Daily Cupcakes- January 16th, 2012

A recap of the last game.

"We talked about that before the game. They’re a team standing in our way," Colorado coach Joe Sacco said. "We came in with a good game plan. We knew it would be a grinding type of game and we were fortunate to get two points. We know it’s a competitive conference and there’s a lot of hockey yet to be played."

Colorado has been especially good in one-goal games, improving to 16-5-2 in that category.

"We don’t have the type of team that’s going to win 5-0, so we need to earn whatever we get," said Colorado goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who stopped 21 shots. "We need to play well defensively. We know that we have the capability to score two to three goals per game, so if you don’t let them score much, then we should have a chance."

This is an interesting website. For those interested in concussions in sports, it has a great deal of articles about the subject. This one is one I found particularly interesting.

Dr. Paul Echlin: You probably saw the panel that the CBC assembled to discuss this issue recently, immediately after Peter Mansbridge’s special on the pathological effects of multiple hits to the head. The panel consisted of Cassie Campbell, the former National Team Olympic Gold Medallist, Scotty Bowman, Ken Dryden and Elliott Friedman. All these individuals were connected with the NHL or the CBC, and there were no independent panellists. Only one of the panellists stated that we need to think about taking fighting out of the game.

Hon. Roy McMurtry: Ken Dryden?

Dr. Paul Echlin: Yes, he is the only one that said that fighting should be taken out of the game. He stressed the fact that the permanent brain injury and psychological pain suffered by the athlete who fights should be the primary reason for eliminating fighting in hockey. Ken did not point to violence as the reason for the elimination of fighting in hockey.

Are "staged" fights in the NHL over?

It’s difficult to say whether this is a good thing or a bad thing for television.

The one certainty is that staged fights are on the verge of their final curtain call.

It has become the chatter of the league lately, the NHL moving decisively on what is perceived to be the simplest of all problems to fix. Two coaches send out their resident goons, they catch each other’s eye, agree to "go," drop their gloves and whale away on each other until they tire and, in what has become ritual, the linesmen move in and the two fighters, if still on their skates, skate away looking up at the scoreboard to see if their moment in the spotlight is already on replay.

Finally, according to MacLean's DDC might want to look into being an Oilers fan. No, seriously, this is an article about hyphenated names in the NHL.

The Edmonton Oilers’ Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has been doing for the hyphen what Wayne Gretzky once did for the tucked-in sweater. Nugent-Hopkins, the first overall pick in the 2011 NHL draft, had Oiler fans wondering about his league-readiness when he was chosen at the head of a slightly weak queue, with his slight frame and his modest (for a top pick) junior stats. But the fast-thinking Nuge tore into the league like a hyena, earning its Rookie of the Month honour for both October and November.

If you like hyphens, Edmonton hockey fans have four of them for you: nobody compares with the Great One, but Nugent-Hopkins, with his puck vision, body type, and tactical insouciance, can fairly be referred to as not-entirely-un-Gretzky-like.