Sorry for the incorrect earlier information, as I heard an announcement on one of the radio stations
about the five game suspension, which really confused me because I didn't see anything but a borderline
interference penalty, SO, i'm happy to know now, that there is no suspension, there was no intent to
injure him, as I saw it, it was a pure hockey hit, although a tad late, but many of them are a tad
late, and some that are not a tad are also given penalties, hence very confusing to the players, as to
'just' how much time a player has after the puck goes by that they are allowed to finish their check.
People can talk all they want about 'bad' blood between those two teams, but the
hit has to be judged on it's own merit, without anything else, especially emotionally
charged opinions, as it was a legal body check, and nothing more.
There was no elbow, no hit to the head by chara, not a high hit at all, just a good
rub out along the boards, which is done all the time.
If that hit had happened anywhere else in the rink, it would not have caused any problem at all, but might
still have been an interference call. It was the stanchion that caused the problem, and the NHL must
come forward and take responsibility for all of those stanchions in any of the buildings that have them
as that one is, and make sure they are changed. I'm surprised this hasn't happened before, but as in
most incidents, (just as it was when they changed the goals after mark howe was gashed by the steel),
something awful has to happen before anything is done about it.
To say that chara intentionally hit him that hard into the stancion on purpose must give their heads a
shake, because that is saying something very very serious about another person, as 'if' he did hit him
into that stanchion intentionally, he would have been a completely different player than chara, and
also a different kind of person indeed. He is a clean player, a very very big player, and has had no
previous suspensions and has 'no' reputation of being mean or nasty at all.
Most people have no clue how big they are, or how fast they are going, and that includes the montreal
player who was going very fast as well, and when the hit happened, (and it was a rub out along the
boards type of hit), not a hit where he came from another direction, they were both going in the same
direction.
The NHL must be very careful here, because if pacioretty does not heal from this incident, and becomes
permanately affected from this hit, they could be liable because of this stancion, and it is clear to
me that such a structure should not be open to the players being able to run into it, either from a
body check or any other means, it seems it is there to protect those on the other side, hockey
analysts watching the play etc.
Yes, I agree Karrie, I could design a stanchion that would not be dangerous too, it doesn't take
a brain surgeon, but maybe a brain surgeon will talk to them about it, because a serious concussion
has happened now, because of it.
