NEW YORK, NY – Our second instalment of Five Minute Major looks at 5 things that have got the NHL networks in a spin this week.
1. Devils Coach Not Afraid to Play with Fire
Perhaps the week’s most controversial decision, New Jersey Coach John MacLean set tongues wagging on Saturday when he benched superstar Ilya Kovalchuk!
The winger, who signed a 15-year $100 million deal with the franchise after a drawn out summer saga, was a healthy scratch for Devils game against Buffalo.
Reports suggest MacLean acted after the Russian was either late for, or failed to turn up to, a team meeting on Saturday morning as the struggling side looked to reignite their season. MacLean claimed publicly he simply wanted to give the Russian time to ‘think about things’.
From time-to-time, every player needs a night off, figuratively or literally, but it doesn’t help that the Devils are now at bottom of the NHL after 10 games, with just two wins and 5 points, and Kovalchuk’s play has been patchy at best.
The Russian winger perhaps hit an all-time low on Wednesday as he registered 0 shots on goal in just over 20 minutes of ice time in a 6-2 loss to San Jose. Not the kind numbers New Jersey was hoping for from one of the league’s top goal scorers.
Suddenly those 15 years in Newark must feel like a VERY long time to Kovalchuk.
2. Kings Captain Causes Divided Opinions
LA skipper Dustin Brown ensured the NHL’s new rules relating to head checks came firmly under the microscope this week, after his hit on Minnesota winger Antti Miettinen.
Brown hit the Wild’s sniper from the side as he took a shot and was immediately given a 5-game (+) penalty for checking to the head by the officials.
The hit embodied much of what the league has looked to ‘cut out’ under the new ruling – a lateral hit to the head area of a player who was not in a position to defend himself. In Brown’s defence Miettinen was only appeared a little shaken up by the hit but the Finn did not miss a shift and has experienced no subsequent effects. The message however appears clear – the NHL won’t be tolerating ‘blind side’ hits any longer.
Brown may however feel a little hard done by when you consider Niklas Kronwall’s recent hit on Teemu Selanne as well.
Kronwall’s shoulder seemed to make clear contact with the veteran Wingers jaw, leaving the Finn shaken and slow to get back to his feet. The difference? Kronwall’s hit was front on.
I’m certainly not advocating it was an overly dirty hit, questionable or clumsy may be, but it contact with Selanne’s head was made. But while Brown took an early shower, Kronwall remained in the game.
Clearly some grey areas remain over the issue of ‘checks to the head’.
3. Battling Between the Pipes
A number of teams seem to be enjoying unexpected battles between their top netminders early this season.
Some have labelled these various situations as a ‘crisis’, a phrase which wholly inaccurate in most cases! A ‘crisis’ indicates or suggests something seriously wrong, when in reality most coaches are faced with nothing more than healthy competition between their goalies and a tough, but pleasant, choice over who is the best option on a given night. After all, what coach doesn’t want two goalies capable of playing like a #1 on any given night?
In Boston, Tukka Rask was expected to be #1 whilst Tim Thomas would quietly sit on the bench collecting his pay cheque. Instead, the former Vezina winner found a rich vein of form early and staked his claim to be Bruins top dog again.
Michal Neuvirth has taken full advantage of Semyon Varlamov’s early season groin injury, shaking off a wobble performance against Atlanta to put in a string of fine performances, culminating in his first career shutout on Wednesday. In Tampa, Dan Ellis seems to have put his summer Twitter related troubles behind him and set his stall out to be the Bolts #1 with some strong performances.
Whilst established stars like Roberto Luongo and Martin Brodeur may be struggling, it’s refreshing to see strong play in other corners of the NHL map.
4. Injury Bug Continues to Bite
After highlighting the injury plight of the teams in and around New York (including New Jersey) in last week’s 5 Minute Major, you would now be hard pressed to find ANY NHL team which has not been hit by some kind of injuries during the opening weeks of the new season.
Colorado lost #1 netminder Craig Anderson indefinitely this week, sidelined with a serious knee injury sustained during the warm up against Vancouver. What effect this will have on the Avs season is yet to be seen, but Anderson is not the only high profile injury already this season. 
The Illinois native joins a long term injury list which includes the likes of Marian Gaborik, Drew Doughty, Atlanta’s Zach Bogosian, Andrei Markov and Kyle Okposo. We’ve also seen Mike Green, John Tavares and Predators stopper Pekka Rinne miss games due to injury, along with a number of others, and the Vancouver Canucks defensive corps must surely soon be in line to claim a hospital wing of their own!
Whilst injuries happen every season, the bug seems to have bitten earlier and harder this year. How teams cope with having their stars in the treatment room inevitable has an impact on the standings come April, but it seems unusual to see so many sidelined so early in the campaign.
5. Liles Sets New Records
And finally, one for the stattos – despite being without a single goal through the Avs’ first 9 games, John Michael Liles has still set several new scoring records.
A 5th round draft pick in 2000, Liles has notched in incredible 11 assists through the Avs opening fortnight of the 2010/11 campaign and passed Filip Kuba’s record of 8 consecutive games with an assist to start a season by a defenceman. Quite a mouthful there!
Liles streak has also seen him set the longest points streak to begin a season by any Avalanche player (previously Joe Sakic with an 8 game streak in 99/00), the longest points streak to begin a season by any defenceman in franchise history, as well as now being the longest points streak by any defenceman at any time since the team moved to Denver.
The next franchise milestones ‘in sight’ for Liles are Wendel Clarke’s 1994/95 10-game points streak ‘to begin a season’ and D man Steve Duchesne’s 15 game points streak in 1992/93.
Until next time…..
Contact the author: rob.mcgregor@prohockeynews.com Contact the photographer at Lewis.Bleiman@prohockeynews.com
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