Blue Jackets and Wild - A Tale of Two Cities - Doormats versus Champs

Parity is the name of the game in the new NHL.  Most teams got that memo and acted accordingly.  Two teams however were left off the list for the parity memo.  The Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild are  glowing examples that parity doesn't exist for everyone.

Columbus has been solidly at the bottom of the league all year.  Injuries and suspensions put these guys behind the eight ball from the get go and they never recovered.  The breakout year that never was has become an issue for the Blue Jackets.  Additions like Jeff Carter and James Wisniewski were supposed to make the team a competitor but mismanagement and bad luck have turned that plan on its head.  This has exposed Columbus' lack of depth.  When the injury bug hits or suspensions become an issue; there should be guys on the bench to pick up the slack.  Excuses are for recreational leagues and not the NHL.   The big question is why management has not taken steps to shake things up.  Respect for the fans is reflected in the product on the ice.  The talent is there in Columbus; coaching and vision are missing.  It will be interesting to see how the Blue Jackets rebound from this year. The first step in our book is a coaching or management change.

The Wild are the exact opposite of the Blue Jackets.  The obvious difference is their position in the standings but the real fundamental difference is the operational focus on a sound organization with real hockey men behind the scenes.  Head coach, Mike Yeo is the principal reason for the success of the Minnesota Wild.  The new coach has got the troops balanced and performing on cue.  The Wild are a mix of veterans and rookies and they find  a way to win even when it looks like they should be losing.  The rookies on the Wild played for Yeo in the minors and that continuity at the NHL level has paid off in spades for the big club.  Josh Harding and Dany Heatley are just two of the standouts for Minnesota.  When Josh Harding went down; Matt Hackett stepped in.  That's depth and team play.   It will be interesting to see how far the Wild can go with this year's addition.  We suspect you will see more fireworks from this group of players.  Confidence has a way of building and the only way these guys will come down the ranks is if they hit a supersized wall of injuries.

Carkner's Decision to Fight Boogaard His First of Two Bloody Mistakes on the Night

The gesture Ottawa Senators defenseman Matt Carkner made to the New York Rangers bench on Thursday goes way beyond obscene. It borders on the dangerous.

There's no way to know for sure if malice was intended, because, even if the league were to look into the incident and ask the Rangers on the bench, it would all turn into a he-said, she-said fighting match, impressively enough without Sean Avery having to take on his usual role of the she. Due to the limited amount of camera angles available, no one can really tell for sure exactly what Carkner was doing, and he may very well be so stupid that he wasn't actually flicking blood at the Rangers, but experiencing a stoner's moment if there ever was one and just looking at the red stuff on his head and hands and wondering where it came from. Maybe Derek Boogaard beat in his head a little too well.

Whatever he was thinking (and the term "thinking" is used loosely), this is one of those rare instances where the league has to suspend based on the apparent intent and not the action itself. A player can stick out his knee 100 times during a game until the cows come home, but until he connects with the leg of an opponent all he is guilty of is looking weird and doing an even weirder aerobics routine minus the spandex. Here, there is an inherent danger as well as an extremely sensitive issue at play.

Of course, we don't know if Carkner is actually STD-ridden or just how he spends his nights on the road. For all we know, he may very well be in an uber-committed relationship with his wife and stay faithful to her. It's definitely no one's place to imply that he might be carrying something without the right amount of proof. However, by that same token, he shouldn't be making it anybody's business but his own.

The bottom line is if New York Islander James Wisniewski got two games for playfully letting the entire world in on what everyone already knows about Avery with his obsene gesture two months ago, than Carkner deserves at least that much for at the very least not being nearly as funny with his. Wisniewski's may have been classless, but Carkner's was downright filthy.

Wisniewski Blows It by Doing His Best Sean Avery Imitation

"Yes, I kiss my mother with this mouth." *Shudder*

By now, everyone in the hockey world knows that Sean Avery is a menace. Granted, at this point he’s become more a menace to himself than anybody else, but he is one nonetheless. If there is little to no debate on that, there can be none on New York Islanders defenseman James Wisniewski being just as bad.

Again, everyone has seen the video of Sean Avery conducting that supposedly on-the-fly and in no way whatsoever premeditated interview sequence in which he called ex-girlfriend Elisha Cuthbert his sloppy seconds in an effort to get underneath the skin of his soon-to-be opponent Dion Phaneuf, then of the Calgary Maple Leafs... Flames, sorry. 

For the record, it kind of worked, with Phaneuf getting no points on the night in question and posting a +/- rating of -3. However, the move was classless and definitely did not constitute the image the NHL wants to perpetuate of itself. I’m not even sure a three-ring circus would want Avery in charge of its public-relations campaigns either, lest management wants its sideshow to take on a life of its own.

Taking Avery’s antics, not just that one incident but his whole body of work, into account it’s clear that he’s as much a clown as the next bozo, which, as fate would have it... have you met Mr. Wisnieswki, ladies and gentlemen? Now, I won’t go into describing the act in question, because its vulgarity is just as tasteless as anything Avery can come up with or say, but it is posted below for your entertainment with the sole disclaimer being that it’s very sexual in nature.

It’s definitely not a coincidence that the act in question was directed at Avery (who else would be more likely to provoke that type of gesture in the first place?) at the tail-end of the first period of Monday’s New York Rangers-Islanders game. Still, the league needs to take a hard look (I would say “difficult” instead to try and avoid any and all inevitable immature laughter, but you really can’t do that in this context) at the video evidence and suspend him for at least six games, just as Avery was in December 2008 for his comments, as they ran counter to the family-friendly brand the NHL always seems to be trying to create for itself. Of course, one would think that taking fighting out of the game would be step number one, but that’s a different matter altogether.

There are some differences between the two incidents, of course, but the fact that Wisniewski’s gesture took place in the “heat of the moment” of game action should not be used as an excuse, mostly because there was a stoppage of play and it wasn’t in the heat of the moment to begin with, but also because that would be a stupid excuse considering 90% of all NHL suspensions are handed down due to acts committed as a result of actual split-second decisions.

The only other real difference would be the following: Avery wasn’t a repeat offender when he got banned two years ago... Wisniewski is after he nailed Chicago Blackhawks defenseman – and former teammate - Brent Seabrook last season... geez, if that’s what he does to friends, I’d hate to see what he does to his enemies. Based on his obvious intentions Monday night and assuming Avery is an enemy, maybe he’s got a few things backwards.

Surprisingly, though, the eight-game suspension that resulted from that hit on Seabrook wasn’t even Wisniewski’s first suspension either. If the NHL is doing its job, it won’t be his last.

Go Streit to Jail, Do not Qualify for Playoffs, Do not Collect $200

The way he’s played, one would think defenseman Mark Streit’s New York Islanders teammates would treat him better. Hell, at least the pain from a swift kick to the crotch wears off eventually, but, instead, forward Matt Moulson opted to go the less-travelled route and illegally cross-check him into the boards during practice, thereby sidelining him for as much as six months.

Now, Streit will never be confused for a most-valuable-player candidate, at least not in the NHL. Of course, if we’re talking peewee, forget about it. He would school those kids as if he was a truant officer and they were playing hooky instead of hockey. But that’s true of most NHLers... except maybe former Islander Mike Comrie, but I digress.

Still, as far as Long Island is concerned, Streit’s potentially six-month-long stint on the long-term injured reserve list has quashed whatever playoff hopes his team might have had. That’s because, while he will never win the Hart Memorial Trophy, Streit is the Islanders’ heart and soul, bar none.

Sure, the team has high hopes for John Tavares and, realistically speaking, the team’s playoff aspirations largely depend on whether or not goalie Rick DiPietro is able to stay healthy long enough to be able to average out his salary per goal allowed instead of just per save, but, all things being equal, Streit is the only star the team has. Literally. He was the only Islander to play in the all-star game in 2008-2009 (there was no mid-season classic this past season).

While Streit will likely never replicate his 62-point season with the offensively gifted Montreal Canadiens from a few years ago (a team that had seven 50-point scorers), his 56 and 49-point campaigns with New York have been just as impressive due to the lack of competent talent around him (who needs friends, when you’ve got teammates like Moulson?). That being said, this could have been a year that the Islanders surprised a few people and, if Tavares’s development jumped by leaps and bounds, maybe made the playoffs.

Without Streit, barring a trade for the Vancouver Canucks’ Kevin Bieksa, who would still be about as fitting a replacement as Danny Trejo was to Chow Yun-Fat all those years ago, the playoffs are a distant dream. Considering Bieksa’s injury history, that analogy is probably as apt as any other.

"We're supposed to be replacement killERS, not killed, right?"

Even the rumoured return of Mathieu Schneider to the island is a crazy notion best left for ABC and its crack team of highly skilled (or just plain high) writers. The bottom line is that Schneider is about as equipped to man the point on the power play at his age (41) as he to drive. His last kick at the can was last season, and he spent a significant portion of it with the Manitoba Moose in the AHL for a reason. The last time I checked, the world already had a former Canadien playing for the Moose well into his golden years, and even Mike Keane realized it was high time to retire.

Even with a blue-line bolstered by the likes of Bieksa or Scheider, and the recently acquired James Wisniewski and Mark Eaton, the loss of Streit turns the Islanders’ defensive corps from a lower-tier NHL-calibre one to one more fit for the AHL. Milan Jurcina has never been able to catch on with a major-league team for a reason. Meanwhile, Bruno Gervais is one trade to a good team away from a demotion. The same goes for Jack Hillen and Andrew MacDonald, who may not be old, but still belongs on the farm. Don’t even get me started on Radek Martinek.

"I think I see the light, Doug. Do you?"

As for the team’s forwards, while characterized by youth, it’s the elderly statesman who serves as captain, Doug Weight, and the overwhelming desire to get him to change his first name to “Dead” just for kicks, that best sums up its capabilities up front. One foot in the grave is how the team’s playoff chances looked a week ago. With Streit gone, get your shovels.

Reports are conflicting as to just how long Streit will be out, but if it’s for any significant length of time, three things are almost foregone conclusions:

1)     Moulson feeling really, really, really bad all season long.

2)     DiPietro praying for an injury to get out of playing for his defenseless team.

3)     The Islanders getting another lottery pick at next year’s draft.