Occasionally Wright

A Remarkable Comeback

Way ahead of schedule in his recovery from reconstructive knee surgery, Dany Heatley is expected to play tomorrow night as the Atlanta Thrashers host the St. Louis Blues at Philips Arena. Given that Marc Savard was back six weeks early after an ankle injury you have to be amazed with the Atlanta doctors andrehab staff. Either they're miracle workers or they're reckless. Let's hope it's the first option and not the second. Afterall, Savard only lasted half the game before he was out with another (albeit unrelated) injury.

Heatley and the Thrashers organization are still waiting for an update on Heatley's legal situation. Given that the Snyder family has been supportive of Dany and doesn't seem to be eager to press charges and alcohol was not a factor in the accident it is possible that any charges will be minimal, if any are pressed at all.

Good luck Dany.

The biggest story in hockey right now is the Washington/New York trade that sent Jaromir Jagr to the Rangers for Anson Carter. Jagr will play his first game for his new team tonight here in Ottawa. Too bad nobody is broadcasting it. That's because Hockey Night in Canada assumes everyone would rather watch the Leafs and the Canadiens play in Montreal. I on the other hand loathe both of those teams so why on earth would I want to watch them? This will be the second week in a row that I wanted to watch the Senators and can't because it's Saturday night and HNIC opted not to pick up the game locally.

At least the Calgary/Tampa Bay game they've been pushing all week will be good. Oh wait, they're only showing that in Alberta and BC. We get the Predators and the Oilers from Edmonton. Yuck.

Thanks CBC. I'll probably watch A Bug's Life on ABC instead.

Brian Burke and the Boston Bruins

On Saturday the Vancouver Canucks dealt rarely used defenceman Jiri Slegr to the Bruins for a conditional draft pick. Vancouver GM Brian Burke has always liked Slegr and basically traded him as a favour so the guy would have a chance to play rather than sit in the press box game after game. For some reason the Bruins were the lucky team that got him. Is it a coincidence that a recurring rumour this season is that Bosotn GM Mike O'Connell's job is on the line and that Burke is being eyed as his replacement? Probably not. Burke's contract expires July 1 and negotiations with the Canucks haven't been going well. Vancouver is likely waiting to se ehow the team does in the playoffs. A good run could earn Burke a nice contract, a bad one could lead to him being shown the door. On the other hand, Burke's kids and grandchildren live in the Boston area. It sure would be nice if he could be close to them, wouldn't it?

By the way, Boston beat the Rangers 5-2 today with Slegr scoring the fifth goal.

Wanna Go?

ESPN.com has posted an outstanding collection of articles on the place of fighting in the NHL. All together there are 11 articles covering everything from the instigator and 'Rob Ray' rules to whether or not hockey should be completely banned from hockey. My personal favourite features comments from Jeff Odgers and Rob Ray concerning the Do's and Don'ts of being an NHL tough guy. Every single article is well worth the time it takes to read it and I highly recomend them to anyone with even a passing interest in the NHL. You can start here and follow the links on the right to get to the other 10 articles. Enjoy.

Roenick Suspended

Philadelphia Flyer Jeremy Roenick was suspended for one game for throwing a water bottle at a referee who failed to call a penalty when Roenick to a high-stick to the mouth. The related article can be found here, but consider yourself warned- the mugshot style photo Roenick posed for after the game isn't pretty. Earlier in the game Roenick was hit in the eye by a teamate's stick causing the first gash. The second one in the mouth came from a Buffalo player. What the article doesn't say is that immediately after the referee missed the call Roenick deliberately skated in front of the ref, away from the play, and spat blood at his feet. The ref did nothing. During a stoppage in play shortly thereafter Roenick went to the Flyers' net, took a drink from his goalie's water bottle, then threw the bottle towards the ref who was over by the benches. Following the game Roenick unloaded verbally while speaking to the media saying " 'Blaine Angus is standing right in front of me and he says he doesn't see it. What is he looking at? The National Hockey League has to step in and tell these guys to open up their eyes.' Roenick continued by calling the officiating ''terrible, absolutely terrible. Blaine Angus did an absolutely terrible job.' ''

All that and he gets off with a one game suspension. I don't care if he has a point and the ref blew the call. The 3 acts (spitting blood at the official's feet, throwing the bottle, criticizing the refand the league) each warranted a suspension in my view. Donald Brashear certainly would have gotten more than one game for the same actions and a minor league player would probably have gotten a dozen games in the AHL.

The display was ridiculously unprofessional and probably had as muc to do with the fact that the Flyers are winless in 6 games and have been outscored 22-8 in those games. To pour salt on the wounds, the losses were against Buffalo, Tampa, Pittsburgh, Edmonton and Florida with the sixth game being a tie with Buffalo.

The One and Only Cam Neely

It should have happened years ago, but tonight the Boston Bruins will finally raise #8 to the rafters, forever retiring the jersey of the prototypical power-forward, Cam Neely. If his career hadn't have been shortened by Ulf Samuelsson who knows how many goals Cam would have racked up (Neely was only 31 when he retired). Instead he finished with 395 goals and 299 assists in 726 career games, along with 1241 penalty minutes. 344 of his goals came in 525 games with the Bruins. Though it's not mentioned a lot Neely was one of the fastest to score 50 goals in a season, doing it in 44 games. Officially it took longer because Neely missed 3 games in between the first and last goals. The reason? He lost his father to brain cancer, six years after his mother died of colon cancer.

The term 'power-forward' is thrown around a lot these days in hockey and it's used to describe guys like Todd Bertuzzi, Brendan Shananhan, John Leclair (before he wrecked his back), and occasionally centres like Forsberg and Thornton. What you have to realize is that the term wasn't a part of the hockey lexicon until Cam Neely became the perfect combination of grit, size, strength and skill. As Terry O'Reilly said in the Boston Globe, "He fought, he shot, and he checked, and it was utterly impossible to stop him."

Neely still holds the Bruins records for goals in a season (54), career playoff goals (55), and playoff goals in a season (16), as well as points in one game (3 goals, 4 assists, 7pts).

I have three regrets as a hockey fan- never going to a game at the Boston Garden, never getting to see Ray Bourque play, and never getting to see Cam in person. That last one is the real kicker.

There will never, ever, be another Cam.

Other links:
Neely revered by Bruins young and old -Boston Globe
Neely's Great 8 -Boston Globe
Those Cam fires burn on brightly -Boston Globe
Who needs to be a hockey hero? -The Globe and Mail
`A presence on the ice': Former teammates applaud retirement of Neely's No. 8 -Boston Herald
Neely's passion surpassed his pain -Boston Herald
Slow start couldn't stop Cam -Boston Herald
Special night for Neely -The Enterprise

** UPDATE**
ESPN has finally decided to chime in on the retirement of Neely's #8. It took them a while but their articles are better than anything on TSN so far, so kudos. If you read nothing else on Cameron Michael Neely read John Buccigross' article which includes what he would say if he were asked to introduce #8 tonight in Boston.

The Bruins

Apparently the Bruins took what I had to say Wednesday to heart. They're now unbeaten in 4 games after shuting out Detroit in Detroit on Wednesday and beating Pittsburgh in Boston last night. Keep it up guys.

On a bizzare but related note last night I had a dream that Boston started 2 goalies and played 4 skaters. Weird.

Sports Shorts

It's been a while since I've done one of these, but here it goes...

If you're a Canadian hockey fan you already know this, and if you're an American fan you should know it, but Canada lost in the World Junior Championship Final on Monday to the United States, 4-3. Thanks to my loss of full cable I don't have TSN so I only got to watch the forst and last games, the second of which I lost at MacLaren's on Elgin in my new Team Canada away jersey that I got from my girlfriend for Christmas. I'm not going to say much about the loss and I haven't been forced to read any commentary on it yet. All I know is that it was a tough loss to take. Maybe we would have benefitted from some tougher games before we got to the final. The guys really didn't seem to know what to do once the Americans tied the game at 3 and I got the sens they didn't know how to deal with adveristy as a team. Nobody stepped up when it mattered, but mabe that' a bit harsh seeing as how they're all under 20. I suppose I should congratulate the American team (which was a very solid team) on their first ever tourney win, but it's bittersweet knowing they won because we choked. The last 2 goals were complete garbage but that's not their fault. We have noone to blame for those except our own team. So that's that.

In the NHL my pool team is struggling. Hopefully a week or two of attention can fix that. Oh yeah, the Bruins are struggling too. No big surprise there since it's past November. Rumors are going around that Boston might go after Vancouver GM Brian Burke when his contract expires in July. That'd be a great move for them. I'd really like to see Sinden and his boy O'Connell disappear completely but I'll be happy if half the team is gone. The defense and goalies can't stop any goals and the forwards can't score any. Something needs to improve quick. The Thrashers are doing decent but Savard might be out until February with a concussion and Ilya Kovalchuk isn't making much noise these days. Lucky for them that Florida and Tampa Bay are slumping just as bad. Carolina is gaining some ground on all 3 though so the Southeast Division could get interesting. Ottawa is back to being the hottest team in the league but I still have no desire to shell out for one of their games. They could score 10 goals in a game and I'd still be bored watching them. By the way, did anyone notice that San Jose has a 6 point lead for the division title in the Pacific Division? I didn't either.

In college hoops, Wake Forest is 10-0 after a pounding of Brown last night. Good work guys. Unfortunately their next 4 games are against Clemson, then at #16 Texas, at #2 Duke and then a home game against Georgia Tech. If Wake comes out of that 13-1 I'll be thrilled. 12-2 would be perfectly respectable too. Clemson can be a giant killer, but we should beat them, and Texas hasn't done anything special yet, but Wake on the road can be scary. Going into Cameron Indoor on the other hand will be a serious challenge, and GT won't be a cakewalk either. I was thrilled when UNC's bubble burst in the Wake/Carolina triple overtime epic that many are already starting to call one of the best ACC games ever. I missed it of course, since this is Canada, but it was re-aired on Fox Sports South on New Year's Eve and my girlfriend's mom taped it for me, so I'll be watching it sometime this month. If the local ABC affiliate shows the Wake Forest/Duke game on January 17 I'll be one happy Demon Deacon.

In closing, I got Players: The Ultimate A-Z Guide of Everyone Who Has Ever Played in the NHL by Andrew Podnieks for Christmas. It's a great hockey resource filled with cool stories. I also bought WWE Unscripted, a coffee-table type book filled with interesting pictures and background stories straight from the wrestlers themselves. If you're ever bored in a bookstore and in a browsing mood you should take a look at it, even if you aren't a wrestling fan.

The Bruins

It's Saturday night, my Bruins are playing the Sens here in Ottawa, and I.....I'm at home watching on TV because I'm too low on cash to go to my first ever Bruins game.

Great start to the game though. 1-0 Bruins 8 minutes in thanks to horrible coverage by the Sens on a line change and a beauty goal from Glen Murray down the wing. We've already had a fight too (Neil and Doull). Doull is new to the Bruins and I like him. You can't go wrong having a guy from Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.

We just had an awesome hit too- Bergeron on Varada, and it looks like Varada might be done for a while. Bergeron nailed him nice and clean on open ice. Yes, Patrice Bergeron, the 18-year old rookie. The same kid that put Valchenko out for 4 months on Tuesday night. Keep up the good work guys.

If the power suddenly went out in Kanata and the game was called I'd be perfectly happy. This is already a better game than these 2 teams played on Tuesday night in Boston.

**UPDATE 7:32 pm**

Stupid giant. Minutes after my post Zdeno Chara scored on a Sens powerplay. Hossa took a shot and it hit the post and bounced to Chara. Raycroft left the net open when he got pushed out of his crease . Lucky bounce.

Then Chara broke his stick on Thornton's arm. Dumb giant. Go to the box.

**UPDATE 8:02pm**

Doug Doull has played 18 seconds. He had a great hit behind the Senators net and he's fought Chris Neil twice, both of which were great fights. I love him already, and he's only been with the Bruins for a week.

**UPDATE 9:33pm**

Woo! A win by the Bruins. About time boys. That gives you 2 in your last 11 games. Good thing you had a bunch of ties and OT losses in that stretch. Nice goal by Joe Thornton to win it.

Hockey, Hotdogging and Post-goal Ettiquette

Last night a girl named Jill posted a comment in the 'Sidney Crosby and Don Cherry' thread. It was one of those times when someone points out something that makes so much sense you can't believe you haven't thought of it or heard it before. In reference to Don Cherry's criticism of Sidney Crosby's post-goal celebration after his 'lacrosse goal' Jill had this to say:

"i've been playing for seven years now and i've played both guys and girls hockey and it's so much more fun to celebrate scoring a goal then just to score and skate to the next face off...to me that shows more of hotdogging than anything becuz it's like scoring that goal meant nothing to u becuz u are the player that maybe tends to be the goal scorer on the team"

As soon as I read it I knew that this was something I had been trying to put into words for ages but never realized it. I hate it when guys score big goals or spectacular goals and skate away like it was nothing. To me THAT is cockiness. It's as if the player is saying "So waht? I scored. I do that all the time. No big deal."

In essence sports are supposed to be about fun and entertainment. What's fun and entertaining about playing like robots. If you score a big goal then for the love of hockey CELEBRATE! If scoring doesn't make you as a player want to jump up in the air, high five teamates or whatever then please get off the ice. And if we think it's disrespectful of the other team for players to show that they love what they do then maybe we're the ones that have problems, not the players.

Thanks Jill.