Wes Walz explains the Hockey Code: Chris Stewart fights Cody McLeod

FSN hockey analyst and former NHLer Wes Walz breaks down the Hockey code after Chris Stewart fights Cody McLeod. I am very excited the Minnesota Wild picked up a tough guy that can actually fight and play the game.

Differing Opinions of the Wild Dismantling the Av's

As I mentioned yesterday, I am not anti-fighting. I understand the hockey code and I don't think fighting should be taken out of the NHL game. I recently covered this subject in another post at the Hockey Writers.

the NHL game is evolving, and fighting is becoming less prevalent. That’s a positive development. In today’s game, there’s not a lot of room on an NHL roster for a five shift, four-minute player that can only fight.

Okay, in Scott’s defense, over the past five games that he’s played in, the Sharks behemoth has averaged about six minutes a game. That being said, the Sharks have seen little if any production from him. He’s taking up space in the lineup.

Teams no longer can afford to have a tough guy taking up space on the player’s bench. One dimensional players like Scott are a dying breed. So why is a player like Scott still in the NHL?

That being said, what Cody McLeod did at the end of Saturday's game needs to be addressed further. It was a bush league move that should cause him to be fined and or suspended. I predict nothing will happen to Mr. McLeod. According to Michael Russo, the NHL will announce today the Colorado fines for Patrick Roy, Gabriel Landeskog and Cody McLeod.

For those that think that Sean Bergenheim hit on Nathan Mackinnon was dirty, go back and watch the video of Bergenheim's hit on Nathan Mackinnon. This was a textbook example of a clean shoulder-to-chest. Nothing more, nothing less.

I found this blog post on Mile High City and this paragraph is worth reading just to get the other side of the argument. I also found it comical that Avs fans are calling Minnesota a dirty team. The Wild don't even have a designated pugilist and their agitator Matt Cooke is currently on the IR. I have watched 85-90 percent of the Wild's games this season and they are not a dirty team. Especially with Cooke out of the Wild lineup.

If you’re keeping track at home, Kyle Brodziak (4) and Ryan Carter (3) lead the Wild in fighting majors. Those two are hardly heavy weights.

MacKinnon just got elbowed in the face and is bleeding all over the ice. Heads straight to the locker room. No call because these refs are completely overwhelmed by this game. Avs do get a call in their favor...somewhere but I missed it completely. Avs on the PP. Avs PP continues to be more flaccid than a stale banana. Barrie taking all kinds of chances pinching and Iggy does a great job getting back to help mitigate a Wild 2-on-1. Avs running out of time real quick now. (PS on second look, MacKinnon looks to have received a shoulder to the face, not an elbow. I retract my officiating complaints, sort of). (Mile High Hockey)

Maybe the refs didn't call it because it was a legal hit.

Hockey is a physical game and injuries happen as are result of physical contact. Again, this was a legal textbook shoulder-to-chest hit. The players own stick breaks his nose. How does this act warrant McLeod jumping two of the Wild's star players? It doesn't. Also, goons taking a run at star players that don't fight breaks the hockey code. It's a bush league act.

I also think that the NHL doesn't want neanderthal goons taking runs at star players because one of the players was hurt with a legal check or because the other team doesn't want to fight. That's not the Wild game.

Cody McLeod Jumps Mikael Granlund and Fights Charlie Coyle

I want to be clear, I am all for fighting and sticking up for your teammates. I get that, but what the heck is Cody McLeod doing? Or better yet, what is Avalanche coach Patrick Roy doing?

My question is: Wouldn't this be an intent to injure? McLeod took a run against an unexpecting player after the faceoff. I don't know?

Second, Charlie Coyle and Mikael Granlund are skilled players, they're not goons. You really don't want to see Coyle or Granlund stuck in this situation.



If you're a Minnesota Wild, you're probably talking about this today. The Minnesota Wild the Colorado Avalanche are at it yet again. In four games against the Wild the Avalanche has scored a grand total of one goal.

There are rules in place to prevent what McLeod did, but you need the refs to actually call it.

“That’s garbage is what it is,” Yeo said of McLeod’s antics. “You feel it was going that way all game long. They were obviously very emotional all game long. In an emotional type of game, we did a good job of keeping our focus and I really think that was the difference in the end.”

Asked what he thought of Roy putting out McLeod, Yeo said, “We’ve seen the league respond to things like this. There’s rules in place to try to prevent things like that and I’m quite certain that they’ll take a good long look at that.”

We’ll see if the league does examine this and determines the only thing that kept this from being an instigator with less than five minutes left is that the refs decided not levy one for some unexplained reason. (Michael Russo, StarTribune)

Apparently, Av's coach Patrick Roy sent their goon out at the end of the game because of a legal shoulder-to-chest hit.



If you don't believe me that this is a legal hit check out the GIFs embedded below.

Shoulder-to-chest hit. RT @ybba2026: @goon48 Bergenheim? pic.twitter.com/t5UTb3INs1
— Eric J. Burton THW (@goon48) March 1, 2015

GIF: Bergenheim hit on Mackinnon, cc @WalterNorris pic.twitter.com/BEdxfRb9M5
— Steph (@myregularface) March 1, 2015

(Video) Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche end of game scrum

Feisty end to a very good game between the Wild and Avalanche.

20:00 MIN Clayton Stoner Misconduct (10 min) - 10 min against Patrick Bordeleau
20:00 COL Patrick Bordeleau Misconduct (10 min) - 10 min against Clayton Stoner
20:00 COL Cody McLeod Misconduct (10 min) - 10 min against Nate Prosser
20:00 MIN Nate Prosser Misconduct (10 min) - 10 min against Cody McLeod

Wild score their empty net goal to go up 4-2, Yeo with a fist pump http://t.co/T3u8QOBCWK
— Steph (@myregularface) April 29, 2014

(Video) Avalanche forward Paul Stastny cup checks Wild forward Cody McCormick

Another day, another cup check. This time, Colorado Avalanche forward Paul Stastny cup checks Minnesota Wild forward Cody McCormick.

Stastny gets his first slashing penalty of the series; It was his 25th slash, but first to the box. Wild PP
— Michael Russo (@Russostrib) April 29, 2014

There's your answer it's was Kiszla

So there's video of Cooke throwing elbow at MacKinnon's head and kneeing Barrie. Hope my Q to Yeo was reasonable.
— Mark Kiszla (@markkiszla) April 23, 2014

Earlier this week, a beat writer  from the Denver Post asked Minnesota Wild head coach Mike Yeo if he sent Matt Cooke out to run the Av's players. We knew it was either been Adrian Dater or Mark Kiszla that would ask such a objectionable question. Now it would appear that we know the answer. I am glad that Kiszla realizes his team is a bunch of saints either.

Mark Kiszla, Denver Post --- When I asked Minnesota coach Mike Yeo on Tuesday if the often-suspended Cooke represents the NHL well, Yeo bristled and said: "I'm not going to get into that. Listen, you're asking me to criticize my player. I'm not going to do that. I don't want to get into a whole laundry list of things trying to defend him."

So then I went back and watched video of Cooke making a blindside run at Avs teenager Nathan MacKinnon in the first period of Game 3, swinging and missing the NHL's top rookie with an elbow.

There's no defending the Wild's decision to give Cooke a $7.5 million contract to wear Minnesota across his chest. The great state of hockey deserves better than a coward who has repeatedly demonstrated utter disrespect for the health of fellow competitors in a tough, violent sport.

It's true: The Avs are not always angels. When Claude Lemieux shattered the face of Kris Draper of Detroit on the boards during a playoff game in 1996, I called for a suspension. Cody McLeod is a good dude, but when he blasted Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall between the numbers from behind this season, I applauded the five-game suspension.

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• Wild Forward Matt Cooke will get Destroyed in the Court of Public Opinion

Cody McLeod has in person hearing for hit on Niklas Kronwall

#Avalanche Cody McLeod has earned an in-person hearing with the #NHL for his hit on #Redwings Nik Kronwall. Date TBD.
— Nick Kypreos (@RealKyper) October 18, 2013

Here's the good news, Colorado Avalanche forward Cody McLeod is set to have the book thrown at him. The Colorado Avalanche forward has in person hearing for hit with the NHL Department of Player Safety, for his dirty, bush league, unnecessary hit on Red Wings Defenseman Niklas Kronwall. Logic is, with an in person hearing, he's going to get a least a 5-game suspension. If I was McLeod, I would be a bit worried. Buffalo Sabres "Rat" Patrick Kaleta was given a 10-game suspension after an in person hearing for his dirty hit on Jack Johnson. Of course, he's going to appeal that suspension.

NHL.COM -- Avalanche left wing Cody McLeod will have a hearing with the NHL Department of Player Safety for a boarding incident during Thursday's game against the Detroit Red Wings at Pepsi Center.

McLeod was offered the opportunity for an in-person hearing as required by provisions of the Collective Bargaining Agreement for any suspension that can exceed five games.

At 2:13 of the first period, McLeod was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct for boarding Detroit's Niklas Kronwall. Kronwall remained down and was taken from the ice on a stretcher. He did not return. After the game, the Red Wings announced Kronwall sustained a concussion and cuts to his right ear.

The following grounds are being considered for supplemental discipline: boarding. However, the Department of Player Safety retains the right to make adjustments to the infraction upon review.

Detroit won the game, 4-2.

Cody McLeod's inexcusable hit on Niklas Kronwall

There's no excuse for this duty, senseless, hit by the Colorado Avalanche hack Cody McLeod. This hit should garner McLeod at least five games, there is no way that you can defend this hit. If you watch the video you will see that McLeod targets the head of Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall, with his elbow, knocking him out and sending him off the ice on a stretcher.

Av's Hack McLeod will not be suspended

This tweet is from Mike Chambers of the Denver Post. Let me be clear, my beef is not with the Denver Post but with the NHL. NHL Senior Vice President of Player Safety is a fraud and is no better than his much maligned predecessor Colin Campbell. BReynolds from the Hockey Wilderness has done a great job of laying out the argument where the NHL has gone wrong. This latest ruling by the Lack of Player Safety is a joke. Am I upset with the ruling, you bet I am.

Next time out the Minnesota Wild should go out and run the top player of their opponents through the end boards because the NHL is not serious about eliminating these types of hits from the game of hockey, and why not, everyone else is doing it to the Wild and getting away with it.

The day after the McLeod hit on Spurgeon

I don't like this hit one bit and these types of dangerous hits need to be eliminated from the game of hockey. Even today after watching the hit some more, I am not changing my opinion one bit. The hit is dangerous, senseless and unnecessary.

You have a player like Cody McLeod that is at best a third line player in the NHL taking out a top defensive player for the Wild. Again, the refs rescued the offending player McLeod before anyone from the Minnesota Wild could get to McLeod to have him answer for that Bush League hit.

To also suggest that Spurgeon is responsible for being plastered into the boards is also ridiculous. I have also seen Avalanche fans defending this hit and Cody McLeod.

According to Michael Russo, after the game Wild Coach Mike Yeo was unimpressed with the McLeod hit. Yeo went so far to suggest that the Av's players were targeting Spurgeon during the game.

"I didn't like the hit one bit," Wild coach Mike Yeo said.

Yeo didn't have an update on Spurgeon immediately after the game, but he did have a strong opinion. He said he felt the Avalanche might have been targeting Spurgeon. "They hit him from behind two shifts before that," he said. "And I thought that one could have been called, too. I thought that one was dangerous. So twice ... five minutes into the game?"

The next time the Wild play the Avalanche this hit has to be answered for and Wild need to respond appropriately. I also predict that McLeod will get nothing in the way of a suspension from the National Hockey League.

McLeod hit on Spurgeon

Here is the picture of the Cody McLeod hit on Minnesota Wild Defenseman Jared Spurgeon. This the link to the video of the hit. Thoughts on the hit? Suspension to McLeod?

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• Avalanche wins 4-2 at Minnesota, ends nine-game road loss streak (denverpost.com)

Av's Hack McLeod boards Spurgeon

Enough is enough, these kind of hits make my blood boil and they are unnecessary, the NHL needs to through the book at Avalanche forward Cody McLeod for his ridiculously stupid and dangerous hit on Wild Defenseman Jared Spurgeon. There is no reason this hit shouldn't command at least a 2-4 game suspension.

In the last 13 days the Minnesota Wild have seen Lennart Petrell's drive Marek Zidlicky into the boards, Zach Bogosian plant Pierre-Marc Bouchard into the boards and now this. Enough is enough.

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• Lennart Petrell's questionable hit On Marek Zidlicky (mvn.com)
• Lennart Petrell will not be suspended (mvn.com)

Former Fighting Sioux forward Brad Malone interviewed by Mike Chambers

Wow!!! Here is one for the record books, self professed Fighting Sioux hockey hater and beat writer for the Denver Post; Mike Chambers, has come a long way, Mike Chambers was able to interview former Fighting Sioux forward Brad Malone without insulting the Fighting Sioux hockey team and or mentioning the Brad Malone's check on Jesse Martin. Goon's World must give Mike Chambers credit where credit is due, now the question is; will Mike Chambers be able to write to columns/blog posts in a row without doing either.

Mike Chambers All things AV's --- (Brad)Malone, listed at 6-foot-2 and 207 pounds, was a first-line center as a senior at UND, but he is pegged as a third- or fourth-line grinder as a pro. He has embraced that model and would love to be the next Cody McLeod for the Avs.

“Keeping it simple. I don’t think there anything real mysterious about my game,” Malone said. “Just shooting pucks out (of the defensive zone), shooting pucks in, being physical, limiting mistakes. I don’t think I’ll have a scoring role, but . . . I try and resemble myself after a guy like (McLeod).”

That would include fighting, an art that would require Malone to shake off some rust. (Of course, the NCAA hands out ejections and suspensions for fighting, so it doesn’t happen much.)

“I haven’t played junior hockey or anything in four years, but you know what, it’s part of the game,” he said of fighting. “I’m not going to go out and look for it, but with the physical play and the way that I play, I’m sure things are going to come around. You can’t really shy away from it. We’ll see what happens.”

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• Another Mike Chambers drive by shooting on former Fighting Sioux forward Brad Malone... (mvn.com)
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