The concept of Ryan Reaves acting as either a deterrent or an avenger was once again exposed as one of the NHL’s greatest myths when No. 75 sat idly by when Toronto teammate Timothy Liljegren was injured by Brad Marchand’s patented can-opener move toward the end of the first period in Boston on Thursday.
Oh, there was some yapping toward the Boston captain from the bench in the wake of the unpenalized, reckless play that sent the defenseman crashing into the boards and onto the long-term injury list. That, however, represented the sum and substance of the Maple Leafs’ response that featured one-time Bruin rental and current Leafs winger Tyler Bertuzzi smirking or laughing at the end of the bench.
Imagine how Brendan Shanahan, among the handful of greatest and most menacing power forwards in the history of the league, would have reacted if Bertuzzi had been his teammate in that instance. If only the Maple Leafs had someone like Shanahan running the hockey operation.
Oh.
Five-point-five million dollars to Bertuzzi for what? Well, at least the 37-year-old Reaves is in at just $1.35 million per on the first season of a three-year deal that can be swallowed whole by the AHL allowance at any time.
Maybe Reaves does add a dollop of courage to more contact-adverse teammates. That’s what I’m always told by folks on teams who hire the winger. I have a hard time believing there is tangible impact to that. I think that is just what people say because it’s what people always say about players like that. Off his year-plus with the Rangers, Reaves is a huge, quite likable personality who adds charisma to the room but has little constructive impact on the game after the initial sugar rush of No. 75’s presence.
Reaves will fight … if he has been personally aggrieved. But teammates? Not so much. That should have been established for all time when Reaves did not deign to respond to P.K. Subban’s reckless, slew-footish takedown of Sammy Blais at the Garden in mid-November 2021 that ruined the winger’s nascent career. There was nothing to see there just as there was nothing to see in Boston.
There is no such thing as deterrence in the NHL. There is only retribution. For the Maple Leafs last week, there was neither.
Isn’t it kind of odd how Mat Barzal has receded into the background so quickly in his career to the point where one goal in the first nine games doesn’t even elicit questions?
Or is that just what happens to Islanders?
Tell me the last electric center in the NHL who was shifted to the wing at age 25 in order to accommodate another center who never recorded more than 70 points in a 10-year career.
Not all that long ago, it was who would you rather have, Barzal or Jack Hughes? Now, it’s who do you want on, Barzal or Pierre Engvall?
Gary Bettman’s preseason lecture to coaches about tamping down public criticism of officials has given referees license for gross incompetence woven into extreme arrogance. Question a call, bang, either two for an unsportsmanlike or 10 for a misconduct. This is an example of rewarding bad behavior.
If seeing were not believing, it would be impossible to believe that the NHL had put such inept folks such as Stephen Walkom and George Parros in charge of officiating and on-ice discipline, respectively.
Ninth Avenue will have no further comment on this matter.
Old-time hockey guys, both on and behind the bench and in the broadcast booth, always attempted to attach a stigma to players who first wore helmets and then wore visors. That’s a core reason the NHLPA was so resistant to mandating advanced protective equipment.
There is no chance anyone would attempt to attach a stigma to a player wearing enhanced neck guard protection in the wake of the tragedy that took Adam Johnson’s life in the UK on Oct. 28.
The union is already engaged in conversations with the NHL on this matter, though a mandate is likely a half-generation away after a grandfathering allowance. It is the responsibility of equipment manufacturers to create neck protection that is comfortable and non-intrusive. These athletes are adults, who, after all, choose to engage in fisticuffs among other unhealthy exploits.
Insult upon injury here, but when Fil Chytil went down with an unidentified upper-body issue on Thursday, just four forwards had made more minutes than No. 72’s 159:18 without scoring a goal, those being Seattle’s Alex Wennberg (208:31) and Matty Beniers (201:43), Arizona’s Barrett Hayton (195:04) and Calgary’s Mikael Backlund (187:55).
San Jose general manager Mike Grier built this all-time team on purpose, correct? Because there is bad and there is historically bad, but then there is 2023-24 Sharks bad that is a whole other category unto itself.
Last season’s Ugly Ducklings of Anaheim established a cap-era record by being outscored by 129 goals over 82 games, or 1.573 per contest while going 23-47-12. The 1974-75 Caps hold the NHL all-time record by being outscored by 265 goals in 80 games, or 3.312 per in going 8-67-5 in their inaugural season.
Nobody has ever come close to that.
Until, that is, this Sharks crew under head coach David Quinn that had gone 0-9-1 in their first 10 games while outscored by 35 goals (3.5 per, 45-10) leading up to Saturday’s home match against the Penguins.
They were on pace to be outscored by 287 goals.
Ten years later, Marty Biron may have the last laugh on Tomas Hertl.
Finally, bigger disappointment thus far, A) the Sabres who don’t seem to be prepared; or, B) the Flames, who don’t have Darryl Sutter to blame anymore?
Perhaps you would prefer to cast your vote for, C) the Wild, still a season away from Mats Zuccarello’s two-year extension kicking in.
