Interesting that Ivan Lendl was in the stands in Barcelona today watching his prize pupil, Andy Murray, being beaten on red clay by surging Canadian star Milos Raonic.
It was Lendl, after all, who was involved in what might have been, until Raonic's win over Murray, the most significant ATP tour victory by a Canadian ever.
That was back in June, 1991 at Queen's Club, a grass tourney regarded as a warmup to Wimbledon. Lendl was the third-ranked player in the world, but that day he was beaten by Canada's Grant Connell in a stunning three-set upset.
That was a second-round match, however, compared to the 25th ranked Raonic's quarterfinal triumph today in Barcelona over Murray, the No. 4 ranked player in the world.
The other significant win by a Canadian player on tour - not counting, of course, Daniel Nestor's 1992 win over world No. 1 Stefan Edberg, which was in Davis Cup competition - came in 2007 when Frank Dancevic defeated Andy Roddick, then No. 5 in the world, in a semifinal match at Indianapolis.
It was the biggest career win for Dancevic, who went on to lose the final to Dmitry Tursonov.
That said, Raonic is on a completely different career curve, one that could land him in the top 10 before the year is over.
The win over Murray matters for a number of reasons beyond the fact it put Raonic into the semifinals against jackrabbit David Ferrer of Spain, currently No. 6 on the planet.
For starters, it came on clay, not considered until now to be Raonic's best surface because it takes a bite out of his massive serve. Also, Murray is regarded as one of the better returners in the game, but Raonic was still able to ace the Scotsman 14 times and win 84 per cent of his points on first serve in the 6-4, 7-6 (3) triumph.
As well, Murray is extremely fit and a grinder, but Raonic was able to stay in points longer than previous matches against highly ranked players on clay, and clinched the match by winning a 12-stroke point. Murray is a wily, resourceful veteran with great variety to his game, but Raonic was able to stick to his game plan and, for the most part, overpower his opponent.
Finally, the win came a week after Raonic himself was upset in Monte Carlo by Alberto Montanes, evidence of the Canadian's growing maturity and ability to bounce back from defeat.
Murray is the highest-ranked player Raonic has ever beaten, and it came one day after he beat the world's No. 13 player, Nicolas Almagro of Spain.
NEW YORK--Back in September, the Ottawa Senators wouldn't have guessed they had a Norris Trophy candidate in their midst.
"No," said head coach Paul MacLean today when asked about Erik Karlsson's Norris nomination alongside more experienced veterans Zdeno Chara and Shea Weber. "I just knew he could skate real good."
Well, 87 regular season and playoff games later, Karlsson is a lot more than a great skater. But the third-year NHLer is also finding out in this first-round series against the New York Rangers than there's another step yet to take and a rather substantial difference between what's available to a highly-skilled, puck-moving defenceman in the regular season and what's available in the playoffs.
Teams can game plan against such a defenceman, and clearly the Rangers have plotted to take Karlsson's speed and creativity from the back end away from the Senators, and done so with some success.
Maybe that's why at the conclusion of Game 6 Karlsson helicoptered his stick down the ice and into the end glass, perhaps echoing the frustration of captain and countryman Daniel Alfredsson. For the Senators to advance to the next round, some production from Karlsson could be a crucial contribution.
"I can be better," said Karlsson today just hours before Game 7 against the Rangers. "Be a little more patient with the puck. Just play my game."
After notching 78 points during the regular season to lead all NHL defencemen, Karlsson has been all but shut down by the Rangers. He has points in only one of the six games, and none in the last four. After getting 261 shots on the enemy goal during the regular season, Karlsson is actually averaging more pucks to the net in this series with 31 shots in all, but not with the same effectiveness.
"They've done a good job blocking shots and making it hard for us," said Karlsson, who will skate in only his 13th career playoff game tonight. "Every game is so different. It's all about adapting."
Becoming a Norris Trophy finalist after a minus-30 season a year ago is a remarkable achievement for the young defenceman.
"I got very happy when I heard," he said. "It's not anything I imagined would happen this year or anytime soon."
So both the Stanley Cup finalists from Vancouver and the champions from Boston have been vanquished, and there's this rush now to draw all kinds of lessons from what has transpired so far in the 2012 playoffs.
Its like winning one round, or losing one round, proves or disproves all these theories.
Six weeks ago Dean Lombardi was about to be fired. Now, with his Kings having toppled the Canucks, he's a genius. Ditto for George McPhee in Washington, with the Caps still celebrating this morning after shocking the Bruins in overtime Wednesday night in Massachussetts.
Beyond that, because the No. 8 seeded Kings won and the No. 7 seeded Capitals also did, and quite possibly the eighth-ranked team in the Eastern Conference, the Ottawa Senators, may well advance tonight against the New York Rangers, there's once again this popular notion making the rounds that the success of these teams proves that all you have to do is do whatever it takes to get into the Stanley Cup playoffs, and success will follow.
People, people, people.
To look at the Caps and Kings and imagine these are teams that aggressively sacrificed youngsters and prospects for past-their-prime vets just to qualify for the post-season and are now benefitting is not just inaccurate, it's dead wrong.
These are clubs that have been building for seven years or more, carefully gathering picks and young players, and the result over the past week is that both have won a round over a favoured opponent.
To imagine, as some are, that teams like Buffalo, Toronto or Calgary should have sent first round selections or blue-chippers packing at the trade deadline just to get in, and then would have had as good a shot at the Cup as anyone, is preposterous.
The point is that Washington and Los Angeles, over the years, have mostly avoided doing just that. St. Louis too, and Ottawa. Heck, the Sens were doing the opposite a year ago, peddling Mike Fisher and Chris Kelly to acquire futures. The Kings tried a shortcut by giving up a first rounder and a prospect for Dustin Penner and it didn't work. The Caps dealt goalie Semyon Varlamov last summer for a first rounder. Those that are now espousing this get-in-no-matter-the-cost strategy should know that the Caps, with their goaltending then in the hands of Tomas Vokoun and Michael Neuvirth, could undoubtedly have traded Braden Holtby before this year's deadline for immediate help in their troubled regular season, but McPhee did not so such thing.
Damn straight the league is so tight the first round matchups are anything but lopsided. But the Kings and Caps spent years trying to get there the right way. So when Leaf GM Brian Burke says he could have made deals to move kids or picks just to get into the playoffs but didn't, that's actually following the model of L.A. and Washington.
The last time the Leafs did a kids-for-proven-help was back in 2008 when interim GM Cliff Fletcher dealt Alex Steen and Carlo Colaiacovo to St. Louis for winger Lee Stempniak. Well, how'd that work out? Should Burke really have moved Jake Gardiner for some 28-year-old forward at this year's deadline, or sent Joe Colborne packing for a 30-year-old blueliner if that would have got the Leafs a playoff berth?
Of course not. In fact, given the choice between getting 24-year-old Steve Downie and 20-year-old Carter Ashton from Tampa in a deal for defenceman Keith Aulie, the Leafs went for the youngster. Sure, Downie would have helped get the Leafs into the playoffs, and it's not yet clear whether Ashton will be a good pro, but Downie is a restricted free agent this summer looking for more than $3 million per on a multi-year deal and he wasn't able to help Colorado get into the post-season anyway.
Everybody wants to pile on Burke for every statement he has made, and he made them and is suffering for it now. Hyperbole has undercut his position. But to mock the guy for eschewing the kind of quick fix moves that got the Leafs into the mess they're trying to work out of is really short-sighted analysis.
So after FINALLY winning a Stanley Cup playoff series, are the Phoenix Coyotes worth more today than they were yesterday?
Or, more specifically, are they any more feasible a business operation in Glendale, Arizona after beating the Chicago Blackhawks than during the regular season when they drew fewer fans than any other NHL club?
We shall see. Reports abound of former San Jose Sharks CEO Greg Jamison and his secret group of investors closing in on a deal that would keep the Coyotes in the desert and blunt the short-term hopes of Quebec City, but this is a story that's had many false starts along the way. Even now, the speculation that the new group is demanding an absurd annual arena management fee of $20 million or more, which is really just a subsidy from the city, could kill the deal, particularly if the taxpayer group the Goldwater Institute gets involved.
So again, we shall see.
What we know for sure is the Coyotes are off to second round competition against the Nashville Predators in the Battle of Teams Almost Owned By Jim Balsillie. We know that GM Don Maloney has done a spectacular job of building this team against all odds, that if voting was done a week later goalie Mike Smith might have won the Vezina and Hart trophies, and that Raffi Torres won't get to play or participate in a cage match with Shea Weber.
Beyond that, and beyond the fact the Blackhawks have now followed up their 2009 Stanley Cup championship with back-to-back first round defeats, we also know that the Coyotes are anything but a team built the classic way.
First round picks? Phoenix has a sorry record in this regard, having taken the likes of Blake Wheeler, Peter Mueller and Kyle Turris with top 10 picks and never saw any of them become stars in Arizona. In fact, the most useful former first rounders in the Phoenix lineup, aside from talented blueliner Oliver Ekman-Larsson and OT hero Mikkel Boedker, would be those acquired off the scrap heap from other teams like Kyle Chipchura and Rostislav Klesla.
This is a franchise that has been an orphan since 2009 and has demonstrated that any notion there is a single blueprint that must be followed to have success is baloney. Instead, the Coyotes have built a winner on castoffs and reclamation projects, with Maloney's resourcefulness in doing things like signing Smith as the bargain basement replacement for Ilya Bryzgalov and nabbing Gilbert Brule off the waiver wire from Edmonton playing a key role in the development of this team.
The 'Yotes will now face a Nashville squad that has been built along those classic lines, with more than half of the current Predators roster made up of draft picks and the key core players all acquired that way. The Preds haven't had more money to spend than the Coyotes, so they've had to keep it conservative and go the patient root, a philosophy with which GM David Poile is comfortable.
These are two teams, of course, facing critical moments in their franchise history as they collide in these playoffs. The Coyotes either need to be sold to interests that will keep the team where it is or the club will be moved after these playoffs are over. The Preds, meanwhile, are desperately trying to convince Ryan Suter (a UFA this summer) and Weber (a UFA next summer) to commit to long term deals, and playoff success might well be a pivotal factor in the final decisions of those players.
These are anything but glitzy, big market teams; you'll never see them invited to play in the Winter Classic or bumping the Caps, Rangers, Penguins or Bruins off the regular season NBC game-of-the-week. There won't be any boffo TV numbers coming out of this series.
They're just good hockey clubs built by sound hockey executives against the odds.
St. Louis, Los Angeles and Nashville are already there.
Florida and Phoenix are just a step away.
The way these Stanley Cup playoffs are going, its turning into a Great Eight gathering of misfit toys, franchises that have recently been wandering in the wilderness, owner-less or destitute, or all three. Philadelphia may have to play the role of the traditional hockey town in the second round, which it is, I guess, for anybody whose NHL memory doesn't precede the Original 21.
Canada? Only the Ottawa Senators are left after the Vancouver Canucks, the country's best team for at least two years now, fell by the wayside Sunday night against the Kings in a 2-1 overtime defeat, a team that has been doing this rebuild thing for an awfully long time and finally saw everything click into place.
Clubs that seemed so confident, so successful, just two weeks ago have now joined the 14 non-qualifiers on the sidelines and, in some way, look more troubled that some of those clubs that didn't make post-season play at all.
What lies in the future for Detroit, San Jose and Pittsburgh, three teams that have grown used to be major powers and now must grapple with difficult questions in this off-season after being ousted in the first round? Who would have thought that the Penguins, for example, had a goaltending problem on their hands?
Which brings us to the Canucks, the team that was supposed to have learned how to win by losing in the Cup final last spring but apparently learned more about how to lose. Since going up 2-0 against the Bruins in that joust for the Cup, Vancouver has now won only two of 10 playoff matches and watched its potent offence shrivel up into a shadow of what it once was.
Last spring, GM Mike Gillis chose to blame officiating and injuries for his team's defeat, and much of the club's fan base bought into those flimsy excuses. Gillis won't be able to sluff off losing to the Kings quite that easiiy, particularly since none of the moves he made to stiffen the Canucks lineup for another serious run paid any dividends whatsover. David Booth wasn't a top six forward, Sammy Pahlsson isn't anywhere close to the hardnosed combatant he was in 2007, while acquiring a possible future contributor in Zach Kassian for a player, Cody Hodgson, who clearly could have provided an offensive ingredient the Canucks needed will go down as one of the bigger miscalculations of the season.
Gillis tried to make the team better and succeeded in making it decidedly worse; the Canucks lost to a team whose GM, Dean Lombardi, did a better job improving his roster than Vancouver's hockey boss did.
We've been over the goaltending story. One will have to go now, and the Maple Leafs are one of the teams that will be sniffing around either Roberto Luongo or Cory Schneider. The core of the team - the Sedin twins, Ryan Kesler, Kevin Bieksa, Alexander Edler, Alex Burrows - is a talented group, but one that may have to be tinkered with in the off-season.
Perhaps the Canucks will become a bidder for Rick Nash as an antidote to their lack of offensive punch when it matters most. Perhaps it will be concluded that without a true wheelhorse defenceman like Drew Doughty, the Canucks just aren't going to be able to get to the top of the mountain top. Watching Dan Hamhuis awkwardly try to carry the puck out of the Vancouver zone before essentially falling down (an attempted dive, no surprise) under pressure from Trevor Lewis on the play that led to the winning goal Sunday night seemed symbolic, as Hamhuis was a defenceman who was supposed to make a measurable difference on the Vancouver defence and has not.
Its not hard to see Alain Vigneault getting the pink slip, fairly or unfairly, and if that happens, also not that hard to see Vigneault ending up in Montreal.
This is, anyway you cut it, a massive failure for the team that seemed to be a cut above the rest of the Canadian squads. The Canucks didn't whine and dive quite as much this spring - small mercies - but never once looked like the powerful team that last June was two wins away from the first Cup in franchise history.
We came close to seeing both of last year's Cup finalists eliminated, but in the end, the Bruins had one more desperation goal in them Sunday afternoon, while the Canucks did not Sunday night. In mid-winter, it seemed a rematch of the 2011 final was a very real possibility, but it won't happen.
Not so long ago, the Canucks were locking up the twins, signing Roberto Luongo to an absurdly long contract and getting Kesler to commit to a multi-year deal, all of which seemed strong signs that it was finally Vancouver's time, that after two previously unsuccessful trips to the Cup final in 1982 and 1994 it was inevitable that the Canucks would win it all, if not last year than this year.
But now its about next year, and some of those players who received huge contracts to deliver a winner to the Lower Mainload now look as though they may be a step, or two, past their prime. Burrows and the Sedins are all 31, Bieksa is 30, Luongo is 33. That said, Kesler is 27 while both Edler and Schneider are 26, so there's hardly reason for out-and-out panic.
The Canucks aren't old. The question is whether they're young enough to continue to win going forward.
This isn't a team that's going to be blown up. It'll be up to Gillis to make small moves that produce a big difference. He can't just return with the same group, yet its anything but obvious exactly what commodities will change the final result for the Canucks.
For two years this has been a team that seemed to have everything a team needed to win a championship.
Now, that title seems further away than it seemed only two weeks ago. The Canucks still have lots of good talent. They've just gone from being a team that was one win shy of a Cup to one only good enough to win a single game in the first round.
At least five other Canadians cities would love to have the Vancouver roster. But really, that's pretty light praise, wouldn't you say?
It seems unthinkable that Brendan Shanahan would throw away the approval ratings he earned with the Raffi Torres decision on Saturday.
But apparently that's what the Shaky Sheriff has in mind.
After banning Torres for 25 games early in the day on Saturday, Shanahan was, just hours later, presented with another potential disciplinary decision regarding a high hit by Ottawa's Chris Neil on Brian Boyle of the New York Rangers.
No penalty was called on the play. Boyle was cutting from right to left high in the Ottawa zone when a backchecking Neil swooped in and caught Boyle with a crushing hit that a year ago, before changes in the NHL rulebook, would have been legal.
It was from the blindside, as Boyle didn't see the Neil train coming. The impact point was Neil's shoulder to Boyle's head, although Neil didn't leave his feet and kept his elbows down. The hit was also not late, although Boyle didn't have the puck.
Boyle was stunned, got to his feet, finished the game but now may have a concussion that will keep him out of Game 6 on Monday.
The hit was not comparable in any way, really, to Torres' dirty hit on Marian Hossa of the Chicago Blackhawks. But it did have one element the Torres hit did not, and that's the suggestion of premeditation.
In fact, the reaction of many initially was that Boyle was again getting his just desserts for mussing the hair of Ottawa star blueliner Erik Karlsson in Game 1 of the series. In Game 2, Boyle was attacked by Senators goon Matt Carkner early in the first period, with Carkner - abandoning the always mysterious "code" - continuing to rain punches on Boyle even though the Ranger forward didn't fight back and even after he had been knocked to the ice.
So was Saturday night's hit more retribution on Boyle?
Regardless, New York's Carl Hagelin was suspended in Game 2 for three games for a head shot on Daniel Alfredsson of the Senators, who has not yet returned to the series.
It seems unthinkable, given all the circumstances, that Shanahan would now, after laying down the law so heavily on Torres, permit Neil to walk away unpunished for his head shot on Boyle, a hit that certainly appeared to break Rule 48. Consistency is what hockey fans seem to want, and there can be no consistency when one player - a multiple offender - is getting 25 games for a head shot while another gets nothing for a head shot of his own. Yes, Neil would at least in theory be a first time offender; then again, so was Hagelin.
Any reasonable person would suggest Neil should at least get one game; reports that Boyle's head was not the principle point of contact are laughable.
Neil, however, seems to lead a charmed life on these matters. He walked when he walloped Chris Drury with a dirty head shot, and the law never seems to catch up with him.
Early reports are he'll get off on the Boyle hit as well, probably escaping even without the Shea Weber ($2,500) slap on the wrist treatment. Assuming that's the case, Shanahan's best work will have been undone in 24 hours.
Twenty-five games to no games in one day. Hard to believe. Hagelin, meanwhile, is now the beast that needs to be caged, Neil just a good old Canadian boy playing the game hard and Boyle needs to keep his head up.
"Not sure how we teach our players to look at the net, shoot the puck and then check out the danger at 45, 90 and 180 degrees in one motion," said one disgusted former NHLer this morning. "We cannot just say the game is hard and concussions happen. It's not right."
Such a shame. Briefly, it sure seemed like Shanahan was up to the task. One thing's for certain; if Torres chooses to appeal, his case just got a little stronger as darts-at-a-board NHL justice strikes again.
For two days, the NHL has demonstrated it actually can get things under control, and the players have demonstrated that despite all the excuses those trying to shill for the game will attempt to offer up for them - new rules, the speed of the game, the bloody history of the sport, the intensity of the battle, etc - they are completely capable of generally respecting each other and not turning games into a joke.
What a revelation. And, interestingly, fabulous hard-hitting hockey ensued in the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs on Wednesday and Thursday, and not a single fan stormed out of a rink in protest of the absence of head shots or fist fights. Its possible people even watched the games on television in significant numbers.
Extraordinary.
Now, that won't make up for the embarrassing opening seven days when all manner of goonish behaviour obscured some of the superb play on the ice, made league sponsors nervous, caused both players and former players to speak up against the mayhem and left a few more stars either concussed or in hospital. Last spring's playoffs had concluded with riots in the streets of Vancouver, and this year's seemed to start with on-ice riots. No police cars were overturned, but common sense and sportsmanship were set ablaze.
Looking back, it was like rookie sheriff Brendan Shanahan wasn't prepared for the opening day of the post-season, and it took a storm of criticism for Shanahan to rouse himself from his stupor and start exerting a firm hand. Ditto for the referees, who went from passively observing scrums and all manner of illegal play to handing out 10-minute misconducts like candy canes at Christmas for players who dared to try to incite pointless trouble after the whistle.
What happens when you shut down the goons? The good players start to shine and give the league something it can actually sell.
Mikkel Boedker. Braden Holtby. The detemination of the St. Louis Blues and the tragedy of the San Jose Sharks. Martin Brodeur bouncing back from a bad night to blank the Florida Panthers. Kyle Turris scoring the first truly big goal of his NHL career. The struggles of Corey Crawford. The champs in trouble. The Kings and Canucks proving they're not dead yet. Alex Ovechkin benched for all but 1:58 in the third period as the Caps successfully hold a third period lead.
And on and on. See what happens when you put the gorillas in a cage and let the talent breathe?
That doesn't mean the rats, predators and thugs are done. They're always out dragging their knuckles on the ice, hoping to give the game a black mark in the name of "policing" the sport and "finishing their check." Lord knows we've also once again learned the idiots in the game have legions of enablers dedicated to always obstructing progress, telling you to watch figure skating or tennis if you don't like it, demonizing the best players in the game rather than the unskilled, blaming the media (even when they're part of the media) and generally trying to pretend what's happening isn't really happening.
Which is what makes the Raffi Torres suspension in New York today important.
Just as Shanahan had an opportunity to send a strong message at the start of the playoffs by punishing Shea Weber for his WWE move on Henrik Zetterberg's head and whiffed, now he gets another chance, a nice easy curve that isn't curving down the middle of the plate, a simple chance to produce he's in charge and that crime will not pay under his watch.
Then again, it already has, hasn't it? Torres eliminated Marian Hossa from Game 4 and the Coyotes, who don't need Torres, won the game to jump ahead 3-1 in the series.
At any rate, this is another moment for Shanahan, who hasn't done well on these types of significant decisions all year.
He blew it when Milan Lucic steamrolled Ryan Miller, made the wrong call on Rene Bourque after his head shot on Nicklas Backstrom, fumbled Duncan Keith's head shot on Daniel Sedin and botched the Weber decision.
Every time Shanahan has been faced with a decision that matters, he either dismisses the one-ice crime entirely citing some circumstance or excuse, or produces an insufficient punishment. He's a good man, a bright man, who has been given a job he was ill-prepared for and made a host of mistakes.
But that doesn't mean he can't start doing it right, starting today.
Now, he gets another try, an opportunity to show he can be fair but tough, deliver a suspension that most, if not all, can clearly understand and shows a larger sense of the good of the game, not just the good of the player who screwed up.
Get this one right, and who knows? We may just keep talking about hockey in ways that those of us who truly love the game can be proud.
The tweet came in just before midnight from an intriguing source, future Hall of Famer Mike Modano.
"Really selling the game," tweeted Modano under the Twitter handle @9modano. "No wonder our TV deals suck ass."
Joining a growing list of players and former players - Jonathan Toews, David Perron, Henrik Zetterberg - disgusted or frustrated with what has transpired over the first week of NHL playoff competition, Modano's tweet appeared to be in reaction to yet another ugly incident, this time Raffi Torres - oh yes, Torres again - and his vicious hit on Chicago star winger Marian Hossa that sent Hossa to hospital.
On a night when we should have been discussing Nashville's second straight win in Detroit, Florida's comeback against the Devils or 39-year-old Ray Whitney's brillance in a 3-2 overtime win for Phoenix over the Blackhawks, once again a controversial hit and injury took centre stage.
Modano's point, of course, and he should know, is that the NHL has constantly found itself with tiny TV ratings and revenue in the U.S. below sports like bowling because it has consistently failed to produce a package in which skill is featured ahead of goons and blood. (Of course, you can now expect the CBC's first intermission clown to take umbrage and first insult Modano's nationality, then call him a turncoat and a "puke," blame him for the bloodshed at Vimy Ridge then throw out a series of inaccurate and misleading "stats" that he will claim proves the 1999-00 Mississauga Ice Dogs were the greatest junior team ever to play.)
These days, meanwhile, it would certainly appear the best players in the game are being hunted and targetted, with little meaningful response from the NHL. Embattled Department of Player Safety boss Brendan Shanahan, who increasingly seems completely overmatched by the task he's been given, will face a challenge with the Torres-Hossa hit as Torres didn't even receive a minor penalty on the play.
That underlined another problem for Shanahan and the NHL. The officiating hasn't just been bad in recent days. Its been negligent and sometimes weirdly absent.
There was Ryan Clowe playing the puck from the bench in the final days of the season without any official knowing. There was an obvious offside goal for Philly to start a comeback in Game 1 against Pittsburgh. Last night, Nashville's David Legwand closed his hand on the puck in the crease and no official saw it, and then came the hit on Hossa, a blatantly illegal play that went uncalled as NHL commissioner Gary Bettman sat in the stands at the United Centre.
"I can't believe four guys missed it," said Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville.
Torres, of course, is a serial offender and well-established backstabber, frequently punished but sometimes allowed to get away with dangerous and reckless play. In this instance, his hit on Hossa in front of the benches was late - the puck was long gone - and saw the Phoenix forward launch himself into Hossa's head, making it both a charge and a classic Rule 48 head shot.
"Just trying to finish my hit out there," said Torres, quoting from Page 1 of the NHL Players Excuse Guide.
Still, don't underestimate the NHL's ability to let Torres escape justice. He did so last spring when he delivered a brutal head shot to Brent Seabrook and was exonerated because the hit occurred in a "hitting zone" that no one had previously heard of.
In this case, a reasonable person might sugges Torres' suspension should begin with the remainder of the post-season and grow from there. Time and time again, this is a player who has demonstrated no regard for the health and well-being of his fellow NHLers, not to mention the rules of the game.
He is the new Matt Cooke, now that Matt Cooke is the new Matt Cooke, if you get my drift.
But who really has any idea whether Shanahan will take any action at all? Moreover, since the NHL owns the Coyotes and would love a springtime playoff run to improve the franchise's saleability, the league is, you could argue, in a rather massive conflict of interest here.
"I don't know what to expect anymore," said Toews afterwards. "I don't think anyone does."
That's because we appear to have moved into Phase 3 of the Shanahan Darts-At-A-Board Justice program.
Phase 1 was to flex his muscles and hand down suspensions of 10 or more games before being shut down by outraged general managers.
Phase 2 was to let players get away with murder - including two head shots from Torres for which he received a $2,500 fine for one and a two-game suspension for the other - while claiming education and discussion was a better strategy than suspensions.
Phase 3, meanwhile, appears to be to issue a blizzard of meaningless and illogical mini-suspensions, giving slightly larger ones to grunts and grinders while giving one game or less to star players. On Tuesday alone, Shanahan suspended four players, but none for more than four games, with the reasoning for each detached from a general, understandable guiding philosophy.
At this point, he's just guessing, trying simultaneously to please his boss and avoid getting censured by the GMs again while still trying to affect the manly pose of a former player with insight into the modern game.
So with respect to Torres, here are the possible outcomes:
--Torres could get 25 games, with Shanahan noting he once expressed an interest in playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and all Penguins deserve to be suspended because the Flyers are angels and would never do anything wrong.
--He might get a $2,500 fine, with Shanahan showing footage in his video of Hossa being able to walk out of hospital and a simulated presentation of the Slovak dancing at a late night Chicago blues bar.
--Torres could get a one-game suspension because Halifax came back to beat Quebec in the QMJHL playoffs. In other words, for no logical reason at all.
--The Coyote cranium-crusher might get four games because he reminds Shanahan of a left-handed Arron Asham.
--Or Torres might get no games and no fine because he outscored Sidney Crosby between Jan. 5, 2011 and Nov. 20, 2011, and then again between Dec. 6, 2011 and March 14, 2012, demonstrating emphatically that he is an elite skill player and not a rat, and therefore doesn't deserve any discipline at all.
Look, you've just gotta laugh at what's going on, because otherwise you'd be thoroughly disgusted at a league that is so dazed and confused another lockout might well be the best medicine for what ails it.
Watching the San Jose Sharks going down in Game 3 to the St. Louis Blues on Monday night, a series that seems solidly in the control of the Blues, brought the situation of both clubs into sharp relief.
For the Blues, the window for winning a championship seems to be just opening. With their best youngsters just hitting their prime - Patrick Berglund was awesome in a 4-3 win in Game 3, the Blues' first road playoff win in nine years - its not hard to forecast the best days are ahead for the club. If Alex Pietrangelo becomes the star on defence many are suggesting he will be, all the elements may be there for St. Louis' first Cup in the near future.
For the Sharks, a strong NHL outfit for a decade that still hasn't been able to get to a Stanley Cup final, the window looks to be closing. Joe Thornton is 32, Patrick Marleau will be 33 when next season begins (if it begins) and Dan Boyle will soon turn 36.
The Sharks also have some good youth, notably Logan Couture and Brent Burns. But the chance for this team to win it all with the current group probably expired last spring, unless, of course, Thornton can lead a huge comeback in this series against St. Louis.
When you watch the playoffs, its hard not to put the teams you're watching into one category or the other.
Take Washington-Boston, for example, with the Bruins up two games to one in the series after winning last night in D.C.
For the reigning champs, the window is still open. They could triumph again, particularly if the NHL continues to let lawlessness be the theme for the 2012 post-season.
And the Caps? Their core - Alex Ovechkin, Mike Green, Alex Semin, Nicklas Backstrom - is much younger than that of the Sharks. Yet it feels like the Caps have underachieved with that core and that it will likely be broken up to some degree if, as looks likely, Washington goes out in the first round.
It will be even harder to knock off the champs if Backstrom is suspended for his cross-check to the face of Boston's Rich Peverley after time expired on Monday night. It was similar in some ways, but not exactly the same, to the crosscheck delivered by Pittsburgh's Arron Asham on Brayden Schenn of the Flyers on Sunday.
Peverley wasn't injured, and neither was Schenn. But many are expecting five or more games for Asham. If Department of Player Safety boss Brendan Shanahan is going to recover an ounce of credibility - he has admitted that he was going to suspend Shea Weber for a game before being told Henrik Zetterberg wasn't significantly injured - there will have to be some relationship between the discipline meted out to Asham and Backstrom. They cannot produce wildly different results for this to make any sense.
But back to the window open/window closed discussion. What about the other teams still left in the playoffs?
There was no sign this was coming. No sign at all six days ago that either the Vancouver Canucks or the Pittsburgh Penguins were in danger, or would quickly lose their first three games of the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs and find themselves on the precipice.
Even those who predicted the Pens and Canucks would lose in the first round foresaw long, drawn out series.
But then, nobody saw that the Canucks wouldn't be able to score - five goals in three games against L.A., seven goals in their last seven playoff matches - or that the Penguins wouldn't be able to defend. Pitt coughed up an unearthly 16 goals against in losing Games 2 and 3 to Philly, and while Marc-Andre Fleury has been stinky, he's hardly been provided with a wall in front of him.
Vancouver, meanwhile, can't get it going without Daniel Sedin, which would be an excuse if not for the fact they couldn't get it going on the attack with Daniel Sedin in the latter part of last spring's Cup final either. All that talent up front and nobody can find the net, while the players acquired by GM Mike Gillis in trades along the way this season - Zack Kassian, David Booth and Sammy Pahlsson - have added nothing to the attack.
Barring a spectacular comeback by either club, we'll soon be looking at the changes coming in both cities. In Pittsburgh, it will be whether its time to move on from the trio of Sidney Crosby, Evgeny Malkin and Jordan Staal. In Vancouver, there will be questions about head coach Alain Vigneault, and which of goalies Cory Schneider and Roberto Luongo will be moving on to a new home this summer.
Just last Tuesday there were 14 unhappy teams lining up for the draft lottery. In a matter of days, there will be eight more first round losers, some of whom will be more hungry for change than the teams that didn't make the dance at all.
But before that, what about the teams that have pushed Vancouver and Pittsburgh to the brink?
The fates of the Flyers and Kings, its fair to say, are substantially linked. Philly traded Mike Richards to L.A. in exchange for Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn and a second round pick, a deal that both teams are pretty pleased with at the moment. Ex-Flyer Jeff Carter also ended up in L.A. after the Kings gave up defenceman Jack Johnson to get him.
Its fair to say that both GMs, Paul Holmgren and Dean Lombardi, stuck their necks out this season. Holmgren boldly decided the Richards-Carter combo wouldn't work for Philly and peddled both in stunning trades that made the Flyers younger and seemed to represent a competitive step back in the short-term. Instead, the Flyers are better despite the fact that once again, they brought in a goaltender (Ilya Bryzgalov) who has proven so far in the post-season to be anything but airtight..
Lombardi, meanwhile, lost out in the Ilya Kovalchuk sweepstakes and got burnt on dealing for Dustin Penner last year before the playoffs. He kept making moves, made a much-criticized decision to bring in Darryl Sutter as head coach to replace Terry Murray, and this time the combination of players in front of brilliant goalie Jonathan Quick and the coaching change worked.
Oddly, however, it was the deal Lombardi didn't make - hanging on to Dustin Brown rather than moving him at the deadline - that might have been his shrewdest move. Outside of Quick and maybe Drew Doughty, Brown has been the best King and made the two biggest plays Sunday night, laying out Henrik Sedin and scoring the only goal of the game.
Now, wouldn't it be interesting if these were the two teams that ended up meeting in the Cup final?
Damien Cox, the Star's hockey columnist and associate sports editor, takes turns stirring up trouble and chuckling at the foibles of the sporting world. He'll start with hockey, Canada's ongoing passion play, and stick his nose into a few other games and places where athletes reside. You'll love some of his thoughts, hate others and get a chance to give your two cents on all of them.
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