Around The World
  

Jokes aside, the experience was one of amazement, wonderment and learning, too. I feel that the differences between cultures are lessened when you go to visit places like China. It's a trip every one of my readers should make at some point in their life; it is time and money best spent.

Now there was a smidgen of hockey during my stay there. My suite at the Peninsula Palace was sweet (hmm, that's a homonym), with flat screens on both the sitting area and the bedroom.

If you're a soccer fan, you would have been in heaven, the UEFA Champions League was being contested the week I was there and truth be told, the games were actually exciting. I think there was a 4-3 game in the bunch, that's like a 7-6 game in the NHL for the uninitiated.
 

Upon my return to the States, I was in the press room before Monday's Kings-Oilers match (side note, Edmonton's stealing money, they've quit) and was chatting with Dave Joseph (www.davejoseph.tv), a very talented broadcaster and a friend who will no doubt be working at the NHL level soon. I brought up the Simon incident and Dave was adamant that the 25 game banishment was not enough punishment for the act.

"You have to send a strong signal that behavior like that isn't acceptable in any way," was his point.

I differed because the consequences of the hit was minimal; the Rangers' Ryan Hollweg didn't miss a game. My point was that the hit looked a lot worse than the damaged it caused, certainly he should miss time. Former Kings' GM Dave Taylor made the point to us that Simon is a repeat offender with numerous suspensions on his record, but that the 25 games seemed reasonable to the Hall of Famer.

While Joseph and I went back and forth, former Islanders' head coach and current Canucks' scout Lorne Henning joined us, listening in the bicker. With him in earshot and neither one of us will to give ground, I delivered the punch line to my argument that had the table laughing.

"Eh, he's a RANGER."

All you Rangers' fans, feel free to flame away at dennis@scoremedia.org.

THE SECOND SEASON

Now for that scintillating playoff race in the West. Whoops, I must be still jet-lagged because there is no race in the West, folks.

The top eight are locked and loaded, but that doesn't mean that there are some intriguing questions yet to be answered. The Red Wings are just a shade hotter than the Predators and they've vaulted in to the lead in the Central Division by virtue of sweeping a home and home with Nashville last week.

In the first match, Chris Osgood bested Tomas Vokoun and in the rematch Dominik Hasek was just a smidgen better than Chris Mason. Nashville was cruising along nicely when they acquired Peter Forsberg at the trade deadline and many observers, this one included, thought that Foppa would be the last piece of the puzzle. But after getting three helpers against the Kings in LA on March 3, he's missed six consecutive games with a chest injury. And that bump on the chest just may be the difference between first place and fourth place for the Predators.

You'd think Detroit Head Coach Mike Babcock would be thrilled with his team's stretch drive, but if he is, he's certainly not saying so publicly.

"If you at the West last year, the top four seeds fell in the first round and it's even tighter this year," said Babcock. "Where you finish to me is not near as important as how healthy you are.

"Our No. 1 goal is to get healthy. There's not one team in the top eight right now, including ourselves, that I'd be all that excited about playing. They're all that good."

Babcock's certainly right about one thing. All eight teams are pretty good; but there's one team intrigues me most.

The Minnesota Wild are just a point behind the surprising Vancouver Canucks entering play on Sunday. They are closing as well as anyone in the league, currently riding a six-game winning streak.

In a league with increased scoring, the Wild are old school; primarily because of old school head coach Jacques Lemaire. If you're looking for a player that would compare to a Lecavalier or Crosby, forget it. Their leading scorer, Brian Rolston, ranks 61st in the league in scoring, so this team is dangerous because of excellent goaltending from Manny Fernandez and Niklas Backstrom, smart (yes, conservative) play on the road and timely goal scoring. Their regular season style IS playoff hockey, so maybe these Wild are this season's Edmonton Oilers.

AND FINALLY...

There are have been forty-one 500 goal scorers in the history of the NHL. This week Mike Modano became the second American to accomplish the feat. You may not like him, because he's so gifted or so handsome, but this accomplishment is massive. Modano will pass Joey Mullen to become the all-time leading American goal scorer in the history of the league and he'll do it with the same franchise. Kudos to a class act.
 

Dennis Bernstein, the man behind SCORE! Media, is a columnist for TheFourthPeriod.com and the Los Angeles Correspondent for The Fourth Period Magazine.