Cheap shots, rivalries, and a few new goodies.

OK, now I'm pissed.

During Saturday's great game vs. Montreal, Mike Van Ryn was brutally cheap shotted (is that even a word?) from behind by Tom Kostopoulus. The hit resulted in a 3-game suspension. Why am I mad? Well, while Konstopouls sits out for three games, Van Ryn misses at least a month with a broken nose, concussion AND broken hand. So Konstopoulus gets the proverbial slap on the wrist. Here's what I think. If a player turns and motion keeps the other player from stopping to make the hit, call it a penalty, it's accidental, but it shouldn't happen. If the player INTENTIONALLY hits a player from behind into the boards, the standard 1-game suspension with the length going up by an additional game per repeat infraction should stay in place. But, if a player is coming in, with his eyes on the player's BACK instead of the puck, raises his hands and RAMS his opponent into the boards, resulting in an injury, that's intent to injure and should be dealt with more severely. This is gonna keep hapening if the league doesn't crack down on it, and these three-game slaps on the wrist aren't doing the job.

My opinion? If you INTENTIONALLY ram a player into the boards and hurt him, your suspension shouldlast as long as the injury. Plain and simple.

Now, I can already hear the russtle of the Habs fans. "What about Grabovsky's cheap shot? You only care because it's your team!" Not true, I think what Grabovski did was cheap, it is spearing, and he should've gotten a penalty for it. BUT saying it's the same thing is a long shot considering Carey Price was able make a perfectly fine save pretty much as it was happening, and Van Ryn couldn't even get up.

I was also right there ready to burn Ryan Hollweg at the steak after his little third straight boarding call at the beginning of the season. There's no place for that stuff in hockey from any player, on any team.

Now, on to a happier subject shall we? Watching this game did bring back memories of the old Leafs rivalries. Sure, I wasn't around to see the Toronto / Montreal Cup finals of the 50s and 60s, but I did see some heated games, and some great rivalries over the years. So, in the wake of LOVECROSBY87's rivalry blog on nhl.com (http://fans.nhl.com/members/lovecrosby87/blogs/23633), I'm gonna do a little 10 best of my own favorite Leafs rivalries. Look for that in my next blog.

On the collecting front, my mailbox has been looking pretty weak lately. Last week only saw me add two rookies to my Leafs PC, but with a little old-school flavour with Mike Palmateer and Ken Wregget RCs. This week started off a little better, with 1 package featuring 3 new Leafs RCs (Wozniewski Black Diamond, Bell Mini Jersey, Newbury Hot Prospects) and a couple traders.