As Ryan said in his post, we'll be hearing all about the James Wisniewski's hit on Chicago's Brent Seabrook tomorrow (the video is hidden under the jump). I don't often write about head shot things or hits of intent to injure because I have very mixed feelings on it. I like big hits and feel that fightning has it's place in hockey, and know that players will get injured. This doesn't have to do with that, hear me out and feel free to disagree.

Since the Olympics, we have gone from talking about Cooke on Savard, to Ovie on Campbell, to Downie on Crosby, to Wisniewski on Seabrook in all of what, 2 weeks? In what should be one of the most exciting times in hockey (the stretch drive), I find myself being overloaded by stories and opinion on head shots and hits that cause injuries. I find myself asking, does what we say even matter? The majority of fans can agree that hits that appear to have intent to injure sicken us, especially when they have effects of career ending injuries or concussions but a new one keeps occurring every couple of days.

Everyone saw Cooke on Savard hit and did that make you stop watching the NHL? Ok, maybe a select few of you will give up on hockey, but the majority will still enjoy the sport. It seems the fans and media are more concerned with the players health than the players or league themselves. We will continue to debate possible rules to reduce injuries to players, which I think is healthy for us to do, but it is beginning to get tiresome. To me, it seems that if players want to reduce the occurrences of these disgusting hits, the players need to stop doing them. In the end it is the player them self that executes the action that has the intention to hurt the other player.

Where I find the NHL at fault is two fold. First, they need to make the changes to the rules to help the players who can't seem to help themselves. The second, is that some memo needs to go out to the organizations which should get passed to the coaches that should get passed to the players that read: THIS IS NOT MARKETABLE. The NHL just came off from the Olympics where some great hockey was displayed, and instead of focusing on hockey, hits/injuries like what has been displayed in the last two weeks will discourage non-hockey fans from becoming hockey fans. If you are a parent and saw the Cooke hit on Savard, would you enroll your kid in hockey?

So, back to our regular programming of a mix of Westcoast links:

View From My Seats is growing and has added some new writers. Congrats to Matt for continuing to put out great work, I'm sure this won't reduce the amount he actually writes per day. Interesting post he wrote on the self-awareness of hockey players

This one is from the weekend, but still good if you haven't read it yet. James Mirtle write about the Sharks' Jamie McGinn who has been recalled and demoted a league-leading 14 times

Jibblescribbits suggests TV shows that would be good fits for NHL stars to appear on

The Royal Half explains how 3rd jerseys came about and also admits that they also frequent the Pavel Bure Fan Club website

Fear the Fin reconstructs the Western Conference Playoff Standings, words cannot describe how long it looks like Mr. Plank took to write it, but it's worth the read

Since so many hockey bloggers seem to love haiku's, here's something poetry related: Copper and Blue introduces us to Randall Maggs who wrote Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems

You'll be hearing all about Anaheim's James Wisniewski's hit on Chicago's Brent Seabrook tomorrow, but for now here is a sampling of the immediate reaction by hockey fans and writers on Twitter. They say all you need to know:

@TSNBobMcKenzie: Wisniewski's hit on Seabrook may be the Grand Slam: Charging, Interference, Boarding and pre-meditated malice (payback for a hit on Perry)

@NHLBlackhawks: Seabrook was without puck against the boards. Wiz used his elbow to slam Seabs' head into the boards. Seabs fell and has since left the game

@TravisHair: FWIW, Wisniewski should be a repeat offender after being suspended for 2 games for his hit on Shane Doan earlier in the year.

@thesilencekid: Seriously, James Wisniewski. That hit, right now? With all that's going on behind the scenes and in the media. Pure idiocy.

@twolinepass: wtf james wisniewski? that was absurd.

@alixiswright: That Wisniewski hit on Seabrook really has me wondering why exactly I'm still an NHL hockey fan.

@bruce_arthur: Disgusting hit. Ah, the NHL, where bullshit frontier justice just keeps on happening. Heckuva job, Gary. Heckuva job.

@emnicks: Wisniewski's hit on Seabrook: F-cked up beyond words. I'm in disbelief.

@mirtle: Two questionable hits on two Hawks defencemen this week. An ugly way to close out what's been a dream season.

@ViewFromMySeats: Want to see the definition of "intent"? Stay classy Wiz...

There are three things I love about March:

1. Shamrock shakes make their yearly appearance. Uncle O'Grimacey gets his due. (Leave your Kyle Wellwood jokes at the door)

2. My Raymond Babbit-ish love of symmetry and straight lines come in handy when I draw up my brackets.

3. Awards talk begins to surface in the NHL.

My favourite NHL award has always been the Selke award. The Selke is awarded to the NHL forward who best exemplifies defensive play. Sure, it's not as sexy as the Hart Trophy,  but to me, it's everywhere near as important. This is the award that says, "Here's the guy I'd put on the ice with the game on the line."  It's the equally attractive yet underappreciated girl in the romantic comedy. As a matter of fact, The Selke should just be renamed the  Anna Faris.

In terms of voting for the Selke winner, it seems to be a real witch's brew of criteria used to separate the Mick Jagger's from the Chad Kroeger's. My very own 11 herbs and spices include plus/minus, take away percentage, time on the penalty kill, points, have they ever killed a hobo, goals against - even strength, and time on ice. This is in no way objective. I think to really get the feel of a player's defensive zone awareness, you'd have to watch every shift they played all year long and to be honest, my crocheting and Hall and Oates tribute band, (Maneater) take up way too much time.

Ok, no more rambling. Here are  my 5 nominees for the 2010 Selke award:

Ryan Kesler, C - Vancouver Canucks

Was there ever a kid in your class that straddled the line between overly energetic and a need for ritalin? This is Kesler on the ice. I've seen every Canucks game this year and it can honestly be said that Kesler doesn't have an off switch. Kesler is on the number one penalty kill, he takes key faceoffs, and most importantly he's on the ice to shut down the other team's top line. Kesler will beat you with a goal and then turn around and drop the gloves when the need arises. Kesler's most Selke worthy moment so far wasn't even in the NHL. Kesler's empty net goal with seconds left in the Canada vs. USA Olympic qualifier game was the epitome of hustle. The Canadians had turned the offensive zone into, The Harlem Globetrotters vs. Washington Generals and it seemed that a tying goal was imminent, but Kesler managed to outrace Corey Perry back into Team Canada's zone and dove to knock the puck into the net, sealing it for Team USA.

Jordan Staal, C - Pittsburgh Penguins

He's not flashy. He's not sexy. Hell, he's probably not even the most popular NHL'er in his own house, but Jordan Staal is the guy you want on the ice when the chips are down. He plays a very solid, cream of wheat in a white bowl type of game but you can be assured that if you have a need for a guy to kill penalties, give the top line on the other team fits and then drive to the net for a goal, then Staal is your guy. The only knock against Staal is that he plays less than the other nominees and he is not counted on for offense because of Malkin and Crosby. His most Selke worthy moment?  See: every 5 on 3 that the Penguins end up on the PK for.

Patrick Marleau, C/LW - San Jose Sharks

This one may be off the radar but Marleau plays in all zones and all facets for the Sharks and still manages to rack up the points. He's often the only defensive consience on the Sharks' big line with Heatley and Thornton. Marleau takes key face offs and is often the hustle guy (the ONLY hustle guy) that ends up feeding the puck to Thornton or Heatley. He plays the Lion's share of time but is not a primary penalty kill guy but neither was Datsyuk, who's won the award the last two years.

(hit, read more, to uhhhm, read more....)

Hello. The following is a small collection of useless, yet mildly interesting statistics from the around the NHL and the rest of the hockey world.

• The Washington Capitals are far and away the team with the highest GF-GA differential at a whopping +79. The next closest is Chicago at +55, 24 below the Capitals. Even scarier is Washington's AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears. Hershey is a frightening +118, 44 above second-place Hamilton's +74.

• The three worst GF-GA in the NHL belong to Edmonton (-69), Toronto (-48), and Columbus (-43). The bottom three in the AHL are Springfield (-75), Toronto (-61), and Syracuse (-35). Those are, in order, the AHL affiliates for Edmonton, Toronto, and Columbus. Yikes.

• Going into Tuesday night's action, Islanders rookie John Tavares had managed only 8 points since January 1, 2010. The list of rookies with more points in the new year than Tavares included Matt Duchene, Tyler Myers, Niclas Bergfors, Tyler Bozak, Peter Regin, and even Michael Del Zotto. Even Daniel Carcillo had more points. Okay, Carcillo isn't a rookie, but that's not the point: he's Daniel Carcillo. Naturally, before this could be put to post, Tavares went ahead and collected 5 points in Vancouver against Roberto Luongo and an empty net. You can probably consider that slump broken now.

Faith and Begorrah,  Blue Diamonds and Pink Hearts!  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Mikael Samuelsson's upper body injury looks to be Michael Grabner's gain. The Canucks have recalled the Right Winger from the Manitoba Moose. Grabner was skating on a line with Demitra and Kesler.

My green beer and novelty, Bono morally outraged eyeglasses and soul patch have arrived so I will just leave you with this. Separated at birth:

Pierre McGuire

Monopoly Guy

My God, that title came out wrong.

Anyway, in case you've been dead this past week, Alex Ovechkin's been suspended for two games for a hit (or shove) into the boards on Brian Campbell during Sunday's Caps/Hawks game.  I'm sure that the nice folks at Second City Hockey have something to say about that, and as a matter of fact they do, and there's also Paint it Blackhawks' summary of the reason that Soupy's out for the rest of the season.

Also from PiB, Jim looks at what isn't going right for the Blackhawks since the Olympic break's ended, and what can be done.  Don't worry.  You guys'll still make the playoffs.

Fellow Bloguin resident Light the Lamp has a new blogger! Go on over and give Cateleigh a big ol' hi.

Cam Janssen closes this week's links with probably the quote of the month.  He might not've been in the fight, but he gives his two cents anyway:

"I give him all the respect in the world ... he's a big guy and he's one of the toughest in the league by far," Janssen said. "But he doesn't have much respect for anybody else, the way he squares off. He showboats himself. I don't think he gave 'Kinger' the respect that he needed. Kinger caught him with a good one and now Boogaard is rearranging his face tonight ... that's what he gets for not having any respect."

As the playoff chase reaches its climax, some teams will be left on the outside looking in. Will we see another late (late) push from a team, similar to the St. Louis Blues of last year? Who will fall apart in the final days like the Nashville Predators in 2009? Lets take a look at the teams most likely to collapse when push comes to shove, and who could be making a run.

Fall

Colorado Avalanche

Unproven playoff goaltending. Young players carrying the mail. Rookie head coach. Getting outshot in crucial situations. The recipe the Avs are currently cooking with doesn't appear to leave much room for error. Joe Sacco needs to get better production out of his veteran players like Milan Hejduk, Marek Svatos, and to some extent, Paul Stastny, because when crunch time arrives, rookies Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly may be in over their heads. They currently have a tentative hold on sixth place, only three points ahead of hot Nashville.

Boston Bruins

One point clear of the ninth place Rangers, the Bruins were already near the bottom of the league in scoring and are now without leading scorer Marc Savard for an extended period. They failed to address the scoring need at the deadline, acquiring only Dennis Seidenberg, and a team led offensively by Marco Sturm is a team you won't be seeing around for long. The Bruins can steal a game or two behind Tim Thomas and Tuukka Rask, but goaltending only gets you so far when you can't put pucks in or on nets. The loss of Phil Kessel is coming back to haunt the Bruins, who finished one point away from winning last year's President's Trophy.

Rise

Detroit Red Wings

As inconsistent as this year has been for Mike Babcock's team, have a look at the defending conference champions' roster and try and convince yourself that they won't make noise. You can't. Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Nick Lidstrom, and Johan Franzen are world class talents who were also the catalysts behind a Cup championship two years ago and a conference title last year. The big question mark remains in goal with Calder dark horse Jimmy Howard, but you know that Babcock will have them ready to go in April. A series with the West-leading Sharks looms, and San Jose can't be looking forward to that, considering both teams' track records.

Philadelphia Flyers

If there's anything that I could bring forward from being a fifteen year old boy growing up in the 80's it would have to be my ability to hold up my Heather Thomas poster with one hand and my superhuman recall of all things Monty Python. My favourite Python quote to this day is still, "NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

Well, nobody would ever expect that in an enlightened age like we supposedly live in today that an organized league of highly paid professionals would condone gladiatorial like conduct among their own kind by staying silent on head shots and the back alley thuggery that has permeated the NHL at this moment in time.

But, Hey... I'm not here to whine. I'll let the rest of the internet do that. Here's what I did with, "Find and Replace" and one of my favourite scenes from, "Seinfeld."

Enjoy...

"THE POLICY"

GARY BETTMAN : Yeah, they're in London now. They'll be back in a few weeks.

COLIN CAMPBELL: I can't believe he got involved with an actress.

COLIN CAMPBELL: So, what's happening with the Head Shot Rule? You come up with anything?

GARY BETTMAN: No, nothing.

COLIN CAMPBELL: Why don't they have Satan on the ice?

GARY BETTMAN : What do you need Satan on the ice for?

COLIN CAMPBELL: Satan is now the number one scoring Slovakian in America.

6.0: Every hockey coach
I hate to stereotype here, but aren't they all basically the same guy? Same reactions, same cheap suit. … Can you even name five NHL coaches? I watched the entire Winter Olympics and can't even remember who coached Team USA or Team Canada, yet I could name about six curling coaches at this point.

Bill Simmons, March 12, 2010

Any good hockey fan is probably aware of the inaccuracy of the theory that all NHL coaches are "basically the same guy". That shows a naivety when it comes to the sport as a whole, not just the National Hockey League. I don't want to dwell too much on Simmons' mistake, though, but instead to use that as a launching pad for the best coaches of the 2009-10 campaign thus far.

What follows, then, is a quick rundown of who the leading candidates are for the Jack Adams Trophy- the NHL's award for coach of the year. I've listed them in order of most probably winning to least probably winning, so follow after the jump for more!

For those of you that were, "Jonesing" without easy access to Pro Rodeo, the NHL and countless showings of, Youngblood, wipe those tears because DIRECTV and VS. have kissed and made all nicey nice. Read about it here... http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=521480

An especially excited Keith Jones was heard to say, "Fire Bad!"