Mar 13 The Weekly Backcheck - 03/13/11

Let's Start With Habs Stuff...

My thoughts on the Max Pacioretty-Zdeno Chara incident were made quite clear this week with two posts, A Rivalry Taken Entirely Too Far and When Justice Doesn't Prevail, but here are a few more thoughts on the subject.

• So to sum up, James Wisniewski gets a two game suspension for a rude motion towards Sean Avery. Sean Avery gets six games for making unsavory comments about Dion Phaneuf's ex-girlfriend Elisha Cuthbert. Zdeno Chara gets nothing for attempted murder. It's beyond incomprehensible at this point.

• Good on Pacioretty for speaking out with his candid thoughts on the hit and the NHL's decision to not suspend Chara. The league is hoping this matter gets swept under the rug as soon as possible but as long as Patches and other victims of reckless hits speak out, their words won't be ignored.

• Kudos to Geoff Molson for speaking out. I thought his statement delivered a clear message while upholding the class and dignity of the Montreal Canadiens organization. Molson is a representative of the most important ownership family in the NHL's history and his words should carry a lot of weight heading into the general managers meetings next week.

• Above all of this, I just hope Max Pacioretty is one day able to fully recover from this injury and lead a normal life, however long it takes. Without having any medical knowledge whatsoever, the kid's obvious toughness and determination combined with the miracles of modern medicine make me optimistic on that. It goes without saying that his hockey career is secondary right now.

• A lot of people are suggesting that the threats of major corporate sponsors to pull their NHL sponsorship over the league's lack of action against head shots is nothing more than a PR stunt. While that may be so, if this plays any part in the league getting their act straight, then the end justifies the means regardless of any of these companies' true intentions.

• As it relates to hockey, the Habs are obviously in trouble with Pacioretty on the sidelines for the foreseeable future. Pacioretty had been the team's best winger for weeks now and his hole will be impossible to fill. Like the team has done during the extended absences of Andrei Markov, Josh Gorges and Michael Cammalleri, it'll be up to others to once again pick up the slack.

• Not even taking into account that it came in the immediate wake of Chara's controversial hit but what the hell was Mike Komisarek thinking shoving Dan Carcillo into the boards? The play gave Komisarek no advantage whatsoever and it was among the more blatant brain farts I've seen in awhile. Naturally, the league chose to give no further discipline.

• Discounting the third period which was a "mail it effort" by both sides given the circumstances, the Habs played almost a perfect game against Boston and Jacques Martin deserves credit for having his troops prepared. They played a tight, disciplined game that used their strengths to exploit Boston's weaknesses and it was obvious which of the two sides recognized the importance of the game.

• Call me a homer if you want but I'm completely dismissing the Habs no-show in St. Louis. In all sports, you hear so much talk about the effect "distractions" and "potential distractions" have on teams and the two days between the Bruins game and the Blues game was the very definition of that for obvious reasons.

• It was great to see the Habs get back on the horse in Pittsburgh. Like Scott Gomez said afterwards, it was a very well played road game by the team. They got the first goal early on and kept the pressure on keeping the crowd out of the game. When you can rely on a rock like Carey Price it nets, it only helps matters as well.

...And On To Other Stuff Around The League...

• Let's be honest, the stanchions at many arenas in the NHL could be made safer and while the main issue is a player like Chara taking advantage of a rink design flaw to hurt a player he had beef with, there is an opportunity to make that area of the ice safer and that shouldn't be ignored.

• On the subject of easy changes that can be made to improve safety, touch icing needs to be implemented and padding needs to be added to the lip of the boards all around the rink. No need to wait for a specific catastrophe caused by either of those hazards to make a change.

• I'm having a hard time not liking this Toronto Maple Leafs team. They're a plucky, hard-working team who everyone dismissed and mocked all year long. With their deadline firesale, they had every reason to mail in the rest of the season. As I wrote last week, the playoffs would just be more interesting with them as part of the dance. What sounds like a more interestion first round match-up to you? Flyers vs. Leafs or Flyers vs. Hurricanes/Sabres?

• I'm hearing more and more talk about candidates for the Calder trophy and too much talk is being given to Corey Crawford. While he's had a nice season, I avoid giving too much praise to rookie goaltenders for a simple reason. The vast majority of NHL players don't have a solid read on them. I always look at how these hot shot goaltenders perform in their sophomore seasons once the proverbial "book" is out on them.

• For what it's worth, my current Calder candidates are Jeff Skinner, Logan Couture and John Carlson, in that order.

About Will Martinez

Will Martinez runs the 'Hey, My Name is Will' blog and is a contributor for TheFranchise.ca. You can follow Will on Twitter @heymynameiswill

Tags: Corey Crawford \ Geoff Molson \ Jacques Martin \ James Wisniewski \ Jeff Skinner \ John Carlson \ Logan Couture \ Maple Leafs \ Max Pacioretty \ Scott Gomez \ Sean Avery \ Zdeno Chara