When Tim Thomas decided to post yet another politically-motivated statement on his Facebook page this week, he had to have known the backlash was coming. Adding fuel to the fire which was ignited with his now infamous presidential snub, the Bruins all-star backstop this time chose to weigh in on the relationship between the United States federal government and privately owned, but publically funded, Catholic hospitals.

His statements have ignited a raging debate in online forums, radio call-in shows, and beer-league locker rooms from coast to coast.

To even the most casual of observers, the ongoing debate within the National Hockey League concerning concussions has worn thin.

Despite ongoing efforts from NHL head office to address the issue, it seems as though every episode of SportsCenter brings a fresh batch of reports featuring one or more players exhibiting “concussion-like symptoms”.

*For the record, the medical world recognizes no such terminology. Concussion-like symptoms = concussion... every time.

What seemed to be a radical proposal just a few months ago has become the new reality of the National Hockey League.

A decision to scrap the six existing divisions in favor of a new four conference system was passed at Monday's Board of Governors meetings in Pebble Beach by an overwhelming majority of 26-4.

With his opponents tick-tacking passes through the neutral zone, 17 year-old Michael Matheson seems to stop on a dime. Though his feet never stop moving, he appears to be standing still as the play unfolds around him. Then it happens. With a quick snap of his wrists, he’s stripped the puck from a baffled Viking forward and is exploding down ice, leaving opponents and teammates alike to play catch-up.

Losing by a score of 8-2 with just over 54 seconds remaining in the third period, players on both benches were busy gathering water bottles and back-up sticks as I lined up for the game’s final face-off in the offensive end.

The puck squirted free into the corner, and I could feel the presence of the opposing center on my left. He was gaining quickly, but I decided to dig in, hoping for one more tally in the name of pride. There was still plenty of time to throw a quick pass to the blue line before going hard to the net in search of a rebound or deflection.

As we clamored for the loose puck, our feet became tangled. He hit the ice with a soft clunk and the sound of equipment grinding against ice dissipated into background noise as I pulled away from the crowd. Then, just as I arrived at the puck, I caught the reflected image of an airborne hockey stick in the glass over my left shoulder. Before I had time to realize what was happening, the two-handed tomahawk chop came down with a wallop against my right ankle.

A grown man, in the presence of 20 other grown men...in an otherwise abandoned arena...at 10pm on a Monday...in a regular season, beer-league game...which his team was winning by six goals with under a minute to play...had just tripped over his own two feet and decided that the most appropriate response would be to break my ankle.

As I rose slowly to my feet, a scuffle ensued. I said something nasty about his mother (or was it his wife?) and the referees decided that playing the last 30 seconds wasn’t worth the 11 bucks they were being paid to be there. They called the game and everybody went home angry.

Other than a bruised calf, there was no damage done on the play...but I couldn’t help but wonder:

What is it about playing a sport that makes some people think they have the right to lose their damn minds?

I mean, if a guy gets cut off in traffic, there aren’t many who would get out of the car to take a full-on baseball swing at another human being with a five-foot stick made of carbon graphite...

Because that would be crazy.

Yet, I hadn’t endangered this guy’s family. I hadn’t even dinged his bumper and left him with a repair bill. I was the winner of an insignificant foot race at the tail-end of a meaningless game, the outcome of which had already been decided. And this jackass figured it was the appropriate moment to unleash his inner Bruce Banner all over my Achilles tendon.

But why?

In a 2003 article by Tim Delaney, professor of sport sociology and social theory, he described sport as a microcosm of society. The experience of winning in sport mirrors the experience of success in life, with similar boundaries, competitors and laws governing participation. Just like in real life, you experience success and failure, teamwork and individual responsibilities, good breaks and bad bounces, and occasionally, you simply run out of time.

Thus, the reward of asserting dominance on-ice (or on-field, on-court, etc...) can sometimes fill a void left by the lack of success in a person’s “real” life.

As human beings, we are hard-wired to operate within certain social parameters. Throughout our evolution, the ability to distinguish between “us” and “them” has aided our ability to survive. It’s the reason people continuously sub-divide themselves; PC vs. Mac, Republican vs. Democrat, Budweiser vs. Coors, Packers vs. Bears...

We attempt to define who we are by establishing what we are not.

Once the line has been established, displays of dominance and aggression towards other groups essentially scratch a primordial itch to justify our own ambitions. If it’s a matter of “we” versus “they,” then obviously “we” are the ones who deserve the spoils.

But we do not live in primordial times. In the modern world, acts of violence and aggression are deterred by the threat of incarceration or other forms of punishment.

So we compensate; by revving the engines of expensive cars, by purchasing houses well beyond our physical needs, and by wearing 9 lbs. of titanium and diamonds around our wrists when a plastic Timex would do the same job for 1% of the price.

It’s all about displaying dominance.

Now, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there is something deeply unsatisfying about the lack of violence involved with these things. Having nice things is certainly proof of ability, but buried somewhere deep inside of every man is the need to stand over a defeated opponent, roaring out his dominance and thumping his chest like an angry gorilla.

Displaying dominance is nice, but asserting it is a different beast altogether.

Which brings me back to our beer league hero. Sport, it appears, is the last sanctuary of pure masculinity in our society; a place where the harshest penalty imaginable is the game ejection...that is, a forcible return to the real world.

With the amount of time left on the clock when the incident occurred, this particular angry gorilla had very little to lose. He was ejected from the game, but the referee didn’t even bother marking the penalty correctly on the score sheet. Technically, the ejection was given to the player with my jersey number on the opposing team (a player who, for the record, does not exist).

In the real world, the appropriate response would be to contact the proper authorities and let the system take care of the consequences. After reading all of this, you may think I would be inclined to do just that, to use my understanding of the situation to rise above the childishness of physical conflict.

But you would be wrong.

Sport is not about rising above conflict, it is about digging deep into it and engaging an enemy. It is about defending yourself and your teammates while working towards a common goal. It is about reverting to the most base of desires and simply overwhelming an opponent with sheer force.

That’s the beauty of sport; it is about scratching that itch.

So no, I won’t be writing to the league in order to correct the score sheet and ensure that the player’s mandatory suspension is upheld. And I will certainly not be forgetting the incident and moving along with my season.

Instead, I will simply take note of his jersey number and the next time I catch him with his head down, I will unleash the fury of thousands upon thousands of years of pent-up evolutionary aggression all over his sorry ass.

Because that’s what sports are for. The only difference is that I will understand why it feels so damn good to do so.

And if sport is truly capable of playing the role it should play in society...maybe we’ll grab a beer after the game and laugh the whole thing off. I have a feeling he might be the kind of guy who would appreciate the new watch I just bought.

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” –Seneca, ~50 AD

He may not have been a hockey fan, but two thousand years after the ancient Roman philosopher uttered the most famous of his musings, Seneca’s logic still rings true. For every break-out rookie performance, there is a disappointed veteran grinding his teeth on the bench. For every open ice toe-drag that leads to a highlight reel goal, there is an embarrassed defenseman lying face down in a pile of snow.

Such is the nature of sport. Such is the nature of life.

In my last piece, I examined a few of the players who have the potential to reinvent themselves this season; players who, for whatever reason, have been overlooked in terms of their potential impact and could come from nowhere to take the league by storm in 2012.

In this article, I will examine a few of the players who I believe could be poised for disappointment this year. Fantasy owners take heed; the past does not necessarily reflect well upon the future, and not all that glitters is gold.

With the preseason once again upon us, experts from around the world of hockey are clamoring to their crystal balls, eager to provide predictions for the season that lay ahead.

As always, there are a few topics upon which the media has chosen to focus its speculation; Steven Stamkos is widely expected to continue his meteoric ascension. The pressure is on in Vancouver as the Canucks look to prove their window of opportunity has not yet closed. And the number of two-cent donations piling up on Sidney Crosby’s status could fill a vault that would make Scrooge McDuck blush.

Each year, however, there are a small number of players who seem to appear from nowhere to take the league by storm.

The 2010-11 season was certainly no exception, with veteran net minder Tim Thomas leading the way. After a series of health-related issues forced him to forfeit his starting duties to back-up Tuuka Rask, Thomas was considered a long-shot, at best, to see regular playing time in the Boston crease...

He ended up having an OK year.

Whether it is a veteran player who is counted out too soon, or a blue-chip prospect that comes from nowhere (anyone remember Clarke MacArthur as a Buffalo Sabre?), every NHL season has its share of surprise heroes. Here’s a closer look at three players who I believe could fit the bill in 2011-12:

With 24 championship banners hanging from the rafters, the Montreal Canadiens are far and away the most successful franchise in NHL history. Steeped in history and drawing upon team support that borders on fanatical, Les Glorieux have forged a tradition of winning that dates all the way back to their founding in 1909.

Fast forward 102 years and Montreal remains one of the strongest and most consistent markets in the National Hockey League.

Over the years, many hockey heroes have passed through the city of Montreal. So many, in fact, that there are only two jersey numbers between one and ten which have not yet been retired.  An unprecedented 50 players that have donned the bleu, blanc, et rouge have gone on to be inducted into hockey’s Hall of Fame. With such an embarrassment of riches to draw from, one could easily comprise two or three Canadiens all-time rosters, each capable of competing with any franchise’s first line.

After sorting through mountains of historical information, and having gone through innumerable gut-checks, I am proud to present the final chapter in the All-Time Roster Series, and my personal favorite, the Montreal Canadiens:

After suffering through a 48-year championship drought, the Chicago Blackhawks found themselves atop the hockey world once again in 2010. In a city that is thoroughly saturated with sports success, the Blackhawks had become something of an afterthought in the wake of consistently competitive performances by the Bulls, Bears, and even White Sox through the latter half of the twentieth century and into the early 2000s.

Undoubtedly the most dominant city in professional sports over the past decade, the streets of Boston have hosted parades celebrating three Super Bowls, two World Series’, and an NBA championship since 2001.

But when Boston Bruins’ captain Zdeno Chara hoisted the Stanley Cup this past June, Beantown erupted like never before. An estimated 1.7 million fans took to the streets for a celebration that rocked the city-center until the wee morning hours. The celebration was not only larger than any Super Bowl parade, it also dwarfed the 2004 Red Sox World Series parade, making it literally the largest celebration in the history of America’s most historic city. Not bad for a "fourth sport".

With the dust barely settled on the franchise’s first championship in nearly forty years, we look back upon the greatest players to don the black and gold:

For many, the era of the Original Six represents the golden age of professional hockey. By the 1940s, modern rules had taken shape and the National Hockey League had emerged as the dominant force within the game. Through radio broadcasts and a budding television medium, fans were able to connect with the game like never before.

Nowhere was this growth better represented  than in New York City. Under the bright lights of Broadway, a hockey game could blossom into a grand spectacle. And it was the New York Rangers who took center stage.

For many players, the lure of playing in the world’s most exciting city was simply too tempting to resist. The Rangers were able to attract top-notch talent as players flocked to the energy and excitement that was mid-century New York. The result is an alumni base that reads like a "Who’s Who" of Hockey Hall of Fame inductees.

Sifting through the seemingly infinite annals of Rangers history, I have emerged with what I believe to be the single greatest line-up the franchise has to offer. In this, the second installment of the Original Six All-Time Roster series, I present the New York Rangers:

LW, Adam Graves- (1991-01) A true fan favorite for his hard-nosed style of play and offensive flair, Graves was a critical component of the 1994 Stanley Cup team that ended New York’s 50 year championship drought. In what may have been the single greatest individual season in Rangers history, Graves put up a team record 52 regular season goals and an additional 10 in the playoffs en route to winning the Cup. That year, he was also presented with the King Clancy Memorial Trophy in recognition of his outstanding community involvement.

C, Mark Messier- (1991-97) There is only one justifiable reason to have Jean Ratelle sitting on any bench, and that reason is Mark Messier. Quite simply the greatest leader in the history of the game, Messier captured his second Hart Trophy as league MVP in his first season as a Blueshirt in 1991-92. Two years later, facing elimination at the hands of the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference Finals, he guaranteed a Game 6 victory. With the entire Rangers team on his back, Messier proceeded to record a natural hat trick en route to ousting the Devils and eventually winning the Cup. The display of raw emotion as Messier ecstatically clings to the Cup at center ice remains an iconic image in the hearts of not only Rangers faithfuls, but of hockey fans the world over.

RW, Andy Bathgate- (1954-64) Perhaps one of the most under-appreciated Rangers of all time, Andy Bathgate was a legitimate superstar overshadowed by mediocre team performances. Bathgate took home the Hart Trophy in 1959 and was a perennial all-star for more than a decade, leading the Rangers in scoring for eight consecutive seasons. One of the very first players to harness the power of the slap shot, he may be best remembered for inflicting the facial laceration that led directly to Jacques Plante’s development of the goaltender mask. Known for his fiery temper as much as his scoring, he was later quoted as saying, "I was skating past and old Jacques, he stuck me with the goalie stick. You can’t hit him, so how do you get back at a goalie? Boom..."

D, Brad Park- (1969-76) Brad Park could well be the second best defenseman to have ever laced up a pair of skates. It was his only misfortune that throughout the course of his career he was rarely, if ever, the best defenseman to be playing in the NHL on any given night. Playing his entire career in the shadow of Bobby Orr, Park was a six-time runner-up for the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman and a first team all-star on seven occasions. Although his defensive skills were impeccable, it was his smooth skating and ability to contribute offensively that helped him to redefine the defense position.

D, Brian Leetch- (1987-04) Mark Messier called him "the greatest Ranger of all-time." He won the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year in 1989 and the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman in 1992 and 1997. He is one of only five defensemen to ever record 100 points in a season and in 1994, he led the entire playoffs in scoring en route to winning the Stanley Cup and taking home the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP... not bad for a kid from Corpus Christi, Texas. Brian Leetch was simply the epitome of a New York Ranger and his 17 seasons in blue and red still resonate with fans and experts alike, as evidenced by his first-ballot Hall of Fame induction in 2008.

G, Mike Richter- (1989-03) Mike Richter didn’t exactly take the NHL by storm early in his career, bouncing around the minor leagues for parts of three seasons before settling into split responsibilities in the Rangers goal in 1990. When the Rangers traded goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck following the 1993 season, however, Richter quickly blossomed into an elite-level NHL goaltender. The following season, he appeared in the All-Star game before his hometown crowd at Madison Square Garden, becoming the first goaltender to take home MVP honors in almost a decade. It wasn’t until the playoffs, however, that Rangers fans saw Richter’s true capacity as he backstopped all 16 victories en route to the Rangers’ first championship in more than 50 years. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame alongside teammate Brian Leetch in 2008.

Coach, Lester Patrick- (1926-1939) The first coach in franchise history, Lester Patrick is also the only coach to win multiple Stanley Cups behind the Rangers’ bench, taking home the hardware in 1928 and 1933. He also guided New York to a third championship as general manager in 1940. Although famous for implementing the offensive red line, Patrick is perhaps best remembered for the 1928 Stanley Cup Finals match-up versus the Montreal Maroons. Following an eye injury to goalie Lorne Chabot and hampered by a depleted roster, Patrick did the unthinkable and simply suited up to tend the goal himself. Not only was he adequate between the pipes, he was stellar, allowing just a single goal in a 2-1 overtime victory. Today, the Lester Patrick Trophy is awarded annually to honor outstanding contributions to hockey in the United States.

Honorable Mentions- Vic Hadfield, Jean Ratelle, Rod Gilbert, Ron Greschner, Jaromir Jagr, Harry Howell, Eddie Giacomin, Henrik Lundqvist, Coach Mike Keenan 

With the past two Stanley Cups being awarded to Chicago and Boston, Original Six franchises are once again shifting into full focus in the hockey world.

A somewhat misleading moniker, the term "Original Six" actually refers to the six teams which formed the National Hockey League between 1942 and 1967. The NHL was vibrant and strong leading up to the Great Depression. However, financial difficulties, combined with a depletion of talent due to World War II enlistments, forced the league to contract. Hockey purists will argue that this contraction allowed for some of the greatest competition the game has ever seen, essentially pooling many large fish into a very small pond.

Over the next six weeks, I will examine the history and traditions of each of these clubs and deliver what I humbly believe to be the most representative starting lineup each team has to offer.

Up first, representing Canada’s largest city and one of hockey’s most loyal fan bases, it’s the Toronto Maple Leafs:

Looking at the NHL’s scoring leaders this past season, it has become apparent that the next generation of superstars has come of age and is taking their place atop the hockey world.  Names like Ovechkin, Sedin, and Stamkos light up the score sheet each night as dazzling offensive displays have once again taken centre stage in the NHL.