Daily Cupcakes - January 3rd, 2012

First up a story about the Championships: when does excitement turn into excessive showboating?

There’s no truth to the notion that the ‘Fist Pump Cam’ they’ve been showing on the Rexall Place scoreboard during the IIHF world junior hockey championship was inspired by Ilya Kovalchuk’s infamous double-pump empty net goal against Canada at the 2001 tournament.

Nor is it at all likely that animated Czech goalie Petr Mrazek needed any prompting whatsoever for his own fist-pump performances, most notably after stopping penalty shots by Canada’s Mark Stone and Josh Archibald of Team U.S.A. in round-robin play.

What is clear is that people have some ‘know-it-when-we-see-it’ ideas about what is an acceptable emotional display and what slops over the line into disrespect.

As was mentioned in the comments of yesterday's Cupcakes: Phillipe Dupuis is wavier bound.

In fact, he hasn’t been on the ice for a 5-on-5 goal for in roughly 240 minutes of even strength ice time.

"If he clears waivers, he'll be playing for the Marlies," Leafs coach Ron Wilson said of Dupuis being on waivers. "We've got lots of bodies coming back from injuries and I want him to find his offensive touch again.

"Not so much in the NHL, but in the AHL, he's scored in the past. He put up some points in a limited role last year. This year it just hasn't worked out that way up to this point. With the people we have here right now, they can provide us with a little bit more offence."

So maybe Raffi Torres didn't get suspended for his hit on Jan Hedja, but he was suspended for another hit, two nights after he hit the Colorado Avalanche player.

Phoenix Coyotes forward Raffi Torres has been handed a two-game suspension without pay for charging Minnesota Wild defenceman Nate Prosser on Saturday night.

The NHL's department of player safety announced the ban in a press release on Monday, just two days after it gave Torres a $2,500 US fine for elbowing Colorado Avalanche defenceman Jan Hejda on Thursday night.