The Ice Sheet: Recchi Rocks

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

When Mark Recchi was waived by the Penguins, and then claimed by the Thrashers on re-entry waivers, the "Recchin Ball" vowed, Jean-Luc Picard style, that he would make the Penguins pay for what they've done. Being spurned is a great motivator, and Recchi wasn't about to go quietly into the night.

"They'll see," Recchi told the paper. "I didn't get 68 points for no reason last year. In the first seven or eight games [this season], I had a point a game until the coach decided to move me down two or three lines for whatever reason. I still haven't figured it out."

So far, so good for the old man as he had two goals in his debut game with the Thrashers last night, a 5-3 loss to the surging Boston Bruins. Recchi was pretty much the only one on the Thrashers who seemed to be very motivated for this match, and now the Thrashers have to wonder, "Can he keep this up?", while Penguins fans wonder, "Where the hell was THIS guy all season?".Heavy boots of lead
fills his victims full of dread
Running as fast as they can
Iron Man lives again!

Brendan Morrison, the NHLs current Iron Man, had his streak of consecutive games played end at 542 as he'll have to undergo surgery on his sore wrist.

Apparently, Morrison has been playing the whole season with an injured wrist, but chose to play through the pain until it got so bad that he couldn't sign an autograph. He'll be out until around the playoffs, which is a huge blow to a team that is struggling to maintain a playoff berth.

"It's significant," [Canucks GM] Nonis said. "From what we've been told, it's not a difficult (operation), nothing that we need to worry about. But he will spend significant time in a cast. And after that, there's rehab.

"We knew of this possibility weeks ago. We didn't know if his injury would deteriorate but it wasn't going to get better with rest, so we were hoping he could get through the season with it. But of late, it was getting progressively worse."

Honestly, I believe it's better for Morrison to miss time and get fully healed rather than continue to play hurt. All too often, players hurt their team by refusing to take themselves out of the lineup in the spirit of acting tough. GMs and coaches don't help the cause, and fail to realize that a player is often a detriment to his club if he's really hurt, and it's far better to have a healthy call up from the farm fill in for awhile. The Canucks have some talented youngsters (Jason Jaffray and Mason Raymond), and this injury will give them a chance to shine. Both boys are certainly both off to a good start aftering scoring a goal apiece in last night's 3-2 win over the Ducks. Quack!

You can add John "Chocolate" LeClair to the list of NHL drunk drivers that is far too large for the league's liking. I guess Steve Chiasson's death didn't sink in with the league's players and ex-players.

Former NHL star and Vermont native John LeClair pleaded guilty to drunk driving charges Wednesday morning. He was ordered to pay a $606 fine and had his license suspended for three months.

How the hell did they come up with $606 for the dollar figure? Was the judge drunk?

It seems that opposing defenses and score sheets aren't the only things that Henrik Zetterberg likes to tear up. Yep, the Red Wings Swedish sniper is a threat to cameramen everywhere as he created a path of destruction during a recent commercial shoot.

On his final take, Zetterberg zigzagged up the Joe Louis Arena ice until the sled carrying the cameraman slid into the skater pulling it creating a heap of humanity and camera equipment.

"That was pretty funny," Zetterberg said. "It'll be interesting to see how it turns out."

Sheesh! I already knew the Wings were a bit media unfriendly, but this takes the cake!

Gratuitous YouTube Embed: Being out here on the West Coast, the Los Angeles Kings don't get a lot of media attention in the hockey world. Thus, the Kings put together this amusing ad to boost their team's chances of getting a player voted into the All Star game. I have to say that the Lubomir Visnovky bit is hilarious.