Is Iginla the mediator between them? Do they all play rockband together?


-hal

New national Anthem

The CBC has chosen the new theme song for Hockey Night in Canada. The Finalists were a thirteen year old kid and a music teacher. The music teacher won. I wonder how much work the thirteen year old kids parents did for him? Both were pretty good songs nonetheless. I voted for the winning won (it cost me 50 cents via text message). I like the bagpipes in the song.

In other HNIC news, if anyone thought it was impossible to choose a worse hockey analyst than Kelly Hrudey, they have recently been proven wrong. Kelly and Ron are now joined with legendary GM Mike Millbury. Mike Millbury known for such ridiculous signings such as Alexei Yashin to a long ten million dollar contract (which the isles will still be paying out for years to come), trading Bryan McCabe and Todd Bertuzzi for a washed up Trevor Linden, and trading Roberto Luongo and Oli Jokinen for Mark Parrish (Mark who?). Yeah, i really want this genius to analyze the game. At least he makes Kelly Hrudey look a little bit smarter (not much). But i feel sorry for Ron Mclean. He starts the 4 oclock game, and has to work with mean Don Cherry who yells at him. And then at the 7 oclock game, he has to work with 'dumb and dumber' (copyright Battle of Western Canada) and put up with their shinanigans. Ron Mclean is Jesus reincarnate, for not having blown up at the people he has worked with.

-hark

News From the Flames Training Camp

Keenan On Bert: 'I'm going to start with he, Langkow and Iginla and go from there and evaluate the players as we go along.'

Bertuzzi on 'Playing with Jarome': ''It's pretty flattering. He's probably one of the top-three players in the NHL right now.'

Iginla on Bert's Health: ''He looks great. Everybody knows him as a big power forward, but he's extremely skilled and really great in front of the net obviously, but a really good passer.i think it'll be exciting. I've had an opportunity to play with him before and I liked it.''

The city has mixed feelings on whether they can forgive bertuzzi or not. But Mike Keenan is a man that doesn't give a shit about his reputation, and has been characterized as 'captain hook' for his tactic of repeatedly switching his goalie. Watch for Iron Mike to do illogical moves such as giving bertuzzi more ice time, when the media is bashing big bert for the next unfolding in the Steve Moore legal saga.

Bertuzzi has the potential to fill a very core role in the team with the vacancies of Huselius and Tanguay. if Bertuzzi earns some time on the powerplay with Iggy, maybe he can find some chemistry with Iginla and work his way to the top-line on a regular basis. But if the Bertuzzi of the two-seasons-past prevails, then your left with a 2 millioni dollar floating beheameth that drags in loads of negative media attention.

But if there ever was a player that could bring about a renaissance in the superstardom of Todd Bertuzi, it certainly would be Jarome Iginla.

The Sad State of Hockey Journalism in Canada

Recently the Calgary Flames signed former super-star power forward Todd Bertuzzi to a one year contract. The Calgary Herald, which usually is a patriotic Flame paper, decided to run a majority of articles bashing Bertuzzi. Some think that this might be the Todd Bertuzzi story; but it truly isn't.

The Calgary papers want to run the Todd Bertuzzi story. There are 2 possibilities of what the Todd Bertuzzi story will be.

1)Todd Bertuzzi sucks and doesn't deserver to be a flame. Then a few months into the season a confirmation that Todd Bertuzzi sucks because he's not scoring. Then ignore him for a while but criticize Darryl Sutter. And then several months of trade rumours about Bertuzzi.

or

2) Todd Bertuzzi sucks. Then at the start of the season: Todd Bertuzzi is amazing and producing far beyond what most thought he could. Bert is really meshing well with the team and the Flames have a steal of a deal. they just might have what it takes to win the cup.

This is typical Toronto Star Media. Instead of cheering on the team and being patriotic, they sell a story that sells papers and can be dragged on for months. Look at how long Toronto was able to drag on the Mats Sundin rumours about a trade deadline deal, when it was quite apparent that Sundin did not want to wave his no trade clause at the deadline.

But the media will not change, because they don't care about the true fans, they just care about the everyday reader. That's why true fans of the calgary flames and the vancouver canucks read this blog.

hark

What Shall Brian Burke Do?

Currently his team is sitting with a salary of 51 million dollars. He Still needs to sign Corey Perry. Does he let him walk as an RFA and accept compensation? Or do you trade away a player to free up cap space to sign perry? Given that the ducks have already lost McDonald, Bryzgalov and Penner, Burke will probably want to sign perry.

Teemu Selanne and Doug Weight are UFA's, and there will not be enough cap space to sign them. This will inspire future posts concerning their 'sweepstakes'.

Does Brian Burke disassemble the league's strongest defence to free up cap space? You can't trade Beauchemin because he only makes 1.65. Pronger and Neidermyer are almost untouchable. So the odd man out is Schneider and his 5.65. On offence you could also trade Bertuzzi. But with his 4 million dollar salary you would get very little return. Anaheim is in a very sticky situation.

I'm starting to think that Brian Burke might not be such a smart man afterall. Maybe Toronto Maple Leaf fans will agree with me in about 4 or 5 years.

-hark