No Stars On Ice?

It's the question on everyone's minds: Can the Pittsburgh Penguins be successful in the playoffs without their star players Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin?

Three months ago the Penguins were cruising; they had just ridden a 13-game winning streak and their captain Sidney Crosby was on pace for a 60+ goal season. In the east they chewed on the heels of the Philadelphia Flyers for top spot.

But injuries forced Crosby and his right-hand man Evgeni Malkin off the ice for the majority of February and suddenly doubts arose as to whether the Penguins would be the tour de force in the playoffs as previously expected. Without the 2 superstars, the team has dropped 7 of their last 10 games. Players who were expected to carry the weight of the team, Jordan Staal and Kris Letang, haven't been as outstanding as fans hoped.
A usually composed team, they let frustration get the best of them when, trailing by several goals to the New York Islanders, both teams erupted in a BRAWL. The game resulted in over 200 penalty minutes and several suspensions and fines, most significantly Eric Godard's 10-game suspension for leaving the bench to defend goalie Brent Johnson.

In the midst of the losses and meltdowns, Tyler Kennedy and Mark Letestu stepped up to give the Penguins' waning offence a spark, and they did it well. Unfortunately both had to miss several games due to minor injuries.

The good news for Penguins fans: Kennedy and Letestu are expected to be back in the lineup within the next few games, and newly acquired players James Neal, Matt Niskanen and Alex Kovalev have helped to inject some new energy and boost morale into the team.

While Crosby and Malkin are not expected back anytime soon (Crosby's lingering concussion symptoms suggest he won't be back at all this season), the 4th ranked Penguins are still guaranteed to make it into the playoffs. The only question is how far will they get in the post-season?

The fact is, despite the absence of their 2 most enigmatic players, the team still has reliable goalie Marc-Andre Fleury minding the net and a roster full of weathered veterans who have made Cup runs or had the pleasure of lifting Lord Stanley.

Most likely, the Penguins will make it past the first or second round of the playoffs, but if they want to get any further than that the team will need to learn how to step up their game without relying solely on their superstars.

Head-ing In The Wrong Direction

Do you remember when you were a kid and someone told you not to do something, and you did it anyways just to spite them? Seems like that attitude is showing up tenfold this season in the NHL when it comes to headshots and illegal hits.

In the 2009-2010 season, 2 fines and 3 suspensions were doled out for headshots. In March, Matt Cooke's concussion-inducing hit on Marc Savard forced the NHL to take a closer look at blindside hits, and what is and is not acceptable. The severity of Savard's concussion prompted the league to implement Rule 48, which banished blindside hits.

With these stricter guidelines in effect going into the 2010-2011 season, you would think that the number of injuries caused by illegal hits would decrease. But instead, they multiplied. So far, 8 suspensions have been handed out and 4 players have been heftily fined. The Calgary Flames' Tom Kostopolous received the harshest punishment, a 6-game suspension for his hit on Brad Stuart.

The league has been riddled with headshot-related injuries of late, and perhaps the most significant of the concussion victims is the NHL's poster boy Sidney Crosby. An unintentional hit by the Washington Capitals' David Steckel during the 2011 Winter Classic visibly shook Crosby up. A few days later against the Tampa Bay Lightning, another hit by Victor Hedman aggravated the injury and took him out of the game. Crosby, who had just come off of a 25-game point streak, has been out due to concussion since January 5th.

The only good thing to come out of Crosby's injury was the fact that the NHL once again was forced to re-examine the rules of the game. Since then, illegal hits have gone down in number, with only one instance (Danny Paille's hit on Raymond Sawada) in the past 2 months.

The halfway mark to the season has come and gone, and while dirty hockey seems to be on its way out, it is far from being gone completely. Here's to hoping the trend of increased illegal hits doesn't follow the game into the next season.

Caught Between Laraque And A Hard Place

Big Georges Laraque. There was a time when the name sent shivers down any NHL players back, the prospect of dropping the gloves on the ice against the 6'3 forward being a terrifying one. Known as BGL or The Enforcer, Laraque forged a formidable career for himself as muscle for any team he played for.

Well, currrently, he's not playing for any team.

Earlier on in the year, the Montreal Canadiens, for whom Laraque wore the number 17, announced their plans to buy out the final season of his contract, with the added note for Laraque to stay away from the team.

Though a specific reason was not cited by either the team or Laraque, it was clear that there was bad blood between BGL and his latest club.

In 2008, the Habs signed Laraque in order to add an element of toughness to their perceived "soft" team. It was a good acquisition; Laraque had just recently been named Enforcer of the Year by Sports Illustrated.

But maybe something was missing between the easygoing Big George and his fellow Canadiens. Maybe it was chemistry, or maybe it was just a plain lack of respect between Laraque and the management.

But both statements released by Laraque and Habs general manager Bob Gainey following the announcement were scathing. Gainey said that Laraques was "unproductive, a distraction," and that the team could better pursue its goals without him.

In turn, Laraque called the team's actions "classless," which many BGL fans agreed with, given the timing of all the controversy. Laraque's native Haiti had just been devastated by one of the worst earthquakes of the century, and he was in the midst of making arrangements to fly to his home country to lend support when the announcement was officially made.

It was a risky move for the Canadiens, who were constantly being outplayed physically by their more aggressive opponents, and though Laraque wasn't making big differences offensively with the team, his on-ice presence was still a fearsome one.

Since he and the Canadiens have severed their ties, Laraque has been busy trying to make a difference in Haiti. On June 8th, Laraque traveled with World Vision to Haiti to visit some of the sites and raise money to help rebuild the country. Aside from his charitable endeavors, Laraque runs a vegan restaurant in Montreal called Crudessence, and owns two gyms in Edmonton, the city that he began his hockey career in.

Laraque has not specified whether he will be returning to the NHL after his bought-out season with the Canadiens comes to an end, and there is no speculation as to what team he might end up with.

As a free agent, Laraque shouldn't have a hard time finding a team who looking to add a bit of grit to their game, among them being the Toronto Maple Leafs and the team that first drafted him, back in 1995, the Edmonton Oilers.

Laraque is known around the league for his fun-loving attitude and his tendency to fight on the ice.

Click HERE to see a YouTube compilation of Laraque's hardest-hitting fights.

***On July 31, 2010 Laraque was elected deputy leader of Canada's Green Party, of which he was an active member for the last few years***

Iggy In The Spotlight

Though he was a major contributor in the gold medal win for Team Canada in the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, Jarome Iginla is getting more negative scrutiny than positive as of late. The Calgary Flames captain, who scored a hat trick in one of the first Olympic hockey games and assisted Sidney Crosby's Golden Goal, is being thrown under the bus by Flames fans for his less-than-spectacular performance following the Olympics.

In his last 8 games Iginla has not scored a goal and has only banked 4 assists. Now rumours are swirling that Iggy has lost his touch and is no longer the asset to the Flames that he once was.

But is it fair for all the playoff pressure to be on #12?

Granted, Jarome Iginla is a hero in this town. A Calgarian who has 2 Olympic gold medals and 2 Rocket Richard trophies under his belt. The captain who led his team to the take the Western Conference title in 2004. Naturally, everyone is looking to him to be the hero once again.

But there are other Flames who should be shining and are not. It seems to me that the only ones really putting any effort into the playoff push are the newbies. And of course, Kiprusoff has been outstanding on several occasions.

A hockey game can't be won single-handedly, and in order to make it into the playoffs, a fire needs to be ignited in the whole team, and not just its captain.

Injuries Galore

Has anyone noticed that ever since the NHL has decided to eliminate blindside hits, vicious hits have been popping up on the ice all across North America?

In fact, ever since Matt Cooke ended Marc Savard's season earlier this month, I've seen a lot more health-threatening injuries across the board.

On Sunday, March 21, Daymond Langkow was taken off the ice during a game against the Minnesota Wild in a stretcher. He was hit by Greg Zanon, and though it was a hit from the front and perfectly acceptable within NHL rules, the force of the hit caused Langkow to flip over and land on the ice awkwardly on his lower neck area. Langkow was taken to hospital and kept overnight.

During a match-up between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Tampa Bay Lightning, Steve Downie pulled a slew-foot move that bent Sidney Crosby's leg out from behind him, resulting in a short absence from the ice for the Penguins' captain.

And who can forget the check James Wisniewski delivered on Brent Seabrook. Seabrook slumped to the ice so dramatically that it prompted rumours of embellishment. The rumours were squelched when it was discovered that Seabrook suffered a severe concussion and was not to return to the ice for the meantime.

So far, Wisniewski has received the harshest punishment of all the offenders: an 8-game suspension.

After the Marc Savard hit, several NHL players voiced their concerns over the subject of hard hits, and which ones should be deemed dirty or clean. Sidney Crosby, coming to the defense of teammate Matt Cooke, said the league and its players needed a clear distinction of what's acceptable and what's not, in order for players to remain safe and injury-free.

Now that there is a clear distinction, why isn't it being followed?

I know that hockey is a sport known for its aggressive nature, and to take bone-rattling hits out of the game would be to change the game completely. But I, for one, don't see any fun in watching players get wheeled off the ice on stretchers, or having to miss out on a season for it.