Off Wing Opinion

From yesterday's John Buccigross column where the ESPN anchor posed some questions to the Chicago Blackhawks rookie. Still, Bucci reserved question #1 for himself:

Question from John Buccigross (South Windsor, Conn.): What is your opinion of the new NHL Reebok uniforms?

Answer from Toews: I don't notice anything with the jersey as much as I do with the socks. I'm a heavy sweater out on the ice and my feet are getting really wet in my skates. Other than that, I don't notice anything different than what I've been used to wearing. I'm not too fussy about that kind of thing. I just go out and play.

Meanwhile, Alex Ovechkin is blowing through two pairs of gloves per period just so he can stay dry.

Everyone is buzzing about the Capitals' 7-1 pasting of the Leafs last night. Having to do a little skating myself last night, at practice, I was unable to watch the game. But there's a few good roundups floating around.

Japers' Rink awarded every daily award, except for the Calder and the Aiken (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), to a Capitals player. Also, kudos to Karl Alzner, who was named captain of the Calgary Hitmen.

The Peerless Prognosticator holds his own with a list of firsts from last night's game.

It was as dominating a performance the Caps have had in any game since the lockout, marked by a collection of

After spending the beginning of this season mulling over his future, Peter Bondra, 17-year NHL veteran, has decided to retire. He leaves as the career goals and points leader for the Capitals, and, at the beginning of the season, was 37th in the NHL all-time in career goals, with 503 (472 w/ Caps), and was 89th all-time in points, with 892 (825 w/ Caps).

Bondra will not leave the hockey world, however, as he will not take on the role of general manager for the Slovak national hockey team.

Thanks to Tarik at Capitals Insider for the heads up.

Last week, I picked up on a story that had been percolating for a while on the Web concerning how once NHL Center Ice subscriber in Brooklyn had discovered that since upgrading to a Series 3 TiVo DVR, the device had started to auto-delete games he was recording before they ever finished.

This morning, I got a call from an NHL official who declined to be identified who wanted to address the issue. She told me the following:

* The NHL has no policy restricting the use of NHL Center Ice content on TiVo or any other brand of DVRs and it isn't planning on creating one.

* What's happening now has nothing to do with the NHL. The NHL never requested that its content be copy protected in this way.

* The league is looking into the problem and will be contacting TiVo shortly in order to find a solution.

So there's the official word. I'll keep checking back with the league for updates.

Barry Melrose Rocks picked up on a story from Friday's airing of PTI concerning hockey's attitude towards fighting. LeBatard's question, summed up nicely by Kevin at BMR, is "Why is it that when the NBA fights, there are 15 game suspensions and playoff implications, etc. but when it happens in the NHL it's normalcy?"

Kevin writes a good response, but the most important part of it was the inclusion of a quote from Shaved Ice Hockey Blog; "Clearly you have no idea that there is an unwritten code in hockey that still exists."

I happened to purchase The Code last week, and am about halfway through it. Ross Bernstein does an excellent job of explaining why NHL teams use enforcers, why fights happen, and what unwritten rules players must follow when looking for or getting into a fight. For the most part, fights aren't spontaneous, like they would be in other sports, but are a buildup of other events, where both fighters weren't even involved until their actual fight. The Code looks at fighting before and after the lockout, and there are several responses from current and former players on such topics as "Rookies Challenging the Pecking Order," "Swinging the Momentum," "Protection," and "The Rules of Engagement." It also looks at both the McSorely and Bertuzzi incidents. I'm only halfway through with the book, but it is already proving to be a great read. You won't look at fights the same way again.

From Stephen Harris in the Boston Herald:

According to sources in the B

You might want to wait until your breakfast is fully digested before watching the footage of the beating Zdeno Chara unleashed on David Koci last night in Boston:

As HockeyFights.com noted, it wasn't that long ago that Koci had his nose bashed in by Wade Belak, so he might want to sit out a couple of rounds in order to heal up.

Jes Golbez is at it again. Stop by FanHouse and help him out.

That's apparently the maximum allowable under the CBA.

In case you've yet to see the hit, here's the only clip I could find:

Rocky Wirtz, now seemingly fully at the controls of the Chicago Blackhawks following the death of his father last month, has authorized one of the most momentous changes in the history of the franchise as the team will now seek to broadcast their home games on the local Comcast SportsNet affiliate:

"It's important to understand that CSN's current schedule was developed well over a year ago, so fitting the Hawks into that schedule can't be done overnight,'' Wirtz wrote in the memo. "But it can be done, and, while no definitive agreements have been reached, we are convinced that it is the appropriate next step to re-energizing Chicago hockey fans, and creating new fans. We are also working on a long-term strategy for televising additional home games in the future.''

Two words: Thank God. The NHL is a more interesting place now that the Blackhawks seem to have emerged from a long slumber on the ice. Here's hoping that this isn't the last change the front office has in store for the team.

Last week over at FanHouse, Jes kicked off our new photo caption feature with a shot of an incredulous Darcy Tucker. Last night, Lowetide took the same picture and had his own fun with it.

With the Caps off yesterday, team news is light. But the big news in hockey blogging is the departure of On Frozen Blog's EmptyMaybe. Says pucksandbooks this morning;

This morning I

It's Monday, so I'm on Ice Sheet duty at FanHouse.

Just in case you missed it: