To Neither Forgive, Nor Forget: There's a deep bench at the Sports section of the Washington Post, one that contains an awfully talented writer by the name of Rachael Alexander Nichols. She broke in with the paper a few years ago covering the Washington Capitals, and has since done duty on a number of other beats. Still, she knows her pucks, something that is on display today on a story recounting the fallout from the Islanders-Maple Leafs playoff war from last Spring, one that left Islanders captain Michael Peca crumpled in a heap with six months of rehab ahead of him:

This is the story of three seconds becoming six months, of blood becoming sweat, of twisted bones becoming warped logic. It is of New York Islanders captain Michael Peca and veteran Toronto Maple Leafs center Darcy Tucker, although it could easily be about anyone in the NHL, certainly anyone who played through last spring's demolition derby of a postseason.

For those few months, skaters smashed into each other with abandon, and the wreckage was everywhere: torn anterior cruciate ligaments, busted ribs, cracked cheekbones, high-grade concussions. As the victims piled up -- high profile names such as Chris Pronger and Richard Zednik among them -- players swore revenge, coaches railed about the refereeing, and league officials handed out suspensions and get-well cards in equal doses.

Six months later, much of the storm has quieted, and the NHL's 86th season is calmly underway. But not everything is exactly the same, and not everyone has forgotten. This is the story of blood becoming sweat, and it starts with Peca, whose collision with Tucker was so jarring it became the emblem of an entire postseason.

On the night of April 26, Peca skated onto the ice healthy. Less than two hours later he left it crumpled. And he is still trying to find his way back.

Of course, Nichols is talking about the shot where Tucker took out Peca at the knees, tearing his antierior cruciate ligament and putting him on course for six months of rehab. But that wasn't the only dirty hit that night. Earlier, Maple Leafs forward Gary Roberts crushed defenseman Kenny Jonsson into the boards from behind leaving him with a concussion. Roberts got a 10-minute misconduct, but the league neglected to tack on a suspension, just as it would with Tucker's hit on Peca.

Though the Islanders would come back to win game 6, these two injuries essentially ended any chance the Islanders had to win the series. It was as if Leafs coach Pat Quinn had determined that since his team couldn't skate with the Islanders, then he would just ask his team to crush them.

Now, don't get me wrong, I like physical play as much as anybody else. It's one thing when hard hitting, good positional play, and physical sacrifice shut down a team's offense. But it's another entirely when you simply go out and try to injure the opposition's best players.

Certainly, it was frustrating to see the NHL ignore what the Leafs did, and essentially let them get away with it. It was infuriating to see a player like Roberts, one I once respected, make such a big deal about promising to take out any player who might cross-check him in the back, yet show so little respect for another player who had an injury history not unlike his own. It's even worse, now that the league has distributed a videotape that features Tucker's hit on Peca as an example of the sort of hit that will result in a suspension from now on.

But this is hockey, and there isn't any room for whining. What the NHL front office won't take care of, you can be sure the Islanders will take care of on the ice. Over the course of the offseason, the team sacrificed some offense in order to acquire players like Jason Wiemer, Aaron Asham and Mattias Timmander -- the sort of players you want if you don't want to see your team pushed around anymore. And on December 6th, when the Leafs make their first appearance on Long Island since last season's playoffs, I'm sure there's a good chance career minor leaguer Ray Schultz might find himself on the Islanders bench as well.

And there will be a reckoning. One I don't think the Maple Leafs will soon forget.