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

Yeah, that's an easy one for Shanahan, he goes at him and deliberately makes contact with the head. What are people complaining about, it's an easy one.

Well, The Sens get to play the Buds with their top line broken up, so that's a bonus in all this.

I love how Leaf fans are crying that Neil's hit on Grabs was way worse than MacArthur's... so blind... so blind...

Big Ev wrote:Riddle me this. How many people get injured on an inching play? Happens once every year or something like that. I think people beat out icing more than they get injured.

So, having some dude's leg shattered to bits is worth a few plays where the icing call gets beat, that may or may not have any impact on the outcome of the game? Personally, I don't think it's worth it. But that's just me.

EDIT: We're talking about an injury that probably has ended the season for Fedun. Ended the season. For a little bit of excitement. That's what I have an issue with.

wprager wrote:

shabbs wrote:Riddle me this... how often does a race for the puck not end up as icing? I'm willing to bet that 97% of those situations end up with an icing call in the end. Very few end up with icing being negated.

So what's the point?

It's exciting. A race is exciting. What we don't need is for some idiot to push or cross check from behind (it's always the guy that's losing the race).

I agree it's exciting, but I'm not sure the risk is worth the reward. I've seen people saying the "hybrid icing rule" would not have made a difference in this case. If the race was looking like a tie at the faceoff dots, a hybrid icing rule would have whistled it down. But it's a judgement call by the ref so who knows.

They will do nothing with the no-touch icing until that is someone like Lidstrom, Doughty, Keith, Weber, Suter, Seabrooke, etc.. laying on the ice with a severe injury.

It's just like all the talks around concussions and head shots since Crosby's concussion.

I still say we can fix it without taking it out of the game. I've never seen an injury happen without the interference. And usually it's *very* blatant. The a$$hole who is losing the race pushes, cross-checks or trips the guy who is ahead of him. Suspend him for 5 games the first time (more if the injury is serious) and 10 games the second time.

shabbs wrote:I love how Leaf fans are crying that Neil's hit on Grabs was way worse than MacArthur's... so blind... so blind...

I was watching another view of the Neil "hit" -- the one from above. It's actually pretty funny because you can see that Grabovski's head actually makes contact with Neil's *back* and not shoulder or elbow. You could make an argument that Grabovski interfered on Neil, not the other way around.

This is as close to the actual point of contact as I could get. Neil is ahead of Grabovski by this point. If he was *trying* to hit him he was doing a lousy job of it.

Grabs should have gotten a 2-min penalty for being a dumb Donkey. Heh heh. Where was he going in the first place?

wprager wrote:I still say we can fix it without taking it out of the game. I've never seen an injury happen without the interference. And usually it's *very* blatant. The a$$hole who is losing the race pushes, cross-checks or trips the guy who is ahead of him. Suspend him for 5 games the first time (more if the injury is serious) and 10 games the second time.

In your method of fixing it, how many people have to get hurt so that Shanahan can make an example of those who cause the injury? How many injuries + suspensions will it take before everyone gets it? My problem with your approach is that, while the injuries that result from icing races aren't guaranteed, they're damn likely. In your method, you're making an example of people once the injuries occur. Thus, you basically wait for the problem, then address it. If no-touch icing is implemented, we take the unsafe, problematic scenario out of the equation before anyone else gets their leg blown to bits.

I actually said that suspensions should happen whether injury occurs or not. I've always been big on punishing the intent rather than the extent (of the injury). The NHL's current solution is to do nothing, so injuries will continue to happen. Rule changes cannot be implemented immediately and require the NHL and NHLPA to agree, My solution is could be implemented immediately because I'm not suggesting any rule changes. Pushing someone before he has possession is interference -- it's in the rule book already, so it can be implemented tomorrow.

wprager wrote:I actually said that suspensions should happen whether injury occurs or not. I've always been big on punishing the intent rather than the extent (of the injury). The NHL's current solution is to do nothing, so injuries will continue to happen. Rule changes cannot be implemented immediately and require the NHL and NHLPA to agree, My solution is could be implemented immediately because I'm not suggesting any rule changes. Pushing someone before he has possession is interference -- it's in the rule book already, so it can be implemented tomorrow.

Regardless, no-touch takes the dangerous situation out of the game. A punitive approach discourages players from doing the wrong thing, but leaves the dangerous scenario in the game. Without question, even if they know that they'll get a suspension, players will still push the envelope. Look at the number of head hits and boarding calls occurring just about every game, regardless of the consequences.

No-touch icing and getting away from bulletproof equipment are, imo, two of the most important changes that may never take place.

spader wrote:No-touch icing and getting away from bulletproof equipment are, imo, two of the most important changes that may never take place.

This.

To no one's surprise, Crosby expected to miss season opener...

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=377224

The question will be, how much will he miss...

shabbs wrote:

spader wrote:No-touch icing and getting away from bulletproof equipment are, imo, two of the most important changes that may never take place.

This.

Dreger (I think?) was tweeting that smaller shoulder pads will be mandatory next year.

BTW, they think there won't be a suspension for Nystrom.

Equipment should be tonned down. It was never ment to be a weapon on ice and that's exactly what it is now. Don Cherry while very outspoken is right on a lot of things... always worried about the players.

wprager wrote:BTW, they think there won't be a suspension for Nystrom.

He was reaching for the puck and his stick got caught up on Fedun's skates. He didn't push him into the boards or hit him from behind. There was no intent to do any harm. It's hard to suspend on that type of play based on the current rule set.

shabbs wrote:

wprager wrote:BTW, they think there won't be a suspension for Nystrom.

He was reaching for the puck and his stick got caught up on Fedun's skates. He didn't push him into the boards or hit him from behind. There was no intent to do any harm. It's hard to suspend on that type of play based on the current rule set.

There is intent and there is recklessness. Was he behind when he reached around? You do that at full speed and you risk a fall. It's that simple.

Another solution is to get rid of the idiotic trapezoid. I wish someone would run some stats on frequency of injuries from icing races before and since that rule was introduced.