New York Rangers: Thoughts on McLeod, Department of Player Safety

The New York Rangers got manhandled in every way possible last night and I have some thoughts to get out.

Everything about last night’s hockey game in Nashville was just wrong.
Let’s start out with talking about the Rangers’ performance.
How the hell does an NHL team only get nine shots through two periods?
Both squads looked like they should be in separate leagues. The Predators in the NHL and the Rangers in the ECHL.
The team looked lifeless and slow all night. The only forward that was noticeable the entire game was Michael Grabner. Other than him, each forward should be ashamed of themselves.
Brady Skjei had the worst game of his NHL career on Saturday night. He whiffed on at least four or five passes throughout the game, one directly leading to a Predators goal.
Poor Henrik Lundqvist.

What more can you say about how they played? They are bad, we all know this, and the sooner they sell the better.

Now on to the real reason I’ve been anxious to write something about this game.

I’m sure as a human, Cody McLeod is a phenomenal person. Everywhere he’s gone his teammates seem to love him for a reason I supposed.
But as a hockey player–and only as a hockey player–McLeod is a useless waste of space on the ice and on a roster.
He does absolutely nothing well and the one thing he was supposed to be able to do, protect his teammates or stand up and fight for them, he didn’t do when the team clearly needed something.
So if he isn’t going to fight when other team’s take liberties on his teammates and he isn’t going to protect them from these situations happening, he shouldn’t be on the roster. It’s a joke.
And I hope that his performance last night defuses anybody who still preaches “toughness” and the need for an enforcer in the lineup from speaking any further. Your argument was rendered useless last night.

The NHL doesn’t give a damn about player safety and headshots and was night and this morning confirmed that.
Here are the two illegal hits from last night by defenseman Alexi Emelin and Filip Forsberg, respectively:

Are those penalties?
Hell yes, they are!
Was either of them called for penalties?
Nope!
With that in mind, the NHL should suspend both of the game’s officials, Francois St. Laurent and Garrett Rank.
Also, Forsberg will be receiving a call from the Department of Player Safety, but Emelin isn’t.
Honestly, in my opinion, the Emelin hit is by far the most egregious of the two. He left his feet and launched himself at Staal whereas Forsberg was extremely reckless with the way he swung around and hit Vesey square in the schnoz.
Forsberg will probably get just a one-game slap on the wrist for the help that won’t solve anything.
If the NHL had any kahunas at all, hits to the head would be automatic 10 game suspensions. But they care about the bottom line and not the health of their players. Another reason why their league is a joke.
The league should be absolutely embarrassed with what it allowed to happen last night but everything will just remain the status quo so what the hell does it matter.