FanHouse ScottWalker

After watching his team get thumped on its home ice, 6-1 on Sunday afternoon, Chicago Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville sounded off in the postgame press conference, berating the officiating crew of Marc Joannette and Kevin Pollock for issuing Matt Walker a roughing penalty at the end of the first period, leading to Detroit's third goal of the game.

Quenneville called it the worst call in the history of sports, and essentially used it as an excuse for his team not showing up in the second and third periods. As punishment for his rant, the NHL announced on Monday that Quenneville will be fined $10,000.

Tonight the Bruins and Hurricanes played a hockey game that went about as close as any game could. The two teams went toe-to-toe for nearly four periods, matching each other in every facet of the game. Goaltenders Cam Ward and Tim Thomas showed why they were big reasons as to how their teams made it to this point, making 35 and 34 saves respectively. Fittingly, the game headed to overtime and the Bruins would fall thanks to a familiar foe.

During Game 5 Scott Walker received a game misconduct for a punch -- or sucker punch depending on your view -- to the face of Aaron Ward. The NHL decided to rescind the automatic one game suspension that comes with an ejection and let him play, drawing the ire of Boston and many in the media. Tonight, Walker made a few more enemies in Boston by netting the game winning goal with 1:14 to go in overtime.

---

---

After some late-game fisticuffs on Tuesday, the Detroit Red Wings and Anaheim Ducks are set to take part in a one-and-done Game 7 at Joe Louis Arena, in a contest that has to be more entertaining -- from a competitive standpoint -- than what we saw on Wednesday in Washington. Depending on who you ask, the line brawl in the closing minutes of Game 6 could be a rallying cry for the Red Wings.

---

---

The NHL's decision to rescind Scott Walker's mandatory one-game suspension as a result of his altercation with Aaron Ward on Sunday night was confusing to say the least. Walker's explanation as to why he punched Ward in the face is simply off the charts.

According to Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald, Walker was under the assumption that Ward actually threw the first punch. Seriously.

That picture pretty much sums up the entire third period of Sunday's 4-0 Boston win. As the Carolina Hurricanes were getting dominated in every aspect, Scott Walker decided to take out some of his frustrations on Aaron Ward by punching him in the face.

---

---

After losing three straight games for just the third time this season, the Boston Bruins were facing elimination on Sunday night against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Bruins, behind a 19-save shutout by Tim Thomas, managed to keep their season rolling with a commanding 4-0 win at TD Banknorth Garden.

Following Boston's 4-1 loss in Carolina on Friday, head coach Claude Julien made mention that his team picked a bad time to be playing its worst hockey of the season, getting outscored by a 10-3 margin during its three-game skid. For one night, all of that was forgotten as the Bruins played a relatively perfect game in every phase.

---

---

The New York Islanders, playing without Trent Hunter, Kyle Okposo, Dean McAmmond, and Andy Hilbert were simply in over their heads on Tuesday night against the runaway locomotive that is the Carolina Hurricanes, falling 9-0. Amazingly, the score isn't the most incredible series of numbers to come out of this game.

Honestly, we haven't seen a hockey game this one-sided since the Slovakia Women's National Team annihilated Bulgaria, 82-0, earlier this year. OK, maybe it wasn't quite that bad.

The Pittsburgh Penguins return to action on Wednesday night against the New York Rangers, and they'll be doing so without forward Matt Cooke who will begin serving a two-game suspension for a hit on Carolina's Scott Walker. The hit occurred in the first period of the January 20 game in Pittsburgh, while Cooke received a two-minute minor for interference. Walker did not return to the game following the incident.

There's no video of it on YouTube or NHL.com, and, frankly, I think the suspension is a bit much (as I recall, it wasn't any worse than this hit by Alex Ovechkin). The NHL is attempting to crack down on hits to the head, however, and Cooke has a reputation around the league. Whenever the two are mentioned in the same sentence ("Matt Cooke" and "hit to the head") a suspension is probably to be expected.

There are a few absolute no-nos in the world of hockey fighting: kicking, biting, spitting, and head-butting. Given the danger and possibility of serious injury involved with head-butting, it's a pretty obvious case for any player to be suspended if he does something like that.

As per the evidence above, Carolina's Scott Walker decided to give Ottawa's Mike Fisher a little head-on-head action, and was quickly tossed from the game for doing so.

"It was cheap. It caught me off guard," Fisher said. "I'm sure he will get some games for it. He ran the goalie. He made no attempt to get away, and I just wanted to let him know he can't do that."

As if Fisher is one to talk about running goaltenders *ahem*.

Anyway, I would guess that Walker, since he didn't deliver an actually bloody injury to Fisher, will get two games, maximum. While the NHL *should* send a message to the guy for a very dangerous action, we all know the NHL doesn't actually have the nuts to suspend somebody unless the media is all over the story. Does anyone think Walker will get off scot-free? I guess we shouldn't be shocked if he does ...

* Even The Acid Queen, one of blogdom's biggest Hurricanes fans, is pissed off at her boy for his stupidity. Read her rant here.

Gritty winger Scott Walker decided to stay in Raleigh, rather than walker off *yuk yuk* to some other town, and signed the dotted line on a three-year deal.

Of course, being offered $7.5mil over three seasons would be enough to keep many players from going elsewhere. From the Canadian Press:

"Keeping Scott in Carolina was one of our top priorities this off-season," Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford said in a statement.

"He brings skill and grit to our forward lines and he has become one of our team's leaders on and off the ice."

Is the deal a good one for the Hurricanes?

Walker is 34 years of age, and will be 37 by the time this contract is finished. One would have to believe that he'll be in decline from now until he retires.

His numbers? They are pretty solid.

YEAR  GP G A PTS PIM
------------------------
2003-04 75 25 42 67 94
2005-06 33  5 11 16 36
2006-07 81 21 30 51 45
------------------------
 

Walker is one of the harder working players in the NHL, and is probably good for at least 45 points per season if he stays healthy. Being a small player (5'9"), Walker tends to rack up a lot of bumps, bruises, and injuries. Last season's 81 games played was a career high from him and rather unexpected.

Verdict: Not a bad deal, albeit one season too long. Walker would have received this kind of dough from quite a few other teams. The Acid Queen gives the deal her thumbs up.