I have been away from blogging for awhile now, but now I am back. One person who isn't back is Penguins Captain, Sidney Crosby. Crosby has been dealing with concussion like symptoms for over a month now after getting a concussion on January 1st when Capitals forward David Steckel blindsided Crosby and intentionally dipped his shoulder to hit his head. Crosby returned to the game, but never looked like himself for the remainder of the contest. Just 4 days later, Crosby was in the lineup as the Penguins played Tampa Bay at the Consol Energy Center. He got yet another concussion as Lightning forward Victor Headman drove Crosby into the boards from behind, with his head taking most of the impact. Since then, we as the hockey public have not seen Crosby play a game.
This situation draws 2 questions.
1- As fans of the NHL, what rule do we need to implement into the the league to try and rid of the head shots.
2- As fans of the Pittsburgh Penguins, what do we want Ray Shero to do? Will we be upset if he does not pull the trigger on a trade and packs in the season while lacking the firepower of Crosby and Malkin? Or will we be more upset if he dishes assets to teams to acquire players when there is a good chance we may be bounced in the first round of the playoffs?
The answers to these questions are simple. The NHL must come down on the players who take head shots hard. We can not act like this is the 1970's, (yes Colin Campbell, that is completely directed towards you) and suspend them for 5 or 6 games. For example, David Steckel should be suspended for the total amount of games Crosby is out, doubled, without pay. This will send a clear message throughout the league that the head shots are unacceptable and will not be tolerated. The punishment seems harsh, but someone has to be the "whipping boy" is this situation.
Then, we move on the Penguins situation. Ray Shero is in a lose-lose situation here. If he does not make a trade and bring in a big time player, there is the crowd that will think packing in the season is never the right thing to do in professional sports, and the crowd that likes the move and thinks it may help us in the playoffs.
On the other hand, if he does make a trade, there is the crowd that will badger him about giving away assets when the team really has no shot of advancing far into the playoffs this year, and the crowd that thinks the trade may help us, and may push us into the playoffs and give us a real shot of contending.
The bottom line is, Shero is the only one who knows what to do in this situation. He does not have the job of General Manager of one of the most prestigious franchises in professional hockey because he is indecisive about making moves. If he believes this team can go deep into the playoffs with Crosby back on the team and not making a move, he will act accordingly. If he believes Crosby may not return, and the best thing is to use the extra 17.4 million dollars of cap space to bring in two players that can score on a nightly basis, he will go out and make the move. The Penguins have been rumored or linked to Edmenton forwards Dustin Penner and Ales Hemsky most heavily so far. The trade deadline is in 10 days. My honest feel for the situation is that if Shero believes Crosby is shut down for the season, he will not risk losing young core players, and will take his chances in the playoffs with what he has. We will find out soon what Ray Shero is thinking as the deadline looms.
No comments:
Post a Comment