Ryan Kesler Swatch Card

Ryan Kesler might be on a new team this year, but he still gets people talking; this time, it was for a dirty/late hit at 19:59 of the third period of the Anaheim Ducks game against the Minnesota Wild:

He didn't get suspended because he glided those 25 feet across, and delivered a shoulder-to-shoulder hit, but the Wild's Zach Parise - an Olympic teammate of Kesler's with Team USA - called it ''stupid'', and I tend to agree in this case.

I think it's too early in the season to try to pick up on trends regarding teams, such as winning or losing streaks, or individual players' statistics - I usually wait 10 to 30 games before passing judgement. But there is a trend towards less supplementary discipline than in years past, as many moves that were borderline legal but showed a clear malicious intent have not been further punished, when just one game would have sent the message that the league's at least paying attention; instead, Milan Lucic got fined for simulating masturbation because, well, the kids, I guess.

But going back to Kesler, the one positive about his end-of-game check is that I get to feature this card, from Panini's 2011-12 Titanium set, #24 of the Game-Worn Gear sub-set, showing him in the Vancouver Canucks' white (away) uniform, with matching jersey swatch:

I'm not the biggest fan of blue-meets-green in general, but the thing I dislike the most about the Canucks' uniforms is the word VANCOUVER on them. If they just had the logo, it probably wouldn't be so bad. Though I preferred their uniforms from the mid-1980s and all of those from the 1990s.