The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Brian Berard's stance on visors, a few years after being nearly blinded by an accidental high stick by Marian Hossa: "We're pro athletes, and the choice should be ours," he said. "I have to wear one (for medical reasons) but I hope (the NHL) does not make them mandatory...Growing up wearing a cage, you could hit people with your face like it was a weapon." Did I read that correctly? Is he saying pro athletes are above and beyond the need for health & safety? Would it have taken the loss of BOTH of his eyes to wake up and smell the coffee? Should construction workers stop wearing hard hats? Should seat belts be removed out of every car on the road? This shouldn't be a debate people: last year Steve Yzerman almost lost an eye, this year its Mats Sundin and the numbers are just going to keep on increasing. If wearing a visor is good enough for the NHL's best like Jarome Iginla and Joe Sakic, it's good enough for everyone. And what's that crap about using a cage like a weapon? Is it something the WWE should look into at their next sanctioned no DQ match? Anyway, before Mats Sundin fell to the ice writhing in pain with his eye leaking blood after getting hit by that Darcy Tucker dump-in Wednesday, he did look very cool sans visor...When you're right 47% of the time, you're wrong 53% of the time (or something like that)! Don't listen to me when picking winners and losers like I did for opening night, flipping a coin has equal merit...On to some positive notes though: Didn't you get giddy when you witnessed the drop of the puck for the first time in in a year and a half? Wasn't it great hearing the Hockey Night in Canada theme again on Saturday?...With 98% of tickets sold opening night and TSN setting a record with 2 million+ viewers for the Leafs-Sens matchup, fair to say all is forgiven between the league and the fans...Every ticket to a Calgary Flames' home game this season is sold out...Did you see that eye gouge by NY Rangers' career goon Dale Purinton on Boston Bruins' Colton Orr? Awful. He got a 10 game suspension for it. As an FYI, Purinton has four goals, 16 assists and 578 penalty minutes in 181 career NHL regular-season games. Amazing this guy is paid to be in the league, yet somehow there is no room for two time OHL player of the year Corey Locke, who is still stuck in the AHL...Wonder what the Vegas odds were that out of all the Leafs' centres, Sundin would be the one injured first...Ilya Kovalchuk signed a 5 year deal worth over $30M. With teammate Marian Hossa they make up 25% of Atlanta's near $39M payroll, are struggling to bring in fans and as a result may qualify for revenue sharing assistance...The St. Louis Blues have made the playoffs an impressive 25 years in a row. Less impressive is that they didn't even make the Stanley Cup finals once during that time...Here's a new drinking game to try out: Whenever you're with your friends watching a game, have a drink every time one of the commentators say the words "New NHL"...I don't mind that there are a lot of penalties being called. The worst thing that happens is that you get to see all the star players create plays and scoring chances...G Roberto Luongo may challenge Martin Brodeur to be named starter for Team Canada in Turin if he keeps up his current level of play. In his first three games, he's earned two shutouts and has allowed only two goals. Is it coincidence he needs a new contract by the end of the season? Nah, he's just good...Who would have thought 7-6 games were now possible like that Boston-Pittsburgh game on Saturday that finished in OT? We have the new NHL to thank for that (Have a drink!).