Yesterday’s game was a joke in officiating. Tons of phanton calls and non-calls. Happened to both sides. Who got it worse depends on which side of the fence your sitting on. The Canucks, even after winning the game, were still whining about shit while the Bruins were taking responsibility for their poor play for the loss.
“What I can tell ya is that they scored four power-play goals, so we gave them an opportunity to score on their bread and butter,” Claude Julien said. “Instead of criticizing the referees, I would much prefer criticizing us for the penalties. Whether you’re worthy or not, take the responsibility.”
This is why the Bruins won in June and Vancouver lost. No accountability in Vancouver; they always bitching and looking to blame someone else — even after wins. The Bruins? They grin and bear it and look for ways to improve their weak spots and lesson errors.
Also, Bruins lost two of their top players. Canucks? None, and they still barely won the game.
Like we said yesterday, the Bruins beat themselves, but the refs didn’t help in the matter. They made situations worse in their attempt to police the game. I think most people can agree with that.
First Milan Lucic got tossed for being Milan Lucic. Bruins lost him early in the game and that’s a huge difference maker right off the bat. It means more guys have to play more minutes and jump in Looch’s spot.
Then Brad Marchand gets thrown out for this hit.
More after the jump.
Lotta people comparing this to what Hammy did to Lucic in June.
Hammy got nothing for that hit. Then again, that was under the Supreme Rule of Colin Campbell and not Sheriff Shanahan.
What people are saying around the league.
Speaking of getting thrown out, the Bruins also received two game misconducts: the first for Milan Lucic maaaybe leaving the bench during the massive scrum that broke out four minutes in, and the second for Brad Marchand’s nasty low-bridge on Sami Salo in the third. I’m not so sure about the first one, but the second was pretty inexcusable. Marchand got lower than limbo champ Hermes Conrad on the contact, flipping Sami Salo onto his shoulder. Salo was furious when he finally got up, throwing his stick in disgust, and for good reason: he’s been healthy all season — a dirty hit was the last thing he needed.
KPD from the Boston Globe:
Marchand, though, got everything he deserved when he was tossed, and he is probably headed for yet another hearing with Brendan Shanahan, the league’s director of discipline.
Marchand last month was fined $2,500 for slew-footing Pittsburgh’s Matt Niskanen, but escaped a suspension. The clip on Salo now makes Marchand a frequent offender, and Shanahan has shown an intolerance this season for players who come back for second helpings of his mercy.
Canucks Army:
Brad Marchand is a skilled hockey player, with quality instincts on both sides of the puck, a dangerous wrist shot and some wonderful puck-handling ability. But he’s a loathsome, rotten hockey player. On the play that cost the Bruins the game, he submarined Sami Salo, a classy veteran who has battled injuries throughout his career, with an unnecessary, dangerous and disrespectful hit.
I don’t like to ascribe intent to players on hits in a fast moving game like hockey, but the way Marchand got low on this play looked intentionally injurious to me. Boston fans, of course, thought it was an average hip-check. It wasn’t, Marchand struck Salo below the knees (hence the clipping penalty), hit Salo when he didn’t have the puck, and disrespectfully timed the play to surprise Salo and increase the chance of the veteran being seriously hurt.
Brad Marchand received a game misconduct for clipping, and although the league did not immediately announce a ruling, a suspension seems unlikely.
The rules on what clipping is:
44.1 Clipping – Clipping is the act of throwing the body, from any direction, across or below the knees of an opponent.
First: What counts as “throwing the body”? Is it slow to normal skating speed that you typically see near the boards and then ducking that Marchand did or actually launching yourself — which is what we think of when we read “throwing the body?” It’s a vague description and, regardless of the decision, that wording should be changed to something a bit more specific, or taken out all together so the only thing that matters is going after the knees.
It doesn’t seem like he threw his body. He ducked at the last possible moment. And, by the rules, if he didn’t throw his body it’s not a clip.
Two: Did Marchand hit across or below the knees? If you fast forward to around 1:58 mark you’ll get the slo-mo version of the play. Here are stills we took.
Below the hip but above the knee. That’s what we call a thigh.
That looks even more like a thigh. Salo’s knee is where that women’s head is.
Marchand ordering a side of thigh and butt for dinner.
We’re seeing a ton of black jersey on blue pants… or, if you prefer:
Let’s compare it again with the Hammy clip on Lucic.
Just as bad. Of course, human knees don’t bend the way Hammy wanted Lucic’s knees to bend. Also, this looks more like a “throwing the body” then Marchand’s last minute duck. Again, “throwing the body” is a shitty, vague term. Fix it, NHL.
Or how about this Keith Ballad hit on Jamie McGinn that sent McGinn head over heels?
That looks like Ballad’s hip/butt is right on McGinn’s knee. No one even farted when that happened. But people shit themselves anytime a Bruins breathes. Pretty sure fans of Bruins’ opponents drink a gallon of pruin juice prior to games. We’re glad we don’t have to do their laundry. Racing stripes galore.
Such is life for the bWo.
Here’s the thing. Brado’s hit is definitely low but we’re not convinced it’s a shot at the knees and that’s a paramount point to clipping. There hasn’t been a good enough angle showing Salo’s knees being the target of the hit and not his thighs. Brado’s hit is nothing worse than the above examples. If Marchand’s hit is dirty than the the above examples are also dirty.
Despite this, we’re still not sure what’s going to happen with Shanaban. We wouldn’t be surprised if Marchand gets three games because of reputation. It’s why Looch got tossed and suspended last month. Brado’s on the same train. But he didn’t throw himself, so, by definition he should get off free. Only time will tell. We can see this going from nothing to three games. Anything more than that and we’d be surprised.
If the NHL suspends Marchand than Shanny needs to be crystal clear on why. We’d be interested in knowing if he thinks it’s similar or not to the Canuck examples and why. Not sure we’ll get so lucky but it would go a long way to clearing crap up in the future.
We’ll leave you with Julien’s words on the play:
“We all have our opinions with what is going on with the game and the hits and everything else,” said Julien. “All I’m gonna tell you is that, I have always told my players that they need to protect themselves. The last thing I want my players to do is to get hit and then end up with a concussion, and they have to protect themselves.
“Whether it’s the right way or the wrong way, it’ll depend on how the league looks at it. But I’d rather have a guy take a two-minute penalty than turn his back to the play, stand up straight, and then get his face knocked into the glass, and be out for the rest of the year with a concussion, or maybe end a career, like Savard.
“In my opinion, if guys start protecting themselves the way Marchand did, maybe guys will stop taking runs at other guys.”
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
