This past month has been a terrible month for injuries and suspensions in the NHL. There have been a lot of fights and suspensions, so this will be a pretty link heavy post as I am going to give my take on a few incidents and the video will be available to you to make your own judgements and comments.
#1) Ottawa at Buffalo, 22 Feb 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYqPZhlL4Jo
I thought the Senators' Neil hit was late on the Sabres' Drury, probably should've been penalised, I wouldn't say it was vicious enough to warrant a suspension, and I think the Sabres had a reasonable response. But I don't think Neil was completly blamless, it certainly wasn't clean, and he did have the elbow up (though its tough to tell if that's how he struck Drury). Though Sabres' goaltender Martin Biron (now with Philadelphia) was quite outmatched by Senators' goaltender Ray Emery. The teams played again two nights later, they did have a couple minor incidents, but nothing that relates to this video.
#2) New York Rangers at New York Islanders, 8 Mar 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dHzSzexrb0
(Note: To see this in real time, you need to watch the upper right side of your screen, as the camera pans right, if you miss it there are replays).
I think this was disgraceful and the NHL needed to punish Chris Simon. I think they did okay giving him the longest suspension in NHL history (because the Bertuzzi penalty in 2004, three years to the day incidentally, had no teeth because he was suspended one year but it was during the lockout). He got the remainder of the season with a mininum total of 25 games (the balance the Islanders don't play will be carried into the start of next year) which I think is okay, but I think 30-40 would've been better. Still short of the Bertuzzi incident, I think this is the worst in NHL history to use the stick as the weapon. Simon certainly could've fought the Rangers Hollweg if he thought the hit was dirty (though I don't even think that's the case). But there's no reason ever to swing your stick at player blinsiding him.
#3) Dallas at Nashville, 17 Mar 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upeLPWApt6w
(Note: The camera didn't catch this incident live, the first replay is at about :50 that caught it clearly.)
The commentary on this incident has infuriated me to know end. The common sentiment is that this was a dirty hit by Tootoo on Robidas (though there are some execptions NBC's Brett Hull, and Versus' Bill Clement among others), they completly ignore why this video is so damning for Robidas. After Tootoo hits Modano, Robidas skated over, and was going to charge Tootoo and hit him from behind, he is leading with is hands up, all Tootoo did was see him coming and preempt Robidas with a punch of his own. Tootoo got 5 games for this which I think is outrageously long. The fact is no one out there is speculating on how horrible an incident this would've been had Tootoo not known Robidas was coming. Again Robidas is skating toward Tootoo, while Tootoo is still facing the boards, Robidas has about a 20 foot head start as he's charing Tootoo, Robidas is planning to blindside Tootoo, and everyone is coming to Robidas defense only because he's the one that got hurt. Five games for Tootoo is outrageous the only two reasons there could be a suspesions is that Tootoo didn't drop the gloves and hitting Robidas with the glove on is worse than not (though honestly one wonders if he even had the time to do so), and secondly Tootoo did hit Robidas in the head and the NHL is starting to crack down on the head shots. I think a 1-2 game suspension woudl've been more appropriate, and if Robidas wasn't stopped by Tootoo's preemtion, I wonder how long Robidas would've got. But with Tootoo's suspension, the NHL is probably overreacting to the Simon incident, though this is completly different, Holleweg had no intention of engaging Simon after the hit in question, it's obvious Robidas was going to blind-side Tootoo (in a sense by hurting Robidas, Tootoo probably saved Robidas from a suspesion. Side note, Modano certainly should've been penalized for a slash on Tootoo's back after Tootoo laid out Robidas.
#4) Philadelphia at New York Rangers, 21 Mar 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Enj_6Br9gQQ
This was just unfortunate that the Rangers' Colton Orr was able to knockout the Flyers' Todd Fedoruk with the one punch. Fedoruk will likley miss the season at this point, however, he has caused some injuries on the Rangers earlier this season, and even managed to run afoul of the Wild's Derek Boogaard earlier this season. I don't believe the NHL has taken any action, nor should they on this incident, it had a violent ending, but is was a consenual fight, the men were facing one another, no one broadsided the other. Though it is bad that Fedoruk was taken off in a stretcher.
Final thoughts, I believe Fighting very much has a place in the NHL. It's the late hits in #1 that the referee needs to punish, and the cheap shots as in #2 the NHL needs to work to eliminate. In #3 Tootoo was defending himself and should've been let off easier because of that, and in #4 it was a fight wiht an unfortunate ending, but I don't think anyone was really at fight for starting this particular incident. But this is one fans thougts, I'd like to hear comments from others.
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