Each week here at ProHockeyTalk, NHL on NBC’s Mike Milbury gives us his take on three hot topics of discussion around the league. We’re happy to have Mike join us and give us his unique and fiery opinions on what’s going on in the NHL.
There were rumors this week about Sidney Crosby boycotting the All-Star Game over the NHL’s handling of shots to the head. Does Sidney Crosby have a beef with the league over how they’re handling Rule 48?
In my opinion, he’s got no beef.
I think Colin Campbell’s been much more active. I think they’ve been searching out vulnerable hits and I don’t like it. I think it’s gone too far.
But I don’t think any hit is going without scrutiny right now and the league and Colin Campbell have been much more active in these things than I can recall.
Ales Hemsky left last night’s game with a concussion and he’s apparently been playing with one for up to six games. Are teams getting too reckless with how to handle things or is it just because concussions are so sneaky teams don’t know how to handle them?
That’s exactly right. There’s not a total grasp of how these things develop or how severe they are. It’s an ongoing medical investigation in how to handle these concussions. Even the guys who suffered them themselves aren’t sure how these things operate. I think everybody is more aware than ever of what the challenges are in dealing with concussions and there’s even greater awareness.
Sometimes guys will want to play and go out there and suck it up and God bless them for wanting to do it. Hopefully for the most part cooler heads will prevail and people get ready and pass the appropriate tests to get back into action. I don’t think there’s any culpability for Edmonton in any way, shape, or form.
Philadelphia’s Daniel Briere was fined $1,000 for taking a swipe at New York’s Brandon Prust from the bench. Your thoughts on that?
Oh please. This is so ridiculous. I mean, he could’ve hit him harder with a purse. Have a little gamesmanship in this thing. We don’t have to make it all milquetoast. Let’s let a little personality come out once in a while. If the referees caught it, they should’ve given him a two-minute minor for roughing and they all could’ve had a good laugh about it after the game. To start seeking this stuff out and to try to curtail this stuff is just nuts.
Hey these guys are 25, 30, 32 years-old whatever it is that they are and they’re all charged up to play a game, a physical game, and they’re going to cross some lines. That was such a ridiculous ruling and such a small violation of of what was going on I think they could’ve just looked the other way. They could have a laugh about it and move along.
Now if it’s a full-fledged punch in the face or a big hit to the head that’s another story. But let’s not try to be all goody-two-shoes here that’s traditionally why I get upset about the way the league handles some of these things. Just go watch a soccer game or something and stop reviewing everything to the nanosecond of every game. Don’t need it, don’t want it.
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