You can't have it both ways....
by Fenway1912 on Mar 11, 2011 2:06 PM EST
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As a Bruins fans I am heartsick over the injury....but it is the flawed design of the boards that caused the injury...not the hit.
Look at this hit by Hall Gill last year - look familar? Centre Bell fans cheered....
What is it with Habs fans? Richard goes nuts in 1955 and there was a riot...
I know Quebec better than most Americans...and I vented yesterday.
If i am wrong correct me - but I don't think I am.
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look familar?
No, because it’s not even remotely the same type of hit. Gill is gliding backwards as opposed to striding forward, and therefore carries nowhere near the momentum Chara did. You also have to take into account the game situation, the rivalry, and the fact that Gill doesn’t have an easily identifiable history with Jon Sim, so there isn’t an air of intent surrounding the hit.
Methinks you’re reaching
What is it with Habs fans?
Yes, because only Habs fans complain about stuff that is viewed as an injustice towards them. I must have missed when Bruins fans stopped complaining about the Savard hit.
Like you said, you can’t have it both ways…
by Jedi Master A-Rod on Mar 11, 2011 2:52 PM EST reply actions
Not even remotely the same!
Gill backs into the area of the turnbuckle, shoving Sim away. No head contact.
Not even in the ballpark, Fenway!
It is the boards that need to be fixed
Chara won’t change, but arenas could
Of note
Since Pacioretty’s injury, the talk around the league has focused on that area between the benches. Without a doubt, some sort of barrier must be in place to separate the teams. That area varies from building to building, and the recent incident in Montreal sparked NHLPA executive Donald Fehr to release a statement Thursday afternoon.
“Player safety has always been, and continues to be, a great concern to the players’ association,” Fehr said. "In that regard, issues involving the boards and glass in NHL arenas have been a longstanding focus for the players.
“The serious nature of the injury suffered by Max Pacioretty in Montreal this week reinforces the importance of maximizing the safety in this area and highlights the need to look further into the matter. We will be inspecting the rink in Montreal, and elsewhere, to make sure the appropriate padding is in place. We will continue to gather feedback from the membership, to ensure the safest possible work environment for our players.”
The area between the benches at the Garden varies, depending on the set up. When fans are allowed to sit between the benches (like Thursday night), there are three pieces of glasses that surround the area big enough for four seats. The front piece of glass sits directly on the dasher with partitions on each end, which are covered in padding.
The padding is six feet tall and two inches thick and is two years old, according to a member of the building’s bull gang.
When there’s a reporter or photographer stationed in that area during a game, there’s no glass in the front and the side pieces are actually set back eight to 10 inches off the dasher. There are no partitions on the corner of the glass, only padding three feet high and one inch thick.
“If it were up to me, I would get rid of the whole thing and just put one wall up between the benches,” said a member of the bull gang who wished to remain anonymous. “One wall and you can leave the glass behind the dasher.” The league, the NHLPA and the manufacturer have to agree to any changes, but the building personnel at the Garden have had internal discussions. “Basically, the rods [partitions] should be moved off the dasher, back off to the side walls about six to eight inches back,” the bull gang member said. “You’ll still have [glass between the benches], but it’ll give you more room than it being right there. It’s not going to solve the whole problem, but it’ll be a lot better and less chance of a player hitting it. We’ve talked about that amongst ourselves.”
MAYBE just MAYBE some good come of this and all of us in Boston pray that Max will recover.
To compare the two hits is more than a stretch as Robert et al point out, but mostly because Gill’s hit is legal as the players and the puck are in play. Chara’s hit was not a legal hit as the two players were separated from the puck by three strides.
The “perceived injustice” is that the NHL’s rulings are completely devoid of any consistency, as Gregory Campbell’s father and his inferior decide when to prioritize “intent”, such as in Chara’s case, and when not to, such as in Ovechkin’s cases last year.
In our society, people are usually held accountable for our actions, particularly when the results are harsh in consequence. For example, if someone decides to drive 25 mph in a school area which has a 20 mph limit, that person will be liable if a child runs across the street and gets hit. The driver’s intent is hardly the issue, but the accountability that comes with breaking the law.
Neither Chara, nor the Bruins were held accountable, which is what upsets not only the Habs fan base but many hockey fans in general.
Read your linked article on your thoughts on Quebec.
Very nice of you to throw in some good ol’ boy anti-francophone sentiment to reinforce your point.
I agree that police involvement is unnecessary and excessive, but aside from that, who are you to judge a province? And a fanbase?
There’s many different types of Habs fans, just like there are many different types of Bruins fans. In any group of people there are extremists and moderates. However, by making the statements you have, you try to make it seem as if all Quebecers are out of control zealots. Its simply not true, and if you’ve spent as much time in Quebec as you claim you have, you’d know that.
I love how anglo commentators love to tell Montreal fans to ‘keep politics out of it’, while they make statements which are denigrating to the francophones in Montreal. Don’t complain about the stew bubbling after you stir the pot.
Put it another way- Boston fans have cheered many times when a Montreal player has gotten seriously hurt. Does that mean all Beantown fans are drunken Irish lunkheads? No.
The reason Montreal’s public commentary gets taken to task so much is that many people do not understand that there are very vocal groups looking to advance very specific political agendas through media attention. There are extremely xenophobic francophone groups in existence, and no, they are not nice people. However, to label an entire fanbase as extremist (particularly one as large and diverse as the Habs’), is painting with an excessively broad brush.
by westcoasthabs on Mar 12, 2011 5:26 PM EST up reply actions
I see your point but...
as others have said, the hits aren’t the same.
1.Sim had the puck (Pacioretty did not when he was hit).
2. Gill checked him into the glass but didn’t guide his head into the stanchion — which Sim does not hit. Pacioretty’s head being guided into the stanchion is my biggest concern about Chara’s hit.
3. Robert has pointed out that Gill was skating backwards, not forwards — difference in momentum.
Not to mention that due to him skating backwards, the argument that he didn’t know where the stanchion was is much more legitimate.
the argument that he didn’t know where the stanchion was is much more legitimate
Gill never had to defend the hit on Sim with a quote, so you must mean Chara, right?
That is what I meant, and by the way I am a male, Alexandre being the French equivalent of Alexander.
To make myself clearer, when Chara hit Pacioretty, the stanchion was right in front of his eyes, so the claim that he didn’t know the stanchion was there has much less credibility than if one were to make the same claim in Gill’s case, where he’s skating backwards and therefore does not have the stanchion in his field of vision.
Zdeno re: the stanchion
I Know what you mean, of course…
Where Chara sits on the end of the Bruins’ bench for two periods, every second shift, the stanchion obstructs his view of his own end.
It’s a false equivalency because the hits are very different as has been mentioned. Surprisingly however what no one is mention is that you’re completely off about the crowd reaction. I didn’t hear cheering, I heard the crowd yell “Ohhh” as in shock. if you can’t differentiate between cheering and shock just because a crowd happens to be loud, that’s your problem, not the problem of the Montreal fanbase.
http://twitter.com/andrewberkshire
by Andrew Berkshire on Mar 15, 2011 12:41 PM EDT reply actions
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