Episode 0107: Parise Out Again, Staal Extension, Hathaway Suspended, Savard Tweets to Iggy, Stepan Hurt, Boucher Fired, Parity is D-E-A-D, Vezina for Rask? and More!

Here we are at the start of March, the deadline has come and gone, and now everyone is settling in for the playoff run.  That being said, there aren’t so many topics to discuss so this week the Two Man Forecheck delve into a couple of conversations that need to be had regarding parity and goaltending.  But more on that later…

We start with Zac Parise being hurt again.  He blocked a shot and is day to day, but are Wild fans noticing, or is the offensive explosion of Ryan Donato making his absence less noticeable?  Also, Eric Staal has signed a two-year extension to stay in Minnesota for short money (6.5 million).  A team friendly deal to be sure, his production appears to be on pace with the money.

Garnet Hathaway has been suspended two games for his hit on Luke Kunin.  The argument here is that he was given a match penalty and has never been to the league offices for any kind of punishment before.  Was the suspension warranted?  We feel it may have been a bit much.

Marc Savard sent a nice tweet to Jarome Iginla on the night of his number retirement in Calgary.  We delve into the number and quality of teammates that Marc has had over the years, and it is impressive.

The first main topic of the show, Parity is D-E-A-D, gets Mike going on a rant that needs to be addressed.  Chris feels that parity is on life support but with teams such as Arizona on the cusp of the playoffs there is a possibility that it still exists.

Speaking of Arizona, Derek Stepan is out 4-6 weeks with an upper body injury.  How this will affect their playoff chances remains to be seen.

Guy Boucher has been relieved of duties, effective immediately, and Marc Crawford has been named interim head coach.  The team has stated that they will search for a new head coach at the end of the season and have listed what they are looking for in a candidate (we touch on the requirements in the show).

Finally, we talk about a Matt Kalman post in which he states that Tuukka Rask has played himself back into the Vezina conversation.  Mike and Chris poetically break down why this may not be the case, or that you have to make the case for Halak and others who should be in the conversation.  This leads to a conversation about the love affair in Boston with Tuukka as well as Charlie McAvoy.  He is still only 100 games into his career but is he as advertised?

An intriguing show to be sure, please send us your feelings and feedback, but most of all…Enjoy the Show!