Updated 2:25pm EDT:
Lindy Ruff should be happy.
Winnipeg ham and egger Anthony Peluso has been suspended three games for blasting Stars D Alex Goligoski from behind in Saturday's 6-4 Dallas drubbing of The Peg.
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John Tortarella's Vancouver Canucks thoroughly embarrassed the Boston Bruins on Hockey Night In Canada.
Bruins forward Brad Marchand embarrassed himself, his teammates and his head coach and his team along the way to a lopsided loss.
The Canucks laid a curb stomping on the Bruins on Saturday. It was a 6-2 final. An impressive, total domination by Ryan Kesler and the Canucks, who beat up and had their way with the big, bad Bruins.
Bruins agitator Brad Marchand showed very little poise and composure when he taunted the Canucks bench with two of the most asinine gestures you'll ever see. He pretended to lift the Stanley Cup over his head, then, he kissed his Stanley Cup ring finger for all to see.
What is this? House hockey?
The Bruins beat Roberto Luongo and the Canucks in the Stanley Cup Finals in 2011. The Canucks haven't purged that painful memory from their consciousness and likely won't for a long time to come.
In his post game presser, Bruins head coach said that he will have a word with Marchand for his public display of affection for the Canucks.
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Yet another chapter in an ugly Winnipeg jets story this season.
Winnipeg forward Anthony Peluso has a phone hearing scheduled with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety for the dangerous hit in question.
Peluso was ejected for running Dallas D Alex Goligoski from behind with a stupid, totally avoidable hit. Ever the player's coach, Lindy Ruff called out Peluso for his stupidity after the 6-4 Dallas win.
“I thought the Peluso hit was a joke, for a guy that plays that amount of time and runs a guy like Goligoski from behind. What’s he play, three or four minutes a game? Go run one of our bigger guys,” Ruff said.
Lindy Ruff took off on the Peluso hit after the game:
“It was gutsy of him (Goligoski) to come back. It cut him open,” Ruff said. “Those are the hits you want to get rid of. Let’s be serious, the hit was stupid, it’s something we want to get rid of and there is really no place for it. There were some good hits. (Antoine) Roussel got hit hard a couple times, we hit a guy into the bench. It was a hard-hitting game, there was a lot of emotion in the game. But we don’t have any room for that.”
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As if the Detroit Red Wings need any more bad news, their young power forward Justin Abdelkader was crushed by this disgusting hit to the head delivered by Penguins 2 minute a night guy Deryk Engelland:
Engelland will likely have the NHL discipline book thrown at him in his eyeball to eyeball hearing with the NHL Players Safety Department.
The Red Wings are losing players to injury at an alarming rate. Zetterberg, Howard, Datsyuk, Weiss, DeKyser to name a few. Bertuzzi and Helm to name others.
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The Winnipeg Jets are a flippin' mess right now. The head coach and star player have been throwing daggers at one another for a month while the team continues to plummet in the Western standings. Their goaltending stinks; their D is soft and porous, and they cannot keep a lead.
I predict that a big change is coming in the days to come before the Jets play in Buffalo on Tuesday night.
Saturday afternoon's brutal loss 6-4 to Tyler Seguin and the Dallas Stars did not set well with two of the team leaders in The Peg.
Blake Wheeler cut right to the chase when he spoke with the the media after the putrid loss.
Thanks, jets.nhl.com
"What I say doesn’t matter," said Jets right-winger Blake Wheeler, who tied the game twice with goals 1:55 apart in the second period.
"It’s what you do out on the ice. You can blow smoke as much as you want in the media. We’ve been blowing smoke for three years, everyone, myself, everyone that’s stood in front of a microphone in the last three years, we’ve said the same sh-t. What do you want me to say? That’s about it. I don’t know what else to say."
Captain Andrew Ladd was asked if a change is necessary to shake up his team.
"I don’t know," Ladd said. "It’s not my decision to make. But obviously something needs to change."
Ladd lamented his team's fragile mental state as a huge reason why fatal mistakes are being made inside games that lead to losses.
"It’s the same thing over and over again for me," he said. "I’m not in the mood to rank it.
"The quality of chances we gave up... a team like that, their strength is their offensive attack and the guys they have up front. We gave them I don’t know how many two-on-ones, breakaways. Their first two goals were just terrible changes. That’s mental stuff to me quite frankly is embarrassing."
The Jets are now one game under .500.
On Friday, Evander Kane practiced with his team for the first time since injuring himself in Philly on November 29. By all accounts, Kane was healthy enough to play against Dallas. he was a scratch on Saturday.
Don't be surprised if Kane is traded in the next few days. Kane is earning $5.25 million this season and will get the same salary for the next four seasons. He's a 22 year old power forward who has already scored 30 goals in the NHL. His best hockey years will come when he leaves The Peg.
The Jets can fetch a huge return for Kane in the form of a stud D and a top six forward.
The Jets have been scouting the Buffalo Sabres for weeks.
The Sabres can use a 30 goal scorer right about now.
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Bruins enforcer Shawn Thornton has issued a statement in the aftermath of the 15 game suspension that was handed to him earlier this afternoon by the NHL Department of Players Safety.
Is Thornton mounting an appeal?
Although its well within his right to appeal the stiff suspension, I feel like he should serve his time and act contrite. What he did to Orpik would have landed him in jail had he attacked him outside the arena. It was a brutal assault. In my opinion,Thornton should be thankful that it wasn't a 25-30 game suspension.
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Stick tap, Brendan Shanahan for having the resolve and courage to ignore all of the outside noise and conjecture. The Bruins ownership and management could not lobby to lessen the severity of the verdict.
According to TSN, the NHL Department of Players safety has suspended Boston Bruins tough guy Shawn Thornton for 15 games for his vicious assault on Pittsburgh Penguins D Brooks Orpik last Saturday night. Orpik suffered a concussion and hasn't played since he was attacked by Thornton.
I've said right along that Thornton deserves a long suspension. I even said 15 games. I like it because Thornton is a first time offender, otherwise it would have been 20+ games.
Zero. Tolerance.
Under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and, based on his average annual salary, Thornton will forfeit $84,615.45. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
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