More Fight From the Future Captain
Future captain of the Flyers Mike Richards had his second fight in two days. Richards had an entertaining scrap with Paul Mara during last night’s nationally (US) televised game on Versus.
Richards, who turned 22 a little over a week ago, is already seen as a leader. He’s a good two-way player and looks like he has the potential to become a pretty good assist man while chipping in a few goals here and there. He’s also willing to drop the gloves, so it’s no wonder he’s quickly becoming a fan favorite in Philly.
He reminds me of Scott Mellanby, who also started his career with the Flyers.
Last night’s fight:
Paul Mara vs Mike Richards Feb 19, 2007
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All updated on the videos page.
The instigator
Instigator major focus at GM meetings
Don’t get too worked up over this one. The major focus seems to be about a relatively minor change:
“That’s an agenda item that I requested,” Anaheim Ducks GM Brian Burke said after the first day wrapped up at a posh resort hotel. “I think we need to raise the number of instigator penalties a player can take before getting suspended. I do not favour the elimination of the penalty but I think we’ve got to get to five or six (instigator penalties) before a player gets suspended so they can do their jobs and protect their teammates.”
Ben Eager has already sat out an instigator suspension this season, but there aren’t too many who hit that wall each year. The slate is wiped clean with each new season.
The reason behind this proposed change might be the concern that too many players hold back once they reach two instigator penalties, something Doug MacLean talks about:
“So the question is, when a guy is at two instigator penalties, does it affect him to say, `I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to protect my guy. I’m not going to protect my goalie because I’m going to be suspended.’ That was really the debate today,” said Columbus Blue Jackets GM Doug MacLean.
In the end, as with too many NHL changes recently, PR is a big factor:
Ferguson worries about the bad optics for the NHL if the instigator penalty was loosened, the perception that the league was encouraging more fighting.
“And you don’t get to control that end of it. because perception comes from the person who’s viewing it and I do think it’d be tough,” he said. “We’d potentially be leaving ourselves open to that type of criticism.”
That perception is media perception. Until this season, when it came to fighting and the NHL, the theme was tone it down or ditch it to appeal to families, the southern US, corp accounts, or whatever other random target was available (never mind the fact that we’d see the same media then print how fighting’s still in the game to appeal to southern fans, etc). This season the media’s made a 180, or at least that’s how it seems to someone used to reading anti-fighting pieces. Either minds have changed or a silent majority is no longer silent. I’ve linked to a good number of we-need-more-passion/fighting-in-the-game articles. We’ve done it for years on the forums. There’s been no season with the number of articles as there has been this season.
Fan perception, if it matters, is clear: drop the instigator. Any major media poll has come to the same conclusion, the last one being on CBC’s After Hours, which doesn’t seem to have archived results.
Some reads:
Zenon cleared
Small markets, big spending
More on the GM meetings from Scott Burnside: GMs kick around deals, but no one’s biting … yet
