Where's This Stuff In "The Code?"

A couple of weeks ago, Columbus Blue Jackets blueliner Ole-Kristian Tollefsen caught Leafs forward Jason Blake skating out of his defensive zone with his head down and made him pay for his mistake, one that a guy who has been in the League as long as Blake has (or for any amount of time, for that matter) should never have made.

Tollefsen absolutely crushed Blake, and did so well within the rules of the game (hockey is, after all, a contact sport), and yet the reaction it elicited from Blake's teammates was predictable: someone had to fight the nasty Norweigian, and pronto (unfortunately for Alexei Ponikarovsky, he was the guy left to challenge the much more seasoned fighter):

There are a couple of ways to look at these events, and I'm not entirely sure they're mutually exclusive. The first is to praise "Poni" for defending his still-writhing teammate. The second is to ask, "When the hell did clean hits start commanding a response like that?"

The latter was my reaction at the time (as you can see in the comments here), and was my reaction last night when Rene Bourque jumped Tyler Sloan after Sloan lit up Daymond Langkow:

I wasn't going to harp on it any more, but I caught Ken Campbell's post on the topic this afternoon, and thought it worth passing along. Campbell writes:

This is getting ridiculous. How do you expect to have hitting in the game when the player delivering a clean hit has to worry about being jumped and pummeled by some idiot who is hell-bent on revenge? No matter what you think about fighting in hockey, the increasing number of fights that come on the heels of clean hits are ridiculous.

After all, aren’t enforcers – and all players for that matter - supposed to live by "the code?" Nobody has ever fully explained "the code" to me, but I have to think part of it suggests these guys are all man enough to pick themselves up after a clean hit. These boneheads justify what they do by saying that you can’t allow guys to "take liberties" with your top players.

Whaaa? Exactly where in the NHL rulebook does it state that good players are immune from clean hits? You’re not supposed to let the other team score goals either, but you don’t start jumping on your opponents and beat them every time your team is scored on.

Spot on, Kenny Boy (and killer use of "whaaa?").

Now, in fairness, the situation hasn't yet arisen (knock wood) where it's one of "my guys" lying in a heap on the ice, and I'm sure that my initial reaction will be to want the head of the thug who lays out Alex Semin on a pike, even if the hit was clean. But at the same time, the overwhelming thought in my head will be "he should have had his head up - he knows better."

Campbell's piece is definitely worth a read, and I'll let him wrap this post up as he did his own, relating the events surrounding a recent big-hit-turned-donnybrook involving Kurt Sauer levelling Andrei Kostitsyn (the hit itself was questionable, so the fight that followed was understandable... but this reaction wasn't):

[A]fter the game, Georges Laraque of the Canadiens said it doesn’t matter if a hit is "clean or dirty," somebody has to take on Sauer in that situation.

The only problem is, that kind of attitude runs counter to everything that’s noble in hockey. Yes, it does matter if the hit is clean. It’s part of the game, just like scoring goals and killing penalties.

If NHL players are going to hold themselves up as the standard bearers of internal fortitude and honor, maybe they should start acting as thought they really believe it.

Take the hit and move on.

Update: Here's Bourque on his hit and the aftermath:

"I wasn't happy with the amount of penalty minutes I'd got. I'd never seen a nine-minute powerplay before, and if I knew that would be the case, I wouldn't have done what I'd done.

...

Bourque said Sloan's check wasn't dirty, "just hard" so he didn't think twice about going after the Capitals defenceman.

Idiocy. Pure idiocy (and clear evidence that it's up to the refs - not the players - to get this crap under control).

Tuesday Roundup/Gamenight: Caps @ Jackets

[AP Preview - WashingtonCaps.com Pregame]

"His first NHL check was so fierce it dislodged a support beam. He refused to let his team lose, twice answering with goals less than 90 seconds after the opponents took the lead. And when his face appeared on the large scoreboard, he stuck out his tongue and flashed a charismatic smile."

Guess who?

Back on October 5, 2005, Alexander Ovechkin made quite the impact in his NHL regular season debut against the Columbus Blue Jackets and has been "worth the admission," as then-Jackets coach Gerard Gallant said, ever since.

KB's ticket from Ovie's first game, signed by #8 himself

Much has changed in the D.C. hockey world in the twenty-eight months since then - that night the bronze and black-clad Caps got points from Ovechkin, Dainius Zubrus, Jeff Halpern, Mathieu Biron and Steve Eminger before an MCI Center crowd - but at least one thing has remained the same: Alexander Ovechkin is still the best player on the ice almost every time he laces up his skates.

The Caps have come a long way since then. Gone are guys like Andrew Cassels, Jeff Friesen and Bryan Muir (seriously, look at the team they put out there that night, but be careful doing so on a full stomach), replaced in the lineup by the likes of Nicklas Backstrom, Alexander Semin and Mike Green. And, to be sure, there is still a long way to go for this team before they reach their goals both small and large. But with a win tonight in Columbus, the 2007-08 Caps will be within four wins of the 2005-06 team (and within three wins of the 2006-07 squad). Given where they've come from, when they surpass those two teams it will be a bit of an accomplishment, but one that you could have seen coming from the very first shift on Opening Night, 2005.

Interestingly, the Blue Jackets goalie that night was the same one the Caps are likely to face tonight, Pascal Leclaire, who is having a breakout season in C'bus. Leclaire (who is not only leading the NHL.com 3 Stars race, but also has one of the worst headshots in the history of Earth) sports a 19-11-3 record with a 2.11 goals against average (fourth in the League), .925 save percentage (fifth in the NHL) and a League-high eight shutouts - not exactly what the doctor ordered for a Caps team that has been shutout in two of its last three games.

But Leclaire's emergence isn't the only positive story for Ken Hitchcock's Jackets, who are on pace to end up with the first winning record in team history. Rick Nash is establishing himself as a clutch goal-scorer (though he's pointless in four games), the enigmatic Nikolai Zherdev (think Alex Semin without as many bad penalties - check out his TSN.ca scouting report) leads the team in scoring and is within six goals and nine points of a career high, and the team's top four defensemen in ice time all have positive plus-minus ratings. Oh, and former Cap Jiri Novotny already has career highs in goals and points.

Simply put, these Blue Jackets aren't the easy two points that teams have grown accustomed to over the years. Though they're just 26th in the League in scoring, they're sixth in goals against, third in penalty killing and have a sparkling 16-8-4 at home record (only Detroit and Colorado have more points at home).

The Jax have lost three in a row and five of seven (having scored just 12 times in those seven games), but two points will still be tough to come by for the visiting Caps, who will get no breaks as they have to play in Philadelphia on Wednesday night. These two points are huge for both teams, and as it will likely be a low-scoring affair (C'bus has scored two or fewer goals in a staggering 31 of their 54 games), the opportunity will be there for a single individual to be great and snag the win for his team. In such situations, is there a player on the planet that you'd rather have than the Caps' Number Eight?

Why The Blue Jackets Will Win:

"We will win because our goalie was an All Star...and yours wasn't...wait ours wasn't either...crap." - Bethany's Hockey Rants

"The Jackets are a team that's seen the post All-Star break games transform them from a team on a roll to one where desperation lurks around the next corner. With a few days off to recover, the Jackets will get back to what's been successful for them so far: smart, hard checking defense, aggressive forecheck, and good goaltending in the Capitals' first visit to Nationwide since prior to the strike." - End of the Bench

Elsewhere 'Round the Rinks:

Today's a big day, historically, for Caps goal scorers. First, on this date back in 1991, Dino Ciccarelli became the 33rd player in NHL history to score 400 goals as he tallied in a 5-3 Caps win over Vancouver (he would score another 208 before hanging 'em up). Then, eight years later, Peter Bondra would notch a hat trick in a second straight game (he actually had four two days earlier against the Bolts) with three goals in a home win over the 'Canes. Whaddya got, Alex?... Know what's impressive? Being one of the 30 most improved players in the League (merely from a point production perspective) after scoring 92 points the season before. Just another reason pundits and fans alike think AO is Hart-worthy.... Or maybe it's because he was the most clutch player in the League in January. By a mile.

Daily Awards

• Hart: Zach Parise (OT game-winning goal, 2A, 3 SOG, 3 hits)
  
• Ross: Zach Parise, Patrick Elias (3 points each)
  
• Norris: Steve Staios (G, +1, 4 SOG, 2 BkS)
  
• Vezina: Mathieu Garon (24-save shutout win)
  
• Richard: Radim Vrbata, T.J. Hensick (2G each)
  
• Calder: T.J. Hensick (2G, 75% faceoffs won)
  
• Aiken: Curtis Joseph (L, 5 goals allowed on 28 shots against)
  

I Think That's "Too Many Men"

Well no wonder the Jackets scored - they had nine guys on the ice...

Update: Well no wonder the Jackets scored - they had Kris Beech.

Quote Of The Day

"With the emergence of (centers Kris) Beech and (Jiri) Novotny, I think we can put (Nikolai Zherdev) on the wing." - Columbus head coach Ken Hitchcock

This quote should be taken with a grain of salt, as it cuts off before Hitch undoubtedly added "and our season in the toilet."

Wishful Thinking Quote Of The Day

"Jiri [Novotny] is a guy who might be ready to blossom." - Columbus General Manager Scott Howson

Might be, eh? At least they're not expecting much from him.

What's that you say? He's penciled in as their second-line center? Yikes.

Caps Looking For A New Jacket?

Yesterday's Columbus Post Dispatch reported that "the Washington Capitals have sent two and three scouts to recent [Blue Jackets] games." As the Caps don't play the Jax again until the clubs face off in 2024 in Bahrain (I may be wrong about those specifics), the question is who have the Caps been scouting?

Guys like Rick Nash, Derick Brassard and Gilbert Brule are presumably untouchable.

Columbus will likely trade unrestricted-free-agents-to-be Anson Carter and Bryan Berard before the February 27 trade deadline, but I doubt the Caps would have any interest in renting either (besides, if "fool me once" is shame on you and "fool me twice" is shame on me, what would it be if the Caps took Carter a third time - shame on the fans?).

Despite occasionally-strong play from Fredrik Norrena, I doubt the Jax are looking to move goaltender Pascal Leclaire (though if they were, I'd think it would be a great move for the Caps to go after him).

So that leaves the obvious. Nik Zherdev has been a problem child for Ken Hitchcock, but he has far too much talent for the team to give up on him at this point (and already signed at $2.5m next year and $3.25m in 08-09, Zherdev is a bargain for the offensive talent he brings to the table). And despite the "he's Russian, the Alexes are Russian, therefore he'd be a perfect fit in Washington" line of thinking, I'm not sure that taking on someone else's prima donna headache is really what the Caps are looking to do right now. Still, sniffing around Zherdev is just about the only thing that I can think of that would get two or three scouts out to Columbus, Ohio in the middle of February. Then again, I'm not in scouting so what do I know? What do you know?