Hockey Thoughts

The all-star voting…is moving along, sort of. Here is a look at the numbers from Tuesday. Personally, I don’t see the point of it this year. The format change…a weeknight event…I can think of a lot better ways this could have been put together. And, I’m not the only one who thinks this is rather pointless. Check out this writer’s take on the all-star game
(…H/T to Kula’s Korner for the link…)

A charity hockey game, commemorating Russian ice hockey, was held in Red Square. The Hockey News had a good write up on it. So did the Herald Tribune.

Allan Muir over at Sports Illustrated had an interesting write up on fighting. I don’t happen to agree with him. Fighting is not a necessary part of the game. Personally, I don’t have a problem with two guys losing their tempers and having at each other. For all you anti-violence types out there, the reason is there is a penalty for doing so. The two combatants pay the penalty, cool off, and get back to work. I think the IHF went to far in banning players for fighting. I think escalating (high) penalties, and possibly even fines, should be sufficient. Just look what similar rule changes in the 70’s did for the game by getting rid of bench clearing brawls, and such.

And, Florida Panthers forward Joe Nieuwendyk retired Wednesday. The Dallas Morning News had a short write up on him. It’s not much considering his impact on the game. With 564 goals and 562 assists in 1257 games, Joey had a good career. Hockey will miss him a lot.