NHL won't discipline Bruins' Seidenberg for hit on Toews

According to Tracy Myers of CSNCHICAGO.COM, the NHL is not going to discipline Dennis Seidenberg. Puck Daddy also has a nice post on the Seidenberg hit on Toews, too.

Greg Wyshynski, Puck Daddy -- The NHL’s Department of Player Safety decided on Friday that Dennis Seidenberg’s hit that injured Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks isn’t worthy of supplemental discipline, as there won’t be a hearing for the Boston Bruins defenseman.

As much as Blackhawks fans don’t want to hear it, this was the right call.

Ultimately, the League decided the call on the ice was the right one: a boarding minor. Just because a penalized player injured an opponent – and Toews’ status is still being determined, as the Blackhawks aren’t skating on Friday – doesn’t automatically mean the player deserves a suspension.

Do you agree or disagree with this? Feel free to chime in if you want. Is this the right decision.

Bruins Defenseman Dennis Seidenberg interviews Pierre McGuire in the Army Rangers jacket

Dennis Seidenberg interviews in a camo Army Rangers jacket, not quite the LeBron look (h/t @gopherstate) http://t.co/pvGVHIDrJU
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) June 18, 2013

Tap of the stick to @gopherstate and @cjzero.. ..

(Video) Boychuk, Marchand and Lucic goals... Bruins 5 Rangers 2

English: 37 Patrice Bergeron (C, BOS) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Boston Bruins took the New York Rangers to the woodshed today. It appears that the Bruins might have been a bit off or even worn out from their screwed up schedule in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

One my friends – a great hockey mind – told me that the Boston Bruins were lucky to win their first round series against the Maple Leafs. This is a fact that I agree with.

I have said on a couple occasion that I think that the Boston Bruins slept walked through the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Bruins looked tired and didn't have any energy in their step, that all seems to have changed now. I don't know if the Bruins are  more rested or of they have found a second gear. I am not sure what is going on here, but the Boston Bruins are playing better.

In the second round so far, the Bruins top six forwards have been absolutely awesome. In the first round, many of us were ready to send out a search party for them.

Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand had another two point game (1g-1a—2pts) and now has five points in his last three games (2g-3a—5pts) after only scoring two points in the first round against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Patrice Bergeron is starting to find his game as well and has been red hot as of late as well… Bergy has (2g-4a—6pts) in the last three games after scoring just a single point in the first five games that he played in.

Bergeron and Marchand back in the line up for the Boston Bruins

Boston Bruins (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Look who's back in the line for the Boston Bruins... From the Bruins blog. Bergy and Brad Marchand aka the Little Ball of Hate are back in the lineup for the Bruins.

Projected lineup:

Gregoy Campbell-David Krejci-Jaromir Jagr
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Tyler Seguin
Danny Paille-Chris Kelly-Nathan Horton
Milan Lucic-Rich Peverley-Shawn Thornton

Zdeno Chara-Johnny Boychuk
Dennis Seidenberg-Dougie Hamilton
Andrew Ference-Wade Redden

Tuukka Rask
Anton Khudobin

Boston Bruins game winning goal by Brad Marchand

You read that right, the Boston Bruins scored on the power play... Yeah, who would believe it? So far this season, the Boston Bruins are 6/46 (.13) on the power play and actually scored the go ahead goal at the .36 mark of the third period on the power play  with a goal from forward Brad Marchand.

That would be Marchand's eight goal of the season. The Little Ball of Hate also drew the penalty that lead to the play in question as well. The Boston Bruins have now scored two power play goals in two consecutive games in a row.

There is some question, on whether the Bruins forward Marchand dove on this play, looking at the video, I don't see any sign of embellishment.

Dennis Seidenberg vs. Colby Armstrong (Video)

This is another perfect example of why the National Hockey League needs to "not" ban fighting. First you have a punk like Toronto Maple Leafs forward Colby Armstrong, who has a history of being one of those players that plays on the edge and takes liberties on other teams star players.

If you think that I am kidding go over to Youtube you will see that he has a hit parade of high questionable hits on opposition players. [Example 1], [Example 2], [Example 3], [Example 4]... You can see a pattern here, always high, targets the head.

So fast forward to tonight, Armstrong hits Dennis Seidenberg a who is a European hockey player, that doesn't have a reputation of being a dirty player, and is not known for being a fighter, with a questionable hit, while Seidenberg is in a vulnerable position.

Armstrong is lucky that Seidenberg stepped in and that he didn't get beat up by Boston Bruins defenseman/bruiser Adam McQuaid, that would have been ugly...Per the hockey code the players settled this matter on the ice and there is no need to wait for the league office to act.

Seidenberg's crazy goal.

Check out this crazy goal by Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg as he takes a slap shot on net from center ice and beats Ottawa Senators' goalie Craig Anderson. If you're the goaltending coach from the Senators you can't be happy with this effort by Anderson. That was the game winning goal as well.

Related articles

• Dennis Seidenberg Goal: Bruins Edge Senators Thanks To Long-Range Slap Shot (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)
• Dennis Seidenberg Scores from Red Line in Bruins Win [VIDEO] (wzlx.radio.com)
• Seidenberg's long goal lifts Bruins past Senators (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Craig Anderson allows center ice game-winner (prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com)
• Seidenberg nets winner as Bruins rally by Sens (sports.espn.go.com)

Jay Harrison vs Zdeno Chara

This doesn't require a lot of narration. The Boston Bruins lost their cool tonight, and then lost the game 4-1. There is a time and a place for the rough stuff but the Bruins so concentrate on playing hockey first. So far I have been less than impressed with the Bruins play, there is only one word that I can use to describe the defending Stanley Cup champions play, "unacceptable." The Boston Bruins are currently 2-4 and sitting in 11th place in the Eastern Conference.

Mind's a Messin': Redwing77's Psychology Musings

Watching the Playoffs this year, listening to friends talk about the aftermath of games, and reading content got me thinking: We talk about the intangibles of hockey but what about the psychology?

The Finals this year reminds me a LOT of the Blackhawks vs. Canucks tilt from last year's playoffs.

Let me take you back... Then Hawk Dustin Byfuglien (IMO one of the most underrated players in the NHL) quite literally and almost single-handedly obliterated the Canucks game plan on multiple nights by simply getting them so enraged that their game plan was to basically head hunt Byfuglien (without actually hitting him in the head). This took the Canucks so off kilter that the Hawks won the game.

Right now, right or wrong/good or bad, the Canucks are doing the same thing to the Bruins. True, statistically the series still has been pretty even. True, the gripes about the Canucks methods of doing so have been merited. However, the job of the Bruins isn't to point out the cheap play of certain players. It isn't their job to go after the players either. It's their job to look at their opponents tendencies and make a game plan that expects those tendencies that still affords the Bruins the opportunity to win.

Coming into the Finals, the Bruins should have already known the following things:

1. The Canucks are a fast, great skating team
2. The Canucks are solid fundamentally
3. The Luongo of old has only temporarily shown up, but never for long enough to kill his team's chances.
4. The Canucks have been diving and getting away with it all Playoffs long
5. The Canucks aren't afraid of taking pages out of the Penguins and Blackhawks books. Penguins book- cheap hits, borderline on ice tactics. Hawks book - Aggravation, instigation, and getting under the skin of their opposition
6. They are a momentum team. The only way to beat them is to get them to lose their momentum.
7. They are a balanced team with pressure on them but only at the top. The media is swooning over the Sedins but that takes the spotlight off of players like Bieksa and so on.

Look, I'm no fan of Burrows or Bieksa, but you have to acknowledge that they've had a pretty good playoff run. I'd argue they've been more effective than the Sedins.

The flaw that the Bruin's face is that they are relying too heavily on Tim Thomas and Zdeno Chara to bail them out when the likes of Burrows and Bieksa get under their skin. And that's not working. The Bruins aren't out of it yet, but if they lose one game in Boston, they will be.

Game 3 and 4 are must wins for the B's if they expect to win. With 3 wins under the Canucks' belt, winning 1 of the next 4 should be almost a sure thing.

I'm looking at Dennis Seidenberg, Patrice Bergeron, and either Michael Ryder or Rich Peverley to step up. Tyler Seguin is a rookie and, though immensely talented, relying upon him would be a recipe for disaster.

I still have the Bruins in 7 but Game 3 will tell a lot about the possibility of there even being a Game 7.

Tim Thomas takes puck off the noggin, puck ends up in net.

All I can say is ouch, at first thought that the play should have been stopped because Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas had his masked knocked off of his head, however, it does appear that the refs made the right call according to the rulebook.

9.5 Protective Equipment - When a goalkeeper has lost his helmet and/or face mask and his team has possession of the puck, the play shall be stopped immediately to allow the goalkeeper the opportunity to regain his helmet and/or face mask. When the opposing team has possession of the puck, play shall only be stopped if there is no immediate and impending scoring opportunity. This stoppage of play must be made by the Referee. When play is stopped because the goalkeeper has lost his helmet and/or face mask, the ensuing face-off shall take place at one of the defending team’s end zone face-off spots.

No where but up for Tomas Kaberle...

Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images North America

EDIT: This blog post was lost in hyperspace and reappeared today. I have never really been a very big fan of Bruins defenseman Tomas Kaberle, he is an offensive defenseman that refuses to hit or play a physical game in a contact sports. In my opinion I don’t think Kaberle is a very good defensive player either and to top it off Kaberle’s price tag is way too high for a one dimensional hockey player, if anything I believe that he may have played himself out of Boston, especially with the emergence of Dennis Seidenberg.

The Hockey News --- Speaking of room for improvement, another burr in the sides of B’s fans has been blueliner Tomas Kaberle. Since coming over in a much-ballyhooed trade from Toronto, the stoic Czech has underwhelmed. That same Boston power play floundered under his influence, which is strange, since that was so much of his game with the Maple Leafs.

But don’t complain, Bruins faithful. Kaberle may not have been remarkable so far in the playoffs, but he too has room for improvement and his ceiling is higher than any of the other options. Think about it: you have a No. 1 defenseman playing the fifth-most minutes (18:06 per game) among Boston blueliners. If he can up his game, all of a sudden the pressure is alleviated from minute-munchers Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg, both of whom are dangerously close to playing 29 minutes per contest.

As for the price Kaberle came at - specifically big prospect center Joe Colborne and a first round draft pick, plus a conditional pick - it will all be worth it if Boston wins the Stanley Cup. Yes, Colborne is starting to round into form as a dangerous pivot in the Toronto organization, but the Bruins aren’t starved for young talent (Brad Marchand being the latest breakout star). Plus, that draft pick will be in the No. 27-30 range thanks to the Bruins’ march to the conference final and potentially beyond.

Ending nearly 40 years of Stanley Cup starvation is worth paying a high price for. Kaberle is an unrestricted free agent this summer, but if his presence in any way helps the Bruins lift the chalice, Boston can say “see ya” on July 1 with a clear conscience