Opie

FYI Chris Pronger's career suspensions and victims: June 3, 2007: with Anaheim - one playoff game, blow to the head (Ottawa's Dean McAmmond). May 15, 2007: with Anaheim - one playoff game, blow to the head (Detroit's Tomas Holmstrom). March 14, 2004: with St. Louis - one game, kicking (Calgary's Ville Nieminen) April 3, 2002: with St. Louis - two games, cross-check (Dallas's Brenden Morrow). Oct. 11, 2000: with St. Louis - one game, leaving bench for altercation (Los Angeles's Kelly Buchberger). Dec. 17, 1998: with St. Louis - four games, high stick (Phoenix's Jeremy Roenick). Oct. 29, 1995: with St. Louis - four games, slashing (Washington's Pat Peake) While history of violence seems to escalate certain players length of suspension I think it would be fair to say here that Pronger being a star has led to his suspensions decreasing over the years. Conversely here are Simon's altercations: Deliberately stepping on leg of Jarkko Ruutu, Penguins: 30 games, Dec. 2007 High stick to face of Ryan Hollweg, Rangers: 25 games, March 2007 Kneeing Sergei Zubov, Stars: 2 games, March 2004 Cross-checking, punching Ruslan Fedotenko, Lightning: 2 games, Jan. 2004 Elbowing Anders Eriksson, Panthers: 2 games, April 2001 Cross-check to face of Peter Popovic, Penguins: 1 playoff game, April 2000 Racial comments directed at Mike Grier, Oilers: 3 games, Nov. 1997 Slash to head of Dennis Vial, Senators: 5 games, Sept. 1994

Please watch the video again, as AO definitely makes contact with the back of Heward's helmet, thus head! The last time Heward Turned was at the crease, you really mean to tell me in the 2 seconds that passed from the crease to the board a player with moves and speed like AO couldn't have avoided that hit? But because the side of his head not his face hit the boards it is clean, because in slow motion it looked soft. Me punching my mother in the face could look soft in slow mo, but I doubt it would make her cheek feel any better! s*** anything looks safer in slow motion because you lose the speed of impact and you also lose the sound of the hit. The side of his head hit because he was looking for his teammate who was behind the net, he was looking to the side because no one should hit him from behind when his shoulders are parallel to the boards. I am not sure about you but my head and shoulders move independently of each other so I can be looking one way while my body faces almost the complete opposite way, depending on flexibility! While the intention may not have been there it was a bad hit, cheap may be a bad word to describe it, but it was dirty and should not have been done!

Chris Simon gets suspended a lot of a lot longer than Pronger even though the two have very similar track records. In fact one of the only differences is that Simon has been suspended for longer consistently for doing the same thing as Pronger and actually, in the stomping incident Simon set the standard for suspensions. Then Pronger came a long and got less of a suspension. Pronger suspended 8 games for a stomp even though it was his 8th suspension. (Already suspended once for kicking a player) Simon suspended 30 games for a stomp it was his 8th offense and that was the reason given for the length of his suspension. Simon had just come off of the stick to the face so I see 10 games as a reasonable extra, but that would have meant Pronger would have had to get 20. He didn't! I can fain sympathy, I can stand over a guy and make it look like I am the most apologetic sincere person and in the locker room or in my own place or in my head I could be thinking. There now maybe that ******* will think twice before taking the last Funny Bone off of the table during pre game meal on his new team. We don't know what his intentions were, and I know for a fact McSorely did apologize and say he was sorry and it was an overreaction and he should have been able to control his temper, and that he knew what he did was wrong and it impacted the league negatively. He showed a ton of remorse. The fact is remorse and sincerity mean jack s***. The hit is what matters and that should have been a boarding call!

Watch the video and tell me when Heward "Turns" I am curious to know when he "turned", the last time I saw him "Turn" was just outside the crease. He may have not been traveling in a straight line but the last time he "Turned" was 2 full seconds before he was hit while facing the boards. BTW I never compared this hit to Kostopolous, I used Bergereon and Jones, but only to show what it means to turn last second.

Some one gets board several times a night, really? honestly? Usually when I see a player go into the boards like that the trailing/forechecking player pinches him up against the boards and tries to force the player with the puck to pass it along the boards, holding said player against the boards until another forechecker comes into bother the other defenseman. Oh well tomatoes/tomatos!

Exactly. The only reason why he won't get suspended is the name on the back of his Jersey that is the only reason!! That was a boarding hit that could have been avoided easily, it is not like a player at center ice leaning to grab the puck just before a hit. That is a last second oh s*** play. This play, IMO, AO tracked him down from the crease to the wall. I have a feeling AO was expecting him to turn left or right and be able to nail him either way he went. However the end result was a nasty hit directly into the boards. Intention, end result, player history are all irrelevant until we start talking about how long the suspension should be!

I hate to be the bearer of bad news Alex but he didn't turn just before you hit him, he turned at the net and you followed him to the boards.

100% agreement, I think he was just trying to change momentum for his team, I don't believe he wanted to injure Heward at all, but wanted to deliver a big hit to get his team back in the driver seat!

I love the winter classic and think they should do it twice a year. I also believe it should be reserved for O6 match ups only, but there are a lot of things I think the O6 should get that they don't. I think they should do an all outdoor day with the O6 revolving match ups each year. All 6 have stadiums that could hold the event near by and the weather necessary. Think about it this years match ups could have been: Det v Chi at Wrigley 1:00pm Tor v Boston at Foxboro or Fenway (I think the game is better suited to be in a football stadium than baseball) 5:00pm Mon V NY at the Meadowlands 8:00pm Could they do a night game, I mean the Giants and Jets play there at night all of the time?! EDIT: same for the Pats. What a great day of Hockey that would be!!

No offense to any one else on the board who has been a great provider of information, actually some of you are what I am referring to in this post! Mack_Attack You sir are a throw back poster on this site, when I first started on this site anyone could throw up questions or posts and get great information. Hell just popping into the general discussion forum was a cavalcade of information. When ever I see a thread posted by you I am in it immediately to see what is going on. Thanks for helping keep the site what it was!

NO Ray Allen is Jesus!! Jesus Shuttlesworth to be exact!

I love how the announcer says Bulls*** AO hit him, whether you think the hit was clean or dirty it was a hit not a collision. A collision is when two players skate into each other, that was a hit!

BTW Boarding whether intentional or accidental in my mind should be suspendable. The only way to eliminate if from the game is to make it a suspension. If it is just 2 or 4 or 5 minutes than like High sticking will always be around, if you made high sticking with blood and automatic one game suspension (I know bad example because of other players hitting sticks etc..) the amount of high sticking would go down. Just making it a penalty slows nothing! The league puts in these intent rules which are discretionary calls to allow them to do just this, say that one player didn't have intent and one player did, based on who they are. He hit the guy that was facing the boards not for a millisecond but for a full 2 seconds

Edit: man that was badly executed: Your bolded argument to me should be about length of suspension, if we are talking about does the hit warrant a suspension. I agree if it is deemed a suspendable hit then yes you look at who it was and if it is a repeat offender longer suspension. But history should have nothing to do with whether or not the hit was suspendable, how long the suspension is YES that is when you take into consideration past history. I truly believe his intentions were to make a big play to help boost his team that had just given up 2 goals to make the game close again. He was trying to spark the team. I believe at the end as he makes contact he does try to peel off of the hit, but it was too late, he should have slowed down sooner, he had ample time to slow down. Snepts: I see your point of view, didn't seem homerish even though we have different stances on this issue. (However I also do know the caliber of people that have permeated this board lately! I feel your pain!) I agree that Heward put himself in a bad spot, however it is still AO's responsibility to not drive his head into the boards, if he had turned last second like Bergereon I would be a lot more inclined to look at it from your perspective, what bothers me is that Heward was back to AO for a long period of time and should have avoided the hit. When Heward first goes back to AO, AO is still in the paint of the crease. Now because he should have avoided it may not make it dirty in your mind, it may be you think it was an avoidable hit that led to back things, I can see that. But I think AO knows he could have played it differently. And if you look at the clip one of the Lightning (12) started hooking at AO then when the Camera comes back to AO the Ref is pushing him away from something, was it that player (12) or Heward who is still down I am not sure. I also see AO's body pushing Heward down not Heward bending over but that is all perception so no arguing there.

If a hit isn't dirty or cheap until the player who does it is dirty or cheap how on earth does any hit ever get to be dirty or cheap. Because if no one has a history of dirty hits they can not have dirty hits. Because if they are not dirty before the play (can't be dirty unless by a dirty player) then the league will not have dirty players to do these dirty hits and the league would be clean. Damn that my friend is a Conundrum!!! Maybe the solution is to get rid of all of the dirty players so only clean players are making hits! A dirty hit is a dirty hit wether it be Dats (Lady Bing winner) or Chris Simon. This is a problem in the league currently, certain players Simon, Boulerice get heavy fines while others, Pronger etc. get off light or without suspension. If the hit is dirty when Tootoo or Pronger do it, it is dirty if AO, Crosby, or Datsyuk do it!

10 last I knew!?!? 9 coach 1 player, the Knicks won in 1970 as well but he was not active due to Spinal surgery, not sure if he got the ring or not though. EDIT: His Wiki has 11 championships so apparently he was part the 1970 team

Bowman and Bill Russell will have to talk shop about how to fit the extra ring, after all they are the only two people in the history of pro sports (In the USA) to boast 11 championships correct?

Let me ask those of you defending the hit this: IF, this hit is Chris Pronger on Datsyuk or Ian Laperriere on Lids does it change your opinion of the hit? There were people last year that though Lappys hit on Lids was dirty and that was nothing compared to this.

Hit from behind! Like was already stated, Heward/Huard/Howard/Howard the Duck (and whatever other way you can screw his name up) was facing the boards from a good 10 feet out. Ovechkin followed him straight into the boards and never let up. Dirty, hmmm depends, was the Randy Jones Patrice Bergereon hit dirty, if you think yes than this hit was definitely dirty as that hit was the epitome of turning at the last second into a hit. And this guy didn't turn for a full 2 seconds. Suspendable, without a doubt, this is a suspendable hit, if Heward hits AO, the NHL is in complete uproar and this guy gets a minimum of 10. Risky, 100% without a doubt a dumb hit, he had ample time to slow up and body him or use his stick. That play happens dozens of times a night, the difference is most defenders will body the guy and pinch him to the wall to free the puck up or to tie up at least the one guy. In my opinion AO was over zealous and wanted to make a great hit/play to help his team that had just given up two goals to make it a game. But without a doubt that is a suspension worthy hit in my mind. Now after looking at the name on the back of the Jersey will the league suspend or fine him, I doubt it.

Linkster This kid should be an all star caliber player, injuries, severe injuries, have halted his development.

Like I said in my post from earlier today, looking at just the goals I would have said SJ won. Really impressed with the team game last night. 60 minutes Red Wing Hockey!! Maybe the Col game was the wake up call or maybe they were just biding their time, conserving a little!!

f*** it not worth it!! For the record I never back pedaled my stance has ben throughout the thread that Sammy would go for over 3 to another team and less than 3 to the wings. NUFF SAID!

Read this quote from you, this was my response. Click on either of the red arrows at the top of the quote and follow the thread from there. And do me another favor slowly re-read post 80 where in fact I say the following: Hell in the original post I put it in bold and you still missed the n't! It is called a contraction and it stands for WOULD NOT The point is you were arguing with Eva and I that he would not get 3 mil from the team, we agreed with you the whole time, THAT IS WHAT YOU MISSED!

You quoted me and then said that Holland would not pay Sammy 3 mil. I am supposed to infer from you quoting my post that you are referring to the OP??????? Really, good job keep digging the hole deeper and deeper and keep pointing the fingers at others. 3 posters tried to tell you on multiple occasions that the post you quoted ... was in agreement with you! (The bolds were added to help your comprehension.) You will notice I started it off by agreeing with you that Holland would not pay the 3 mil!! And here is your reply with my post quoted in it: And then Eva and Egroen were telling you that you were in fact arguing with some one who agreed with you, which is when you started the "Eating Crow" platform. Jesus dude, follow your on fu(k1ng posts. I am the ignorant one, yet I am the one who can follow a thread what does that make you!! EDIT: to spell whole --> hole! 2nd Edit: No need for name calling!!

That or E.S.A.D has -1 rings due to a mathematical error during the Habs '86 Cup run the accidently put him down as a -1. It was a typo and a clerical error, but at this point in time it is too late to change the stats, E.S.A.D's statue of limitations has passed!