Player safety takes a hit during NHL playoffs

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/04/2017 (3282 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Steve Lyons: Good morning. We haven’t chatted much lately; again you’ve been off to a foreign land — this time Korea to check out preparations for the 2018 Winter Games. Man, you’ve got a great boss.

I know you’ve been watching a fair bit of the NHL playoffs. The first round is always chalk full of drama, increased intensity and crazy fanaticism. I’ve only watched a bit, but the corner office showed me some clips yesterday of some incredibly dangerous hits over the last few days — has the Department of Player Safety taken a spring break or what? 

Zach Kassian of the Oilers almost decapitated Sharks defenceman Brenden Dillon right in front of an official and no penalty was called and no subsequent investigation from the league office either.

The Kassian Express later flew through the air to deliver a hit on San Jose forward Logan Couture that looked to me to be at least a two-minute penalty for charging.

The commentator described it as “Big hit as he destroys Logan Couture!” I later read one report that described the hits as thunderous; another that described them as humungous. How about reckless and dangerous?

And then there was the hit by Flames forward Sam Bennett on Ducks defenseman Kevin Bieksa. Hey, I like Bieksa about as much as anyone in this city (ha ha), but Bennett could have caused some serious harm with what was a flagrant hit from behind. Again, nothing from the home office.

I get that officials historically use their whistles less frequently in the playoffs — but in an age where I was under the assumption the NHL was looking to provide better protection to its players, it seems to be looking the other way during the crazed first round of play.

Paul Wiecek: That Korea trip would look a lot differently this week than it did when I was there two weeks ago. There’s nothing like an American naval armada chugging for your coastline and your immediate neighbour to the north talking about reducing your entire country to a smoking crater to put a damper on tourism. 

My trip to Pyeongchang next February might be as a war correspondent, not a sports columnist. I don’t see how the situation over there does anything but get more and more tense in the lead up to the Winter Olympics. I covered the Salt Lake City Games in the aftermath of 9/11 and this is already starting to look a lot like that.

But never mind those trivialities — there’s playoff hockey to be dissected, right? Marx called religion the opiate of the masses; in Canada, it’s hockey. This entire country — not to mention the NHL’s department of player safety — has gone brain dead with five Canadian teams in the dance right now. And if the NHL’s head office doesn’t send out a stern message soon, there’s going to be a couple of players joining the list of flat liners. 

I love rough and tumble hockey as much as the next guy but left unchecked, this stuff just escalates in the pressure cooker of playoff hockey. The line of what is considered acceptable keeps moving backwards every time the player safety guys look the other way at some of these attempted decapitations.

We’re going to be back to the 1950’s and Rocket Richard head-hunting on every shift by the third round if the grownups don’t step in soon and send a message.

Steve: I agree on the rough and tumble — but when it gets to the point where it resembles all-out war on ice, it does nothing for me anymore. Tuesday night, Leon Draisaitl of the Oilers speared Chris Tierney of the Sharks in the, um crotch. What kind of stupid does it take to do that? I just read Draisaitl has a hearing with the league, so there you have it — the player safety department is actually on the job.. let’s see if they’re on the ball.

Perhaps the league will never do anything substantive about this problem as long as fans continue to enable the problem — fans here went nuts when Patrik Laine was nailed by Brian McCabe; they went nuts when Evgeni Malkin hit Blake Wheeler; but they also went nuts when Dustin Byfuglien nearly killed Mark Stone. 

So, it seems to me it’s all good as long as it’s our guy inflicting the pain.

Do you get an MRI after getting speared in the ‘groin?’

Paul: An MRI? You should get a medal for getting speared in the groin. 

The best treatment for a speared groin isn’t an MRI — it’s the same frozen bag of peas you get after a vasectomy. But if you’re an NHLer or CFLer in this town, you might as well get one anyway. I hear they’re practically giving them away in this town — provided you know someone. The rest of us? See you in 24-27 weeks.

Steve: I wish you hadn’t said that — I love frozen peas.

Don’t want to belabor or rehash too much of what you had to say in your column today on the MRI — can we call it a scandal? — but what did surprise me was the number of people who commented on our website that they were angry with you for picking on our Jets. Apparently quite a few folks are just fine with Jets players jumping the queue. 

I know you are not a huge fan of PGA golf these days, but I also know one thing you do enjoy each spring is lying on your couch and watching the Masters — you were in Korea that weekend, did you get to see any of it?

I’ve seen many a Sergio Garcia meltdown on a Sunday afternoon over the years and twice it looked like El Nino was going to fold his tent again this year — first when he snap-hooked his driver into the trees on the 13th hole and then when he missed a five-foot putt to win it on the 18th. I’ve always been a Justin Rose fan, but have to admit I was glad — perhaps relieved — when Garcia came out on top on the first extra hole. It was certainly one of the more intriguing final days of the Masters in some time and it didn’t require one mention of Tiger Woods. And how about that hole in one by Matt Kuchar on the 16th — the man with the best smile in sports.

Paul: I’m not sure who these commenters are on our website — players’ wives? — but I can tell you my email inbox is overwhelmed right now with ordinary Manitobans who have nightmare stories about waiting for MRIs in this province and who are outraged to hear there’s apparently a special on-ramp available for pro athletes.

I got up super early — 5 am — to watch the final two rounds of the Masters in Korea on what I think was Japanese television. I can tell you the golf announcers over there are much more excitable than here. I missed Verne Lundquist’s dulcet tones from 16; I did not miss Jim Nantz.

I love a great redemption story and Sergio Garcia is all of that. The guy paid his dues, grew up in front of us all and got rewarded. Nice. I’d have loved to have written that story.

One thing: how does CBS get away every year with drooling all over the leaders’ wives and girlfriends? I swear I saw more of Rose’s wife and Garcia’s fiancee those last couple holes than I did of Rose and Garcia. I can’t think of another sporting event where you see that much of the players significant others like you do at the Masters every year. 

I’m not complaining — I’m just saying.

Steve: Perhaps folks compare CBS with Peter Alliss of the BBC and figure it’s just fine. Alliss, in case you missed it, mentioned that Sergio’s fiancee Angela Akins had ‘the shortest skirt on the campus.’ The 86-year-old hall of famer apparently thought he was off the air when he made the remark. If I say something really dumb — I mean REALLY dumb — in one of these exchanges, can I claim I thought we were were off line at the time?

Alliss’ Masters miscue was just the latest in a series of misogynist assertions. During the 2015 British Open he said of Zach Johnson’s wife, Kim Barclay, “She’s probably thinking, ‘If this goes in I get a new kitchen.”

I’m not sure it serves much purpose to repeat any more.

I didn’t know you were not a fan of Nantz. I tune him out on golf for the most part — there was less of him this year, so that was good. But, since you brought him up — please get him off NFL football! And now they’re going to team him up with Tony Romo as the No. 1 team on CBS. 

Chris Collingsworth and Al Michaels are tops in my books when it comes to NFL.

Paul: There is a two-word answer to any question relating to play-by-play announcers: Joe Buck. Football, baseball, you name it — that man could make cricket sound interesting and those crazy ‘tests’ in that sport can last five days. 

The only better call in baseball was from his old-man, Jack. Jack Buck’s Cardinals calls kept me sane all those years I covered the Goldeyes on the road through the midwest. No matter where you were, it seemed you could always pick up a signal with Buck calling a Cards game.

If there’s ever a Playboy Sports Network, Peter Alliss and Brent Musberger would be the obvious picks as lead announcers.

Steve: The Bucks are alright, I guess, except for one thing — the Cardinals. I hate the Cardinals. Stan Musial; Red Schoendienst; Bob Gibson; Ozzie Smith; Tony Larussa — meh.. and double meh. I was watching a game the other day from Busch Stadium and they had the Gateway Arch perfectly cut into their perfect lawn. Maybe it’s because when I was a kid, I was a Cincinnati Reds fan — and how could you like the Cards?!

As you know, I like to have one team in one sport to cheer for. I try to keep that team out of this city obviously and the last several years it has been the Jays. Two years ago, the team was fun to watch as it went to the ALCS only to lose to the Royals. Last year, they started to get a little annoying with all their cockiness and ‘swagger.’ And now the irony is, I’m kind of enjoying this 2-11 start they are off to — it looks good on them. Shut your trap and play ball.

So, I’m channel surfing a bit on the weekend and I see some Reds highlights and I get to thinking perhaps it’s time to go back to my roots — the Reds and the Boston Bruins were my teams as a kid. Not at all interested in the Bruins these days, but the Reds do have Joey Votto and are off to a 9=5 start — four games ahead of the Cards!

Paul: I asked Tony LaRussa a question at the 2000 NLCS and he replied, ‘Great question!’ All of which is to say Tony LaRussa is now a god in my books, so shut your trap.

The Jays. OMG. LOL. SMH. WTF. 

This is all karma, as far as I’m concerned, for that beer Jays fans threw at that baby a couple years ago, not to mention that other beer that clown from Postmedia threw at the Orioles player in the playoffs last year. 

Also, Postmedia is just awful. I wish I had an anchor for my boat as reliable as Paul Godfrey has been at dragging that chain of once great newspapers to the bottom.

I heartily endorse your plan to find a team more worthy of your misguided affections than the Blue Jays. But a word of caution: I tried this exact program you’re proposing about 20 years ago when I finally realized my lifelong affection for the Minnesota Vikings was going to put me in an early grave. 

My advice: choose wisely. For some crazy reason I cannot remember now I decided to replace the Vikings as my NFL team with, wait for it, the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

Suffice to say, that did not go well. It was a bit like trying to kick a cocaine habit by taking up heroin.

Steve: Russell Martin and Jose Bautista have two RBI between them; one is hitting .128 and then other is hitting .114 — the Jays aged 20 years over the winter. I don’t feel sorry for the penny-pinching ownership of that team, but I do feel for their fans. And not the new millennium crowd that jumped on the bandwagon the last couple of season, but the many many shut-ins in this city and country who hope for a good showing from their team on a nightly basis. 

You’ve told me that Jags story before — yes, very odd choice dude.

It will be football season soon enough — was somewhat surprised by the Jeffrey Orridge and the CFL parting ways. I’m not sure he was the solution to the league’s problems, but now what?

Paul: Jeffrey Orridge was a poser from Day 1. The most surprised people in the country when the CFL hired him were his former employers at CBC Sports, a once-proud organization Orridge helped drive into the ground as executive director from 2011-15. 

Orridge was in over his head at both jobs, but he just seems to be one of these guys you occasionally see who is really good at convincing employers to give him high profile jobs he’s incapable of actually doing. He would fit perfectly in the Trump administration.

My favorite memory of Orridge came during Grey Cup week here in 2015 when he held his commissioner’s news conference and it became apparent within the first five minutes that he was the most ill-informed person in the room. When you’re the dumbest person in a room full of reporters, you have a very serious problem.

The good news is that after Orridge, anyone is going to be an improvement as commissioner. The beauty of hitting rock bottom is there’s nowhere to go but up.

Steve: Trump was basking in the reflective glory today, welcoming the Super Bowl winning New England Patriots to the White House. A total of 24 Patriots players, including Tom Brady, skipped the White House ceremony. Perhaps feeling snubbed by his buddy Tom, Trump did not mention the MVP QB in his speech.

And of course Rob Gronkowski provided his usual ‘hijinks’ by crashing Sean Spicer’s press briefing — oh, you’re so funny Gronk.

In a stark confluence of events, former Pats tight end Aaron Hernandez was found dead in his prison cell Wednesday morning after he hanged himself. Tragic story from start to finish — for the victims; for Hernandez; and for the young daughter he leaves behind. 

Paul: I don’t think we’ve heard the end of that Hernandez story. There was no note and his suicide makes no sense, although that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.

But answer me this: Why does a guy who just this week beat a double murder rap in court and whose lawyer was talking just the other day about how confident he was that Hernandez’s separate murder conviction would now be overturned on appeal decide to suddenly kill himself now?

On the other hand, this is all a fitting ending to a story that never made sense in the first place. Why does a football hero with a $30 million contract ever get into this kind of trouble in the first place?

Such a strange story, right from Day 1.

Steve: I’m going to let ya go — time to get the pages sorted out for tomorrow’s paper.

Let’s try to do this again before your next vacation 😉

Paul: The time just flew by today. This must be what it’s like to be a Jets player waiting to get an MRI.

steve.lyons@freepress.mb.ca

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca