Dan Rosen - NHL.com --- Buffalo GM Darcy Regier suggested that a majority of the general managers have told him that Lucic should have been suspended.
"Well, based on our conversations in the room, I personally believe it would be," Regier said. "It is not just my feeling, it is the feelings of my counterparts."
Shero suggested that at the very least a major penalty could have been called on Lucic.
Rule 42.3 on charging allows for a major penalty to be called at the discretion of the official "based on the degree of violence of the check." There is a similar stipulation associated with Rule 69.2 on interference with a goalkeeper.
Shanahan confirmed to NHL.com that he did have a discussion with the League's Director of Officiating, Terry Gregson. The conclusion was that a major penalty may have been an appropriate call in that case, but again it is up to the discretion of the on-ice officials.
Image via WikipediaThis kid might be good at this hockey thing. The 16 year-old defenseman was part of the U.S. U-17 Team, which won its third straight Four Nations title over the weekend scoring two goals (three if you include an exhibition game) during the tournament.The NHL Hockey GM’s are going to discuss the 1-3-1 defense. Personally, I don’t know what they are going to discuss? Playing the trap is perfectly legal in the NHL and in all levels of hockey, “all” teams play it from time to time. [NHL.COM]
Scoring goals in an international tournament is just adding to what’s been a good year for the Devils Lake, N.D. native.
“It’s really good,” said Thompson a few weeks before the tournament. “Everything is going good. Hockey is doing good. Every thing is going really good. Its kind of rainy out here so I’d say that’s the only bad thing.”
"I'm really surprised and even more confused," Canucks winger Alex Burrows said after the ruling. "I've been trying to figure it out and I don't know if goalies are in play now if they're out of their crease. This might set a precedent. Shanahan played the game and he probably knew that he [Lucic] had time to move and growing up you learn you can't really hit the goalies. I would have dove at the puck or have tried to get out of the way.Alex Burrows can’t be serious; this clown doesn't have a leg to stand on or the moral compass to make these comments. In case anyone forgot, this was the same buffoon that bit Patrice Bergeron last spring in the Stanley Cup Finals.
"I thought there would be repercussions. We're concerned. I thought we were trying to get those kind of hits out of this league and now it might be back to old-time hockey. The next thing you know, you might have a line brawl or a bench clearing."
Image via WikipediaObviously the Buffalo Sabres aren't going to be happy with this decision, Lindy Ruff let it be know that he isn't happy with his goaltender getting run. [click to listen] Ruff claims by not suspending Lucic the league is basically saying that you can run a goalie over when he is out of the net playing the puck."If [Lucic] isn't suspended, it just means teams will be able to do exactly what Lucic did," Ruff said. "Their goaltender can play the puck, we can run him over. We can hurt him and all you get is a two-minute minor penalty. That's essentially what that means. You can concuss the other team's goaltender. You can run him going at whatever speed he was going. He made no attempt to get out of the way. It means it's fair game on goaltenders."I don't hink we have gone down the slippery slope, at least not yet. I also don't think we are going to see more NHL goaltenders getting run over. I don't blame the Sabres for being mad, I think the Sabres have a right to be upset. That being said, if I was a Sabres fan I would be upset that no one on my team challenged Lucic for that hit. I also don't think that it's now open season on goaltenders either. I also don't think that this hit by Lucic was worthy of a suspension, like I told a friend of mine, not every questionable hit or penalty is worthy of a suspension.
TORONTO -- Shanahan held a hearing with Lucic via conference call because he had specific questions he wanted to ask before making a determination on potential supplemental discipline.The fans that hate the Boston Bruins are now going to say that there is a conspiracy and that the league loves the Boston Bruins and that the Bruins will always get way with bush league hits and that by not suspending Lucic only confirms what most of the Bruins haters thought last spring when Chara didn't get suspended for his hit on Max Pacioretty. Until one of the Boston Bruins gets the book thrown at him by the NHL front office the tin foil hat crowd is going to be out in full force.Notice a lot of the howling and complaining coming from the fans in Montreal.What do you think of this ruling by Shanahan?
"I had the hearing because I did make an initial assessment of the play as I do with all plays, but I did have some questions for Milan and I wanted to hear directly from him," Shanahan told NHL.com. "They were regarding his intent; at what point did he know there was going to be a collision; and whether or not he felt he had the time to avoid the collision. I was satisfied with his answers."
Shanahan said the minor penalty for charging was the proper call in this case because it follows Rule 42.1, which reads "a goalkeeper is not fair game just because he is outside the goal crease area."
"The minor penalty called on the ice was the correct call," Shanahan said. "And, while it's unfortunate that Miller was hurt I saw nothing egregious about this hit that would elevate it to supplemental discipline."
The Sabres did not come to Miller's defense following the hit, other than a couple of shoves by Thomas Vanek and Andrej Sekera. Was it the response they needed?According to ESPN it has been confirmed that Ryan Miller has suffered a concussion from the hit. In addition, the General Manager of the Buffalo Sabres Darcy Regier thinks that there should be some additional disciplinary action for Lucic's hit on Miller.
"No, no it wasn't," said center Paul Gaustad, who was on the ice along with Vanek, Sekera, Tyler Myers and Jason Pominville. "I can do more. I'm embarrassed that we didn't respond the way we should have. It falls on myself. I look at myself first, and I wasn't good enough. [John Vogl, Buffalo News]
Regier also told the Buffalo News that he felt the play deserved a suspension from the league.If Lucic running over Ryan Miller is deserving of suspension from the NHL, then I think that Millers attempted and missed chop with his carbon fiber goalie stick at Milan Lucic is worthy of some consideration as well. Can you imagine if Miller had connected with Lucic? Yikes! That would have been an ugly incident.
"If this hit and other types of hits like this are not suspended, we are opening up the possibility of losing goaltenders to injury," Regier told the Buffalo News. "And not just injury, but concussion. ... When I look at the position of goaltending, in a lot of ways it's not unlike quarterback in football. I feel very strongly the protection has to be provided and players committing these types of action should be punished. [Mike Harrington, Buffalo News]
The two lunkheads on the Hockey Night in Canada panel, both former Boston Bruins, thought it was fine. So surely it was a clean hockey play, right?Steve Kendall, from the Hockey Writers wasn't very amused with the Lucic hit either, now from reading some of his work, it appears that Kendall is also not a big fan of Lucic or his style of play, or that is what I gleaned from perusing some of his articles, this is also the same guy that suggested that the Bruins trade Milan Lucic.
Heaven help you if you shape your opinions based on the moronic blathering of these two attention-craving doorknobs, who took time out from their combined 2,313 NHL penalty minutes to score 59 goals.
Bruins forward Milan Lucic’s concussing of Buffalo Sabres goalie Ryan Miller on Saturday in Boston was deemed to be a two-minute penalty. But the open-ice hit was high, cheap, late, dangerous, entirely avoidable and was in absolute violation of the spirit of hockey.
The check again revealed the dishonest play of Lucic and, in failing to lift a finger in defence of their franchise goalie, the turtling of the Sabres as a whole.
In my opinion, anyone who defends Lucic’s hit is dead wrong, as it was yet another in a long line of bad decisions/cheap shots in Lucic’s recent career.Lastly, the
Saturday’s hit was not only uncalled for, it was downright dirty. Lucic had plenty of time to avoid the hit, which is shown below, and broke both an unwritten code of the game and a long-standing rule that players do not purposefully target a goaltender who is out of his crease.
Image via WikipediaRight away when I read the newspaper article about this incident, it does send up a few warning flags, especially after what has happened this summer. Boston Herald --- Stanley Cup hero Milan Lucic was questioned by police early yesterday after he and his girlfriend got into an altercation in the North End.
According to a police report of the incident, the Bruins [team stats] left winger was “highly intoxicated and hostile” after he and his galpal argued outside a Starbucks on Commercial Street shortly before 1:30 a.m.
Witnesses told police the 6-foot-4, 220-pound hockey player was yelling at his girlfriend, who was on the ground, and at one point threw her shoes and purse at her. However, the woman told police she was not physically assaulted and “was adamant about not being harmed,” the report states. Police “did not observe any visible injuries,” the report says, and Lucic was not charged.
Megan Stewart, Vancouver Courier ---- "There is a certain amount of tension right now," acknowledged Lucic's mom, Snezana. "It's not all of Vancouver, just certain individuals."
When he celebrates with the Stanley Cup this weekend, Lucic will keep the festivities relatively private and low-key. He won't be gloating, at least where the public eye can see. Potential to bring hockey's holy grail to Kitsilano Beach Park for the weekend's popular sports festival, Kits Fest, were scuttled, according to an event organizer.
All because of a few sore losers. Seeing Lucic with the Stanley Cup would be bittersweet for Canucks Nation, just as it must be acutely bittersweet for him to keep in check the pride he rightfully feels. Such a woe-begotten attitude is beatable by recognizing Lucic for the accomplishments he realized right here at home. However, too many are still hurting over the hometown champion who helped conquer the hometown. Said Snezana, "That's why Milan does not want to be out there, parading the Cup around his hometown."
Image by Getty Images via @daylifeVancouver Canucks Defenseman Kevin Bieksa was whining to the media yesterday about the big bad Bruins. After watching last night’s game it would appear that the Boston Bruins have gotten into the Vancouver Canucks head’s. Douglas Flynn; NESN --- NHL vice president Mike Murphy announced on Tuesday that "the garbage that is going on" had been addressed and further displays, such as players shoving their fingers in an opponent's face, will draw penalties.
While the Bruins appear to have taken Murphy's warning to heart about the excessive extracurricular activity in the series, the Canucks refuse to take any responsibility for the ugliness seen so far. According to Vancouver defenseman Kevin Bieksa, they're just innocent victims being bullied by the big, bad Bruins.
"This group in here, we're fine with that," Bieksa said of the league's crackdown after Wednesday's morning skate before Game 4. "We know to stay away from it. Last game, yeah we were holding our ground, but I don't think you saw any scrums in front of our net. They were always in front of their net, their guys pushing and shoving after the whistle and flexing their muscles and proving how big and bad they are, but during the whistles we're the top-hitting team in the league so we're going to punish them during the whistles and we'll let them do that stuff after. The finger pointing and all that stuff, it's getting a little old really quick. When you're the sixth guy to do it, I don't think it's that funny anymore. We'll see if there's any more of that [in Game 4]."
So by Bieksa's logic, teammate Maxim Lapierre's initial taunt of Patrice Bergeron in Game 2 after Alex Burrows was not suspended for biting Bergeron in Game 1 was just fine. But Mark Recchi and Milan Lucic doing the same to Lapierre and Burrows, respectively, in Game 3 wasn't "funny anymore."
On that, at least, Bruins coach Claude Julien would agree. He was upset to see his players stoop to the Canucks' level and happy to hear that the league was cracking down on such antics going into Game 4.
"It's unfortunate," Julien said. "I was one of those guys that voiced my opinion that I wouldn't accept it. I certainly didn't share that with my team. Consequently, we were responsible for a couple of those. Obviously it was clear after the game what I expected from our guys. I'm certainly not a guy that encourages that kind of stuff
Image by Getty Images via @daylife 2011 STANLEY CUP PREVIEW