Goal Line Report
Dennis Bernstein’s Hockey Thoughts
by Patrick Hoffman on 03/25/11 at 03:30 PM ET
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Dennis Bernstein of the terrific The Fourth Period Hockey Lifetsyle Magazine and web site was kind enough to stop by and give us some of his hockey thoughts for the week.
PH: How do you think the NHL will handle the concussion issue now that some rules have been put in place? Do you think they’ll work?
DB: Not sure they will work and NHL needs to have more solutions. They have to explore things like putting some level of legal obstruction back in as to slow the game down a bit. The NHL also needs to look at the equipment, players today look like they wear amour. Look at an old picture of Gretzky without his sweater on, minimal padding.
PH: Do you think there is a place in the NHL for Matt Cooke of the Pittsburgh Penguins? Do you think he will finally learn his lesson or will it fall upon deaf ears?
DB: If Cooke was put on waivers today, 15 teams would pick him up. With that said, I wouldn’t want him on my team. It’s interesting to see that this suspension was the first time that other players commented that the felt it was the correct punishment, you’ve never seen that before. As for changing his ways, it brings to mind Bryan Marchment, another player that never altered his style of dirty play.
PH: What do you think about the playoff races this season? Which stands out as the most intriguing to you? Why?
DB: The West is crazy, period. Pound for pound, I think the West was stronger last season but there’s more parity this year. I think it’s very interesting that on the verge of a possible first seed in the East, the Capitals chose to shelve Ovechkin for supposedly key games down the stretch.
PH: If you had a crystal ball, which eight teams would you see making the playoffs in each conference come April? Why?
DB: Let’s talk about the team that won’t make it down the stretch. In the West, Calgary and Dallas come up short. In the East, I think Buffalo holds on versus Carolina and Toronto.
PH: Any other thoughts you’d like to share with Kukla’s Korner readers?
DB: As a voter for the major NHL Awards, I was looking at Carey Price for the Hart but his last couple of games likely knock him out of consideration. That vote wil likely come down to Jonathan Toews, Ryan Kesler and Daniel Sedin. Check my Twitter account @4thPeriodDB for more thoughts on post season hardware.
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About Goal Line Report
Patrick has a tremendous passion for hockey. Besides covering the Rangers and the NHL for Kukla’s Korner, you can also find Patrick’s work over at Sportsnet.ca, The Red Light District Hockey Blog, NHL Home Ice, and Liam Maguire’s Ultimate Hockey web site.
Prior to writing for the above mentioned outlets, you could find Patrick’s musings at hockey web sites/outlets such as TheHockeyNews.com, TheFourthPeriod.com, Spector’s Hockey, Hokeja Vestnesis, Blueshirt Bulletin, SNYRangersBlog.com and many more.
For questions, comments and hip checks, feel free to e-mail Patrick at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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Posted by SYF from the bottom of my, what, 11teenth pint of Guinness? on 03/25/11 at 06:56 PM ET