Frozen Fantasy: Over the line

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I’m sick of grown men acting like 2-year olds. Colby Armstrong(notes), Slava Kozlov(notes), Evgeny Artyukhin(notes), Alexander Ovechkin, Steve Ott(notes) and Tuomo Ruutu(notes). It was a bad week for undisciplined acts – hits from behind, knee-on-knees and slew foots. And only half were disciplined for their transgressions.

And then there’s Mike Richards(notes).

No supplementary discipline. Described as legal. But as cheap and dirty as they come.

It was head hunting at its worst.

Mike Richards is a gritty, hard-working player. But David Booth(notes) can’t talk on the phone or sit in front of his computer for more than five minutes at a time right now. Then he has to lie down. Five minutes followed by 55 just to recover. All courtesy of Mike Richards.

Purists say it was just a good physical play. He didn’t leave his feet. It was a shoulder, not an elbow. It wasn’t a late hit. But man, it was reckless. We have seen way too many players leaving the ice on stretchers courtesy of head shots. And some of them were carried off with career and life-altering injuries.

Sure, hockey players at every level need to keep their heads up. But there’s a huge difference between a good, hard check in the heat of the action and a headshot when the opponent’s guard is down.

The NHL needs to do something about cheap hits to the head. Hockey is the greatest game on Earth. And courtesy of HDTV, it’s finally starting to grow a decent American audience.

Trouble is, stretchers look even scarier at 1080p.

Now let’s take a look at who caught my eye this week.

Adrian Aucoin(notes), D, Phoenix (52-percent owned) – His foot speed is diminishing but the wily old vet more than makes up for that in wisdom and guile. And his smart play in the first month of the season finds him squarely in the list of top-10 Yahoo! defenders ahead of big guns like Zdeno Chara(notes), Dion Phaneuf(notes) and Shea Weber(notes). He’ll start to wear down – 14-year veteran blueliners always do. But right now, he can help you if you’re hurting in your own zone.

Zach Bogosian(notes), D, Atlanta (63-percent owned) – Bogy had two big goals Thursday night to bring his season tally to four goals and five points in nine games. Solid yet unspectacular but it’s clearly only a matter of time before this big workhorse sets out toward a 50-point season. Remember last year? He returned from injury and exploded with 11 points in 16 games over the last month. And he led all rookie blueliners with nine goals despite missing a third of the season. Bogy has Shea Weber written all over him and I think it’s coming this season. Stash him now if you have the room – goal-scoring defenders don’t exactly grow on trees.

David Clarkson(notes), RW, New Jersey (38-percent owned) – Wow! Clarkson surprised me last year with 17 goals to go along with his 164 PIMs. But there’s nothing to describe his outburst to start this season – try three goals, nine points and 18 PIMs in 11 games. He can’t possibly keep up this pace. But suffice to say he’s about to deliver a career year in points. Couple that with those tasty sin-bin points and you have yourself a very valuable right winger.

B.J. Crombeen(notes), RW, St. Louis (3-percent owned) – There’s only one reason B.J. is on this list and it’s not his scoring ability. He had a big week in the sin-bin department, taking on Steve Ott last Friday after the Stars’ agitator threw a knee when he shouldn’t have. Crombeen isn’t afraid to drop them with anyone and there’s a pretty decent chance he’ll deliver 160-175 PIMs this year. If you’re rolling three right wingers, he’s a great category booster. Just don’t expect any scoring heroics.

Shawn Horcoff(notes), C, Edmonton (34-percent owned) – That stench from out West this past month wasn’t the empty salmon can you put under your buddy’s car seat. Nope, it was the scent of big-money man Shawn Horcoff whose early play actually had me worried a beer-leaguer had assumed his identity. Well, Horcoff finally woke up on Thursday night and maybe that 60-plus point season doesn’t seem quite so impossible after all. Does he have the ability to deliver 55-plus points in the next 69 games? I think so. That kind of pace would make a speculator a very happy man.

Phil Kessel(notes), RW, Toronto (79-percent owned) – There’s a good chance this talented sniper will be back in game action Tuesday night. Check your wire and stash him right now, even if you have to put him on your IR. He immediately becomes the Leafs’ best scorer and at worst, excellent trade bait for the guy in your league who thinks he’s the second coming.

Filip Kuba(notes), D, Ottawa (21-percent owned) – Kuba is a seriously overrated fantasy defender. But the one thing he does well is tease for three or four week stretches. He’s back from injury and he nabbed two helpers Wednesday night. He’ll be expected to help on the PP and he’ll probably deliver decent numbers for a month or so. Grab him, use him and then leverage him in a deal before he falls off the map again. Because he will. He always does.

David Perron(notes), LW, St. Louis (31-percent owned) – A lot of pundits had this guy pegged for a 60-point season after his 50-point effort last year. But he fell on his face coming out of the starting blocks, recording no points, a minus-4 rating and eight PIMs in his first seven games. Ouch. But he has snapped to attention in his last three – three goals and six points with a plus-five rating. I just snapped him up to fill David Booth’s skates on my Friends and Family roster; you’d be wise to consider doing the same.

Andrew Raycroft(notes), G, Vancouver (9-percent owned) – I got to see a lot of Rayzor when he was in Toronto and honestly, I was neither impressed nor horrified. He’s an average, unspectacular netminder who was over-used in blue and white. But he was a whole lot better at Rocky Mountain High last season. Right now, he’ll be pressed into serious service with the Orcas given the rib injury suffered by Roberto Luongo(notes) and it’ll be a sink-or-swim situation. Still, the team in front of him isn’t half bad and Rayzor will certainly deliver decent numbers in their twine tent – just look what he did Thursday night. He’ll be better than a lot of goalies currently rostered in Yahoo! leagues. Grab him and hope for a short-term run.

Steve Sullivan(notes), LW, Nashville (9-percent owned) – Sully has been comatose so far this season but I don’t think it’ll last – he’s too good offensively to keep down for long. Yes, he’s an injury risk; he’ll always be one of those. But the peaks in his performance are sky-high when he’s “on.” And I think two points Wednesday point to a rising summit in his immediate future.

Alex Tanguay(notes), LW, Tampa Bay (46-percent owned) – I tagged Tangs as a preseason sleeper and how’d he repay me? He slept his way through the first several weeks of the season. I should have paid closer attention – this dude is a classic Rip Van Winkle starter but he does make up for it over the rest of the season. Well, coach Rick Tocchett juggled lines this week and Thursday, Tangs skated with Steven Stamkos(notes) and Ryan Malone(notes). Was there chemistry? You bet your boots there was – enough to brand the experiment an early success. Scoop him up now if you need a left winger – he’s soft but talented, and a point-a-game is hard to resist.

Antoine Vermette(notes), C, Columbus (13-percent owned) – Every year, I wax poetic about the virtues and upside of this talented and speedy Quebecer. And every year, he teases but ultimately ends up a flaccid disappointment. Not this year. He has finally found a comfortable home and he’s producing remarkably well on a squad laden with talent. He had a five-game, seven-point streak rudely snapped Wednesday night but I don’t think his stick will stay quiet for long. Center is deep but he’s in line for a 65-70 point season, some of which will come on the PP. There’s room on a lot rosters for output like that.

Back to head shots.

If the NHL was serious about dealing with head shots, it would have hit Mike Richards with a hefty fine. But it didn’t.

It’s time to break hockey’s so-called “code.” We sew stop signs on the backs of kids’ jerseys and for the most part, the kids get it. The NHL – I guess we should just call it reverse evolution.

Respect is a simple concept. But it’s clearly hard to demonstrate.

Until next week.