The Dominos Begin To Fall

On the 23^rd day of February, the Trade Dominos started to fall, as The Columbus Blue Jackets traded Jeff Carter to the L.A Kings for Jack Johnson (not the musician) and a conditional 1^st Round Draft pick. Your move Glen Sather !!

With this move being made the Rick Nash trade rumors have caught fire, but hold on to your skates the name Dustin Brown has now jumped into the conversation. The 27 year old winger has now been made available by The Kings. Brown, this season has 14 Goals and 17 Assists in 61 games. The intrigue with Brown is twofold for the Rangers, he is a cheaper option both money wise and what would be asked for in return, and he is a perfect fit into the Rangers system. This is a player who in 574 career games has 155 goals and 181 assists, and at roughly 4 million dollars till 2013, that is about half of what you would pay Nash. The comparison in the games of Nash and Brown are vastly different. Where Nash is not known to be a very strong two way player, Brown is and to fit into the Rangers system that is key. Nash does not play very often if at all on the PK where Brown would. Overall yes Nash will score more offensively but Brown has scored 20 goals or more 3 times and had a career high, 33 goals in the 07-08 Season.  When you compare the two players, it becomes pretty clear that if Dustin Brown really is available, then Sather should pull the trigger on that deal right away. That deal could also open up a few other options for the Rangers instead of making just one big deal. A deal for Brown, not only can help this team now but with upcoming RFA’s like Brandon Prust, Marty Biron and Ruslan Fedetenko.  It also does not strap the team financially from pursuing big name Free Agents next season such as Alexander Semin, Ryan Suter or Zack Parise. With all this being said, 

Glen Sather knows there is no pressing need to jump the gun on a deal especially for Nash. It’s being said that he is waiting to see if the asking price for Nash comes down. If not then there is no reason to mortgage the future of the franchise for the talents of Rick Nash. Ranger fans need to just be patient and wait to see what happens. Don’t get call up in all the rumors no matter how frustrating they are, especially if your favorite player’s names are involved. No moves have been made to this point and the rumors will fly from now till the deadline passes on Monday at 3pm. It’s going to be an Interesting weekend in the NHL, so let the pieces fall where they may, and bring on the playoffs. 

- Joe Clewell

Brown Should Wear Number 2, Because He Is the Sh**

Here is Los Angeles Kings captain Dustin Brown doing his civic duty by taking out the trash in the form of Florida Panthers defenseman Dennis Wideman. Of course, he promptly disposes it on his team's bench, but that's beside the point. It's true. If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything and, in this case, apparently become a garbageman (sorry, sanitation engineer) or, if you want to get technical, hurt people for a living. Of course, hurt people legally. See the things he can do when he's actually doling out clean hits and not blindsiding people like he did the Minnesota Wild's Antti Miettinen a few months back?

Robidas Draws Ire of NHL, One-Game Suspension

Forget these supposedly illegal blind-side hits. Apparently, all you need to do to get the attention of the NHL these days is earn two game misconducts within 41 games of one another, and *poof* suspension! That's the formula Dallas Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas was following when he earned a one-game ban on Wednesday thanks to a boarding call on Anaheim Duck Matt Beleskey on Tuesday night. The hit can be seen at this link in the highlight package for the game.

The first misconduct was earned last season on March 16 in a game against the San Jose Sharks in which Robidas hit Ryane Clowe from behind. The two plays were very different hits, but yielded the same boarding penalty, which is called when a player checks "an opponent in such a manner that causes the opponent to be thrown violently in the boards", as per the official NHL rulebook.

For those keeping score at home, Los Angeles Kings forward Dustin Brown did not receive a suspension for his textbook illegal-check-to-the-head hit on the Minnesota Wild's Antti Miettinen on Monday, because it apparently lacks the half-impaired vision necessary to see for itself that Brown hit Miettinen in the head, (not that the head was targeted, but that it was just the point of contact, which is stated in the rule) but it was able to suspend Robidas for a more borderline call on a technicality.

To be clear, no one should have a problem with Robidas getting suspended. He broke the rules and as such he should have to sit. Fine. But so did Brown and yet the league can't seem to find a standard of consistency in enforcing its own rules that bests that of the batches of cookies baked by a seventh-grade home-economics student. And the league wonders why it keeps getting burned. I would say this past week has played out a lot like amateur hour at the local comedy club, but the fact of the matter is that this has been going on for much longer... and it's much funnier.

Brown Gets Retribution for Hit on Doughty... Three Games too Late

Los Angeles Kings captain Dustin Brown has always been known to get his hands a little dirty working in the trenches from game to game. That isn't to say he's a dirty player, but one can hardly say that about Phoenix Coyotes captain Shane Doan, even taking into account what transpired two Sundays ago when he delivered an illegal check to the head of Anaheim Duck Dan Sexton.

It's true that Doan did also break defenseman Cam Fowler's nose in that game, but, for all intents and purposes, Doan is not a head hunter. I mean, he's a lot of things, most definitely: a 15-season veteran, an overrated player, the cousin of Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price (apparently overratedness runs in the family), etc., etc. But he's not a head hunter. In a lot of ways Brown has been torn from the same cloth. He's rough around the edges as a player, but can contribute in a lot of ways including on the scoresheet every now and then. Despite this fact, the hit he delivered on the Minnesota Wild's Antti Miettinen on Monday was dirty and a to-the-letter example of what is a suspendable offense these days in the NHL.

So, as much as Brown is like Doan, they differ in one way in particular... Brown has got the memory of an attention-deficit-disorder-diagnosed kindergartner whose parents forgot his Ritalin on the kitchen table before taking him to school.

It was just a matter of days ago (six, to be exact) when Carolina Hurricane Erik Cole blind-sided and injured his teammate and arguably his team's most valuable player in defenseman Drew Doughty, and he has the gall to complain when he was given a game misconduct for the same thing? Say what you want about the league, but at least they're realizing that something needs to be done, even if it is a few weeks late (it's actually a few months, but whatever).

If you watch the video of the hit, you can almost see it in referee Wes McCauley's eyes as he's announcing the penalty, a cross between:

"Here we go again..."

And

"I don't want to do this, but..."

Meanwhile, as he was leaving for his dressing room, all Brown was doing was mouthing off. He has a right to be upset, but really when all is said and done only at himself. He should also be grateful that Miettinen was left uninjured, not because that means he won't get a suspension (Doan got three games under much the same circumstances and there wasn't even a penalty on the play), but because now he doesn't have to have his conscience sullied by something so stupid as treating another player like a glorified punching bag on which he can let loose his frustration. There's already too much disrespect in the league that it doesn't need the good guys resorting to outdated goon tactics to be effective. Hopefully one night's rest will have helped Brown realize the truth. If not, he's at least got a sturdy fine coming his way (hopefully a suspension) that should serve the same purpose more effectively.