Thanks, Paul C.

Safe to say that hashtag also applies to:

Biebs skated with the Leafs  [link] in a track suit because they didn’t have any Youth Medium hockey gear laying around.  Look at his pants – I bet they’re rolled at the waist too.  Phaneuf is all, “You said Disney princesses!  I brought my Ariel lunchbox to get signed!”  I don’t think JB’s huge diamond stud earrings would fit under a helmet.

In a totally unrelated story, look which ad is featured on NHL.com today:

This triggered a chorus of “MissyouWhyPhiladelphiaagainSid’sdryerislonely” from my office.  And I haven’t even been watching 24/7!  But I’ll catch up now so as to not miss the triumphant return of Claude Giroux.  He wasn’t concussed, he was just saving up points.

Hahahahaha, NHL.com, you so funny.

Gingeroux had 1 G/3A in the Flyers win over Dallas last night [link].  He missed 4 games and still holds the NHL lead in points scored with 43.  Alright fine, you kinda like him don’t you?  Gross.

As predicted,  Pens’ Deryk Engelland will have a hearing with Shanahan today over his hit on Marcus Kruger [link].  Kruger did not play last night as the Hawks piled up on the Habs.  Corey Crawford, who has been benched in favor of Ray Emery for the last 6 games, was pretty impressive in net for Chicago.  Also applause-worthy is Jonathan Toews tying Stamkos for the NHL goal-scoring lead (it was an empty net but we’ll take it!)

Love everything about this.

Colorado won their 7the straight home game [link], which would be really exciting if they hadn’t also lost their last 9 road games.  But now they’re at .500 and they have 3 home games left before the end of the year.  They could be pulling up into the top 8 in the West pretty quickly.

And if you’re still watching, the Hurricanes blew a 3-1 lead to Phoenix last night in a really hard loss.  They are 2-6-2 under their new coach and are last in the East with just 26 points.  Apparently the fact that I really like the Canes and that their mascot Stormy is “an anthropomorphic ice hog” (Wikipedia gem) doesn’t count for much these days.  I’ll keep writing letters to Santa and maybe he can give EStaal and the boys a break.

Personally, I’m going with SHANABANNED for this one.  Eggo does sort of leave his feet and he’s definitely above shoulder height.  Kruger’s head is down, but it goes down and stay down before Eggo lines him up. Engelland could  and should have avoided this hit.

Eggo was not penalized on the ice, so the Hawks’  John Scott put on his stripes and fought him.  And, well… according to HockeyFights.com, Scott is undefeated in 19 regular season NHL fights over 3+ years.  He did not disappoint.

Scott received a 2 min instigating minor, a fighting major and a 10 minute misconduct.  Engelland got 5 for taking a  beating.  On the resulting Penguins power play, Chris Kunitz scored his 12th goal of the season.  It was the first of Malkin’s three helpers on the night and what a beauty.

Kruger took a few shifts after the hit, and came back out for the second period but did not play.  He will be re-evaulated today.  If the Hawks a) let him stay on the ice and b) let him come back out, I don’t see they were very worried about it in real time.  Symptoms are not always immediate, of course.  But what about the quiet room and all that?  I say Kruger should have gone right away.  Not that it bears on the penalties or possible suspensions assessed, but I thought we were being more careful that this.

What do you think?  Disco Dan says “It was a full body check.” [link]  I bet Shanahan will lock him up for a game or two, but so far no word from the NHL on a visit to the Principal’s Office.

Udpate: Haven’t seen it officially from the Blackhawks, but Kruger is apparently concussed and out tonight: