I am all for hard checking and hitting people hard, I am all for checking a teams star players to take them off their game. This hit is going to cost James Neal who I predict is going to get a few days on the beach for this bush league hit on Derek Dorsett. The Colin Cambpell wheels of have to rule against James Neal in this instance. Neal actually knocked Dorsett out, you can see him fall over. What do you think?
Maybe it's just me but the hit does not seem that bad, or that hard really. It honestly seems to me like he's trying to draw a penalty from it!
ReplyDeleteUm, he obviously wasn't trying to draw a penalty. That's the kind of stuff we're supposedly trying to get out of the game no matter how hard the hit looks. It was from behind with the other player in a vulnerable position and it was high to the head. Neal was upset because Dorsett wanted to go with him earlier in the game but Neal wouldn't so I guess that's how he saves face.
ReplyDeleteYou can't allow players to run into people from behind along the boards. Period. It has no place in hockey. Coaches teach players not to hit someone if they can read their name; they teach them this from the time that players are allowed to begin body checking.
ReplyDeleteThis hack skated into not only Dorsett, but another player as well. It was a very dangerous play on Neal's part, he could have injured 2 players with such reckless play.
BTW, Goon, you were wrong with respect to the Mitchell hit on Toews. Willie Mitchell was headhunting from the time he left the penalty box on that play, he should have been suspended for that hit. Toews missed 6 games, and the Hawks went 3-3 in his absence.
As far as your 'keep your head up' response, Mitchell wasn't in Toews' line of sight, so it wouldn't have mattered. The NHL has to start protecting star players from these bush-league hits. Gretzky would have had his career ended early with the shenanagins going on in today's NHL.
RJ fair enough, I think that Mitchell will be challenged the next time they play the Canucks. "IF" it was a dirty hit it needs to be answered for eventually.
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