According to the Globe and Mail, the NHL is investigating some comments that Toronto Maple Leafs coach, Ron Wilson, made in reference to the team’s interest in signing Daniel and Henrik Sedin.

On June 31st, Wilson said (on the Fan 590):  “You’re hearing right now, and this sounds very contradictory but, there’s a real possibility, I would think, that we would be going after the Sedins. Let’s just speculate there.”

Apparently, “an unnamed NHL executive remarked that what Wilson said was a ‘clear-cut case of tampering.’”  The Canucks haven’t filed a tampering complaint and the league won’t confirm the reports but NHL bylaw No. 15 states that tampering is, “the making or causing to be made through any medium, public or private, any statement indicating any intention or desire of or interest in acquiring the services [of a player on another club].”  If you go by that, Wilson really is in violation of this rule.

Of course, complicating matters is the fact that Toronto GM, Brian Burke, happened to be in Sweden at the time and many assumed that he was there to woo the Sedin brothers.  Naturally, the club has an explanation for his trip and said that he was there to talk to Swedish free-gent goalie Jonas Gustavsson.

I know some people don’t think it’s worth wasting time and money on investigating this issue but I think that they need to send a message that this isn’t acceptable.  Otherwise, we’re going to start seeing coaches and players sending out messages through the media more and more.

image: TSN

Post from: Hockey Beat

image: TSN.ca

The man is a nutball, his NHL team sucks and he’s got a strange temperament.  What’s wrong?  Was John Tortorella not available for this job?  He’s the only guy that I think could be a worse choice.

Alright, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system I’m ready to be fair.  Wilson is a well-liked coach and may be able to work better with a team that actually wants to win (sorry, Leafs fans).  Sure, he might have looked like a complete ass when he had the officiators measure Jason Spezza’s (Ottawa) stick in an attempt to get his team a power-play opportunity and maybe he got ejected from a later game for fighting with a ref.  If anything, the man has passion and I’ve got to give him credit for that.  I’m looking forward to watching the Olympics and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on Team USA.

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The man’s got a point.  The Leafs were outshot by the Bolts 30-21.

Here’s a video of Wilson getting a game misconduct.  You can see the officiator warning him and saying “you wanna go?”  What a tool…

This isn’t the first time Wilson has been talked about this week after his team lost.  He also hoped his Leafs could forge a comeback in a game against the Ottawa Senators by securing a power-play for reporting Jason Spezza’s illegal hockey stick. 

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I’m not going to lie, though, I laughed out loud when I saw Spezza trying to swap his stick around the 51 second mark.  Even better, around 1:40 it showed a replay of the moment when Spezza realized what was happening.  He actually drops his blade to the ice and steps on it, in an attempt to break it before the refs catch it.  Watch this:

Officials found that the blade on Spezza’s stick was below regulation as it approached the toe. "Real dangerous, I guess," said an annoyed Spezza sarcastically. "They told me (the blade) was too skinny. I shave them down to be skinnier."

It’s rare for a team to draw a penalty based on illegal sticks which brings up the question of whether people even care since almost no coaches call players out for using them.  I’d like to know what you think?  Was Wilson justified or was this just lame?

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