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It was a race for the puck. Moore made a defensive play by knocking the puck away from the league's leading scorer. If he had been going for the hit, he would have kept his left foot on the ice, not picked it up to avoid Naslund's irresponsibly outstreched leg. I find it amusing that even in this thread there is so much "It's his own fault, his head was down!" and this was the case with Naslund. Naslund even said so when interviewed afterwards. Moore didn't push off into Naslund or swing his elbow at Naslund. Only his right foot was in contact with the ice when the "hit" occurred. That's not an intentional hit, unless it's a guy like Gretzky who doesn't hit. Moore was a guy who hit. He knew how and could have hit Naslund a lot harder if he was trying to.

I would argue they were in a race for the puck, given that Moore went after THE PUCK instead of Naslund, and then tucked his elbow IN when he realized he was probably going to collide with Naslund. Calling that an elbow, an intentional knee-on-knee, or an intentional head shot is about the last place I'd go. Moore pulled both his elbow and knee in to try and avoid Naslund; so much so with the knee that he himself went into the boards. He's not lunging towards Naslund. He's trying not to take out Naslund's knee because Naslund is sticking it out to the world saying "wreck my career!" People say Moore was just another Matt Cooke. Had it been Cooke instead of Moore on that hit, Naslund doesn't get up. And possibly doesn't play another game in the NHL. His elbow may not have been "tucked" as if he were actually throwing a hit. But the primary point of contact was still not the elbow. Just because his arm wasn't tucked in to his gut doesn't make it an elbow; the elbow never factored into the contact. And the contact wasn't even an intentional hit. Chara on Pacioretty is fifty times worse than Moore on Naslund, even if Max had come up with no injuries. EDIT: Moore would probably have gotten around 5 games, because his shoulder hit Naslund's head and Naslund was a star player. Even though Moore was trying for the puck and not Naslund, the NHL would have looked at the injury and said "Sorry dude, you get to sit."

I'm not exactly sure who you are referring to. Chara is the Bruins' captain and was not injured, but on multiple occasions tried to start s*** with Pacioretty. I could see it as a reference to Bertuzzi... but Moore didn't elbow Naslund.

Johan Franzen Watch you say? Pleeeeeaaaasse don't make us do that!

Although he is currently in the minors, Redden's contract isn't even the worst contract for a Rangers defenseman. He's a better player than McCabe for not much more; a major reason the Rangers traded for McCabe was that they would have lost Redden on re-entry but been stuck with half of his cap hit. Yeah, I really can't believe Lemaire signed Kovalchuk to that contract. Probably because he isn't the GM, and wasn't even the coach when the signing was made. As for Kovalchuk's contract; he's generally considered one of the top forwards in the world. He had a huge slump to start the year and scored 4 goals, six assists, and ten points in his first 23 games. He has since (starting Nov. 3) scored 22 goals and 19 assists for 41 points in 47 games. He's also been much better defensively than he has been in prior seasons. When compared to Dats and Z, maybe it seems high. But I can remember in the past year, the topics that have been started asking who the top five forwards, or top ten players, top five players, most skilled players, whatever. Kovalchuk was always a regular until his slump early this season and New Jersey's struggles. If he's an elite player like everyone on here was saying, his contract is by no means a bad deal. And it's not; Kovalchuk's deal has come under fire because of New Jersey's cap issues and having to ice fewer than a full squad due to injury. But that is the result of contracts guys like Rolston, Zubrus, Salvador, and Arnott; guys who made their payday and are either on the end of their big deal or squeezed one last drop from the orange. Then you have the Devils buying a new defense in the offseason in Volchenkov and Tallinder, and it becomes clear that Kovalchuk's deal is the one that is reasonable of the group.

Sure there are. Just make sure you find someone with the same size skates as you wear, swipe the bag, and voila.

Ok... So if I understand this right, you are saying that there is less respect among players now than there was previously. You do realize that you said it in a totally jacked up way, right? Anyway, with regards to respect... talk to Eddie Shore, Ted Lindsay, Gordie Howe, Bobby Clarke, Ulf Samuelsson, Bryan Marchment, Tie Domi, Chris Simon, or Todd Bertuzzi about how there's less respect in the game now. There's certainly more than when they played, or in Bertuzzi's case when he played for Vancouver and nearly killed a guy because his captain got injured in a race for the puck.

Read my comment, read yours, and look at Filppula's goal total.

Hey, I take offense to that! He's much worse!

I bet Todd Bertuzzi's attack on Steve Moore was justified and no penalty should have been called, right? I'm going to start jumping into hits, leading with my helmet, hands, and elbows and see how that does for me in my hockey games. I bet I spend a lot of time watching from a small box.

Which has been his main problem as far as goal scoring. He won't go to the inside. the Wings have guys smaller than Flip who will go right to the net trying to get the puck into it.

Hudler scored points in nine of the eleven games that line was together. He was doing most of his scoring at even strength. When did the line stop scoring?

To rank Filppula's offensive ability. Such as: Henrik Sedin won't ever put up Gretzky numbers, but he'll be better than Doug Weight.

You officially don't know the basic rules of hockey that have been around for several decades.

Yep, breaking up the hottest line in hockey when all three were absolutely on fire, that makes sense. Now can we get back to FILPPULA?

If you are referring to #10, that's definitely a charge. He leaves his feet before contact.

Bettman is a better commissioner than Cherry could ever be. Cherry would be pushing for penalties only for the losing player in a fight, and for pretty plays. More from the "Cherry commish" situation. Although the instigator rule is NOT to blame for cheap shots or injuries. The fact that increased medical attention better documents things like concussions and other injuries doesn't make them more prevalent. Cheap shots happened just as much if not more often in the pre-instigator days, largely due to the high number of guys on NHL teams who were skill-free enforcers. Quebec and Winnipeg MIGHT be able to support a team. Hartford couldn't when it had one, and would have even less chance of survival now. Hartford only ever had a team because the WHA wanted to steal fans from the Bruins. In the same league, especially as an expansion team, a new Hartford team would die a quick death. Intentional hit to the head=cheap shot. Even if it's a north-south hit with the guy's head down. So you can stop watching the NHL if that happens. Maybe we should start taking helms off and have goalies play without masks? Since you're so unconcerned about head shots. Hits to the head are not a result of rule changes in the past twenty years. And whether they be east-west, west-south, north-south, whatever, are ALWAYS dirty hits and should be banned. If you are going for a guy's head, it doesn't really matter what direction you are coming from. It's dangerous and could even be career-ending. Get rid of that s***. Furthermore, concussions on the level they have been happening aren't a result of Bettman's rule changes. Being better documented and treated does not mean they happen more often. Unless you think there was nobody living in countries around the world before they instituted their various census procedures. As for the comment on defensemen getting wasted in the corner because their partner can't obstruct the forechecker? How about remove the ******* trapezoid. Or change the goal line so that it arcs behind the goal line, and pucks in the corner don't count as icing.

I will correct my statement. He has been playing fourth line ice time with linemates who are also playing fourth-line ice time or close to it, with the exception of the one game he played with Flip as one of his linemates. So while he may not be on the ACTUAL fourth line...he's basically on the fourth line. He was only scoring 1.27 PPG over the previous 11 games, which is a 104-point pace. Clearly that wasn't good enough for Babcock.

A large portion of Kronwall's big hits are absolutely penalty-worthy. Jumping into a guy as part of your hit is a charging penalty. That's plain and simple.

Remember what I said about that exact Ohlund hit in the other thread? Kind of the exact same thing.

For the 11 games Hudler/Datsyuk/Cleary were together, Hudler led the line in scoring, scored at a 100-point pace, and created a good portion of the goals. And he was playing second line ice time while he did it. It's not the first time Hudler has been that hot offensively over 10+ games, either. From Oct. 18th to Nov 22nd of 2008-09 Hudler scored at a 100+ point pace while playing third line ice time. If Hudler was given consistent time on a scoring line with top-six players, he'd be scoring a point per game every season. For those of you all set to say "He stopped scoring once he was separated from Datsyuk" he had been scoring at nearly a point per game for 20 games before Dats came back, and since he has been separated from Dats he's been playing on the fourth line. Even though he scored at least one point in 9 of the 11 games with Dats. In other words, what I said was a fact. Hudler has shown he is capable of being a high-end offensive player; Filppula has yet to show that.

Explains why Hudler was doing so damn well his last time around and is having such trouble now that he's back. Hey Modano, wanna finally help out the team? I've got a job for you pretty boy!

A clean hit will often propel you off the ice on contact, but not before. Perhaps I should have specified for those who think Brule hit Letang cleanly?

Filppula is a decent offensive player who needs to be playing with players as good or better than himself to have any kind of performance offensively. This has been shown again and again. If Filppula is put in a role where he has to carry the line offensively, he doesn't produce. Filppula has been getting second line ice time all season, and his average per-game is 5th on the team in ES ice time (about 14 minutes, Hank and Dats play 15 1/2) and 4th in overall (almost 17 minutes, Hank and Dats play 19 1/2). If that's "less" ice time, what would you say he should be playing? On par with two of the top five forwards in the world? Sorry, he will never, EVER be that good. Filppula is turning out as a very good defensive center with offensive capability, and his offensive capability may be topping out. He's not a Hudler, who can get hot for a long stretch and play 100+ point hockey, but he's not Dougie Brown either. Inconceiveable!!

Everyone is noting that he had his arm tucked in; what you are not noting is that he hit him arm first. When you hit a guy cleanly in hockey, you don't just blindly charge in and ram him as happened in this situation. A clean hit is done with the... say it with me...SHOULDER. Brule hit him straight on with his arms, and what made Letang bleed was Brule jumping into Letang, and Brule's helmet hitting Letang's jaw. If Brule had hit Letang cleanly, Brule wouldn't have carried over top of him because a clean hockey hit transfers most of your forward momentum, and keeps you standing on the ice. Yes, I know Letang is the best Penguin currently playing.