Wild sit in 7th Place in the West

The Minnesota Wild have gone 6-3-1 in their last 10 games, won three in a row and still only sit in 7th place. The Wild west is tight again this season.

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Video of Cagguila hit on Navin

At the 13:30 mark of the third period, freshman forward Drake Caggiula was assessed a five minute major and given a game misconduct for checking from behind. At the time, I didn't think that was the proper call, it looked like a shoulder to shoulder check. I don't think this call is worthy of a five minute major. (s/t to Tim Brubakken for the picture.)

Thanks to @cjzero for addin the video. He's a must follow on twitter. 

Bigger NHL Rinks?

Image via WikipediaThis is a horrible idea; in my opinion there is no reason to increase the size of the ice in the NHL, as we have seen in the college game, bigger ice surfaces take hitting out of the game. Also, most NHL teams aren’t going to want to take out seats out of their arenas to increase the size of the ice surface, it’s an economic issue, that means less seats and less money for those arenas/teams.

Toronto Sun --- To my way of thinking, the NHL could increase goal-scoring and make the game more exciting with one simple change, without having to constantly tinker and retool. (And when a league is constantly retooling, it sends out the message, unfortunately, that there’s something profoundly wrong with the game).

Yes, I’ve harped on this before, but it’s necessary harp: The NHL should increase the size of the ice. Not even the length of the ice, just the width. More ice, more room to move, more creativity, more goals. More goals, more excitement, more fans.

I’m not a math guy, but that seems to be a winning equation. Still, opponents of the idea, including some very good friends of mine who write and broadcast hockey for a living, argue that changing the ice dimensions would result in a boring game, because there would be less hitting, as there is in European pro hockey.

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