Last night, in the third period of game one, San Jose Sharks forward Patrick Marleau's was given a two-minute minor penalty for an illegal check to the head on Penguins forward Bryan Rust. Following the hit, hockey fans took to Twitter to discuss the hit. Rust briefly returned to the game, before leaving the game to go to the quite room. Rust is listed at day-to-day.
I think this is the right call by the NHL's Department of Players Safety. I don't think that Marleau was intentionally trying to injure rust.
(1/3) Dept of Player Safety determines no Supplemental Discipline is warranted for Patrick Marleau’s hit on Bryan Rust in Game 1 of the SCF.
— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) May 31, 2016
(2/3) Main points of contact: shoulders, chest. Rust low, off-balance, reaching.
— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) May 31, 2016
(3/3) Marleau does not “pick” the head, elevate or extend. Head contact is with Marleau’s back.
— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) May 31, 2016
This was the hit that everyone was talking about yesterday. The Sharks defenseman Brad Stuart absolutely destorys the Av's forward Gabriel Landeskog with what appears to be a legal hit. I don't think it's a violation of rule 48. Or is it?
48.1 Illegal Check to the Head – A hit resulting in contact with an opponent's head where the head is targeted and the principal point of contact is not permitted. However, in determining whether such a hit should have been permitted, the circumstances of the hit, including whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position immediately prior to or simultaneously with the hit or the head contact on an otherwise legal body check was avoidable, can be considered.
Former Wild and current San Jose Shark forward Martin Havlat has been known as being a soft player that get injured a lot, but this is just a freak accident. Havlat was traded to San Jose in the trade that brought Dany Heatley to the Wild. We hope that Havlat isn't hurt too bad.
I have seen today where some suggested that Boston Bruins forward Rich Peverley should be suspended for this little love tap on Vancouver Canucks defenseman fraudKevin Bieksa. As you probably know, if you read this blog, I am on the record as not being a big fan of Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa and his on ice antics, I could also care less if he played his hockey at Bowling Green State University, so one might say that Karma has finally caught up with Mr. Bieksa, couldn't have happened to a nicer more deserving person.
Since Richard Peverley is a semi skilled hockey player that doesn't fight very often he will have to be on the look out for Kevin Bieksa because he is known for going after skilled players that don't like to fight and has fought with the following heavy weights during the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs (Viktor Stalberg, Troy Brouwer,Patrick Marleau).
Ottawa Sun --- “I’m sure everybody knows what happened and they’ll keep a better eye on him next time,” said Bieksa of Peverley, whose slash went undetected by referees Kelly Sutherland and Dan O’Halloran.
“There’s such a thing as karma. Whether it’s next year or the year after, he’ll get something from somebody else. He got me on the back of the knee. Luckily, it’s okay.”
Now before someone says that I think that Kevin Bieksa deserved to be stuck in the groin with a stick, I didn’t say that he deserved it, however, Bieksa brought that reaction on himself by the type of game that he plays on the ice. I do believe in Karma like I mentioned earlier. I also want to be clear I am not a fan of using your stick to settle differences on the ice and Peverley deserved a penalty for his cup check, but this stick fowl nowhere comes close to a suspendable offense.
Edit: Here is what the Vancouver Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault had to say about the Peverley love tap on Kevin Bieksa. You can judge for yourself, but it looks like the war of words is heating up in this series.
Joe Sullivan, Globe Sports Editor ---- Vigneault also talked about the physical nature of his team and the series plus a reference to what he called a cheap shot by Rich Peverley of the Bruins.
"I think if you look at the stat sheet at the end of the day, we're hitting as hard as they are. If you look at the stat sheets throughout the playoffs, we're the team that's got the most hits. That's part of our game. Kevin (Bieksa) didn't get hit, he got a cheap shot in the back of the knee (by Peverley), so that's totally different. He went down because of something that obviously you don't want to see in the game. But at the end of the day, we know that they're a big, physical team. We can play a speed game, but we can also play a physical-type game, which I think we've shown throughout the playoffs."
While it's no mystery that San Jose Sharks forward Ben Eager is a bit of a meat head and had a very rough game last night and he could be looking at a suspension from the NHL after he smoked Daniel Sedin from behind with an unneeded vicious boarding penalty. Eager looked like he was going to come unhinged on the San Jose Sharks players bench last night following the Kevin Bieksa and Patrick Marleau fight, all things considered Eager does have a valid point; Kevin Bieksa does like to go after the opposition's talented guys that don't fight and shies away from fighting the heavy weights and though guys that are known for racking up fighting majors and penalty minutes in the NHL. In case anyone forgot, Kevin Bieksa went after a non fighter in Chicago Blackhawks forward Viktor Stalberg during the first round of the NHL playoffs.
"We've seen that before with Kevin," said Ben Eager. "It's sad that someone's gonna sign him for big money when he's a phony. He goes after our top players. He's been asked many times, by lots of players throughout the League (to fight), and he's declined."
So it would appear that the Vancouver sports writers might have short memories when it comes to their beloved player hack Kevin Bieksa. While Eager might like the moral high ground in this situation and is a documented meat head, a bit of a loose cannon and acted like an unhinged psychopath that cost his team a power play goal, by taking an unneeded penalty and frankly should be watching game three from the press box. Seriously, you can’t really take him to task for speaking the truth, can you? Even if the Vancouver Media and fans have a short memory, it's a proven fact that Kevin Bieksa does pick his spots when it comes to fighting, so the Vancouver Canucks beat writers and fans might want to take their blue, green, silver, white goggles off when looking at this situation.
Eager, of course, couldn’t leave it at that, and after taking 20 minutes in penalties and damaging his team’s chances to win, he called Bieksa a phony in the post-game locker room, accusing him of picking his spots and not fighting the real tough guys.
“I’m not going to say too much about that,” said Bieksa. “Right now, my focus is on winning the series, and if they want to worry about that kind of stuff, that’s to our advantage. Our power play did a great job tonight of making them pay for some of their penalties.”
I think it's safe to say that this series is going to get more exciting going into games three and four in San Jose. It will also be interesting to see if the Sharks can at least put up a fight and contest this series and not just let the Canucks take them to the woodshed.
If I was the head coach of the San Jose Sharks, I am not so sure that I would encourage one of my top offensive players; that being Patrick Marleau to fight a tough hack guy like Kevin Bieksa, who has already fought three times during this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs.
I don't know, you would think that the Sharks wouldn't want to risk Patrick Marleau getting hurt by breaking a hand smashing Bieksa in the face. I understand that Marleau is trying to rally his team but there are others on the Sharks team that could have fought. Ben Eager would have been a better candidate based on the fact that his stupidity cost the Sharks a power play goal.
Incidentally, since Jeremy Roenick Called Patrick Marleau gutless on national television Marleau has picked up his game scoring three points in his last three games (3g-0a-3pts). So you do have to give Marleau credit for stepping up and challenging a player like Bieksa.
