Domi-Probert to do reality-tv, Lidstrom's nut, more news of the day

Written by Chris Block

Tuesday, 09 June 2009 23:00

So, Patrick Sharp’s supposed spear or “pitch-forking” of Nicklas Lidstrom in Game 3 of the Conference Finals suddenly became an issue again today. The secret got out at some point after the Hawks/Wings series ended that the reason Lidstrom missed the remainder of that series was because he had suffered a severely inflamed testicle as a result of the blow.

I remember hearing about this after Game 2 of the Finals (when I’d yet to lift a self-inflicted embargo on posting here), but Bruce Dowbiggin wrote about it today on the Globe & Mail site and it’s caused a stir online. I picked up his story via Kukla's Korner. Damien Cox had it last week when I assumed it was old news.

Of course, Dowbiggin went as far to point his finger at unnamed beat writers and journalists who in his estimation held back information on Lidstrom’s injury, in summation, to comply within NHL injury confidentiality during playoffs. Not to break the unwritten code per say, instead of writing what they know to be true. And that elicited this response from Damien Cox this evening.

Not to stray from the topic (Nicklas Lidstrom’s nut) but Dowbiggin is both right and wrong. I’ve had correspondence with two known hockey writers/personalities (neither local by the way) who’ve told me flat out a few injuries they knew to be factual but also stated they would never print or go on record with those because the backlash would be effusive. Now, Lidstrom’s ailment eventually became public knowledge but not until he rested and skated two games post-injury. There’s two sides to this argument. One, publicizing the testicle story immediately would’ve squashed any scuttlebutt leaving fans to speculate various possibilities such as viruses; is he old and wearing down?, or is he resting a prior injury and the Wings simply not giving the Hawks enough respect? Obviously, none of those theories held any weight. The other side would argue giving out the swollen testicle story would somehow give the Blackhawks and ‘unfair’ advantage or more coarsely, a target to shoot for. In that case, if the whole world new what the injury was and television cameras caught a Hawk blatantly gunning for that target, you’d have a hell of a case for suspension, or just another Hawk in bad repute. Why should the Wings be against that? If there are no secrets, players will be held to higher standards. Players know who’s hurt and where. Every team has 30-45 sets of trained eyes watching every second of every game. And then they go back and scrutinize it all over again on film. They see things in the hallways and outside locker rooms that no one else sees. When the league and accommodating media-types go along with ‘shush-not a word’ policy, players targeting those injuries are given a free pass in the court of public opinion. That’s what’s wrong with the NHL’s injury disclosure policy.

If you watch games close enough, someone gets speared, kneed or ‘accidentally’ up-stuck in the nuts every game. Patrick Kane did it twice in Game 4 of the Conference Finals. Lidstrom’s is an awful injury and you’d never condone what Patrick Sharp allegedly did, but the extreme effect in this case was surely accidental and I don’t think Sharp should be considered any more dirty than the other 884 players who skated in the NHL this year because of it.

Now what’s strange about the timeline of the injury is that Lidstrom skated at Red Wings’ practice the day following Game 3. Chris Chelios (who received a call early on Sunday, the morning of Game 4 in Chicago that he would be needed back in the lineup for Lidstrom) even commented that he’d seen Lidstrom at dinner on Saturday night and everything seemed fine.

I have testicles, and I’ve been slashed and speared there many times in hockey, and taken some errant pucks in targets 7-8-9 too, but my testes never swelled up the size of grapefruits so I wouldn’t know if a delayed reaction like that is normal?

-- I watched the CBC broadcast of Tuesday’s Game 6 instead of NBC. During a first intermission commercial, Tie Domi and Bob Probert appeared on my screen promoting a new fall CBC reality series named “Battle of the Blades.” The twosome pop on the screen wearing figure-skating tights before Domi says “Wait until you see our pants.” Apparently teams of popular former Canadian hockey players and figure skaters will be matched in weekly elimination challenges. The promo I saw can be seen on YouTube here. More on the show here.

-- Hockey Night in Canada’s Scott Morrison is reporting Ray Emery will sign a one-year, $1.5M contract with the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday. And he (Emery) did.

-- New Dallas Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk reportedly fired head coach Dave Tippett today. I guess this shouldn’t be a surprise given the drastic changes in process in that organization. Nieuwendyk wants, and is entitled, to bring in his own guy and he will be. It’ll be interesting to see who he brings in because removing Tippett would seem to indicate Nieuwendyk would like to see his team be more offensive, which would provide some relief to Marty Turco who struggled this past year. What’s funny is, if that is what the new GM is going for, it’s exactly what Brett Hull was advocating. But Brett was reassigned because he wasn’t treating his new position seriously enough, not because of any ideas or means he may or may not have wanted to see instilled.

-- How nervous must Marian Hossa be right now? Two main players in Friday’s Game 7 are Hossa and Sidney Crosby. Hossa for making the move to the Big Red Machine for one year solely to win a Cup and now on the brink of that triumph he’s done little in the way of contributing to. Crosby because it’s one of those games that defines great players. He said after last year’s lost he’d never let it happen again. He can be great Friday and the Pens could still lose. But the point is - Crosby must be great.

-- Ratings for Tuesday’s NHL (Game 6) and NBA Finals (Game 3) are in. Overall the NBA (on ABC) trounced the Stanley Cup (on NBC) with an 8.6 rating to the NHL’s 3.4. Even more staggering is overall estimated viewership. 14.2 million people watched to basketball game, while 5.8 million watched the Wings and Penguins. Head-to-head, which the two games were from 8:15 to 9:30 Chicago time (this excludes the NHL’s eight minute overrun since there is no data available in that span for the ABC game) the NBA more than doubled hockey, 7.5 to 3.6. The NHL peaked for the final eight minutes of Tuesday’s game at a 5.1, up from the 4.4 they did from 9:15 to 9:30. That being said, the additional viewers probably didn’t switch over from the basketball game since ABC’s rating also jumped from a 7.2 to a 8.1 in the nine ‘o clock hour’s third quarter. Still, the NHL will consider this a big success since Game 6 was the third most-watched game ever on NBC, behind only games five and six of last year’s series. (Sports Media Watch)

Although data clearly shows there’s little, if any, crossover between the two audiences, the NHL catches a break as Game 7 will not be opposed by the NBA on Friday night. Game 4 of the NBA Finals is Thursday evening.

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