NHL player safety in mid-season form; more early season thoughts

The NHL Department of Player Safety is dropping the ball again....

Some early season thoughts from the first week of the 2022-23 NHL regular season….

Mid-season form for the NHL Department Of Player Safety

Not sure there is a department in the NHL that is worse at doing its job the league’s Department Of Player Safety, and their first major incident of the season was a giant dud.

As is tradition.

They announced on Tuesday that Washington Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov has been suspended one game for a vicious high-sticking incident involving Vancouver Canucks defenseman Kyle Burroughs on Monday night.

You can see it here.

Lachlan Irvine @LachInTheCrease

Another view. That's a blatant attempt to injure a guy, should be a suspension for sure.

That is just a completely reckless use of his stick, and it quite honestly looks pretty blatant. Even worse, he adds a shoulder-shrug and half-assed cross-check to Burroughs’ back after he is already down on the ice.

How is that only worth a game?

In typical Player Safety fashion the description of the play makes it sound like a terrible play and then it ends with a completely underwhelming suspension.

Totally baffling. But do you know what else is baffling? Putting a career enforcer who sells a line of hockey equipment under the tagline “make hockey violent again” in charge of player safety.

The Rangers and Golden Knights look great

These were the two teams that fascinated me the most coming into this season.

The biggest question with the Rangers wasn’t whether or not they would be good — they will be — it was just how good will they be? Their recipe for success a year ago was not entirely sustainable, it was largely goaltending driven, and they lost some important depth pieces over the summer.

The wild card with them was their young players taking a step forward and playing like the top picks that they are.

Through four games, the Rangers look FIERCE.

Not only are they winning, but they are winning in a manner that simply did not happen often a year ago. They are controlling possession during 5-on-5 play, dominating possession and scoring chances, and getting some monster performances from their to players, with Artemi Panarin leading the way.

The most encouraging development for them? The trio of Alexis Lafreniere, Kaapo Kakko, and Filip Chytl has already combined for four goals in four games.

If those three (and K’Andre Miller) all become front-line players at the same time the Rangers go from good playoff team to legitimate Stanley Cup contender in a hurry.