THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
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SPORTS 
ICE HOCKEY Our NHL writer Jeremy Lanaway takes a look back at the 2011-12 season The Ups and Downs of NHL 2011-12 On June 11, 2012, the Los Angeles Kings held the Stanley Cup aloft for the first time in their forty-five-year history, closing the chapter on another eventful season of NHL play. The league’s ten-month campaign had its share of highs and lows, and thanks to the Kings’ first-time feat, expansion and proposed realignment, several high-profile injuries and infractions, and their impact on the league’s rulebook, the drama wasn’t contained to the ice. Kings Crowned After playing rope-a-dope for much of the regular season, the eighth-place Kings steamrolled their way through four rounds of competition in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Their impressive turnaround was owed in large part to head coach Darryl Sutter, who took over the helm of the Kings’ sinking ship on December 17, 2011. The new-look Kings defeated the first-seed (and President’s Trophy winning) Vancouver Canucks in five games, the second-seed St. Louis Blues in four games, the third-seed Phoenix Coyotes in five games, and finally the New Jersey Devils in six games, becoming the first eighth-place team to win a championship in a North American sport. Realignment Rejected The demise of the Atlanta Thrashers and rebirth of the Winnipeg Jets was clearly a positive turn of events for the NHL. However, every cloud has a black lining, and in this case, it took the form of realignment. The league proposed to change the two-conference, four-division system to a four-conference model: East 1 Carolina Hurricanes New Jersey Devils New York Islanders New York Rangers Philadelphia Flyers Pittsburgh Penguins Washington Capitals East 2 Boston Bruins Buffalo Sabres Florida Panthers Montreal Canadiens Ottawa Senators Tampa Bay Lightning Toronto Maple Leafs West 1 Chicago Blackhawks Columbus Blue Jackets Dallas Stars Detroit Red Wings Minnesota Wild Nashville Predators St. Louis Blues Winnipeg Jets West 2 Anaheim Ducks Calgary Flames Colorado Avalanche Edmonton Oilers Los Angeles Kings Phoenix Coyotes San Jose Sharks Vancouver Canucks The main drawback to the proposal was as obvious as it was contentious: the conferences in the West would’ve had eight teams apiece while the ones in the east would’ve had only seven. Simple math revealed that the eastern teams would’ve had a 57 percent chance of making the playoffs — a 7 percent handicap on the teams in the East. Despite the NHL’s best efforts at spin-doctoring its plan for realignment, the NHLPA ultimately voted it down, leaving the alignment status-quo for the upcoming 2012-13 schedule. Crosby’s Concussion The NHL just wasn’t the same without its marquee player, Sidney Crosby, who’d been sidelined for nearly a year by a concussion that he suffered in the 2011 Winter Classic, so it was a bright day for the league when he returned to the ice on November 21, 2011. Crosby didn’t disappoint, scoring two goals and adding two assists, giving proof to the argument that he’s the best player in the game. Hockey poolsters far and wide salivated at the impending bump to their points totals with number 87 back to form. However, the glow didn’t last long — in fact, less than a month. After being on the receiving end of a few hard hits and even a bump from a teammate, his concussion symptoms returned, shelving him for nearly a hundred more days. His second return wasn’t as dramatic as his first, but it had the same effect on his team. The Pittsburgh Penguins pulled off an impressive stretch-run that reinstated them as frontrunners to come out of the east. It didn’t work out that way, thanks to a dominant performance by the Philadelphia Flyers in a six-game first round, but the good news — for the Penguins and the NHL — is that Crosby made it through the series with his health intact. The question is — how long will he be able to keep it that way? Torres the Terrible On April 17, halfway through the Phoenix Coyotes’ first round against the Chicago Blackhawks, the NHL found its new (‘Wanted’) poster boy in its fight against headshots. Raffi Torres left his skates to check Blackhawks star Marian Hossa, contacting his head and sending him to the hospital on a stretcher. Although the hit wasn’t penalised on the ice, NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan handed down twenty-five games for the infraction, citing Torres’ history of questionable, injury-causing hits as rationale for the second longest suspension in NHL history — the longest by a mile in the Playoffs. The ruling divided people both inside and outside the sport. Some lauded the NHL for finally taking a hard stand against headshots and making an example of Torres, while others denounced the league as inconsistent and hypocritical for ruling lightly on previous head-targeting incidents involving star players like Blackhawks defenceman Duncan Keith and Nashville Predators defenceman Shea Weber. Needless to say, the Torres camp sided with the latter group, filing an appeal with the NHL, which has yet to be resolved. Only time will tell if the Torres suspension will succeed in reducing the number of headshots (and resulting concussions) in the seasons to come, and despite the dispute surrounding the tough justice meted out to Torres, everyone can agree that losing ninety players to concussion — roughly 1,700 man games, which was the case in 2011-12 — is an unacceptable state of affairs. |
