October 2, 2013

Recent FiveForBoarding Post on ThePensNation.com

by Andi Perelman Hockey in the News, NHL Fights, The PensNation • Tags: andi perelman, brodeur, bryzgalov, buffalo, canadiens, colton orr, cory schneider, fiveforboarding, flyers, george parros, grabovski, habs, hockey, hybrid icing, nhl, sabres, sports, thepensnation

It is finally October and the NHL season has officially begun. The first games of the 2013-2014 NHL season took place yesterday and hockey news is already creating a buzz. So while I watch the Detroit vs. Buffalo game, I will fill you in if you got a late start on watching hockey (don’t lie – I know I was the only one watching hockey during the Buccos’ playoff game).

Parros vs. Orr: Even if you did not watch one second of the Toronto vs. Montreal game on 10/1/13, you still probably saw the fight between Colton Orr and George Parros. Both players are known enforcers, and the fight ended up getting a bit out of hand when Parros smacked his head off the ice. Ouch. Long story short, Parros was escorted off the ice on a stretcher and is out indefinitely.

The interesting part of this whole fighting/concussion debacle is how media sources are deciding to respond. ESPN wrote an article about how Parros’ concussion reignited the fighting debate, while Sports Illustrated took the completely opposite viewpoint saying that the Parros’ injury would not affect NHL rules at all. The best coverage of the injury and what it does or does not mean for the NHL rulebook came from Hockey Night in Canada (no surprise there). HNIC actually had the argument between analysts. See that video here.

READ MORE OF THIS ARTICLE HERE: http://bit.ly/1g5Fkia

May 6, 2013

Countdown: Three Calder Nominees, Two Teams Fighting, One Lost Tooth

by Andi Perelman Hockey in the News, NHL Awards, NHL Fights, The PensNation • Tags: brandon saad, brendan gallagher, calder, calder memorial trophy, calder trophy, canadiens, espn, florida panthers, habs, hockey, jeremy roenick, jonathan huberdeau, mike milbury, milbury, montreal, new york rangers, nhl, nhl awards, nhl playoffs, nyr, ottawa, pageau, pens, rangers, rick nash, roenick, senators, sens, sports, the pens nation, the pensnation

Before you take a look at my post on The PensNation, I want to add a quick tidbit. In my article I didn’t state my opinion on who should win the Calder Memorial Trophy. Now that I’m on my own blog, I want to formally endorse Jonathan Huberdeau. Huberdeau was phenomenal all season, despite playing on Florida Panthers, the team with the worst record in the NHL. Huberdeau also tied Nail Yakupov in rookie scoring. Pretty impressive considering the talent Yakupov has on his line in Edmonton. I also know that Huberdeau is a great person from working on some of his marketing materials during my time interning at Octagon. Overall, a great choice for the Calder, and he would’ve had my vote.

Without further ado, here is today’s post on The PensNation: http://bit.ly/15lLrfD

April 25, 2012

Torres’ Hit on Hossa: How does it live up to other big NHL Suspensions?

by Andi Perelman Hockey in the News, NHL Fights, NHL Playoffs • Tags: bertuzzi, billy coutu, blackhawks, bruins, chicago, chicago blackhawks, chris simon, coutu, coyotes, cross-checking, crosscheck, crosschecking, hockey, hockey fights, hollweg, hossa, illegal hits, islanders, jarkko ruutu, nhl, nhl fights, nhl hockey, nhl playoffs, nhl playoffs 2012, phoenix, phoenix coyotes, raffi torres, ruutu, ryan hollweg, slashing, sports, steve moore, suspension, todd bertuzzi, torres

Here is a video of Torres’ nasty shoulder hit on Hossa in the Coyotes vs. Blackhawks 4/17/12 playoff game . Torres got a 25 game suspension for this hit. Even though this is a injury-causing shoulder hit, 25 games is a long time. This ensures that Torres will not play until part of the way into next season (and he will definitely miss the rest of the playoffs this year).

I was left to wonder if I have ever seen such a long suspension in the NHL. I did some research and there were some (but not many) suspensions that were for 20+ games (only 5 in total that were for 25+ games). Needless to say, the video footage is hard to watch. I was surprised to see how much these suspension-causing penalties differed. Torres got in trouble for throwing his shoulder into an illegal hit, but some of these other suspensions were caused by punching, cross-checking, slashing to the face, and even an attack on a referee.

Check out the hit that ended Steve Moore’s career and got Todd Bertuzzi suspended from March 2004 until August 2005.

30 games is the highest number of games a player has ever been suspended for. That record goes to Chris Simon of the NY Islanders for stomping on the leg of Jarkko Ruutu.

Chris Simon also got a 25 game suspension for slashing Ryan Hollweg in the head. This might be the worst one to watch. Ouch.

And lastly, the only player who was suspended from the NHL for life was Billy Coutu of the Boston Bruins in 1927. He started an all-out bench-clearing brawl in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final when he attacked two of the referees (yes, tackling was involved). The NHL ban was dropped after a couple years, but Coutu never played again. Unfortunately for all of us hockey fans, there is no footage of this event (considering it was in 1927). And just to put that in perspective, that was 2 years before there were any rules about off-sides in the NHL.

Do you think the Torres suspension was fair? Should he have received 25 games? Now we just have to wait and hear if Torres is going to appeal his suspension.

April 15, 2012

Penguins vs. Flyers, Game 3: Penalty Count Embarrassing

by Andi Perelman Hockey in the News, NHL Fights, NHL Playoffs • Tags: adams, asham, crosby, engelland, fights, flyers, giroux, grossmann, hartnell, hockey, hockey fights, kunitz, letang, neal, nhl, nhl fights, nhl penalties, nhl playoffs, niskanen, penalties, penalty, penguins, pens, philadelphia, pitphi, pittsburgh, playoffs, rinaldo, schenn, shanahan, simmonds, sports, staal, sullivan, timonen, voracek

Not much to say about this other than it is embarrassing.

This wasn’t playoff hockey, it was a wrestling match.

March 20, 2012

Staged Fights, Should the NHLPA Allow It?

by Andi Perelman Hockey in the News, NHL Fights • Tags: brandon prust, bryce salvador, cam janssen, deboer, devils, eric boulton, fight, hockey, hockey fights, john tortorella, mike rupp, new jersey, new york, nhl, nhl fights, peter deboer, pierre lebrun, rangers, rangers devils brawl, rangers devils fight, ryan carter, sports, sports news, stu bickel, tortorella

Regardless of your stance on NHL fighting, this video is pretty shocking. I have a couple of quick points I would like to address regarding this multi-fight madness:

There should be clear-cut line between fights to change the momentum of the game and staged fights to beat the living hell out of the other team (aka fights off the face-off). Isn’t player safety more important than a fight about starting lineups and angry coaches before the game has even started?
If you are going to put a defenseman in the circle for the face-off, you are looking for trouble.
Ryan Carter is quite the bleeder.
Fights should not occur before anything in the game happens. Those coaches should be punished for that type of staged chaos. And Tortorella should be ashamed for yelling curses at DeBoer from the bench, real classy John.
This is not the first time these two teams have gone at it within the first couple seconds of the hockey game. It has actually happened twice already in the past year (December 2011 and February 2012). Shouldn’t something be done to stop this trend?
This kind of fighting is not ‘part of the game’. The NHL isn’t MMA fighting and there should not be mindless bashing-in of skulls without cause. Pierre Lebrun of ESPN said this about the fight: