Mike Ribeiro hit on Michal Handzus

Check out this hit by Mike Ribeiro on Michal Handzus? Was it a shoulder to shoulder hit or was it a hit to the head? What do you think? I think It looks like Ribeiro hits Handzus shoulder to shoulder but follows through with the elbow and catches Handzus in the head... I think it's funny how the refs rescue Ribeiro before any of the Kings players can get their hands on him.

Gophers and Huskies scrum

Hum, very interesting, color me surprised, I thought it was UND that was always in the middle of these kind of things, don’t see a hint of green and white anywhere, it looks like Minnesota Pansies’ on ice actually have a player with some grit and moxie in seldom used Jake Parenteau, unlike his fellow teammate sophomore defenseman Seth Helgeson whose modus operandi is to cross check someone that already had an opposition player laying on top of him, or yap at someone while being guarded by the ref, Parenteau takes matter into his own hands, literally.

I was watching the game in question on tape delay early Saturday morning and the game was getting very chippy and rough and MTU Husky Royer took exception with the Parenteau hit which some hockey fans might have taken issue with, I have seen worse hits in this league go uncalled. Well that hit lead to this scrum and also was the end of the night for Bennett Royer and Jake Parenteau who were ejected for fighting, kudos to the refs for letting these two actually settle their differences, instead of giving them a disqualification for fighting when they didn’t actually fight... For some reason unknown, the fight was not part of the FSN video and I can’t find it on line anywhere.

Does Fighting have a place in college hockey?

While some will say that Fighting has no place in college hockey or the NHL for that matter, fighting in hockey does serve a purpose, again, if a team is taking too many liberties with the opposition, fighting can be used as a way to settle differences and or send a message that your team will no longer be pushed around on by the team taking the liberties. Some may look at this as being a vigilante justice but I believe the current rules in college hockey are causing some of the problems we have today.

For instance, if I am a smaller, mouthy hockey player in Division 1 college hockey, I know that I can go up the biggest guy on the ice and slash him or try to choke him in a scrum with my carbon fiber stick, ala what Jacob C-Piss did on Andrew MacWilliam earlier this season and know that I don’t have to fight because the ref is going to rescue him before the bill comes due. If that same player was in a hockey league where fighting is permissible that player would probably never do that guttless act because that player knows that he will probably have to fight if he does. I would be willing to bet the same act that I described above would have not happened in the USHL, CHL, AHL or NHL where fighting is permissible or frowned upon.

In this particular incident the two teams were getting after each other and there probably were a few instances where the players might have crossed that line, after this fight the game settled down the players returned to playing hockey. I also think the mask and the no fighting rule is actually making the college hockey game more dangerous and is the root cause of more gratuitous violence.

Pens and Flyers last night.

This is one of the best fights that I have seen this year. Of course there is another act of thuggery perpetrated by a Philadelphia Flyer's hack. Watch Ben Eager hit Penguins tough guy George Laraque with a high dirty elbow, this leads to big George punching Eagers, while he is down on the ice, obvious penalty, however, when there is no penalty for Eager, Gary Roberts steps up takes things into his own hands and shows some leadership. This is a good fight and Roberts beats the living crap out of Ben Eagers. Wow...

Here is the first under card the of this game Ryan Whitney vs Jeff Carter and Colby Armstrong vs Scott Hartnel... Oh man what a good game. My only comments for the Whitney and Carter fight is that when your opponent hits the ground there shouldn't be any more punches throw, the fight is over.

Also former SCSU Huskie Ryan Malone gets into a pretty good scrap with Jason Smith

Oh yeah the Flyers won the game 8-2.

Gabby goes airborne

Wow, that was crazy, Lucky for Gaborik he wasn't hurt. If you think that Woog and Frank are biased homers on FSN, these two clowns from FSN Michigan/Detroit are the worst in hockey, well they aren't has bad as the Ducks announcers, but I digress. Listen two these two clowns. Look how far Hasek is out of the net, he is half way to the blue line.

The Boogey man breaking glass.

One of my friends sent me this awesome youtube clip in an email. Wow, I am not sure what else we could say about it... One could say that Derek Boogaard breaks glass the hard way.

Aaron Voros pounds Jiri Novotny

This is a sweet bone crushing hit and I am not sure why the Blue Jackets playes were getting upset about it, because it is not a dirty hit. I could see this reaction if the hit was dirty. This just proves why you need to keep your head up and on a swivel at all times when your on the ice. Novotny gets planted as Voros keeps his elbows down. From the video it is very apparent that Voros doesn't take more than three steps, he just came from the penalty box so it is definately not charging. If anything Novotny is guilty of skating with his head down; a Cardinal sin. As a player you have to be aware of where you are at all times on the ice.

The TJ Oshie hit Prosser

Thanks for RedFrog of ND for posting this video, I was at work and only caught a glimpse of this hit, I would refer to this has as a bone crushing hit game changing hit and it's plays like this that has the NHL drueling. Wow, is all I can say...