Somehow I dont think this will get copy on CNN…

Slovakian player Martin Mraz attacks an official during a Slovakian League playoff game.

Senseless violence, or every hockey fan’s dream?

After tonight’s game versus the leafs, the Lightning play out the rest of their schedule at home. It should be a welcome sight for a team that has dropped four of it’s last five and clings to the top seed in the East by one point going into tonights action.

And after tonight it is very possible the Bolts will be playing catch-up in the points race, unless they wake up and start playing like the team that went on an 18 game point streak through March and May and had not lost a regulation overtime game in a months time.

Calgary and Nashville have a history. It dates back to last year when Tomas Vokoun left his crease to deliver a strong elbow to Jarome Iginla. It continued when Iginla fought back againt Vokoun in a later game. And again this year when Jordon Tootoo threw a late punch at Iginla after knocking Iginla down in a fight.

Sense a trend here?

Saturday nights game was more of the same from Nashville. The Predators spent most of the game tackling Flame players, crosschecking them, interfering (my GOD the interfering) with nary a call. After a time, Calgary picked up on the lack of calls and returned the favour. Ville Niemenen crosschecked an opponent in the back, only to be crosschecked in the face himself.

And finally, Chris Simon pinned down by Scott Hartnell in a holding match, deep in Nashville’s end, in the final minute, forcing the flames offside for 30 seconds, costing a chance to tie. Ultimately, this led to a scuffle which involved Iginla being targeted once again, and the Flames somehow shorthanded.

Barry Trotz took a frustrating situation and made it worse by sending Jordon Tootoo - who was a lightning rod for trouble all night long - out with three seconds left. Calgary, down to four skaters, countered with Oliwa, and its three biggest defensemen in Regehr, Warrener and Commodore. This move promptly caused Trotz to haul Tootoo back on the ice for his own safety. The hockey hero of Nunivut responded by taunting Oliwa and the Flames from the safety of his bench - typical of his cowardly style.

And thus, the scene was set for the Flames to send the message that needed to be sent. Everyone knew it. 40 players and two coaching staff’s knew it. CBC knew it. The officials knew it. 18,439 fans chanting “O-LI-WA! O-LI-WA! O-LI-WA!” knew it.

Down went the puck, and off came the gloves. Krysztof Oliwa, unable to find anyone willing to dance prior to the faceoff, was actually skating away to the Flames bench when the fights started. The remaining Flame players werent going to take it anymore. After two years of constant dirty play by the Predators, payback was in order. That brawl was a message to “Smashville” that their dirty play will no longer be tolerated.

More importantly, that brawl was a message to the NHL itself. A message that the NHL has typically overlooked. By failing to call the Predators (and to a lesser extent, the Flames) transgressions, NHL referees, and by extension, the NHL itself, are guilty of condoning the sort of cheap, chippy violence that plagues the game. The end of this game is what one should expect when the referees lose control of the game through their own incompetence.

In the post Bertuzzi era, the focus on violence is intense. Unfortunately, the focus is only on the result, not the cause. Until the NHL starts looking at why brawls happen, this league can never become proactive in preventing violent outbreaks.

In the case of the Flames-Predators game, all it would have taken was for the officials to call both teams for the blatant tackles and interference that would have made an NFL lineman proud.

Saturday’s brawl was all on the officials, and the league itself.

Welll, it’s not as bad as the 2003 one….

TSN.ca - NHL - Canada’s Sports Leader

TORONTO (CP) - Payback cost Mark Messier a two-game suspension Monday.

The league handed the Rangers captain the ban Monday, one day after Messier was ejected for spearing defenceman Martin Strbak in front of the Pittsburgh net during a New York power play.

Part of the entire reason the NHL had a grisley accident with Todd Bertuzzi and Steve Moore is because of wrist-slaps like this when someone does something to injure someone…

What would have been the reaction if Messier was suspended for the rest of the season for intentional foul? Not much, really, seeing that Mark might be on his farewell tour and isn’t playing for a Playoff team.

Yet some of these weak suspensions are sending the message that “Hey, the media is after us - we have to show something to them that says we will not tolerate this stuff.” It’s no wonder that, with these incidents and the NHL’s lukewarm reception to disciplinary action, the league can’t shake it’s goons-on-ice image.

I’m not saying ban fighting (which is a straight forward attempt-to-injure) but you have GOT to step forward and do something when players use sticks as weapons, take cheap shots and the like. Too many get away with it without so much as a penalty being called on them…

I haven’t posted much in the last few days and it’s not because of the Lightning being slowed if not stopped by the opposition, but just because of personal reasons.

At any rate, the Lightning have lost the last 3 of 4 and plenty of worry warts are saying the end is near…. In the past few games the Bolts have seen several no-calls on penalties committed against Martin St. Louis and other members of the Lightning. This team has played a load of games in a very short span of time and are showing the affects of it right now. Not just being tired but being bruised and battered and getting nothing much more than a sympathetic “Sucks to be you” from the refs when a penalty isn’t called.

Maybe this is just sour grapes for the Lightning losing? Then again, I thought refs were supposed to call games evenly all season long? I also thought intentional acts to injure were supposed to warrant league retaliation against said player (go back to the Craig Adams incident in Carolina)?

I’m starting to feel like it will be a good thing if the league shuts down - someone needs to get there head out of there ass and restructure the sport from the ref level right up tot he Commissioners office…. Bettman and Colin Campbell aren’t getting it done.

From TSN.ca - NHL Mailbag

Scott — Last thing that might be on people’s minds right now with the trade deadline, the playoff chase, the Presidents Trophy duel, playoff seedings, team rebuildings, labor issues and the like. Should the NHL realign again and nix the East / West alignment? Hear me out… Some of the teams that are stashed in the west are anything but (Columbus a part of the west? Detroit? Chicago? Usually one considers the west being the left side of the Mississippi river… Not just that, but the ultra-regional alignment (northeast, southeast) ends up leading to a load of trashing of fans in the south (because, lets face it, the Southeast division is a joke even if it hosts one of the best teams in the league with the Lightning). Wouldn’t it be better to mix up the markets a bit and have two conferences of East-Central-West divisions? This might hurt some rivalries in the short run with how realignment turns out, but in the long run it could foster some great rivalries between teams we wouldn’t even consider rivals now. John Fontana, Palm Harbor, Florida

John, there is merit to the idea from a pure hockey sense, because I certainly agree that lumping substandard teams in the Southeast isn’t exactly the best way to promote hockey to new markets. On the other hand, and it’s guaranteed we’ll get sick and it’s guaranteed we’ll get sick of hearing this before 2004 is out, hockey is a business and the owners like having geographically-aligned divisions because it cuts down on travel costs. The loser in the equation becomes the fan who wants to see players in the opposing conference, while the fan who likes the geographic rivalries (Montreal-Toronto and Ottawa-Toronto are pretty big around these parts as I would imagine Florida-Tampa Bay might be where you are, even with the limited history of the two teams). Since I can’t even fathom a situation in which the owners would agree to something that increases their expenses, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for realignment if I were you. - SC

SO much as for me making my post regarding needing NHL realignment :tongue

TSN.ca - NHL - Canada’s Sports Leader

Hey Scott, I have been hearing lots of stuff being thrown around about how Tampa Bay gets horrible crowds and no one in Florida cares about hockey. The other day I was watching a game on Tampa’s Sunshine network and its a good station, good commentators and the such but one thing I didn’t get was that they kept showing rules of the game. Like when the other team pulled their goalie this “Hockey 101″ thing popped up and it sayed pulling the goalie gets you another skater on the ice or something but there were others. One more thing is that my local radio station had this little prank phone call thing they did every night where they called the U.S.A. and asked them a question. Well one day I happened to be listening and they called a gas station in Tampa and asked the girl if she was happy that the lighting were in the playoffs. She had no idea who the lightning were and had no idea what he was talking about. Thats what I call Sad! Scott Semenchuk, Winnipeg,MB

Scott, I guess that’s just one of the things we take for granted in Canada. The rules of hockey are just a given here, but it’s just not that way in the southern States because they are relatively new to the sport. Even in a place like Washington, where NHL hockey has been around for 30 years, you’d be surprised at the explaining of rules.that still goes on. It’s really just a function of the relative importance that hockey has in our respective cultures. I’ll bet the people in Tampa would do a heck of job picking up zone blitzes and showing the nuances of a cover-two defence in football. - SC

:rolleyes:

And for the sake of passing on the attendence to those in Canada who only believe rumors that they are told with regards to attendence. Don’t tell me no one shows up.

Ted Fleming over at Tampa Bay Sports Net chimes in on the Bertuzzi vs. Moore incident and the ensuing media backlash. His logic about the violence in American sports and the hypocritical condemnation of Hockey for it’s violence is on the he right track…

The media is overplaying the incident in a character assassination much like other character assassinations they have performed in the past (Howard Dean’s “Yell” clip being replayed over and over again), but it’s not Bertuzzi’s character that is being dealt a blow. It’s the entire league that’s taking a fall because of it.

Ya’ gotta love The Instigator…. Basically sums up what is going on in the NHL with humor