The way a team plays when they're already up 4-0 is meaningless.
I don't think I've ever seen boarding called when the guy is facing away from the boards and doesn't hit his head on something violently (and it didn't happen on an icing where there is no discretion). You can cherry pick phrases from the rule and say that he had to avoid contact, but 1. the check started before he was in a "vulnerable position" so that's irrelevant, and 2. you should know by now that the wording of the rules means very little. Look at rule 48, do you see any mention of "hitting zones" or the direction the players are skating? No, but both of those things can make a hit legal when it would have otherwise fit the definition given in rule 48.
Now you understand the source of my frustration. The NHL basically makes shit up as it goes along. Rome was suspended 4 games due to the lateness of the hit and the extent of the injury. Raymond was hit later than Horton and his injury is worse. It is inconsistent.
They make up hitting zone rules after the fact, dole out suspensions willy-nilly (I still can't believe Chara didn't get anything), and are just generally so inconsistent it isn't even funny.
You'll hear even the whiniest Canucks fans say that they don't care what they call, so long as it is consistent. Rome, Chara, Raymond, Torres... look at those 4 plays side by side and then look at the punishments and tell me you wouldn't be frustrated.
FWIW, I didn't think Rome deserved 4 games. I thought he'd get 1 game. And that was also inconsistent with the lack of suspension when Rome was injured. I thought Chara should have been suspended. IIRC I reluctantly agreed with the ruling on the Torres hit when they said they had defined these hitting zones back when they created rule 48, but I still wonder why the hitting zones aren't defined in the rule. I also don't really think there should be areas on the ice where you can make a dangerous hit that would be worthy of a suspension anywhere else on the ice. That doesn't make sense, and I'm glad they're talking about making changes to rule 48. Hitting is great and all, but it can be done without injuring players' brains.
To me, the big difference between Rome and Boychuk's hits is that Rome had to have been aware of the danger of an open ice check on an unsuspecting player. I don't think Boychuk can really be expected to anticipate the possibility of a broken back from that check (and it wasn't late, the check started when the puck was under Raymond and he finished it).
Chara on the other hand I think should have been aware of the danger of his check. He knew where he was on the ice, he knew they were along a bench, and he knows what's at the end of the benches. And he pushed Pacioretty's head.
Well it seems we generally agree then. My only disagreement with this is that open ice hits are generally safer than ones near the boards. Rome should be good to go to make an open ice hit, Boychuk has to take care near the boards. There've been a lot of incidents occur near the boards, it's in the rules, it's just well known.
As much as Thornton pisses me off, I agree with him that everyone should be forced to go back to the thin padding as opposed to wearing the heavy body armour type padding. Reduce that, guys won't hit so hard, and we won't have so many injuries.
Fuck you Boychuk
Lol, Kerry Fraser is a tool.
The Horton hit happened less than a second after he passed the puck. This has been confirmed by the league. The hit, although late, was legal in all other respects, also confirmed by the league.
Embarrassing display by one of the Sedin Sisters ...
The allowable amount of time is a half second. Rome hit him at almost 1 second (.9), which is almost twice the allowable amount of time. If you were just going off the technical aspect of it, many guys get hit 1 second late but they are expecting it, and often aren't even called for interference.
I'm sure the severity of the hit was key for the 4 game suspension (given the fact that Horton wasn't expecting it) which I think has to be taken into account. Given the fact that Boston is a lesser team w/out Horton, it's only fair to remove Rome as well for the series. Eye for an eye and all that.
At least give Sedin some credit, he didn't weakly fall over and play dead like usual.
Expecting a hit should have no bearing on a suspension. Now there's a difference between someone expecting a hit, and someone getting hit from behind / a blind spot. But getting hit with your head down should not make a penalty/suspension worse.
But the one reason I agree with the punishment for Rome is the same reason I agree with 'felony murder'. If you hurt someone in the act of doing something not within the rules, the punishment should be as if you intended to hurt them. Horton was hit late, it should have been a penalty regardless of injury (interference), so Rome has to accept the severity of punishment due to injuring a guy while breaking the rules. I've always been a fan of: if you injure a guy while making a non legal play, you should be suspended as long as the guy has the injury.
Well didn't he already get a penalty in that game for flopping at that point? What happens when you flop twice in a game?
He probably knew he couldn't flop and didn't know what else to do.
Or was that the other Sedin?
EDIT Looks like it was his brother that got the penalty. Still, Marchand is a rookie, you can't let a rookie do that to you.
Hilarious. Boston needs to hit them hard at the start of game 7 tonight.
It's funny, people rip on the Canucks for being "dirty", then when our players take the high road and rely on the refs to stop the crap in the scrums like that, they're "bitches".
You don't get the joke. The joke is that the animated gif bascially validates everything people say abotu the Sedin's.
And they're ignorant. Ever watch Gretzky play? How many times did he drop the gloves with a little pest? Players have different styles. Marchand pulls the pest routine and punches people after the whistle, the Sedins stay out of that stuff and win Art Ross trophies.
Say what you will about the Sedins, but in 6-7 hours they will be lifting the Cup over their heads.