NHL Suspends Florida Panthers Jesse Winchester three games for dirty elbow on Chris Kelly

This was a very good call by the NHL's Department of Player Safety, this is an illegal check to the head. That fact that there wasn’t a penalty called on the play is a head scratcher. I didn't think Jesse Winchester would get three game for this bush league hit, but I applaud the decision. Players have got to eventually get the message that cannot make these hits anymore, it's no longer acceptable to do this.  There was no reason for Jesse Winchester to hit Chris Kelly in this situation, he's better off to let him go. 

NEW YORK -- Florida Panthers forward Jesse Winchester has been suspended for three games, without pay, for elbowing Boston Bruins forward Chris Kelly during NHL Game No. 230 in Boston on Thursday, November 7, the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety announced today.

Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and, based on his average annual salary, Winchester will forfeit $9,230.76. The money goes to the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund.

The incident occurred at 4:52 of the first period. No penalty was assessed on the play.

Florida Panthers Jesse Winchester elbows Chris Kelly; no call

I love hard hitting hockey, I love a good fight, but this crap by Florida Panthers forward Jesse Winchester. This is a dirty hit,  the Florida forward throws a dirty chicken wing elbow on Boston Bruin's forward Chris Kelly. Come on! I believe dirty hits like this should cause a player to miss a minimum of one game. This should be an automatic suspension with what we know about concussions and head injuries. There no excuse for this crap.

There no excusing this hit. If a player has to lunge to make contact to hit another player, let them go. It was a dirty elbow. In my opinion, the refs blew this call. 

Later in the game, Jesse Winchester would pay for his bush league hit by having to fight Bruins middle weight Gregory Campbell. Gregory Campbell with the decision in the fight.

Here's a great read by Joe McDonald of ESPN Boston...

ESPN Boston: HEAD SHOT: The Bruins' Chris Kelly was on the receiving end of an elbow to the head by Winchester early in the first period. Winchester left his feet and caught Kelly in the head with the blow. Kelly remained on the ice for a moment and was tended to by team trainer Donnie DelNegro before skating off the ice and going to the locker room. Kelly seemed dazed but quickly returned to action. No penalty was called on Winchester, but the Bruins' Gregory Campbell took care of business when he dropped the gloves with Winchester on the ensuing shift.

Hockey players are tough: Gregory Campbell breaks leg finishes shift

According to Joe MacDonald of ESPN Boston.

Boston Bruins forward Gregory Campbell suffered a broken right leg and is done for the season, according to a team source.

(Video) Gregory Campbell Blocked Shot In The Second Period.

Boston Bruins forward Gregory Campbell is one tough cookie and according to Claude Julien, "suffered a serious injury on the play." If Campbell can't go for the Bruins, it would be a big blow for the Boston Bruins. Campbell is a key member of the Merlot line.

Julien had no update on Campbell, only saying it was a serious injury. Know more tomorrow.
— Joe McDonald (@ESPNJoeyMac) June 6, 2013

Boston Bruins moving.... Take on the Penguins in the Eastern Conference Finals.

No fight in the hand shanke line @pucknut9 RT @bruinsdaily: Best tradition in sports twitter.com/BruinsDaily/st…
— Eric J. Burton (@goon48) May 26, 2013

There is a new drinking game; every time the Boston Bruins fourth line/Merlot Line is mentioned drink a beer, or take a shot or you can take a drink. You would never make it through the game sober, unless you're drinking water or pop.

That being said, the Pittsburgh Penguins probably aren't going to be as impressed with the Boston Bruins fourth line, because they're a really talented hockey team, but the fact remains you can't discount what they accomplished during the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Here's the stats for the Merlot line Shawn Thornton (0g-3a—3pts), Gregory Campbell (3g-2a—5pts), Daniel Paille (1g-3a—4pts).

Jagr back in Pitt. Iginla saying no to Boston and yes to Pitt..Matt Cooke's hit on Savard..Two great hockey cities. 4 lines vs 4 lines. Yes.
— John Buccigross (@Buccigross) May 26, 2013

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(Video) Bruins Merlot line lead B's to a 3-0 Series lead

The Boston Bruins have pushed the New York Rangers to the brink of elimination, with a 2-1 victory over the New York Rangers, Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. The Bruins erased a 1-0 Rangers lead in the third period with goals from Johnny Boychuk and Daniel Paille.

I don’t know how you could describe Paille’s miraculous goal, the goal came off a goofy rebound that should have found its way into the net, but had eyes. Seriously, you have to see this goal to believe it. The puck that was shot by Gregory Campbell looked like it came off the face of a sand wedge and had some serious back-spin on it. If I was going to describe it, the puck’s movement looked more like Titleist Pro V1 golf than a hockey puck. The puck was going towards the goal line – hit the goal line and spun back like it was hit by Tiger Woods. The puck never broke the plane until Paille put the puck past Henrik Lundqvist on the rebound, for the game winning goal.

I know some people are sick of hearing about the fourth line, but you can see that the Merlot line had the majority of the points for the Boston Bruins tonight, Shawn Thornton (0g-2a—2pts), Gregory Campbell (0g-1a—1pts), Daniel Paille (1g-1a—2pts). Boston Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk also got his fourth goal of the playoffs tonight as well.

New Drinking game. Everytime Pierre McGuire mentions the Bruins fourth line drink a beer, you will not be sober by the end of the game.
— Eric J. Burton (@goon48) May 22, 2013

So you're saying there is a chance - Chara on his injury.

Image via WikipediaThe injury ninja has bitten Zdeno Chara and it's unknown how long he will be out of the line up. Sounds like he is day-to-day but out for tomorrow's game against the Kings in Los Angeles. Chara is an important cog in the Bruins line up and if he is gone for any amount of time it would be bad for the Boston Bruins.

WILMINGTON -- Although he sat out today's practice at Ristuccia Arena in preparation for Tuesday night's game against the Los Angeles Kings at TD Garden, Bruins captain Zdeno Chara, speaking to media for the first time since he sustained a left lower-leg injury in Saturday night's win at Columbus, said he "was feeling better than I expected."

Asked about whether the plan was to take the next week off, Chara replied, "No, the plan is to take it a day at a time, really. You can't really put a time frame on it. You basically have to see how it feels and it feels better than expected.''

Chara, who suffered the injury during a power play in the second period of Saturday's 5-3 road victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena, said he wasn't certain how long he would be out of the lineup.

It also looks like Gregory Campbell is questionable as well as the Bruins Blog is reporting that he was hurt blocking a shot in the game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Tin foil hats are coming out in Vancouver!!! More whining about the officials…

If you haven’t seen this article you might want to take a look at it, it’s worth a look due to it’s ridiculous nature. All season long Boston Bruins fans have heard fans from fans of other NHL teams whining about how the Boston Bruins have gotten all of the breaks hen it comes to disciplinary rulings because Greg Campbell son of Colin Campbell plays or the Boston Bruins.

Tony Gallagher; The Providence --- We're going to ask this question now, once and for all and then try to hold our peace until the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs. We can't say forever hold our peace, but for a while at least.

Straight up, can the Vancouver Canucks get a fair shake with the officiating in the final? Consider Gregory Campbell plays for the Boston Bruins and his father Colin Campbell is senior vice-president in charge of hockey operations for the NHL. What father doesn't want to have his son's name on the Stanley Cup? And of course what is so stunning about this is that the NHL fails to perceive any conflict of interest whatsoever, even though there is no shortage of lawyers running about the head offices in New York. At least that's the NHL claim.

During the season the biggest problems arose on supplementary discipline, but that's not the consideration here. After all, you only get a one-game suspension for any transgression during the playoffs, and in most cases there are no suspensions whatsoever. You'd have to punch a fan in the face repeatedly to get two or more, so barring some strange circumstances this is not the issue.

If Raffi Torres ran over Patrice Bergeron, for example, Campbell would not make a decision on supplementary discipline because the Bruins are involved. Instead, his best friend Mike Murphy with whom he works every day would make the decision, if that makes you feel any better. Of course, that's a total joke in it's own right as well, but it's not likely to be an issue.

The problem is the on-ice officials. They are appointed by a department for which Campbell has responsibility and the entire progress of their careers is totally controlled by these people. They decide when the officials work, how much they work and as such how much they get paid.

For each round in the playoffs a referee works, he gets an extra $18,000 over and above his yearly salary. For a linesman it's $12,000. So if you please the powers that be, you work lots. If you don't please them for whatever reason, you don't get to work in the playoffs. The officials working the final are the guys the league thinks are the best and as we've seen from the exchange of leaked memos a while back, Campbell can often be involved in those discussions.

And make no mistake, we're not talking about any communication between these respective parties at any time. There's no conspiracy. The officials know what their bosses need and know how to please them.

Now any official who happens to displease the powers for whatever reason—serious mistakes we'd like to believe—could find himself not working the final all of a sudden (although that wouldn't affect his pay this year) and his employment considerations for the future would be open to question. Maybe he gets no playoff work the following year. Maybe it could be so serious that his contract might be re-considered in the future. The bottom line is these guys in the hockey operations department—of which one is the father of one of the games' participants-- control every aspect of an official's employment.

No, no conflict of interest here.

First off; this past season Mike Murphy has dealt with the Boston Bruins during their supplemental discipline hearings because Greg Campbell is the son of Colin Campbell and he plays for the Boston Bruins. Personally, I think this is just more of the Vancouver Canucks fans, media and their front office staff trying to get the upper hand on the Boston Bruins. The comments to this article are equally interesting as well… EDIT: It’s being reported that Colin Campbell is resigning as NHL disciplinarian and being replaced by Brendan Shanahan.

Related articles

• Colin Campbell to step down as NHL disciplinarian: report (thestar.com)
• Report: Colin Campbell out as NHL disciplinarian (aol.sportingnews.com)
• Campbell ends role as disciplinarian after 13 seasons (aol.sportingnews.com)
• Report: Colin Campbell to step down as league disciplinarian, Brendan Shanahan to replace him (prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com)
• Colin Campbell resigns as NHL's chief disciplinarian (theglobeandmail.com)

Miscellaneous Transactions around the League (RW77)

I'll leave the Bruins commentary to Goon, but I thought I'd report on the latest transactions around the league.

The big blockbuster today was that the Bruins traded away Defenseman Denis Wideman, their first round (15th overall) pick in this weekend's draft, and their 2011 third round pick to the Florida Panthers for star winger Nathan Horton and center Greg Campbell.

--> Reading around, the take on this trade is mixed. Some say that Chiarelli took Tallon to the bank. Others say it was a decent trade. I'm not sure. It really comes down to, imo, Campbell vs. the 15th overall pick (or you could argue that the pick was direct compensation for Horton and Wideman lines up with Campbell). Greg Campbell is an unknown to me, other than his stats show he's not much of an offensive center. If he's solid defensively, I think that will be good for the Bruins. What do you think, Goon?

Goon's Take: With Deni Wideman being traded to the Florida Panthers, the Bruins get rid of an offensive puck moving defenseman that was seen by some to be a defensive liability, to me personally Wideman was a brutal reminder of the bad Denis Wideman for Brad Boyes trade. By trading the 15th over all pick away the Bruins will not have their second first round draft choice that they were hording all of last season.

Nathan Horton has played in five NHL season and has never scored less than 20 goals. The Bruins need offense up front and Horton will probably play on one of the top three lines. Gregory Campbell is a bit of an unknown and from what I have read is more of the rugged type forward that will drop the gloves if he needs to. Campbell's last fight was against Av's hack/goon Cody McLeod.

The other trades weren't as noteworthy.

Minnesota acquired Brad Staubitz from San Jose for their 5th round pick in this weekend's draft.

--> I actually think this is a good move. Fletcher and crew need to rebuild fast. Late rounders could take longer to develop (and may not develop at all) than those taken in the first three rounds. Staubitz isn't a glamorous player. However, he is a pretty gritty defenseman and had over 100 PIM last season.

New Jersey reacquires Jason Arnott from Nashville for Matt Halischuk and their 2011 2nd round pick.

--> I have misgivings about this trade. I think if this trade was Arnott for Halischuk straight up, it would be a good deal for both sides. If the pick had been a lower pick, such as a 4th or even a 3rd rounder, I think it would have been ok. I think Halischuk and a 2nd round pick is too much for an aging Arnott, despite the fact that he did pretty well last year and he has shown great leadership on and off the ice.

Philadelphia and Nashville exchange young D -Ryan Parent for the rights to Dan Hamhuis

--> I think this is probably the most even trade out there. Good for both sides.

Former Michigan standout TJ Hensick is now a St. Louis Blues. Colorado gets AHLer Julian Talbot

--> TJ Hensick hasn't done much in limited time in the NHL. He came on fast and then swooned like nobody's business. He did come off his best year as an AHLer though. Who knows which direction Hensick will go. Colorado gets an unknown. The best part? Over the past 3 seasons, Talbot's AHL numbers have been steadily decreasing. So, who cares. Colorado is declared the loser in this trade and that's ok by me. They re-signed Peter Budaj so karma's a biznitch.

Already talked about the Halak trade.

In other news: San Jose has decided NOT to even attempt to re-sign goaltender Evgeni Nabokov. I think he'll probably end up in either Montreal or Washington.

Also, Future Hall of Famers Rob Blake and Scott Niedermeyer retired.