GET FIRED UP

THREE THOUGHTS

1. I’m guessing other teams would also do it, but I think it is pretty weak that Corey Schneider can play the final 29 seconds last night and that is considered an "appearance", and if he gets into one more game he will qualify to have his name on the Jennings trophy with Roberto Luongo. I would rather see a minimum minutes played as the criteria. If you make it 1320 minutes, that would be equal to 22 games. Then if a team really wanted both goalies on the trophy they’d have to play a guy more than 29 seconds in the final few games to get him to the required 25 appearances. Just a thought.
    
2. I thought Jeff Petry was outstanding last night. The two assists were just icing on the cake on a very solid effort. Petry has been above average since being recalled for a 2nd time, and last night he made excellent decisions with the puck, was physical when he needed to be, had exceptional gap control and he looks like he could be a top-four D-man next year.
    
3. The only thing that might get your blood boiling more than tonight’s tilt is the debate regarding Raffi Torres’ hit on Jordan Eberle last night. I watched it live, and right away I didn’t think it would be a suspendable play. According to a few people the NHL will have a discipline hearing for Torres tomorrow. After the game I asked Eberle his thoughts of the play. "You get reaching like that and I kind of put myself in a vulnerable position, but at the same time I think he just left the puck and tried to take my head off," he said.
That is almost a trademark Torres play. He did it to Ryan O’Marra in the first period. When a guy comes to hit Torres, he will lean into him before the opposing player makes contact. His hit on Eberle was a bit different because Eberle was leaned forward and he put himself in a vulnerable position. Torres’ hit wasn’t blindsided because Eberle admitted he saw him coming, so it wouldn’t fall under rule 48.
However, there was contact to the head/shoulder and that is a hit the league wants to get rid of. Asking for the rest of the year, plus the first round of the playoffs is way too much, but I can understand if fans would like to see at least a two game suspension, so they feel there was some sort of discipline. I’d be fine if Torres gets two, one or no games. In my opiniontwo games doesn’t do much, and until the NHL puts in an actual headshot rule/suspension I don’t think we will see much discipline come down.
Rule 48 did cut down on blindsided shots to the head, so I would hope the NHL comes up with a new rule this summer that will hopefully reduce headshots. It will much harder to come up with the correct wording and interpretation of a headshot compared to the blindsided shot. Almost every hockey person was in favour of rule 48, but right now many are cautious to invoke an across-the-board head shot rule.

 FOR(E)TUNE COOKIE


GAME DAY PREDICTION: I thought there was no chance the Oilers could sweep the Canucks, so how can you go against the red-hot Oil train. Oilers will send the Flames to the golf course with a 3-2 win.
OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: Steve MacIntyre won’t spend the entire game on the bench. I truly feel for a guy when he dresses and doesn’t even touch the ice. He will get at least three shift tonight, and he should try to intimidate the Flames every shift.
NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: After the game, Jarome Iginla will state it might be time for a change. He won’t say he wants a trade, but will admit the organization needs to go in a different direction. Immediately Flames fans will be split on how to react to Iginla’s comments. Some will rip him for not saying this in January when they could have traded him, while others will claim get rid of everyone but Iggy and we will win. Oiler fans will sit back and take it all in, knowing that they’ve been down the "trade-our-best-player-and-get-unfair-market-value" road many times. The Flamesnation post-game reaction will be almost as entertaining and satisfying as the game was for Oiler fans.