Dal­las Stars cap­tain Jamie Benn is the new Bill Romanowski.

— Kris, Dallas

Kiz: Play­off hock­ey is not polite, one of the rea­sons fans love it so. Dur­ing the course of a sev­en-game series, ani­mos­i­ty between teams often grows because the bruis­es don’t have time to heal. The Stars have tried to knock Col­orado off its game. There’s noth­ing wrong with that. Benn seems intent on estab­lish­ing him­self as an intim­i­dat­ing Ene­my No. 1, in the way Romo did back in the day for the Bron­cos. Have some of Benn’s shots crossed the line? I say yes. He appeared to tar­get the knee of Avs defense­man Erik John­son ear­ly in the series and shoved cap­tain Gabe Lan­deskog in the back after the con­clu­sion of Colorado’s vic­to­ry in Game 3. Fight­ing tends to decrease in the play­offs, but would any­one be sur­prised if Lan­deskog and Benn drop the gloves before this series is over?

The NHL being trans­par­ent about injuries is the last square to fill out my 2020 Bin­go card. I don’t think I’ll win.

— Rick, Chicago

Kiz: While the Dal­las Mav­er­icks announce a knee injury will shelve Kristaps Porzingis for the remain­der of their open­ing-round series against the Clip­pers, the Avalanche feels com­pelled to act as if injuries to Philipp Grubauer or Joonas Don­skoi are mat­ters of nation­al secu­ri­ty, with lit­tle more than hints pro­vid­ed by coach Jared Bed­nar as to the specifics of their ail­ments. Could some­body inform NHL com­mis­sion­er Gary Bettman that straight­for­ward hon­esty about injuries in the play­offs is a sign of league integrity?

Get a grip, Mark. For the love of God. We have evil in this world. It’s going to always exists. Life isn’t fair and we don’t need some over­paid, enti­tled NBA and Major League Base­ball ath­letes con­trol­ling the nar­ra­tive. If you real­ly think refus­ing to play is going to change things, you’re nuts.

— Reece, Wray

Kiz: Evil does exist. The staffers here at Kickin’ It Head­quar­ters are crazy enough to think we should fight evil rather than let it all be. Kudos to Rock­ies short­stop Trevor Sto­ry for stand­ing up and speak­ing out. Will fans that believe ath­letes should shut up and play stop cheer­ing for Sto­ry? Hope not. I’m with Trevor.

Why do you even write about sports any more, Kiz?

— Rigs, Dil­lon, Texas

Kiz: Is that a sug­ges­tion that I stick to soci­etal issues? Or per­haps stick to writ­ing about home ren­o­va­tion? I bet Drew and Jonathan would quake in their work boots if I start­ed a blog called “Prop­er­ty Kiz.”

And today’s part­ing shot is a com­pli­ment, humbly accept­ed and much appreciated.

Dur­ing my youth, I was for­tu­nate to wake up every morn­ing and read the sports columns by Shirley Povich in The Wash­ing­ton Post, and it is still a priv­i­lege to read Tom Boswell on base­ball. I want to say your col­umn about ath­letes speak­ing out was one of the great­est pieces of writ­ing ever, wor­thy of being up there with the great Povich. Although I am a Wash­ing­ton Nation­als fan, your columns are what keep me a Den­ver Post sub­scriber. Keep it up.

— Jeff, Louisville