Sporting Madness

The NHL announced today that Anaheim Ducks defenceman Chris Pronger would be suspended for eight games for his stomp on Ryan Kesler of the Vancouver Canucks. Outstanding CKNW and Canucks TV colour man Tom Larscheid nailed it towards the end of the clip, calling it "A deliberate play by Pronger just to stomp on Kesler with his skate." In my mind at least, this was out-and-out dirty, right up there with the infamous Chris Simon on Jarkko Ruutu play. Of course, Simon's a fringe player, so the full book (a 30-game suspension) got thrown at him: Pronger wouldn't even have been suspended without the NHL suspiciously finding a "new angle" after they'd already ruled it was inconclusive. According to Pronger, the league told him Thursday night there would be no suspension, but then re-reviewed the tape on Friday and came up with the new punishment. I don't see how they deemed it inconclusive in the first place: even the original camera angle was far bette...

In Truro, NS, for a few days, which is why updates have been a bit sporadic (also, covering three different games Saturday didn't help, but more on that later). Saw something I felt compelled to talk about, though. The Windsor Star is reporting that 19-year old Windsor Spitfires' captain Mickey Renaud collapsed and died in his home today. This is a huge tragedy for the Spitfires, the OHL, and Canadian hockey as a whole. It illustrates the here today, gone tomorrow nature of sporting potential and fame. One moment Renaud was a fifth-round pick of the Calgary Flames, captain of a respected junior team, and one of the team's best players with 21 goals and 41 points in 56 games: the next, his bright future inside or outside hockey is suddenly stripped away. The Romans perhaps summed it up best: sic transit gloria. It's these events that break the "fourth wall" between athletes and regular people. There are far too many of them: one of the best cases is soccer, wh...