Burnett Speaks About His Recovery

The Province’s Ed Willes has a new story about Garrett Burnett’s recovery, Remarkable recovery measure of the man.

Garrett speaks of his recovery:

“I want to push as hard as I can,” says the 31-year-old Coquitlam native. “It’s weird to me because they emphasize you have to rest and let the brain heal itself. To me, that doesn’t feel right because it has always been up to me how hard I worked.

“I try my hardest every day. I want to do my part and let science take care of the rest.”

While there’s still a long way to go, “years” is not a word thrown around lightly, the speed of his progress has been impressive nonetheless.

Here Comes Cote

Riley Cote has a crew that’s been waiting for him to make his “real” NHL debut and it happened last night.  In his third NHL game, Cote got into his first fight.  It was a familiar opponent in Cam Janssen.

The two have met up four other times, including once in NHL unis this past preseason.

There was some chatter leading up to the game, so the fight didn’t come as much of a surprise.  Cote’s weekend isn’t done just yet.  Tomorrow the Flyers play the Rangers.  The last time these two teams met up, Fedoruk vs Orr happened.

Cote already has his sights set on Orr:

Although even Fedoruk suggests the fight was simply the product of some liberties he took with Jaromir Jagr on Feb. 17 and the slate should be clean, Cote doesn’t quite see it that way.

“I’m obviously thinking about it in the back of my mind,” he said. “I know my role. I’ve played two games, and I still haven’t gotten in a fight. I’m still trying to make a name for myself.

“It kind of works out hand-in-hand. It’s a team issue, that’s the biggest thing. I have two incentives. It’s going to be a big night for me. I’m aware of what happened. It’s something that needs to be addressed. You don’t want to see anybody go down like that, especially a teammate and friend. I’m going to do my best.”

So if you haven’t figured out which game you’re watching tonight, there you go.  Cote already has a ton of fans from his last few years in Philly, but he has the potential to have the next PJ Stock-like cult following if he finishes this season strong and makes the big club in the fall.

Josh Gratton and Doug Murray also dropped the gloves last night and had themselves a decent-length scrap.

I should have a clip of Shane O’Brien and David Tanabe tomorrow.

Clips added:

Riley Cote vs Cam Janssen Mar 30, 2007
Josh Gratton vs Doug Murray Mar 30, 2007

Some reads:

Fighting for Fans
Fedoruk reignites fight debate

Nuffin

No fights last night.  It’s been a while since there’s been that many games (eight) and no scraps.

So, I added a few random ones.

Fights added:

Chris Simon vs Tie Domi Jan 6, 1996
Sandy McCarthy vs Chris Simon Jan 14, 1996
Tie Domi vs Chris Simon Mar 3, 1996
Brad May vs Todd Gill Nov 12, 1999
Mark Bell vs Dion Phaneuf Jan 2, 2006

Reading material:

Boogaard believes fighting belongs

Also, in case you missed it: yesterday’s larger post.

Skipped

Forgot to mention yesterday that last season’s fighting total has been eclipsed.

The increase isn’t monumental, but with the schedule the way it is, and player movement lessening compared to the post-lockout shuffle, an increase of any kind was expected.

Last night George Parros fought David Koci, a rematch from two weeks ago.  One rabid fan base vs another.  The Stache Squad vs The Cult of Koci.  It was a decent scrap.  Koci fared better this time around.

Last night’s fights:

Mike Commodore vs Ben Eager Mar 28, 2007
Brad May vs Danny Richmond Mar 28, 2007
George Parros vs David Koci Mar 28, 2007

Stuff to help you procrastinate instead of doing whatever it is you should really be doing:

The Daily Tribune noticed the fight totals from this year and last:

The fight between Andrea Lilja and Anaheim’s Travis Moen on Monday was just the ninth fighting major of the season for the Red Wings. It was, however, a notable fight league-wide. That was the 357th game of the NHL campaign with a fight, according to hockeyfights.com, tying the league with last year’s total. When there were four games with fights the next night, the NHL passed its total (357) of a year ago.

Lilja’s fight and Mikael Samuelsson’s scuffle with Scott Niedermayer drew praise from Babcock.

“I was really impressed with Lils and I was really impressed with Sammy,” said Babcock. “Sometimes you think when you’re not from North America, that if someone rushes your face then you’re supposed to say thanks. Well they didn’t say thanks. They just responded. They’re big men. They can look after themselves.”

Babcock also joked about the fight: “I thought it was outstanding. That was the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been the Red Wings’ coach.”

My buddy Eric McErlain spoke with Donald Brashear to get his thoughts on fighting, and a possible ban.

Eric also asked fans at the Caps-Pens game and got some fan opinions on the subject.

Great job Eric.  You can read more from Eric at Off Wing Opinion and NBC Sports.

Also over at NBC is Scott Bowman, who wrote about the physical side of hockey.

If you haven’t seen it yet, City Pages has a great feature on Derek Boogaard: The Boogeyman Drops the Gloves

Hey, even I was quoted.  Let me translate one snippet for you.

“Anytime where over the next month they’re gonna say, ‘He broke someone’s face,’ that’s gonna get you somewhere,” says Hockeyfights.com’s Singer.

That doesn’t read well, so here’s the background: We were talking about Boogey’s rep and how and when that gets established.  While his KO of Trevor Gillies was big last season, the Fedoruk fight at the beginning of this season got the chatter going louder then ever: Derek Boogaard is the next big thing.  If you watched any Wild game, or even any Flyers game post-trade, that fight seemed to be mentioned.  Whenever a big fight happened in any game, that fight seemed to be mentioned.

Somehow those thoughts produced the quote above (which was in the middle of some thoughts that did make sense).  I feel like it went through an online Japanese translator, and was then translated back into English.

The City Pages feature has some great additions to the features to check out as well.

A couple of more reads:
Blue Jackets: Fighting belongs in hockey, players say
Boyle still playing for respect in the NHL

It Happened

What happened?  BGL-Brash.  Champ, champs, contender, contenders, call them whatever you like.  It was a big-time heavyweight matchup between two of the best in the league.

So what actually happened?  Nothing too much.  That happens more than anything happening.

Who wants to be the first one to open up in that bout?  I don’t think either’s looking to shout “I do” to that.

That’s the end of Pens-Caps this season, but both should be back with their current team and we should get more Donald Brashear and Georges Laraque in the fall.

Jody Shelley and DJ King had a pretty decent scrap.  With the game in St Louis against another non-playoff team and a 4-1 loss, the fight was no doubt the highlight of the night for Blues fans.

Jason Smith was active, dropping the gloves twice.  First against Ramzi Abid after taking a nasty shot in front of the net, and later against Darcy Hordichuk after Hordi took out Ladislav Smid in the corner.  Hordi got chucked for not having his fighting strap tied down, but replays showed it snapped/ripped.

Last night’s fights:

Georges Laraque vs Donald Brashear Mar 27, 2007
Jody Shelley vs D.J. King Mar 27, 2007
Jason Smith vs Ramzi Abid Mar 27, 2007
Jason Smith vs Darcy Hordichuk Mar 27, 2007

I’ll add some reads later on.

Inspire-Wing

A good day for a corny title.  Don’t know why, but nothing else is coming to mind after last night.

There was one game, Anaheim at Detroit.  The Ducks lead the NHL in fighting majors, the Red Wings sit at the bottom of the list.  Things did get a little rough at the end of the first period and there was a scrap, as surprising as it was.

Whether or not they actually fight, the Wings need to continue to play tough as the playoffs come around for them to go deep.

Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the Wings-Avs brawl featuring Patrick Roy and Mike Vernon.  Christy has the recap.  It was mentioned from a few news sources and Versus had a few clips to show during the broadcast last night.  Maybe it was some motivation going into tonight (oooh, Inspire-Wing, that is dumb), or maybe not.

That game and the ones that followed had a lot of action, and I’ll get those clips into the system soon.

Last night’s fight:

Travis Moen vs Andreas Lilja Mar 26, 2007

Some reads:

Fighting has become dangerous
Fighting not up for debate: Bettman
Hockey fights are a double-edged sword
Tips for winning the fighting argument
Shanahan advocates a long look at fighting
Blue Jackets: Fighting belongs in hockey, players say

We Still Have Lappy

I think there were more fights about fighting than there were actual fights this past weekend.  Read that again if you have to.  I wrote it and I still had to.

Ian Laperriere dropped the gloves against Jeff Cowan last night for the lone scrap of the day.  They had a quick fight after Lappy threw a hit on Cowan early in the first period.  Cowan added to the scoresheet with a goal later in the period.  Lappy is now tied for second in the league in fighting majors, one off league leader Andrew Peters.

Last night’s fight:

Ian Laperriere vs Jeff Cowan Mar 25, 2007

Some reads:

Burnett Attends Skate Day
To beat or not to beat
Rayzor sits down for a one-on-one with LGS

If you missed this weekend’s posts, including lots of links to “why fighting should be kept in/removed from the game” articles, you can check them out here and here.

Burnett Attends Skate Day

Photo provided by the Burnetts

Larry Pruner of The Tri-City News has the latest on Garrett Burnett

Some segments:

From the picture, Coquitlam native Garrett Burnett looks fine. He’s doing OK, his father confirmed Thursday, but he’s a long way from normal.

Bob Burnett told The Tri-City News that his 31-year-old son is recovering well but continues to undergo intensive physio rehabilitation after he was assaulted outside the Delta nightclub Cheers last Dec. 26.

...

Garrett was a special guest, along with two other players –– Doug Macdonald and Jeff Tambellini –– from the Tri-Cities to have made the National Hockey League. Garrett’s No. 55 on the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, with whom he played 39 games in the 2003-04 season, will hang in honour in the new rink along with Macdonald’s former No. 44 with the Buffalo Sabres and Tambellini’s current No. 15 with the New York Islanders. Jeff Tambellini was represented at the ceremony by his dad, Steve Tambellini, the Vancouver Canucks assistant general manager.

...

Bob believes his son’s progress has been accelerated because of Garrett’s rigorous training regimen as a pro athlete. The six-foot-three Garrett beefed up to over 250 pounds to skate in the North American Hockey League this season with Quebec’s Summan Chiefs. Garrett also played Senior ‘A’ lacrosse last summer with the New Westminster Salmonbelles and is a former member of the Coquitlam Adanacs.

“It far exceeds where he should be.” Bob said. “Garrett’s elite physicality pulled him through this. But he’s not your average guy when it comes to getting through something like this. He’s always worked out incredibly hard, sometimes four or five hours a day.”

Again, the full article is here.

It’s great to see Garrett on the road to recovery.  I have no doubt his own strength, plus the strength of his family will help him through this.

Only Two

Just a couple of fights yesterday.  From the unexpected Keith Tkachuk and Maxime Talbot scrap to the huge heavyweight matchup between Raitis Ivanans and Derek Boogaard.  Huge.  That’s an easy 500+ lbs right there.  Of course, there’s an easy Tkachuk joke in there somewhere, but I’ll let someone else make it.

Yesterday’s fights:

Keith Tkachuk vs Maxime Talbot Mar 24, 2007
Raitis Ivanans vs Derek Boogaard Mar 24, 2007

Other fights added:

Reed Low vs Eric Godard Mar 6, 2004
Francis Lessard vs Riley Cote Mar 3, 2007
Francis Lessard vs Martin Grenier Mar 3, 2007

Some reads:

Fedoruk says fighting ‘ingrained’ in hockey
‘New’ NHL alters role of enforcers
FSN analyst gets even closer to the action

Update 900am: Adding to the link list.

Fedoruk knockout forces fight debate (also by Chuck Gormley, like the USA Today piece above)
Savard: Fighting part of the game
Teams take the fight to the enforcers
Grapes ties one on against ‘pacifists’
Now, This Is Hockey! Return of Fighting Spirit Elevates Game
Player theatrics finally are proving to be genuine flop
Don’t feel sorry for Todd Fedoruk
Riley Cote - never a dull moment

Grapes weighs in on the kinder, gentler NHL (Coach’s Corner video)

Update 245pm: A little counter-point to Larry Brooks from John Dellapina: This isn’t hockey.  A little NY Post vs NY Daily News, how cute.

See No Action

While there were a couple of fights last night, including the Eastern Euro battle of Raitis Ivanans and David Koci, there’s no footage (as of now).  The Kings didn’t televise the game, and the Blackhawks still don’t televise home games.  In 2007.

Update 1215pm: Via the Kings-Hawks forums thread, the Blackhawks have highlights of the game posted.  The fights are at 0:18 and 1:44.  Europe will be pleased as Ivanans-Koci was a good one.  The Cult of Koci grows.

From Tootoo’s punch to Fedoruk going down, there’s a lot of pugilistic talk this past week.  Here’s the latest:

The reads:

Campbell Clarified
Fighting not the problem, NHL’s violent offenders are
Sabres, Leafs not ready to stop dropping gloves
No shortage of views on fight debate
Someone could get hurt
Who really wants to see UFC on ice?
Red’s Notebook
Knockout artists
That was no sucker punch
Fighting ban isn’t the answer
Fedoruk shouldn’t fight; should NHL follow suit?

Campbell Clarified

Colin Campbell, the NHL’s Current Senior Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations, as well the man who lays down the infamous league suspension hammer, was on 640 Toronto’s Leafs Lunch radio show with Bill Watters and Jeff Marek earlier today.

Campbell was brought on the show to quickly discuss the comments he made in yesterday’s CP article about the state of fighting in the NHL:

“I think it’s time to ask the question,” Colin Campbell said on Thursday. “I think you have to ask the question because of what’s happening out there. It’s incumbent on me, because of my position, to ask the question.”

“I’m not afraid now to talk about the fact that we should look at fighting in hockey,” said Campbell. “I think if you discussed this even three or four years ago you would have got pooh-poohed out of the game.

“But now I think because of the size of our players, where we’re at in sports and in life, I think we have to look at it.”

Campbell’s comments drove many to believe, just like Metro News Canada for example, that the NHL was going to consider taking fighting out of the game.

Hold the phone peoples! Campbell made sure to let listeners know that he doesn’t want to take fighting out of the game at all, he merely wants to take a look at it. Apparently the declining number of requests to drop the gloves in response to something a player did earlier in the game is alarming to Campbell and I couldn’t agree more.

Campbell didn’t hold anything back when giving examples of situations where another fighter didn’t answer the call after delivering a hard check or a cheap shot to another player or his teammate. Campbell said that he didn’t understand why Darryl Bootland turtled to Jordin Tootoo last week. He also doesn’t understand why Derian Hatcher declined to dance with Ryan Vandenbuscche last year after Hatcher nailed Sidney Crosby with a hard hit.

Campbell gave credit to Jon Sim last night in dropping the gloves with Mark Bell and stepping up to try and create a spark for his team. He also mentioned that Sim will now miss the rest of the regular season and possibly the playoffs with a broken orbital bone. Coupled with Colton Orr KOing Todd Fedoruk the night before, fighting is now at the forefront of what needs to be discussed according to Campbell.

These events have pushed Campbell to want to question the role of fighting in hockey. He wants to find out the new answer to when two players are able to drop the gloves. He wants to find out if there’s a new answer to “when are players are able to drop the gloves?”. Campbell was quick to say that the drastic change in fighting compared to years past isn’t because of one group of players but rather the influx of players from a different era.

Watters made a bold move towards the end of the segment. He recommended that the league do away with the instigator penalty altogether. That its removal would allow the players to go back to playing the game the way it used to be played. Campbell responded that the NHL Competition Committee, consisting of Jarome Iginla, Brendan Shanahan, Rob Blake, Ed Snider, Stu Grimson, and himself as members, certainly understands the concept of fighting in hockey and and intends to discuss the instigator penalty when meetings start up during the offseason. 

Update 930pm: Leafs Lunch has a podcast of the segment available. podcast page | mp3 file (15.6mb) Campbell is on around 19:08. - DS

A Few More

Three fights last night, although everyone’s still talking about Orr KOing Fedoruk.

While Derek Boogaard has sat a few games out as a healthy scratch, and has had some back problems keeping him out of other games, he still doesn’t get a lot of invites nowadays.  He had his first fight since Jan 26 last night thanks to DJ King.  Deathwish DJ was dwarfed by Boogaard, but stood in there.

Another size mismatch led to injury.  Jon Sim took on the much larger Mark Bell and skated away with a reported “injured” orbital bone.

Last night’s fights:

Mark Bell vs Jon Sim Mar 22, 2007
Chris Neil vs Steve Montador Mar 22, 2007
D.J. King vs Derek Boogaard Mar 22, 2007

Other fights added:

Georges Laraque vs Eric Godard Dec 10, 2005
Dallas Drake vs Ron Petrovicky Jan 28, 2004

Some reads:

Let the fighting begin
Jeremy Roenick to Join TSN for NHL Playoffs
Is fighting giving hockey a black eye?
Thursday Morning Cupcheck

The Others

Immediately after Todd Fedoruk and Colton Orr dropped the gloves last night, John Chandler wrote up Orr KOs Fedoruk.  We’ll be sure to update that post with any reaction or updates on Fedoruk’s condition.  Hopefully his recovery is a quick one.

There were two other fights, Ben Eager taking on Orr later in that same game, and Donald Brashear going with Andrew Peters for the second time this season.

Last night’s fights:

Donald Brashear vs Andrew Peters Mar 21, 2007
Todd Fedoruk vs Colton Orr Mar 21, 2007
Ben Eager vs Colton Orr Mar 21, 2007

Reading material:

Tkachuk takes a stand
Stars-Predators rivalry strikes nerves
Belak in the club

Orr KOs Fedoruk

Well if you didn’t see it, you’ve certainly already heard about it.

Colton Orr and Todd Fedoruk dropped the gloves 20 seconds into tonight’s ongoing game between the Rangers and Flyers. What started off as just a wrestling match turned into an all too familar scene for Fedoruk as he was put right to sleep by a right hand from Orr.

Orr was quickly escorted off of the ice by the linesmen and Fedoruk laid motionless on the ice for a good while. Team doctors and emergency personnel were quick on the scene and after a few minutes, Fedoruk was awake and talking. He was taken off of the ice on a stretcher to a standing ovation from the Ranger faithful.

Continue reading "Orr KOs Fedoruk"

One Chapter Over

Cam Janssen fought Wade Belak.  Who would’ve guessed it?

For those outside of Canada who read nothing but their local paper, Janssen threw a hit on Tomas Kaberle, knocking him out of action a few weeks ago.  Janssen’s been enemy #1 in Toronto since and there was a lot of talk going into last night’s game.

Within his first few shifts Belak issued the challenge to Janssen and they squared off.  About a minute later Janssen actually joined the fight.  Janssen’s working on his Matt Barnaby-don’t-come-in-yet-linesmen wave.

That pretty much settled that incident.  The Leafs do have a shot at playing the Devils in the first round of the playoffs, so who knows if it will all become an issue later on.  Who am I kidding, the Toronto media will make sure of that if the seeding’s right.  Three things really stand out from last night’s game: the score, the fight, and the clang of the goal posts being hit.

There were two other scraps last night, Gregory Campbell in quick one with Ben Eager, and Danny Richmond mostly grappling with Manny Malhotra.

Last night’s fights

Gregory Campbell vs Ben Eager Mar 20, 2007
Danny Richmond vs Manny Malhotra Mar 20, 2007
Cam Janssen vs Wade Belak Mar 20, 2007

More Janssen-Belak:

Cam Janssen vs Wade Belak Nov 18, 2006
Wade Belak vs Cam Janssen Dec 31, 2005

If you’re looking for the Tootoo punch on Robidas, that’s in this post.

Update 1040am: Adding some reads and some random thoughts.

Dubinsky, Liffiton back to Hartford

Both Gagne and Upshall scored in that 5-3 Flyers win on Feb. 17, which was notable not only for the Shanahan injury, but the cheap and rough shots that some Flyers (Fedoruk, Eager, Richards, Picard) laid on Rangers starting soon after the puck dropped.

So Colton Orr, who did not dress that game, surely will tomorrow.

After that game, Garden chairman James Dolan apparently blew a gasket and lambasted both GM Glen Sather and coach Tom Renney for not dressing Orr, according to two persons familiar with the issue. “He said, ‘What the bleep is going on here?’’ according to one person who asked not to be identified.

Since then, Orr has played in all 15 games.

Shanahan: You’ve Got Some Explaining to Do - Rangers and trannies.  I grew up on Long Island, so I’ll just let Alanah and Page Six do the talking (just a little fun, nothing more).

Speaking of Shanny, he should return tonight: After Concussion, Shanahan Is Back for Rangers Playoff Chase

Brendan Shanahan is one of the few great powerforwards left in the game.  I think it’s easy to say no matter what team you’re a fan of.  With chunks of time in a few cities, I wonder how most will remember him.  He won the Cup in Detroit, so it’s likely that’ll be it, but for those who have followed him throughout his career, it might be easy to still see him in a red/green Devils jersey or racking up goals in St Louis.  If you think of him as a Whaler, you might have some Hartford attachment issues.

More than Shanny, I always wonder what team people will think of when they remember Chris Chelios (who seems like he has a good ten years left in him).  The man’s played careers in three cities.  He’s won Cups in two, and gone to the Finals in all three.

Game within the game
Leafs punch out Devs

Jeff Marek wonders:

Speaking about fighting, isn’t it interesting that hockey writers will shame TV shows, radio programs like mine, newscasts for airing hockey fights and talking about them as a part of the game but will never write a word about how their newspapers routinely put pictures of fights in their rags? Today the Sun, Star, Globe and post all have the Belak/Janssen fight on their front cover yet not a peep from any writer about how their papers are encouraging violence in the NHL.

Jeff co-hosts Leafs Lunch with Bill Watters every day from noon to 2pm eastern.  You can listen online and I suggest you do as it’s one of the best hockey shows out there.  I do my best to make it a part of my day whenever I can.

With Koci on bench, Hawks go down without a fight - Like it or not, the “Cult of Koci” is growing very, very fast.  I think half the Czech Republic stops by this site when David Koci drops the gloves and it’s one of the few times I get a lot of emails from Hawks fans.