In defense of Zac Rinaldo (kind of)

Zac Rinaldo is a sword with two edges and this weekend very much illustrated this. On Saturday the Flyers played the Bruins, who have been a thorn in the side of the Flyers ever since the Flyers beat them in that miraculous 4-3 comeback in 2010. Rinaldo leveled Milan Lucic on a clean hit in the opening minutes, mirroring a scene from the previous game just a week earlier in which Rinaldo smashed Jarome Iginla, then had to fight him as Iggy was kind of pissed about it. This time Rinaldo kept his gloves on while Lucic did not, and Lucic ended up taking the only penalty on the incident.

Unfortunately the Flyers and their lately frigid power play failed to take advantage of that advantage. The game then became somewhat stale-matey as the Flyers hung with the Bruins for the first 40 minutes. However, they got absolutely destroyed in the 3rd period and lost 5-2. Not a good showing and Lucic got the last laugh with two goals in the game.

The very next day the Flyers played the Sabres at home. Rinaldo for his part took advantage of his recently increased ice time, skating with Matt Read and Sean Couturier on the 3rd line, by scoring a goal. With Jay Rosehill scoring against the Bruins and The Undertaker losing at Wrestlemania some people see it as a sign of the apocalypse. Other people were just happy he found some success, particularly his little brother, who is just adorable.

However, then Zac had to go ahead and lose all the trust and respect he recently earned by hitting Sabres rookie defenseman Chad Ruhwedel in the head.

This was not a good hit. It was a direct contact with the head and no body contact at all. Rinaldo also appears to leap into the hit. He is also a repeat offender from an incident in 2012, in which the suspension was also rather warranted. Also, Ruhwedel suffered a concussion from the hit. Combine all these facts together and Rinaldo is staring at a lengthy suspension at the hands of the Department of Player Safety in the immediate future.

So let me get this out of the way first, I am not going to defend the hit because there is nothing to defend. To bring out the cliche, it is the kind of hit the NHL is attempting to legislate out of the game, and I am pretty okay with that. Players make mistakes and will have to suffer the consequences for them.

What I will try to defend is Zac Rinaldo, the player.

Immediately following the hit and the reporting on it, the crow calls came. The peanut gallery on various hockey sites were condemning the hit (which is correct) and questioning why Rinaldo is even in the NHL (which is not).

That Rinaldo has a reputation problem is almost an understatement, tracing way back to his days in the OHL and before that. He has pretty much always been a mucker and a hitter, just as he is now. He was never a scoring threat or anything like that. He is a pest who makes his living by putting the fear into people and giving them bruises from big hits. It is a fine line he plays on, a fact that he is aware of, and for 99% of the time he stays on the right side of that line. But with playing on that line also comes stepping over it on occasion, either by mistake or intent, and suffering the consequences. A price he is willing to pay. However, that hardly warrants the label of "dirty" being placed on him.

From what I can tell out of interviews and how he presents himself in documentary scenes like on 24/7 Road to the Winter Classic, he is also an earnest person who accepts his role on the team and does what he can to advance it. He also has something child-like in him, like a kid in a candy store, casting him in a bit of a locker-room-guy role as his enthusiasm appears to be quite infectious.

What I do not get is how other people can not see or appreciate this fact. For the most part it just has to be the desire of vengeance. Rinaldo is the type of player who goes under the skin of his opponents, both those on the ice and the fans thereof. Nobody likes to be hit, and Rinaldo hits hard and often. To roll on another cliche: He's the kind of player you like to have on your team, but hate when he's on the opposing one.

And therein lies the core of the problem, familiarity. Even his biggest detractors must have had a similar player on their team at one time or another if they don't do now. Teams need these kinds of players as they bring some raw energy to the table, and the fans of the teams often love those little balls of enthusiasm. It is of course on the team to make use of this energy, to form it into something useful and valuable, rather than leaving it dormant or having it explode in their face.

Perhaps another current Flyer is a poster boy for this, Steve Downie. Downie is somewhat of a more talented version of Rinaldo, a mucker and a hitter but with a bit more of a scoring touch. He too was troubled by a bad reputation coming out of juniors, and his energy exploded into senseless destruction when he hit Dean McArmond in preseason all those years ago. However, after he was traded to Tampa and under the guidance of figures like Rick Tocchet (who would be another player in a similar vein) formed a very nice NHL career for himself.

Watching Rinaldo has given me a bit more of appreciating for other players of his type on other teams, even if I despise them for the moment. As Jeff Marek like to say, even the worst player in the NHL is miles ahead of any average Joe from the street in terms of hockey skill, even the streets in Canada. Players like Zac Rinaldo are contributing something to their team and are far more skilled than people give them credit for, so even if they cross a line and make a mistake, I think it's just entirely unfair to immediately call for their dismissal from the league. It would also be hypocritical to condemn players to it when the same kind of player with the same types of plays would rouse excitement if he was on your own team.

What my worry is though is that other people can't see through this, including Brendan Shanahan and the Department of Player Safety. They seem to go a lot harsher on low-level players like Rinaldo than on players with a larger profile on the score sheet. That being said the hit does definitely warrant a suspension, though I hope it isn't primarily based on Rinaldo's embellished reputation but rather on the action itself.

James Neal should not be made of teflon

Here we see Neal inflicting grievous harm before swiftly exiting the ice for the bench.

It should be no secret that I do not like the Pittsburgh Penguins. Besides being a pain in the ass and currently involved in a heated rivalry with the Flyers, I consider them to be an aberration in sports. They are a franchise that has been sustained not by hard work, but almost entirely by luck. They had the good fortune to suck at the right time, unlike Panthers, Blue Jackets or Coyotes for example. First in the 80s they win the Mario Lemieux sweepstakes, and more recently in the mid 2000s they drafted first or second overall in four consecutive years yielding them Marc-Andre Fleury, Jordan Staal, and the generational talents of Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby. Crosby is of course the biggest example of the Penguins good fortune, his draft choice being awarded through an actual lottery involving every NHL team.

What is worse however is how the Flyers and the Penguins are being viewed by outsiders and more casual hockey fans. The Flyers have earned a reputation in the 70s as the Broad Street Bullies, a mean and physical team. They have suffered from this reputation ever since, never being awarded the benefit of doubt whenever something less than wholesome has happened.

On the other hand the Penguins are the darlings of the NHL and presented through its marketing, which routinely focuses on them due the presence of Sidney Crosby, as the dynasty-to-be and the clean-cut shining example of how a franchise should conduct itself.

However, anybody with more than a passing familiarity with the NHL knows that nothing is further from the truth. The Penguins are just as rotten as the rest of the NHL. They commit cheapshots and penalties just like everybody else. However, considering that they have employed the consensus dirtiest player in the league Matt Cooke for a long time they may have been even worse than the rest while masquerading as sheep.

Matt Cooke's history of dirty play has been chronicled pretty well. But to give credit where it is due, he has actually managed to turn his career around in the wake of a 10 game suspension and make his living as a defensively responsible player and penalty killer, as opposed to a cheapshot artist. He is still a pest, but at least he is a clean one. Cooke is however tainted which is why the Penguins opted to not bring him back during the 2013 offseason.

In his wake the Penguins quickly found a successor for the mantle of local cheapshot artist, and his name is James Neal. Neal is a very skilled player, has a great shot and is a genuine power forward impressing with size. He is also dirtier than a sewer rat, routinely getting his elbow and stick out against opposing players for little to no reason, often just because there is an opportunity.

What is odd however is how Neal appears to have somehow snuck into the blind spot of the Department of Player Safety, either being punished with a slap on the wrist or not at all.

Take for example his hit on Sean Couturier from the 2012 playoffs. It was a leaping headshot at an unsuspecting player who was not in control of the puck and hadn't been for several seconds. Neal was not called on a penalty, giving him the opportunity to deliver another cheapshot only seconds later on Claude Giroux. Neal was finally kicked out of the game for that one and was assessed a 1 game suspension for his hit on Giroux, but got no discipline at all for his hit on Couturier. How the NHL at all bites on Neal's excuse that he tried to brace himself for the hit on Couturier and it was incidental is beyond me, considering how deliberately he goes after Giroux only moments later. Seems to me like he was on the warpath from the get go.

What makes this decision truly bizarre is the fact that only a couple of days later, a similar incident between Raffi Torres of the Phoenix Coyotes and Marian Hossa of the Chicago Blackhawks occurred. The hit was in my opinion essentially identical to the one between Neal and Couturier. An unsuspecting player who has lost the puck gets drilled by a predatory, leaping hit. The only real difference is that there was a stretcher involved as Hossa had to be transported off the ice, unable to skate by himself. Torres was suspended initially for 25 games, which would later be reduced to 21.

While there is much to be said about Torres established history as opposed to Neal's only burgeoning reputation at the time, as well as the fact that Torres caused a severe injury while Neal thankfully did not, I can not understand for the life of me how the difference between the two incidents is 25 games.


Fast foward to this week. James Neal has now earned himself quite the rap sheet, over the last couple of years, including a 5 game suspension this season after planting a knee in the head of a downed Brad Marchand from the Bruins. This in and off itself should already be a travesty considering how obvious and deliberate he undertook that penalty.

However, to make things worse, this week Neal crosschecked Red Wings forward Luke Glendening in the head. Very deliberate and opportunistic. Considering how much the NHL is attempting to limit contact with heads in order to prevent injuries, and given Neal's status as a repeat offender, this should be another lengthy suspension, right?

Wrong. The NHL chose to only fine Neal for $5,000. What. The. ****. Compare this to the crosscheck Jesse Boulerice delivered to Ryan Kesler in 2007, which earned Boulerice a 25 game suspension. And this was before the NHL declared war on concussions. Do I think Boulerice's hit was worse? Most definitely. The puck was long gone and Boulerice made a bee-line for Kesler for no damn reason in a game which was decided for a while. Is there 25 games worth of difference between the two incidents? Most definitely not.

Or as a different example, here is Washington's Nicklas Backstrom cross-checking Bruin's forward Rich Peverley in the head. That at least got him a 1 game suspension in the playoffs.

The Department of Player Safety has a reputation problem as it is, with many of its decisions appearing to be completely arbitrary and not rooted in precedent or any formal logic whatsoever. There also seem to be different sets of rules applied to high scoring star players and bottom six plugs. And in the playoffs the entire system seems to go straight out of the window anyway. Stuff like the above is definitely not helping.

Something also needs to be said for the lack of initiative at the hands of the Penguins. Yes, Matt Cooke improved himself after a stern talking to by the Pens brass, but this was only after being severely punished by the NHL. For years they let things slide and let Cooke run amok before actually stepping in. And they seem to be content with letting Neal continue down the same path.

It also doesn't appear that Neal is at all remorseful or has any understanding of the consequences of his conduct. From Shanahan's videos we get relays of his cheap excuses. When asked by reporters he never admits fault or shows regret, and even on the plays themselves he is quick to exit for the bench rather than face the music.

Somebody has to step in and make Neal actually feel the some punishment for his transgressions, which appear to have become routine for him. I just hope that it is either the Department of Player Safety finally wising up, or the Penguins leadership doing what is necessary. Otherwise we might see things come down the way they did in 2011 when the Islanders chose to goon it up against the Penguins as they did not believe the NHL had served them in correcting previous wrongs inflicted at the hands of the Penguins. This prompted Mario Lemieux to write an angry letter to the NHL calling for stronger discipline and sharper suspensions, despite his own team being mostly the beneficiary of this lax situation and the root cause in how it got that far.

The situation is also becoming increasingly more dangerous. It is already borderline miraculous as it is that Neal hasn't severely injured a player already, but every cheapshot is a new opportunity for this to happen. I hope for all parties involved Neal corrects his path before then.

Somebody has to step in, as the lack of initiative to punish a "star" player like Neal is slowly but surely becoming an untenable embarrassment to the league.