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These lines would not work well IMO. Homer and Huds playing together is a defensive liability. They are both slow and not great defensive forwards. The second line is decent. Bert and Modano playing together just screams a 'the third line is lazy and sucks' thread. Abby, Helm, and Eaves are generally the better three of the five fourth liners. To have them rotate in seems counterproductive unless that are all slumping.

He was on a pretty long slump before the hat-trick if that makes it any better.

Abby with a goal and an assist tonight and 11+ min played. He seems to be getting back in the grove.

Helm and Abby are awesome playing together.

I agree. There was an interesting point brought up on TSN/Leafs game the other night about the rule changes to increases the speed of the game. The point is that taking out the red-line, adding the trapezoid, decreasing interference, etc have increased the injuries were seeing. I'm in favor of removing the trapezoid, and allowing the Burke 'bear-hug' rule. Another good point was that the new hitting rules lower the incentive for players to play with their head-up. Catching someone with a big hit with their head down has always been a big part of hockey, and I hope it isn't eliminated by the new rules. While there should be responsibility placed on the hitter, taking responsibility away from the player being hit (if their head is down) shouldn't happen. EDIT- I also support reducing the size of shoulder pads. It's ridiculous that the players are wearing such large ones.

link- http://www.kelownarockets.com/article/the-callahan-legend-grows

I'm very appreciative for the streams on rwl. I've been able to watch about 90% this year because of it.

Bad call. It seems like there have been a lot of ejections this year (two last night between this and Komi's hit). I don't like refs giving ejections unless te play was clearly dirty and dangerous. To me, the ref should have called a two min penalty and let the league review the hit. If a ref is unsure, he should not be ejecting players.

I didn't see your post in the prospects section- sorry. I know a lot of people don't frequent that section, the the general discussion has been a bit gloomy over the past week. Hopefully we can all agree (and be happy) that Callahan is so awesome.

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I agree with Pacioretty. I don't like suspending because of injuries but this is one place I would bend my belief. I don't think Chara meant to do this, but there is no way to really know. Therefore, a game or two would have shown that this type of hit is not okay, but the league understands that it can happen in the course of the game. Hopefully this would lessen the incentive for dirty players to use the tactic and not overly punish players when it does happen (and there is a significant injury).

I don't agree with how Gillies went about enforcing but you're logic here is flawed. Will Tangradi think twice before running anyone on the Isles next time they play? Yes. He had some big hits that game against the Isles young stars and Gillies 'enforced'. Therefore, if Tangradi plays differentely against the Isles than Gillies enforced very well.

Mostly on him? I don't think you can blame this on him. When you get punched in the face weekly it is probably difficult to determine when you have a concussion and not other, less significant injuries. If you watch his fights, he rarely looks concussed at the end. I hope Orr can recover and play again. He is my favorite current enforcer and hopefully his time hasn't passed.

I don't think this one is so black and white (enforcer v. anti-enforcer). The play was certainly dirty, but it is largely a question of intent. I think McKenzie has it correct in saying, "The hit was late. It was interference. It caused injury and while the design configuration of the boards and glass played a pivotal role in the severity of the injury, the responsibility is still with the hitter. So two games is my call. No one will like it. Works for me.". Full link here- http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=357203

It's definitely one of those plays that is hopefully unintentional. He was just unlucky that the divider was at that point.

Hopefully the Habs player is alright. Chara hit him into the glass/pole at the end of the bench and he hasn't moved since. The second period has been cut short (time added to third) for the injury.

I'm glad the refs realized they stepped in too early and didn't issue a suspension. They have been stepping in on a lot of fights this year (like Abby v Iggy) and it puts the refs in danger. And he was trying to punch Ott, so that alone negates the possibility of suspension

Abby was never an enforcer or anything resembling one. He is probably the toughest player on the Wings (E fights better, but Abby hits more) and I think we expected him to playe tougher because of this. There are no excuses because he is not that type of player. Abby is a the perfect definition of a grinder. He showed a scoring touch earlier in the year playing with the third line, but his offense has stagnated since moving back to the fourth. Hopefully he can get some more chances with a scoring line. I would say he's a bit like Clutterbuck- can score if put in that role, and can play a good defensive grinding fourth line role.

He supposedly has the flu.

Four for Callahan now.

Leino with a giveaway for the Rags to go up one more. Great game thus far. The Rangers are hungry and showing it. Now Callahan gets the hatty. The game could (hopefully) get a little nasty now.

This hit gets 4 games and Gillies gets 10. To me, Gillies' suspension is based on him being an enforcer more than the hit itself.

We may have to make some shirts for the cause

An update. Cal is playing tonight and hitting a lot (as usual). It appears the hit did not cause an injury.

My problem is that the hit likely wouldn't be a game misconduct if it were another player. It being a game misconduct is why this hit has such a big deal. I'm surprised there aren't more injuries from hits from behind like the hit Cal delivered. It is a major injury source in youth/junior hockey. However, this may be due to the lack of concussion knowledge at the lower levels. I'm asking for my homerism to be pointed put because I prefer to be kept honest. Differences in opinion are usually unchangeable, but there are a lot of posts on here that are full of logical fallacies and overgeneralizations. Despite the fact that we disagree a lot, I respect your posts and hope you'd call me out.