2010-2011 NHL season

You're a jealous little bitch, aren't you?

And I've seen lots worse than that not even given a penalty.

 

Guess Jim Balsillie was no one special.

 

Those Caps deadline trades looking pretty darn good, especially Arnott.

 

Well, of course not. Bruce McNall, John Spano and Len Barrie, among others, all say Balsillie's big mistake was trying to use his own money to buy a team. That's simply not how you become an NHL owner.

 

Saw the Bruins tonight against Tampa. Boston has the look of a team that can really go deep. Tremendous defense, balanced scoring, stellar goaltending. I applaud management for resisting the urge to tear up the team after it blew a 3-0 lead against the Flyers in the playoffs last year.

 

IMO, it doesn't matter if they respected each other or not in the 60s, 70s and 80s, they should respect each other now, especially in light of the new evidence and research. You can't tell me that concussions are a new thing either, it's just they finally diagnosed getting your bell rung as a concussion and the effects of that are now being understood. And respect among players is clearly possible. There are those that do and there are those -- like Cooke, Avery, et al -- that don't.

I do, however, agree with you completely about the speed of the game and the equipment used. The easiest comparison was when Chelios was still in the NHL a couple of years ago and he wore smaller shoulder pads than most tom thumb players wear today. That has been a concern of mine for a long time.

Actually if you poke around on some of the articles with Chris Nowinski, there is one through the Boston University site where he does a Q&A with readers and the question of if putting helmets on youth soccer players would be prudent, and he goes on to say no, in fact it it is unknown if the hard shell helmets may have actually led to more head injuries:

Q) I am always amazed that there are numerous articles and research about concussions that are surrounded by football injuries. I have 2 varsity high school soccer players who have both suffered concussions. Most recently, the younger one who plays goalie was kicked severely in the head while diving for a ball. He is still recovering 6 weeks later. When he is cleared to play, he will wear a rugby helmet, which isn't optimal but does offer some protection. What does it take to make it mandatory that all youth players should wear protective head gear?
— Nancy (SON'83)

A) Protective headgear is not the answer in all situations and needs to be approached on a sport-by-sport basis. It is clear that because of the addition of hard-shelled helmets in football and hockey, the game changed and the head became involved in a larger number of collisions involving greater force. It is unclear if the helmet provides enough protection to offset the additional trauma. Therefore, we should be cautious about adding helmets to sports.

http://www.bu.edu/bostonia/fall10/football/

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The fact is you are never going to get rid of concussions 100 per cent. Where this research is really lighting a path in is the education of concussions and their effects on the concussed, especially the multiple concussed. The hope is this research will lead to discovering a way to detect CTE before the person dies and then we will be able to gain a true understanding of concussions..

 

That's why I slipped that last line in there, to see if I could rile up the arrogant Red Wings fanboi loosers. And it worked.

 

I agree, Headbutt, on the Neuvirth/Varlamov thing. Neuvirth also seems to be a lot, uh, less fragile.

Really like the Arnott acquisition, and not just because he has points in both games since coming off. He seems to give the Caps an edge. Semin played really hard last night, which I can't say every night. I really like the speed line with Sturm-MJ90-Chimera.

And good lord did Matt Bradley throw a hell of an uppercut last night.

Big swing this weekend. Anything less than two points in Sunrise Sunday is unacceptable. Gotta get at least one in St. Pete on Monday.

 

They could have been up 3-0 in a flash last night. Knuble somehow missed an open net on a layup and they had two or three really wide open opportunities. I'm not as much concerned about the score as the level of play, and it appears to be more spirited. Keep playing at that level and the opportunities will be cashed in on eventually.

Actually, they're only one back of Tampa, but Tampa has a game in hand.