GDT Dec. 10, Avalanche vs Habs, 7 PM

[DON]

12 hours ago, JoeLassister said:

I'm dead serious. 

 

I will be very happy if all 20 players on the Habs finish February 7th game healthy.

Too be scairt to toss a hit, because you are worried opposing team may want retribution sometime and somehow hurt a player on your team later in the season, is no way to play.

[JoeLassister]

2 hours ago, DON said:

Too be scairt to toss a hit, because you are worried opposing team may want retribution sometime and somehow hurt a player on your team later in the season, is no way to play.

I totally disagree.

Throwing a huge hip check  when the game is 10-1  is no way to play.

[illWill]

This is one of those topics that people draw a line in the sand and won't change their opinion. Both sides definitely make valid points. Would I crush a guy in a 10-1 game? Probably not, but I understand the game is 60 minutes long and I think that teams should be expected to play their best in that time frame. The fans didn't pay big money to see guys go half assed and the coaches don't want the players to develop bad habits doing so. There's also alot of honor in hockey and you should respect your opponent and I think it's just an unwritten code to let up a bit in a game like that and some players follow the code and some don't. Both are fine in my opinion and there will always be a debate as to which is the right way to adhere to 

[JoeLassister]

1 hour ago, illWill said:

This is one of those topics that people draw a line in the sand and won't change their opinion. Both sides definitely make valid points. Would I crush a guy in a 10-1 game? Probably not, but I understand the game is 60 minutes long and I think that teams should be expected to play their best in that time frame. The fans didn't pay big money to see guys go half assed and the coaches don't want the players to develop bad habits doing so. There's also alot of honor in hockey and you should respect your opponent and I think it's just an unwritten code to let up a bit in a game like that and some players follow the code and some don't. Both are fine in my opinion and there will always be a debate as to which is the right way to adhere to 

The right way to adhere to was throwing a good solid shoulder to shoulder bodycheck into the board.

By doing this, Emelin wouldn't have humiliated a team already down 10-1, wouldn't have raised anger toward him and his teammates on the ice. As someone else pointed out, they were lucky that Iginla was not a 25 yo stud anymore as this would have most likely escalated into a line brawl of some kind.

[illWill]

34 minutes ago, JoeLassister said:

The right way to adhere to was throwing a good solid shoulder to shoulder bodycheck into the board.

By doing this, Emelin wouldn't have humiliated a team already down 10-1, wouldn't have raised anger toward him and his teammates on the ice. As someone else pointed out, they were lucky that Iginla was not a 25 yo stud anymore as this would have most likely escalated into a line brawl of some kind.

 

I had zero problem with the type of hit because I thought it was clean. I also don't think a shoulder to shoulder check would have been as effective as the one he threw in that situation. He made the best possible play that he could and for that I applaud him. In my opinion the only gray area is the timing of the hit

[Commandant]

37 minutes ago, JoeLassister said:

The right way to adhere to was throwing a good solid shoulder to shoulder bodycheck into the board.

By doing this, Emelin wouldn't have humiliated a team already down 10-1, wouldn't have raised anger toward him and his teammates on the ice. As someone else pointed out, they were lucky that Iginla was not a 25 yo stud anymore as this would have most likely escalated into a line brawl of some kind.

 

And previously when Emelin hit a 6'5 guy coming at him with a huge head of steam, with a shoulder to shoulder check, he messed up his knee and was gone for the season. 

[KoRP]

Personally, I don't see anything wrong with what Emelin did, I do however think what Iginla did is what's wrong here, that attitude where the bravado and code is inherently wrong, go after a guy after a clean hit. That's bullshit.

 

Colborne is 6'5" and didn't do a thing, because he knew it was a good hit, a great hit actually.

 

I laughed hard when Iggy steps up and Emelin smashed his little bubble by driving him to his ass on the ice too.

 

If  Emelin doesn't have steel plates in his head, and I bet he fights every game or two, he's a beast, he doesn't hit people dirty, just hard, and I'm glad we have him. 

[Guest Stogey24]

Let's just say hypothetically, that Emelin doesn't lay the hit and Colbourne comes in with a head of steam and takes out price...

 

You've gotta protect your house. That's all there is to it. 

[JoeLassister]

56 minutes ago, Stogey24 said:

Let's just say hypothetically, that Emelin doesn't lay the hit and Colbourne comes in with a head of steam and takes out price...

 

You've gotta protect your house. That's all there is to it. 

What about :  " Let's just say hypothetically, that Emelin just play the ing puck and takes it away from Colbourne so he doesn't take Price out with a head of steam."

[Commandant]

42 minutes ago, JoeLassister said:

What about :  " Let's just say hypothetically, that Emelin just play the ing puck and takes it away from Colbourne so he doesn't take Price out with a head of steam."

 

How about he just assess the situation, and makes the best play possible in the situation?

 

Its a split second decision.  I don't mind him making the same decision in a 10-1 game that he makes in a 2-1 game. 

If Colborne doesn't want to be hit cause of the score.  Dump it in the corner and change. 

 

If Colborne wants to keep trying to score, I expect our defence to keep trying to defend, the BEST way they know how. 

[JoeLassister]

1 hour ago, Commandant said:

 

How about he just assess the situation, and makes the best play possible in the situation?

 

Its a split second decision.  I don't mind him making the same decision in a 10-1 game that he makes in a 2-1 game. 

If Colborne doesn't want to be hit cause of the score.  Dump it in the corner and change. 

 

If Colborne wants to keep trying to score, I expect our defence to keep trying to defend, the BEST way they know how. 

Well that's exactly my point.  A hip check is not the best way to defend a goal when the game is 10-1. Period.

[Commandant]

9 minutes ago, JoeLassister said:

Well that's exactly my point.  A hip check is not the best way to defend a goal when the game is 10-1. Period.

 

Depends on the player.

 

For Emelin it is very effective.  

 

Better than trying to pivot, then skate with Colborne and poke check him.  Emelin is not the best skater, and Colborne had a full head of steam, which is what made the check so effective. 

[JoeLassister]

I don't understand that you guys don't get that THAT specific play is not only related to the action of Emelin checking Colbourne, but that it comes with all the rest :  frustration, humiliation, unecessary use of a fancy and dangerous bodycheck, potential feeling of vengeance when February will come, and on and on and on.

Anyone ever played hockey here or what ?   You seriously believe that Emelin will not be a major target from now on when he'll face Colorado ?

 

Glad he didn't pull that stuff against Philly or Ottawa.

[Commandant]

Yes, many of us have played hockey... suggesting we haven't is just insulting. 

 

I don't think you understand that Colborne was trying to drive the net, at a high rate of speed.  Emelin is expected to defend and thats what he did, making the instinctive play.  He didn't have time to think about it, like someone writing on a message board with 20/20 hindsight does. 

[xXx..CK..xXx]

I agree. Saying that a shoulder to shoulder hit was the right play could be argued if it's certain that it was even possible for Emelin to do that himself in the moment. Emelin could have been off balance, have been anticipating something else, have a shoulder injury, or simply feel more comfortable hitting that way. 

 

Furthermore, if Emelin nails Colbourne with a shoulder check that lands him on his a$$, Iginla would have had the same reaction anyway. It's more the outcome of the hit than the fact it was a hip check in and of itself.

 

Those same scuffles happen in 3-1 games as well. I can assure you that if Colorado is embarrassed about anything, it's the score of the game, not the hit. I don't expect any retribution for the hit at all come February, actually. 

[Commandant]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/leafs-canucks-rematch-will-nhl-player-safety-watching/

 

What happened?  Meh, one fight, not a heck of a lot really. 

[JoeLassister]

Just watched the replay again.

 

The argument that Emelin acted instinctivly and had no time to think about the hit is, IMO, bullshit.

 

Colborne wasn't even gliding that fast, Emelin wasn't even the last dman on the play, heck, it wasn't even going to be a good scoring chance, it was a 3 on 4 with 3rd liners involved. 

Emeln had all the time in the world to just apply some pressure on Colborne and play the puck.

Or to go with a shoulder body check.

Or just follow Colborne and jam him into the board deeper in the zone.

But no, he had to try the hip check for whatever reason.  He thought about it for a good 1-2 seconds, he even started the check far away from the board, totally not instinctive.

 

And for that matter, it's 10-1 !!! Who gives a f***k if Colborne has a good scoring chance ?

[DON]

5 hours ago, JoeLassister said:

  You seriously believe that Emelin will not be a major target from now on when he'll face Colorado ?

 

Good...Pacioretty, Weber, Markov, Galchenyuk and Radulov will make em pay by filling the net once again, I like that.

[DON]

2 hours ago, JoeLassister said:

Just watched the replay again.

Many have watched it numerous times.

Again, I wouldn't of done it, nor recommended it but is pretty clean and not a cheap shot.

What did you think Emelin's shove of van Riemsdyke into the endboards at end of Leaf game? Was that OK?

 

 

[JoeLassister]

Hell no, it was even worst against JVR.

 

Again, I'm not saying that the hit on Colborne is dirty, anytime when the score is closer, I would have absolutely no problem with the hit.

 

It's everything around the hit that disgusted me.

[Commandant]

2 hours ago, JoeLassister said:

 

And for that matter, it's 10-1 !!! Who gives a f***k if Colborne has a good scoring chance ?

 

So we should hang our goalie out to dry at the end of blowout games?

[JoeLassister]

The gap between not throwing a hip check and hanging our goalie out to dry  is  so damn wide man...

[Neech]

That hit in that context potentially leads to retribution and targetting in February.  We all know 'the code', idiotic though it may be.  If Colorado has a crazy guy on the team I'd worry about him trying to injury someone.  

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

There is no way that check warrants a deliberate attempt to injure anyone, including Emelin. Fer chrissakes, CLEAN HITS do not justify calling in a hit man. A reasonable reaction would be for COL to play grumpy and try to make us pay physically with big hits and maybe a fight. Anything more than that is about as ridiculous as smashing Pacioretty into the stanchion because he had the temerity to give Chara a shove after scoring a goal.

[CerebusClone]

36 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

There is no way that check warrants a deliberate attempt to injure anyone, including Emelin. Fer chrissakes, CLEAN HITS do not justify calling in a hit man. A reasonable reaction would be for COL to play grumpy and try to make us pay physically with big hits and maybe a fight. Anything more than that is about as ridiculous as smashing Pacioretty into the stanchion because he had the temerity to give Chara a shove after scoring a goal.

 

I agree with you about not overreacting either, however my problem with the hit was what you mentioned above. The game was over, the Coloerado players were down and humiliated, and there was no need to go for the spectacular - and always dangerous even if legal - hip check. Emelin risked pissing off a down opening for nothing more than cheers (there are plenty more options to him at that point, including a simple shoulder check to stop Colborne), and the Avalanche could have retaliated with either someone dropping the gloves or some big hits. 

 

Since Emelin has actually always been kind of a wuss when it comes to fighting, and prefers hiding behind either the referees or his teammates, that means a teammate could have to fight, and possibly take some punches to the head (and who knows maybe end of with a concussion or other injury). Or it could have meant a teammate ending up on the receiving end of a dirty, perhaps like Andrew Shaw paid for Emelin's hit against the Bruins when Torey Krug hit him directly on the head (could have been a coincidence, but I doubt it), could have been a coincidence, but I doubt it. 

 

ps. Speaking of Emelin and the Bruins, Brad Marchand had an interesting response to a Habs fan celebrating the Emelin hit on him. Marchand said he got a 5-game suspension for exactly the same hit on Sami Salo in 2012. I looked at the videos, and I would have to agree with him. The hits were very similar, just about the same point of contact. The only difference was that Salo was injured on the play, and Shaw got up to go back to the dressing room. Yet another example of the NHL's ambiguous application of the rules based on he player status, and the context (i.e. injury or not, which should not be a factor). Not unlike Krug's hit on Shaw... if Shaw is severely injured on that, I'm not sure the NHL finds ways to justify the hit, like Shaw reached down, etc. I'e seen this exact same hit lead to suspensions in the past...