Buffalo's Steve Ott demonstrates textbook embellishment

Speaking of clowns. This is a textbook embellishment. You can't tell me that a big guy like Steve Ott who is 6'0" and 193 pounds, should be able to be knocked over this easily, no way, it's not possible. This should be a penalty on Steven Ott for embellishment. I also believe that it's probably not a smart play by Flyers defenseman Oliver Lauridsen because he fell for the bait as well. Not a good day for the Flyers defender.

Andrew Ference will not be suspended by the NHL.

According to John Bishop aka BISH...

Chiarelli on Ference: "No suspension."^BISH

Looks like the matter is closed. The fans in Montreal wont be happy and they will claim their is a conspiracy because Colin Campbell's kid plays for the Boston Bruins. The fact remains that Mike Murphy, senior VP of hockey operations was the one that made the decision; Colin Campbell had to recuse himself from the ruling because of his son playing Boston. I know some fans are going to make comments about crickets chirping in the back ground.

This is what Peter Chiarelli had to say on matter at his morning press conference.

Boston Globe --- Andrew Ference was not suspended for his hit on Jeff Halpern. Ference had a disciplinary hearing this morning with Mike Murphy, senior VP of hockey operations. "I thought it was just incidental contact," Chiarelli said of his first reaction. "When I took a closer look, I saw where the league's concerns lie. When you look at the whole play, we turned the puck over at our blue. When that happens, the D is supposed to close off the rim around the wall. [Ference] was moving that way. What Andy said was that he just saw [Halpern] off his shoulder as he was moving. Looking up as he saw the turnover, his motion and the player's motion ran into each other."

Questionable Ference hit on Halpern (by REDWING77)

Viewing this hit, what is surely going to happen in the comments thread of this video is the proverbial splitting of hairs. Halpern and Ference collide. There is DEFINITELY contact to the head on this play.

The hair splitter is whether or not Ference raised his elbow/shoulder. His elbow clearly bends pre-hit, but his shoulder does not rise. Nevertheless, Halpern does something EXTREMELY stupid: Skate at a player with his head down.

I'm not quite certain what Halpern was trying to do here. The puck wasn't near Ference when Halpern swerved to maneuver into contact with Ference and Ference clobbered him... seemingly.

The issue with Ference is that he sees it coming and does nothing to avoid contact. In fact, he slows down before contacting Halpern. This could mean two things (hence another hair splitter):

1. Ference was trying to soften the blow, as skating produces a shifting of the shoulders that could produce an actual elbow or shoulder to the head in so much as seemingly intentional of manner, just as much as the momentum going in the opposite direction of the oncoming Halpern could further cause harm.

2. Ference slowed down to ensure contact with Halpern.

Both are plausible. Also the pretence that Halpern skated in on Ference to level Ference may have been the intent and Halpern just did it wrong.

Either way, no suspension. But Montreal will call for it.

Let the hair splitting commence.