The view from the Woods

Some random thoughts from the world of sports.

1. Don’t look now, but the Leafs beat three of the NHL’s top five teams this past week (Ottawa, Montreal and Detroit) and are six points out of the last playoff spot. Does this mean Uncle Cliffy will turn out to be a buyer at the trade deadline? Are the Buds destined for another ninth-place finish? At the very least, the Steven Stamkos watch may not include Toronto after all. Smart Leaf fans are cringing though…they’ve seen enough almost-playoff berths for now, and could do with a couple of solid losing years in order to build a Cup-contending team.

2. File this one under the “it’s a wonder this doesn’t happen more often” pile. As I write this, Florida Panthers forward Richard Zednik is being transported to hospital in Buffalo in stable condition after being cut in the neck when teammate Olli Jokinen accidentally hit him with his skate after being hit. A couple of times each year, an NHL player will suffer some sort of laceration from a skate blade, but with sixteen pairs of these on the ice at any given time (including officials), sometimes uncontrollably, it’s a wonder it doesn’t happen more often. This weekend, it’s happened twice in two days. Linesman Pat Dapuzzo was cut for 20 stitches and a broken nose by Steve Downie’s skate in yesterday’s Rangers-Flyers game. Downie proceeded to beat up Fedor Tyutin, a non-fighter, but that’s a story for another day. Hopefully face shields and neck guards will become more of a discussion after these incidents.

3. The Phoenix Suns showed their first sign of vulnerability…a shotgun, reactionary trade. Their acquisition of Shaquille O’Neal was met with the predictable hoopla, but is a telltale sign that the team is already a little bit nervous about that nagging playoff record of theirs. Shaq’s style doesn’t fit in with that of the Suns - at his fastest speed, he can make it to the other end of the floor by the time the Suns have already scored and are heading back on defence. He’s also injury-prone and not nearly as good of a leader as Shawn Marion, who although he wanted out of Phoenix, can do it all. The Suns remind me of the Ottawa Senators earlier this decade - great regular seasons, but zero playoff success, which used to compel them to make trades for good players, but ones that didn’t fit in with their team (Tom Barrasso, Peter Bondra, Tyler Arnason, etc.). Hopefully the Suns don’t suffer the same fate as the Sens did after those types of deals.

4. The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men’s hockey team choked worse than George W. Bush at pretzel time this past weekend, and lost out on the division to the Queen’s Golden Gaels. More on this in the Journal, but a division win is huge for Queen’s - a first-round bye and home-ice advantage (although who knows where they’ll be playing) in the next. Is this the start of something big for Ovens, Olsen and Co.? Here’s hoping so.