General Hockey Talk - Injuries, signings, factoids + other news from around the league

In slow motion you can see Chara shove MaxPac's head right into the glass.

Chara was going after Max all game from that OT goal in january, he took a few swings at him and then slashed in the same game.

You could definitely make a case that Chara was headhunting.

Can't really say if there was intent to injure but he was going after him all night. It's no coincidence these two were involved.

Hoags wrote:In slow motion you can see Chara shove MaxPac's head right into the glass.

Chara was going after Max all game from that OT goal in january, he took a few swings at him and then slashed in the same game.

You could definitely make a case that Chara was headhunting.

Can't really say if there was intent to injure but he was going after him all night. It's no coincidence these two were involved.

I don't think he touches his head at all, actually. From the one angle it only looks like that because his glove is in front of Paciorrety's head, but from the overhead it looks like Pacioretty's head just goes into the partition by itself. He was just rubbing him out on the boards, he definitely deserved 2 minutes for interference though.

Bobby Mac on the hit:

The hit was late. It was interference. It caused injury and while the design configuration of the boards and glass played a pivotal role in the severity of the injury, the responsibility is still with the hitter.

So two games is my call. No one will like it. Works for me.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=357203

That works for me, too. Two game suspension. Chara's not entirely at fault, nor without blame. He pays a little more because of the outcome. Done and done.

Telephone hearing for Chara with Mike Murphy due to conflict of interest issues for Colin Campbell (His son plays for the Bruins)

Just heard on Team1200 apparently according to Dreger of TSN.

Could this play into the decision?

You're not suggesting premeditation are you?

Ya, there was history between these two. Still, it's impossible to say if Chara meant to run him into the partition, or was just compensating for potentially getting beat to the outside. I can't see him getting more than 3 games for it.

That being said, it is one of the ugliest, most cringe-inducing incidents I've ever seen...but again, it's hard to say if that was Chara's intention.

How does Chara even have to phone the NHL about that hit? He rode the guy into the boards and some tool built a partition there - that's the dangerous part of it. The game's going real fast, could Chara have let up? Yeah, but that's not his style, he's gonna finish his check on you.

Suspension...so odd. How dare you hit that guy into the boards...and hit that partition! How DARE you!

Chara seems to direct his head into the stanchion right at the last possible moment.

Chara's not known to be a dirty player but given the history of these two and those pictures I'd say there's a possibility Big Z was headhunting.

I don't think he intended to hurt him but it was a reckless and very dangerous thing to do. He should not have gone for a hit in that part of the ice.

They have to send out some sort of message that in certain situations players have to hold back out of respect and safety for their opponent. Right now it's anything goes and if someone gets hurt it's "Oops I did not mean to hurt him it all happened so fast".

The best part of this, are the Habs fan comparing this to the Bertuzzi/McSorley incidents, and demanding criminal charges be laid, Diddle off.

To me, that still just looks like a check that ended up in an injury, but I definitely can understand Habs' fans being pissed.

My final take is: Chara saw him coming, wanted to send a message for the third, tried to hit him into the bench, but ended up introducing his face to the partition. I would NOT suspend, but I really don't care either way. I will say that this opens up a HUGE can of worms if they suspend. It basically sets precedence that if you smash a guy into the boards and his head happens to hit that partition, you're gonna be suspended - and I'm not sure that's right.

SpezDispenser wrote:How does Chara even have to phone the NHL about that hit? He rode the guy into the boards and some tool built a partition there - that's the dangerous part of it. The game's going real fast, could Chara have let up? Yeah, but that's not his style, he's gonna finish his check on you.

Suspension...so odd. How dare you hit that guy into the boards...and hit that partition! How DARE you!

That partition has always produced some scary hits. And I'm sure some players use it to their advantage when riding a guy into the boards. In this scenario, it's hard to gauge the intent but there is history with these two guys... so who knows. I can see a 2 game suspension but I won't be surprised at 0 games.

Those pictures make it look pretty bad. Again, it's hard to say if his intention was to deliver the skull-crusher. Chara WAS pretty pissed at MaxPax when he was pushed after Max scored that goal in the last game (or whenever it was).

Anyway, determining intent is impossible, so the NHL will likely go with a minor suspension. 2-3 games, tops. Also, they need to put more padding on those stanchions.

Possible fracture for Max - not confirmed yet...

http://twitter.com/#!/renhockey/status/45491278787518464

Yikes.

The Pens extend coach Blysma.

shabbs wrote:Possible fracture for Max - not confirmed yet...

http://twitter.com/#!/renhockey/status/45491278787518464

Yikes.

NECK fracture. Yikes is right.

That's a play that is made like 10 times a game and 1000's of time a season, this one just happened to end with horrific results it seems. I don't know how much blame you can lay on Chara here.

NEELY wrote:That's a play that is made like 10 times a game and 1000's of time a season, this one just happened to end with horrific results it seems. I don't know how much blame you can lay on Chara here.

Nope, that's not true. You don't see guys get run face-first into the stanchion that often.