Luongo NHL 1st star of the week

Some accolades from the league for his strong play in November. Our boy Bobby was named 1st star of the week, and 2nd star for the month of November. Let's hope he continues the strong play (as do the Canucks) as they roll into Chicago tomorrow...

A couple suspensions handed down by the league yesterday, Nashville's Scott Nichol got 5 games for his crosscheck to the face of Patrice Brisebois of Montreal... Nichol is a 4 or 5 time repeat offender, so you have to think eventually the league will start making the penalty more severe, right? Speaking of late reactions, Philadelphia's Riley Cote was given 3 games for his elbow on Matt Niskanen late in the Flyers' loss to the Stars on Saturday. They also warned the team that further suspensions could result in penalties directed at the team, though it was not made specific what those penalties might be. Here's the problem with that, besides the fact it should have been issued last time a Flyer was suspended. This was the perfect opportunity to apply that penalty. Coach John Stevens, who has tried to portray himself as an innocent in all this, insisting that they don't play dirty and letting his players parrot the now almost comical "I was just finishing my check" mantra, had Riley Cote on the ice with less than 5 minutes in a game that the Flyers were trailing by 3 goals. It is common in the NHL to pull the goalie with a 2 goal deficit to try and salvage a tie. Apparently with the Flyers, 3 goals is not only something they cannot overcome (and why then did you bring in Daniel Briere?), but cause to send out a player whose some purpose is to fight. Nashville scored 3 in the last 9 minutes against Montreal, surely the Flyers could have given it a run, right? It's all about perception, and the Flyers simply aren't convincing anyone these days, that the Broad Street Bullies Mark II campaign isn't on in the City of "Brotherly Love". They have accounted for half of the suspensions handed down by the NHL, and the total number of games? 52, while the rest of the NHL's suspended is 12. I want to see it happen again though, just to see if the Flyers will try and rock the boat, and to see if the NHL actually has the balls to stand up to a franchise that is making a mockery of the the rule book.