NHL Weekend Ice Cuts: Bishop’s Injury, Callahan’s Hit, and Hitchcock’s System

We turn our gaze away from the Buffalo Sabres to look around the NHL and the Stanley Cup Playoffs!

Here at Sabre Noise, we might just be the biggest Buffalo Sabres fans on the Internet, but even we can’t be all Sabres, all the time.  Not when we’re halfway through the Stanley Cup Playoffs and beginning the Conference Finals!

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Let’s kickstart a new series here that looks at some stories that interest us around the rest of the league.

1. Tampa Bay Lightning May Have Dodged A Serious Bullet

The Lightning got a bit of good news regarding their number one netminder, Ben Bishop:

For those of us who are pulling for the Lightning to represent the Eastern Conference in the 2016 Stanley Cup Final, Bishop’s health is of great importance.  Seeing Bishop get taken off the ice on a stretcher in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals Thursday night was scary (you never enjoy seeing a player in such obvious pain) and disheartening, since Bishop is a major reason why the Lightning have a chance of beating the high-powered Pittsburgh Penguins.

Sure, Andrei Vasilevskiy filled in admirably in Bishop’s absence, and the Penguins have made it this far thanks in large part to the phenomenal player of rookie netminder Matt Murray.  Still, Bishop has been putting together a Conn Smythe-worthy postseason performance, and is the sort of goalie whose chances you like when it comes to the formidable task of shutting down Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin:

As serious as Bishop’s injury looked Friday, the news out of Pittsburgh is that x-rays were negative and Bishop is considered day-to-day.  The Lightning will not commit to whether or not Bishop will be in goal Monday night for Game 2 of the ECF, but here’s hoping we get to see Bishop back on the ice this series sooner than later.

2. The NHL Department of Player Safety Continues To Be Poorly Named

Has there ever been a department in the history of professional sports with a less-accurate title?

The NHL Department of Players safety, which can be shortened to DOPS but probably should be renamed DOPES, has decided not to suspend Lightning forward Ryan Callahan for this dirty and dangerous hit on Penguins defenseman Kris Letang:

Whether or not Callahan meant to make contact with Letang’s head doesn’t interest me, because I understand that the sport moves quickly, and that Letang turned at the last second.  The elbow-to-head contact can be understood, but the problem is that this would have been a penalty and a dangerous hit regardless of Callahan’s point of contact.

With the size of today’s players, and the speed at which they skate, hitting an opponent from behind that close to the boards is dangerous, end of story.  Callahan would have you believe that he was coming in to pin him to the boards, but that is utter nonsense.  There’s a difference between pinning a player and checking him from behind.  Callahan makes no attempt to stand Letang up and pin him to the boards; he simply hits him and skates away.  It’s boarding, plain and simple, and it’s the sort of dangerous hit that is going to get a player paralyzed or worse.

Sadly, the DOPS probably took note of the fact that Callahan was not ejected from Game 1, and that Letang returned to the ice later in the game, and decided not to impose any supplemental discipline.   I respect Callahan and understand that he does not have a history of being a dirty player.  Regardless, the DOPS needs to stop taking this approach when deciding if players have crossed the line:

3. Ken Hitchcock vs. San Jose Offense = Hockey Heaven

The San Jose Sharks have scored 13 times on 42 power play opportunities in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, good for 31%, best in the postseason.

The St. Louis Blues have killed off 31 of 39 penalties in the playoffs and owned the second-best PK unit in the NHL during the regular season.

Clearly, something has to give, so as the Blues and Sharks get ready to meet for Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals tonight, the question is, can Ken Hitchcock find a way to slow down a Sharks team that looked unstoppable at times in their series against the Nashville Predators?

Here’s what Hitch had to say (courtesy of Working The Corners):

Our job is to negate the trigger points, to find out what the trigger points are and negate them.  First thing is to stay out of the box. Second thing is to make them work, make them work harder than they want to work.  They’re going to get their licks, their chances.We played three hockey games against them this year and they had 19 scoring chances on the power-play in three games.  That’s too many.  Too many power-plays, too many scoring chances.  We’re going to have to eliminate that.

If anyone can figure out a way to at least make San Jose’s power play unit look average, it’s Hitchcock.  After years of playoff futility, it appears as if the St. Louis Blues have finally built a team that can get the most of mileage of Hitchcock’s system.  Of course, I doubt Hitch’s gameplan involved having to win not one, but two Game 7s, including one on the road against the high-scoring Dallas Stars, but thus far, Hitchcock has made all the right moves and found a way to do something that he hasn’t been able to do in the playoffs with St. Louis: survive.

Next: The Case Against Steven Stamkos

The Eastern Conference Finals may have me interested because of my extreme dislike of the Pitssburgh Penguins, but the Western Conference Finals have me excited because of the storylines and the promise of some exciting hockey.  My picks are the Lightning and the Blues meeting in the Stanley Cup Final, but sound off in the comments below if you disagree!