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NHL Playoffs Thread - SpazBear - 04-19-2007
DeeBye & I debate this topic annually: Fighting v. Thuggishness in the NHL. We agree that fighting is OK, a necessary element to be inserted at appropriate times in the game. Where we disagree is what behaviour constitutes making a player a thug, goon, or cheap-shot artist.
Brad May is all of the aforementioned.
The scene: last minutes of Game 4 in an NHL playoff series. The Anaheim Ducks are losing. The Ducks, up 3-0 in the series, should simply shrug and say, "See you guys at our place..." Instead, as typical of a losing team in a playoff game, they are out to 'send a message' about what's to come in the next game. Chippy play escalates to the point that fights begin to break out. The Wild's Brett Burns wipes the ice with the Ducks' Corey Perry. With less than 2 minutes to play, the Wild's Adam Hall and Ducks' Kent Huskins go at it. Before it can be settled, Anahein's Thorton crashes in, drawing a third-man penalty.
Brad May drops his gloves and goes hunting. The Wild's Kim Johnsson happens to be the closest, doesn't have his gloves off (can't remember him ever getting in a fight), and before Johnsson can react, May bashes in his grill with a wicked sucker punch. Johnsson crumples to the ice with a concussion, May gets a match penalty, and now, a lame 3-game suspension.
He's a former Canuck, so I hate him already, but he's also a repeat offender. He reportedly had a 'bounty' out on Steve Moore, the Avalanche player who got his neck broken by Todd Bertuzzi. He should get a 365 day suspension.
May's a five-minutes-a-game fourth-line alledged tough guy. Johnsson's the Wild's #1 D-man, logging 24 minutes a game. What say, come Game 5, Boogaard goes out and cold-cocks Pronger or Niedermeyer??
I personally think Carlyle & Lemaire should rip off the ties and duke it out to settle the matter. Yeah, Randy was a Norriss trophy winner once upon a time, but he looks fat and puffy now. Jacques will pound his fat arse into centre ice circle....
NHL Playoffs Thread - Munkay - 04-19-2007
Back in 1995 A BU freshman Travis Roy was paralyzed from the neck down just seconds into his first college game.
Since then my feelings have grown a bit stronger over the years about the brutishness of the NHL. I'll rabidly defend the tough nature of the game to people who don't like it, and dismiss the NHL as a group of thugs. But at the same time, there seems to be a distinct line in my mind about what's acceptable and what's not.
That line isn't something as tangable as simply saying 'anytime someone knocks out someones teeth, or fractures the other persons skull suspend them'. Of course there's some gruesome injuries that come with playing the game right.
But there seems to be a phenomena where aggressive physical players are sent out on the ice just to inflict damage on the star players of the other team. It's not done with clean hard checks, or verbal abuse, but it's done with cheap shots like the one May sent out to do.
Situations like that are over that line. It's already horrible enough incidents like Travis Roy occur when the game is played right. They have to come down a lot harder on guys like May before something like Travis Roy happens to a star player who wasn't asking for a confrontation.
Cheers,
Munk
NHL Playoffs Thread - DeeBye - 04-19-2007
Quote:DeeBye & I debate this topic annually: Fighting v. Thuggishness in the NHL.You're a softie and I wore my eel toque many times this past winter:)
Quote:We agree that fighting is OK, a necessary element to be inserted at appropriate times in the game. Where we disagree is what behaviour constitutes making a player a thug, goon, or cheap-shot artist.I don't know that we've really gone that far into discussing such things, but I will concede that I am more liberal in my acceptance and enjoyment of hockey violence.
Quote:Brad May is all of the aforementioned.May Day! May Day!
That is the only noteworthy thing Brad May will ever be known for.
I must admit that I did not see the game in question, and I missed the event. I looked around YouTube and can't seem to find any video of it. If it was a blindsided punch to the back of the head that resulted in a concussion, I think the 3 game suspension was probably soft. I need to see the full video of the events leading up to it before I pass full judgment though.
NHL Playoffs Thread - SpazBear - 04-19-2007
Apparently there is no 'official' video of the blow, but the announcers and people at the game described it as Johnsson, who wouldn't drop his gloves to play the piano, skated into range and caught May's punch flush. Johnsson went to the ice, face-first. May looked as if he was lifting Johnsson to deliver another blow when he realized that Johnsson wasn't moving.
Later Ducks coach Randy Carlyle did his best imitation of Michael Corleone at a congressional hearing, offering this fact-defying version of events:
"Well, I didn't get the video of it until about five minutes before we went on the ice," he said. "It wasn't made available to us through the replays of last night's hockey game. I guess it was a hand-held camera by somebody other than the broadcast crew that was covering it. The league sends it to us.
"What I saw was a scuffle between Adam Hall and Kent Huskins and it was Shawn Thornton getting involved, and there was a push, and then May and Johnsson came together, and then punches started flying."
You see, in Carlyle's world, Bambi's mother provoked the deer hunter.
EDIT: The Hanson Brothers are offering to teach the Wild "how to put the foil on"
SECOND EDIT: This is the only video I've found, and the May/Johnsson event occurs just off camera. But listen to the idiot Anaheim announcing crew....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aB5TXbXqW8
NHL Playoffs Thread - SpazBear - 05-08-2007
Is DeeBye going to cheer for Ottawa???
...as the only Canadian team left?
NHL Playoffs Thread - DeeBye - 05-08-2007
Quote:Is DeeBye going to cheer for Ottawa???
...as the only Canadian team left?
Hell no!
NHL Playoffs Thread - SpazBear - 05-09-2007
Quote:Hell no!
You need to get over yourself...
:P
NHL Playoffs Thread - DeeBye - 05-10-2007
Quote:You need to get over yourself...
:P
That one hurt:(
I'm cheering for the Ducks. Corey Perry played for my local CHL team and I like to root for him.
I'm hoping for a Sabres/Ducks final.
NHL Playoffs Thread - SpazBear - 05-10-2007
Quote:I'm cheering for the Ducks. Corey Perry played for my local CHL team and I like to root for him.
I'm hoping for a Sabres/Ducks final.
I cannot cheer on the Ducks, due to the aftermath of the Brad May thing. I concede it looks like they are best team, but I am a reluctant Red Wings fan.
You of course know my feelings for my beloved Senators....
A Sens/Red Wings Cup final would be sweet, and retribution for Hasek letting down the Sens last year...not taking care of himself, getting hurt, and forcing the Sens to rely on Ray (The Bum) Emery, who was clearly Not Ready For Primetime. I still don't trust the guy; I have to pinch myself after every Sens victory that he plays well in. If he backstops the Sens to the Cup, I'll be the first to tie on a bib and eat a big plate of crow...I'll buy his jersey.