Hank

Have you even seen Downie play hockey before? I had the 'privilege' to watch this idiot play in Windsor for a couple of years. That's exactly what Downie intends to do in each and every game - injure someone. Bob MacKenzie said himself that he watched him play growing up and there is a malicious side to him. Just ask Akim Aliu who took a baseball swing to the face and lost some teeth. Why? Because Aliu refused to kiss Downie's ass. Stop trying to defend this a'hole. He hasn't earned this reputation for no reason. Cam Neely was one of the best hitters in hockey, did you ever hear about him being dirty? No. There's a BIG difference between being a physical player and a dirty one. Downie's dirty and couldn't care less about anyone else's well being. The only reason he made an apology was because he knows that McGratton is going to make him his *****. Wow! And I thought 'Nam was tough. "Good job Kutcher! You've earned your stripes. I especially liked how you gave Billy a 10 and a game for refusing to stop waving to his grandma in the stands! That little 5-year-old punk will think twice the next time he's on the ice!"

If Markov REALLY wanted to hurt him, he would have hit him in the head with his shoulder and not the chest. There's a difference between putting a guy down and making sure he never gets back up. Downie, and players like him, try to hit "up" as much as they can. Those hits cause concussions and ruin careers. The problem is these kids have gotten away with hitting improperly for years. It also doesn't help that Downie's a short little bugger so he's probably had to propel himself upwards at all times. And I guess if I'm naive then so is Roenick. Wasn't he the one who said, 'guys in the 80's respected each other'? Last time I checked JR has played 18 seasons in the NHL. I'm pretty sure that's a lot more than you or I. So I think I'll take his word over a lot of other people when it comes to this subject. If Downie had an inch of respect for anything but himself, he wouldn't have went screaming down the ice looking to put someone through the boards. He knew full well he had MacAmmond at his mercy and he threw the most devestating hit he could deliver. That's a lack of respect and it's a conscience effort to do the most damage necessary. Again, in Markov's case, he knew he had Stoll lined up and he knew that a simple shoulder to the chest would put him down. That's how old-school players were taught to hit. And the only thing that happened to Stoll was a loss of wind in his lungs. If you watch the tape of Downie's hit, if he had simply turned to put his hip into him or simply stand in his way, he would have accomplished exactly what hits were meant to; separating the puck from the player. Instead he decided to separate his head from his body.

The Van Damme Slurp! Actually, according to a high priced Madam, Van Damme "kicks with both legs".

In my opinion it doesn't matter if you left your feet before or after, either way it's a charge. To fly through the air after the hit, that would mean that you sprung or lunge at someone just before you executed your hit. It indicates that you launched yourself seconds before piling into your opponent. That's just as bad as leaving your feet a stride before you hit. Either way, your intent was to do as much damage as possible by using your body as a bowling ball. I've seen plenty of beautiful open-ice hits where the hitter didn't leave his feet before or after it was delivered. A perfect example was Markov's hit on Stoll. He put his shoulder right into his chest and ran over him. You didn't see Markov do a 'Superman' after he nailed him. That's because he didn't try to propel himself into Stoll. By Downie leaving his feet and flying through the air after the hit took place, it indicates that he did intent to hurt and harm.

Opie, don't bother. It's been proven throughout history of mankind that normal men like you or me, are insignificant specs when compared to the all mighty HOCKEY REFEREE. We are not one to question their wisdom as they are, without a doubt, more wise in the ways of hockey. Afterall they do have to take an exhausting 3 hour seminar to become one. Only the strongest could survive such a grueling journey into Officiandum. Where it's an obvious infraction to thousands of mere mortals (as captured on video tape) they see otherwise. Oh please tell us how to run our lives Mr.Hockey Referee. You are obviously so much wiser than us having officiated games with 4 and 5 year olds.

Not another referee-snob. And obviously you didn't watch the game because McAmmond wasn't the one who hit him, Schubert and Volchenkov were. Geez, I'm glad you never officiated any of my games. You're obviously not watching very closely.

Chalk me up to being a stupid teenager then. I used to love his earlier movies like Bloodsport, Kickboxer and Lionheart. I even liked "Nowhere To Run". But I think we all knew his career was over when he did that movie with Rodman.

And lets not forget this Oscar nominated scene (not reallY) from "Kickboxer":

LOL! Yup. But he only had a VERY small part. He was merely a background dancer during one scene. You can see his incredible, manly moves here: http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/dammedance.gif http://gifsrus.110mb.com/largegifs/25%20Va...-%20355x302.gif

LOL! I watched that movie JUST to see that horrifyingly *** dance Van Damme brings to the table. And how many movies does he have to wear that one-peice in (Breakin, Kickboxer, Lionheart, Bloodsport...)? Man am I embarassed that I know that. Okay, back on topic.

I still have no idea why the NHL hasn't banned shoulder pads with any kind of plastic on the shoulder portion. Those things are weapons.

Exactly! However, if it was delivered by a dancing Jean Claude Van Damme in an uber-*** one-peice leotard, THEN I'd believe it!

Okay, I'm well aware that I'm not an NHL GM, but this deal still makes me shake my head. Last night on XM Home Ice they were talking to Jim Fox who does the play-by-play for Kings games. He said that watching Johnson in camp and throughout the preseason, you know he's the real deal. He can skate, pass, contribute offensively as well as hit and not make many mistakes in his own zone. And with time he'll only get better. He said it's not a stretch to believe this guy won't win some major individual awards before his career is over. The way he described him, all I could think of was "Ray Bourque". I know that the Canes had some serious injury issues on the backend last season as well as having problems convincing Johnson to leave school, but I still don't know why they decided to deal one of the best blue-chip blueliners in the past decade for a couple of scrubs. Belanger and Gleason will never be in the top half of their lineups. If the Canes were that desperate to land help on the blueline I'm sure they could have gotten more. This deal and the Thornton deal still make me wonder if someone was smoking something. What are your thoughts? Maybe I'm not seeing the big picture?

You've also got to up Toronto up there. Sure JFJ made a good move in getting Toskala but lets not forget about the horrible defense he signed last season. GIving Kubina and McCabe all that money was the stupidest thing I've ever seen. TO should have let McCabe walk and then did whatever it could to get Chara.

Yeah, that article was great. Perhaps the hit was clean when revisiting it. But like Mac said, Downie was looking for retribution (something he's known for). I guess this will only give ammo to the crowds that would prefer Downie fought Schubert rather than head-hunting.

I totally understand that, but I HAVE to believe that Rutherford could have gotten a lot more for Johnson than a 3rd line forward and a 5th/6th defenseman.

I loved hearing this too, but this wreaks of 'Bertuzzi-Moore' all over again. You know the league is not going to appreciate McG's comments. As a fan, I can't wait to watch the first game Ottawa and Philly meet. But if the League was serious about stopping any vengeful actions what they should do is give Downie a suspension and include that he's not allowed to play any games against the Sens for the rest of the season (4 games) including playoffs if they meet.

Steve Downie is an idiot and I hope McGratton puts his giant ham-sized fists through his cocky-assed face! No wonder Clarke loved this kid. They're both the same. They love to play dirty and cheapshot and when it comes to pay the piper they ask someone else on the team to do it for them. Dave 'The Hammer' Schultz used to complain about cleaning up a lot of Clarke's mess and I'm sure someone on Philly will have to do it for Downie. From the Aliu incident, to the number of cheap hits, I hope this kid gets castrated in a horrible boating accident.

I have nothing against Gleason but the most he'll ever be is a 5th or 6th dman. The only chance he has of being anything higher is if he goes to a really, really bad team. He reminds me a lot of Lebda. They can both skate, are sound in their zone, can make a nice first-pass at times, but will never be confused for a top dman in the league. Gleason was a first round draft pick but so was Dan Cleary, Todd Warrener and Jason Bonsignore. It doesn't always mean they should have been drafted that high. However, I do agree with a lot that you say about Gleason but in my mind, there is nothing in his game that says "we need to trade the highest ranked dman outside of the NHL for him". They could have gotten a lot more and it's hard to believe that with a few more days and phone calls this couldn't have been done. Like a lot of people here have said, I really believe this deal, over the next 10 years, will go down as one of the worst and most lopsided deals in league history. Right up there with: Russ Courtnall for John Kordic Gilmour for <a bunch of crap from Toronto> Adam Oates for Bernie Federko (I know there were more guys involved - McKegney, but this is what it boiled down to) Thornton for Sturm, Stuart and Primeau Luongo and Jokinen for Parrish and Kvasha

That could be true. But I GOTTA believe that they could have gotten more than Belanger and Gleason for him. There were plenty of rumours circulating that the Pens were offering Jordan Staal for him. Can you imagine the Pens with Johnson? With Whitney they'd have the best young 1-2 defenseman punch in the league as well as the best 1-2 punch down the middle with Sid and Malkin. Yow! Recchi-Crosby-Sykora Roberts-Malkin-Armstrong Malone-Christianson-Talbot Ruutu-Stone -Laraque Whitney-Gonchar Johnson-Letang Sydor-Orpik Fluery Sabourin This lineup isn't fair (even if you keep the real roster with Staal instead of Johnson).

That's too bad. Despite my extreme hatred of the Leafs and Leaf Nation, Wellwood is one of the only guys I like on that team. And who says Fergie Jr. isn't a good GM? Over $7M for a powerplay, one-timer specialist with no defensive skills and no brain? You'd be an idiot NOT to give him that deal. And a NTC to boot!!! Give JFJ a 15 year extention! The problem with moving McCabe, outside of his NTC, is that he has very high price tag and very little value. He is an absolute game killer with all the mistakes and piss poor penalties he takes every game. Unless he's teeing up one-timers on the PP he is completely garbage. This is an easy statement to make but no team will ever win a Cup with McCabe. He's way more of a liability than an asset to any team.

If they threw in a giant vault for Jacobs to swim around in his money, I think this deal could happen. Nobody likes swimming in money like Scrooge Jacobs. Now if the vault came filled with Ham sandwiches, then we'd probably get Chara and Bergeron too!

LOL. The only thing that would prevent this deal is Jacobs' hatred of Illitch.

What makes me laugh is that I have a buddy that thinks Boston got the better of that deal. He went on and on saying "You watch! Marco Sturm is going to be better than Thornton!". I laughed so hard! Two years later I'll ask him, "Still think Boston got the better of that deal?". He's so stubborn he still stands by his statement. I guess that's why he never wins anything in our hockey pools.

"Good practice, kids. Now its time for the easiest part of any coach's job. The cuts. Although I wasn't able to cut everyone I wanted to, I have cut a lot of you."