All posts in Fight!

Stop the Matt Cooke Madness

By | March 21, 2011 | Fight!, Fired, Hockey, injuries | 3 Comments

Mario Lemieux needs to fire Matt Cooke. Beyond that, Matt Cooke should not be hirable by any NHL franchise. His professional ice hockey career should end.

It’s that simple. The head hit conversation continues this year – what’s dirty, what’s not, how much is too much. Is this just how the game is played or a squad of brutal enforcers who have heard “Crazy Train” blasting through the arena one too many times, hellbent on sucker punching and therefore brain damaging each other? (Because you know, when all else fails, blame Ozzy.)

This is a discussion that the Pittsburgh Penguins found themselves at the heart of after star Sidney Crosby was sidelined for the season with lingering concussion symptoms. Things had to be serious for Sid. His long term health, not to mention years of his career over the long-term, had to be at stake, or there’s no reason the team would have let him sit this long.

But the hits just keep on coming. And Mario LeMieux and Dan Bylsma cannot allow their players to even discuss the bad form and critical danger of contact hockey while they continue to employ a man who elbows unsuspecting dudes square in the cranium.

Well, they  can do both, sure. But it means that the next time Sid, or they, or any of their guys dare to complain about a head hit or hockey violence, that people can rightfully discount it as sour grapes. Because one of the worst, most unconscionable offenders is on their ice and their bench.

I don’t know who wants to see this kind of thing or gets a big charge out of it anyway, besides someone who enjoys abuse and pain, and I’m not sure those guys should be the target audience for anything. I love ice hockey. I remember going to Caps games in college, when it seemed that fights were dirtier and happened more often, and that aspect has nothing to do with why I love the sport now. I love my team, I love watching the players play the game, and honestly I have strong good will towards hockey players in general. I don’t want anyone to die or be seriously injured, and I sure as hell don’t want to watch it happen.

All I want is to watch a great sport played well. I want the players on the team I root for to get the damned puck in the net, and I want them to win. I would love to see the Washington Capitals win a Stanley Cup before I die, and if they don’t, it’s nice if they are at least playoffs contenders who keep me on the edge of my seat. None of this has anything to do with jacking anyone in the face from behind or tripping him and breaking his leg. It may have something to do with that for other people, although I will boldly say that it shouldn’t, but it matters zero to me. Matt Cooke played fewer than 30 games as a Washington Capital. I wouldn’t have supported this behavior from him then, and I wouldn’t stand behind it from anyone on the team now.

This would be a better time than just about any for Mario Lemieux to step up like the legend he is and make this kind of statement, too.

[Image credit: Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images]

Mario Lemieux Quoted In The Press As Stating “Wah, Wah, Wah”

By | February 14, 2011 | Fight!, Hockey, LVP, NHL | 3 Comments
Don't Make Mario Lemieux Angry

Wah wah wah.

So let me get this straight.

Mario Lemieux is the guy who employs Matt Cooke. Matt Cooke is the guy who got away scot-free after giving a guy a two-month concussion by intentionally nailing him in the head. Matt Cooke is also the guy that singlehandedly caused the NHL to change the way they deal with intentional hits to the head.

So when Mario made a statement yesterday about the way the NHL handled the aftermath of the Penguin-Islanders melee on Friday night, really, he should have chosen his words better. Because after reading the entire thing, all I could remember it saying was something like this:

WAH!

WAH!

WAAAAH!

I’M GOING TO TAKE MY TOYS AND GO HOME!

WAAAAAAAAAAH!

God, Mario. Seriously. You may have had a point in that the game went beyond an “entertaining hockey fight” to sheer absurdity. I’ll give you that. But in an atmosphere where whenever the players drop the gloves, the fans cheer just as loudly as they do for goals, in an atmosphere where players are employed specifically for their scrappiness, it’s not shocking in the least that a game gets out of hand occasionally. You think hockey fights like this are shameful? Fine. Then ban all fights. You cannot say that it’s okay to punch someone in the face once during a game, but not fifteen times. You cannot say it’s okay to punch someone in the face as long as you don’t really mean it. Because every 7-year-old watching that game cannot tell the difference, I guarantee you.

You also may have had a point in saying the league needs to handle intentional hits – especially those causing injury – better. I will also give you that.  But you might want to be careful walking around that Matt-Cooke-decorated-glass-house, is all I’m saying.

So threatening to take your toys and go home? Oh please, Mario. What are you gonna do? Sell off your cash cow because the Islanders didn’t get enough suspensions? Claim moral superiority after your goalie broke Matt DiPietro’s face in the first place?

Your words smack of nothing except high horsemanship. And given which team leads the league in penalties, it’s all pretty rich.

Pens vs Isles: And The Crazy Comes To Town

By | February 12, 2011 | Crazy People, Fight!, Hockey, NHL | 2 Comments

Whew. That was a doozy, wunnit?

The Pittsburgh Penguins came to Long Island, where the Isles had a point to prove. After a goalie-on-goalie slugfest left the Islanders’ DiPietro out for four to six weeks with a broken face last courtesy of Pens’ goalie Brent Johnson Wednesday night, the Islanders prepped for their home-and-home rematch by calling up AHL goon Michael Haley and taping their hands.

You’d think the outcome would be predictable. Sure, if 65 penalties totaling 346 minutes, 10 ejections, 15 fighting majors, 20 misconducts and probably a pile of suspensions is “predictable”.

Upshot: the Isles chopped, slashed, hacked and punched everyone in their sights, and the Pens were obviously scared witless as they got destroyed goal-wise even before the melee began. By the third period it was a free-for-all and both benches barely had enough players left to finish the game, as evidenced by this snapshot from PGHPenguins on Twitter.

This article over at The Hockey Writers is the best summary I’ve seen so far, complete with video clips and NHL regulations.  My favourite moment, though?

Go to about 2:30 of this video and watch Haley getting pulled off Maxime Talbot (snort) and then wander off, looking for something else to do, and head right over to Pens goalie Brent Johnson who was forlornly watching all the fun by himself and looked more than happy to engage with Haley. Until the Pens’ Eric Godard left the bench, earning himself – and likely the coach – a nice hefty suspension and got in Haley’s way.

Twitter, as always, loaned a great dynamic of snark. Favourites included this classic from DownGoesBrown:

Isles fans seemed rather impressed that their team showed up for a change.

And, an excellent point if anyone’s looking for a shot at the NHL:

Not surprisingly, all the NHL had to say about it?Denial. Not just a river in Egypt.

Ultimately, piles of suspensions and fines will be handed out today, likely to both teams, Pittsburgh’s coach, and god knows who else. And lots of people are tsk-tsk-tsking over it this morning, but come on. It’s hockey. This is what we pay exorbitant ticket prices for. A good hockey fight warms up a nice long winter, after all.

Sid the Kid Says: Dirty Hits Up In Here

By | January 14, 2011 | Dain Bramage, Fight!, Hockey, NHL, Rants | 1 Comment

Sidney Crosby is out with a concussion and he wants everyone to know that it’s because of dirty, dirty hits.

In other news, Sid the Kid is spending his days off at tea parties and shopping at Forever 21.

I’m sorry. Really. I don’t normally make fun of the injured and I’ve tried to give this guy the soft pedal treatment overall. As a diehard Washington Capitals fan, I know that I’m supposed to blindly despise Crosby and think Ovi is better and not remove my toque when “O Canada” plays because Sid won them the gold medal and all other manner of hoo-de-ha.

But I don’t and I won’t. Truth is truth, facts are facts. Sidney Crosby is an excellent hockey player. He’s outplaying Ovechkin by goals and points again this season, and more or less lives up to his hype.

And I’ll say this, even though it irritates me when it comes true against my hometown hockey team or my country’s Olympic team: he is my most favorite kind of athlete (or person, really.) He can really be there in the clutch. “O Canada,” remember? That was just beautiful.

But the hits he’s bitching about now? Please. The Steckel hit was not dirty. Steckel was after the puck and ran into Crosby who sort of drifted into his way. That happened. Premeditated? Doesn’t appear to be, and I’ve watched it a lot of times.

Conditions were problematic on that ice period, and it was a scrapper, but watching this tape it just looks like an accidental collision at an awkward angle. The NHL called it incidental contact.

The hit on the boards from the Lightning’s Victor Hedman was harder and rightly drew a boarding penalty, but I watch a lot of hockey and it’s not unlike a lot of other hits on the boards I see on any given night.

A hard hit? Yes. A dirty hit? No.

Crosby’s take on things is that both Steckel and Hedman should have been penalized, of course.

“I didn’t like them. You talk about head shots and dealing with them, that’s been something that’s been a pretty big point of interest from (general managers) and players…When I look at those two hits and we talk about blind-side and an unsuspecting player … There’s no puck there on both of them. A direct hit to the head on both of them. When you go through the criteria, I think they fit all those.”

I haven’t been on ice skates in decades but I’ve watched a lot of hockey, and if I signed up for an amateur women’s team, I would expect to get the crap kicked out of me. It’s that kind of game. Want to see some dirty hits?

I don’t like to join the chorus of complaining that Sid’s a whiner (and obviously I hope he is symptom-free soon) but the shoe, in this case, fits pretty well.

Source

Cincinnati Bearcat Arrested for Snowball Fight

By | December 5, 2010 | Fight!, Mascots | Comments Off

Yesterday the Cincinnati Bearcat was arrested for his participation in a snowball fight.

Not a Cincinnati Bearcat, THE Cincinnati Bearcat.

Robert “Bobby” Garfield III who plays the Bearcat was probably frustrated because Pitt was beating the snot out of Cincinnati and he was throwing snowballs at a crowd of people. When the police asked him to stop, he didn’t.

So they arrested him.

That seems a little bit extreme, but maybe the cops prevented a riot like the mess that happened at The Rose Bowl yesterday.

The University of Cincinnati sent in a backup mascot after halftime.

I don't think this real bearcat was the one called in, but at this point anything is possible.

[source]

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