Hello Readers,

I am pleased to join the TRR community, but before I write my first ever blog post allow me to introduce myself. My name is Avi Schecter and I write to you from Raanana, Israel. I've been living here for three years and change now but my love for hockey is stronger than ever. I came over here from Woodmere, NY three years ago and NY/NJ is where i have been since the age of 11. Before I moved to the tri state area I lived in Silver Spring MD, 15 minutes outside DC. As a kid my parents had Caps season tickets and hockey is a major part of life for the entire family. I can remember as a child in my basement with my brother we had our entire basement set up as a rink with blue lines, a red line and face-off circles.I used to pretend to be Mike Gartner or Bobby Carpenter. I've stuck with this team through thick and thin and never before has it been this exciting to be a Caps fan. Enough about me now, I'm sure I will go into my life further later on but now lets tackle a few issues.

Before I blog about anything Caps related I want to talk about the plague of head shots that has taken over hockey in all ranks of the North American game. The NHL has to lead in this area, it needs to be the pioneer in reform of the rules to eliminate head shots from the game. Its a fine line to walk, I know, changing rules is always a tough issue but rules need a changing and they needed it yesterday.

So I would like to add a few suggestions that I think the NHL should consider. One thing I was thinking about and later saw that I am not the only one thinking about it, is something Eddy Olczyk mentioned last night on Versus during the Caps-Dallas game. When a player is knocked out in a game as was the case the other night with Marc Savard and no penalty was called, replay should be allowed in such cases. This is an issue of safety and protecting NHL players;  nothing should be held back in achieving justice for the victim. Matt Cooke was clearly hunting and as a repeat offender should be looking at five games or more for his antics. However in that game at that moment its easy to see how a referee could miss the head shot at full speed.Given that Savard was down for a while justice should be able to be served at that moment. That's why replay should be expanded to head shots.

Another Idea I heard is a roster freeze for the offending team over the duration of the suspension.Great idea, make the team pay too, its how it should be.

I also think that Colin Campbell should not be issuing the justice.I think the Officials, the actual referees themselves should shell out the justice whether it be the on ice officials or a committee of on ice officials. Justice should be swift and uniform. Rulings should come minutes to hours after a game.

The plague has to be brought to an end, our players careers and lives are at stake.

My Bias as a Caps fan is clear cut, so hearing people debate Crosby vs. Ovechkin kinda makes me laugh.The argument are always some belittlement  of Ovechkin as to try and knock him down a notch as to lift up Crosby by knocking down Ovechkin.

I've heard so many stupid argument against Ovechkin ."He shoots too much" is one of my favorites.I mean c'mon that's an argument? Give me one coach at any level of hockey that will help you with that one. A great player creates his own chances both players lead the league in goals and Ovechkin has more assists in 7 less games.

I've heard Ovechkin doesn't play defense and doesn't back check so therefore Crosby is a better player. Again a great argument if there is any semblance of truth to it, but numbers speak for themselves people say +/- isn't a fair stat. OK assuming it is a somewhat skewed stat Ovechkin is a + 43 to Crosbys + 14 , but the stat I love to look at is TGA. TGA is the number of goals against that the player is on the ice for and doesn't consider the discrepancy for goals on the ice for.Ovechkin has been on the ice for 34 goals against, Crosby 61. Seems to this guy Ovechkin indeed is a better defender than Crosby. You see Ovechkin commands much more attention than Crosby does from opposing teams. He is much more dangerous. He can score from anywhere, anywhere!! When Ovechkin is out there, you as the opposition need to keep your head up or you may be eating ice when Ovechkin is out there. As an Israelite I can tell you about something called deterrence. Ovechkin is a deterrent. Ovechkin is also the two time reigning MVP and soon to be third. Crosby, he's great, no doubt but he isn't the best player. In a years time this blogger thinks we will be debating whether or not Crosby is the second best player in the league. Nick Backstrom will be challenging for that real soon. Last year people were saying he wasn't the best player on his own team. Crosby is a great NHL player, but he is the number two greatest player in the NHL today and it isn't even close.

Now that I have gotten that off my chest I will comeback next time and discuss the Caps. The cream of the NHL crop,and why the Caps are just so damn awesome.

Until next time ,Keep Rockin' The Red,Cap fans.

Written by :

Avi Schecter