Each week, the NHL on TSN panel voices its opinions on the hot topics of the day in the Wednesday Night Hockey Quiz.
As a follow-up, TSN.ca offers you the opportunity to chime in on all the big issues with our insiders. Read up on all the questions and answers from TSN's hockey experts, and put in your own two cents on our popular Your! Call feature.
Question #1: What should have happened in the wake of Florida Panthers defenceman Keith Ballard whacking his goalie Tomas Vokoun with his stick? An NHL fine? A league suspension? A team suspension? Or nothing whatsoever?
Bob McKenzie: I'll say nothing whatsoever. The only one that I even contemplated for a moment was a team suspension, but the Panthers decided not to do it. If the Panthers are okay with it, I'm okay with it. I'm always trying to suspend guys in the NHL - not this time. Give me a break.
Darren Dreger: I'm going with NHL suspension. Obviously Ballard wasn't intending to hit Vokoun in the head, but there's still danger there. There's danger to the players on the ice, the officials on the ice and there's danger to those who are watching the game in the building. He's trying to smash his stick in frustration over the post, over the crossbar. What if it breaks and a shard of the composite stick goes up over the mesh and into the seats? It was a reckless and dangerous act.
Peter Laviolette: Absolutely no suspension whatsoever. It was an accident. He took his stick, he broke it over the post, he accidentally hit his teammate, he said he's sorry, it's all over. Suspension? The answer is no. Can you be suspended for breaking your stick over the post? The answer is no.
Question #2: If, as Vladislav Tretiak says, Alexander Ovechkin plays like he's half-Canadian and half-Russian, what blood other than Canadian could be said to flow through Sidney Crosby's veins? Half-Finnish? Half-Russian? Half-Swedish?
Dreger: I'm going with half-Finnish because clearly he's feisty and he has that scoring ability, too.
McKenzie: I'll go half-Swedish, although in this case I feel like invoking the Torts rule and saying I don't like the question. He's a good playmaker and the Swedes are a very humble group that like to pass the puck.
Laviolette: I'll say Russian. A couple of the most dynamic players - Kovalchuk and Ovechkin - they can really skate, they can score and they can really move.
Question #3 (Video Question - watch the corresponding NHL on TSN Quiz Video to see the three shootout moves mentioned): On the heels of Andrew Ladd's bad shootout move last night, who has demonstrated the NHL's worst shootout move in the non-Dennis Wideman category? We say that because Wideman's move is so bad that you all would select it if we had it in the category. From now on, a bad shootout move is called a 'Wideman'. Or, you pulled a 'Widey'.
Laviolette: I'm going to say Ladd. I watched it last night and when he took off and he threw it in the corner, it almost looked like a dump-in. I had him in Carolina and I won a Cup with him so I love Ladd. I hate saying bad things about him but that was bad.
Dreger: I'm going with Andy McDonald for the pure and simple fact that the game was on the line. The San Jose Sharks ended up winning the game because of the missed opportunity. Now there were others, but he doesn't even get a scoring chance at all.
McKenzie: I'll go with Ladd. He gets the 'Widey.' It's the first time I've ever seen a dump-and-chase in the shootout.
The NHL on TSN panelists have made their selections. Now it's your turn on the Your Call feature below!
