It's another game against the Wild, and as has been their style lately, they are using the press to convey their love/hate relationship with the Canucks. Micheal Russo of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Star-Tribune has dropped the Mother of All Bombshells: The Canucks are one of the dirtiest teams in the league, and it's their agitators that are hurting the players in the league. I was surprised to see they didnt have aerial photos of our agitator training facilities housed in rail cars, or sworn affidavits from a guy that used to sell popcorn at GM Place and Dave Nonis' paperboy.
The article is laughable, grasping at straws in an attempt to show that players who try to get other players off their game is something just a few teams do, and gosh darn it the Canucks are among the worst. "The thing is: Why's the NHL worrying about Boogaard when Matt Cooke, Ryan Kesler and Alex Burrows are the ones who run around every night? Is it possible that the NHL is this unaware of how the Canucks, back to face the Wild today, and several other teams have turned agitating into an art?" A nice compliment, but these guys are hardly in the league of Kenny 'The Rat' Linseman or Esa Tikkanen. Cooke is widely known as a top-class agitator, I will give them that, but labeling Kesler as dirty with his (gasp!) 18 penalty minutes this season is a fine example of sensationalistic journalism, and nothing else. I love the talking point thrown in about Boogaard, how he has never been suspended for running someone from behind. Russo is right, he hasn't. It's kind of hard to get suspended when you spend nearly 57 minutes a night on the bench. They insist Cooke's hipcheck on Nick Schultz was an attempt to take out his knees, but the replay showed while the hit was a bit low, it wasn't nearly that malicious. Cooke has been a dirty player in the past, but Canucks coach Alain Vigneault seems to have reigned in Cooke, showing him more ice time in exchange for a more controlled style of play, and staying out of the penalty box. Brian Rolston comments "The problem is [agitators] play this way because they can't do anything else," The problem is that every team has players like this in their lineup, even though they don't like to admit it. Stephane Veilleux is not in the Wild's lineup because he will challenge Marion Gaborik for the team lead in scoring. The best part of the whole article is the re-telling of the Gaborik/Kesler incident: "The most productive agitators are the ones who subtly play on the precipice of crossing the line and don't get caught. They make an impact because they antagonize and frustrate players such as Marian Gaborik, who finally had enough of the pesky Kesler and elbowed him in the head last month.
Kesler, an agitator who's also a quality player, skated away. Gaborik skated to the penalty box."
Oh, I get it now. We should just let Gaborik go to the net and not check him. Frustrating him is bad, bad, BAD! Besides, if we do, this star player will lose his cool and take a run at you, leaving his feet to elbow you in the head. My memory is a little hazy at times, but it seems to me that this is what the NHL really needs to worry about, and not guys like Ryan Kesler playing hardnosed defense. The Wild are as guilty as any team in trying to draw penalties. It's part of the game. But they need to complain about it, because some rivalries need a kick in the pants to make it interesting for the fans. Their fans, at least.
So this afternoon Mattias Ohlund returns to Minnesota for the first time since the incident. There will be much histrionics from the fans, attempts to extract some measure of revenge will be taken. If the Wild were smart (and judging by this article and the rantings of some of their fan base one has to wonder), they would spend more time trying to figure how to beat us for the first time this year, something no one in the Northwest Division has been able to do, save for two shootouts to the Oilers. Pregame podcast will be posted shortly... make sure to check out other past editions while you're there!
