Happy Monday!
This week on the show we’re talking NHL playoffs & suspensions, along with some of the first teams to move on to the next round and another clock controversy from last week’s action. Also: we discuss a perfect game in the MLB and a legend leaving women’s basketball.
In the GABBYs: Martin Brodeur, Jamie Moyer, Washington Capitals fans, an Alabama parent, the Charlotte Bobcats and the Orlando Magic. The Punchline this week is high school baseball player Jameson Painter.
Raffi Torres (Wikimedia Commons)
We all knew Phoenix Coyotes’ agitator Raffi Torres would be suspended. But for 25 games? My initial reaction is and continues to be Wow!
But that was the case on Saturday as NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan completely threw the book at the former Oiler. Torres, who delivered a nasty hit on Marian Hossa of the Chicago Blackhawks in the early stages of game three of the Western Conference Quarterfinal on Tuesday night, received the second longest suspension in NHL history. Hossa, meanwhile needed to be carried off on a stretcher and hasn’t played since the incident took place.
Torres, who amazingly, didn’t receive a penalty on the play by referees Ian Walsh and Stephen Walkom, is a repeat NHL offender. He has been suspended twice before in his career for incidents. Torres also delivered the hit at a time when the NHL is being scrutinized by the media for the dirty level of play by an influx of players who have participated to date in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
It will also be interesting to see if Walsh and Walkom get second round assignments after their own negligence in missing the call.
Was the suspension fair? Let us know what you think.
This week on the show we’re discussing the latest big suspension from the NHL and some of the major playoff races – who’s in and who’s out? Meanwhile, in the NFL, the league comes down hard on the New Orleans Saints over the team’s bounty program and the Denver Broncos win the Peyton Manning sweepstakes!
In the GABBYs: Kevin Love, Leo Messi, Fernando Torres, Ben Eager, Wayne Rooney and Joba Chamberlain. The Punchline this week is a Tim Tebow inspired drink!
Another chapter has been written in the ongoing feud between the Boston Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks.
On Monday afternoon, the NHL suspended Bruins forward Brad Marchand for five games for a hit on Canucks defenceman Sami Salo in a 4-3 Vancouver win on the weekend. If you didn’t see it – here’s my take on what went down:
As both players skated towards a loose puck, Marchand heads south for a low hit (which isn’t a great idea) and Salo starts to turn away (again, perhaps not a great idea). The latter ends up flipping over the former’s back and landing awkwardly against the boards, suffering a concussion.
The Bruins agitator was given the gate for “clipping” on the play, which is one you don’t hear very often, and will now forfeit over $152,000 while he sits and watches. (AFTER THE JUMP: The the full explanation from the NHL…) (more…)
Rene Bourque (Wikimedia Commons)
The Calgary Flames found out today that forward Rene Bourque of Lac La Biche, Alberta was suspended five games for a hit on Nicklas Backstrom in Calgary’s 3-1 loss to the Washington Capitals last night.
Bourque, who elbowed Backstrom in the jaw area, acted in “recklessness” according to Brendan Shanahan, the National Hockey League’s Vice-President of Hockey and Business development. Bourque received a two-minute minor for the incident.
Bourque, who previously was suspended for two games on December 19, will have to forfeit over $200,000 in salary. He previously hit Chicago Blackhawk defenceman Brent Seabrook from behind and was disciplined by the NHL.
Backstrom meanwhile, will be out for a few days, before bein reevaluated by the team according to Capitals head coach Dale Hunter.
Bourque is scheduled to return to the lineup on January 17 against the San Jose Sharks. The Flames have a record of 18-18-5 and are four points back of the eighth place Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference. The Flames next play in Boston tomorrow night.
Happy Monday!
Another week has come and gone in the world of sports, but don’t worry, we here at 15 Minutes of Fame are here to let you know how it all shook down! This week: we recap the final day of the MLB season, discuss the Eskimos loss in BC (and the Jerome Messam fight) and go through all the latest from the NHL. Oh yeah, and Edmonton is getting a new pro sports team!
In the GABBYs: The Tampa Bay Rays, the Texas Rangers, Terrelle Pryor, the Pittsburgh Pirates, Eugenio Velez and Carlos Tevez. This week’s Punchline is the guy who threw the banana at the Wings/Flyers preseason game!
Is fighting about to go the way of the red line in the National Hockey League?
With all the talk about headshots and concussions around pro sports these days, we all knew the topic was going to at least come up a few times. Add to that the fact that the league lost three ‘enforcer’ type players over the summer, and it became a perfect storm of sorts for the discussion to be had.
On one side of the debate, you’ve got the people who will argue that fighting is a part of the game and taking it out would just make the sport soft. Others will point out that the role of the enforcer is quickly evaporating and a lot of fights are pre-arranged and have little to no effect on the momentum of a game.
Both sides are right, to a certain extent: fighting is a pretty big part of the game, and has been for ages, but the game would probably be just fine without it.
The other layer to the argument is the one that the NHL is now looking into, and that is the injury side of the equation.
Brendan Shanahan, the NHL’s senior vice president of player safety, confirmed to the CBC on Thursday that they’ll be examining whether or not fighting still has a place in the game… (more…)
Happy Monday!
This week on 15 Minutes of Fame: Hockey fans welcome a new era of NHL discipline, Oilers look good early on, the Drew Doughty holdout continues, Mike Modano retires as a Star, the Eskimos up & down season goes down (and AC gets KO’d), Manny Ramirez launches a comeback bid and Victor Ortiz runs his mouth.
In the GABBYs: Mariano Rivera, Tony Romo, Owen Hargreaves, Wayne Simmonds, the NBA & the NFL…and this week’s Punchline is Fox Sports!
The Shanahan Era
Brendan Shanahan officially kicked off his reign as the NHL’s head disciplinarian on Thursday in a big way!
Shanny suspended Flames forward Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond (or “Peter Hyphen”) for the rest of the preseason (four games), plus one regular season game for a hit on Vancouver’s Matt Clackson on Tuesday. It was a pretty standard hit from behind, but nothing like what Jody Shelley did the next night!
Shelley absolutely destroyed Toronto’s Darryl Boyce from behind, leaving the NHL’s VP of Player Safety no choice but to throw the book at him. The Flyers enforcer, who was suspended twice last season, will sit out the rest of the preseason (five games) and the first five games of the regular season, at a cost of $67,073.15.
Shanny let us know about the suspensions via a couple of videos on the NHL website on Thursday, a first for the league.
You know, I was a little bit worried about the level of consistency we’d be seeing from the NHL this season after watching the breakdown of the new headshot/boarding rules this week, but it might not be so bad after all. I still think it’s going to be very tough for the on-ice officials to pick out the subtleties of these rules at game speed, but the supplemental discipline side might make up for that…(AFTER THE JUMP: League bans men from games, Fan recreates Fernando Torres miss on FIFA 11) (more…)
If you were hoping for an NHL season free of headshot confusion, it doesn’t look like you’re going to get your wish this year.
The NHL put out a video this week, starring VP of Player Safety and Hockey Operations Brendan Shanahan, to help explain the changes to the rule that governs headshots and the rule that takes care of boarding. They both seem pretty straightforward…that is, until they get into the examples of what is legal and what isn’t!
Let’s start with the rule changes themselves:
The NHL has decided to take the ‘direction’ out of the wording of Rule 48 – meaning that we won’t be looking for North/South vs. East/West this season. Instead, any hit where the head is targeted in “an intentional and/or reckless way,” and is the principal point of contact, is now a minor penalty.
It’s now also up to the referee to take into consideration whether or not the player being hit put himself in a vulnerable position just before or just as contact was made. Rather than dishing out major penalties for headshots, refs will now hand out minors where they see fit.
As for Rule 41 – boarding will now be called anytime a player “checks or pushes a defenseless player” in a way that makes him collide dangerously with the boards. So, the onus is on the player laying the hit to avoid or minimize contact in these situations.
Once again though, if a player turns right before contact is made, the referee can decide not to call a penalty.
Both of those changes seem pretty easy to follow, right? I thought so too, until I saw what scenarios the league decided to go with to explain them! (more…)
The passing of Wade Belak on Wednesday in Toronto sent an all-too-familiar shockwave through the hockey community.
Indeed, 2011 has been a challenging year for the NHL.
It all started on January 1st, when Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby fell victim to a blindside hit during the Winter Classic. He played part of his team’s next game, but hasn’t played since. It’s now eight months later and he still hasn’t been able to shake his concussion symptoms.
A few weeks after the hit on Crosby, Marc Savard suffered another concussion. The Boston Bruins playmaker became the face of a growing problem in the NHL when he was blindsided by Penguins forward Matt Cooke in March of 2010. He didn’t play again until December of that year, and after this latest concussion, it doesn’t look like he’ll ever play again.
Things took a much darker turn a few months later in May when NY Rangers tough guy Derek Boogaard, who had missed most of the season with a concussion, was found dead in his apartment. It was later determined that he died of an accidental overdose of painkillers and alcohol. READ MORE… (more…)
Happy Monday!
It’s another jam-packed week on 15 Minutes of Fame, as we hit our 50th episode!
This week: Will Sidney Crosby miss time this season? Will the SJ Sharks finally get that Stanley Cup this year and is Drew Doughty going to be a holdout for the Kings? Are the Winnipeg Blue Bombers the “real deal” in the CFL? Also: Is this the Year of the Work Stoppage in pro sports?
In this week’s GABBYs: The NY Yankees, the BBC and Sir Alex, BYU, IndyCar and North Korea’s women’s World Cup team!
Happy Monday!
The boys from “15 Minutes of Fame” are back at it this week with another great sports-filled episode – this week we’re talking about Brendan Shanahan’s new job, the latest on “That Winnipeg NHL Team,” possible landing spots for upcoming free agent Brad Richards, a big rookie mistake at the Indy500 and FIFA corruption!
In the GABBYs: U2 shout outs, first time faceoffs, Jose Bautista, baseball death threats, a bargaining chip for players unions & more!
Colin Campbell (Bing Images)
Colin Campbell is finally eliminating his role as head of discipline from his duties as the senior vice-president and director of hockey operations of the National Hockey League.
In my opinion, it was about time.
Campbell, whose son Gregory, has played in the National Hockey League since 2003, should have relinquished his duties then.
The bottom line is there was too much conflict of interest. I know Campbell tried to recuse himself when he thought his intervention would be considered controversial, but recent developments have shown that his role was not the best for the overall integrity of the NHL.
According to TSN, in 2010, Campbell, was accused of sending a string of emails to the former Director of Officiating, Stephen Walkom. In one email, Colin apparently criticized referees who had given Gregory a penalty.
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