Wamsley01

It's the wheel of justice. Spin it and award whatever number it lands on. After looking into this yesterday it is a waste to bring up hypocrisy's because the job has already been done for us by every fanbase who has been a victim of a ridiculous ruling like the one we witnessed yesterday. Savard, Booth, Bergeron etc etc. The NHL DOESN'T CARE. We just found out 24 hours ago and "insert fanbase here" is going to find out when it happens to them in the next month.

The guy reacts to everything like this. It's amazing that he was a lawyer.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/article/951845--pacioretty-injury-horrific-but-part-of-the-game-bettman Yeah, Bettman essentially gives a giant ###### you to Air Canada. I don't think I can hate that guy anymore.

Just wondering how much anybody cares about the Price/Halak thing after Tuesday night? It's funny how that debate raged for 18 months and it now seems so trivial.

In all honesty, I never cared about intent. Looking at some of the replays it looks like a Gorilla playing with a toy. I just can't get over the fact that they chose to focus on the least important part of this whole thing and that is intent. The greyest of grey areas. In their decision they NEVER mentioned puck position, they never mentioned severity of injury, possible motive based on history. They chose not to do their due diligence and that is absolutely disgraceful. You have to forgive individuals outside the bubble is that they don't really care like we do. Think of how in depth you looked into the David Booth fiasco. I watched the highlight and thought suspension. When there was no suspension I was outraged for 5-6 seconds and moved on. All because I have no emotional attachment to the situation. I didn't analyze the verdict. I didn't care what Richards had to say, I just knew that that little weasel had destroyed a career. In retrospect it becomes absurd and the NHL's "wheel of justice" has been absurd for plenty of franchises over the last 5 years. Can you really fault a Boston fan who has watched their best player's career ended and their next possible superstar possibly ruined and they have seen 2 games handed out in suspensions? Add in that Cam Neely's career was destroyed with no suspension. They are happy there is no suspension because they have been ######ed over multiple times by the idiot that is Colin Campbell. EOTP put up an article in which they reference plenty of previous infractions and it is an absolute joke. If I was that incompetent at my job I would not have one right now. No rhyme or reason for decisions, double talk and an absolute lack of transparency, precedent, consistency and continuity. I said it yesterday. The hit made me sad, not angry and I knew that my anger would move to the NHL because they don't care that a 22 year old is lying in a hospital bed and was millimeters away from sipping food through a straw for the rest of his life.

At which point we will get in to discussions about "why we didn't see this coming" even though we all do and nobody wants to deal with it. Loot at Brittanie Cecil. 50 years of no netting behind the goal, an innocent girl dies and it now seems absurd that we used to watch games without netting. The NHL is not interested in leading the way in anything but creating internet revenue.

It gets to the point where the Bruins have now started 7-8 fights without an instigator had Boychuk take a mini-run at Subban and White get the bigger penalty and their captain possibly destroy the career of one of our top prospects. What is exactly acting as a deterrent for the Bruins? I am worried about losing Price or other players because the NHL is setting a dangerous precedent of allowing massive violence and only penalizing goons like Gillies.

It isn't even intent though. Campbell twice ignored intent in suspending Kostopolous. One his main argument was the "severity of injury" and the second didn't fit into the blind side definition so he changed it to fit a suspension by bringing in "puck away from play" and "severity of injury". It is pretty obvious that there is no actual binding rules for why they suspend players and it is essentially at the whim of Campbell and Murphy to unilaterally decide.

Further to the hypocrisy of suspending Kostopolous because of the severity of the injury of Van Ryn here is Campbell about Kostopolous this season. http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/The-problematic-suspension-of-Tom-Kostopoulos?urn=nhl-305539

But the league would create a new precedent to deal with that and then ignore it at it's own will. They defy explanation and hide behind the word intent on every major suspension. They change their rationale on each suspension. If they can't russel up 1% of intent after Pacioretty and Chara had two minor incidents to give him 1 game, what needs to occur to prove intent? Bertuzzi/McSorley level incidents? Why did Tom Kostopolous get 3 games on Mike Van Ryn when he showed zero intent and Chara gets nothing when he showed zero intent? It is nonsensical. Does the NHL realize that they make statements that exist on the internet?

The thing is, the exact same thing could happen with a Habs player in the Chara role and we will all say the precedent is set, he will get nothing and the NHL will offer up a press release telling us how they saw the intent and it will afford them the opportunity to create a totally different ruling from the exact same circumstance. They do this all the time with the "intent to blow the whistle" rule, the "kicking motion" rule to the point where they create such a confusion that no ruling is unexpected but EVERY ruling is unexpected.

Intent is a cop out and it is why they are so inconsistent. Look at this board last night. It is easily altered by perspective. If Campbell was on the receiving end how does it change Campbell's view of intent? Same situation, different perspecitve, convenient loophole to change the rationale.

Why am I not surprised? This league is an absolute joke.

It allows for a trap door in any situation, that is why the intent argument is ridiculous. It is unprovable 90% of the time and is exactly why the NHL and their consistent lack of precedent like to use it. Chara knows he has to say "I didn't mean it". We know he is going to say it. So what value does it offer? What value is talking to Chara on the phone? Did you mean it Zdeno. No. Do you know you endangered a man's life. Yes. But you didn't mean it? No. Sorry, no intent there. Next call. They use the trap door over and over. Richards devastated Booth's career and they dropped intent. Really? Targeting the head as you drop your shoulder into his chin while he is looking the other way is not intent? If you can't prove it then, when can you actually prove it? The answer is almost never. Accountability is the word they need to use, not intent. AND there is the trap door in full view. blah blah blah....intent.....blah blah blah....hockey play....blah blah blah..intent....blah blah blah...no suspension.

They said the same stupid things when Kostopolous ended Mke Van Ryn's career blaming Van Ryn. They are consistent in their idiocy.

I think we knew his season was over the second he didn't get up for 5 minutes, my concern is for his quality of life and then his career.

Like I said in the game thread, I think the fractured vertebrae may push the league to do something it doesn't want to do, but that is probably wishful thinking.

I hope so, Moore suffered 3 fractured vertebrae so let's hope the concussion is the biggest concern for Max.

I don't know now. "Fractured vertebrae" changes the public perception from concussion, a word that we are now numb to. That could alter the NHL's outlook and punishment even though it shouldn't. If the NHL is smart they give him 10 games and it goes away. The media lauds them for taking a stand and the only complaints come from Boston. If they are too lenient they risk backlash from Montreal media + US and Canadian media.

I am not defending Chara, I am defending the burden of proof. I have said over and over that he needs to be suspended based on the result. Max Pac has a broken neck and I am not angry. I am upset and sad and feel a sense of loss and I imagine we all feel like that right now. Where the anger will surface is when the NHL totally ######s this up over the next day and a half. Then my anger will be the residual effect of the personal loss as a Habs fan x by my hate of Bettman/Campbell/Murphy and their inconsistent stupidity.

It has nothing to do with Pacioretty's feeling on the issue though. That is emotion talking. How can you deny that Gillies having more PIM's than playing time or that he did something reckless on his first shift after a 10 gamer was not influential and not the same as what happened last night.

GIllies was returning from a 10+ game suspension and on his first shift rammed somebody into the glass. He is a monkey on skates. He would NOT have received 10 games if he played 28 minutes a night and had no prior major incidents on his record.

The league won't and continues to stick their head up their ass in regards to player safety. Their inconsistency is frustrating. The call on White is the reason the instigator rule exists and I have no problem with the call or White for doing what he did within the context of one game if you are going to enforce your rules and philosophy. The problem is that when you put it in context within how the league "actually" calls the rule, then the call was absurd after what we witnessed in Boston a month ago. The NHL is a joke when consistency is involved and this will be no different.

I agree 100% that a headshot should be punished and cannot argue with anything you are saying really. He should be suspended for 5+, but he won't be.

Nowhere near the Bertuzzi incident which involved threats, a star player being hit, Moore getting in a fight in that game and Bertuzzi stalking him around the ice before punching him from behind.