P. Marlowe

I guess this means that in the future you can still fight but not hit the opponent in the head. No biggie.

Never.

Thanks. So it takes an injury (and LTIR) for Wings to call Smith up just to serve his suspension off. I wonder if they'll do that. Does the suspension still exist next season if Wings won't call Smith up during this season?

Why don't we wait for more information about this first? I have a feeling that he won't be taking fighting away from hockey. :carrot:

Wings have all the cap space in the world but I'd like to know if a suspended player counts against the roster limit.

This makes me wonder of what replay Babcock was watching. I remember on some other occasion earlier (can't remember what happened) that it seemed like he just quickly watched the replay and then went on to talk to the press. Sometimes I'm not the most serious person.

Yep. I hate it when someone uses words like "all agree" and "everyone knows" without asking me first. I usually disagree anyway with people who use that kind of words to support their opinions.

Looking at that video I can't see that Ben Smith's body moved enough on his last second toedrag to blame the hit on him. Brendan just missed and would've hit Ben's head in any case.

I don't have an opinion whether he is or isn't. I haven't seen him play enough. I just hope he learns to control his checks better or he'll end up being a liability. Kronwall can be reckless but I don't think he's yet been a liability. I don't think his hits are against the new rules so probably he won't become one.

Reckless hockey is entertaining but reckless players can so easily be liabilities to their teams. Not to mention dangerous (in a bad way) for the opposing players. I hope Smith learns to control his actions. Holland is part of the Red Wings but he's also part of the league. The rules were made with the GM's. I think Holland is too grown up for "Us against Them".

Will be interesting to see if that happens though. Most players still like physical hockey. I hope even the grown-up players can still learn to adjust their game to the new rules.

The way I see it that a good smart player still keeps his head up. Not because he fears for his own safety but because he might lose a good scoring change. There's nothing wrong with defenseman hitting a forward skating with his head down. They just have to know how to do it cleanly and don't target the head cause that's very dangerous. Ben Smith could've had a good scoring chance had he kept his head up. As always there are good players and bad players in the league. It just keeps getting different what characterises them. A good forward can be like Datsyuk. You won't see him skating with his head down as he's always looking for opportunities around him. A good physical defenseman can be like Kronwall. He knows how to throw hard checks but he knows how to do it without targeting the head. Just like few years ago when players had to learn not to obstruct and hook they know have to learn to check opponents cleanly. Those players whose success relied too much on now illegal skills will find themselves not wanted.

Not necessarily to upend in a similar way, but the important thing is that Brendan was too far ahead while Vladdy positioned himself more on the side. When Ben Smith backed down only part of him Brendan could hit was his head. When Lemieux backed down he still ran into Vladdy's butt cause Vladdy made himself huge there.

Count me out.

Wow. I've actually been thinking about that Konstantinov hit too, but not enough to search it out. Amazing how similar the two forwards' actions are with the little moves in the end to try to avoid the closing defenseman. It's almost like from a school book of hockey defenseman: the right way and the wrong way to hit. Brendan Smith's timing was off while Vladdy's was perfect. Not fair for Smith though. He's still a kid while Konstantinov was a genius and a natural talent.

Well what can you do? I'm just glad it wasn't any of the regular roster players. Just like many others I'm curious how this punishment works as he's mainly an AHL player this season. Can he serve the ban in the AHL and if it isn't possible then does a suspended player still take one of the available 23 roster spots? (Yeah, I'm too lazy to search this from the NHL rule book.)

A dreamland where even Sharks can win the Stanley Cup.

Oh bugger.

I bet he does, but I hope that he's tough enough not to let this kinda things affect his decisions.

Hello and welcome. Firstly, I've bolded out a serious mistake in your post. Be careful not to do that again. Personally I think that the whole team is worth watching. I can't imagine me following Wings because of just a few players. Big part of the fun is how you get to know all the players by time. Not everyone is a star but they all have a role. If you really are as green as you seem then I can give you names of a few more core members of the team: Henrik Zetterberg (assistant captain), Johan Franzen (leading goal scorer), Niklas Kronwall (second best defenseman behind Lidström) and Jimmy Howard (a young solid goalie).

TSN.ca:

5-7 years with 5 million cap hit would please my ear.

Here's the hit: With every new suspension I've been thinking how glad I am that there's no one in the Wings roster who'd do stuff like this.

I'm not impressed at all with what Brendan Smith was trying to do there. Leaning like that where else did he think he would hit Ben Smith than right in his head?