EHM The Blue Line

I'm old skool like Lightning coach Tortorella is when it comes to who gets/deserves to wear the "C" and this is an interesting move in proving that point and to me makes an interesting article to read about the 'old school' notion of Team Captain which is just one of those really cool things that I feel distinguishes Hockey from other sports in that Captaincy actually means something:

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=176592&hubname=nhl

It's also why as coach of the Pens I'd make Mark Recchi Captain not Crosby.

Two related issues are Naslund talking about his status as 'C' and Ovechkin claiming he's not ready to be named Captain at this point, but due to his still having issues with communicating his thoughts easily at all times in English.

Is he any relation to Tim 'The Tool man' Taylor?

Interesting choice, yes Sir, lol!!!

I do believe that they call him the Tool Man as a nickname though I'm not positive It's also funny that the beginning of the article says that in comparison to the two other people with 'official' letters on their jerseys (Lecavalier and Richards) they'll have made Taylor's salary after playing 8 games this year.

Taylor does have the pedigree for it though and apparently was basically the C after Andreychuk "retired" last year. It's an example of why when done inthe traditional manner hockey Captains are an interesting topic.

Yep, he is the Tool man. Taylor will be a good captain. But if he only gets fourth line ice time, it is a tough place to be captain from. And with Vinny and Richards taking up so much time down the middle, what is he going to play? 10 minutes?

As for Nazzy...Unless he waives his no-trade my guess is he will be captain in Vancouver again. Can't take away a C from someone, and then expect them to be happy. If they do take it away...it has to be Ohlund's. Noone else fits the bill. I wish Trevor did, but unless he has a huge rebound year, and gets to play a little (played about 9-10 minutes last year) no way.

Taylor plays about 9-10 minutes as well so Linden isn't so out of line... It's tough from an on-ice duties/interacting with the refs area yes, though with Tampa Richards has been doing most of that I think it's more of the leadership area that Taylor gains the C role.

I agree it's tough to take the C from an active player in the case of Naz, but not unprecidented as Totorella did call for Vinny to give up the C which he did...