After nine days away from the friendly confines of the Air Canada Centre, the Toronto Maple Leafs return to home ice this evening to take on the Calgary Flames.
The game marks the first time that former Leafs Niklas Hagman and Matt Stajan have returned to Toronto since the blockbuster seven player deal that occurred nearly one year ago.

The return of Jean Sebastien Giguere, the suspension of forward Mike Brown and a rash of injuries necessitated the call up of forward Marcel Mueller and the demotion of rookie goaltender James Reimer, which has curtailed for the moment the goaltending debate that began with Reimer’s sparkling performances.

Forward Kris Versteeg is out for tonight with an undisclosed upper body injury and Freddie Sjostrom is unlikely to play for the second straight game due to a leg injury.

*******

The suspension of Mike Brown for three games for hitting Phoenix defenseman Ed Jovanovski is par for the course in the new post Matt Cooke-Marc Savard era NHL. The incident was not a premeditated act, as both players were chasing after the puck when Brown checked a lunging Jovanovski.

"I'm not out to intentionally hurt anyone, especially him” Brown said. “He's well-respected and there's no way I would intentionally go and elbow or hit him with a shoulder to the head.”

After getting his bell rung, Jovo jumped to his feet and tried to get after the Toronto winger, but then left the ice and did not return for the rest of the night.

The implementation of new guidelines regarding hits to the head were intended to curtail predatory collisions, like the Scott Stevens hit on Eric Lindros, because the league does not want to see the number of players lost to concussion injuries to increase exponentially, but what they may not realize is that the parade of suspensions this year is going to have a chilling effect on players hitting at all.

This isn't the same argument as with the instigator rule limiting fights in the NHL. Fighting is entertaining, extracurricular, a release of pent-up frustrations and a means of protecting players on your team, but it is not determinative to victory or defeat.
Hitting is part of the game that enables one team to neutralize another team's offense by forechecking, to create turnovers or to inflict physical punishment.

Just think, if the NHL was penalizing hitting this away back in the mid-80s, Wendel Clark would have been suspended 20 games for his hit on Bruce Bell.

Incidents like Stevens-Lindros or Tie Domi trying to decapitate Scott Niedermayer in a playoff series deserve punishment to be levied by the NHL, but to suspend players for multiple games for hits that only a few years ago would have been minor penalties, is going to make the NHL stand for No Hit League.

Follow me on Twitter : http://twitter.com/MikeinBuffalo

Join the Discussion: » Comments » Post New Comment

» Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow

» Podcast Sunday – Off The Post Radio

» A Bevy Of Back-To-Backs; Leafs vs. Blues

» What Moves Are The Leafs Poised To Make?

» Toronto Ships Liljegren To San Jose; Leafs vs. Kraken