WCHA commissioner-for-now Bruce McLeod "discussed" Kyle Rau's one game suspension for hitting Jason Zucker in the absolute most Bruce McLeod way possible, meaning he talked at length about boring, stupid things no one cares about, and refused to give any real information on pertinent issues. Your money quote:
“We decided in the Zucker-Rau incident, after looking at all the factors involved, that there were enough other circumstances involved,” said McLeod, who didn’t specify said circumstances.
Those "other circumstances": the game was on national television. In a vacuum, I could see that hit drawing a suspension, but compared to where the WCHA has drawn the line for supplemental discipline in the past, there's no way that hit crosses the line, other than that it happened in a very public forum.
For what it's worth, Zucker
is healthy and ready to start running his mouth again.
After I posted my story on Alex Mason's amazing goal, the story spread all across the internet, including being picked up by Yahoo's main page, which has helped push the video to over 720,000 views. Ryan S. Clark has a
great follow-up on the story where he interviews Mason. I've seen a lot of questions and speculation about what Mason's future in hockey might be. I know I'd be very interested to see him play at the Great 8 senior showcase tournament once the high school season is done, and I'd imagine a fair number of scouts feel the same way after seeing that video.
One year ago, former Wisconsin goalie Kirk Daubenspeck was in a horrific car accident that seemed likely to end his life. Tonight,
he will drop the ceremonial first puck for the Badgers, after what has been a remarkable recovery.
Wisconsin's Justin Schultz has been a rare treat of a player that was ready to play at the next level,
but chose to come back for an extra year of school. Schultz has been incredible this year. Wisconsin's struggles might deny him a real chance at the Hobey Baker, but he may be college hockey's best player this year.
