Derek Boogaard has two career NHL goals. It's not like Wild coach Jacques Lemaire uses him for his skill. Boogaard is on the ice to protect the Minnesota Wild's skill guys, and he's there to be a physical presence.
He took that role a bit too far on Friday night. Boogaard used his huge elbow as a weapon, sending Calgary Flame Brandon Prust crumpling to the ice. The hit has earned Boogaard a five-game ban.
In the midst of a playoff race in the Western Conference, the Edmonton Oilers have been struggling. They are just 3-5-1 in their last nine games, and they've slipped out of the top eight in the conference. Well, at least for now. The standings are changing pretty much every day.
The news they got Monday won't help them much. Defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky, a key player both in five-on-five play and on special teams, will miss the remainder of the season with a shoulder injury.
Welcome to another exciting edition of the NHL Wheel of Discipline! Our effort to chronicle the stupidity of the NHL's supplementary discipline system continues. Just remember, Sean Avery got six games for a sex joke. Instead of serving as a baseline, it seems to be a forgotten fact at NHL headquarters.
I had no clue about NHL rule 47.15 until after Thursday's Minnesota win over Edmonton. The rule calls for a match penalty (with automatic one-game ban) whenever a player "wearing tape or any other material on his hands (below the wrist) ... cuts or injures an opponent during an altercation." Watching this video of Edmonton defenseman Sheldon Souray whaling on Craig Weller of Minnesota, it's pretty clear that Souray uses his wrist pad as a weapon.
It was a testy affair in Edmonton Wednesday night. The Vancouver Canucks showed off their new purchase, and while Mats Sundin was a non-factor in the scoring, his team did skate away with a 4-2 win.
I already mentioned Willie Mitchell's first-period hit on Tom Gilbert. That seemed to start the ball rolling in terms of the physicality and flaring tempers.
Another big hit, this one by Mattias Ohlund on Erik Cole in the second period, touched off a quick fight between Ohlund and Oilers defenseman Sheldon Souray.
As you can see in the video, courtesy of hockeyfights.com, it didn't take long for Souray to take Ohlund down.
I applaud Ohlund for being willing to take that fight. The hit on Cole was one of those that you can debate until you're blue in the face, but it's probably got to be considered a clean hit in the end. That said, Souray took up for his skill player, as he should, and Ohlund immediately faced the music.
Thanks to a pair of goals from Matt Ellis, the Buffalo Sabres ended Boston's 10-game winning streak with a 4-2 victory at TD Banknorth Garden on Saturday afternoon. The loss not only snaps Boston's 10-game winning streak, it also ended a 14-game home winning streak, while also giving the Bruins their sixth regulation loss of the season.
Ellis opened the scoring for the Sabres just three minutes into regulation, while Thomas Vanek added his 26th goal of the season just two minutes later.
After Phil Kessel cut the deficit in half with his 24th goal of the season, Ellis added his second goal of the game early in the second period to score what proved to be the game-winner. Paul Gaustad added his fourth goal of the year for the Sabres, while Ryan Miller turned aside 29 shots in net.
The win for Buffalo, combined with Pittsburgh's loss to Florida, moved the Sabres into the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
It's great to see quality NHL action return to Chicago after years of disappointing hockey, and man, what a team the windy city has. With their 4-1 win in Minnesota on Sunday, the Blackhawks picked up their ninth straight victory, improving their record to 20-6-7, good enough for the fifth best record in the league.
Chicago received a four-point performance from Dustin Byfuglien, who scored a pair of goals in the first period and also added a pair of assists later in the game, as the Blackhawks dominated Minnesota. Cristobal Huet faced only 19 shots, turning away 18 of them to pick up his fifth consecutive win in goal. During his personal winning streak, Huet has allowed only four goals, posting a .967 save percentage.
Oh my, they're not going to like this in Buffalo. After the Penguins and Sabres skated to a 3-3 tie in regulation, Sidney Crosby deflected an Evgeni Malkin slap shot behind Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller in overtime, giving the Penguins a 4-3 win. As you can see from the above video, it was oh-so-close to being a high-stick.
They key, however, is that the call on the ice was that it was indeed a goal, meaning they would need conclusive evidence to overturn it. Is that conclusive? It's pretty darn close. The fact it's Crosby on the positive end of the call isn't going to sit well with anyone outside of Pittsburgh, I'm guessing, especially after he got away with punching some guy in the goods a week ago. So, cue the conspiracy theories! Anyway, what's done is done, Penguins win, and the Sabres blew three different leads on the night, including a 2-0 advantage in the second period, while going 1-for-6 on the power play.
Pittsburgh's Alex Goligoski picked up three points (two goals, assist) in the win, while Malkin added three helpers in his quest for 100. Malkin, by the way, now has 43 assists on the season -- an amazing number when you consider there were only three players in the NHL entering play on Monday with 43 points (Malkin, Crosby and Alex Ovechkin).
Marty Turco's awful season continued on Thursday night against Chicago, as the Dallas Stars goalie gave up five goals on 29 shots, as the Stars fell 6-3. After another dismal performance in the crease, Turco finds himself 42nd in the NHL (out of 43) with a 3.67 Goals Against Average, and 43rd with a .867 save percentage. It's difficult to get much worse than that.
Tuesday night's game against Edmonton is probably one that Columbus goalie Pascal Leclaire would like to permanently erase from his memory, seeing as how it's probably the worst game he's ever played in the NHL. Leclaire gave up seven goals on just 19 shots, as the Oilers rolled to a 7-2 victory, snapping a three-game losing streak.
Columbus finished with a commanding edge in the shots department, firing 39 shots at Dwayne Roloson -- he stopped 37 of them -- and still managed to skate away losing by five goals.
Here's a French-language clip from RDS circa 2005 or so where they take a peek inside a 1970s-themed Halloween party attended by several members of the Montreal Canadiens. Just be prepared for Saku Koivu in drag, ok? And because the lighting is so poor, I can't make out exactly what was going on with Sheldon Souray, but part of me doesn't want to know.
Derek Boogaard has two career NHL goals. It's not like Wild coach Jacques Lemaire uses him for his skill. Boogaard is on the ice to protect the Minnesota Wild's skill guys, and he's there to be a physical presence. 
In the midst of a playoff race in the Western Conference, the Edmonton Oilers have been struggling. They are just 3-5-1 in their last nine games, and they've slipped out of the top eight in the conference. Well, at least for now. The standings are changing pretty much every day.
Thanks to a pair of goals from Matt Ellis, the Buffalo Sabres ended Boston's 10-game winning streak with a 4-2 victory at TD Banknorth Garden on Saturday afternoon. The loss not only snaps Boston's 10-game winning streak, it also ended a 14-game home winning streak, while also giving the Bruins their sixth regulation loss of the season. 
It's great to see quality NHL action return to Chicago after years of disappointing hockey, and man, what a team the windy city has. With their 4-1 win in Minnesota on Sunday, the Blackhawks picked up their ninth straight victory, improving their record to 20-6-7, good enough for the fifth best record in the league. 
Marty Turco's awful season continued on Thursday night against Chicago, as the Dallas Stars goalie gave up five goals on 29 shots, as the Stars fell 6-3. After another dismal performance in the crease, Turco finds himself 42nd in the NHL (out of 43) with a 3.67 Goals Against Average, and 43rd with a .867 save percentage. It's difficult to get much worse than that. 
Tuesday night's game against Edmonton is probably one that Columbus goalie Pascal Leclaire would like to permanently erase from his memory, seeing as how it's probably the worst game he's ever played in the NHL. Leclaire gave up seven goals on just 19 shots, as the Oilers rolled to a 7-2 victory, snapping a three-game losing streak. 
