tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post2182068276848068275..comments2023-11-03T09:15:38.743-04:00Comments on The Daily Hab-it: A telltale gameArpon Basuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11896844844557916169noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-37284956399179558772008-11-11T18:58:00.000-05:002008-11-11T18:58:00.000-05:00Back to the drawing board ?After a dozen games, th...Back to the drawing board ?<BR/><BR/>After a dozen games, the mantra now is to go back to how we played the game last season.<BR/><BR/>The quality of our game as a group is less than ordinary ... nothing special ... group cohesion is a must no matter which system a team might be playing in ... this team has been ill-prepared to face the music nevermind dictating the pace of a game ... has Carbo watched the Wings playing last season ? as he taken notes ? <BR/>The CH cant just play the way they did last season if they want to be a better team than last season ... they had flaws last season that went under the radar because of their impecable PP ... their 5 on 5 game was weak and will remain weak unless Carbo has something better to propose than using last year as a reference to get our act together.pierrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04722439953017469433noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-703672817425686916.post-69973804059465007782008-11-11T11:27:00.000-05:002008-11-11T11:27:00.000-05:00If the NHL has shown anything in their handing out...If the NHL has shown anything in their handing out of suspensions over the years it's that they're not willing to use an offending player as a scapegoat, even when the media is screaming for blood. That, in my opinion, is an honourable thing. Why should Kostopoulos pay for the sins of the players that have come before him? He should not be sacrificed on the altar of political correctness. <BR/><BR/>The NHL is starting to move towards making these types of hits more of a serious infraction. That is clear based on the fact that Kostopoulos got three games despite the fact that it's clear to everyone he had no malicious intent when he hit Van Ryn. That's more than the two games received by Jones last season. The next guy who's unfortunate to get caught in this situation will likely get five games. After that it will be seven, and so on. As each successive incident occurs the players will know the the bar has been raised and they'll be that much more careful when they're headed into the corner.<BR/><BR/>What I hate, though, is that because of this escalation we're going to see even more of what I've increasingly noticed over the past few years - guys turning their back to opponents while in the 'danger zone' in order to ensure they don't get hit. I'm not talking about the Van Ryn/Kostopoulos hit here. Nobody would be crazy enough to purposefully put themselves in that position in such a high-speed situation. You generally see it on the cycle when a forward in the corner completely exposes his back to an impending body check, preventing the defender from being able to hit him without slamming him head first into the boards. The player with the puck knows that 99.9% of the time the oncoming defender will wisely back off. The rest of the time the play draws a penalty. Almost all the time the player that was hit escapes injury since he knows the hit could be coming.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com