If Nothing Else, NHL Is Still Wonderfully Violent

Yes, the NHL regular season got underway over the weekend with the cities of Stockholm and Prague both hosting a pair of games between the Penguins and Senators and the Rangers and Lightning, respectively. But truth be told, there was little to write home about when it came to the action on the ice. If you want something really breathtaking, you’d have to go to Toronto last night, where Ole-Kristian Tollefsen of the Columbus Blue Jackets caught Jason Blake of the Toronto Maple Leafs looking the other way:↵

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With Blake sent sprawling to the ice, one of this teammates, Alex Ponikarovsky, came to his defense. But it was to no avail, as Tollefson made short work of him, winning their short bout handily. ↵↵If anything, this little clip can tell you a lot about what life is like in the NHL. Sure, the hit that Tollefson laid on Blake was clean. Then again, Blake is one of the smaller players in the league, and coming to the defense of a speedy and scrappy player like him after getting his clock cleaned by Tollefson is more or less a question of honor. Players like that -- Blake is a former 40-goal scorer who is listed at only 5-10, but is almost definitely smaller -- need to be protected in order for them to have room to do their jobs.↵

↵↵Then again, when challenged, Tollefson beat back the opposition, and rather decisively -- and it’s just the sort of intimidating victory that will carve out extra space on the ice for his own teammates.↵

↵↵(H/T: Kevin Schultz)↵

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