The GMs of the NHL clubs are currently meeting in Florida, and even the league management was there. The topic of the week was the NHL’s policy on the connection of repeated head injuries to chronic brain injury (CTE). NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly flatly denied that the NHL believed in the connection, although credible research information has been published on the subject in recent years. The line-up was not surprising from a league indifferent to head injuries, but it sparked widespread debate.
The NHL could well be compared to the tobacco industry in the 90s, which, despite extensive research, stubbornly denied the connection between tobacco and cancer.
– This is related to money. We know the Yankee system. From there, I would be looking for pretty hefty compensation retroactively, sports expert Ismo Lehkonen sees
The NHL has already settled one class action related to the topic. A few years ago, it paid more than 100 former players a total of about $18 million, but denied its own responsibility. If you compare the bill to the NFL’s billion dollar bill, hockey got away with a little. The NHL will keep its vision in the future, but the least it could do is to start taking better care of former players.
Lehkonen sees that rehabilitation, health care and therapy services should be available to players who are ending their careers.
– When you put on the cleats, during the first years there should be a health checkup once a year, so that you can get to grips with the post-hockey season. Total maintenance and inspection at regular intervals would be a good thing, and no one would want it. And it wouldn’t be a question of such big costs here. That would be caring. All you have to do is put it into use, says Lehkonen.
Who surprised?
Washington. It is unfathomable how Washington, even weak in terms of player material, managed to reach the playoff line from the beginning of the week. The team, which hardly anyone believed in the playoff spot at the end of the season, has collected a handsome balance of 10-5-1 from the 16 previous matches. The hard finish has been created even after the team traded two core attackers elsewhere Yevgeny Kuznetsov mixed Anthony Manthan.
What makes the draw special is also the contradiction created by the deep data. Throughout the season, Washington is a weak 5-on-5 team, giving more to the opposition than creating – and yet it has won more than it has lost. In recent weeks, it has been overwhelmingly hammering the result at a high pace (35%), which has pinpointed weaknesses in other areas.
Of course, the number one goalkeeper Charlie Lindgren belongs to the goalie comets of the NHL season. According to the Moneypuck website, Lindgren has saved 14 more goals than expected. The reading is the seventh highest in the series.
– If someone had come during the season to say that Lindgren is one of the season’s best, I would have asked them to stop, laughs Lehkonen.
While hockey is a players’ game, in Washington’s case, a rookie coach Spencer Carbery must be highlighted and one of the best in his playing position in the current season.
– You have to raise your hat quite absurdly. He hasn’t set out to play any of his ideal pucks, where puck control and other things go well. With the scorched earth tactic, they try to keep the games even for as long as possible and turn them around at the end. A tough performance.
Who cheated
Is it Sidney Crosby tendon in Pittsburgh cheating? The body language of the Canadian icon, who won three Stanley Cups for the club and left everything on the ice in his almost 20-year career, has been showing huge frustration even on the rink in recent weeks. Pittsburgh has bounced far from playoff contention and even collapsed in a few games in an extraordinary way.
The latest collapse was seen when Pittsburgh lost 0-6 at home to Washington. This happened on the same day that the club management traded Crosby’s chain mate, a quality winger By Jake Guentzel To Carolina. Crosby’s comments about the trade were sour to say the least. Club management GM By Kyle Dubas The manager certainly did not take the actions that the captain hoped for from the point of view of strengthening the team at the transfer deadline.
Crosby has scored one goal in 11 previous matches and collected -12 in the power statistics.
– It’s a pity. It has started to go completely wrong, because he himself played really well in the early season. At the same time, he watches how other teams strengthen their ranks, and his own club does nothing. This is completely human and proof that Sidney Crosby is also a human being who has feelings and cares. I’ve seen the same thing on another club icon About Kris Letang.
– Would it have happened that the boys have gone out into the wild to fight the harshness of this world, Lehkonen throws.
Goal of the week
In an unimaginable flight is Mikko Rantanen and this chainmate Nathan MacKinnon. Rantanen’s balance from March alone is 6+10 in eight matches. Early on Wednesday morning, against St. Louis, he scored the 7th hat trick of his career – and even more unusually in a power play from the middle of the square.
– By the way, it was great and precise guidance, he has practiced that. There the playing positions changed for a moment and Mikko was able to solve that too. Their chain was on a pretty hard ride in that match, but the hat trick is still a hard performance, Lehkonen enthuses.
What next?
Philadelphia coach John Tortorella will appear on the wallpaper for the second week in a row. Last week, the storm arose from angering the umpires, now from the playing line-up, dropping the captain. Tortorella is known as a coach who does not treat players unequally based on the size of the salary bag, and he got it Sean Couturier to experience from the beginning of the week. There was quite a media storm when the player and his agent publicly wondered about the pilot’s decision and especially that the pilot had not discussed the issue with the player.
Also, former players quickly appeared on social media to criticize the seasoned coach for how he treats veteran players.
Couturier had undeniably played poorly and practically without any kind of results for a long time. Against this background, the grandstand command seemed justified, but was the timing right in the spring? Can a rift between a coach and a player arise through a fight that cannot be repaired?
– It’s already been a while, Lehkonen says.
– The player is always left with scars from such things, especially for big-paid guys. Yes, they are quite long-tempered. After this, it is quite difficult to continue cooperation. Very few people can do it.
On the other hand, Lehkonen reminds that Philadelphia won the match in which the captain was missing, as he also reminded of Philadelphia’s tight situation in the playoff race. According to Lehkonen, the coach strove not only to put together the best team, but also to send a wider message. On the other hand, Lehkonen notes that the world has changed.
– Tortore has the last of his Mohicans, who absolutely does not want or agree to give up the things of the old alliance that he believes in. But it’s true that the world is changing. If in the old days coaches did not explain their solutions, today it would be good to communicate about them.
Philadelphia is still in the hunt for third place in the Metro Division, i.e. the last “outright” playoff spot.