Friday Caps Clips: At the Midpoint

Because it would be a slap in the face to every single Hurricanes fan, especially when the franchise has been massively more successful there than they ever were in Hartford.

Well, they were in Maryland until 1997. I’m assuming snark, though.

Baltimore is roughly 35 miles NE of DC.
Landover is 5-6 miles due east from DC line from DC
Thanks for playing.

Sadly, I think you’re right, which is a real shame for everyone in CAR that has supported that team.

Now wouldn’t the Capital look much better in the background of that picture?

The seats behind home plate at field level would be truly awful

Please, let’s not start this again.

Cap-O-Vens, you forgot to photoshop in the ugly-ass Hilton hotel covering up the entire left half of the picture.

Word. I just tease ’em – you guys dissect ’em.

Wow. Doesn’t really shock me that they are doing a lot better this year with him not there.

Good to know I’m not the only one.

Like he’s just an aloof prick, that sort of thing? Or he’s a selfish player? Both?

Mild smakedown!

I’d settle for Schultz for the top two pairings…

I think the all-star voting proved that already.

He was just upset that the hat didn’t prove to be a good luck charm.

Everyone in the Pens’ room after that game looked to be at the limits of their composure. Except 87.

From a Rosen article on the issue:

Dr. Ruben Echemendia, who oversees the League’s concussion testing program and is the chairman of the NHL/NHLPA Concussion Working Group…said the only way for teams to accurately assess and treat a concussion is for the player to be open and honest.

“No matter how many tests we give, we’re never going to be able to proceed with 100-percent clarity [about a player’s status] unless the player can tell us what’s going on with them,” said Echemendia, who spent 15 years as the director of the Psychological Clinic at Penn State University before pursuing a full-time independent practice. "We have to rely on the players to honestly report their symptoms. We do know from our data that even those players who report their symptoms and say they’re feeling symptom-free, we’re able to from our data pick up an additional 30 percent that have concussions through the neuropsych testing showing they’re still not ready to return to play. But in the end it’s a complicated injury. We absolutely have to rely on the player to tell us what is going on with them.

“The earlier they tell us what is going on with them, the less time lost and the better off they’re going to be down the road.”

“Both teams played hard” “Both teams played hard”

Yeah, I was going to make a heroin joke, but felt it to be in bad taste.

Nope, not going for comedic effect, just thinking “aloud” how easy it would be for a brain injury to get missed in the shuffle.

No one wants Sid to go down Savard’s road.

I’m thinking that each team is going to have to institute a “concussion officer” – kind of like the Safety Officer on a construction site, a guy that isn’t beholden to anyone else, and who has the authority to shut it down until his concerns are addressed – that can yank a guy from the lineup until he passes a neurological test.

The whole culture of hockey, and all of the incentives and disincentives, push a guy to keep playing. They need a mechanism to save them from themselves, the team, etc.

Why would anyone want to deflate a perfectly good grudge?

…And the final period of the WC, although considering the charged competitive nature of that contest, I think they would have had to tie him down to keep him out.

Of course, that game didn’t mean anything except that Jordan Staal returned.

Agreed. If the collision (because I view a hit as intentional and do not believe that what happened was intentional) with Stecks caused it, why in the world did they send him back out in the WC? Granted I don’t know if anyone other than all the tv viewers saw the collision, but was it reviewed between periods by the Pens? If he seemed out of it, like his bell had been rung, wouldn’t they have checked him out then? We know the NHL reviewed it, if they were concerned about his head wouldn’t they have said something to the Pens? I’m to believe that no one noticed that their star player wasn’t quite himself until 5 days later?

Thursday if Crosby, who’s expected to be out about a week with what the club is now acknowledging is a “mild concussion”, had displayed any concussion symptoms after the Winter Classic, Penguins coach Dan Bylsma told reporters: “We wouldn’t have thought he was OK to play (against Tampa Bay). He certainly saw doctors.”
more by Dan Bylsma – 12 minutes ago – Vancouver Sun

That’s like hockey 101. “Not paying attention” is a terrible excuse.

That we do, but he’s being plenty respected in going back to NJD for a player like Langenbrunner!

It’s will be alright. Really. I liked Brent as a capable backup. But I like having Varly and Neuvy more.

Never heard of or noticed it before, but it’s now easy to figure out why the Penguins have a whole lotta love for Brent Johnson’s taste in music in the locker room.

Interesting take, and I will confess ignorance.

If that’s true, he might find some takers. $3.375M cap hit for the next 3 years after this, he’s 31…it seems a bit rich and a bit long for my taste.

I could be wrong.

There have been some whispers to that effect, but I tend to think Myers is still a pretty good D in his own right. Even if he is in the “Marcus Foligno club of go to hell and die.”

Like f_d says, it depends on how hard Lou wants to tear down the team. Zajac is Mikko-Koivu-Lite, signed at a very reasonable contract. I have a hard time thinking of a better solution to 2C if Alex Semin is on the wing; Zajac doesn’t need the puck that much, he’s a defensive beast, and he’s a pretty good setup guy to boot.