Rangers vs Flyers

[David 2]

Mike Richards just crushed Zherdev of the Rangers with a clean hit and was promptly involved in a fight. The refs called an instigator penalty against the Rangers player (Girardi) who went after Richards.

I enjoy a good fight every now and then. That said, I'm glad to see that called - fights after perfectly clean hits have no place in the game, but they're everywhere these days.

Would you like to see more instigator penalties for this type of situation or do you enjoy fights whenever they may erupt?

Edited March 15, 2009 by David

[Wings_Toledo 233]

I like the 2 minute penalty for situations like the one you just mentioned (which I also watched, and it was a clean hit). However, I think they need to get rid of the 10 minute misconduct penalty. Also, whether or not it's called for, I always enjoy watching a fight.

[Guest Shoreline]

Would you like to see more instigator penalties for this type of situation

Makes sense to me. Players going after another for a good and clean check is retarded anyways. If it isn't clean it's likely penalized. Since the league apparently doesn't like on ice justice (sucks) I'd rather they curb the nonsensical fighting than outright ban it.

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

Get rid of the instigator rule. It's a clever attempt by the league to get closer to ridding itself of fighting.

If someone hit Lidstrom or Datsyuk with a good clean hit, I'd want to see one of our guys go over and make the other player pay for it.

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

Richards goes for the head on most of his hits, he makes then clean, but you can be sure he's trying to send a message. Good on Giradi for standing up.

[j.hoop 64]

anyone know what the 5 minute match penalty was at the end of the 2nd period, of course commited by philadelphia?

[wmubronco420 25]

Get rid of the instigator rule. It's a clever attempt by the league to get closer to ridding itself of fighting.

If someone hit Lidstrom or Datsyuk with a good clean hit, I'd want to see one of our guys go over and make the other player pay for it.

come on man its hockey, lidstrom and datsyuk can both take a hit. If they need to be defended after taking a clean hit, well maybe they should go play soccer.(not saying they should just trying to make a point)

[Electrophile 3,554]

Retaliating after a dirty hit is one thing. Going after someone because of a clean hit is another. One is acceptable, the other isn't. If someone did to Nick Lidstrom what Claude Lemieux did to Kris Draper, I would have no problem with Aaron Downey throwing someone over the bench.

[lets go pavel 2]

come on man its hockey, lidstrom and datsyuk can both take a hit. If they need to be defended after taking a clean hit, well maybe they should go play soccer.(not saying they should just trying to make a point)

It's not about needing to be defended, it's about setting a tone. If the other team is allowed to pound on our skill guys and we never hit them back (and this doesn't have to mean fighting, just returning the physical play) it tells the other team they can keep it up all day long with no consequences, and it would likely be a long game for us. On the other hand, if we bring the physicality too it sends the other team the message that we won't be intimidated and they have nothing to gain with the big hits.

[dat's sick 1,002]

Avery has been great for the Rangers since they picked him up. 2 goals tonight.

[I Red Wings I 40]

Guerin scores 50 sec. in, 1-0 Pens over Bruins

Edit: Tied 1-1

[mjlegend 155]

Most of the time, the Wings' skill players are too fast to be hit cleanly. Bump up the penalties on coaches for instigator minors and you'd see this "fighting after a clean hit" crap stop overnight. You get two instigator minors in a season, coach is gone for a game. Third instgator minor, he's gone for two games. Etc.

If the league really wanted to put a quick end to it, that's what they'd do. Instead, they just try to appease everybody and end up pleasing nobody.

Avery has been great for the Rangers since they picked him up. 2 goals tonight.

He's still one of his characteristic snaps away from never playing in the league again. I'm glad the Rangers are the ones taking that risk on him although it was have been nice to see him in a Sharks uniform so he could completely screw that team up.

[Guest GordieSid&Ted]

Get rid of the instigator rule. It's a clever attempt by the league to get closer to ridding itself of fighting.

If someone hit Lidstrom or Datsyuk with a good clean hit, I'd want to see one of our guys go over and make the other player pay for it.

Here's where I differ with my fellow fight fan GMR. I yearn for the days of "old time" hockey. But I think there has to be some form of moderation.

I'm not saying the instigator is God's gift, but after weighing this for many years now, and seeing how the game has deteriorated to the point where a clean hit cannot be delivered without a fight taking place right after. That's not hockey IMO. It was interesting to here Pierre the moron MaGuire's comments about how in the old days a guy would flatten you with a clean hit and you'd take a number and get him back. That's what I want to see. That's what I miss about hockey.

Take the Sharks, Kings game the other night. Brad Staubitz drills Jack Johnson with a clean hit, in comes Raitis Ivanans and essentially he forces Staubitz to fight.

If you throw a clean ******* hit in a hockey game, it shouldn't be mandatory that you have to fight afterwards. That's ridiculous. Real men throw hits and they can take them and they don't have to drop the gloves everytime somebody gets bowled over.

[commadore183 103]

If you throw a clean ******* hit in a hockey game, it shouldn't be mandatory that you have to fight afterwards. That's ridiculous. Real men throw hits and they can take them and they don't have to drop the gloves everytime somebody gets bowled over.

Exactly. Mickey has hounded on this point many times this season. It's pretty disgusting, IMO, that players would get offended with a spectacular, yet clean, hit. Can you imagine how some of Claude Lemeuix's team mates would react if

hit was done in today's hockey game? You would have thought Vladdy two-handed him across the chest judging the today's reaction to some big hits, before the replay would show that it was just a spectacular hit.

If someone laid out a big hit on Lidstrom or Datsyuk, I want someone to go out and lay that guy out with an equally big hit, no dropping the gloves s*** unless it was a dirty hit.

[cusimano_brothers 1,655]

anyone know what the 5 minute match penalty was at the end of the 2nd period, of course commited by philadelphia?

From the "Recap" of the game at nhl dot com:

Flyers defenseman Braydon Coburn was ejected in the closing seconds of the middle period after hitting Antropov in the head with his stick near center ice, drawing a match penalty. New York scored only once on the advantage, but coupled with Andrew Alberts' charging infraction on Avery, Philadelphia was short-handed for the first 7 minutes of the third.

"It was retaliation," Coburn said. "I was kind of protecting myself. I thought he was going to come at me again."

As for the Girardi hit on Richards, this is part of the mess the League wants to stop now. He could have bided his time and picked a better moment later in the game. He was thinking about his actions but not about the consequences. But, the on-ice officials had better make this call all the time or they, and the League, will look like fools.

[Heaton 1]

Get rid of the instigator rule. It's a clever attempt by the league to get closer to ridding itself of fighting.

If someone hit Lidstrom or Datsyuk with a good clean hit, I'd want to see one of our guys go over and make the other player pay for it.

The instigator has been in the game for what almost 20 years now? It has nothign to do with ridding the game of fighting.

Even if you disagree with the instigator this was a perfect example of how it should be called. If the goal of the person who stands up for their teammate is to say don't do that again and they got their wish, there would be no physical play in the game at all.

[toby91_ca 620]

I'm sort of on the fence on this one. Back in the 80s to mid 90's (I can't really comment that intelligently about earlier than the 80s as I only started watching in the 80s (other than video of older games)....if you hit a star player, clean or not, you had to pay for it, usually with a fight. You simply didn't hit Gretzky, Lemieux or Yzerman without getting something in return. Lemieux maybe less so than Gretz and Yzerman because he probably had a little less protection. You didn't see the same with a guy like Messier, but he tended to intimidate guys on his own.

The thing about this is that not only would these players be given more freedom to be able to make plays, as you would like to see more of, they also didn't get beat up as much and their be less of a risk of injury.

Look at a guy like Crosby, he probably faces more punishment these days than most other guys in the league.....almost the opposite of what you saw with Gretzky.

I think if I were to put my opinion on it, if a star player gets drilled, I'd like to see someone go out of their way to hit that guy hard, but not necessarily drop their gloves with the guy.

[Dabura 12,232]

I think if I were to put my opinion on it, if a star player gets drilled, I'd like to see someone go out of their way to hit that guy hard, but not necessarily drop their gloves with the guy.

Agreed. It's gotta be proportional -- clean payback for clean hits (i.e. big clean hit), drop the gloves for cheap shots.

[stevkrause 1,247]

Mike Richards just crushed Zherdev of the Rangers with a clean hit and was promptly involved in a fight. The refs called an instigator penalty against the Rangers player (Girardi) who went after Richards.

I enjoy a good fight every now and then. That said, I'm glad to see that called - fights after perfectly clean hits have no place in the game, but they're everywhere these days.

Would you like to see more instigator penalties for this type of situation or do you enjoy fights whenever they may erupt?

I couldn't agree more... I'm all for fighting and never want to see it go and also think the automatic instigator in the last 2 minutes rule is BS - but this is where it is needed, there is absolutely NO reason that you can't throw a good, clean hit on a guy without having to fight immediately after - this is where the rule works.