Shortly after the league released news that Subban’s punishment sufficed, the Senators revealed that Stone suffered a micro-fracture to his right wrist. According to the Senators, the league’s decision was made prior to knowing the severity of Stone’s injury.
Injury update: #Sens Mark Stone has suffered a microfracture of his right wrist & his availability for the series is unknown at this time.
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) April 16, 2015
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And now we know why Subban was jumping up and down and so vehemently disgusted with the referee’s decision to penalize him for the slash. He just fractured a bone, it’s not like he severed Stone’s hand at the wrist!
Whether Stone misses time or not, even a less effective Stone — who heavily upon his hands to create offence and create turnovers on the other side of the puck — is a huge blow to the Senators. Bryan Murray spoke with the media this afternoon to address Stone’s injury and in a tidy piece of gamesmanship, he wanted the league to look into his allegations that Subban threatened harm upon Stone earlier in the game. Subban would later refute those claims.
Subban said he made no threats, didn’t target Stone, didn’t mean to hurt him, didn’t slash him that hard. Still, not a smart play. — Nick Cotsonika (@cotsonika) April 16, 2015
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P.K. Subban never embellishes anything, especially his stories.
It’s all rather mind-numbing.
What I cannot stand is the argument that romanticizes playoff hockey as this separate but unique version of the game in which it is okay to justify a two-handed baseball swing at the wrist of one of the best players in the NHL these past few months, when the puck is nowhere in the vicinity of the incident itself.
I have all the time in the world for people who want to see physical play, hard one-on-one battles for the puck and less chintz calls in the playoffs, but what Subban did was absolute garbage and isn’t even remotely close to constituting a “hockey play”. Players shouldn’t be given carte blanche to pull shit like this simply because it’s the postseason.
It’s unsettling that the league abides itself by two sets of rules. There is the one that governs the regular season and suspends Erik Johnson two games for a slash (video below) and then there is the one where the league is aware of the severity of Stone’s injury and still deems that Subban missing the last 31:46 of last night’s game was punishment enough.
It’s a double-standard that needs to be fixed, but god forbid the Senators from feeling like they need to take matters into their own hands.
Judging by this morning’s line combinations, there is a good chance that Chris Neil will draw into the lineup for the first time since February 14th. Neil skated on the fourth line with Mike Hoffman and David Legwand while Alex Chiasson was bumped up to the Mika Zibanejad and Bobby Ryan line. Milan Michalek was shifted to the right wing and was moved up to the Kyle Turris and Clarke MacArthur line.
As much as the Senators may want to exact revenge for Stone’s injury, hopefully they refrain from doing anything stupid and having some undisciplined play submarine their own chances of advancing in this series.
Stop Punishing Mike Hoffman
It remains to be seen when Stone will play next, but how sad is it that Mike Hoffman continues to be punished by the coaching staff? There have been reports that the coaching staff is unhappy with Hoffman’s “freelancing” or ignorance of playing responsibly within the team’s system, but it’s ridiculous to see the team prefer to use two players — Ryan and Michalek — on their off-wings so that they can use Chiasson in a top six capacity.
Ryan’s struggles are well-documented and the Senators need to get him going. Ryan only has one goal and six points in his last 21 games (including last night’s game) after recording 17 goals and 49 points in his first 59 games played. If the Senators are going to go on something of a run here, they need that line producing some goals and amazingly, the coaching staff’s steadfast refusal to return Hoffman to that line is hurting the Senators.
Here is a look at Ryan and Zibanejad’s ‘With or Without You’ numbers with Hoffman. (Note: GF% refers to the percentage of goals for the Senators score at five-on-five while they are on the ice together. CF% refers to the percentage of shot attempts – a proxy for puck possession – the Senators generate at five-on-five while they are on the ice together.)
Ryan:
| GF% | CF% | |
| With Hoffman | 56.0 | 52.3 |
| Without Hoffman | 44.4 | 45.8 |
Zibanejad:
| GF% | CF% | |
| With Hoffman | 60.4 | 51.8 |
| Without Hoffman | 36.7 | 47.3 |
Do us all a favour Dave Cameron and re-unite this trio instead of whatever the hell it is you’re punishing Mike Hoffman for.
Other News and Notes:
– Lost in the news concerning last night’s game was that there was a goalie fight in last night’s Binghamton Senators game. Binghamton’s Peter Mannino squared off with the Utica Comets’ Jacob Markstrom.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riU0bJnxkAc]– Gary Bettman released a statement on the passing of Mark Reeds: “As a player, a coach and a mentor for so many players – from teenagers in junior hockey to the best players in the world at the National Hockey League level – Mark Reeds was the embodiment of commitment to our game. Mark devoted 35 years to 10 different stops in six different leagues and the NHL shares the sorrow of all who were touched by his selflessness and dedication.”
– TSN’s Kerry Fraser wrote up his own analysis of the Stone/Subban incident.
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