Link hits: Busy weekend for off-ice officiating, Pens PP needs to improve, praise for Matt Cooke

by FrankD on Oct 26, 2009 11:06 AM EDT Comment 1 comment

More photos » by Pablo Martinez Monsivais - AP

Tough decisions this past weekend for a lot of the NHL's off-ice officiating crew. And by that I mean, judging what is a legal or illegal hit and handing down the proper fine/punishment.

Following Thursday's Atlanta/Washington game, Alex Ovechkin was slapped with a $2,500 fine for his slew-foot on Rich Peverly. As someone watching the game, I can honestly say it didn't look like it was intentional, and I think the league at least took notice to that. Either way, Ovie was fined and Caps fans weren't too excited about it. [Washington Post]
You've already probably seen the David Booth/Mike Richards hit that I posted up yesterday afternoon, but on Friday night Colorado's Darcy Tucker and Carolina's Tuomo Ruutu got into a bit of a situation too. Ruutu delivered a hit to Tucker (video) that sent him headfirst into the boards. It didn't end well. Tucker is out for quite some time and Ruutu will lose $59,000 and sit out for three games. I've heard someone say Tucker may be out for the season, but I couldn't find anything to confirm that. [CBC]
9-2 is a nice record to have after 11 games, but even those two losses look like daggers in the back for Pittsburgh's Mike Yao. Dan Bylsma wants improvement on the power play. [Trib-Review]
All hail Matt Cooke, destroyer of worlds. [Post-Gazette]

SBN power rankings land later today. I can only imagine a regulation loss to the Devils will have them dropping a spot or two. Regardless, I'll have it linked up later.

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The two losses? Whatever. It’s a looooong season, and there are no trophies for winning the month of October. And even if there were, even great teams toss out a few crappy games in the course of the year. As long as the Pens are in top form come April and May I’ll be happy.

Re: the Ruutu and Richards hits, this is the one thing I can’t f—-ing stand about the NHL. The league seems to basically have a 2-step approach to dangerous hits, which goes as follows: (1) We have no problem saying we care, but we don’t care enough to actually do anything about the problem; (2) If you’re a star player, don’t worry, all we’ll give you is a slap on the wrist for one of these hits. (The last is directed at Richards, not Ovechkin, BTW. Like his knee to Gonchar in last year’s playoffs, I thought OV’s slew-foot was reckless, but not an attempt to injure.)

P is for Latrobe.

by holiday park on Oct 26, 2009 2:37 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs