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Wednesday, 09 March 2011 05:01

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

Penguins

-Dave Molinari's recap from last night's game. "Both those guys were pretty relieved." - Dan Bylsma on Zbynek Michalek (above) and James Neal each getting their first goals with the Penguins.

-The Buffalo News' recap. "Too many of our good offensive players had to sit on the bench for too long." - Sabres coach Lindy Ruff on his team having to kill seven penalties.

-The Associated Press' recap. Michalek went 91 games without a goal.

-NHL.com's recap. "I wasn't even sure whether it was mine or not. Then I saw everybody skating toward me and I figured it was." - Michalek on his goal.

-Mike Lange's goal calls.

-Highlights:

-Ben Lovejoy > Buffalo's Tyler Ennis:

-Fleury stretched out for this puck:

-Matt Niskanen eyeing up Buffalo's Rob Niedermayer:

-Intense times for Mark Letestu:

-Alex Kovalev just taking a spin:

-Neal dealing a pass in traffic:

-Happy times for Neal, Letestu and Kovalev:

-There were all kinds of issues here:

-Fleury adjusting his lid:

-Fleury speaks:

-Michalek speaks:

-Dan Bylsma speaks:

-Welcome back Chris Kunitz.

-Sports Illustrated has a profile of Matt Cooke this week.

-Saturday's game against Montreal is expected to be the Penguins' 200th consecutive sellout (PG+).

-Andrew Hutchinson recorded two assists for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in a 5-2 loss to the Connecticut Whale.

Atlantic Division

-Scoreboard Watch for the Penguins: Jeff Carter scored two goals and led the Flyers to a 4-1 defeat of the Oilers. Daniel Briere added a goal and an assist for Philadelphia while teammate Claude Giroux recorded two assists. Sergei Bobrovsky made 24 saves in the win. The Flyers are in first places in the Eastern Conference and Atlantic Division with 88 points, two more than the Penguins who are in fourth and second place respectively.

-Happy times for Philadelphia's Kimmo Timonen:

-The Flyers beat the Oilers for the first time since 2001.

-An overtime goal and an assist by Blake Comeau gave the Islanders a 4-3 win against the Maple Leafs. Teammate Frans Nielsen added a goal and an assist while Al Montoya made 24 saves in the victory. Former Penguin Tim Brent had a goal and an assist for Toronto. Fire Ray Shero.

-New York's Kyle Okposo looked less than enthusiastic about going into the corner with Toronto captain Dion Phaneuf:

-Intense times for Toronto's Mikhail Grabovski:

-Happy times on Long Island:

-A good look at Montoya's lid:

Northeast Division

-Scoreboard Watch for the Penguins: Two goals by Lars Eller led the Canadiens to a 4-1 win against the rival Bruins. Travis Moen recorded two assists for Montreal while Carey Price made 30 saves in the victory. The Bruins are in second place in the Eastern Conference with 84 points, two fewer than the fourth-place Penguins.

-The game was marred by an ugly hit by Bruins defenseman on Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty:

-Pacioretty was knocked unconsious and spent the night in the hospital for observation. He will not travel to Pittsburgh for the Canadiens' game Saturday. Chara was given a major for interference and a game misconduct.

-“We were going for the puck, battling for position. I was riding him out. It’s very unfortunate. Obviously, it’s not my intention to push him into the post. And it’s not my style to hurt anybody. I play hard. It’s very unfortunate, but it does happen in the game." - Chara on the hit.

-"The league has to take some responsibility. It was a dangerous hit.”- Canadiens coach Jacques Martin.

-Thinking Out Loud: Chara is a pretty clean, honest player. By no means is he a cheap shot artist. And we're 99.9 percent sure he didn't hit Pacioretty with the intent of injuring him. That said, it was an incredibly reckless hit. And it should be suspended. Forget about intent. Forget about Chara's clean history. Heck, forget that Pacioretty was injured. Worry about the action. Chara interfered with Pacioretty illegally. If the NHL wants to handle this correctly, it will suspend Chara for 10 games. Make an example of him. One of the reason there are so many reckless hits such as this is that there is no apparent danger in being severely punished. There's absolutely no fear among the players for injuring an opponent intentionally or other wise. But Colin Campbell is the one in charge of discipline. We fully expect him and his crew to underwhelm in their response.

-Goal of the Night: Check out Eller's second goal:

-Fight of the Night: Montreal's Ryan White versus Boston's Johnny Boychuk:

-Scary times for Pacioretty:

-Funny Face of the Night: Boston's Tyler Seguin mixing it up with Montreal's Paul Mara:

-Someone finally stopped the Devils. Two goals by Erik Condra led the Senators to a 2-1 win at New Jersey. Craig Anderson made 31 saves in the victory. The Devils had a six-game home winning streak snapped.

-Cool Photo of the Night: Ottawa's Ryan Potulny warming up with his shadow:

-Serious Face of the Night: New Jersey's Nick Palmieri:

-Courtesy of the Ottawa Citizen, Anderson has a new Senators-themed lid:

-The Senators signed forward Wacey Hamilton to a three-year entry-level contract.

-Ottawa also recalled forward Colin Greening from Binghamton of the AHL.

Southeast Division

-David Booth had a goal and an assist for the Panthers in a 3-2 win against the Blackhawks. Tomas Vokoun made 37 saves in the victory. Chicago had an eight-game winning streak snapped.

-Florida's Mike Weaver and Chicago's Patrick Sharp had issues:

-Florida's Darcy Hordichuk got denied in tight by Chicago's Corey Crawford:

-The Hurricanes froze prices for season ticket holders for next season.

-Meanwhile, the Capitals are raising them for the second consecutive seasons.

Central Division

-The Blues activated goaltender Jaroslav Halak (hand) from injured reserve and demoted goaltender Ben Bishop to Peoria of the AHL.

-Blues forwards T.J. Hensick (foot) and Patrik Berglund ("upper body") are dinged up.

Northwest Division

-Two goals by would-be Penguin Dan Hamhuis, including one in overtime, gave the Canucks a 4-3 win at Phoenix. Fire Ray Shero. Captain Henrik Sedin added a goal and an assist for Vancouver while teammate Daniel Sedin recorded three assists. Roberto Luongo made 31 saves in the victory. Eric Belanger had a goal and two assists for the Coyotes.

-Hamhuis' overtime goal:

-Check out the pass by former Penguin Mikael Samuelsson to set up Hamhuis' first goal:

-Hamhuis kept his eyes on this puck:

-Happy times for Hamhuis and teammate Alex Burrows:

-You don't suppose these two...:

-Second Cool Photo of the Night: Phoenix's Eric Belanger taking the ice:

-Kyle Brodziak, Martin Havlat and Jared Spurgeon each had a goal and an assist for the Wild in a 5-2 defeat of the Avalanche. Niklas Backstrom made 28 saves in the victory.

-The Oilers signed Priceton defenseman Taylor Fedun on a two-year, entry-level contract.

-The Canucks have demoted forward Rick Rypien to Manitoba of the AHL.

Pacific Division

-Patrick Marleau's overtime goal gave the Sharks a 3-2 win against the Predators. Ryan Clowe added a goal and an assist for San Jose while teammate Dany Heatley recorded two assists. Antti Niemi made 23 saves in the victory. Captain Shea Weber had a goal and an assist for Nashville.

-Niemi kept his eyes on this puck:

-Niemi stretched out for this saves:

-Weber unloading a heavy shot:

-Clowe being good people:

-Nashville's Mike Fisher whipping one by San Jose's Ian White:

-The Ducks signed defenseman Luca Sbisa to a four-year contract extension worth a total of $8.7 million. He will have a salary cap hit of $2.175 million.

-Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller hasn't shaken his dizzy spells.

-NHL commissioner Gary Bettman brought out the knives with regards to the Coyotes' situation:

(Photos: Sabres/Penguins-Justin K. Aller/Getty Images and Keith Srakocic/Associated Press; Oilers/Flyers-Paul Bereswill/Getty Images; Maple Leafs/Islanders-Bruce Bennett/Getty Images; Bruins/Canadiens-Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images; Senators/Devils-Jim McIsaac/Getty Images; Blackhawks/Panthers-Joel Auerbach/Getty Images; Canucks/Coyotes-Christian Petersen/Getty Images; Predators/Sharks-Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

Comments (9)

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written by IRockRed, March 09, 2011 - 11:28 AM

Everyone's certainty that Charra lacked intent to injure is belied by the video. Pause it at 2:07 and go frame-by-frame. He is head up and looking right at the stanchion before clearly and purposefully extending his left arm to drive Pacioretty's head directly into it. Charra has almost 2 full seconds to release before the impact he could see coming; "one Mississippi, two Missisippi". Not only does he not release, his final shove makes the result certain.

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written by D Sanchez, March 09, 2011 - 12:16 PM

Sucks for the Habs that Gomez has to be the one to get in Chara's grill after that.

The puck was nowhere near Pacioretty when Chara hit him and drove him into the post. That has to be at least a five game suspension.

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written by Disgruntled Goat, March 09, 2011 - 01:20 PM

Red, that was a surprisingly well informed, if pooly spelled, analysis. Plus, you managed to get through the whole thing without once mentioning Matt Cooke. I'm impressed.

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written by IRockRed, March 09, 2011 - 03:33 PM

Guess pool spelling is infectious, Goat.

The SI profile said all that needs saying about Cooke.

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written by Disgruntled Goat, March 09, 2011 - 03:41 PM

Ha! I was hoping no one would notice that. Consider me infected.

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written by D Sanchez, March 09, 2011 - 05:02 PM

Well, color me surprised. No suspension for Chara. Good to see that Campbell is consistent.

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written by bastage42, March 09, 2011 - 08:33 PM

"If the NHL wants to handle this correctly ..."

Uh huh. We're all shocked. Again.

Of course, they can't suspend him for 10 games because they just gave Gillies 10 games, and he's a repeat offender and Chara's a star who's important to his team's ticket sales on-ice fortunes.

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written by bastage42, March 09, 2011 - 09:34 PM

@IRockRed -- my feelings on this hit are the same as they are on numerous others. IMO, none of the perpetrators wanted to do any actual harm, nor are they the types of players to do that. If their victims were "maybe a little tender" after their bumps, that would have made them happy, but I can't see Chara saying "whatever, they should watch out for themselves" like some other players in the league (yes, I know, I know).

I think there's a larger case at hand for the league to be looking at. Regardless of intent or clean histories, these seemingly innocent (or at least accepted as normal) actions have ultimately caused significant injuries. Outside of the 200x80, that makes you liable in a North American civil court and responsible in our legal courts, but in our beloved garage league, it gets you an "aww, they didn't really mean to and besides, he's a good guy".

The NHL and NHLPA need to start holding reckless players accountable for their actions regardless of intent from the first minute of the first intrasquad scrimmage on the first day of camp to the last second of the last game of the Stanley Cup Final. I couldn't imagine Chara on any list of "bad" guys but the results from his reckless play is a major concussion and a fractured vertebrae. The players themselves need to start asking if they'd all like to enjoy a chance at a lengthy career, and their employers need to think about the eventuality that they'll run out of “hush” money and "code", and find themselves under vicarious liability.

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written by gamecockfn, March 10, 2011 - 11:20 AM

Not real sure how that hit warrents a suspension at all. You are looking at the end result not what actually happened. If the hit happens a second earlier or on the other end of the rink, it is on a highlight video. It was interference...period.

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