Reader Ideas

I received a few reader emails over the weekend on topics to address.

The discussion of a head-checking penalty:

My thoughts -  Why is this a “discussion”? 

Good height for an elbow to be, right?

I heard them say somewhere that if they were to institute this penalty, they’d have a lot of work to do in terms of discerning things like player height, moving forward vs. backwards, intent etc. – just a lot of details to work out.

So work the f***ing details out.

People at the NHL get paid to work right?  So this is what work is.  Figure out the boundaries of this penalty and call it.  NHL pundits are shocked at the amount of injuries this year.  Why, I’m not sure. 

Football teams play 16 games a year, largely because it’s such a physical, dangerous sport that it’d be unsafe to play many more games than that.  Well, wake-up call, professional hockey is pretty physical too, on a harder surface, with speed-building skates on.  Not only is 82 games too many (as much as I love to watch lots of hockey), but we need to do a better job protecting our players.

I’ve been on too many teams with too many guys that I’ve seen try to ride the bike for three/four minutes and have to lie down for three/four hours they’re so nauseous.  Concussions are growing in frequency with better equipment because players are bigger and faster, and are only getting moreso.  Should there be a head checking penalty?  By tomorrow.

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What players think hearing an American anthem as a Canadian (or vice versa), and what players think in general during the anthem:

As a Candian, I love the US.  And as an American, I love Canada.  It’s fun to create rivalries based on location (Green Bay/Minny, for example).  But it’s ridiculous to say we have many differences at this point, so both anthems are great.

Any differences we do have are based on geography.  The south of the US is different from the north because conditions are.  Canada is just the slightly-farther-north-US (the same way the US is just the slightly-farther-south-Canada) with socialized medicine (not to launch into another debate, but my brother just spent a week in the hospital as you know, and wheeled out.  No worries of cost, no stress, no “we’re screwed for life”.  My mom is on disability for her back and my Dad runs the Fantasy Camp.  Without socialized medicine, my family would be homeless.  My bro has trouble getting a week’s travel insurance to even come to the US - good luck trying to get it as a resident).

On a lighter note, when I was listening to the anthem as a starter, all I thought was “hit-hit-hit”.  Truly.  I never played on one team that the coach didn’t want to “go out and set the tone”.  Hitting someone gets you in it.  And, when I would get ROCKED early on, which wasn’t all that rare, I usually played better (assuming I didn’t get hurt).  There’s something about it that flipped the adrenaline switch for me and got me going.

So as a rookie in the WCHA, my first game playing in North Dakota’s Englestad Arena, our line was called to start.  It’s chaos in there.  I loved playing in NoDak (and actually, my record there is surprisingly good), but I was a tad nervous that first time.  All I could think about was running someone.  Apparently, it was literally all I could think.  The next day’s headline was “Oh, those rookies”.  I left my helmet on for the whole anthem, cage and all.  Atta kid.  (Doyle Woody, the teams beat-writer is an occasional reader – care to weigh-in, Doyle?)

And last, for your discussion:

Fan etiquette in an opposing teams rink:

I’m not sure how to answer that one.  My guess is the best fans will light-heartedly engage the home-team fans, cheering and booing at the right moments.  Whaddya think guys?  How much of a fan can you be in the opposing teams building without earning off-ice d-bag status?

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Possibly the most conversation-worthy piece (a nice way of saying controversial) I’ve ever written drops tomorrow.  As usual, the link will be provided.