Showing posts with label Lars Eller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lars Eller. Show all posts

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Ken Dryden: After the Hit

English: Ken Dryden goalie mask, Hockey Hall-o...
English: Ken Dryden goalie mask, Hockey Hall-of-Fame (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If you haven't seen this article, It's worth a read, but I don't agree with it. Not at all. I have never been a fan of Ken Dryden, post NHL career. Dryden has been one of the strong voices for taking fighting out of the NHL. A bad move in my opinion.
Ken Dryden, Grantland.com -- Yet if some of the decisions made afterward by the referees,1 by NHL senior vice-president of player safety Brendan Shanahan,2 or even the conclusions drawn by the media were technically wrong or contorted, they seemed right. The consequences of the hit, to many, somehow had to matter. The referees penalized Gryba for interference, even though he had committed no infraction. This wasn't interference. But the referees, somehow, still seemed right. In his reasoned-sounding judgment in suspending Gryba, Shanahan may have split the wrong hairs in concluding that Gryba made principal contact with Eller's head, but Shanahan, somehow, still seemed right. Commentators argued back and forth with each other, but mostly they argued with themselves — But Eller had his head down … but look at the injuries he suffered … But Diaz fed him a suicide pass … but look at the injuries he suffered … But it was a clean check … but look at the injuries he suffered.
Dryden goes on. Here it is...
There is another ethic in sports that has also always been there, and still is. It is worn as a badge of honor, particularly by the "tough guys." It goes: I will not hit someone when he is down. I will not hit someone when he is defenseless. There is no courage in that. There is dishonor in the doing. The question in this case: What makes a Gryba hit clean and good on a defenseless Eller when a punch to the face of someone lying on the ice, equally defenseless, is not?

In an age of concussions, maybe the first ethic is wrong. Maybe the second ethic is right. Maybe we don't just have a responsibility to ourselves. Maybe we do have a responsibility to everyone else, too. Maybe that's what the referees, Shanahan, the commentators, and the public are saying.

Maybe things are changing.
It's really not hard to see where this is going. It's a mind set, now we will start spending players that make legal hits, if they severely injure the player that was on the receiving end. This is what happened in the case with Lars Eller. In my opinion, NHL senior vice-president of player safety Brendan Shanahan Eric Gryba because if he hadn't he would have been ripped apart in the Montreal Media. It didn't matter if the hit was a legal hit.
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Friday, May 03, 2013

NHL: Gryba to have hearing on Eller hit



"It's a clean hit with a bad result," Former NHL official Kerry Fraser. I don't believe there should be any [supplemental discipline], Fraser continued.

NHL.com -- The NHL has scheduled a disciplinary hearing for Ottawa Senators defenseman Eric Gryba on Friday for his hit on Lars Eller of the Montreal Canadiens in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series.

With just under 6 1/2 minutes left in the second period of Thursday night's game, Gryba caught Eller with a crunching hit at the blue line as the Canadiens forward was receiving a pass from defenseman Raphael Diaz. Eller was taken off the ice on a stretcher after landing face-first following the hit. He was expected to spend the night at the hospital with head and facial injuries, according to the Canadiens.

The following grounds for potential supplemental discipline are being considered: Illegal check to the head. However, the Department of Player Safety retains the right to make adjustments to these infractions accordingly upon further review.

Gryba was assessed a five-minute major for interference and a game misconduct on the play. Montreal scored once during the long power play, but Ottawa rallied with three goals in the third period for a 4-2 victory.

Game 2 of the series is scheduled for Friday night in Montreal.
Here is what the head coach of the Senators coach Paul MacLean had to say about the hit.

"(If I’m Eller), I’m really mad at player 61 [Raphael Diaz], whoever he is, because he passed me the puck in the middle of the rink when I wasn’t looking,” said MacLean. "That’s always been a dangerous place as far as I know. Ever since I’ve been playing this game, that’s a dangerous place to be — bad things happen."



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Thursday, May 02, 2013

Edit: Lars Eller destroyed by Eric Gryba



After watching some of the analysis post hit, I am not sure we need to page the NHL Department of Player Safety. Former NHL official Kerry Fraser gives us a pretty good explanation of what happened with hit and they had the benefit of having a big screen TV screen to break down the hit.

Edit: Senators defenseman Eric Gryba absolutely destroys Montréal Canadiens forward Lars Eller with a vicious shoulder-to-torso hit, in my opinion this is probably not a violation of the NHL's rule 48. Also, I would not be too happy with my teammate for making that suicide pass.
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