2006/2007 Hockey Season Thread

[lari]

Watching the Blackhawks play makes my penis soft.

[NobBe Nobbs]

You're right. I didn't take in the rest of what you said.

I just wanted to say softcocks

[Guest Grapehead]

How do you consider it an eye for an eye? If someone shoots your brother, do you want to kill them? or their brother? What did their brother have to do with this? Nothing, except be a blood relative to a murderer.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Heh, the paper today is commemorating the academy award performance by Mats Sundin last week against the Habs, questioning why he didn't get an unsportsmanlike conduct call after whining for so long and spitting invisible specks of blood onto the ice. They also speculated that the only reason Jannsen got suspended was because his hit was against someone from the center of the universe and action had to be taken even though the Neil hit on Drury was clearly far more brutal. God I love how much my city despises Toronto.

Wow, Montreal and Toronto are making it really hard on themselves to get into the playoffs. It looks like we both are almost not trying to win.

[Toe]

Heh, the paper today is commemorating the academy award performance by Mats Sundin last week against the Habs, questioning why he didn't get an unsportsmanlike conduct call after whining for so long and spitting invisible specks of blood onto the ice. They also speculated that the only reason Jannsen got suspended was because his hit was against someone from the center of the universe and action had to be taken even though the Neil hit on Drury was clearly far more brutal. God I love how much my city despises Toronto.

Wow, Montreal and Toronto are making it really hard on themselves to get into the playoffs. It looks like we both are almost not trying to win.

[The Sultan of Swank]

You think that's bad, the other language media in Montreal is ripping Gainey and Kovalev right now.

[SeanDMan]

That hit on Kaberle wasn't worth a suspension. It was a little late, but Kaberle still needs to keep his head up. Watching your pass = instant death, as R.J. Umberger can attest to.

[Toe]

That hit on Kaberle wasn't worth a suspension. It was a little late, but Kaberle still needs to keep his head up. Watching your pass = instant death, as R.J. Umberger can attest to.

[NobBe Nobbs]

That hit on Kaberle wasn't worth a suspension. It was a little late, but Kaberle still needs to keep his head up. Watching your pass = instant death, as R.J. Umberger can attest to.

[Guest Grapehead]

That's retarded... Janssen was in front of Kaberle the whole time, it may have been late but Kaberle should've had his fucking head up!! God damn I'm so sick of guys with their head down, watching their passes and then whining when they get wrecked. There was no point in Janssen hitting Kaberle, true, but it doesn't make it a cheap shot. Kaberle, with his head up, would've seen the hit coming the whole damn time, Janssen didn't come from the side, or the back, he came from the fucking FRONT where your fucking eyes are. Maybe I'm watching a different hit, but come on kids keep your head up. Kaberle didn't deserve the hit for having his head down, he didn't deserve it for any reason, but you sure can't prevent one with your head down.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Should Kaberle get suspended for being a fool?

[Toe]

Should Kaberle get suspended for being a fool?

[Guest Grapehead]

Should Kaberle get suspended for being a fool?

[NobBe Nobbs]

Neil and Janssen probably shouldn't have taken advantage of those two guys with their head down

That is the fact. Janssen saw Kaberle with his head down and hit him. END OF STORY.

[The Sultan of Swank]

Heh, Sens fan defends Neil hit.

[Guest Grapehead]

This is fucked... there is no right answer to this situation, someone, everywhere disagrees. Neil's hit was legal, and I could find you a bunch of non-sens fans to agree with that. It was still a cheap shot, which I stated in my previous post, so exactly how am I "defending it"... it's not as if I was like "Drury is a fag, should have his head up, it's his fault, Neil rulez leafz sux". Janssen's on the other hand, was legal in that there was no elbow or charging, however, it was clearly interference. Irregardless, a cheap shot is taking advantage of a player with his head down or his back turned, etc. Now getting checked from behind is a whole other story, but... you should keep your head up. I don't care if Kaberle was at the other end of the ice, clearly with a goon like Janssen around you're never safe. If I'm walking around town alone late at night, maybe in a bad neighbourhood, just because I shouldn't get gang beaten since it's illegal, doesn't mean I'm just going to walk through the city with my eyes closed. I'm not defending Janssen, cause he deserved a bigger suspension, but Kaberle doesn't get hurt nearly as bad if he had his head up, and to me that's more important. I'd rather see Kaberle come back in a day, or never leave, than Janssen get a slap on the wrist. I really hope you understand that I'm not BLAMING Kaberle, I'm just saying that until the NHL addresses this whole illegal hitting issue further, guys REALLY need to keep their heads up cause I really hate seeing guys get injured. They also need an alternative to suspending Janssen, cause that's fucking lame, the guy never plays anyway so you can really tell NJ is hurt. I'm also glad to see Maurice didn't retaliate against anyone but Janssen, and took the 2 points instead, which was class.

[SeanDMan]

It's impossible to tell how much of his elbow Jannsen hit Kaberle with, but it's no worse then the Misawa style forearms that Scott Stevens used to throw with no call on the play.

It WAS late, but the Leafs TV commentators were counting to four seconds between when the puck left and when the hit arrived. That's fine and dandy, but anyone can count to however many seconds they want when the clip is played in slow motion. Ludzy counted it down in real time and it was only 1.8 seconds, which while still late, is far short of the "OMG HE NEEDS TO BE SUSPENDERS" range of over 3 seconds. The simple fact is, whether it was an elbow, whether it was a late hit, whether it was worthy of a suspension, people need to stop admiring their own handywork. You always need to keep your head up. Players who finish hits, like Brian Campbell, like Scott Stevens, can do serious damage to guys like R.J. Umberger, Eric Lindros, Paul Kariya, if those players aren't paying attention. While the Neil and Jannsen hits weren't just finished checks and were definitely late, if you sit around and gaze in amazement at how awesome your outlet pass is, you deserve to be murdered.

[NobBe Nobbs]

Why? He wasn't watching for Janssen, but he shouldn't have to have been because the play had moved away from him by then. If he'd been in the offensive zone, with the play going on, then I could understand that

[lari]

I think the Neil hit was clean and the Janssen hit a minor penalty at max, no suspension. Saying you shouldn't take advantage of players who have their heads down opens another can or worms: you're indirectly telling non-physical youth hockey players they should keep their heads down so no-one is allowed to hit them. Just like Todd Harvey used to turn his back on players so he could draw a penalty for checking from behind. Hockey is a contact sport and there's always the chance someone's going to lay a hit on you. Keep your eyes open and play the game.

Seriously, there wouldn't be any of this talk if the hits didn't result in injuries. And that's also wrong - players constantly finish their checks after a player has passed the puck and you shouldn't be penalized for hitting harder than other players. Obviously, if you have a problem with a player running your guys, you start hitting back. Even better, dress an enforcer to keep Janssen busy. That's the balance of power. If Belak fought Janssen, he wouldn't need to go running around looking for other ways to make himself useful. And even knowing they have a tough guy on the bench would make him less inclined to start up shit, knowing he can retaliate by running your guys.

Imagine you're Cam Janssen, enforcer. Pre-game, you see the Leafs have no toughness on their roster. What do you do? He doesn't have the skills to just play a non-physical game and float. He needs to play the way he knows and take advantage of the other team's weakness. Otherwise he is useless and ends up being scratched. Maybe next time the Leafs call up a guy to protect their players?

The way I see it is that the Leafs got what they had coming to them for dressing a pussy lineup. Buffalo had the muscle to strike back and let the Senators know it's not okay to do that. Toronto had nothing and they just have to suck it up. Much like how the Blackhawks have had to do all season, no matter how hard the opponents hit the injury-prone Ruutu. And I blame Dale Tallon for that.

[SeanDMan]

I disagree with the "well, he wasn't hurt, so don't suspend anyone".

It always strikes me as kind of stupid that murder and attempted murder draw different punishments. I mean, if you shoot someone in the head, he shouldn't be punished for surviving. You commit an offense, you pay the price. The injury itself shouldn't factor in, you should factor in the attempt to injure, and in this case, you can make a case for it. But the play had not moved away from him, the puck had but he never saw Janssen because he was never looking. He was watching his pass the whole way and Janssen was watching him the whole way. From the beginning of time, people have been told to take the man, and that's what Janssen did. Whether it was late or not, Kaberle should know that Janssen would take him out because if he didn't feel the pressure he wouldn't have made that pass (which was a bad pass, cross ice at the blue line, so obviously he either felt the pressure coming, or is just an idiot), so it's his fault for keeping a blind eye to an incoming check. That's that.

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