Is the use of force getting out of control in the NHL? The topic has been talked about a lot in the last few weeks. In particular, the injuries of a few important players have made emotions hot both on and off the rink.
of Toronto Timothy Ljljegren was injured earlier when Boston’s Brad Marchand struggled at this high speed just before finishing.
A little later Detroit Dylan Larkin was broken into the dock by the power of two players with transverse sticks. Most recently, Winnipeg Kyle Connor injured as a result of a knee tackle.
Especially near the edges, there has been a lot of rustling in recent weeks. Sunday in Florida Nick Cousins really tackled Columbus dangerously Erik Gudbansona behind the goal so that the defender went head first towards the end boards at full speed.
– The first thing would be to intervene in playing with a transverse stick. With it, you can have a lot of fun in front of the goals and near the wings. There is no reason to justify the use of a transverse racket. When you play with emotion and every point counts, it’s no wonder that it sometimes spills, ‘s ice hockey expert Ismo Lehkonen says.
– If the NHL got rid of hangings, if the NHL got rid of hitting the stick, then the next thing is transverse sticks. It’s damn easy to take out of the game. The owners don’t want to see their star player sidelined for ten weeks due to a neck injury.
When the judges do not have a clear line in punishments, a cycle of revenge is easily created. For example, Cousins’ foul was changed to a two-minute penalty after video review, infuriating Gudbranson. When players take the law into their own hands, the risks grow exponentially.
Gudbranson aggressively attacked Cousins from behind and crushed him on the ice with his fists. of Detroit David Perron reacted to the aforementioned Larkin injury by hitting the Ottawa defenseman with a truly outrageous cross stick Artyom Zubia to the neck. The NHL suspended Gudbranson for one game and Perron for six games.
The league and the referees should get the situation under control before something more serious happens.
– Think about when Perron’s cross would have hit Zubi in the face under the visor. It would have penetrated the nose all the way to the brain. The NHL must blow the whistle on this game, Lehkonen insists.
Who surprised?
of Vancouver Brock Boeser surprised – the top scorer in the NHL might have surprised even himself.
In the spring of 2022, Boeser lost his father, who was fighting cancer. When Vancouver was preparing for the Hockey fights cancer match in the fall of 2022, the team’s head coach at the time Bruce Boudreau informed Boeser that he would not fit into the playing lineup. The announcement was devastating for the player who lost his father to cancer.
Boeser was finally able to play due to the illness of another player, but the coach’s decision had left a scar on Boeser. After the match, the player requested a transfer from the club through his agent.
The transfer never came, the player’s market value was not high either, and in the summer of 2023 Boeser from Minnesota withdrew his transfer request.
After two difficult seasons, Boeser has now scored 21 hits in 29 games. With that, the top spot in the NHL’s goal statistics is released. Rising to a new level after all the difficulties is one of the feel-good stories of the season. Especially when you listen to the player’s comments.
– The game is fair. When you try to the maximum all the time and do the right things repeatedly, suddenly nice things start to happen. This is a perfect example of that. An awful lot of young players in the NHL think there are free lunches.
Who flopped?
Pittsburgh has to be brought up as a disappointment, even though the team won on Wednesday morning. Of course, the injuries also burden the team, but the whole is in a bad way compared to the previous expectations. In the summer, the team acquired ten million defender stars, Erik Karlsson to its rear lines, but it seems more like it confused the whole.
Pittsburgh’s 5-on-5 playing has been very good in many places, and the goaltending has even been good, but only 13% possession has resulted in results. It is in the possession game that Karlsson seems to have mixed up the dynamics that worked before. Karlsson and another star defender Kris Letang do not seem to fit into the same superiority game.
– Somehow they eat each other’s game there. They don’t play badly, but it hasn’t worked either. Now it’s just a matter of deciding which line is allowed to play and making some sort of compromise so that both can play in the first advantage. However, one of them suffers here, Lehkonen states.
– Even though Letang said in the summer that this is a good thing and stuff, it hasn’t worked. This is exactly what has happened to Karlsson and his and by Brent Burns went to San Jose with. Two star defenders do not want to fit into the same superiority.
Before the start of the season, there was talk about whether Pittsburgh could have a run this season Sidney Crosby “the last dance”. After a rough fall, Pittsburgh will be in a real hurry to get on the playoff train.
– They should collect such 35 wins that they are definitely in the playoffs. It’s a tough one. This is a wild joke.
Goal of the week
by Connor Bedard the hit in Edmonton has to be taken as the goal of the week. The Canadian, who was raised as a generational talent, scored one of the season’s most amazing goals from a situation that hardly any other player could have made a shot like the one seen.
– An unbelievable goal. That will be this boy’s scary number one weapon for a long time into the future. I also see that he should play as a winger for his career. He needs to be given the freedom of the platform to go wild and seek out these situations.
What next?
As we predicted a week ago, changes were coming to the coaching market. However, we didn’t think that St. Louis would be the next club to give their coach the boot. Craig Berube was allowed to leave immediately after Wednesday’s loss to Detroit. Someone could ask, was the fault really with the coach or the club boss who piled on the team?
GM Doug Armstrong even admitted on Wednesday that the team is worse right now than it was when he joined the club.
St. Louis is a mediocre team in terms of material and dull in terms of scoring power, with, for example, Kasperi Kapanen has played fourteen previous matches with 0+2, -3.
– The good man who won the Stanley Cup went on tour again and will there be any change, Lehkonen asks.
– Hardly, he answers to himself.
The Ika änäri podcast is published on Thursdays. You can find all episodes at this link.