Ben Blood Needs to Learn Captaincy

It's been a full week and a half since the last post and I'm sorry I didn't post anything up sooner, like my thoughts on the Cammalleri trade and such, but I'm busy with school and well my teachers like to give a lot of work. But that's all done now as we head back into the frame and I'd like to talk about something outside the realm of the NHL and that's about the game between North Dakota and Minnesota and a brawl that happened after the game.

Ben Blood, an assistant captain for the North Dakota men's hockey team and a fourth-round draft pick of the Ottawa Senators, got into an altercation with a Minnesota player after the game. He was mad after an opposing player who came off the bench, slashed at his legs. Later, North Dakota head coach Dave Hakstol stripped Blood of his assistant captaincy, meaning that to earn it back, he has to prove himself as a leader on the ice in a positive aspect.

I never followed the kid that much because I was too busy covering the NHL and the MLS but I hear from people who knew and wrote about him, that he was a very good assistant captain and a good draft pick for the Ottawa Senators. But this altercation might change some minds. In fact, Bob's Blitz, a local blog that covered the game, says that Blood should not play another game for the Fighting Sioux.

Whoa, whoa. Calm down a little bit. Just because he got into a scrum with a Minnesota player doesn't mean that he should be kicked off the team. He's young and he needs time to develop his attitude and his respects for the opposing team, even if they did something that might seem a little over-the-top or edgy. But let's look at something much better than just a kick-off.

I think stripping the captaincy is a great idea for now because it'll teach him that being a leader means not getting in over yourself all the time and going after an opposing player, even in the handshake line. The thing he needs to work on is biting his tongue. As team captains or an assistant captain, you're supposed to find some peace between the two players and provide leadership without physically engaging the other players because of something you believe is wrong. A captain should make wise decisions and make those decisions that are not based on personal vendetta but on a career and the great choices you have when you make the right decision. And certainly, fighting another player was not the right decision.

Ben Blood might never get his assistant captaincy back, but he is a good player. He just needs to learn how to control his attitude and his temper and just play hockey. After all, it's just a game and a game should be fair and not full of this kind of a mess. Let's just hope he is able to control his temper by the time he gets to be an Ottawa Senator or whatever team he gets traded to (if Ottawa decides to trade him away.)