Justin Abdelkader suspended for 2 games, Ken Holland said.
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2 game suspension?...wow. What are they smoking in Toronto
I hate the NHL more than ever. Explain to me why Weber didn't get suspended then?
Fuck this fucking arm put of a hockey league with double standards.
I'd love to hear what Shanahan was thinking on this one.
After the Senators suspension he HAD to issue a suspension on this one. The Senators hit was absolutely clean and perfect... never should have considered a suspension except that (1) blood on ice, (2) stretcher, (3) Gary B. was in attendance. The Abdelkader hit could warrant a suspension, but after the idiotic decision with the Senators' hit... he HAD to suspend him because it was obviously worse. He DID leave his feet, hit the Ducks player's head, and extended his arms afterwards. The Senators player didn't do any of that and HE got 2 games. They are the ones with the real gripe here. But hey, I don't like suspensions at all... penalties are fine with me.
Downvoted for all the capital words.
I posted a link below to Shanahan's explination, but here's Abdelkader today. Pretty much nothing interesting at all, except he does say he targeted the shoulder (not like anyone expected him to say something else).
I want to not hate shanny right but he's making it very hard.
As a player but he needs to be fired that's a bullshit ruling. Weber slammed the fuck out of z and didn't get shit. I'm sick of the NHL and its rules now these hits wouldn't happen if they were allowed to fight still. NHL is soft and should be ashamed of the way they are handling these rulings
Just terrible. The NHL is such a joke.
get intelligent people running things. Basically what I gather is teams are allowed to whatever the hell they want to the Wings (Weber slamming Zetterberg's head into the glass), and the moment the Red Wings get physical it results in a suspension on a play that wasn't even initially being called a penatly. A hit that at worst only warrented a two minute penalty, though I still think it was largely a clean hit.
Like I said I am done, Bettman, Shanahan and the other incompetent individuals running this league can stick it where the sun don't shine. And yes I included Shanahan because what he did as player for the Wings has no bearing on the piss poor job he has done in the league's front office. Shame to, because hockey is great sport when it is not being ruined by idiots.
The NHL is becoming just as soft as the NFL. Pro sports suck.
Those are still good to eat
Total horseshit.
just enough to get knocked out of the playoffs. . ..
You'll have that when you leave your feet aiming for the head. He's jumping up to hit his shoulder into that guys head. You guys crying about this suspension are pretty stupid.
Dvr I watch that hit 5 times and in slow mo he does not jump into him, the impact of the hit pushes his body up looking like he jump at him. There was no jumping. The only call I can see on that play is a charging.
A charge is when you keep skating. Abdelkader stopped skating 10 feet away and glided into the hit. The one thing everyone can totally agree on with this is that it's not at all a charge.
I don't put this one on Shanahan and get frustrated when people complain about him. He picture pages every decision and puts it on the Internet. He has also intimated as much as he can without getting fired that sometimes the league interferes with his rulings (eg Weber's hit). Bettman is an NBA slamma jamma, superstar oriented David Stern acolyte whose mission is to make hockey palatable to Southern Californians, ie more like the NBA. I bet you anything this ruling (and the weak-ass way they called the penalty on review as soon as they saw the head was impacted) came from upstairs.
Give Shanny a break. He's trying to make the NHL better and keeps his process for doing that as open as he can, but he works for an impish David Stern student. Anybody in that job would do worse.
is stupid, since it's a throwaway barb that can be used universally, but I digress.
The question is whether he left his feet to deliver a hit. From the film I've seen, Abdelkader didn't leave his feet until after making contact, which would make the charging call incorrect in the first place. I haven't seen anything from the league about head contact and that wasn't the call on the ice, so there's pretty much no reason to talk about whether or not Abdelkader targeted the head or not.
Edit: Watched Shanahan's video, and I think his version of events is wrong. He did mention contact to the head, but not in context of an illegal hit to the head under the head contact rule.
http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=0&id=245671&cmpid=nhl-twt
on the initial contact, and his feet were still on the ice when the initial contact was made. Don't what the hell replay you watched.
Regardless of what you think of the hit, it still doesn't explain how Weber can slam Zetterberg's head into the glass last year, and not get suspended for even one game.
The only stupid ones here are the idiots running the league, and anybody who would defend those idiots.
Was that the first hockey game you've ever watched?
Exactly, if it was Zetterburg (star) - no penalty no suspension.
Abdelkader second, third liner is 2 games.
I don't really have a problem with the suspension. Hard to argue he didn't make contact with his head and it directly resulted in an injury.
I understand people freaking out at the NHL, and it largely is justified. How Weber didn't get benched last year is absolutely beyond me, but that doesn't mean this hit was clean.
Neg away...
times and I still don't see direct contact with the head being made. It was primarly a shoulder to shoulder to hit, the injury could have very easily come on the fall after hit.
Have you watched the view looking directly at the Ducks player as Abs comes from the (right) side?
But that alone doesn't make a hit illegal, and certainly doesn't make it charging in any form. Shanahan would have more of a leg to stand on if he said the play was called incorrectly and suspended him based on Rule 48 (illegal check to the head). That at least has some subjectivity, and while I disagree with it I can at least see how the call would be defenseable.
He definitely made contact with the head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPRfFVg7lzI&t=0m45s
In the first replay, you can tell that he starts to leave his feet before just before the hit. In the second view, you can tell, especially going frame-by-frame, that his left should makes contact with the head.
My take on it is that Abdelkader intended to make a clean hit on the upper body, however, the guy bent over a bit to brace for the hit and Abdelkader's should hit him in the head. Even if it's not intentional, I still think it's something that at least needs to be called in the game and potentially further penalized outside the game. If you leave room for incidental contact to the head, then you have to make judgement calls. It's better to err on the side of safety than the side of fairness. Since they don't seem to be consistent at all, it's hard to say that this is actually their reasoning, though.
What I really don't get is how you can allow punches to the head, but then get upset with incidental contact. This should either be a violent sport or it shouldn't be. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
What a joke. 2 games. I wasn't even clear he hit his head. This league is a joke. Shanahan needs to be fired he is doing a terrible job on remaining consistent and putting out terrible precedents. I guess Slamming someone's head against the board like Weber is okay, but not a hit that the refs didn't even blow the whistle on to begin with.
Perfect video embed OP.
for a reason. The people running things are definatly doing their best to change that though. Hockey has always been my second favorite sport to watch (behind college football), but stuff like this and the two lockouts really make it hard to care about the league. The officiating this year alone has been the worst I have ever seen.
you ask that on a Michigan blog? As far as hockey crazed US states or areas. Your top 3 are almost certainly Minnesota, Michigan, and Western NY. Of course people like hockey
The real question is, does anybody really like jaylee714
Like this that has made the NHL an absolute fucking joke, it's shit like this that causes fewer viewers and no big tv contract. What a fucking joke, so pissed!
Nobody seems to mention this, but he made the hit not 8 ft. from an official who didn't even plan to call it a penalty.
The reverse angle is really, really bad, and given precedent earlier from the week (which WAS bullshit) this was the least he could get.
Take off your tinted glasses.The hit was dirty. He left his feet (charging) and went high.Dirty is dirty.
Ok watch a replay before posting something false.
I think you should be the one that needs to watch. I am only posting the truth here. Support the player not the hit. The hit was dirty. Justin is known to do dumb stuff ever so often.
Me and you would get along great while watching hockey games. This is like the 3rd thread about hockey where you said basically what I was thinking. Anyways I thought the hit was clean, but due to the Eller hit he had to get suspended. As far as the Weber incident, it was a cheap shot, but I've been watching hockey all day and guys have been choking each other and pinching each other in the face and no one is getting suspended. If he bashed Z's head in the glass last year and he got hurt I'm guessing Weber gets a suspension. These are two arguments I have been annoyed with as of late. Abdelkader takes dumb penalties at bad times, it is what it is look at the San Jose series a few years back.
If it matters at all Shanahan has admitted he made a mistake with the Z and Webber incident from last season and apologized.
I have known Abs from growing up in muskegon. He is a knucklehead. love the kid, but sometimes he lets the game get to him.
the fact that Z wasn't injured had jack to do with Weber's intent last year. And yes suspending Eller is also more evidence, that Shanahan has no idea what the hell he is doing. It should be about the intent, not the result, unfortunately Shanahan has proved he doesn't care about what the player's intent was over the last couple of years.
of charging, his feet were on the ice when he made initial contact. If that is a charge than every single hit Kronwall has thrown the last couple of years and 50% of the hits in the league should have been called charges.
Also regardless of what you think of the hit you want to explain how it is more dirty than slamming a guy's head into the boards when the game is over with?
I don't think you understand the definition of charging.
42.1 Charging - A minor or major penalty shall be imposed on a player who skates or jumps into, or charges an opponent in any manner.
Charging shall mean the actions of a player who, as a result of distance traveled, shall violently check an opponent in any manner. A “charge” may be the result of a check into the boards, into the goal frame or in open ice.
A minor, major or a major and a game misconduct shall be imposed on a player who charges a goalkeeper while the goalkeeper is within his goal crease.
A goalkeeper is not “fair game” just because he is outside the goal crease area. The appropriate penalty should be assessed in every case where an opposing player makes unnecessary contact with a goalkeeper. However, incidental contact, at the discretion of the Referee, will be permitted when the goalkeeper is in the act of playing the puck outside his goal crease provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such contact.
Abs launched himself. To say otherwise, you are being a delusional wings homer.
NHL is trying to protect players from head injuries. The onus is on the attacker to recognize when a player has is head down, not on the player getting hit.
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Am I, and YostBuilt the only two wings fans that can actually see where Shanahan is coming from. Screaming Bettman conspiracy for Abs suspension is Penn State level black helicopter delusion. Support the player, not the hit.
The onus is on the attacker to recognize when a player has is head down, not on the player getting hit.
That's absolutely and unequivocally false, and the NHL rulebook spells it out in Rule 48. If a player puts his head down, the officials are instructed to take that into consideration when determining whether a hit merits a penalty, and it's spelled out in black and white in the rule book. Take another look at any of the big Kronwall hits (specifically Voracek) and you'll be able to see in real time how that comes into play during an NHL game.
WRONG!!!!! The NHL at the beginning of the suspended season sent a memo to every player as part of the agreement of from NHLPA from Shanahan to make an effort to prevent head injuries. It stated that the onus will now be on the attacker to take into account the position of the player being checked.
Kronwall is a dirty player as well. I love that he is on the wings, but he is a dirty player.
I swear this is board is the most ignorant collection of hockey fans I have ever encountered.
that the onus has changed from targeting the head of a vulnerable player to hitting a vulnerable player in the head (I'm about 99% sure that's the "change" you're talking about) being completely illegal, you were absolutely incorrect above.
As far as ignorace about officiating, I'll say that I'm quite confident in my ability to evaluate a hockey game and the on and off ice officials. Whether that confidence is warranted is a matter of opinion, but I don't think I've ever posted anything that would imply I'm ignorant about any of those aspects of hockey.
Abs left his feet in every replay I have watched. I am not seeing where Abs feet was on the ice. It was a Kronwall style dirty hit.
I played hockey at the MHSAA level. I attempted college hockey but didn't have the talent.
Here is a memo from the prior head of officiating, I am not finding the memo that Shanahan sent to teams at the beginning of this season, stating the league is going put more responsibility of the attacking player than the vunerable player.
http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/78045-nhl-warns-headhunters
not hitting the head as part of an otherwise legal check. The onus is not on the checking player to avoid head contact in the NHL (as it is in USA Hockey and the NCAA), it's just illegal to target a vulnerable player's head, as it has been for some time.
I don't really care about resumes, just addressing your comment. Shanahan has a better player resume than just about every hockey fan and I don't think he does a good job as an off ice official.
I disagree. The NHL is attempting to make an emphasis on protecting players from traumatic head injuries, along the same lines as the NFL. Abs suspension is part of that campaign. I completely support Shanahan.
because that's a matter of opinion. It's straight fact that, in the NHL, the onus is not on the checking player to avoid (non targeted) contact to the head. That's what the rulebook says, it's how the game is called, and it's an important criteria for Shanahan when determining suspensions.
however, rule 42 does allow for interpretation of hits on an individual basis, especially for shots to the head. Abs was out of control last night.
42.5 Game Misconduct Penalty - When a major penalty is imposed under this rule for a foul resulting in an injury to the face or head of an opponent, a game misconduct shall be imposed.
I support every effort to clean up the game from head hits.
would seem to imply he left his feet before the hit, he clearly didn't his feet were still on the ice on initial contact.
And don't give me that bullshit about protecting the head area, when Zetterberg had his head slammed into the boards last year and nothing happened. Shanahan can't pick and choose when to protect player's head area, anybody defending his lack of consistency is an idiot.
It doesn't matter if his feet were on the ice at first contact. Abs launched himself. Every fucking angle shows that Abs launched himself.
Every angle shows Abs in the air at first contact.
Take off your red and white glasses.
with both skates on the ice at first contact. They showed that at least five different times on replays during the game. And yes it does matter whether his feet were on the ice at first contact, if you think otherwise, you are the delusional one since the rule specifically uses language about the hitter jumping into the other player. Feet leaving the ice after contact is completely different than feet leaving the ice prior to the hit. Most big hits end with a players skates not being completely on the ice.
And you seem to think this is just about this particular instance, the officating league wide has been piss poor all year long, and Shanahan's rulings have been widely inconsistent league wide.
Read rule 42 again. Abs launched himself. I am done arguing with someone that cannot take off their red wing pj's.
you sound like Taylor Swift
who can see how the league has been tarnished by the idiots running things.
that is definitely a statement I have seen posted from the conspiracy theories on BWI....It is also a statement that I know was said previously by James Harrison
Nothing is being tarnished. The NHL is attempting to protect their own players from head injuries, similar to the current effort underway by the NFL.
Support the player, not the hit.
If the league gave 2 shits about player safety they would strip some of the body armor off of the shoulder pads and dare them do continue checking as hard as they do now.
The players feel so safe throwing thier bodies all around THAT is why they hit so hard. If you take a layer of plastic out of the shoulder pads, you wouldnt see these hits from across the ice because the hitter would also risk getting injured in the process.
Shanahan has admitted he made a mistake with Webber. but hey it is more fun to post Bettman conspiracy theories right? Cause that is what cool kids do.
You will never convince me the NFL or the NBA are not the worst leagues for suspensions.
You will never find a worst league than the NBA. I stopped watching the NBA around 2005.
I am pretty convinced the NBA has a major gambling/game fixing issue. That is the one conspiracy theory I subscribe.
after the fact does. And last I checked one poster made a joking reference to a Bettman conspiracy theory, most rational people wouldn't think that. Still doesn't mean that Bettman isn't an incompetent fool who knows jack about hockey and has presided over three different work stoppages. If you honestly don't think the league has been tarnished since he took over, than you are flat out delusional.
I will give that Bettman has been disaster when it comes to labor issues and franchising. Bettman used to be the deputy commissioner of the NBA under David Stern...
Man, we've been getting along lately, but you're really making it hard not to dig into the MGoHOF and pull out your Red Wings meltdowns. Just let it go. I agree that the suspension was probably the right call, but there's no point to this argument. You're not going to change anyone's mind.
I am not one on here crying like a butthurt Beiber fan over the suspension. Abs deserved the suspension. I support Abs, but I don't support his hit. Life sucks sometimes. Abs should have controlled his check last night, rather than trying to emulate James Harrison.
you're just the one concern trolling.
so posting anti-Bettman conspiracy theories and being generally butthurt over Abs is not trolling...
Supporting Abs suspension is trolling...got yeah. Nice to see group think is alive and well on here.
So, off the bat, I'm a Caps fan. Big one. From my time in Ann Arbor though, I came to really appreciate Hockeytown and the Wings (except the year they beat the Caps in the Cup final....damn you Esa Tikkanen and a wide open net!).
Anyway, I think the suspension was justified especially since Lydman is out with migraines and may be out longer. It looked like Abdelkader left his feet a split second before contact, came a long way at a high rate of speed, and hit Lydman shortly after he turned his head to see the hit coming. He was basically defenseless. I think Abdelkader left his feet anticipating contact and misjudged when to explode into Lydman so I don't think he intended malice (at least illegal malice). However, this is exactly the type of hit the NHL is trying to target.
That said, this kind of hit happens EVERY game. Ovechkin is a big perpetrator of the long range skate to exploding into impact (leaving his feet sometimes before, mostly after contact) and doesn't get called a lot. It just so happens that Lydman got hurt which took this from a 2 minute charging call that the refs probably didn't get a great look at to a 5 minute major to a suspension.
Real bad luck. Good luck to the Wings the rest of the playoffs...if I had a #2 team, they'd be it.
post, but you're flat out wrong saying he left his feet before the hit. FSN showed at least 5 different replays where they stopped the replay at the point of initial contact, and both his skates were clearly still on the ice. That is a fact that was shown on the replays FSN showed, regardless of what you think of the rest of hit, his skates were still on the ice at initial contact.
Ok... if that is true, why did he leave his feet afterwards? It's not like he just decided to do a little "hop of happiness" because he made a nice check. It shows that, at least, his momentum and propulsion were projected in an upwards motion during the hit. Now, if we want to get into the legal technicalities of how "leaving the feet" is defined in the rulebook, that's fine. But to me, it at least shows that he had a similar intent as if he had left his feet before the hit. I don't think the league is specifically saying that a player leaving his feet before a hit makes the hit more dangerous... it is showing that, by leaving his feet, the player is demostrating his intent to not just hit, but to damage the other player. Perhaps the "after hit hop" and extension of his arms after the hit demostrate this mal-intent.
I certainly wouldn't argue with that, and I said the same thing about Trouba deserving a penalty this season for pretty much the same reason, but I don't believe the charging call was correct. I said this above, but I'll repeat, calling an illegal check to the head would make more sense, though I still believe it would be the wrong call.
is that players leaving their feet after the hit happens all the time. Clearly the refs, have made a differentiation between leaving your feet prior to the hit and after the hit, based on how the game has been called. If the NHL wants to take the route of not leaving your feet period, before or after contact fine, but when I see 10 other instances of the same thing during the game I have a problem with it.
And I imagine you never played hockey either right? Well, yeah the point is to score, and one of the first things to do is to do a breakout, which is what the ducks were doing. To stop a breakout (aka defend your goal) you have to get the puck either by taking it, intercepting a pass, or hitting. In this case hitting was the obvious choice and the right play. You calling Abdelkader names for it just shows how ignorant you are on the subject, which you also showed by saying you're not an NHL fan. Really, you have no room to comment like that on this.
the intent of the hit doesn't matter when assessing whether a penalty was committed or not. The controversy revolves around what specific rule Abdelkader violated. An official can't call a penalty because he thinks a play was "on the dirty side", he has to make a call based on what he saw occur. If (I stress if) you accept that Abdelkader didn't leave his feet and didn't target an opposing player's head, you cannot call a penalty on him. If you're going to make a call, you need to justify it by stating what specifically was wrong with the hit (as Shanahan does on his video).
I said "he speared the fuck out of him" has no bearing on whether the hit was legal or not (and has a very different meaning from hockey to football) and doesn't factor into the on-ice official's call or Shanahan's call.
Haha, stick to the stuff you know. The only thing they could get him for there was maybe charging. A spear? Really? Looked like shoulder to shoulder first which drove through the shoulder into the head. This was far from dirty. Not near the boards. Every hockey player knows that if you play with your head down your gonna get smoked. If they don't want it to happen, or if you don't want to see it, play or watch roller. Hitting isn't allowed there and everyone plays with there heads down. NHL is getting to be like the nfl.
drink second. that's the right order.
You should probably sit the next couple of plays out champ.
I am a huge life-long fan but this team is a rebuild project.
All I know is the wings have given up 12 goals in 3 games. Sorry, this is a losing recipe no matter what happened with Abdelkader.
They remind me of the early 90s wings - with Steve Y not yet mature and a lot of young potential.
this year's Red Wings team, but that really has nothing to do with this.
Half the comments are "conspiracy" or we lose because of this suspension.
We lose because we are not that good is my point. A good, experinced team can take a crap penalty and not cough up another 4 goals. Eventually this team will have that maturity.
the comments angle. I see one post mentioning a conspiracy theory, the others about Bettman are simply pointing out the incompetent bafoon that he is.
I'll admit to not knowing all of the nuances of penalties in hockey, but on review the hit looked close but definitely not worth a suspension. Give him a 2-minute penalty in the game if you want to send a message but just because the guy doesn't have his head on a swivel isn't the other player's responsibility. It definitely wasn't launched at his head like other hits I've seen. Just seems like a harsh penalty for a borderline situation. Same with the Senator play - guy puts his head down a bit and gets clocked on a bad pass; it's hockey forgodsake!
Senators/Canadians play as well. Did not see anything wrong with that hit, his teammate was the one who was largely responsible for the outcome with the dangerous pass he made.
He jumped and he made contact with his head, that's a direct violation of rule 42.1
Every time something happens to one of your players, you homers show up in full force whining about how everyone is against you. There is no conspiracy against the Red Wings. The league isn't plotting against your team, the commissioner doesn't hate you. I've never seen so much complaining about a borderline AHL player getting suspended before. Grow up.
Completely agree with you. If a Ducks player did this to a Wings player everyone in hockeytown would be irate. I actually love Abby as a player despite his Sparty roots, and I am certainly a Wings homer, but I do believe Abdelkader left his feet - which is a big no-no these days.
As for Abdelkader being a border-line AHL player, I'll respectfully disagree. He can be a big impact player for us when he is on his game. Bottom line is losing Abdelkader and DeKeyser could spell our doom. The wings simply were not that good to begin with, which should be clear to anyone who has followed them this season. Losing two guys certainly won't help our chances.
While I don't echo your thoughts completely, I mostly agree with this. Whether his skates were touching the ice the split second he made contact or not, the bottom line is Abdekader lined him up and was jumping as the hit was made, he made contact with the head, and extended his elbow/arm on the guy's head. I'm not a huge defender of Shanahan, but the suspension had to be at least 2 games after that Senators/Canadiens call.
And yes, Weber should have gotten a suspension last year. But I have a really hard time taking any Wings fan seriously when they claim conspiracy. Detroit is one of the more popular teams in the league and the NHL would much rather have them do well than a team like Nashville or Columbus. I'm a Devils fan and I know damn well that no one wants my team to go anywhere even though NJ has played an aggressive style for a couple years now. It just makes it more fun when you go on a playoff tear through Philly and New York.
DAMNIT SPARTY...
Pile it on. I am impervious to pain.
Just a crap decision.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpBIFsbcy6Q
That's a link to the hit. I was listening to the game on the radio at the time, this would be my first time watching it. All of you saying this hit is legal are completely out of your minds. He deliberately launched himself into the player, and clearly hit the other player in the head with his shoulder/elbow. This was a dirty hit, absolutely no question about it. Whether or not he left the ice directly at the impact of the hit is irrelevant - he was launching himself off the ice on purpose to hit a defensless player as hard as humanly possible. The Kronwall hits you keep mentioning are competelely different in every way. Here's a link to some of his best hits, and what you'll notice is that Kronwall absolutely anihilates the other player, but he never, ever launches himeself and because of this typically doesn't get a penalty at all - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk3qIjz5EDM
Comparing this hit to anything Kronwall has done is riduclous, this hit was dirty and deserved everything it got.
Kronwall's name was only brought up twice, and once was me using him as an example of why contact to the head =/= penalty. This really doesn't look anything like a classic Kronwall hit.
Did Kronwall ever try to play the puck? Those are great hits and all, but so many of those were the wrong play. I can understand opposing teams hating him.
I'm surpised at the number of people in this thread that seem to think insulting the person they are talking with will somehow change that person's mind or somehow makes their own argument more credible.
I know I'm a bit late to the outrage here, but all I have to say is that if the roles were reversed, and it was Corey Perry hitting Ericsson, well this would be a 100 post thread about how Perry is the biggest shitbag in hockey and how he should be suspended for the rest of the year and blah blah blah.
Everyone needs to take off their red-tinted glasses and just admit that it was a stupid play and not as clean as people want it to be
Big difference: Perry and several other Ducks have a history if intent to injure. You have to consider the player and his history to gauge intent, and from watching Abdelkader since college I have never known him to be a dirty player (he left that to his teammates).
I guess I don't have a huge problem with this given that they suspended that guy in Ottawa two games for basically the same thing. But compared to Shea Webber's non-suspension last year, it is outrageous.
But to me he has one of the coolest last names. That is all.
stupid, stupid.