FanHouse Rick Tocchet

Each and every Saturday this season I'll be taking a look at the random happenings and absurdities that occur in the world of hockey. Feel free to suggest stories, complain or otherwise babble at me via electronic mail.

This has been a banner week for Knuckle Puck, easily the wackiest and most interesting since I started this feature about a month ago. I have so much to write about that I don't even know where to start things off. Do I go with the Kingston Frontenacs wearing Don Cherry styled jerseys? Or what about the Lightning getting kinky at practice? Then there are the folks at UniWatch showing some love for the red line, and retailer River City Sports trying to trick Islanders fans into buying Rangers hats. What's a writer to do? Well, for starters, you can follow me through the jump.

The NHL season is almost upon us. That means the weather is getting colder, leaves are falling off trees and coaches are ever closer to getting the proverbial axe. Last year, it took only four games for the Chicago Blackhawks to fire Dennis Savard. The Penguins let Michel Therrien go with 25 games left in the season and it was just what the doctor ordered. The team went 18-3-4 under Dan Bylsma the rest of the season on their way to a Stanley Cup victory. Here, I'll be taking a look at the coaches most likely to end up like Savard -- coaches who are starting the season on the hot seat.

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Jarkko Ruutu is an agitator who always seems to find his way into the news. He's no Sean Avery, but close. In January he was suspended two games for biting Buffalo's Andrew Peters during a scrum and in November it was two for an elbow to the head. So, after Ruutu laid a questionable hit on Tampa Bay's Ryan Craig Sunday, Lightning coach Rick Tocchet called him out.

What ensued was a really entertaining war of words that is giving two cities long out of the playoff picture something to talk about.

Wild 3, Ducks 2: Thanks to a pair of goals from Stephane Veilleux and 35 saves from Niklas Backstrom, the Minnesota Wild picked up a huge 3-2 win in Anaheim. The Wild had lost eight of their past 11 games entering play on Sunday, and moved to within one point of No. 8 seed Nashville. The Western Conference race is every bit the logjam the east is, as six teams are separated by just four points.

Entering play on Sunday, the Ducks held a slim one-point edge over Minnesota, and now find themselves two points back of a possible playoff spot. Anaheim has been slumping as of late, losing seven of its past 10. It's not getting any easier in the coming week with games against Vancouver, San Jose and Nashville.

Montreal's Andrei Kostitsyn recorded his first career hat trick on Saturday night, while Carey Price stopped 31 shots, including 16 in the third period to lead the Canadien's to a 3-2 victory in Pittsburgh. With the win, Montreal moves ahead of the Penguins in the Eastern Conference standings, while the Penguins failed to win consecutive games yet again -- they haven't won two in a row since November 13-15. Just sayin'.

Kostitsyn scored a pair of goals in the first period before completing the hat trick early in the third period with a quick slap shot that beat Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury through the five-hole.

Following Kostitsyn's goal, Price turned into a brick wall, as the Penguins had a trio of power plays in the final period, and peppered the Montreal netminder. Of course, if you're Pittsburgh, you have to be a tad frustrated you failed to convert on five power plays, after going 0-for-5 one night ago in New Jersey. How a power play that features Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Petr Sykora and Ryan Whitney, among others, can consistently have so many 0-for-5 and 0-for-6 nights seems to defy all logic. Yet, here we are.

Crosby and Pascal Dupuis each finished with a goal and an assist for Pittsburgh.

Here's the situation: Tampa Bay and Colorado skate to a 1-1 tie through regulation and overtime, leading to a shootout. The first three attempts result in no goals, setting the stage for Colorado's Milan Hejduk to take on Lightning goalie Mike Smith.

As you can see in the video above, Smith makes the save on Hejduk, only to have the officials huddle up and award a goal to Hejduk -- the game-winning goal, as it turns out -- because Smith "threw his stick."

Seriously? Are we watching the same video?

Judging by the replay shown, it appears that the stick comes out of Smith's hand after he makes the save, and even so, it doesn't appear as if he's "throwing" the stick at Hejduk or the puck.

Here's what rule 26.4 in the NHL rulebook states: 26.4 Infractions – During the Course of a Penalty Shot - A goal will be awarded when a goalkeeper attempts to stop a penalty shot by throwing his stick or any other object at the player taking the shot or by deliberately dislodging the goal.

Since Barry Melrose was canned by the Tampa Bay Lightning a little over a month ago, the team has claimed victory only two times (in 15 games), and interim-head coach Rick Tocchet seems to think it's partly because the team is sloppy, and lacking leadership from within the locker room. And because guys are late for the bus, or something.

On Wednesday, Damian Cristodero of the St. Petersburg Times reported on a meeting Tocchet had with his captain, Vincent Lecavalier, discussing what he's looking for from his leader. Basically, he's looking for him to coach the team. Today, Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune expanded on the meeting a touch more.

"You've got to be in a situation where you can't let your team be sloppy," Tocchet said. "What I mean by sloppy is sloppy with your sticks on the ice, taking stupid penalties, little trivial things, late for the bus. It has to come from the room. The coach has to mandate it, but it has to come from the room."

Lecavalier seemed receptive to the challenge, and admitted that he has to do a better job as captain. But is making sure guys are on the bus on time, for example, really going to help turn this thing around? Is this why Tampa Bay is losing hockey games? Seems to me that's simply common sense, while the rest of the areas, such as discipline (ie: taking stupid penalties) are something that needs to come from the head coach.

There were plenty of wonderful sound bites during Barry Melrose's marvelous appearance on Toronto's Fan590 this week, chief among them was Melrose, essentially, saying that he hated co-owner Len Barrie's guts, without actually saying it. If you'll recall, when the former Tampa Bay coach was asked how he felt about Barrie, he rambled on about how Oren Koules (Tampa Bay's other co-owner) was a great guy, great for the NHL, and that he hoped he did well, never mentioning Barrie, the guy he was asked about. It's not hard to figure out what Melrose was doing there.

Well, prior to Wednesday's game in Buffalo -- which the Lightning lost, of course -- Barrie decided to fire back in what is a strong contender for hockey cat fight of the year. Damian Cristodero of the St. Petersburg Times has all of Barrie's verbal punches, including an allegation that Melrose was "negligent" in his preparation for the season.

"I knew we were in trouble when we went to Prague," Barrie said Wednesday of the season-opening trip with the Rangers, "and Barry wanted to play the (defensive) left wing lock.

Things are starting to get hilarious when the topic of the Tampa Bay Lightning comes up. Unless, of course, you're a fan of the Lightning, in which case, it's probably not a laughing matter at all. But for the rest of us, man, it just keeps getting better.

After cornering the market on free agents this summer -- and dumping them two months into the season -- the Lightning find themselves in the basement of the NHL, having won just twice in their past 17 games.

They've already fired head coach Barry Melrose -- who lasted just 16 games -- and have won only once since naming Rick Tocchet as his replacement. And you know who finds all of this funny, and is taking great delight in it? Melrose himself.

What a fantastic night of action. Between the wild games in Philadelphia and Montreal, and Sean Avery's most recent shenanigans, there's plenty to talk about, so let's get right to it.

In Philadelphia, Steve Downie made his nearly-triumphant return to the city of brotherly love as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and he put on a display of the best he has to offer, as well as the worst he has to offer. The Flyers ended up pulling out a chaotic 4-3 overtime win.

Early in the opening period, Downie gave Flyers fans a nice reminder as to why they shouldn't be missing his antics, as he picked up a pair of penalties at the 2-minute mark, giving the Flyers an early power play. Jeff Carter took advantage of the opportunity by firing a shot behind Tampa Bay goalie Mike Smith for the game's first goal.

From that point on, Smith and Philadelphia goalie Martin Biron were walls in net, holding down a 1-1 tie until the third period. And that's where things started to pick up.