Bruins' Daniel Paille "feeling great"; not concussed and listed day-to-day

Not everyone who gets knocked cold has a concussion, just ask Daniel Paille.

The left winger on the Boston Bruins' fabled Merlot Line absorbed a brutal - but clean - hit from Buffalo Sabres' defenseman Jake McCabe during Boston's President's Trophy clinching win over Buffalo on Saturday afternoon - the 29-year-old so wobbly on his skates that he needed assistance to the room for evaluation...

...but Bruins' coach Claude Julien reported on Sunday morning that Paille was doing much better than when we last saw him doing the rubber chicken dance after McCabe flattened him.

Coach says Paille is "doing great" and is day to day ^JI
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) April 13, 2014

“We got some good news today,” Julien told beat writers. “He's feeling great, so it's just about going at it day-to-day here, but certainly real positive news.”


Perhaps "amazing news" would have been a more prudent way to put it, regardless, the news is welcome in that the Bruins' normally roll with four lines - their third and fourth lines are widely considered the best in the National Hockey League - but one would figure that a fourth line without one of it's main contributors would be cause for Julien to reduce it's ice time in the post-season.

Paille is an essential cog to the fourth line, averaging 12 minutes of ice time per game, matching his goals production with nine dimes and earning a plus-nine rating for the season.

Blues' Patrik Berglund joins half a dozen teammates on the shelf

Boy, when the St. Louis Blues fall apart, they don't screw around.

Losers of five straight, the Blues have also lost David Backes, T.J. Oshie, Vladimir Tarasenko, Derek Roy, Brenden Morrow and Vladimir Sobotka - and now they can add centerman Patrik Berglund to the growing list, as the second-line dish man left Friday night's loss to the Dallas Stars in the third period with an upper-body injury.

Of course, the Blues are being cryptic with the injury, but sources suspect either a shoulder or collarbone could be the issue.

It's sounding as if Berglund's injury is serious, and the #stlblues will be without seven of their top 12 forwards Sunday.
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) April 12, 2014

The 25-year-old has played in 78 games for the Blues this season, earning a plus-ten rating and scoring 32 points on 14 goals and 18 dimes while averaging 16:10 of ice time.  The injury means that Berglund almost certainly will not play in Sunday's season finale against Detroit, and may not be ready for the start of the post-season.

The Blues were until very recently considered the class of the Western Conference and were the favorites to win the President's Trophy, but now may not even win the Central Division title if the Colorado Avalanche beat the Ducks in Anaheim on Sunday - a tall task considering the Ducks must take at least one point to clinch the top seed in the West.

Should Colorado win in Anaheim, the surprising Avalanche will take the top seed - not bad for a team that many thought would be lucky to just make the playoffs when the season began.

Caps' Marcus Johansson's season ends with UBI

As if barely missing out on the playoffs wasn't painful enough, the Washington Capitals now have to endure injury added to insult.

Centerman Marcus Johansson left The Capitals' win over the coasting Chicago Blackhawks in the second period on Friday night, the result of taking a Nicklas Backstrom drive off of his left hand during a Caps' power play and did not return.

Playing in all but one match thus far in the season, the durable Johansson potted eight goals and laid down 36 dimes for 44 points which, unfortunately for the Caps. rated fourth highest on the team behind Alex Ovechkin, Backstrom and Joel Ward - and that's how his season will end, as Johansson has already been ruled out for Washington's season finale:

Marcus Johansson will miss Sunday’s season finale, Oates said.
— Katie Carrera (@kcarrera) April 12, 2014

Washington's first round pick in the 2009 entry draft, Johansson averaged 18:32 of ice time per game while earning an abysmal minus-twenty one rating.  Not as offensively minded as some on the team, the knock on Johansson all season has been his hestiancy to shoot the puck, putting just over a hundred on net for the season.

Johansson's status has not been updated since leaving the game.

Blues' David Backes day-to-day with LBI

The St. Louis Blues are in quite a spot.

Not only have they lost three consecutive games - giving up four goals in each - but now they may have to try and pull out of their late-season funk without team captain David Backes, whom the team lists as day-to-day with an unspecified lower body injury.

The centerman was injured when he took an Alexander Steen drive off of his foot during Tuesday night's 4-1 loss to the Washington Capitals, taking one more shift after suffering the injury, then departing for the room for evaluation and treatment.

No further word has emerged from the Blues regarding Backes' condition.

Though they are aided by the fact that their next opponent - the Minnesota Wild - has no motivation to do anything but prepare for their first round playoff opponent (and probably have no interest in trying to secure a higher seed that would cause them to match up with the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks), their last two opponents of the regular season have plenty still on the line and will be desperate.

After the Blues visit Minnesota, they travel to Dallas to face a Stars' who hold a precarious two-point lead over the Phoenix Coyotes for the final playoff spot in the west, then return home to find a Detroit Red Wings team that will be looking to move up to the sixth seed in the east - possibly even the fifth - to take on either the Canadiens or Lightning as opposed to remaining the seventh seed and having to deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round.

If the Blues can't manage some points out of their last three contests, they will surely miss out on the President's Trophy - which they probably would anyway given that the Boston Bruins have a three point lead with three games to go - but even worse, they could be overtaken by Anaheim or the surging Avalanche and be forced to face a scrappy Minnesota team or Los Angles in the first round.

Of course, missing Backes and his 27 goals and 57 points aren't a deal breaker in respect to holding onto the top spot in the Western Conference, but breaking the current losing funk they are in is imperative if they want to make noise in the playoffs - and they have only three games to find a cure.

Flyers' Zac Rinaldo receives four-game suspension for cheap shot

The National Hockey League got it right.

Buffalo Sabres' coach Ted Nolan announced on Monday that defenseman Chad Ruhwedel was done for the rest of the season after suffering a concussion, courtesy of an elbow to the jaw from Philadelphia Flyers' centerman Zac Rinaldo - so the league decided that the punishment should fit the crime.

Rinaldo's obvious targeting of the defenseless Ruhwedel's head earned him the same playing status as Buffalo's rookie blue liner, as the league handed down a four-game suspension, which means that Rinaldo is also done for the regular season.

"Rinaldo takes a poor angle of approach and does not make full body contact. Instead, he launches into Ruhwedel with force, picking his head and making it the main point of contact." - Statement from NHL Department of Player Safety

Rinaldo's suspension is without pay, meaning that the $15,384.60 that he would have earned in the four games now goes directly the the league's player emergency fund.

While the suspension is far from a landmark decision by the department, it is appropriate in terms of justice and in setting of precedence, wherein the suspension equals the amount of time lost by Ruhwedel - a policy for which is long overdue for a league that considers itself serious about the safety of it's players.

Of course, there has to be limits and the league should adopt a structure in which there are clear sentencing guidelines where intent is obvious, so as to both help the players remain safe on the ice as well as prevent any manipulation by the victim and his team to cause unjust punishment...

...which is perhaps a pipe dream due to a litany of factors contained in the latest CBA, so league discipline czar Brenden Shanahan's hands are tied somewhat, and it may never be a perfect system, but in this one particular case, the punishment does indeed fit the crime.

The Flyers can clinch a playoff berth on Tuesday night with a win over the Florida Panthers, but they hardly have the sixth seed locked up in the Eastern Conference playoffs, with Detroit and Columbus right on their tail - and their schedule is doing them no favors, with trips to Tampa and Pittsburgh on the docket later this week...

...and if the Flyers drop to the seventh or even eighth seed, they would have to face either Pittsburgh or Boston in the first round, which almost surely would mean a quick exit from the post-season.

But while Rinaldo isn't a deal breaker for Philadelphia making the playoffs, his absence could make the difference in whom they play, and maybe that would be enough of a punishment to make him think twice next time he sees an opening to cheap shot someone...

Sabres' Chad Ruhwedel likely done for year with concussion

Buffalo Sabres' defenseman Chad Ruhwedel has suffered a concussion at the hands - rather - the elbow of Philadelphia Flyers' centerman Zac Rinaldo and is probably done for the season - but to hear Rinaldo tell it, it makes one wonder who he thinks the victim actually is.

"That always happens with me. I get on a good streak and then something bad always happens." Rinaldo lamented to beat writers following Sunday night's blowout win over Buffalo. "I try not to think about it too much."

Well, Zac, the guys that make up the NHL's Department of Player Safety have been thinking about it, and the only way to deal with your obvious cheap shot - and the way in which it should be dealt with - is to suspend you for Philadelphia's final four games of the season.

It's only fair, right?  Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

To his due, Rinaldo did acknowledge guilt in the incident at the same time as trying to incite sympathy, something that may or may not help him when having his little chat with Brenden Shanahan on Monday afternoon.

"I had a lot of speed going at him. I put my shoulder down, and as he shot the puck my shoulder hit him clearly," Rinaldo admitted. "Proof is in the pudding right there. I shouldn't have done it. There's no need for it. We're up 4-0, but it's part of the game."

Well, maybe it would have helped him had he not said that delivering a cheap shot to a defenseless player's head is part of the game.

Ruhwedel was helped to the room after the incident early in the third period and coach Ted Nolan told writers after the game that his rookie defenseman had suffered a concussion - and given the league's mandate on concussion protocol that a player be symptom free for a week before resuming play, it goes to figure that Ruhwedel's season is over with just 4 games left to play.

The 23-year-old Ruhwedel has played well in his 21 games with the Sabres this season, logging nearly 19 minutes per game and has one assist and a minus-three rating in his role as a stay-at-home blue liner.

Flyers' Zac Rinaldo tossed from Sunday night's match with Sabres

They don't call them the "Broad Street Bullies" for nothing, but the head shot laid on Buffalo Sabres' Chad Ruhwedel on Sunday night by Philadelphia's Zac Rinaldo went beyond even the Flyers' sordid days of infamy.

Rinaldo initiated contact with Ruhwedel at the four and a half minute mark of the third period of Philadelphia's 5-2 win over Buffalo, launching himself at the Sabres' defenseman who was playing a puck from the high point, catching Buffalo's rookie with an elbow to the jaw.

Rinaldo was assessed an intent-to-injure match penalty and immediately escorted from the ice by the officials while Ruhwedel was helped to the bench and then to the room, suffering from a concussion.


Replays clearly show Rinaldo's blades leaving the ice in an obvious attempt to target the defenseless Ruhwedel, drawing the ire of Sabres' bench boss Ted Nolan.

"Those are the type of hits that we have to get rid of.  Those are not only dangerous hits but you're also putting a fellow player in jeopardy of his career." Nolan said to reporters after the game. "Head injuries, concussions, we all know how serious they are and we still have guys with flying elbows going directly to the head."

Rinaldo is scheduled for a hearing with the NHL's Department of Player Safety on Monday afternoon, and can most likely expect to have a few games off without pay for his goonish transgression, given that he's been called to the desk before, a fine for slew-footing and a suspension for charging within an eight-day period in 2012.

Luckily for Rinaldo and the Flyers - who with the two points gained by beating Buffalo is now just a point away from clinching a playoff berth - this infraction falls just outside of the 18 month period that would label Rinaldo a repeat offender within the scope of the NHL's safety rules - but those incidents will be taken into account when determining the length of the impending suspension.