Getty ImagesWhile the ‘grandfathering’ of mandatory visors received the most attention after the NHL Competition Committee’s recent meeting, there was another recommendation that was just as momentous and, potentially, game-changing:

Using video review on four-minute penalties for high-sticking.

“There have been enough mistakes made where sometimes it’s a player’s teammate’s stick that hits him, and you see it clearly on replay,” said Mathieu Schneider, special assistant to the executive director for the NHLPA.

Dial it back for a second: What the NHLPA recommended here was, for the first time in NHL history, video reviews of penalties, and specifically of infractions that don’t involve a goal being scored or waved off.

It could be the start of more widespread use of video reviews on controversial calls in the NHL. In fact, the players on the competition committee wanted an expanded scope right away: high-sticking penalties weren’t their first option for instant replay verifications.

LISTEN HERE!

It's a Tuesday edition of Marek vs. Wyshynski beginning at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT, and we're talking about the following and more:

Special Guest Stars: We're getting our Stanley Cup Final preview on with Jimmy Murphy of ESPN Boston and Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times!

• Breaking down the Boston Bruins vs. the Chicago Blackhawks.

• Our picks for Cup winner and Conn Smythe winners.

• What we love, and maybe don't love, about the Final.

• John Tortorella's future.

Question of the Day: Give us your Stanley Cup Final pick and why.
Email at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or hit us on Twitter with the hashtag #MvsW to @wyshynski or @jeffmarek.

Click here for the Sportsnet live stream or click the play button above! Click here to download podcasts from the show each day. Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or Feedburner.

The 2013 world ball hockey championships were held last weekend in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and featured one of the most audacious attacks by a player on any hockey surface this year.

Justin Pender, a player for the Canadian men’s team and an ECHL veteran, lost his dang mind after the Czech Republic scored an empty net goal to clinch a 5-1 win. It begins with a cross-check to a Czech forward that's taunting him; it ended with a referee on a stretcher:

Pender began throwing punches and chasing the Czech player down the ice. Czech goaltender Lukas Heczko jumped on his teammate, as did game officials, to protect him from the blows. (No idea why the Czech bench didn’t follow suit as the Canadian was going postal; maybe Don Cherry can tell us why one day.)

From The Telegram (via Eye on Hockey):

Canadian defenceman Justin Pender of St. John's was given a double match penalty with one second left after an incident that resulted in a game official being taken off the floor on a stretcher. The official was reportedly injured as he tried to intervene when Pender tangled with a Czech player after the winners scored an empty-net goal. Czech goaltender Lukas Heczko was also involved.

Double match penalty sounds pretty severe. It’s, like, double a normal match penalty.

Here's a bit more from Buzzing the Net.

Pender has played in the ECHL since 2009 with the Trenton Devils, Toledo Walleye, Bakersfield Condors and last season with the Ontario Reign. He’s cracked 100 PIM in his career twice – once in the QMJHL – and has a HockeyFights.com profile.

As you can imagine, this momentary lapse in sanity isn’t exactly good for the ‘ole professional image. So Pender took to social media to let everyone know he’s sorry. Really, really, really sorry.

The New York Rangers are fueling the coaching carousel right now. They have arguably the most desirable job opening of the three NHL vacancies – along with the Dallas Stars and the Vancouver Canucks – and are in the process of interviewing the top candidates available. Their decision could be the most important domino to fall.

But they’ve also contributed an interesting name to that pool of prospects: John Tortorella, a man with a Texas-sized ego that might end up in the appropriate state for it.

Katie Strang of ESPN New York reports that Tortorella is on the Dallas Stars’ radar to replace Glen Gulutzan. They’ve yet to ask permission to speak with him; Tortorella is under contract with the Rangers, having signed an extension during the 2012-13 season.

Would Tortorella work in Dallas?

Getty ImagesLast September, Dustin Byfuglien appeared in a photo from former Chicago Blackhawks teammate Dave Bolland’s wedding in which he appeared … well, we’ll just let the headline do the talking: “Dustin Byfuglien apparently not locked out of his refrigerator this summer.”

Speculation was that Big Buff was weighing in over three bills at that time, which wasn’t really all that surprising given that he weighed 286 pounds when he was arrested for suspicion of impaired boating in Summer 2011.

Thing is: This has always been Byfuglien’s fitness cycle: Balloon in the offseason, drop the weight during the season. For a person his size, weight gain is going to seem more extreme than the same percentage of body fat gain for a smaller individual, and it’s the same with the weight loss.

But it appears in 2013, Byfuglien broke the cycle. And not just by sitting on it.

As Gary Lawless of the Winnipeg Free Press writes, Big Buff’s “fitness slipped” this season, causing inconsistency in the Winnipeg Jets defenseman’s game and, reportedly, a rather portly comportment by season’s end.

From Lawless:

It was evident Byfuglien grew heavier this season as the games moved on and according to accredited Jets blogger Pete Tessier, the player's weight rose to 302 pounds by season's end.

If there's any truth to this number, Byfuglien is virtually untradeable. Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff can't engage in trade talks with another GM and keep Byfuglien's weight off the table until the very end -- then hit his colleague with an, "oh, by the way, Buff's a little big right now."

… We'll leave the debate as to what the team should comment on to the Jets, as it's their business. But Byfuglien's late-season appearance and coach Claude Noel's clear displeasure with him were red flags. Did Buff weigh three bills during an NHL season? Don't know. But it's not unimaginable.

(Lawless goes to great lengths defending Pete Tessier’s reputation in the piece, which is probably why he left out one word in describing his hockeywriting career: HockeyBuzz, where Tessier blogs.)

Lawless believes that with a $5.75 million price tag and with his conditioning a greater concern now that ever before, Byfuglien is untradeable.

We wouldn’t go that far, based on his talent and unique skills set. But there’s no question that getting a proper return for Dustin Byfuglien must weigh heavily on GM Kevin Cheveldayoff.

Now that the Stanley Cup Final is here, that means a bunch of media that never touch hockey in Chicago and Boston will attempt to add puck to their coverage with the naïve befuddlement of a Neanderthal watching a satellite launch.

WCIU in Chicago has a morning show called “You & Me This Morning”, described as “real women, real Chicago, real fun.” Watch as they get real about hockey with some locals. Then wince. Then cry.

What we learned from this segment.

• The Redskins are, apparently, a hockey team. Oh, and all the critics of the NHL’s lack of crossover appeal and poor market penetration beyond the local team now have further video evidence.

• That said, Gary Busey knows a [expletive] ton about hockey.

• Women like the masculine battle of hockey, where the players try to get the puck and score the point.

• That said, women don’t like injuries, hence they don’t play hockey.

• The high for today in Chicago is 73 degrees, with showers expected.

Getty ImagesLeading up to Wednesday's Game 1, Puck Daddy is previewing every facet of the Stanley Cup Final between the Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins — on the ice and off the ice.

The movie “P.C.U.”, which was released back when Jeremy Piven had his own hair, gave the world the Caine-Hackman Theory, which stated that “no matter what time it is, 24 hours a day, you can find a Michael Caine or Gene Hackman movie playing on TV.”

In discussing the defensemen for Boston Bruins and the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Final, we’d like to offer the following offshoot of that theory: “No matter what time it is, 24 hours a day, Zdeno Chara is probably eating up ice time.”

Chara is averaging 29:21 per game for the Bruins, a total that includes five overtime games including that double-OT classic against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 3 of the conference final. It’s over five minutes more than the second-highest ice time leader for the Bruins in Dennis Seidenberg (24:10) and higher than Chara’s average when Boston won the Cup in 2011 (27:39).

[Blackhawks vs. Bruins: Who has the better captain?]

Does Zdeno Chara automatically give the Bruins the nod for best defense corps in the 2013 Stanley Cup Final?

(Ed. Note: As the Stanley Cup Playoffs continue, we're bound to lose some friends along the journey. We've asked for these losers, gone but not forgotten, to be eulogized by the people who knew the teams best: The bloggers who hated them the most. Here is B.D. Gallof, New York Islanders blogger, fondly recalling the 2012-13 Pittsburgh Penguins. Again, this was not written by us. Also: This is a roast and you will be offended by it, so don't take it so seriously.)

By B.D. Gallof

"I'm always relieved when someone is delivering a eulogy and I realize I'm listening to it." - might or might not have been Zdeno Chara

Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to the annual Penguins Eulogy. If someone who is still mourning the Bruins sweep happens to miss this, no worries. I can pretty much guarantee there will be one this time next season.

So, kind folks, please have a seat. You will see clearly, there are lots of them. The bandwagon emptied quite a bit after the first two loses at home The rest seemed to mutter their way off that plank in a grim stupor once Gregory Campbell hobbled himself right into the hearts of NHL fans.

You have to wonder if Sidney was taking notes.

Speaking of which…. let's just dive right in, shall we?

Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today to eulogize the light of the NHL’s life, the Pittsburgh Penguins. The cries, tweets and posts of fans’ disbelief on how this team could not only fail, but fail so badly versus Boston, border on hilarity.

Let’s be honest here… it is likely the Penguins bandwagon is about the only thing that has ridden through most of these hillbilly fans’ trailer park. What else do you do in Western Pennsylvania… be an Edmonton Oilers fan?