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Shorthanded Detroit Begins Second Half Tonight
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Captain Nicklas Lidstrom has been suspended for tonight's game.
The Detroit Red Wings begin the second half of their regular season tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets. While the Red Wings typically make short-work of the perpetually second-tier Blue Jackets, they will be a tad shorthanded tonight. Superstars Nicklas Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk have been suspended for tonight's game at Nationwide Arena. The two players aren't suspended for any type of on-ice infraction nor did they participate in any Sean Avery-type off the ice antics. The two best players on one of the league's best teams have been suspended for....skipping the All-Star Game this past weekend in Montreal. Lidstrom and Datsyuk had legitimate reasons for not participating this weekend's festivities. Both players were nursing injury and decided that a few extra days of rest and treatment were more important than going to play in an exhibition game.
The NHL's reaction was baffling. They deemed that even though the players were injured, the fact that they did not travel to Montreal to show their faces was enough to take them out of a regular season game. This decision is ridiculous on two-fronts. First, what is more important, two elite players playing in a game that no one watches, and even fewer care about, or those two players resting up to give their team the best chance to make a run at the Stanley Cup. Secondly, A double-standard was shown here. Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby was also injured, however, he avoided suspension by making a few appearances in Montreal. I frankly don't see what the difference is, considering none of the players played in the actual game. Why should a team have one of their top players eschew treatment to get on an airplane to go to a few gatherings? The suspensions are more ridiculous when you consider that the two players were not even selected to start in the game. The fans must have been really disappointed that two players that were not voted as starters were not at the game. Nicklas Lidstrom is on short list of all-time great defensemen in the history of the sport, and Pavel Datsyuk is a perennial Selke and Lady Bing trophy candidate, and could be a Hart Trophy finalist by the end of the year. It makes absolutely no sense to suspend two great players for such trivial reasons. Yet another decision that makes the NHL look absolutely bush league.
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