Two Minutes for Charging

It all began on February 16th, 2004. I'd just finished watching the Leafs get burned by the Boston Bruins, 5-2, in a key divisional match-up, and I was eating dinner with my dad at the Casey's near the Air Canada Centre. Ends up there was a Vancouver-Colorado game, another important divisional matchup, that had just ended, and the highlight wasn't the score but a borderline hit by Colorado enforcer Steve Moore that forced superstar winger Markus …

…now reprimanded with media fanfare and harsh league punishment. The experts can say whatever they want. If the NHL, who has tried for years to attract the American market, is so desperate as to forfeit the soul of the game in exchange for the big bucks, it can go right ahead. But though it all, this is still the game that this boy has fallen in love with. And that won't change with a punch.