by Island Nucklehead on Sat Mar 03, 2007 7:01 pm
It's yet another case of a marginal, fringe NHL player trying to get more ice time by taking out a star. The league tried cracking down on this with the obstruction calls, and I think they really screwed up by not giving this guy at least 5 games. The hit was dirty in almost ever respect. Those refs should be given a stern lecturing, there's no excuse in a two man system for anything of that magnitude to go un-noticed (two 200+ pound men crashing into eachother...go figure!). I wonder, since it would most definately qualify as a major penalty, why neither of the linesmen said anything, weird all around.
Regardless, the league really missed an opportunity to say enough is enough. Suter on Gretzky, Samuelson on Neely, Kasparitis on any of his knees, Domi on Niedermayer, Moore on Naslund, I bet you could make a massive list of these things, all which resulted in different reactions from the league office. I think if they're serious, they would start suspending any suspicious hit from a marginal player on a star just to send the message. I'm totally fine with a guy like Jansen earning his ice-time running over guys like Kaberle, but when it happens in such a horrid fashion...there's no place in the game for that.