NHL

A tale of two stompings

Filed under: NHL

The 8-game suspension handed down to Anaheim's Chris Pronger for stomping Vancouver's Ryan Kesler is being questioned by those who remember the 30-game suspension for a similar incident involving Wild winger Chris Simon.

First, here's a video of Pronger's actions:

Initially, the NHL wasn't going to penalize Pronger at all. That came as a shock considering how similar it was to an incident three months ago, before Simon joined the Wild, when he was given an unheard-of 30-game suspension for stomping Jarkko Ruutu. Here's the footage:

But then the NHL saw a new camera angle and scheduled a phone hearing with Pronger yesterday. Go to about :35 to see the new angle:

In response to the new footage, Pronger has been handed an 8-game suspension for the stomp. Not only is that 22 games short of Simon's punishment, the NHL actually went out of its way to try to justify Pronger's actions:

"In attempting to free himself, Pronger carelessly and recklessly brought his foot down," Colin Campbell, the NHL's director of hockey operations, said in a statement.

Go back and look at that new angle. Does that look like Pronger was just trying to free his skate? Looks a lot more like an old fashioned boot party to me. What do you think?

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at March 16, 2008 2:48 PM | Comments (0)

 

Wild sold

Filed under: NHL

KSTP is reporting that the Wild have been sold, and the news conference is streaming live from their site right now. Sources tell me that a very limited number of people even in the organization -- less than 10 -- knew this was happening until late last night.

The story breaking in this manner indicates that the timing of the leak is a decision from the very top.

Craig Leipold, former owner of the Nashville Predators, is the new owner, and has told told insiders that there will be no staffing changes and no organizational changes.

UPDATE, 12:56: It's unclear at this point whether Leipold just bought majority owner Bob Naegele's share, or if the whole former ownership group is out. I'm hearing it's the latter, but that's just speculation. I have to head over to 107.1 to do a radio interview, but I'll update this post as I hear more.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at January 10, 2008 12:36 PM | Comments (1)

 

Thursday almost liveblog: Wild times

Filed under: NHL

It's Thursday evening, and Thursday is the sickly stepcousin of Friday. Skies are gray. It is the next-shortest day of the year. My attorney calls me up. This, as anyone with an attorney can tell you, is rarely good news.

This is about the poop figures, isn't it? I say. If we're getting sued over that, I'm legally changing my name to Chadus Rigsborik and moving to Slovakia.

"Oh hell no," he intones. "I've got Wild tickets. Good tickets. I know people who know people." In addition to keeping me out of legal trouble, on occasion he plays the role of my muse. I've been in town six weeks, and haven't been to an NHL game. I'm sniffing at the promise of the night, and I catch the hockey-tinged scent of awesome. Let's light this candle.

The Wild's anthem, "State of Hockey," begins to play just as we hit our seats. There are scattered attendees singing along to the inspirational ditty.

"You know," my attorney offers, "that song has precisely the same meter as Edward Lear's poem 'The Owl and the Pussycat.'" After just a few bars of the anthem, I realize instantly that lawyer boy is right. Watch this clip, and you will, too:

Awash in liquid inspiration, my attorney begins to sing along:

'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!'

Like I said: muse. But people are staring now, so it's already time to change seats for a while. "This way," he suggests. "I know a bartender that'll get us free beers." You had me at free beers.

Hockey, it is often said, is more exciting in person. This is said for good reason. The Xcel Energy Center doesn't seem to have many bad seats, either. Even the vertigo-inducing upper deck affords ample views, as I found while strolling about and trying to prevent my attorney from singing further nonsense verses.

The Rangers score the game's first goal with less than 10 seconds left on the power play. The Team of 18,000 react like a deflated balloon. In retrospect, the Blue Jackets should have probably skated off the ice then. At the time, though, there is much dismay and gnashing of teeth. This was before the Marian Gaborik show started.

Interlude: Owned! Part One. Brent Burns blasts a Ranger into the boards with a forceful but clean check. Another Ranger skates up to defend his prone companion's honor. Burns offhandedly shoves him to the ice. A third and fourth Ranger skate up and jostle Burns, but clearly want no part of the inevitable loss of dignity.

An artist's rendering (warning: audio) can be found here. [/end interlude]

Even early in the evening, it's clear that Gaborik is moving well. As a casual hockey fan and newbie to the Wild, watching his virtuoso performance makes me feel a bit fortunate and a bit guilty at the same time. It's as if I've had one violin lesson, wander into a bar and find that Yitzhak Perlman is in town for an unannounced jam session with Andrew Bird. You're glad to be there, but you almost wish you could switch places with someone who could truly appreciate the artistry.

As Gaborik notches his third goal, the hats come out on the ice, dozens of them -- baseball caps, santa hats, toques. You name it. I half expect to see a Scrooge McDuck top hat. The JumboTron flashes a message that, in honor of the hat trick, all lids will be 15 percent off for the rest of the evening.

If the Wild just take those thrown hats and re-sell them at discount rates, I bow down before their superior capitalism.

Interlude: Owned! Part Two. Two kids, a boy and a girl, are brought out at intermission for a contest. They must identify recognizable figures such as the Genie from Aladdin, a skunk that is (against all odds) not Pepe LePew, and so forth. The boy goes first and gets two right, narrowly missing a third answer when he says "Nemo" instead of "Gil," who is the angelfish from Finding Nemo.

This is a controversial decision, because L'il Nemo was actually in the picture, though much smaller than Gil. The kid and his mom are visibly nonplussed. If it was my lawyer's kid, there'd have been a riot. He's already thinking of people to sue over this, I'm sure.

The girl has two right until the very end, and we're looking at a tie, until the last image flashes on the screen:

"Oh," the kid says casually. "Demitra."

Summary: one kid gets owned for a Wild prize pack because another kid recognizes Pavol Demitra. [/end interlude]

Just as the Wild appear to have a comfortable lead, defenseman Martin Skoula decides he's Chevy Chase playing Gerald Ford. He falls down while minding the puck less than five feet from goal. There is gnashing of teeth. There is consternation. I consider implementing a "defenseman falls down, do a shot" rule.

I imagine Marian Gaborik muttered something like "It's cool, baby" in Czech to Skoula at that point, because :41 later he had goal No. 4. A couple of minutes later, he had No. 5.

This brings us to the ultimate ownage. My lawyer and I order celebratory slices of pizza, and I ponder a heretofore-unasked question.

Denouement: Owned! Part Three. The name "Marian" (or "Marion") does not typically inspire intimidation. But perhaps it should. I offer the following tale of the tape between two famous men of that appellation:

Marian Gaborik

Proper Name: Marian Gaborik
Shoots: left
Best Performance: Five goals against the Rangers
Almost crippled by: Dominik Hasek

Marion Morrison

Proper Name: John Wayne, Duke Morrison, Marion Robert Morrison, Marion Michael Morrison
Shoots: Indians
Best Performance: The Searchers
Almost crippled by: Bodysurfing, progressive thinking

Full disclosure: I have a cardboard cutout of "Hondo" in my office. Looking at these numbers, though, I have to give the edge to the Czech in nearly every category. Fewer names is more bad-ass, and rocking the "Marian" with pride merits mad respect; time has not been kind to the politics in John Wayne's films, while hockey expertise is always in fashion; and while The Searchers is probably an even more impressive achievement than five goals (five goals hasn't been accomplished in a decade, but there will never be another John Ford masterpiece), on balance, the modern Marian takes it down.

The result are in, and Marian Gaborik is my new favorite Marian. John Wayne: owned on the same night as the Rangers. Not bad for a dreary Thursday.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at December 21, 2007 11:20 AM | Comments (0)

 

The "poke check" heard 'round the ice

Filed under: NHL

Hockey fan? Checked out TV sports highlights lately? Then you've probably seen Detroit goalie Dominik Hasek's gulp-inducing play from a few days ago, which upended the Wild's Marian Gaborik. If you haven't seen it, you want to. And if you wouldn't mind, indulge me in the following thought experiment.

First, watch this:

Now, answer the following questions in your mind. Is this a clean play? How about if Gaborik doesn't end up seriously injured? Does that affect your thinking? What if I tell you that it was a 5-0 game at the point this breakaway happened?

I hope the video commentary doesn't sway your answers, because I personally think their statements are fairly outrageous. The homers (who are employed by the Red Wings) keep harping on Gaborik having his head down, but Hasek just body-checks the Wild forward into the air. It's an extremely dangerous play even if the game's outcome was still in doubt. The fact this it wasn't makes me think the two minute minor penality for tripping assessed to Hasek was too lenient.

The Wild and the Strib agree. Hasek does not. MLive.com's Red Wings blog just reports both sides.

Fortunately, Gaborik did an acrobatic flip and escaped without serious injury. Still a cheap shot.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at December 10, 2007 3:49 PM | Comments (6)

 

We're Hockeytown, USA

Filed under: NHL

According to Sports Illustrated, that is. Minneapolis-St.Paul has supplanted Detroit as the top puck-friendly destination in America.

Michael Farber's pithy summary of why MSP is the new No. 1 after the jump.

"The Wild has sold every ticket to every game since it entered the NHL as an expansion team in 2000, but it has never tried to bigfoot hockey in a city that was home to America's iconic coach, Herb Brooks; the No. 2 U.S.-born career NHL scorer, South St. Paul's Phil Housley; the only cartoonist to draw a Zamboni-driving bird, Charles Schulz; and the leading state high school tournament in the nation. This is the unwritten hockey schedule in the Twin Cities: boys' hockey Tuesday night, girls' hockey Thursday night, the University of Minnesota Friday and Saturday nights. Boys and girls also play on Saturday afternoon. It is no coincidence that the Wild often plays on Wednesday and Sunday. This is a franchise respectful of the game, aware of its niche and almost obsequious in its treatment of fans. Minnesota high school hockey jerseys ring the outer concourse of the arena. Pictures of season-ticket holders appear on game tickets. The Wild even employs a full-time hockey curator to protect and promote the state's hockey heritage."

That's a pretty fair summation. Just one question: where's the love for the U.S. pond hockey championships, at Lake Nokomis next month? One more qualification to add to the stack.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at December 5, 2007 10:57 AM | Comments (0)

 

Vote for Boogey

Filed under: NHL

Derek Boogaard has been called many things: enforcer, tough guy, and goon. One thing he has not been called is "NHL All-Star."

But there is a movement afoot on the Internet to change that. At Vote 4 Boogey you will find everything you need to help elect the Wild's 6' 7" 270 lbs. forward.

Among other things, you can buy a snazzy "Vote 4 Boogey" t-shirt with the campaign platform: Respect. Courage. Justice.

Here is the website's explanation for why Boogey deserves an All-Star nod:

These are the virtues the Enforcer values and they are ensured through intimidation. While the 6'7" 270 lbs forward waits on the bench for much of the game, his presence keeps the game honest and boosts his teammates' morale. He takes pride in his non-pugilistic abilities, but when he takes the ice—everyone in the arena takes notice because the guilty will be confronted. And they will be held responsible.

Of course, faithful readers of City Pages are already well familiar with the many admirable qualities of the Boogeyman.

In The Boogeyman Drops the Gloves, I told the story of how an outsized boy who loved hockey found a way to play it professionally through toughness, endurance, and skull-shattering fists.

In The Boogeyman Unfiltered, Boogaard talked about what it was like to break Todd Fedoruk's face.

In Anatomy of a Hockey Fight, City Pages art director Nick Vlcek captured a blow by blow, frame by frame view of the Boogaard doing his handiwork in a marathon bout.

And in The Boogeyman's Greatest Hits (And One Miss), we compiled a collection of YouTube clips of Boogaard's best scraps. My personal favorite is the aforementioned Fedoruk facial reconstruction which you can see here:

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at November 29, 2007 1:18 PM | Comments (1)

 

Maybe he simply prefers Kodak

Filed under: NHL

Click on the picture of Yutaka Fukufuji to see why this is one of the more popular photos on Yahoo! this morning. Fukufuji played with Japan's national ice hockey team three times and was chosen 238th overall yesterday by the Los Angeles Kings in the NHL draft. In other hockey news, the Strib is reporting city bureaucracy is getting in the way of celebrating the Wild's return to the Xcel ice this fall. Apparently the dozens of hockey-theme banners hanging around downtown St. Paul violate the city's own rules against using public property to advertise a business. Deputy Mayor Dennis Flaherty says he will be seeking a waiver from the city council to keep the banners flying.

Posted by Corey Anderson at August 19, 2005 11:29 AM | Comments (0)