"He's not a mean player," Crawford said. "It looked like he was trying to hit the other player. He got overanxious on the hit."
"Nobody likes to see anybody get hurt," Crawford said. "I know James didn't mean to hit the guy that way."
Yeah, Neal's the victim...a boy scout. And Crawford doesn't like to see people get hurt (Was he laughing at the Bertuzzi hit on Moore or wasn't he?) At the same time, the article also showed that Crawford has mastered the understatement:
Crawford said Neal, 22, has to learn to be in better control of where he is on the ice.
True dat. He also might want to be in better control of what he does on the ice as well.
"I know what kind of person he is; I know his intention. There was no intention to slow down. I'll remember this."
Dang. Them's fightin' words from Double D. And that's worth commenting on.
There's a big difference between what Dorsett does and what Neal did. Dorsett is a sandpaper guy. He plays hard, sometimes within eyesight of the edge of the rulebook. He fights as needed within the accepted rules of hockey. He takes his major penalties and moves along. But he doesn't take cheap shots. He's a man about his work.
Neal, however, now has The Taint. The hearing today has labeled him as a cheap shot artist. He now has a record (as Puck Daddy reminds us), and life will only get more miserable for him if he pulls that crap again. It won't be 5 games, it'll be more like 5 or 10. You see, the NHL discipline policy weighs past discipline when doling out punishment. If you've been bad in the past, you'll get hit progressively harder and harder with the book. It's a shame, really, as Neal is at the front end of what could be a promising NHL career. He's going to have to carry this burden for a long, long time.
So keep your nose clean, Neal. Watch the cheap shots, and perhaps take a page out of Adam Foote's Guide to Hockey Health and develop a 24-hour flu bug whenever you have to play Columbus. Because there's this guy, #15, who's dying to meet you - man to man. You know, the way you weaseled out of last night in the first period.
1. The Columbus Blue Jackets played a complete game and undressed the Dallas Stars, 4-1, in front of 417 fans at the very attractive American Airlines Arena. Here are your highlights:
2. Just sit back and ask yourself, "If I caught a puck in the mouth, lost two teeth and had part of my jaw crushed, how long would it take for me to get back in the swing of things?" For Raffi Torres, the answer is ONE WEEK. ONE FREAKIN' WEEK. Good God, he's not a man, he's a monster. No one should be able to do that. He should be convalescing in a hospital or something, sucking his calories through a straw.
2a. Not Raffi. Dude only put in 9:33 of ice time and notched his ninth goal of the season. I am awed. He is twelve times the man I am. For that, let's shout the cheer:
2b. I'm not sure that there's a bright side to his hellacious injury, but allow me a somewhat tasteless attempt: I now can differentiate Raffi from Fox Sports Ohio's John Michael.
2c. Oh yeah, Raffi had a stomach bug, too. Just add it to the legend.
3. Hmmm....how to say this delicately? Dallas is a bunch of cheap-shotting, weak-ass punks.
3a. First amongst the Punk Brigade is James Neal, who backed away from Derek Dorsett in the first period and then viscously boarded Dorsett later in the game, sending him sprawling onto the ice with a presumed concussion.
Neal has a hearing on Friday with the NHL and deserves every game that he will be suspended. It's a shame that he had to get ejected; he would have provided plenty of schadenfreude moments throughout the rest of the game. Jerk.
3b. The rest of the team is ill-tempered, too. Do they just have something against teams that are better than them in general, or is resentment that Columbus now has the one coach that got them a Stanley Cup? I mean, even Marty Turco got in on the Rick Nash fight.
3c. (Rick Nash got in a fight. Cool.)
3d. I suppose that this violently erratic behavior should be expected. Marc Crawford is their head coach, after all. Remember, Crawford was the whack-job coach of the Colorado Avalanche that melted down on Scotty Bowman and the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Sadly, I can't find the video of Crawford shrieking like a banshee at Bowman, but here's the precipitating stuff:
He also allegedly ordered the Todd Bertuzzi hit in Vancouver that knocked Dennis Moore out of hockey and apparently still is working its way through the courts. Here's the ESPN guys' take at the time:
My point is, this appears to be Crawford's modus operandi. If you can't win, fight. If you fight and can't win, fight more. If that still doesn't work, take some cheap shots. Classy. Great hire, Dallas.
3e. The beauty of all of this is that the barrage of Dallas penalties lost them the game. Huselius' second goal and Torres' goal in the second period were 20 seconds apart, and BOTH were power play goals. It's the sign of a good team when you refrain from punching back (too much) and instead just keep putting the puck in the back of the net. You keep slashing/boarding/hooking/brawling, we'll keep scoring.
4. 2 more goals for Kristian Huselius. That makes 4, I believe, for Juice since he returned from injured reserve. If he can keep up anything close to this pace, 1) He might catch Raffi Torres (hee hee) and 2) He might justify his cap hit and compensate for his middling-to-poor defensive play.
4a. It must be fun to be so totally in control of a goalie as Huselius was tonight with Marty Turco. "Turco....I OWN you." Juice made another drive later in the game and nearly scored again. I think I saw Turco's knees shaking.
4b. OK, maybe I was a little harsh on Juice for the defensive play. He did, after all, grab a puck and make a short-handed goal through his smart defensive positioning and aggressiveness. (Can we see that more often?)
5. Speaking of goalies, Mason looked much more like the Mason we like. Good saves, reasonably strong rebound control, command of the crease. Outings like this make me cautiously optimistic that Hitchcock is managing his two goalies the right way, giving Mason the right breathers of proper duration.
5a. Hmmm....Hitchcock managing the development of a young superstar. I thought he couldn't do that?
6. The Captain gets his 14th goal of the season with a 'never say die' crash of the crease after Turco bobbled a rebound. (What an awesome photo. Take a moment and soak that in.) That's our man!
7. Nikki who?
8. Surprise Fox Sports Announcer of the Game: Ray Crawford! His postgame highlights/recap was inspired...classic homerism boosted by a shot of "5 Hour Energy." He called 'em like they were - yes, a Fox Sports announcer used the words "cheap shot" (and repeatedly tonight!). Crawford offered a needed casual fan-style enthusiasm in his presentation that has been lacking in game coverage since Danny Gare got the boot.
9. I found myself admiring Derick Brassard tonight. Sure, it was the return trip to the place where his season ended (at the hands of James Neal, no less), and that probably is why my eye was drawn in his direction. But, in the bigger picture, he's having a tough year. Despite that fact, he's still trying. Hard. I saw him drive and press and try to make plays. He's going to get past this speed bump and be a fantastic center for Nash (and....Voracek?) for many years to come.
10. I love a game when Good Beats Evil, when Crime Doesn't Pay.
Next up: Saturday night in Nashville to take out Darth Vader. Should be interesting as the Preds won tonight in a shootout and might think that they have a little momentum (but they only beat an Eastern Conference team, so go figure). All I can say is, I'm glad that Dark Blue Onesie doesn't look like Barry Trotz any more. That kid was giving me the chills.
(Photos from Yahoo! Sports - NHL; graphics were created by the Dark Blue Jacket and may be used with permission)
According to the Columbus Dispatch, clutch goal scorer Raffi Torres is off the injured reserve, and we can presume that he will play versus Dallas tonight. This is a huge boost to the Columbus Blue Jackets' "sandpaper quotient" and will make the CBJ that much harder to play against.
Torres is a warrior, plain and simple. He lost two teeth against Detroit and will have to play with a modified helmet to protect his mouth, as you can (kinda) see from this video interview of Raffi (and Tommy Sestito):
It's just incredible that he's coming back so quickly. He's one tough customer. Welcome back, Raffi!
UPDATE: According to Puck Rakers, Raffi missed the morning skate with the stomach flu. Terrible news! Hope he's feeling better soon.
As we know, Nikita Filatov will be playing for CSKA Moscow for the balance of the 2009-2010 season. And many good bloggers and journalists have had their say, offering words of wisdom on the matter. Before offering my less worthy thoughts, I'd like to suggest that DBJ readers take a look at the following:
There are other commentaries, granted, but this grouping appears to have covered the waterfront on the many issues involved. (Also, Rick Gethin of The Hockey Writers is working on something. He does good work; I can't wait to read his piece when it's ready. [UPDATE: Here's the post.])
The Dark Blue Jacket family is pleased to announce that, after serious and meaningful discussions with family leadership, we are loaning my signed Nikita Filatov hockey puck to my bedroom door, where it will serve as a doorstop for the balance of the 2009-2010 NHL season. We have agreed to reconsider the role that the puck plays in our household at the end of the season. I very much hope that it will return to the plastic puck display case that sits in our office/rec room next season.
This is a bittersweet moment. We have high expectations for the puck. It's just not happening as soon as we had hoped, but that's OK. The puck is only a year old and probably needs some time to find itself.
We have not had any offers for the puck, nor have we marketed it on eBay. At this point, we're interested in seeing how it performs as a doorstop and will reevaluate as the need dictates.
The Filatov puck's intention from the start of the season was to hold a position of prominence next to our other sports memorabilia for the duration. It had a certain level of frustration at not being able to meet those expectations. After the glow of the first-round draft pick wore off and all of our friends and relatives had a chance to see the puck, it settled into a position on the shelf where it really didn't get that much exposure. Once it was pretty clear that if the puck wasn't going to be able to keep that level of prominence on our shelf, it let us know that it was going to look for other opportunities around the house.
Mrs. Dark Blue Jacket expressed optimism at this new role for our puck. "We've needed a doorstop for some time," she remarked, "and I fully support my husband and how he handles the sports memorabilia. I make suggestions to him on how to to organize our collection of pucks, baseballs and football helmets, and he makes suggestions to me on which acquisitions make sense for our family. I appreciate his willingness to put the puck in harm's way for the betterment of our family. I only hope that Dark Blue Onesie doesn't gnaw the sharpie ink off. He's cutting a tooth, you know."
The Dark Blue Jacket family will hold the rights to the puck for the indefinite future. The family was unwilling to comment on rumors that whether a Tommy Sestito-signed puck will take the Filatov puck's place on the shelf. "Now's not the time for such speculation," Mrs. DBJ said. "Let's just be happy that our puck finally has found a place that fits its skill level."
With some time and effort (and probably a little luck), I hope to offer some reasonably coherent blog-like commentary on the Columbus Blue Jackets and the National Hockey League.
Being an info junkie, I'm also pleased to share with everyone a host of news and information feeds related to the CBJ. Bookmark this page...the news content continuously updates itself!
And, yes, I own a dark blue jacket. It's a 3-button blazer, one that I got on a trip with my wife a few years back. One of my favorites! (I also have a couple dark blue windbreakers, too, but that doesn't count...)
James Neal of the Dallas Stars was suspended for two games by the NHL for his blatantly cheap shot on the Columbus Blue Jackets' Derek Dorsett. 
Dang. Them's fightin' words from Double D. And that's worth commenting on.
