Thursday Night Habs Links

by Kevin van Steendelaar on Jan 5, 2012 7:33 PM EST in Opinions and other Habs links

So how painful was it for Colin Campbell to have to pass judgment in favour of the Montreal Canadiens for a change. Had to hurt a little, eh?

Campbell gave the Florida Panthers Krys Barch a one-game suspension for uttering an "inappropriate comment" towards the Habs P.K. Subban on New Year's Eve. Barch admitted to making the remark, according to Campbell, but precisely what was said was not revealed, so it is only a best guess scenario.

The general consensus is that Barch made a "slipped on a banana peel" remark towards Subban, after the Habs rearguard fell after being tangled up up with Erik Gudbranson. That phrase is nothing new in terms of a player/fighter losing his balance in a scrap, etc., and was not intended to offend in a racial way. But this is the era of accountability and political correctness, one has to take caution to the wind when making comments in a public forum.

Barch fessed up to saying it, and said he spoke to Subban shortly after. The league deemed it offensive though, and a one gamer is adequate in this situation. Barch has accepted that, and was told by Campbell that if the league felt it was racially motivated the suspension would have been more severe.

Case closed, now let's move on.

Congratulations to Brendan Gallagher, Nathan Beaulieu and Michael Bournival for winning the Bronze Medal this afternoon at the World Junior Championship. After a humbling loss to Russia in the Semi-Finals, Team Canada bounced back with a 4-0 win over Finland.

Gallagher had six points in six games and 35 shots on goal (9 in the last game). Bealieau and Bournival each picked up an assist in the tournament, and finished at -1.

Elsewhere..

Guy Lafleur on the language issue behind the Habs bench.

Saw this via a small blurb on the Fourth Period, and it's a bit old, but RDS' Renaud Lavoie seems to have the same thoughts that our Andrew Berkshire proposed weeks ago.

Abe Hefter on Louis Leblanc's return to Hamilton.

Red Fisher on Habs legend Dickie Moore , who turns 81 on Friday.

Some Habs "He Said/She Said."

Apparently fans at the Bell Centre have started a new tradition to celebrate a Hat Trick, after Lars Eller recorded the third of his four goals on Wednesday.

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Comments

World Junior Championship

39-4 shots for Sweden after the second period. This is insane.

by fsaintjacques on Jan 5, 2012 9:26 PM EST reply actions

I haven’t seen a shot total like that since Montreal/Washington Game 7.

If you want 30 tweets a day, don't follow me. @ChrisBoyle33

by Chris Boyle on Jan 5, 2012 9:33 PM EST up reply actions

Good Lord..

what if Barch had said “So’s your old man!”. or “Your mother wears army boots!” I have no tolerance for racism, none zip, zero, zilch nada., bit come…on! If the N.H.L. wants to install a no-taunting rule great. No effbombs, no cursing, no mocking nothing then great, but to have master-linguists (presumably English, French, Russian, Swedish, Czech, Dane, & Finnish) to parse through all verbal interaction to divine if any could be offensive is a daunting task.. They could then pass it on to upright exec. Colin Campbell who could write an intimidating e-mail to the offender C.C. a copy to all on-ice officials & by-the-by stop calling penalties in my sons’ team too!
I can’t wait to hear Don Cherry on this one.

Nothing Is Fool proof if you have the right fools.

by GiantsCauseway on Jan 6, 2012 10:17 AM EST reply actions

The suspension confuses me. Either it was a racial remark and you throw the book at him or it wasn’t and you don’t suspend him. I’m not walking in the shoes of a person of a minority, but given that Subban had fallen and the cultural context of “slipping on a banana peel” I don’t think there was much to it. Once again I stress that this is coming from a white guy so I could be completely out to lunch

The 1-game suspension is typical Campbell though – it’s a 4th-line player on a marginal team doing something so you may as well give him a game just in case people say you should. Had a star player said the same comment there wouldn’t be a suspension.

by Roke on Jan 6, 2012 7:39 PM EST up reply actions

Its a “we don’t know if it was racist or not so we just decided to punish you for being stupid enough to say something ambiguous.” Splits the difference of probablities. I’m actually pretty ok with that.

Writer for http://www.habseyesontheprize.com/

by Stephan Cooper on Jan 7, 2012 12:00 AM EST up reply actions

No Divisional re-alignment

Renaud Lavoie (@renhockey) had some tweets on the subject which is where I first got the news. RDS has a post on their website now: http://www.rds.ca/hockey/chroniques/332873.html

by Roke on Jan 6, 2012 7:31 PM EST reply actions