Smizik=DoucheLord!

Ronald McDonald, er Bob Smizik, you know the man whose face resembles a 90 year old penis(don't ask!) whined on his blog about the disgrace of fighting in hockey as he is wont to do annually. He really lashed out at Johnson, Errey/Steigerwald, and the fans for enjoying the scene that played out when Brent Johnson skated to center ice and fought Rick DiPietro for his cheap shot on Matt Cooke, and to the delight of many, broke his face. The inference seems to be that those of us who condone or worse yet, enjoyed that scene are somewhat less evolved than cave dwellers. Well Bob, I am one cave dweller who would love to club you on your clown head, and drag you back to the cave for the youngens to feed to the dogs, but that would cause me some amount of legal issues, so you are safe.....for now. In response to Smizik's article though, I will say that I agree with his general statement that the NHL is a garage league, I have said it myself on several occasions. But this is not due to the fighting aspect of the game. It is due to the complete inconsistencies of its leadership. As far as fighting, I am really not that big a fan of some of the obligatory goon on goon staged fighting either, it really kind of bores me. I would prefer a league in which a player such as Eric Godard does not eat up 750K of cap space because you may play a few teams that put you in a position to need a guy who cannot play much hockey, but can fight like mad. And I LIKE Godard, he is a great guy. However, the more spontaneous fights that occur on a regular basis, and add value to players like Mike Rupp, Arron Asham, Deryk Engelland, Rylan Kessler, Milan Lucic, Ian Laperriere, to name a few is an integral part of the game, a necessary part of the game, and an enjoyable part of the game to the core fan base. First off, these men carry WEAPONS (hockey sticks) and shoot a projectile at high speeds that could do far more damage than fists can. The game is played at lightning speeds, by large tough men, in an emotional powderkeg of an atmosphere. The code, and fighting in general is a way that the players police themselves, take care of the buildup of animosity, and in many ways ENSURE the safety of the better players from the borderline plays. If you watch the code play out, there are very few mismatches in terms of size/weight or pugnaciousness when it comes to fighting in hockey. I would prefer the fight that breaks out once or twice per game to the nastier stick infractions that would likely occur a few times more per season if fighting were not an avenue for settling those grudge build ups. I am not a big fan of the new NHL where it seems even a good clean hard check has to draw some sort of side show, but I prefer this to taking it out of the game in general. I don't read Smizik 98% of the time because I think he is a tool, but in reading some of the blogs I get the strong sense that Smizik has no issue with the pitcher in baseball beaning an opponent if necessary to avenge and/or send a message for a similar act upon his teammates. That, Bozo would make you a hypocrite. The NHL is a garage league, and has helped to retard the popularity of what I believe to be the best sport on the planet, but it is not the fighting that makes it so. It is the fact that the referees in many instances ALLOW infractions to be INITIATED without penalty, but will call a penalty on the person who RETALIATES for said infraction in kind. Or the fact that they will look right at a penalty in the third period and let it go despite the fact that the same infraction was a penalty in the second period, ala Fleury getting run right over late in last nights game with no call, while Letang who may have pushed into Miller gets a penalty in the second. Or how about the fact that a no name clown like David Steckel may have ended the season of one of the premiere players in the league by delivering a blind side shot to the head, AWAY from the puck to Sidney Crosby. He got no penalty, and then upon review he got no discipline. Only Steckel knows his intent, but intent does not matter. The hit met the EXACT definition of a play they claim to want to eliminate from the game on its best player on its seconed biggest stage. Garage league indeed! I can predict the flow of calls for one team or another based on who is winning a game, and who has momentum in the same game. That cannot be a good reflection on the league. The referees some nights call games in a way that you can predict the ugliness that will ensue, again allowing the intitiation of violence, while penalizing the retaliation, thus forcing both teams to initiate. Make the initiation of dangerous penalties a penalty, then both the desire to initiate those plays and THE NEED to retaliate for them BOTH DIMINISH. You should see the results of the leagues stupidity at 12:30 today when the Pens meet the Caps. The most recent event to draw the douchelord's whining would be a case in point. Despite a dirty play by DiPietro in hitting Cooke high as he skated by the crease there was going to be no call on the play. A violent scrum was the result in the aftermath, and the goalie is left standing there with no consequence for his actions coming. Brent Johnson did what he should have done, and stood up for his teammate. And before you call that a neanderthal move that solved nothing, I ask you if you think that Rick DiPietro will be as quick to take advantage of all of his padding to take a shot at another player in the future? I am guessing, he may think twice about it. In 99% of the situations where that would occur, the player losing the fight would be sore for a day, nothing more. In either event, in general the players code and the way they police themselves works pretty well in the NHL. If the league were smart enough to help them, it would be even better. So kudos to Brent Johnson for following the code and sticking up for a teammate.