by Jes

Blogger Burnout sucks, especially when combined with an on-off again throbbing headache and a lack of actual hockey news.

First, let's start off in the world of women's golf (zzzzz....), where the LPGA is going to mandate English proficiency.

At a mandatory South Korean player meeting Aug. 20 at the Safeway Classic, the tour informed its largest international contingent that beginning in 2009, all players who have been on tour for two years must pass an oral evaluation of their English skills. Failure would result in a suspended membership.

Wow, talk about really stupid rule changes ... If there is a sport that doesn't require English to be spoken, it's golf. Hell, they throw you out of the Country Club just for thinking too loudly. When do golfers need to speak, other than to the caddy?

I can understand that the LPGA wants its players to be able to do interviews, but who the hell interviews women golfers, anyway? How about getting some eye candy out on the course? I don't think the media is really concerned about Korean women golfers who can't say boring clichés in broken Engrish.

Imagine if the NHL tried to pull off something like this? Oh, you could just see the exodus of European NHLers returning back home because they didn't pass some stupid multiple-choice test Gary Bettman dreamed up.

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While French/Quebec players might have the rep for being soft in the NHL (think Daigle, Turgeon, Brisebois), the fact is that Quebec is the #1 province for hockey fighting. The brawls in Quebec beer leagues are infamous, and the brawlers that province produce are second to none (Worrell, Laraques, Brashear)

So, it seems quite strange, then, that Quebec has taken drastic measures to reduce fighting in junior hockey. It's not an outright ban, nor is it European (automatic ejection), but it's a serious change to how fights are penalized.

From Hockeyrefs.com

Young hockey players in Quebec are going to think twice about using their hockey gloves as boxing gloves in the wake of strict new penalties announced Wednesday to curb on-ice violence.

Hockey Quebec is targeting unsportsmanlike behaviour such as fighting, checking the back of the head and verbal abuse in the minor leagues.

Players who fight, instigate, or jump into an on-ice brawl as a third combattant will be suspended for two games on a first offence. A second offence puts the player out for four games and means a trip before a disciplinary committee.

A third offence means an indefinite suspension.

That's right, folks, a TWO GAME SUSPENSION for being in a fight! Gary Bettman must be jealous!

It seems that The Powers That Be felt too much backlash from Jonathan Roy's actions. (Click here for YouTube goodness)

I understand that fighting in hockey is not very necessary, but it does provide us fans with extra entertainment, and allows for on-ice disputes to be handled without the need for serious stick swinging.

Still, this feels like a gross overreaction. Couldn't the Quebec Fed simply give much harsher penalties for serious incidents? Why should a player be suspended two games for an average consensual fight? Most fights never end up close to being monster brawls or outright assaults. Why can't these bureaucrats distinguish between the two?

I'm not sure if the QMJHL will follow these guidelines, or if it is just for the lower kiddie ranks. This is definitely something to keep an eye on.

Labels: fighting, LPGA, Quebec

by Jes

Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell is one of the better MMA fighters in recent history. If he could skate, he’d make one hell of an enforcer.

WTF does this have to do with the NHL?, you be askin.

Well, it appears that Darcy Hordichuk, one of the NHL’s bigger beasts, has been training with Liddell to become an even more effective fighter.

“John, I think, is one of the best trainers in the world and [has] produced some of the best fighters in the world,” Hordichuk said about his reason for contacting Hackelman. “In hockey, there is a lot of fighting, and that’s sort of my role. The guys nowadays are getting a lot bigger and stronger, and I’m always going to stay my same size, so I thought, why not get the edge and come train here at The Pit with John?”

Added Hackelman about his newest client’s progress, “His punching power has probably increased five times. Just by the turn of the hip and whipping the shoulder around.”

Five times, my ass ...

Hockey enforcers have long attended fighting schools or boxing classes to improve their skills, but it’s still interesting that they’d go to an MMA guy to get better.

Are we going to see Hordichuk go into the guard and put Riley Cote (who also has MMA training) into an armlock? Perhaps a rear naked choke?

One could only dream ...

Labels: Darcy Hordichuk, fighting

by Jes

Milan Lucic was, surprisingly, kept by the Bruins to start the NHL season, rather than be returned to the Vancouver Giants to captain their success.

The reason? He can chuck the knuckles with the best of them. Check out his debut fight from last night's Dallas/Boston game.



I'd call this a draw, with Lucic throwing a few good punches, but getting a lot of Dark Helmet in the process.


(c) Getty Images

Labels: Boston Bruins, fighting, Milan Lucic, video

by Jes

Mirasty the Nasty!

Who says fans don't like fighting in hockey? (Buttman)

Who says the Quebecois hockey players are softies? (Cherry)

Well, beer league hockey in Quebec has always proven that Quebecers like a lot of violence with their hockey.

From CTV.ca:

It's Friday night and for just over 2,000 people in this town of 35,000, that means it's either hockey night or fight night.

Luckily, they can get both in the same building.

The Colisee Cardin in this town about 65 kilometres northeast of Montreal on the shores of the St-Lawrence River was packed on Friday for a North American Hockey League game between the hometown Sorel-Tracy Mission and the rival St-Jean Summum Chiefs.

But more important than the game itself for the crowd of 2,115 was the highly anticipated fourth instalment in a season-long series of fights between the league's undisputed heavyweight Steve (The Crash) Bosse of the Chiefs and Jon (Nasty) Mirasty of the Mission.

While the NHL tries to clean up its public image in the wake of the Chris Simon stick-swinging and Todd Bertuzzi-Steve Moore incidents, the North American Hockey League -- not to be confused with the U.S. junior league that goes by the same name -- brings in fans with the promise of rough hockey and lots of fights.

For instance, Friday night's game had a Wrestlemania-style billing of Bosse-Mirasty IV, and there was no doubt right from the opening warm-up that's what the fans were there to see.

"I would say three-quarters of the people who are here came to see them fight,'' said Jean Guevremont, 22, a Mission season-ticket holder from nearby Berthierville.

Surely, these guys must have at least a little skill?

In 88 career games over three seasons with the Mission, Mirasty has eight goals, 11 assists and 771 penalty minutes

errr...

Bosse is in his fourth year in the North American Hockey League, and in 127 career games he has two goals, four assists and 898 penalty minutes.

OK, maybe not.

If I ever do head to Quebec, one of the things I absolutely must do is go to see one of these WWE-on-ice productions. If you are going to allow fighting, you might as well go all the way and make it front and center.

Labels: beer leagues, fighting, Quebec

by Jes

The instigator penalty has always been a complete fallacy. If you allow fighting (and the NHL basically does), why would you unduly punish the initiating party for starting it?

As it stands right now, not only does a player get booted from the game, but they earn a 2-game suspension if they get 3 instigators.

Well, this issue has been a bone of contention for many folks out there, from the Rock 'Em Sock'Em Don Cherry, to the fighting-is-ebil Mike Bossy.

It was nice to hear the NHL GMs were discussing the issue, instead of bickering over revenue sharing or ways to avoid going to the nightclubs with Gary Bettman.

From TSN.ca:

Currently the rules stipulate that a player who picks up three instigator penalties warrants a two-game suspension. Some GMs believe that makes it too difficult for tough guys to protect their star teammates.

"That's an agenda item that I requested," Anaheim Ducks GM Brian Burke said after the first day wrapped up at a posh resort hotel. "I think we need to raise the number of instigator penalties a player can take before getting suspended. I do not favour the elimination of the penalty but I think we've got to get to five or six (instigator penalties) before a player gets suspended so they can do their jobs and protect their teammates."

Through Feb. 15. there were 47 instigator penalties handed out this season, up from 39 through the same number of games last season.

Ben Eager of the Philadelphia Flyers is the only player to have earned the two-game suspension so far this season for earning three instigators, but the issue with some GMs is that some players get two instigators and are hesitant to drop the gloves.

"So the question is, when a guy is at two instigator penalties, does it affect him to say, `I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to protect my guy. I'm not going to protect my goalie because I'm going to be suspended.' That was really the debate today," said Columbus Blue Jackets GM Doug MacLean.

So, the GM's weren't actually talking about SCRAPPING the stupid game-misconduct and suspension part entirely *sigh*... solving an issue half way is such a cop-out

Of course, there are the idiot GM's out there that suck the teat of Bettman's milk

"I do think there's enough time in the game to play tough and deliver that message appropriately," echoed Toronto Maple Leafs GM John Ferguson. "I do think it would be hard to go backwards in terms of vigilance against it."

...said the GM who has never played an NHL game.

So, in the end, don't expect anything good to be done in that regard.

One interesting idea was put forth by Brian Burke: the idea of going to one-minute penalties in overtime...

"I don't know how far that one's going to get," said Burke. "The logic of it, obviously, if you take a tripping penalty in the first period it's 10 per cent of the period and it's a 5-on-4 power play."

"That same foul in overtime is 40 per cent of the period and it's a 4-on-3 power play which has a dramatically higher conversion rate. So to me it makes sense. But I'm not sure my logic will carry the day here."

It's easy to see Burke's logic, but I feel a penalty should be a full penalty no matter what time of the game it is. It's bad enough that refs tend to let up late in the games and OT anyway, so why make a penalty less of a penalty just because it's OT? You SHOULD punish teams for taking dumb penalties at such a point of the game.

Labels: Brian Burke, business, fighting, instigator, NHL, rules