Sidney Crosby is back on the ice, but only time will tell if he’s the same player. (Gene J. Puskar/AP)

By Stu Hackel

We go into the final weekend before the NHL’s regular season with headlines concerned less than ever with who will be the third line winger or sixth defenseman for this team or that and focused more than ever on the big issue of the offseason and preseason: player safety and specifically, brain injuries.

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His mysterious vertigo gone, Ducks goalie Jonas Hiller is back to his sterling form. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

By Stu Hackel

It was a great night of baseball on Wednesday, historic even, and that interrupted some of our preseason NHL viewing. Truth be told, however, as all hockey fans know, the kind of twisting, turning plotlines and wonderful dramatic endings that unfolded on the diamonds to decide the AL and NL wild card races — while rare in other sports — happens almost every spring in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

But we’re a whole season away from that. The NHL action we caught last night updated us on a couple of pretty interesting sagas, those of Jonas Hiller and Fabian Brunnstrom (in addition to ongoing litany of potentially suspendable incidents, the newest being B. Smith on B. Smith, which is worthy of a match penalty — video here).
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Since taking over from Colin Campbell (left) as NHL discipline czar, Brendan Shanahan has caught more than a few players, and one anonymous executive, by surprise with his tough rulings. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

By Stu Hackel

Here are some things I don’t understand:

1) Why NHL players continue to commit suspendable acts in preseason while knowing that Brendan Shanahan is executing the toughest standard of discipline the NHL has ever seen. The suspension of Jody Shelley for 10 games should have been enough to send the message. But thus far, including the Flyers Tom Sesito’s punishment on Wednesday, Shanahan has had to suspended seven players for a total of 46 games — 24 of them in the regular season — and they’ve been fined $642,897, which is salary lost. Think that’s enough warning?

2) Why an unnamed NHL executive told Damien Cox of The Toronto Star that Shanny may be exceeding his authority. “We voted for stiffer suspensions, and we meant it,” said this veteran executive. “But not doubling and tripling. If (Shanahan) gets too far in front, he won’t last long in the job.”
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Who are those men in blue? Defenseman Keith Ballard is one of the few recognizable names that has been appearing in preseason games for the Canucks this year. (Anne-Marie Sorvin-US PRESSWIRE)

By Stu Hackel

With repeat runs to championship series or games in team sports increasingly unlikely these days, the Vancouver Canucks are trying to increase their chances by managing their roster a bit differently. It’s a long, long year for any NHL club, and even longer for a team that goes deep in the playoffs, so the Canucks know they’re going to need all sorts of luck, breaks, good health and other intangibles aside from consistently superior performances.

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The classic mullet is long gone, but Jaromir Jagr seems to have some of his once-formidable talent still intact. (Photo by Tim Fuller-US PRESSWIRE)

By Stu Hackel

As the preseason rolls into its second week, the suspensions keep piling up and concussions continue to make news — Marc Staal won’t fly with the Rangers to start their European tour, Sidney Crosby is scrimmaging, and a hearty welcome back to David Perron, who rejoined the Blues Monday to begin training.

Those are all big stories and it’s easy to forget the main reason we follow the NHL: the game on the ice. So when the Flyers hosted the Rangers Monday night, we got our first chance to check out Jaromir Jagr, a free agent signing  that was the offseason’s biggest and most curious story — at least for a few weeks  before things grew darker and sadder.

With a pair of goals and an assist against his most recent former NHL team, Jagr turned back the clock to a time when he dominated the sport. He looked as if he’d never been away.

If there  ever was a player who burst onto the NHL scene with more elan than Jagr, we can’t think of him at the moment. The young J.J. captured the imagination of the hockey world two decades ago while exuding enormous skill and joy for the game. As frisky as a young colt, he’d blow kisses to the crowd in Pittsburgh after scoring dazzling goals like this one in the ’92 Stanley Cup Final against the Blackhawks:

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Flyers enforcer Jody Shelley has been no stranger to league disciplinary rulings. (Jeff Conner/Icon SMI)

By Stu Hackel

Brendan Shanahan’s stunning ruling on Thursday,  suspending the Flyers’ Jody Shelley for 10 games — the rest of the preseason and five regular season contests – could signal the beginning of an era in which the NHL backs up its rhetoric about player safety with action.  It is a sharp departure from the way discipline had been handled in the past, when the sort of hit that Shelley threw might earn a one- or two-game suspension, or even have not been subject to any supplementary discipline.

A quick search of stories on Shanahan’s ruling reveals widespread approval, which rarely happens in these matters. Shelley, who had five previous suspensions, told Sam Carchidi of The Philadelphia Inquirer he was “definitely” surprised at the length of the suspension, adding that Shanahan “set the tone in a sense” for how he will handle matters this season.

Peter Lukko, president of the Flyers’ parent company, Comcast-Spectacor, told Carchidi the league showed it was “trying to get serious” about these type of incidents. “When it’s  your own player, you always think it’s wrong,” he said of the suspension’s  length. “The important thing is that it’s consistent all year.”

On the top link announcing the decision from NHL.com, Shanahan himself not only presents video of the play, but shows why it is illegal and explains his reasoning for the decision. That itself is a significant step forward for the NHL.

Below is our post from Thursday, which discussed Shelley’s hit prior to Shanahan’s decision, and that of the Flames’ Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond, who Shanahan also suspended Thursday for the rest of the preseason and one regular season game.
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Fighter Chris Nilan devoted his body and soul to protecting his teammates for 15 seasons in the NHL. (Denis Brodeur/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

If fans embrace Slap Shot as the Casablanca of hockey films, The Last Gladiators is Apocalypse Now, a descent into the game’s heart of darkness. Here, the hockey fighters’ story doesn’t trace cartoon lives of triumphant heroes who engage in laugh-a-minute punchouts that end in a championship parade. This documentary shows the aftermath, the tough guys’ dénouement, as their lives — and the role they played — dissolve in a unique mixture of regret, shame, pride, self-destruction, and nostalgia.

Slap Shot was a film of its time that provided — and still provides — the hockey community with the laughs. The Last Gladiators is the sobering counterpoint, more in the tradition of some of Hollywood’s great ring tragedies from Requiem For A Heavyweight to The Wrestler.

Directed by Alex Gibney, an Oscar, Emmy, Peabody, and Grammy award-winning documentarian, this film could not be more timely as it peers into the troubled lives of former NHL fighters. Centered around Chris Nilan, who for 13 seasons was one of the NHL’s most feared heavyweights, the film explores the job he and his pugilist peers did, why they did it, the role is serves in the sport, and the toll it took on their lives.
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The Jets’ first preseason game in Winnipeg will be a welcome distraction for blueliner Dustin Byfuglien. (Fred Greenslade/Reuters)

By Stu Hackel

Watching a real live NHL game for the first time since June — Senators vs. Maple Leafs in their opening preseason tilt Monday night (insert joke here about equating “Sens-Leafs preseason” and “real NHL game”) — meant making some adjustments after a summer of baseball. You really can forget how fast the NHL is — faster than ever – and it’s stunning how quickly players react, how they manage to make plays and close gaps, and how the best ones figure out ways to create space for themselves and burst from traffic.

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Rangers defenseman Marc Staal, who was concussed when hit by brother Eric (left) last February, is still feeling the effects and has been sidelined for three preseason games. (Andy Mead/YCJ/Icon SMI)

By Stu Hackel

The insidious nature of concussions to NHL players continues to make news. Some of that news is good regarding Sidney Crosby, the Canadiens’ Max Pacioretty, the Avalanche’s Peter Mueller and Pierre-Marc Bouchard of the Wild. Some isn’t so good, particularly involving Marc Staal of the Rangers.

The Blueshirts blueliner, who is considered the top man in their young defense corps, will be held out of the team’s first three preseason games, the result of a concussion he apparently suffered last February and from which he developed symptoms over the summer.
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Chris Pronger has swapped his A for the C and will now lead the NHL’s most intriguing science experiment. (Lou Capozzola/SI)

By Stu Hackel

An old friend emailed me in the aftermath of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl air disaster and, reflecting on the bad news summer that hockey has had, said he couldn’t wait for the season to start so we could begin making new, better memories. He won’t have long to wait. Players for 29 of the 30 NHL teams reported for physicals today (the Red Wings give their guys an extra day off) and camp begins Saturday. The first three preseason tilts go Monday (the NHL Network will air 32 games in the two-week schedule) and then they play for keeps starting Oct. 7. So let the new memories begin. Please.

Here’s a look at some of the bigger agenda items facing teams as they start preparing for the season.

Anaheim – The Ducks will see if some of their young prospects up front are ready for the big time, but no task is bigger than ensuring that goalie Jonas Hiller has recovered from his vertigo issues and regained his timing.

Boston – While they need work on their miserable power play and have to fill Mark Recchi’s spot (is Tyler Seguin ready?), the defending champs’ top item will be to set the tone right from the start of the season in guarding against a Stanley Cup hangover.
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